Troubled Renaissance Academy School to Remain Open

BALTIMORE (WJZ)-- Renaissance Academy in Baltimore will remain open, according to the Baltimore Sun.

After a $1 million donation to renovate and add new programs, Baltimore City Public School officials have decided to keep the innovative yet troubled high school open.

The school, where in November 2015 one student stabbed a classmate who later died and, two months later, another student was killed in a shooting in a nearby apartment building, had been recommended for closure by school system leaders. But on Friday, Alison Perkins-Cohen, the school district chief of staff, told a meeting at the academy that officials would rescind that recommendation at Tuesday's school board meeting.

Councilman Eric Costello, who represents the area, assured the crowd that district officials understood how important the school was to the students and the surrounding community. Saying he's had differences with school officials in the past, Costello said the district did extensive due diligence to try to find locations for the school and its community to stay together.

Some favored moving to a new location because potential students and their parents will always link the current location to the death of Jolley in 2015. A jury found his classmate, Donte Crawford, 18, not guilty of first-degree murder.

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