Baltimore County delays charter school opening after calls to shut it down

Puzzle Pieces Learning Academy Public Charter School, a Baltimore County school that was set to open this fall, was on the verge of being shut down Tuesday night.

Jennifer Mullenax, the chief academic officer for Baltimore County Public Schools, asked the school board during Tuesday’s meeting to revoke Puzzle Pieces’ charter agreement, which was first granted in 2025. Mullenax said the school’s missteps in the opening process, which included being evicted from what would have been its school building, justified terminating the partnership.

The school board disagreed and unanimously approved delaying the school’s opening to the 2027-28 school year instead.

Puzzle Pieces was pitched as a school focused on giving young learners individual attention. It would start out with 201 students ranging from pre-K for 4-year-olds to third grade. It wants to add one grade each year until it hits fifth grade and 316 students. The school operator picked 4414 Wilkens Avenue in Catonsville as its school building, which is owned by the Archdiocese of Baltimore.

According to Mullenax, Puzzle Pieces failed to pay rent four times between November 2025 and April 2026. She said the school system was not informed about the failure, which violated the charter agreement, and Puzzle Pieces was evicted from the building by the Archdiocese on June 3.

Puzzle Pieces pitched using Campfield Early Learning Center, a former Baltimore County special education facility, as a replacement.

“Not exactly sure where they came up with that idea,” said Mullenax.

That space cannot be used by the charter school since the school system will use it to house a Northwest career and technology program, she told the board.

As with most Maryland school boards, Baltimore County has historically approved very few charters. The county’s sole charter school, Watershed Public Charter in Windsor Mill, also struggled to get off the ground when it opened in 2019. Local school districts tend to be reluctant to dedicate precious public funds to these privately run schools.

Finding affordable facilities is a common barrier to opening for an approved charter school, though a new law that will require the state to fund charter school facilities could change that.

Earlier in Tuesday’s meeting, McKenzie Allen, executive director of the Maryland Alliance of Public Charter Schools, told board members that Puzzle Pieces isn’t blameless in this situation, but neither is the school system.

The charter school was given a $1.5 million federal grant to get started after demonstrating its potential to successfully serve students, she explained. The school found a funding partner to purchase the Archdiocese facility, renovate it and lease it back to Puzzle Pieces.

“That arrangement fell apart after discussions involving BCPS personnel, forcing the school to secure a traditional lease arrangement under far more difficult circumstances,” she said.

Funding for Puzzle Pieces was included in the charter agreement the board approved in 2025, but district officials said that the money was given in error, said Allen. Puzzle Pieces had to alter its financial plan because of the mistake, she said, and the school’s financial position changed “dramatically.”

“Puzzle Pieces is not the first charter school to encounter significant challenges during the opening process in Baltimore County,” Allen said on Tuesday.

The school board approved a charter agreement for Bilingual Global Citizens Public Charter School in 2024. The language immersion school was set to open this school year, but facility hiccups and a paperwork dispute with the school system forced the school to delay its opening until the 2027-28 school year.

“At some point, when the schools change but the obstacles remain the same, it is reasonable to ask whether we should examine not only the variable but also the constant,” said Allen.

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