School Board Greenlights Magnet School Audit

The Baltimore County Board of Education gave Superintendent Dallas Dance the go-ahead to conduct an audit of the school system's magnet program Tuesday night.

"This is something that we're definitely going to need to have the community involved in," Dance said following a board meeting.

In recent months, parents of students at Cromwell Valley Elementary School have appealed to the school board and the superintendent to reconsider a decision by former Superintendent Joe Hairston to end a rule that granted kindergartners automatic admission into the elementary magnet schools their siblings attend, starting in the 2015-2016 school year.

Dance said in February that he was interested in conducting an audit before directly addressing the sibling priority rule issue.

"There are more factors to consider here," he said, citing equal access to students and future changes planned for the general Baltimore County Public Schools curriculum as examples.

Dance unveiled plans to prioritize foreign language education and digital conversion in his State of Schools address last month.

The superintendent said the results of the audit should appear before the board in November, with plans for the implementation of new magnet practices in the 2015-2016 school year.