Posted on 01/06/26
| News Source: FOX45
Baltimore, MD - Jan. 6, 2026 - The CEO of Baltimore City Public Schools is receiving national recognition. Dr. Sonja Santelises has been named a finalist for National Superintendent of the Year. But some feel that scandals during the CEO’s tenure should disqualify her.
“I was flabbergasted,” said Yolanda Pulley, a former Baltimore City mayoral candidate and founder of People Empowered by the Struggle.
Pulley attended Baltimore City Public Schools. So did her children and grandchildren. And she does not believe the school system is doing a good job.
“At this point it's nothing but failure. A failure, failure, failure factory,” Pulley told Project Baltimore.
Which is why Pulley was stunned that Santelises has recently named a finalist for the 2026 National Superintendent of the Year award by The School Superintendents Association.
“This woman has failed us all,” remarked Pulley. “She has failed our children on so many levels.”
According to The School Superintendents Association, Santelises was named a finalist for her nearly 10 years as CEO, where she achieved, “steady, sustainable progress in academics, community engagement, student wholeness, and leadership development among district staff.”
A press release announcing the finalists mentions many of Dr. Santelises’ accomplishments, such as recently being named Superintendent in Residence at the Broad Center at Yale University. But what the release does not mention are the many scandals the CEO presided over. Scandals Pulley says should disqualify her for any award.
“I'm trying to make it make sense,” said Pulley.
In 2017, one year after Santelises became CEO, Project Baltimore sued City Schools after the district refused to release public documents related to claims of grade changing.
In 2019, the case went to court where Circuit Court Judge Jeanie Hong ruled City Schools “willfully and knowingly” violated the law by not releasing the records. Judge Hong ordered City Schools to release more than 8,000 documents and pay Fox45’s legal fees of nearly $200,000. With the records, Project Baltimore was able to show that failing grades were being changed to passing, throughout the city, to move students to the next grade.
In 2022, Maryland’s Inspector General for Education, Rick Henry, found over a four-year period, 12,542 failing grades were improperly changed to passing – with an estimated 10 percent of students at some schools graduating who should not have.
That same year, during an interview with Project Baltimore Henry said, “If you're setting them up for failure, this is a way of doing it.”
Later in 2022, City Schools found itself mired in another major scandal when the district was forced to refund the state $350,517, after Fox45 News exposed many students were falsely enrolled at Augusta Fells Savage High School. Project Baltimore spoke with a student who was enrolled while in jail.
An Inspector General report that year found over a five-year period, 928 students were improperly enrolled – costing taxpayers $9.8 million.
In 2023, Project Baltimore reported how 40% of Baltimore City’s high schools did not have one student who tested proficient on the state math exams.
In 2025, Baltimore City Schools was publicly named as the only K-12 district in America to be investigated by the U.S. Department of Education for claims of antisemitism.
“I think she actually made it worse,” Pulley told Project Baltimore about the direction of City School under Dr. Santelises.
Fox45 News wrote The School Superintendents Association asking if it was “aware of these scandals when it named Dr. Santelises a finalist for Superintendent of the Year?”
The Association did not directly answer the question. Instead, Project Baltimore received a statement that describes a “Blue Ribbon Panel” picks winners - explaining, “The process is designed to be fair, consistent, and focused on professional district leadership and service to students and communities.”
“Have they lost their freaking minds?” Questioned Pulley. “It’s not like it's not public information. If they had done their due diligence in their investigation, they would have known that this woman was a failure from beginning to end.”
Dr. Santelises’ contract is set to expire in June of 2026. She has said she will not seek an extension. The CEO is a finalist alongside superintendents in Kentucky, Texas and Maine. The winner will be announced in the coming weeks.