As the looming October 14th deadline approaches for the newly-redesigned Baltimore City teacher’s contract, a flurry of activity surrounding the proposed incentive based system has emerged. The contract drafted by the Baltimore Teachers Union can now be viewed online in its entirety.

In addition, the BTU have, in order to assist with the transition, deployed more representatives to answer questions about the proposed contract.

As comments over at the Baltimore Sun’s blog Inside Ed indicate, some are frustrated by the lack of communication between the BTU and its constituents. Furthermore, many are citing the still non-existent evaluation system as being a critical flaw in the proposed plan’s design.

In other education news, a Department of Education report released on Wednesday revealed that the dropout rate for Baltimore City schools has plummeted since 2007, with nearly 1,500 fewer students leaving high school. The city’s dropout rate now stands at 4%, nearly half what it was three years ago. Despite these advances, former Gov. Robert Ehrlich Jr announced that, if elected, he would cut educating funding by $126 million dollars in an effort to offset a rollback of state’s sales tax. This cut would predominantly affect Baltimore, Montgomery and Prince George’s counties.

Finally, the recently shuttered catholic school, Shrine of the Sacred Heart, will once again be opening its doors under a new name and management by the City school system next fall in order to ease overcrowding in other Mt. Washington area elementary schools. The new lease will last 10 years.