Juvenile Services taps school superintendent, as new secretary begins making changes

by William J. Ford, Maryland Matters
August 6, 2025

The Department of Juvenile Services named a new superintendent of schools Wednesday, a week after the release of a scathing audit on the department’s programs and less than two months into the tenure of the new secretary.

As superintendent, David Pinder will oversee the education of 2,473 youth in the Juvenile Services Education Program (JSEP), including those in residential and detention facilities.

“Teaching is my life’s passion and getting the opportunity to work alongside the dedicated teachers and staff of JSEP is a dream opportunity to educate students,” Pinder said in a statement. “I believe teaching is a collaborative effort, and it’s vital to create plans tailored to our students’ needs.”

Pinder — a former teacher in Baltimore County and 2012 principal of the year in the District of Columbia Public Schools, where he served most recently as superintendent of instruction — takes over a part of DJS that was relatively untouched in a report last week by the Juvenile Justice Monitoring Unit. It found JSEP had an ongoing problem with teacher shortages and a lack of post-secondary offerings, but that overall it “continues to make progress in assisting youth with obtaining their high school diploma and GED.”

That was a sharp contrast from other parts of the 49-page report, which found expired and undercooked food, a shortage of basic hygiene products, staffing shortages, roaches and mice, contraband drugs, sexual assaults, improper restraint of youth and more.

“I, too, was shocked by some of the findings in the juvenile justice monitoring report,” said Acting Secretary Betsy Fox Tolentino, who’s been on the job for almost two months.

“We identified many of those things in the first few weeks that I was here. We have work to do,” Fox Tolentino said Tuesday. “All of these issues are solvable. I believe that with the right leadership, oversight and accountability, we can turn these facilities around.”

Among the issues cited in the report, auditors said the department delayed their access to email and video footage of sexual activity between youth at the Green Ridge Youth Center in Allegany County in May. During that same month at Green Ridge, the report noted “poor communication and poor coordination from DJS leadership” during an evacuation plan when heavy rainfall occurred.

The report from the monitoring unit — now part of the Office of Correctional Ombudsman, an independent state agency created last year — said the oversight agencies “hope the Acting Secretary for DJS evaluates the leadership she has inherited and determines a new direction of the Department.”

Former Secretary Vincent Schiraldi resigned June 9, and Fox Tolentino took over two days later. Three top aides under Schiraldi, the deputy secretary of residential services, executive director of residential services and director of behavioral health, left the agency last week following the release of the report.

Fox Tolentino said one path she sees to improving youths’ academic performance and behavioral health will be through education. The Blueprint for Maryland’s Future education reform plan includes analysis of student achievement for youth in juvenile services.

But a report on JSEP last fall by the board overseeing implementation of the Blueprint found that about 28% of the nearly 1,200 students in there in fiscal 2024 had an Individualized Education Plan, also known as an IEP, a legal document spelling out services for students with special needs.

To boost student success outside the classroom, the agency will keep at least two initiatives fostered by Schiraldi: The Thrive Academy and Safer Stronger Together.

Advocates, lawmakers appalled by health, safety issues in juvenile services agency report

Thrive Academy is a gun-violence prevention program that offers wraparound services and uses mentors who are “credible messengers” to help youth steer away from gun violence.

The Safer program, which works with the Department of Human Services and Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, represents an interagency program to help families who currently utilize one more or of those agencies and works with them to connect with community-based services. Fox Tolentino said pilot sites are located in Baltimore City, Hagerstown and Salisbury.

“Our example around Thrive and Safer Stronger Together is our commitment of working collaboratively, not just inside our agency, but with external partners,” she said. “We all have room to improve and do things a little different and grow.”

Part of that growth will be encouraging department staff and keeping an optimistic approach to helping young people.

“We have a lot of awesome staff here. I truly believe you don’t do this job unless you care about young people,” Fox Tolentino said.

“Do we need to tweak some things, realign some things, direct some resources in different ways?” she asked. “Absolutely, but I think with the team we have here, we’re going to be really successful.”

YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.

SUPPORT

Maryland Matters is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maryland Matters maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Steve Crane for questions: editor@marylandmatters.org.