Here are some interesting statistics from a back-to-school presentation at this week's city school board meeting:

Baltimore has 23 newly appointed principals this school year. Two schools started the year without principals but have assistant principals serving temporarily in the positions.

The city hired 836 teachers for the new school year, compared with 950 a year ago. It started the school year with 51 teacher vacancies, down from 68.5 last year.

Twenty-six percent of the new teachers are from the New Teacher Project; 11 percent are from Teach for America; and 22 percent are foreign teachers, mostly from the Philippines.

Sixty-percent of the new teachers are from Maryland, 10 percent are from Pennsylvania, and 4 percent are (like new city schools CEO Andres Alonso) from New York.

Seventy-three percent of the new teachers are women. Fifty percent of them are white, while 24 percent are black, 21 percent are Asian and 2 percent are Latino.

Twenty-nine percent of the new teachers have masters degrees. Two percent have doctorates. Fifty-seven percent have prior teaching experience.

Since May 1, 410 city teachers have resigned or retired. Another 150 did not have their contracts renewed because of poor performance, a 50 percent increase from the prior year. And 79 teachers were terminated because they did not have professional certification, a 140 percent increase from the prior year.