Chalkbeat

As federal immigration arrests rise in New Jersey, teachers share strategies to help students

2026-08-31T17:03:02+00:00

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As New Jersey students head back to school, teachers say they are preparing for a school year shaped by uncertainty for immigrant families.

The impact of stepped-up immigration enforcement is showing up in classrooms, particularly in schools with larger immigrant populations. Immigration enforcement isn’t a new topic for students, but teachers say the situation is now taking a heavier toll, even as they try to create a sense of normalcy in school.

Arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in New Jersey rose by nearly 150% from May to July, and reached the highest level for any month in at least four years. The number of deportation orders and voluntary departures also increased in New Jersey courts from May to June.

At a rally over the weekend outside Delaney Hall, a federal immigration detention facility in Newark, teachers from Newark, Orange, and Passaic joined labor unions and Newark library workers to speak out against immigration enforcement activity they say is disrupting students’ education.

They described the steps they will take to support students who may be grappling with immigration issues at home. Some teachers said they will create classrooms for students to talk through what they’re seeing and hearing, including discussions of immigration enforcement throughout U.S. history. Others said they are trying to make room for students to process anxieties or fears and validate their experiences.

In New Jersey, ICE agents generally can’t enter public schools without a judicial warrant signed by a judge, per the state. But state and local policies aren’t always clear to students, and teachers are often the ones to explain them.

Tracey Luz, a Newark Public Schools high school teacher in the Ironbound, a neighborhood where most of the residents are immigrants, recalled last spring when news about an ICE raid at a nearby seafood depot reached students mid-class. Based on what they were seeing online, students thought ICE agents were at the school, until Luz clarified the situation, she said.

“They were really upset,” Luz said. “We talked about it and told them you have to keep one foot in the reality that these people are stalking your neighborhood and your family, but you also have to keep one foot in the reality that you’re a senior, and you’re going to graduate.”

In the Passaic Public Schools district, U.S. history and geography teacher Terry Fitzgibbons said he’s focused on building the topic into the curriculum itself, rather than addressing it head-on, so students can open up more easily.

“I certainly don’t have all the answers and can’t 100% relate to what they’re going through,” Fitzgibbons said.

He said he weaves in lessons on migration, labor, and the history of political movements, and lets students engage with the topic on their own terms.

A comment from one of his students last year stuck with him: “‘Hey Mr. Fitz, we are more vulnerable than we appear.’”

For other teachers, the current political climate calls for acknowledging what students are experiencing, even if it means departing from how they usually handle classrooms.

Bradley Gonmiah, a former Newark Public Schools high school physics teacher, recalled an instance this past school year where a student pulled out his phone mid-class to show classmates a post about ICE activity near a school.

Instead of telling the student to put his phone away, as he would have in other situations, Gonmiah said he acknowledged that the situation was “messed up.” A short conversation about the issue followed.

“Validating that it’s something that’s affecting us inside and outside the classroom is something that needs to be addressed,” Gonmiah said.

Some teachers say talking things through is not always the right answer. Sonya Noebels, a math teacher at Orange High School in the Orange Public Schools district, said she and her colleagues try to keep classroom routines consistent and give students time where they don’t have to focus on what’s happening outside of school.

“Some of these students who are living this just need a place where they know what’s going to happen and where they don’t have to be thinking about everything that’s going on, and they can just be kids and do school,” said Noebels.

For Andrew Worthington, an English teacher also at Orange High School, making students feel comfortable and helping them think critically about the political landscape is crucial.

“Hopefully they can start thinking about these issues themselves, which they already are but maybe not in the most organized or structured way,” Worthington added.

While teachers are struggling to find the balance between incorporating conversations about immigration during class time and creating a sense of normalcy in school, some advocates say schools should offer more direct support to students.

The New Jersey Consortium for Immigrant Children has a partnership with Jersey City Public Schools to offer free legal services to high school students through the Beacon program, an effort other school districts could replicate, said Katarina Martucci, an attorney with the program. Students can enter the program by themselves if they don’t want to involve an adult, Martucci said.

Martucci and her team also speak with teachers who often say they don’t know how to help students. She said simple things like putting up “pro-immigrant welcoming posters are a good way to show students that their existence at school is also important and helps instill trust.”

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Newark’s chronic absenteeism rate drops to 8.5%. Here’s what district leaders say is working.

2026-08-28T01:12:51+00:00

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Newark Public Schools’ chronic absenteeism rate hit a historic low for the 2025-26 school year, dropping to 8.5%. District leaders said on Thursday that it’s also the sharpest turnaround seen in a few years.

New Jersey’s largest school district had a decrease in chronic absenteeism from 27% in the 2018-19 school year to 10% in the 2024-25 school year, per state data. Rates improved across all student populations, with Black students and students with disabilities seeing the largest improvements, according to Rochanda Jackson, executive director of the district’s Office of Data and Research, who presented the attendance data during Thursday’s board meeting.

The improvement puts Newark ahead of the state, although the New Jersey Department of Education has not yet released chronic absenteeism rates for last school year. In the 2024-25 school year, the state’s chronic absenteeism rate was 14.4%, according to school performance reports.

During Thursday’s meeting, Co-vice President Vereliz Santana said the improved rate is ”incredible,” given that under state operation, the district was at risk of being placed on a corrective action plan because of dismal chronic absenteeism rates. During the 2016-17 school year, the chronic absenteeism rate was 29.7%, per school performance reports.

“We have demonstrated great improvements,” Superintendent Roger León said about attendance and graduation rates and other student achievement data presented on Thursday.

The numbers mark a stretch of steady improvement in Newark’s chronic absenteeism rate even as school districts across the country continue to recover post-pandemic.

León told board members at their annual retreat meeting over the weekend that a change in how New Jersey calculates chronic absenteeism helped boost those rates. Jackson, who presented Thursday’s attendance data, said the district changed the way it calculates chronic absenteeism rates to align with the state’s new rule on how it counts chronically absent students. It’s unclear how much the change influenced Newark’s rates. Per the new state rule, students need to be enrolled for at least 90 days out of 180 to be included in the count, up from 45 days.

“We did extraordinarily well this past year simply because the state of New Jersey actually changed the rules to assist more school districts in their chronic absenteeism rates, at least that is from our perspective,” said León during the August school board retreat.

Advocates for Children of New Jersey, a nonprofit that works with state and local leaders to implement education policy, says the state usually flags when a rule change affects how attendance data is compared year over year. Chronic absenteeism, defined by New Jersey as missing 10% or more of the school year.

León pointed to the gains in chronic absenteeism as a sign that his strategies are working during a Wednesday presentation of the 2026 Newark Kids Count report from Advocates for Children of New Jersey. Since 2018, when León was appointed to his role, the district has revived the attendance department previously closed during state operation, created individualized intervention plans for at-risk students, established a truancy task force, and distributed district-wide attendance updates.

The district continues to use a back-to-school campaign called “Give Me Five,” requiring district employees to call families of five students to urge them to show up for the first day of classes, León said Wednesday. The district also has launched incentive programs offering gift cards and hockey tickets to high school students who improve their attendance.

The Kids Count report, released this week, also found that homeless students were chronically absent at a rate of 25% in the 2024-25 school year, more than double the district’s 8.5% rate in the 2025-26 school year, even as León touted progress. In the 2023-24 school year, 26.4% of homeless students were chronically absent, per state school performance data.

León on Wednesday added that he’s working with the city’s reengagement center to support students who face barriers in getting back to school. The center provides local services such as school placements, access to academic enrichment programs, and modified instruction.

The district also tracks attendance through dashboards divided by school, class, grade, and individual student. Those reports are sent to district and school leaders.

Lauren Meehan, executive director of Arts Ed Newark, said during Wednesday’s Kids Count presentation that the district’s efforts to reduce chronic absenteeism correlate with its efforts to expand access to arts education.

“We know that when students have something creative to do, something exciting to do, that helps motivate them to be in that building every day,” Meehan said.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Newark’s 2026-2027 school goals: AP growth, new programs, and serving as a model for other districts

2026-08-25T19:15:56+00:00

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The first day of school for Newark students is two weeks away, and Superintendent Roger León’s goals for the year are aimed at improving student achievement, boosting literacy and writing skills, and growing enrollment in advanced classes.

León shared his goals for the new year with school board members during Saturday’s annual board retreat. He shared plans to continue an early childhood enrichment program that pairs pre-K students with high schoolers, plans to enroll more students in AP Seminar, and a requirement for more public speaking and writing opportunities for students as the district continues to integrate AI into classrooms.

This school year marks the seventh of León’s 10-year strategy, “The Next Decade: 2020-2030,” and so far, the district has seen improvements in graduation rates and enrollment, but reading and math scores continue to lag behind statewide averages.

The plan lays out six priorities, each with specific actions, milestones, and benchmarks. The district checks progress on each priority at five points over the plan’s 10 years, which began with assessing the 2020-21 school year and ends with examining years 2027–30. The priorities are:

Unify and align systems so district resources and departments are following each priority and initiative.
Create a strong framework for curriculum and instruction that helps students learn about different perspectives.
Develop a strength-based and responsive culture by creating a plan for building and maintaining positive school and classroom culture.
Ensure a climate of continuous learning by providing staff the resources and funding to promote professional development and learning opportunities for parents.
Strengthen the district’s ability to offer student support services and evaluate them.
Develop strong partnerships to help the district and schools work more closely with outside organizations.

This year is the district’s fourth checkpoint to confirm that the groundwork laid in earlier years is moving into real progress, according to the strategic plan. On Saturday, León said, year seven is a time to ensure that “everything that we say we are doing, we are actually doing.” He added that the district aims to have nearly all of the strategic plan in place by next year.

The district will focus on several key initiatives this year, including “B4K,” or before kindergarten initiative, which prepares pre-K students for kindergarten, and transition plans for second graders entering third grade, a critical year when research says students should already be reading. The B4K program on Saturdays is continuing to expand this year with volunteer high school students mentoring 3- and 4-year-olds in ballet, soccer, basketball, and STEM skills. León said the initiative fits into a broader research model based on the idea that before third grade, children spend their early years learning to read so that by third grade they can start reading to learn.

León said the district also will push to increase enrollment in AP Seminar, an English course for sophomores. He said 97% of sophomores who take the course pass the state’s English language arts test the following year. The district also will add new college-level courses, such as AP Cybersecurity and AP Business with Personal Finance, as well as a new police and firefighter program offered in partnership with the city.

Writing is already part of every subject, and fourth graders already take a writing assessment, León said at the retreat. This year, the district will introduce public speaking practices to students as early as third grade and build it into the curriculum review across all grades. In grades six through 12, students also will get more writing and speaking opportunities across all subjects along with a new speaking assessment in eighth grade.

Other new programs include the new Jet Black Pilot Program, a partnership with United Airlines pilot Captain Carole Hopson, who aims to train 100 women of color as pilots by 2035. Hopson started the program with the district this summer by working with 14 Newark high school students.

The district is also working with the John C. Cornwall Center for Metropolitan Studies at Rutgers University Newark “to study this 10-year plan” so that larger districts can draw intervention strategies from Newark’s approach and smaller districts can see “how you can actually improve your district.” León said Newark’s wards are comparable to school districts across the state, such as the South Ward and Camden, and the North Ward and Union City. Because of that, he said, Newark’s strategies can be utilized in other school districts, which he called the ultimate goal of the 10-year plan.

The initiatives mark the district’s latest push to turn León’s decade-long plan into classroom results. District leaders have implemented programs like Saturday school and before- and after-school tutoring for elementary and high school students to help them refine their skills in English language arts and math. Those efforts have helped Newark students recover faster than most, but the latest state test scores show ongoing support is needed.

Newark Teachers Union president John Abeigon said they want to continue working with the superintendent, but more work needs to be done to ensure a “uniformity of message.”

This year, the union’s two priorities are to continue teacher-led collaboration through the School Leadership Council, an initiative born out of the union’s collective bargaining agreement with the district in 2024. The superintendent’s goals can lose precision as they move down the chain of command, Abeigon said. He added that the current structure “hinders effective communication” with teachers and said the information that passes through leadership “turns into a game of telephone,” with each layer of leadership interpreting it differently.

The result is, he said, “in 60 different schools, you get 60 different messages.”

Still, Abeigon said, the district needs to keep retraining administrators between León and teachers so they can act as “resource providers.” Rather than giving orders, Abeigon said, they should ask teachers what they need to accomplish district goals.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Back-to-school: 6 things to watch in Newark Public Schools this year

2026-08-20T19:51:21+00:00

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Newark Public Schools students head back to school next month amid major state and local changes, including a statewide cellphone ban and new district leaders.

Just over 43,200 students are enrolled in the state’s largest public school district, a slight decrease from the prior school year, with thousands more attending Newark’s 15 charter networks across the city. Newly elected school board members are settling in as literacy remains a top issue for the city. State test scores are delayed, new principals are taking over schools, and decades-old school buildings will keep infrastructure needs front and center.

This year also marks Superintendent Roger León’s ninth leading the district and the seventh of his 10-year strategy, known as “The Next Decade: 2020-2030.” León’s strategy is aimed at reopening closed schools and programs and improving chronic absenteeism, school infrastructure, and curriculums.

León will be held accountable by the nine-member school board, which is responsible for helping manage this year’s $1.67 billion budget, including charter school payments, building needs, and support for the district’s multilingual learners and students with disabilities, who require specialized instruction and support services. Last school year, the Newark school board approved León’s contract through 2030.

Here are six things you need to know ahead of Newark Public Schools’ first day of school on Sept. 8.

Bell-to-bell ban on cellphones

This is the first school year New Jersey districts will implement the state’s new phone-free school law, which requires every district to develop a bell-to-bell ban for K-12 students on cellphone use during the entire school day. Former Gov. Phil Murphy signed the law in January, which also provided funding to help districts buy phone storage systems, such as Yondr pouches. In June, the school board approved the purchase of Yondr pouches, at a cost not to exceed $99,000.

Newark Public School students will be allowed to carry cellphones if they remain off and stored in the pouches from the first bell of the school day to the last. The district piloted the new policy this spring, with a district teacher reporting positive results, mainly due to staff enforcing the new rule.

New Media High School welcomes freshman

Newark’s newest specialized school, New Media High School, opens this fall focused on preparing students for careers in content creation, video production, and entertainment management. But its freshman class will start at Bard High School Early College while renovations continue at its permanent home in the South Ward.

If work stays on track, this year’s freshmen will move into the renovated building as sophomores in the 2027-28 school year alongside a new incoming class of freshmen. The district has used this staggered approach to open schools before. It’s part of León’s broader plan to open new schools and expand the district as student enrollment grows. That’s a sharp turn from when the state oversaw Newark schools between 1995 and 2020. New Media High School will eventually sit next to the new Lionsgate Studios planned for the South Ward.

Old school buildings continue to push infrastructure needs

Newark’s building crisis continues to be one of the district’s most pressing challenges this year.

Many schools across Newark require extra work to their roofs, facades, boilers, and air-conditioning units. In the East Ward alone, schools are, on average, a century old. But the public school system doesn’t have the legal authority to build new schools itself. That power sits with the state’s Schools Development Authority, which recently promised to build a new University High School.

This school year’s budget includes an extra $12.1 million for maintenance work, school lease increases, and environmental remediations, district officials said in March. The district is also waiting for state and school board approval of its proposal to open the new Riverfront Elementary School. Per the proposal, the district would lease the property from 56 Freeman Street LLC, which owns and would manage the construction of the new school at 56 Freeman St., across from St. Aloysius’ Roman Catholic Church.

A wave of new school leadership

Students and parents will see nine new principals, five new directors, and five new assistant principals starting this fall. The promotions come as the district replaces a round of longtime staff members who recently retired.

Most of the new principals are internal promotions, ranging from longtime district teachers to vice principals and administrators. Only one of the nine is from outside the district.

Several former principals are also moving into assistant superintendent roles this school year, overseeing the district’s School Leadership Teams.

Newly elected school board members guide the district

Newark’s school community will see new board members at meetings this school year. Quamid Childs, Mark Comesañas, and Jordy Nivar join the six other school board members in making decisions that will impact Newark Public Schools students.

The new members were sworn in in May after winning the April school board election. The board’s responsibilities include reviewing and approving policies addressing some of the district’s biggest ongoing challenges, including finances, academic recovery efforts, services for students with disabilities and multilingual learners, aging school buildings, overcrowding, and youth mental health.

State test scores delayed as academic recovery efforts continue

New Jersey students took the state’s standardized tests this spring, but families and the school district will have to wait until the fall for the results, according to state education department officials.

The state rolled out a new assessment this past spring, the NJSLA-Adaptive, an updated online test that adjusted question difficulty in real time based on how a student was performing. Because the state still has to set new scoring benchmarks and get them approved by the New Jersey Board of Education, the education department has said results from the spring 2026 tests will be ready this fall, later than the usual summer release.

That means Newark parents, teachers, and school leaders will start the school year without a clear picture of where students stand. That’s a problem for city and school leaders who are working to boost literacy rates and student performance on state tests. Last year, only 34% of students in grades 3-9 passed the state’s English language arts tests, a percentage point under 2019 proficiency levels. Across the state, 53% of students passed the same test last year.

Jessie Gomez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Free backpacks, supplies, haircuts: Newark groups host back-to-school giveaways

2026-08-11T19:37:47+00:00

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As Newark families count down to the first day of school, city leaders, local churches, nonprofits, and other groups are stepping in to help cover the cost of getting students ready.

Backpacks, notebooks, pencils, uniforms, and even haircuts can strain a family’s budget before classes start. A typical basket of school supplies will cost families nearly 8% more than last year, according to an analysis by Groundwork Collaborative and The Century Foundation.

Organizations across Newark are hosting giveaways to help close that gap. Here is a list of back-to-school events happening this August.

Saturday, Aug. 15

Essentially Yours From the Heart is hosting a Back-to-School Community Giveback. The event is free for all families, but children must be present.

Where: 508 Central Ave.

When: 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Saturday, Aug. 15

The Back 2 School Supply Giveaway and Block Party is hosted by the Young Disciples Community Development Corp., Love of Jesus Family Church of Newark, and Bishop Barbara Glanton.

Where: Love of Jesus Family Church of Newark, 88-94 Boylan St.

When: Noon to 6 p.m.

Sunday, Aug. 16

Rev. and Council Member At-Large Louise Scott-Rountree will give away 200 backpacks while supplies last.

Where: Krueger-Scott Mansion, 601 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

When: Noon to 2 p.m.

Tainas Unidas and Trike Masters will host a backpack drive and community care day.

Where: Omar’s Cafe PR, 646 Mt. Prospect Ave.

When: Noon

Tuesday, Aug. 18

The New Jersey Reentry Corporation and other local businesses will provide backpacks and school supplies to children whose parents have been incarcerated or are in recovery from addiction.

Where: New Jersey Reentry Corporation Newark site, 936-938 Bergen St.

When: 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Thursday, Aug. 20

Teach For America New Jersey is hosting two giveaways in the Central and West wards with Council Member At-Large C. Lawrence Crump, Central Ward Council Member Amina Bey, and West Ward Council Member Dupré L. Kelly.

Where: CityPlex Movie Theater, 360-394 Springfield Ave., in the Central Ward; and Boylan Street Recreation Center, 916 South Orange Ave., in the West Ward

When: 1 to 4 p.m. in the Central Ward and 4 to 7 p.m. in the West Ward

Friday, Aug. 21

Great Oaks Legacy Charter School is hosting its annual Back-to-School Bash.

Where: Downtown Elementary School, 909 Broad St.

When: 2:30 to 5 p.m.

Saturday, Aug. 22

Mayor Ras Baraka and the Newark Workforce Development Board will host a backpack giveaway for city students.

Where: Newark Youth One-Stop Career Center, 375 McCarter Highway, third floor

When: 10 a.m.

Mujeres Valiosas y de Poder is hosting its first annual backpack and school supply giveaway.

Where: Cafecitos Bakery, 113 Broadway

When: 2 to 6 p.m.

High Rollaz and South Ward Council Member Patrick Council will host a back-to-school giveaway. Children must be present with a parent or guardian.

Where: St. Peter’s Park, 378 Lyons Ave.

When: Noon to 5 p.m.

Wednesday, Aug. 26

Teach For America New Jersey will join South Ward Council Member Patrick Council and other city partners to host the annual South Ward back-to-school pop-up at three local schools.

Where and when: 1 p.m. at Avon Avenue School, 219 Avon Ave.; 3 p.m. at Belmont Runyon Elementary School, 1 Belmont Runyon Way; and 5 p.m. at Hawthorne Avenue School, 428 Hawthorne Ave.

Thursday, Aug. 27

Newark Police’s 4th Precinct will host the precinct’s annual Back2School event.

Where: West Side Park, South 17th St. entrance

When: 1 to 3 p.m.

Saturday, Aug. 29

Newark leaders are hosting the Student Success “Back 2 School” Readiness Initiative and community cookout. Students can get free backpacks, haircuts, hair braiding, school uniforms, and more.

Where: Peshine Avenue School playground, 433 Peshine Ave.

When: Noon

Sunday, Aug. 30

St. Luke AME Church will distribute backpacks and other school supplies.

Where: St. Luke AME Church, 146-156 Clinton Ave.

When: 12:30 p.m.

Wednesday, Sept. 9

East Ward Council Member Michael J. Silva and city groups will host a back-to-school event for families, including free haircuts for students.

Where: St. Charles Field at Ironbound Stadium, 109 St. Charles St.

When: 4 to 6 p.m.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Newark piloted the state’s cellphone ban with positive results. Here are lingering concerns.

2026-08-10T10:00:00+00:00

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Newark Public Schools will join districts across New Jersey this fall in banning students from using cellphones in class.

The move follows a new state law requiring all schools to develop a bell-to-bell ban on using phones for K-12 students, although there are certain exceptions related to health, translation services, and other issues.

Schools must ban the use of cellphones and other personal internet-enabled devices for the entire school day. It’s up to individual school districts whether they store the devices for students, or if students are responsible for keeping them off and storing them, according to guidance from the New Jersey Department of Education.

In Newark, students will be allowed to carry cellphones as long as they are stored in pouches and remain off — not on silent or vibrate — from bell to bell. In June, the Newark school board approved the purchase of lockable Yondr pouches to store phones during class, using state funds.

Parents and teachers who spoke with Chalkbeat said they believed the ban will cut down on distractions, although they also noted concern about being able to contact children in emergencies and whether students will be able to work around the ban. And at least one expert warned the transition could lead to more anxiety and feelings of social isolation for students. Per the new law, school district policies should also include guidelines on how students can use phones during an emergency.

Joicki Floyd, a vice president of the Newark Teachers Union and teacher at Malcolm X Shabazz High School, said the district piloted the ban at her school after spring break last school year. Except for one or two instances where students learned how to open pouches or would steal them, the pilot was successful due to the collaboration among staff to enforce the policy, Floyd said.

The school also set up consequences for students who misused pouches or broke the policy, such as fines ranging between $5 for a warning or up to $20 to cover the cost of replacing the pouch, Floyd added.

“Students were definitely more engaged, more focused, and then we were able to see where they lacked in certain skills, so that we would be able to … accommodate what they did not know or what they needed to learn,” Floyd said.

State lawmakers have long said limiting cell phones in schools would help keep students focused. Former Gov. Phil Murphy in January signed the ban into law, which also provided funding to help districts buy phone storage systems such as Yondr pouches. Gov. Mikie Sherrill has expressed support for the new mandate.

Students like Malaya Lhill, a 14-year-old rising freshman at University High School, said her school last year made students store their phones in lockboxes. The state’s phone ban won’t be new to her, Lhill said, but it took time for her to adjust to it at her previous school.

“Sometimes I’d reach my hand in my pocket and I would think my phone’s there, but it’s not,” Lhil told Chalkbeat on Thursday. “And I like my phone because I can get in touch with my mom during school.”

National survey data from earlier this year showed that the majority of teens opposed a bell-to-bell ban and preferred rules that required students to put their phones away during class time.

During Newark’s last school year, Floyd, the Newark teacher at Shabazz, said it was helpful to incentivize seniors to follow the policy as a way to promote student participation among younger students.

“Then you had the underclassmen who were noticing that, oh the seniors have their pouches. Okay, we just got to do what we need to do,” Floyd added.

Lhill’s mom, Royanda Phillips, agrees that having phones during class time can be distracting. But she thinks there needs to be a balance between the policy and students’ needs.

“So I get it on both ends, but as a parent, I just feel like if I need to contact my child directly, I’ll have to call the office,” Phillips said. “And then it’s like, ‘OK hold on, let me see what class she’s in, let me try to see where she is in the building,’ instead of having direct contact (with my child).”

The law directs districts to spell out exceptions in cases where students may need phones or other internet-enabled devices during the school day. The state education department discourages parents from contacting their child’s personal phone during the school day, but it leaves it to schools to plan how parents can get in touch with them.

Shawna Rosenzweig, CEO of Campfire, an organization that connects students to outdoor experiences, urged parents to have conversations with their children ahead of the new school year, to get a handle on the new law and exceptions to it, and to work with schools to figure out other ways parents and children can contact each other if necessary.

“Transitions can be stressful and nerve-wracking and anxiety-inducing for young people, and so, really, it’s about … how do we support all the feelings that are going through their minds and bodies in those moments?” said Rosenzweig.

Chalkbeat also asked parents in a South Newark residents Facebook group how they feel about students going without cellphones during the school day. Several parents expressed support for the ban, noting that it was important for students to stay engaged during instruction.

One of them, Erica Wright, is an incoming teacher at Marion P. Thomas Charter School and a former educator in the Orange Public School district. She said her previous school’s ban last year had a positive impact on students’ social skills.

But teachers’ biggest challenge, she said, was getting students used to having their phones locked in pouches.

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Jessie Gomez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Students at Newark’s newest high school will have a temporary home in September

2026-07-27T17:16:06+00:00

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Students at Newark’s newest high school will have to wait a year before moving into their permanent home. Until then, they will spend their first year at another school.

Freshman students at New Media High School, which will open in September, will spend their first year at Bard High School Early College while renovation work continues at the former Dayton Street School building, the district announced this month. If that stays on schedule, this year’s freshman cohort will move into the renovated Dayton Street building as sophomores in the 2027-28 school year, joined by a new class of freshmen, said Superintendent Roger León during March’s budget hearing.

Newark’s newest high school will focus on preparing students for careers in content creation, video media production, and entertainment management.

Superintendent Roger León’s plan to expand Newark Public Schools and open new schools like New Media is a stark shift from former superintendents who closed buildings during the period when the state had oversight of Newark schools. The former Dayton Street School, the future home of New Media, closed in 2012 under Superintendent Cami Anderson during state control.

New Media High School will be the district’s 12th school that’s opened since León became superintendent in 2018. The list of schools opened in the last eight years includes the Newark School of Fashion and Design in 2021, Nelson Mandela Elementary School in 2023, and the Newark School of Architecture and Interior Design in 2025 after a three-year delay.

This month, the district also announced that Steven Oliver, former vice principal at Dr. William H. Horton Elementary School, will be New Media High School’s inaugural principal.

Paul Brubaker, the district’s communications director, did not respond to a request for comment on how many students will attend New Media at Bard this upcoming school year, or if construction plans at the former Dayton Street School remain on track.

New Media High School will eventually open in the city’s South Ward, next to the site where Lionsgate Studios Newark is building a production facility set to open in 2027.

This school year’s budget includes $27.5 million for renovations at the former Dayton Street building. During March’s budget hearing, León also said that the district plans to allocate additional funding in next year’s budget to help fund the renovation work at the site.

Like other specialized schools in the district, New Media will offer students apprenticeships and internships with industry partners such as Lionsgate Newark. Students attending the school for the upcoming year were selected based on their eighth grade report cards, attendance, and state test scores.

The school’s curriculum says ninth graders will learn the basics of storytelling, including scripting and short-form content creation. Freshman students will create 30-second commercials, five-minute interviews, and social media videos using editing tools like CapCut, iMovie, and Canva Video by the end of the school year.

By senior year, students will create full-length productions, develop their personal brands, master high-level editing techniques, and explore future careers.

This year’s freshman class will also learn core subjects such as English I, modern world history and geography, biology, Algebra I, and geometry. The district is currently hiring for teaching roles at the school, including a department chair, school counselor, and biology teacher, among other positions.

Earlier this year, León also said the staggered approach the district is using for opening New Media High School is consistent with how Newark has opened schools before. Previously, University High School operated inside Malcolm X Shabazz High School before moving into its own building. People’s Prep charter school also shared space with Bard High School but was forced to leave the district after a four-year legal battle.

“Our goal is not always to build the plane while flying,” León said during the March budget hearing, but added that the district under his leadership knows “how to do a lot with a little.”

Jessie Gomez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Newark Public Schools shuffles leadership districtwide with 9 new principals set to start this fall

2026-07-21T18:50:04+00:00

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Nine new principals, five new directors, and five new assistant superintendents are stepping into their roles this upcoming school year as New Jersey’s largest school district replaces longtime staff members.

Seven of the new principals will lead elementary schools, and two will work at high schools, including New Media High School. The majority are longtime district principals, vice principals, and educators with years of teaching and administrative experience.

Other leadership changes include new directors of health services, adult education, special education, staff development, and student life. The district is also promoting three former principals to assistant superintendents and two assistant superintendents to oversee support services and teaching and learning.

The appointments follow the retirements of school business administrator Valerie Wilson, assistant superintendents Carolyn Granato, Sylvia Esteves, and Rosa Branco, and Director of Nursing Marguerite Leuze.

During the 2024-25 school year, Jose Fuentes, a former assistant superintendent, took on the role of school business administrator alongside Wilson, whose planned retirement that year was delayed. Fuentes will continue in his role as school business administrator this upcoming school year.

This year’s leadership changes continue the district’s broader push to diversify who leads Newark’s schools by creating teacher-to-leader pipelines and more paths from the classroom into school leadership. The move is the latest round of annual leadership turnover for the district. Newark named six first-time principals last year, eight new principals in 2024, and 10 in 2023.

The incoming school leaders will tackle several ongoing challenges, including boosting student performance as state test scores in math and reading remain below state averages, incorporating AI into classrooms, implementing a new statewide phone ban in schools, fixing old school buildings, and grappling with criticism from Republican lawmakers who are calling for more oversight of Newark’s spending.

Here’s an overview of who will lead the district in the 2026-27 school year.

District promotes eight staff members to principals, hires one newcomer

Steven Oliver, former vice principal at Dr. William H. Horton Elementary School, will lead New Media High School, the district’s newest specialized school focused on digital media, filmmaking, and entertainment. The school will welcome its first ninth grade class in September and operate at Bard High School Early College while its permanent home, the former Dayton Street School building, is renovated. Oliver joined the district in 2018 as a teacher lead and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Rutgers University, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Shadin Belal will lead Bard High School Early College this fall. A former vice principal at Malcolm X Shabazz High School, Belal has more than 15 years of experience as an educator and school administrator. She replaces Rafael Inoa, who took over as Bard’s principal last year in his first administrative role. Belal began her career as an English teacher at Orange High School after receiving a bachelor’s degree in English literature from Rutgers University, a master’s degree from Kean University, and a doctoral degree in education in leadership, management, and policy from Seton Hall University’s College of Education and Human Services, according to her school biography.

Amy Woods will lead Branch Brook Elementary School, a prekindergarten through fourth grade school for students with autism. She replaces Cristina Pennetti, the school’s inaugural principal when it opened in 2024. Woods previously worked as a supervisor in the district’s special education office.

Sharmaine McCree, a former district vice principal, was promoted to principal of Chancellor Avenue Elementary School. She began teaching in the district in 2000 and was promoted to teacher coach in 2013, according to her LinkedIn profile. McCree replaces Kashon Lopes, who was promoted to district director.

Nivin Papa, a Newark native and Newark Public Schools alum, will lead East Ward Elementary School. She has over 20 years of teaching experience in the district and was formerly a vice principal at East Ward, according to her school biography.

Marissa Falcon will take the helm of Elliot Street Elementary School this school year. She served as Elliot’s vice principal for the last five years. Before she joined the district, she spent 17 years teaching and in leadership roles at Elizabeth Public Schools. She brings 20 years of experience to her new role.

Rodney Point-Du-Jour, the only newcomer to the district among the new principals, will lead Nelson Mandela Elementary School starting in September. He brings more than 20 years of administrative and teaching experience and replaces the school’s first principal, Ryan Silver, who was promoted to assistant superintendent. Point-Du-Jour was formerly an assistant principal for the East Windsor Regional School District, a vice principal and educator at Franklin Township Public Schools, and an English teacher at Plainfield Public Schools, according to his LinkedIn profile.

April Adams, former vice principal at Wilson Avenue School, will take charge of Quitman Street School this fall. She started her teaching career in Newark, working with students in the Central and West Wards. She has worked as a district substitute teacher, classroom teacher, teacher coach, supervisor, and special assistant for the East Central Ward School Leadership Team. She holds a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore and a master’s degree in educational administration from Saint Peter’s College, according to her school biography.

Khadijah Owen, a former vice principal of Weequahic High School, will lead Speedway Avenue School. Owen was also previously a math lead teacher for the district.

Former principals move into district leadership

Three former principals will lead the district’s School Leadership Teams as assistant superintendents.

Andres Barquin was promoted to assistant superintendent for the North School Leadership Team. Barquin, who had served as principal of Elliot Street School since 2022, started his career as a district elementary school teacher. He studied at Thomas Edison State College, Grand Canyon University, and Caldwell College.

Former Speedway Avenue School Principal Ashley Jiles was promoted to assistant superintendent for the South and West School Leadership Teams. She began her teaching career with the district in 2013 and worked her way up to vice principal at Dr. William H. Horton Elementary School.

Silver, former principal of Nelson Mandela Elementary School, was promoted to assistant superintendent of the East and Central School Leadership Teams. Silver was the first principal at Nelson Mandela when it opened its doors in 2023. Silver is a Newark Public Schools graduate.

Current assistant superintendents Samantha Lott-Velez and Sandra Marques will oversee support services and teaching and learning, a promotion for both after previously overseeing School Leadership Teams.

New directors take the helm after longtime staff retire

The district promoted Courtney Johnson, former principal of Quitman Street School, to director of adult education. Pennetti, former principal of Branch Brook Elementary School, was promoted to director of special education.

Lopes, former principal of Chancellor Avenue, was named director of staff development. The district hired Bertha Blackwell as the new director of health services and Vernon Pullins as the new director of student life.

Jessie Gomez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Newark Public Schools teachers get creative as wildfire smoke cancels outdoor summer programs

2026-07-17T16:27:03+00:00

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Newark Public Schools leaders moved summer school activities indoors for the second day in a row on Friday as smoke from wildfires burning across Canada rolled into the state this week.

“Due to the heat advisory and air quality conditions, all summer programs and activities will continue indoors,” confirmed Paul Brubaker, Newark Public Schools’ communications director, via email Friday morning.

The smoke turned the sky hazy on Thursday and into Friday morning, as temperatures almost hit 90 degrees in some parts of northern New Jersey. Rising heat and thick smoke forced teachers and staff to think quickly about indoor activities for students in limited spaces, according to two sources who asked to remain anonymous so they could share details with Chalkbeat.

This year, summer school is held across 15 elementary schools, 10 high schools, and two specialized schools serving students with disabilities. It is a mix of mandatory academic programs in the morning and afternoon enrichment activities, such as sports camps, visual arts programs, and outdoor play. Summer Achieve, the district’s mandatory academic program required for kindergarten through seventh grade students based on state test scores and literacy screener data, runs from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. every day.

The wildfire smoke is especially concerning for young children in Newark, where nearly 1 in 4 has asthma, far outpacing the national average of 1 in 11. Newark also closed all outdoor pools and urged residents to limit outside activities and remain inside when possible. The city is also distributing masks at several locations.

Teachers had little notice this week and even less space to work with as gyms built to hold a single class period now had to absorb activities that were supposed to spread out across playgrounds and fields. Most schools have air conditioning, and students “were cool for the most part,” according to one teacher who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Another teacher, who also shared details under the condition of anonymity, said staff is falling back on “good old school stuff.” On Friday, younger students were set to play silent ball, a quiet, low movement version of the schoolyard game made to fit in a classroom, while older students watched movies.

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and the city’s Department of Health and Community Wellness issued an air quality alert on Thursday, warning that pollution from fires could push the Air Quality Index to 200, an unhealthy level. But on Thursday night, the air quality moved to the very unhealthy category, where anyone could experience poor health due to the smoke, according to Northjersey.com.

In 2023, wildfire smoke from Canada sent a thick, orange haze over the Northeast area. It also forced schools to cancel recess and move outdoor activities indoors. This week’s smoke was milder but came on a similarly short timeframe, giving schools little room to plan.

Air quality levels are expected to get better on Saturday. Residents can check their local air quality at the AirNow website, which provides state, local, and regional updates.

Jessie Gomez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Randi Weingarten said Newark Public Schools visit confirmed her fears about AI in the classroom

2026-07-07T18:53:13+00:00

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American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten said recently that her visit to Newark’s Park Elementary School reinforced her worry about screens and AI in schools.

The day after her Newark trip, she proceeded with a high-profile call for a ban on student-facing AI in elementary schools.

“The classroom is very quiet, and it’s basically a super duper tutoring center,” Weingarten said in June, recalling her visit to see Khanmigo, an AI chatbot created by Khan Academy, in action.

The comments followed an awkward juxtaposition for Weingarten, who leads the country’s second-largest teachers union. The AFT partnered with OpenAI and Microsoft last year to provide AI training to its members and has also promoted the use of Khanmigo.

But following her May visit, Weingarten called for classroom screen time limits and a tax on big tech as she unveiled a 10-point plan that calls for no screens for students in pre-K through second grade, a ban on AI chatbots through age 16, and project-based, experiential learning.

Weingarten isn’t alone in her skepticism of AI in schools and echoes broader concerns from researchers. Experts are also concerned that there is little research on whether AI tools like Khanmigo are actually helping students refine key skills in math and reading, even as Newark has pointed to its own data as evidence of student progress.

During her visit to Park Elementary, Weingarten said she was upfront with Superintendent Roger León about what she was about to say publicly. She spoke with teachers about her concerns directly and saw how they were using Khanmigo to teach students new skills in small groups rather than as a class. Afterwards, she spoke with students about their use of the tool, and they told her Khanmigo reinforced their skills instead of teaching them anything new.

There was one moment when students got excited, and it had nothing to do with Khanmigo. Students lit up only when a teacher pulled a few students aside to do a science experiment, Weingarten said in June, a contrast to the quiet screen-based instruction happening in the room.

Paul Brubaker, the district’s communications director, did not respond to comment.

In the fall of 2024, the district said students who used the AI tool during the pilot phase showed improvements in their math scores. But that data is self-reported by the district and has not been released publicly. During an interview with León in 2024, the superintendent said Khan Academy is helping the district analyze state testing data to determine the impact Khanmigo is having on student progress. The district is also using the tool to support tutoring efforts and help teachers “influence the academic program” in schools, León added.

Khan Academy’s founder, Sal Khan, has praised the district’s use of Khanmigo and awarded them the first-ever Khan Academy Award for Excellence and Innovation in April. But that same month, Khan had expressed disappointment with the chatbot’s performance in schools.

Newark, New Jersey’s largest school district, was among the first in the country to test Khanmigo at First Avenue School on students in grades 5-8 during the 2023-24 school year. At that time, the district said the tool was primarily used to support students in math, reading, and writing.

Among district schools, First Avenue had the second-highest math proficiency rate in spring 2024 state test scores, but it’s unclear how much of Newark’s use of Khanmigo actually impacted student progress.

That uncertainty hasn’t slowed its expansion across Newark. The district expanded Khanmigo to 13 other schools and grades 3-8 in the 2024-25 school year after receiving a $25,000 grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Newark has also adopted other AI technologies in school, including Amira Learning, an AI literacy screener tool, and installed thousands of AI cameras districtwide.

The aggressive expansion of AI in schools comes as New Jersey prepares for the first year of phone-free schools this fall and Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s concerns about students’ safety online.

León, in a press release about Weingarten’s visit, said Newark’s approach to Khanmigo shows “how AI can strengthen teaching and learning when implemented thoughtfully and collaboratively.”

Chalkbeat Ideas Editor Matt Barnum contributed to this story.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

NJ lawmakers approve extra mental health support for schools

2026-07-02T17:22:59+00:00

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This story was first published by the New Jersey Monitor.

New Jersey lawmakers approved a plan to strengthen school-based mental health services, connect more districts with behavioral health providers in their communities, and eventually link them all with a centralized team of psychiatrists.

Gov. Mikie Sherrill outlined one aspect of the program in her budget speech in March and is expected to sign the legislation, which passed both houses of the legislature Tuesday with near unanimous support. Her office declined to comment Wednesday.

The $60.7 billion budget bill she signed late Tuesday includes $8 million for a new program dubbed the School-Based Partnerships for Access and Resilience, or Spark, which will be launched as a pilot program before expanding to all of New Jersey’s 2,500 schools within the next two years.

The plan also has $40 million for NJ4S, the New Jersey Statewide Student Support Services program, a four-year-old initiative that has allowed nearly half the state’s schools to partner with regional mental health organizations that provide school-based counseling, medication and referrals, and help parents navigate the behavioral health system.

“The SPARK and NJ4S programs will provide critical resources to address our youth mental health crisis, giving parents, educators, and, most importantly, our children the tools they need to thrive,” Sen. Angela McKnight (D-Hudson) said in a statement following the budget vote.

Sherrill had called for eliminating NJ4S — which has vocal critics — in favor of Spark, but school officials and mental health organizations urged her to reconsider. The legislation permits both programs and seeks to knit them together and scale best practices statewide.

Morgan Thompson, CEO of Prevention Links, a Union County mental health organization that works in several districts through the NJ4S program, thanked state officials for their commitment to mental health and for adopting an approach that builds on the existing system.

“Strengthening partnerships between schools and experienced community-based providers will help create learning environments where students can thrive while ensuring they have access to high-quality behavioral health supports both inside and outside the classroom,” Thompson told the New Jersey Monitor in a text message.

“Looking ahead, sustained, long-term investment will be critical so these services are available predictably and reliably in every community, giving schools, families, and providers the stability needed to effectively meet the evolving needs of New Jersey’s young people,” she said.

Under the bill, the state Department of Children and Families will work with the Department of Education to create guidelines around Spark and select up to 10 school districts for an 18-month pilot program. The department will also need to select one mental health app that kids in grades K-12 and their parents can use to learn about existing services.

Districts in the Spark program will be linked with the DCF’s child psychiatry collaborative, a decade-old partnership that connects mental health professionals with pediatricians, often the first to see children in crisis. The collaborative — which received a separate $12.8 million in state funds, as it has in past years — will provide school-based consultations, referrals, medication management, support for parents, and training and guidance for educators under the pilot.

After 18 months, if no major problems are identified in a progress report to be prepared for the governor, the Spark program will expand to all districts statewide, according to the legislation, which allows existing providers to be integrated as it expands.

The bill also requires all districts in New Jersey to have either a designated employee to provide school-based mental health services, or an agreement with a healthcare provider in the community, or to be part of NJ4S. Even with the state funding, the statewide rollout could be slowed by behavioral health workforce shortages and the cost to schools, given that school psychologists make close to $100,000 annually, according to a fiscal analysis by non-partisan legislative staff.

A second bill calls on DCF to evaluate the child psychiatry collaborative operation, recommend steps to strengthen the behavioral health workforce, and expand data collection around children’s mental health services. Hospitals in New Jersey reported treating more than 50,000 pediatric mental health patients annually, but specifics are scarce.

The Assembly approved that bill unanimously Tuesday, but it has yet to be posted for a Senate vote and with the Senate not returning until the fall its future is unclear.

In addition to codifying Sherrill’s school mental health vision, the two bills address concerns flagged in a recent report from the New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute, which documented how, despite strengths like the psychiatry collaborative, the state’s system is failing kids and frustrating parents.

At least 1 in 5 children ages 3 through 17 have been diagnosed with a mental health condition, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Some 40% of high school students said they felt hopeless or depressed at some point in the last year, CDC found, and half as many said they seriously considered suicide, while 9% reported attempting to kill themselves.

Newark Public Schools schedules graduations at same time, forcing parents to make an impossible decision

2026-06-23T21:43:13+00:00

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Danielle Rose sat in her home on Monday night trying to figure out how to be in two places at once.

Her son’s eighth grade graduation at Dr. E. Alma Flagg in the North Ward started at 9 a.m. Tuesday. His little sister’s pre-K ceremony at The Leaguers, a preschool provider contracted by Newark Public Schools, started at 9:45 a.m. downtown.

But her son only had one request: He wanted both parents there.

“In one moment, my husband is like, okay, I’m going to go to this one, then go to the other one. And then my son comes in and says, “Can y’all please both come?”

Rose is not alone. In recent years, Newark parents with more than one student graduating have faced an impossible choice on what should be one of their family’s biggest days. The district packs dozens of ceremonies into the same time frame each June, resulting in scheduling conflicts, and during last week’s school board meeting, three members called it out publicly.

Superintendent Roger León at the June 18 school board meeting said the fix has been having elementary school graduations in the morning and high schools in the afternoon. But he warned that venue shortages across the city make that a hard promise to keep. On Tuesday, high schools such as East Side and Arts still had morning ceremonies at the same time as elementary schools.

León said the district’s hands are practically tied. The Newark Teachers Union contract requires the last day of school to also be the last working day for educators, León said. That means ceremonies can only happen on June 23 unless staff volunteer their time. Holding graduations before the last day, he added, “had increased attendance problems.”

Newark resident Danielle Rose poses for a picture with her son, a graduate of Dr. E. Alma Flagg Elementary School, and her daughter, a graduate of The Leaguers Preschool.

Those conflicts aren’t new. Two years ago, Yvonne Davis had the same problem and was forced to split up her family to celebrate a big milestone.

Her son was graduating from Malcolm X Shabazz High School, and her daughter crossed the stage at Avon Avenue Elementary’s eighth grade ceremony, both at 9:30 a.m. At the time, she said she called the principal and raised her concern, but was told it was the scheduling decision of the school board, not the school.

“I felt like the Board of Education should have considered that,” Davis said. “A lot of parents, we just got left out.”

Davis, a single mother, went to her son’s ceremony while her mother and her children’s father covered her daughter’s. She only saw her daughter’s graduation in pictures and said that she knew at least three other parents that year who faced the same impossible split.

My daughter “understood, but I wasn’t there,” Davis said.

During the June meeting, board member David Daughtey said he had already heard from parents and other community members frustrated about having to travel to multiple venues across the city for overlapping ceremonies. He called on the district to separate elementary and high school graduations into different time frames, as it had done in the past, Daughety said.

“I’ve already heard parents and community members reach out and ask and complain about all of it happening at the same time,” Daughety added.

Board member Helena Vinhas during the meeting also said she raised the same concern last school year and urged the district again to, at a minimum, separate elementary graduations from high school ones.

Yvonne Davis' children, Tariq and Samaiyah, pose for a picture during their 2024 high school and eighth grade graduations, respectively.

“A lot of the families do have difficulty by having children graduating on the same day and having to choose which one to attend,” Vinhas said.

Board member Kanileah Anderson proposed another solution during the meeting. She called for high school seniors and eighth graders to graduate on entirely different days while pointing out that families with children in both levels, increasingly common as the district pulls students from across city neighborhoods, have no realistic way to attend both.

“We all know that that is impossible,” Anderson said. “So I’m looking forward to the discussion, and actually a change for graduation classes of 2027.”

But León stopped short of a broader solution. He said high schools like Data Science and Information Technology are having their graduations in Montclair because of venue constraints.

“So, the idea that we have to maximize the space becomes an important factor,” León added.

On Tuesday morning, Rose and her mother, who traveled from New York, just made it to her son’s graduation at Alma Flagg after finding a parking spot. But by the time the ceremony was over and she got back in her car, she could not get back downtown in time for her daughter’s pre-K ceremony.

Luckily, she had explained the situation to her daughter’s teacher who allowed Rose to take photos before the ceremony with her daughter, in case she did not make it back in time.

“Unfortunately, no one was able to attend my preschooler’s graduation,” Rose said.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

New Jersey awards Newark $400K to boost tutoring programs built on AI and high-impact sessions

2026-06-10T21:03:20+00:00

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Newark Public Schools will receive $400,000 from the state to expand high-impact tutoring in the 2026-27 school year to help K-12 students who are struggling in math and reading.

Newark has already implemented high-impact tutoring, a model that relies on small group tutoring sessions with the same tutor three times a week. The district has also implemented tutoring before and after school, in the summer, and through its Saturday Academy programs designed to address pandemic learning loss and speed up academic recovery. The new funding will build on the district’s work to offer high-impact tutoring and continue its use of artificial intelligence to tutor students with teacher oversight.

The state Department of Education allocated $7.5 million through the third round of the New Jersey Learning Acceleration Program grant to 55 school districts and charter schools statewide.

The grant was created to support students disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. It targets school districts where student proficiency rates in English and math for grades 3 to 8 remain below 50%.

In Newark, New Jersey’s largest public school system, student performance in statewide math and reading tests last spring stayed below state averages but inched closer to pre-pandemic levels. In 2025, only 34% of Newark Public Schools’ students in grades 3-9 passed the state’s English Language Arts test, while 21.1% of students passed the math test.

Research says the high-impact tutoring model works better than after-school tutoring programs, but as the push to expand those efforts continues, school districts are still struggling to staff, finance, and schedule the programs.

In 2023, Superintendent Roger León said that federal COVID relief dollars were the district’s “saving grace” in expanding summer and tutoring programs.

But as that money ran out, states like New Jersey and Tennessee budgeted money to continue paying for high-dosage tutoring. Newark has received over a million dollars since 2023, when the grant was first created, according to the state education department.

The district also implemented Khanmigo, an AI chatbot developed by online learning giant Khan Academy that acts as a tutor for students and an assistant for teachers. Newark leaders said they decided to expand Khanmigo in 2024 after students who used it during its pilot phase in the 2023-24 school year showed improvements in their math scores. The expansion was backed by a grant from the Bill Gates Foundation.

But experts have said that more research is needed to evaluate the effectiveness of AI in education, even as they gain popularity among school districts. And Khan Academy founder Sal Khan has admitted AI tutoring hasn’t motivated students or reached the level of success some had predicted. In April, Newark Public Schools became the first district in the nation to receive the Khan Academy Award for Excellence and Innovation for its districtwide implementation of Khanmigo.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

A new national report tells a complicated story about Newark Public Schools students’ learning and growth

2026-05-22T20:40:00+00:00

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Newark’s public school students are improving faster than nearly every district in the nation, but are performing two grade levels behind the national average in math and reading, according to a new national education report released this month.

Researchers at Harvard, Stanford, and Dartmouth found that Newark Public Schools students learned at an average rate of 1.23 grade levels per year in reading and math during the 2022 through 2025 school years, according to the fourth annual national Education Scorecard released last week. That means Newark students, on average, gained a little more than a grade level’s worth of skills every year post-pandemic.

Researchers analyzed state test scores from third to eighth grade for over 5,000 school districts in 38 states, allowing them to compare learning rates nationally and show where students’ academic recovery stands. Learning rates measure how much students improve year over year, regardless of where they started.

The researchers ranked Newark in the 93rd percentile nationally among school districts and found that Newark students outpaced the national and state average learning rate. Similar districts identified by researchers, including Trenton, Vineland, New Brunswick, Camden City, and Atlantic City, averaged about eighth-tenths of a grade level of learning each year.

But a closer look at the data shows that Newark Public Schools students performed 2.36 grade levels below the 2019 national average, according to the report. That gap highlights the disruption Newark families experienced during the pandemic and the slow recovery it’s taking to get students up to speed.

During Thursday’s school board meeting, Superintendent Roger León said the new study grounds the district “in knowing that we’re in a place where we can actually move from.”

“We are very, very confident in the work that we’re doing, and that we’re also cognizant that there’s a lot of work that needs to occur to continue to move the pendulum in the direction that we need,” León said Thursday.

In a press release issued late Thursday, board President Hasani Council said the report’s findings “reflect years of focused investment, strong leadership, dedicated teachers, and the resilience of Newark’s students and families.”

New Jersey received roughly $4.3 billion in federal pandemic relief for K-12 schools, about $3,200 per student. The national report found that the gains in many high-poverty districts were driven by that federal support.

Last spring, only 34% of Newark Public Schools’ students in grades 3-9 passed the state’s English Language Arts test, while 21.1% of students passed the math test. Although those numbers lag behind statewide averages, they are a slight improvement from levels seen right after the pandemic. Across New Jersey, 53% of students passed the statewide English Language Arts test in 2025.

Paula White, the executive director of JerseyCAN, a statewide education advocacy group, said that money “mattered greatly,” but even after that massive investment, middle and higher poverty districts are still behind pre-pandemic levels.

“Adhering to the status quo will only keep New Jersey in our troubling middle-of-the-pack position,” White said. She also called the statewide results on the national report card “a sluggish portrait of New Jersey’s education recovery” and urged the state to adopt science-of-reading reforms, invest in literacy coaches and high-impact tutoring, and tackle chronic absenteeism on an “accelerated timetable.”

The report also found that states that enacted literacy reforms, such as Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee, produced measurable reading gains while states that didn’t, including New Jersey, did not. Across the country, results are gloomier, and researchers warn that the U.S. is experiencing a reading recession, which predates pandemic school disruptions.

“The bottom line is that we must do more,” White added.

The full report is available at educationscorecard.org

Jessie Gomez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Newark Public Schools’ enrollment falls slightly for the first time since 2019

2026-05-22T00:01:52+00:00

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Newark Public Schools lost students for the first time in six years, a stark difference from the year-over-year growth that has set it apart from trends in districts across the country over the past five school years.

In the 2025-26 school year, the district enrolled 43,216 students, down 764 from the 2024-25 school year when the district enrolled 43,980, according to fall enrollment data from the state released Thursday. That’s a turn for a district that had surged by almost 20% since 2019, driven largely by a rise in Hispanic student enrollment and multilingual learners.

This year, the district’s largest student demographic drivers, powered by an influx of immigrant families and multilingual learners, are beginning to slow.

The district is also edging closer to national trends where enrollment has dropped by nearly 1.3 million students since the COVID-19 pandemic, partly due to declining birth rates and shifts in migration.

The steepest drop this year hit the district’s multilingual learner population. Newark enrolled 11,879 multilingual learners in the 2025-26 school year, down 744 from the previous year when that population surpassed 12,000 for the first time. At the same time, Hispanic student enrollment grew by 460 this school year, according to fall enrollment data.

It’s unclear from the state’s data if the decline in multilingual learners is a result of those students leaving the district or transitioning out of English learner programs and back into general education.

More than 720 fewer white students attended Newark’s public schools in 2025-26 than in the fall of the year prior, as did 488 fewer Black students. The number of Asian American students remained around the same from the prior year.

Additionally, early grade levels and transition grades showed the sharpest enrollment declines this year. Compared to last school year, first grade lost 221 students and kindergarten fell by 154. Also compared to last year, seventh grade fell by 197 students and ninth grade by 140 students, major grade level transition years.

During January’s board retreat meeting, Superintendent Roger León said the district’s enrollment decline was close to 818 students, but he didn’t say what subgroups contributed to that decline. He cautioned that the fall enrollment numbers were a snapshot from October and do not take into account students who arrive later in the school year.

“I can’t tell you who they are, because there were kids who came and left in the process just by October,” León said. “That shows and proves that we have a high mobility rate.”

Newark’s enrollment surge in previous years set it apart from neighboring New York City, which lost some 100,000 students since before the pandemic and Philadelphia schools, which are down nearly 10,000 students since the 2019-20 school year.

But whether this year’s dip is a one-year anomaly or the start of a longer trend will depend heavily on whether the city continues to attract and retain immigrant families who drove much of the district’s recent growth.

At the January retreat, León said of the multilingual students who left the district, a “large number” of those students left the state and a “significant number of them” left the country.

Jessie Gomez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

NJ Supreme Court won’t weigh in yet on school segregation case

2026-05-12T17:37:52+00:00

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This story was first published by the New Jersey Monitor.

The New Jersey Supreme Court has declined to fast-track an eight-year-old lawsuit that alleges the state’s schools are unconstitutionally segregated by race, deciding that the case must first be heard by an appellate court before the high court can get involved.

Latino Action Network, a plaintiff in the case, had asked for the Supreme Court to step in “so that justice will not further be delayed — and thereby denied,” but court officials announced Monday that the justices decided not to weigh in yet. Lawrence Lustberg, attorney for Latino Action Network, said the plaintiffs are disappointed “given that it is such an important case and that any delay hurts New Jersey’s children.”

“We will continue our pursuit of justice in the Appellate Division, and are confident in the merits of our case,” Lustberg said.

Latino Action Network and the other plaintiffs — a group of parents and advocacy groups — filed the lawsuit against the state in May 2018. They claim that the state’s public school system is segregated along racial and socioeconomic lines, which violates the New Jersey Constitution requirement that students receive a “thorough and efficient education.”

In New Jersey, students typically attend schools in the districts where they live, which the plaintiffs argue has led to de facto segregation. They cite a University of California at Los Angeles study that found New Jersey has consistently ranked as one of the most segregated school systems in the nation.

The case has slowly wound through the court system. In October 2023, a trial court judge agreed with plaintiffs that there was a “marked and persistent racial imbalance” in New Jersey schools but said the plaintiffs failed to prove the state’s school system as a whole is unconstitutionally segregated.

The parties then entered a mediation process, which ran from late 2023 to early 2025 and failed to lead to any agreement or settlement.

Last year, an appellate court agreed to hear the plaintiffs’ case but a hearing has yet to be scheduled.

The Sherrill administration opposed the plaintiffs’ move to ask the Supreme Court to step in, saying they have “so far failed to present any administrable, constitutional remedy.”

Something felt off about Newark Public Schools’ special education numbers, so officials asked Rutgers for help

2026-04-30T19:30:19+00:00

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Kristen Victorino remembers the moment Newark officials laid out a problem to her in 2023: an unprecedented surge in referrals for students with disabilities.

The referrals felt “never-ending,” administrators in Newark Public Schools’ Office of Special Education told Victorino, an associate professor of speech-language pathology at Rutgers School of Health Professions.

In a city where more than a third of residents are born outside of the United States, Newark educators feared students were being mislabeled as having speech or language disabilities when, in reality, they were still learning English, Victorino said.

She and her team started to look at the district’s data with the help of funding from the Rutgers Equity Alliance for Community Health. Her team found that during the 2022-23 school year, Newark Public Schools conducted more than 1,200 initial special education evaluations, a rate district leaders felt “was a real surge at that time” due to an influx of new students in the district, many who didn’t speak English, Victorino said.

Rutgers also found barriers affecting accurate evaluations of students who came from homes where English wasn’t the primary language, such as an overreliance on speech-language test scores when testing may not have happened in a student’s primary language, time constraints for evaluations, and communication gaps.

Victorino’s work with Newark led to a needs assessment that detailed problem areas and created training sessions with district employees and contractors. They also implemented a “train the trainer model” where four district speech language pathologists from different parts of the city receive extra training from Rutgers and serve as peer leaders. Rutgers’ goal is to make the evaluation process more accurate for students who don’t speak English but their work is just starting.

They will know if they were successful by comparing future evaluations to prior ones and looking at the percentage of bilingual students identified for speech-language services over time.

Newark’s public schools are also culturally diverse, Victorino said, and if evaluators are not trained to distinguish the linguistic differences between English and other languages, such as Spanish, evaluations can get complicated.

“So many of these kids are bilingual or in some way culturally and linguistically diverse, and they just didn’t feel like it’s possible that they all have disabilities,” Victorino added. “They said, ‘what can we be doing differently?’”

That surge in evaluations came as the district was still recovering from the pandemic, and experienced a rise in English language learners that began before 2020, according to a Chalkbeat analysis. Typically, initial evaluations for special education services are conducted by a team of school leaders, including administrators, special education teachers, psychologists, and specialists who may determine speech, language, motor, and functional skills.

Multiple studies show that bilingual students and English learners are often misidentified as having language or speech disorders. That presents a challenge for a district like Newark, New Jersey’s largest school system, which is home to more than 1,200 English language learners who speak Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, French, or Haitian Creole.

Paul Brubaker, Newark Public Schools communications director, did not respond to questions about the district’s rate of special education evaluations or how many students were potentially misidentified for speech and language services.

Most of the initial evaluations for speech and language are conducted by contractors hired outside of the district, while others are done by the district’s Child Study Team members, Victorino said. Data about initial special education evaluations is not publicly available at the state or district level.

Victorino’s team held focus groups with district employees and contracted evaluators and found underlying issues. She said there were miscommunications around “what the expectations for evaluation should be, what the district wants to see, versus what the evaluators think they’re supposed to do.”

Arlene Hernandez, a bilingual speech language pathologist contracted by the district who participated in Rutgers focus groups and training, said she has seen how easy it is to get evaluations wrong. Across the country, there is a shortage of bilingual speech-language pathologists.

“We want to do good for our kids in our community and it’s so important that we are looking at language differences,” Hernandez said. “It’s so important that we are looking at language differences and being culturally competent when it comes to determining whether a child presents with a language disorder.”

Victorino’s team found that while there was district documentation to show a student spoke a language other than English, evaluators were not thoroughly interviewing families or noting how much they were using the language at home, making it harder to determine whether students were being tested in their primary language. They also found that standardized speech tests used to measure a student’s communication skills against their peers could be leading to inaccurate results.

Hernandez agreed that it’s important to test children in their primary language and explained how those tests could mislead evaluators. Show a child from Puerto Rico or Ecuador a picture of apple pie and ask them to identify it, she said, and they may not know the answer.

“They don’t know apple pie, but they know flan,” Hernandez said. “So, because somebody has never seen it, does that mean they have a disorder?”

A student’s sentence structure could also lead to inaccurate results, Hernandez added. A native Spanish speaker may say “I have bag brown” – applying the grammatical rules of Spanish to English – instead of “I have a brown bag.”

“Not knowing these types of differences makes it so that many times children are being referred for language services or for special education services, when in reality, what they really need is more support in learning English,” Hernandez said.

The goal is not to overburden the system with students who may not require special education services at all, Victorino added.

“Then the kids who do need it will be better able to access the services available to them.”

Clarification May 1, 2026: The story was updated to reflect that the Rutgers research did not prove that standardized speech tests used to measure Newark students’ communication skills against their peers lead to inaccurate results.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Newark’s low turnout in school board elections might be sending the wrong message to city leaders

2026-04-23T20:00:16+00:00

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A tiny fraction of Newark residents control the outcome of its school board elections every year. And they keep picking the same people.

Moving Newark Schools Forward, the mayoral-backed slate that has dominated every Newark school board race since 2016, is slated for another win this year. And low voter turnout may be contributing to the lack of change and sending the wrong message to school board members about accountability.

This year, roughly 3% of Newark voters turned out for the April 21 election. And just 2% of Newark’s new 16- and 17-year-old voters — 36 people — showed up to the polls, according to unofficial counts from the Essex County Superintendent of Elections office on Wednesday.

Low turnout in school board elections is something “every community in the state” deals with, said Micah Rasmussen, the director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics at Rider University. But in Newark, where the mayor’s slate has won every election in the last 10 years, Rasmussen says disengaged voters might be sending a signal to board members that they don’t have to answer to anyone.

“When the public is checked out, and the public’s not interested, then I think it says to school board members, you don’t have to answer to the public,” Rasmussen said. “And I think that’s a real problem. It’s not the message the public should want to be sending.”

Historically, voter turnout in Newark’s school board election has been low, with participation hovering around 3% to 4%. Last year, overall turnout was 3.47%, slightly lower than the 3.94% rate among the city’s youth, with only 73 showing up to vote in the first year of teen voting.

That’s a problem for Newark’s school community that fought hard for local control of its schools and continues to demand more transparency in district decisions. The question isn’t just which candidate wins, but whether Newark’s school community can create meaningful change if voters don’t show up to the polls.

“The bottom line is, when more voters are opting not to participate than to participate, I think it sends a really bad signal to the people that you want to hold accountable,” Rasmussen said.

Members of the Moving Newark Schools Forward slate have been largely silent on specific plans to address issues in New Jersey’s largest school system. The slate, which includes current board president Hasani Council, Quamid Childs, Mark Comesañas, and Jordy Nivar, has broadly focused on improving student mental health and expanding existing district policies.

At a teen-led candidate discussion hosted by the Youth Power Action Coalition in March, the mayoral-backed contenders committed to supporting, listening to, and engaging with Newark’s students.

Since the city lowered the voting age in school board elections to 16, Newark teens have been pressing board members to get more student feedback. The youth coalition of Newark students had previously urged board members to work with them and proposed increasing student oversight over policies around mental health and school facilities. But the school board rejected their proposals in February.

Students who attended the Youth Power Action Summit on April 11, 2026 heard from Newark school board candidates during a youth-led discussion. From left to right: Amanda Ebokosia, founder of The Gem Project, school board candidates John Farrell, Lisa Gray, Quamid Childs, Jordy Nivar, and Mark Comesañas.

Even among the few teens who tried to vote this year, the process wasn’t easy, and some encountered confusion at polling sites, questions about their voting eligibility, and jammed machines. Research shows that those who are voting at 16 are more likely to vote later in life than their peers, but negative experiences can hinder their likelihood to participate in elections.

Yolanda Johnson, who launched a write-in campaign this election cycle, understands why the community may not want to turn out for the school board election

“People are saying that their vote doesn’t count. That their vote doesn’t matter. Like, we have an entire school board right now that’s the mayor’s slate, and it’s wrong. That is not what democracy looks like,” said Johnson, a four-time school board candidate and education advocate who fought for Newark’s control of schools.

Johnson said she had no plans to run in the 2026 race until community members asked her to. She launched her write-in campaign after the deadline to secure a spot in the April race and urged city voters to write her name in on the ballot. Those ballots are still being counted, so it’s not clear how much support she received from voters.

But when it comes to boosting overall turnout, especially among new teen voters, Johnson added that board members need to listen and engage with residents so they feel part of the process.

“If you make the students feel like they’re heard and empower them and educate them, provide them with the tools, you’ll get more students involved. And you’d get the adults too,” Johnson said.

Rasmussen, the political expert, agrees and adds that for Black and Latino communities like Newark, “it’s even more important” that voters show up for school board elections, especially as research shows that higher turnout in those elections is associated with better student outcomes.

“People are skeptical about the power of voting and the impact of voting,” Rasmussen said. “But I promise you that the way that anybody in this country is taken seriously is by voting.”

Jessie Gomez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Newark’s teen voters were eager to cast a ballot. But they had to fight to actually participate.

2026-04-22T18:26:20+00:00

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Teenager Fatoumata Bah joined her peers on Tuesday to vote in the Newark school board election, where the city’s 16- and 17-year-olds could participate for a second year in a row.

What the 17-year-old didn’t expect was how much time and effort it would actually take to vote.

“I thought I was at the right location, but I was told that I wasn’t. And then when I was finally at the right place to vote, the machine jammed when I tried to scan my ballot,” said Bah, a senior at Science Park High School.

Meanwhile, 16-year-old Cidell Torto was told by a poll worker that she was too young to vote.

“She literally told me you’re 16, you can’t vote,” said Torto, a junior at Science Park, who had to have an adult intervene to vouch for her voting right.

As Bah and Torto tried to cast their ballots on Tuesday, they were met with confusion at polling sites, questions about their voting eligibility, and jammed machines. The two teens, along with their Youth Power Action Coalition peers, had been busy knocking on roughly 3,000 doors in the lead up to the Newark Board of Education election to inform their community about the upcoming race –– but they hadn’t counted on encountering those barriers.

A Science Park High School junior holds her "I Voted" sticker after voting for the first in the Newark school board election.

The youth coalition of more than 200 Newark students spent weeks raising awareness about the election, getting their peers registered, organizing a civic engagement event for teens, learning and educating other youth about the role of school board members, and hosting virtual civic workshops to engage young voters. The teens had previously urged board members to work with them and proposed increasing student oversight over policies around mental health and school facilities. But the school board rejected their proposals in February.

The mayoral-backed Moving Newark Schools Forward slate appeared headed to victory on election night. The slate, made up of current board President Hasani Council and his running mates Quamid Childs, Mark Comesañas, and Jordy Nivar this year, has won every election since 2016. Their win would mark the second year the nine-member Newark school board is made up entirely of candidates who ran under the slate.

Less than 3% of the city’s registered voters participated in the Tuesday election as of April 21 , according to unofficial results posted online that do not include provisional ballots.

Two years ago, city leaders celebrated making Newark the first city in New Jersey to lower the voting age for school board elections. But when it came to welcoming young voters like Bah and Torto to the polls on Tuesday, that energy didn’t last long.

After a high-profile push to register 16- and 17-year-old voters last year, teen registration has dropped, with 1,524 signed up this year – down from last year’s 1,772 in 2025, according to the Essex County Superintendent of Elections on Tuesday. Newark Public Schools also launched a Vote 15+ campaign last year, the first time teens could vote, to register student voters and hosted state and city officials to encourage teen participation. This year, state, city, and district officials made no visible effort to register teen voters or promote youth participation.

Buses parked outside Bethany Baptist Church to take Newark’s 16- and 17-year-olds to their polling site on April 21, 2026 in Newark, N.J.

“There is just so much that people don’t see about getting youth to the polls,” said Amanda Ebokosia, founder and CEO of The Gem Project, a nonprofit organization that aims to strengthen youth civic engagement.

She, along with student leaders, organized a “Ride to the Polls” event on Tuesday to ensure young voters had transportation to get to their voting site. That effort in itself took days to coordinate, as they had to get parental consent for students to ride buses and ensure students were fed and knew what to expect in the voting process.

The group of roughly 20 students that participated in “Ride to the Polls” dealt with other challenges at voting sites, such as teens having a hard time obtaining provisional ballots and dealing with poll workers who were misinformed about the youth vote, Ebokosia said.

Ebokosia said she was thankful for the adult volunteers who tagged along to help teens vote since they were able to advocate for them. She said at least one teen in her group did not receive a ballot ahead of the April 21 election.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Newark school board election 2026: Teens encounter voting challenges as mayoral-backed slate leads Tuesday

2026-04-22T02:27:05+00:00

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Incumbent Hasani Council and his running mates Quamid Childs, Mark Comesañas, and Jordy Nivar appeared headed to victory on Tuesday night in the Newark Board of Education election, according to preliminary election results.

The four candidates are part of the Moving Newark Schools Forward slate, a political group backed by Mayor Ras Baraka, Senate Majority Leader M. Teresa Ruiz, and other state and local lawmakers. Council, Childs, and Comesañas would serve three-year terms, while Nivar would serve a one-year term.

Among all nine candidates, Council led with 3,160 votes, or 25% of total votes; Childs with 2,675 votes, or 21%; Comesañas with 2,674 votes, or 21%; and Nivar with 1,956 votes, or 47%, according to the official results.

If the leading candidates hold onto the win, the nine-member Newark school board will be composed entirely of members who ran for elections under the Moving Newark Schools Forward slate for a second year in a row.

As of 9:23 p.m. Tuesday, Lisa Gray, a former Newark Public Schools employee with over 20 years of experience as a school social worker, and John Farrell, a charter school teacher, trailed behind the mayoral slate for a three-year term with nearly 12% of votes, according to the results. Both were followed by Tawheed Peters, a Newark parent, who received 8% of the votes.

Latoya Jackson, a four-time school board candidate, was closely behind Nivar for the one-year term and received nearly 37% of the votes. She was followed by Tammy Hollaway, who received nearly 16% of the votes, according to Tuesday results.

Newark teens voted for the second time in a school board election

On Tuesday evening, a few students told Chalkbeat they had trouble voting. Students reported issues with getting provisional ballots or being redirected to other polling locations, and one had to remind poll workers that 16-year-olds were allowed to vote.

Newark students gathered at Bethany Baptist Church to catch a ride to their polling locations on Election Day in Newark, N.J. on Tuesday, April 21, 2026.

After school on Tuesday, roughly 20 teens showed up at Bethany Baptist Church to catch a ride to the polls, an initiative sponsored by the Youth Power Action Coalition.

Preston Beckham, a 16-year-old sophomore at Bard High School Early College, said he was nervous to vote for the first time in an election. He wasn’t sure what the process would be like, but he was glad to be joined by his peers and Newark adult volunteers.

“I want to see how my vote can impact schools. This is my first time officially voting for anything so I’m just nervous but really excited for this experience,” Beckham said.

Newark Public Schools students weren’t the only ones voting in Tuesday’s election.

Aaron Meighoo, a 16-year-old junior at the Essex County Donald Payne School of Technology, was also excited to vote, although he knows the Newark school board doesn’t make decisions for his school. His siblings attend Newark Public Schools, and as a former public school student, Meighoo said he was voting to ensure his siblings have a better school experience than he did.

“I can say that from when I was in Newark Public Schools in middle school, there were a lot of things I personally didn’t like and things I don’t agree with. And if I can’t make any change for me, at least I can help my little brothers,” Meighoo said.

Qawy Drayton, also a 16-year-old junior at the Essex County Donald Payne School of Technology, said he also has siblings who attend the public schools and hopes that his vote can help them have a better experience.

“My brother is in high school, he is a sophomore and he’s told me so many things about his school that he doesn’t like. So I want to make change for him,” Drayton said.

Those teens were joined by Malcolm X Shabazz high school seniors Shayla Zachary and Brenda Checo, who said they did not make the deadline to register to vote but wanted to show their support for the teen voting experience.

“I’m going to come back next year to vote, so I wanted to see the process in action,” Zachary, 18, said. “If you really want to make a change, like the school food, the building infrastructure, then I would tell my peers to vote. Don’t complain — just vote.”

Election Day got off to a slow start

On Tuesday morning, Newark’s bustling Broad Street in downtown was business as usual, with no campaign signs posted on lamp posts or outside City Hall as in previous years. If you didn’t stumble upon a polling place with signs reading “vote here” in English and Spanish, you’d be hard-pressed to find any sign of an election.

At 10:30 a.m., poll workers at the Old First Presbyterian Church said they had not seen a voter since doors opened at 7 a.m. Schools are in session, but they hope to see a few more people after school and closer to the end of the day.

At a school board debate in March, the nine candidates in this year’s race have pledged to revise and expand on district policies such as mental health, boost academic achievement, draw more community feedback on district decisions, and improve district transparency.

Overall, 161,585 Newark residents are registered to vote in this year’s April school board election. That’s a pattern advocates say limits how much of a say community voices have in district decisions.

Last year, Newark Public Schools launched a Vote 15+ campaign to register student voters and hosted state and city officials to encourage teen participation. This year, the district made no visible effort to register teen voters or promote youth participation for the April 21 election.

While the election energy is low, that silence is stark in contrast to what’s at stake.

The Newark school board plays a key role in shaping New Jersey’s largest school district and makes decisions that impact more than 41,000 Newark Public Schools students.

On Monday, dozens of Great Oaks Legacy Charter High School students marched to Newark City Hall to cast their mail-in ballots.

But where the public school district felt short, some charter school students stepped up. On Monday, dozens of Great Oaks Legacy Charter High School students marched to Newark City Hall to cast their mail-in ballots, while others marched in solidarity despite not yet being eligible to vote. That march reflected months of student-led civic engagement at the charter school driven by the school’s Student Advocacy Club, and initiatives led by the Youth Power Action Coalition, convened by The Gem Project.

“This was a proud moment for our school and for Newark,” said Jared Taillefer, CEO of Great Oaks Legacy Charter School and a Newark resident who also casted his vote Monday morning. “Our students are learning that their voice matters right now.”

For advocates, the dip in teen registration is also concerning because students are directly affected by school board decisions, but historically have had little say in them. Amanda Ebokosia, founder and CEO of The Gem project, said getting youth to the polls isn’t just about enthusiasm, but it’s about cultivating a tradition of civic participation from an early age.

“You have to show up more than once, and you have to want to prioritize it more than once, not when it’s hot and shiny,” Ebokosia said. “It’s also about having a commitment to young people, and I think that more could have been done, definitely when it comes to prioritizing the youth vote.”

Adding to the city’s low political engagement, the Board of Elections website still listed polling locations from the prior year on Election Day.

Parents, students, and advocates say they want their new board to improve school lunches, add more translation services to the district and board meetings, and hold Superintendent Roger Leon accountable for his spending decisions, among other demands.

But advocates say it’s been a challenge to boost voter turnout around school issues in Newark. Historically, voter turnout in the Newark school board election has been low, with participation hovering around 3% to 4%. Last year, just under 4% of city residents voted in the election, with only 73 teens showing up to vote.

Tuesday’s election may also be falling victim to voting fatigue. In the runup to the school board election, state and national political attention was focused on the April 16 special election to fill Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s seat in the 11th Congressional District, which includes parts of Essex County. Locally, Newark’s May 12 municipal race has been front and center in the landscape, with candidate posters and signs displayed across the city.

That flood of political activity may be drowning out the school board race entirely.

Jhamar Youngblood, a Newark mayoral candidate, said it doesn’t feel like an election is happening today, with few people talking about it. Youngblood believes the city could do more to promote the school board race, but he also feels it’s a strategy to keep residents disengaged “so they can do whatever it is they want.”

“We just need more courageous people to talk about what’s happening, because that’s the only way, historically, that we’ve seen some type of accountability in our city,” Youngblood said.

Ebokosia, the founder of The Gem Project, thinks teen voters can be the courageous voice the city needs to enact change. But for that to happen, leaders need to work together to create consistent efforts to boost teen voter turnout and remove the barriers that limit them from voting, including a lack of information about the school board election.

”We have to make an honest assessment as to who we are actually making this a priority for. If we’re not making it a priority, how can we work together to ensure that as many young people know about this election?” Ebokosia said.

Polls closed at 8 p.m. Tuesday.

Jessie Gomez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Cómo los estudiantes del East Ward de Newark aprenden en edificios con décadas de deterioro

2026-04-16T16:02:00+00:00

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Gabrielly Ferreira recuerda cómo fue pasar el kindergarten hasta el octavo grado en la escuela Ann Street School en el East Ward, de Newark, un edificio que data de 1892. Los pisos se hundían, la pintura se desprendía de las paredes y compartir un pequeño ventilador con sus compañeros durante los meses más calurosos la distraía del aprendizaje.

Luego, en el noveno grado, Ferreira fue a la escuela Science Park High School en el distrito central y vio una escuela bien mantenida por primera vez.

“Era mucho más bonito. Era mucho más limpio. Me parecía que era mucho más abierto. Sentí que incluso los pasillos se sentían más grandes”, dijo Ferreira, ahora de 16 años y en tercer año de secundaria.

“Es un cambio muy grande pasar de un edificio como Ann Street a Science Park”

Ann Street School es una escuela K-8 ubicada en Newark, Nueva Jersey. La estructura original fue construida en 1892, y tiene 134 años de antigüedad.

La experiencia de Ferreira es común en el East Ward, donde los edificios escolares tienen, en promedio, más de un siglo y necesitan reparaciones. Algunos son demasiado calurosos en verano, demasiado fríos en invierno, con mala ventilación, fuentes de agua rotas y pintura descascarada.

Newark no está solo: Filadelfia, Chicago, Memphis y muchos otros distritos urbanos también están lidiando con escuelas en ruinas. Lo que es diferente en Nueva Jersey es que el estado tiene la responsabilidad legal de construir y entregar nuevas escuelas a 31 distritos de alta pobreza, entre ellos Newark.

Los padres, estudiantes, maestros y defensores llevan años presionando por la creación de nuevas escuelas. Cuando el superintendente Roger León tomó el control en 2018, prometió arreglarlos y abrir otros nuevos.

Pero los problemas persisten. Y en ningún lugar son más evidentes que en el East Ward de Newark, la zona más densamente poblada de la ciudad, donde más de la mitad de las escuelas también están saturadas, según un análisis de Chalkbeat.

Mientras que otras partes de Newark han recibido nuevas escuelas en años recientes, una serie de factores a nivel estatal, local y del vecindario ha frenado el cambio en el East Ward. La Schools Development Authority (Autoridad de Desarrollo Escolar) del estado, la agencia responsable de financiar y construir escuelas conocida como SDA, tiene una acumulación de proyectos de nuevas escuelas valuada en miles de millones de dólares. El East Ward también carece de espacios abiertos y tiene un historial de fuerte actividad industrial que hace que grandes zonas del área no sean aptas para construir nuevas escuelas.

Según el distrito, al menos una escuela llegará pronto al East Ward y se están llevando a cabo proyectos de renovación en pequeña escala. Pero las brechas de financiamiento y la complejidad de la nueva construcción significan que muchos de los estudiantes más vulnerables de Newark estarán atrapados en escuelas envejecidas y abarrotadas por el futuro previsible.

Paul Brubaker, el director de comunicaciones del distrito, no respondió a las preguntas sobre los esfuerzos del distrito para reparar las viejas escuelas del East Ward y las necesidades que quedan.

Hawkins Street School sirve a los estudiantes de K-8 y fue construida en 1887. La escuela se encuentra junto a la sección industrial del East Ward.

Mientras el presupuesto propuesto por la gobernadora Mikie Sherrill no añade dinero nuevo a la SDA, Maggie Garbarino, subsecretaria de prensa de Sherrill, aseguró que su administración seguirá un cronograma de financiamiento existente establecido en 2023 que agregará $350 millones para proyectos de construcción escolar que ya se han iniciado y $50 millones adicionales para reparaciones de emergencia en distritos con alta pobreza durante este ciclo presupuestario.

Para los defensores como Nikki Baker, que han pasado años presionando a los líderes estatales para conseguir más dinero para las nuevas escuelas, la frustración es profunda. Baker, una organizadora de la Healthy Schools Now Coalition (Coalición para Escuelas Saludables), dice que los ciclos de financiamiento “diferido y aplazado” han dejado atrás a distritos como Newark.

La investigación ha demostrado que las malas condiciones de los edificios y otros factores ambientales pueden afectar la asistencia estudiantil y el rendimiento académico.

“Un ambiente limpio y saludable; poder respirar con calma, tener una escuela nueva y bonita, acceso a agua potable limpia, esa sensación”, señaló Baker, “eso es importante para la salud mental y física de los estudiantes”.

Los estudiantes del East Ward de Newark deben lidiar con las escuelas antiguas

El East Ward, que abarca partes de Ironbound en Newark, es hogar de miles de familias inmigrantes de habla española y portuguesa. Es una parte industrial de la ciudad, y en la parte sur del East Ward, los jóvenes son los más expuestos a estar desconectados de la escuela.

Emma Villa, estudiante de segundo año en la East Side High School, dijo que los días más cálidos son brutales dentro de la escuela debido a que no hay aire acondicionado. En los días calurosos, la mayoría de los maestros abren las ventanas para dejar entrar el aire fresco, mientras que otros tienen ventiladores.

“En verano, hace tanto calor que se ve sudor en la cara de todos, es simplemente repugnante. Es como una sauna ahí dentro”, dijo Villa, de 15 años.

La escuela Oliver Street School fue reconstruida por la Schools Development Authority (Autoridad de Desarrollo Escolar) en 2016 y es una de las dos escuelas del East Ward reconstruidas en los últimos 10 años.

El East Ward alberga ocho escuelas primarias y dos escuelas secundarias, algunas de las cuales se remontan a 1848, antes de la Guerra Civil. La SDA ha reconstruido dos escuelas primarias en el distrito: Oliver Street School en 2016, el primer edificio reconstruido en el East Ward en más de 100 años, y South Street School en 2018.

Otras siete no han sido reconstruidas. Según un análisis de Chalkbeat, esos edificios sin tocar tienen en promedio 139 años y las instalaciones envejecidas están haciendo subir los costos de mantenimiento.

Todo el distrito escolar de la ciudad también está por encima de la capacidad de más de 2,000 estudiantes, según un informe estatal. En el East Ward, escuelas como la Wilson Avenue School, East Side High School, Lafayette Street School y Ann Street School están significativamente sobrecargadas, con algunas matriculando aproximadamente el doble de estudiantes para lo que sus edificios fueron diseñados, según un análisis de Chalkbeat basado en los datos estatales sobre la capacidad de las instalaciones.

Jason Argueta, de 15 años, estudiante de segundo año en East Side High School, siente el impacto. Sabe que su escuela está deteriorada, a pesar de que los directivos han intentado hacer arreglos como volver a pintar las paredes este año. Aun así, dijo: “Se pueden ver los pisos agrietándose, las paredes agrietándose”.

En el East Ward, escuelas como Wilson, East Side, Lafayette y Ann Street están significativamente sobrecargadas, según un análisis de Chalkbeat.

Los estudiantes también dicen que llegar a clase durante el día escolar puede ser complicado.

Los pasillos están tan congestionados en la East Side High School que Argueta dijo que necesita buscar rutas alternativas para llegar a clase a tiempo. “Encuentro atajos para ir a clase, pero luego [otros estudiantes] encuentran el mismo atajo y se vuelve a llenar de gente”, contó Argueta.

Las amigas Selena Inahuazo y Ariel Muñoz, ambas de segundo año en East Side High School, dijeron que las fuentes de agua rotas y las tuberías viejas cuestionables significan que tienen que traer sus propias botellas de agua.

“Yo no bebo agua allí. Trato de no hacerlo”, dijo Muñoz, de 16 años. “Sabe diferente”.

Las aulas también se enfrían en invierno, y algunos baños tienen agujeros en las paredes. Hace poco, Jailyn León, que cursa su tercer año en East Side High School, dijo que una cucaracha salió de uno de ellos.

Newark recurre a solucionar sus propios problemas mientras el financiamiento estatal se retrasa

En los últimos años, han llegado algunos fondos del estado a Newark.

En febrero, León dijo que el distrito está trabajando para actualizar “cada aula, cada oficina y cada escuela”, después de que la SDA otorgó a Newark $6.3 millones para reparaciones urgentes y trabajos anuales de mantenimiento en dos escuelas de secundaria. En los últimos cinco ejercicios fiscales, la SDA ha invertido $44 millones en reparaciones escolares en Newark. Pero eso es una gota en el cubo de lo que León estima son más de $2,000 millones necesarios para actualizar y reparar completamente los edificios escolares en la ciudad.

El SDA ha identificado 31 escuelas de Newark que necesitan ser reemplazadas, en comparación con los 13 edificios escolares envejecidos señalados en planes anteriores. Pero no hay un cronograma claro ni fondos disponibles para que esa labor comience pronto. La SDA ha recibido financiación a través de bonos, consignaciones directas y sobre una base de “pago por desembolso” de la legislatura estatal, sin planes a largo plazo para financiar la agencia.

Mientras tanto, el costo del mantenimiento y las reparaciones temporales sigue aumentando.

El mantenimiento anual en la East Side High School, construida en 1911, está presupuestado en $963,361 este año escolar, aproximadamente $45,000 más que el año pasado, según el plan de mantenimiento del distrito. Para la escuela Ann Street School, el mantenimiento fue presupuestado en $439,518, aproximadamente $20,000 más que el año anterior.

East Side High School es una de las dos escuelas secundarias en el East Ward de Newark. Originalmente construida en 1911, la escuela tiene poco más de 300,000 pies cuadrados.

Pero a medida que el financiamiento estatal se estanca, las escuelas del East Ward de Newark están quedando obsoletas, lo que ha llevado al distrito a tomar cartas en el asunto. Newark ha comenzado a abrir nuevas escuelas en edificios ya existentes, una solución que resuelve un problema, pero genera nuevos costos y desafíos.

El distrito recientemente anunció planes para abrir una nueva escuela primaria en el East Ward para aliviar la sobrepoblación. Pero los esfuerzos pasados para convertir las propiedades existentes en escuelas han bloqueado el distrito en contratos de arrendamiento a largo plazo, décadas de pagos y retrasos imprevistos en la construcción.

Es una práctica a la que ha recurrido el distrito porque no tiene la autoridad legal para construir nuevas escuelas en Newark. En 1998, la Corte Suprema del estado ordenó a Nueva Jersey a cubrir el 100% de los costos de construcción de las escuelas porque Newark y otros 30 distritos de alta pobreza carecen de la base impositiva para cubrir sus necesidades. Para asegurar oportunidades de aprendizaje equitativas para los estudiantes en esos distritos escolares, el estado dijo que asumiría los costos y supervisaría el proceso de construcción.

Casi 30 años después, distritos como Newark están atrapados pagando la factura de nuevas escuelas y las complicaciones.

Por ejemplo, el distrito abrió la primera escuela profesional del East Ward, la Newark School of Architecture and Interior Design, en el antiguo edificio del Hospital Saint James. Pero ese proyecto se completó con tres años de retraso en septiembre, después de que comenzaran las renovaciones en 2022. Costará al distrito más de $300 millones en 30 años bajo su contrato de arrendamiento con el propietario.

Una solución mejor, según el concejal del East Ward, Michael Silva: construir una nueva escuela secundaria.

“Necesitamos avanzar y empezar a construir más escuelas adecuadas para la cantidad de estudiantes que tenemos aquí, y ponernos al nivel de muchas de las escuelas que hay en otras ciudades del estado”, afirmó Silva.

Pero, sin planes a largo plazo para financiar la SDA y con unos $7,000 millones en proyectos de construcción en distritos muy pobres que todavía no se han financiado, los líderes estatales están buscando otras soluciones.

La líder de la mayoría del Senado, M. Teresa Ruiz, que representa a Newark, coincide en que existe una necesidad crítica de averiguar cómo construir nuevas escuelas. En febrero presentó un proyecto de ley que, si se aprueba, pondría una pregunta en la boleta electoral de noviembre para autorizar $10.5 mil millones en nuevos bonos estatales para proyectos de construcción escolar en distritos de todo el estado.

La última vez que el estado hizo un bono para financiar la construcción de escuelas fue durante el primer ciclo presupuestario de Ruiz, hace unos 18 años.

“Es un perjuicio para cada estudiante, familia, comunidad y distrito en el estado de Nueva Jersey”, dijo Ruiz durante la audiencia del Comité Judicial del Senado en febrero.

“Hemos añadido algunos fondos al presupuesto anualmente. No han sido lo suficientemente significativos”, agregó Ruiz.

Pero incluso si se aprueba la fianza, construir una nueva escuela en el East Ward es un reto.

El terreno en 371-395 Ferry St., en Newark, New Jersey, estaba previsto para una nueva East Side High School, pero los líderes de la SDA hace 20 años no cumplieron con los planes propuestos. El sitio ahora es Down Bottom Farms.

Hace veinte años, el SDA adquirió un terreno en la esquina de las calles Ferry y St. Charles como sede de una nueva escuela secundaria. La SDA en ese momento intentó combinar el sitio con otras propiedades para crear un área lo suficientemente grande como para construir sobre ella, pero las deficiencias de financiación impidieron a la agencia adquirir el terreno restante e incluir el proyecto en sus planes de capital, y tuvieron que abandonar la promesa de una nueva escuela secundaria en el East Ward durante décadas.

El precio del terreno para áreas como el East Ward de Newark será significativo, dijo Ruiz, un desafío que espera que la administración de Sherrill acepte.

La tierra en el East Ward también es escasa. Construir una nueva escuela requiere “casi toda una cuadra”, dijo Brendan Da Silva, un agente inmobiliario con sede en Newark. Las escuelas elementales como Hawkins Street y Lafayette tienen poco menos de 70,000 pies cuadrados, mientras que East Side High School tiene poco más de 300,000 pies cuadrados.

Ruiz y Da Silva sugirieron que la construcción de escuelas sobre edificios existentes podría ser una solución para el East Ward.

Esa podría ser la mejor solución, ya que solo la sección de Ironbound del East Ward contiene docenas de propiedades vacías que el estado ha etiquetado como con contaminación real o sospechosa, con otras más en otras áreas de Newark, dijo Da Silva.

La Ironbound Academy Elementary School abrió sus puertas en 2022. El edificio fue anteriormente la Ironbound Catholic Academy antes de que las escuelas públicas de Newark adquirieran el espacio a través de un contrato de arrendamiento.

Los residentes del East Ward quieren mejores condiciones en la zona

Mientras tanto, los miembros de la comunidad del East Ward se han frustrado. Dicen que los niños del vecindario ya están lidiando con problemas de salud fuera de la escuela debido al entorno industrial.

Francis Núñez, la directora de defensa y organización en la Ironbound Community Corporation, una madre y residente del East Ward, dijo que optó por enviar a su hija a una escuela del West Ward debido a la sobrecarga, el gran tamaño de las clases y las preocupaciones previas sobre la calidad del agua en el East Ward.

Núñez, quien se graduó de la Lafayette Street School en 2006, afirmó que ha visto nuevas urbanizaciones de lujo aparecer en su vecindario a pesar de que la comunidad sonó la alarma sobre la necesidad de reparar el terreno para nuevas escuelas.

“También siento que es casi un insulto a la comunidad saber que la mayoría de los edificios necesitan actualizaciones para poder funcionar según sea necesario, y nuestras escuelas primarias, en particular, están teniendo dificultades para hacerlo”, dijo Núñez.

Los problemas de calor extremo y calidad del agua en las escuelas también reflejan preocupaciones ambientales más amplias en el East Ward, señaló JV Valladolid, un organizador de justicia ambiental con Ironbound Community Corporation.

El transporte pesado, la contaminación industrial y la construcción en curso de nuevos proyectos de vivienda se manifiestan “no solo en asma, sino también en problemas de diabetes, problemas cardiovasculares, problemas de salud reproductiva, tasas de cáncer, dificultades de aprendizaje, ausentismo y malos olores en el vecindario”, dijo JV.

“Eso significa que no sales al recreo, cierras la ventana o te sientes mal en general”.

La comunidad está “luchando por satisfacer la necesidad básica de aire limpio, un espacio seguro para refrescarse y escuelas de calidad”, dijo JV.

Jailyn, la joven del East Side High School, es una de las residentes que lucha por eso.

Lafayette Street School fue construida en 1848, antes de la era de la Guerra Civil. Cuando abrió por primera vez, era conocida como la Fifth Ward Grammar School.

Como parte de la Youth Power Action Coalition, un grupo de defensa dirigido por estudiantes en Newark, Jailyn y sus compañeros están presionando al distrito para que otorgue a los adolescentes un papel más importante en la ayuda para mejorar las escuelas mediante el establecimiento de un grupo asesor estudiantil para realizar revisiones anuales de las condiciones de los edificios junto con el personal y crear un sistema donde los estudiantes puedan informar sobre preocupaciones relacionadas con las instalaciones.

En febrero, el distrito rechazó sus propuestas, pero Jailyn sigue motivando a los estudiantes a “usar su voz” para decir a los miembros de la junta escolar con lo que se enfrentan en la escuela.

Después de años de ver promesas no cumplidas, “a veces uno se siente excluido porque otras escuelas en el distrito son nuevas”, dijo Jailyn. “Pero ¿por qué hay edificios nuevos, y los que son realmente antiguos no se están renovando?”

Esta historia es parte de la NJ 2025 Reporting Fellowship, que colabora con 15 organizaciones de noticias locales y comunitarias, el Center for Cooperative Media en la Universidad Estatal de Montclair y NJ Spotlight News. Las historias de esta colaboración se centran en la inmigración, la educación, la salud, la economía y el medio ambiente, destacando las perspectivas de diversas comunidades en Nueva Jersey.

Esta traducción fue proporcionada por New Jersey Hispano en asociación con el Centro de Medios Cooperativos de la Universidad Estatal de Montclair, y cuenta con el apoyo financiero del Consorcio de Información Cívica de NJ. La historia fue escrita originalmente en inglés por Chalkbeat Newark y se vuelve a publicar en virtud de un acuerdo especial para compartir contenido a través del Servicio de noticias de traducción al español de NJ News Commons.

This translation was provided by New Jersey Hispano, in partnership with Montclair State University’s Center for Cooperative Media and is supported financially by the NJ Civic Information Consortium. The story was originally written in English by Chalkbeat Newark and is republished under a special content-sharing agreement through NJ News Commons’ Spanish Translation News Service.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie atjgomez@chalkbeat.org.

‘It’s enough already’: Newark lawmaker pushes back on GOP scrutiny

2026-04-16T13:25:57+00:00

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New Jersey’s fiercest budget debate this year is over education spending — and Newark is at the center of the conversation.

At a heated state Assembly budget hearing on Wednesday, Republican lawmakers’ questioning returned repeatedly to the state’s largest school district. Statewide, Republicans have taken issue with Newark’s spending on everything from an AI surveillance system to COVID relief funds for tutoring, and a controversial lease for a new elementary school.

GOP Assemblymember Gerry Scharfenberger, who represents Monmouth County, said at Wednesday’s hearing “we need way better accountability,” and audits that run through budgets with a “fine-toothed comb” for urban districts like Newark. Assemblymember Al Barlas, who represents parts of Bergen, Essex, and Passaic counties, said for the millions being spent in Newark, “we should all be offended by the fact that these kids are not graduating and are not reading” at grade level.

Republican lawmakers have targeted Newark and other urban school districts partially in response to state funding cuts that have hit suburban schools particularly hard.

But Assembly Budget Chair Eliana Pintor Marin, who represents Newark and served on the city’s Public Schools Advisory Board, said the focus on Newark is reductive and pits school districts against each other rather than aiming at the real issue — reforming a school funding formula that lawmakers agree isn’t working for everyone.

“I’m just tired of it,” Pintor Marin said Wednesday of the outsized attention paid to Newark schools by lawmakers who don’t represent the city. “It’s enough already.”

Pintor Marin said Newark is still recovering from the deep school funding cuts enacted under former Republican Gov. Chris Christie. The district has gone through state control, been federally audited for spending COVID relief funds, and has had a state monitor in place through the district’s transition back to local control.

In short, Pintor Marin said, Republicans’ calls for more state and federal oversight of Newark schools are “ridiculous.”

She noted the way the state funds education is tied directly to the number of students enrolled in each district and the cost to educate them. Newark’s enrollment is up, she said, and it educates a greater population of English learners and those with disabilities so state funding should increase accordingly.

Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s proposed budget includes two new state Department of Education positions specifically for oversight and accountability of school districts, state Education Commissioner Lily Laux said at the hearing.

Assemblymember Alexander “Avi” Schnall, who represents parts of Monmouth and Ocean counties, pointed to the Lakewood School District’s multiple state monitors as evidence that increased state oversight does not equate to improvement.

Over the last 12 years, Schnall said Lakewood has had 11 state-appointed monitors, with four currently stationed in the district.

Those monitors “have not made much of a difference,” he said. “If anything the fiscal deficit has grown by a lot.”

Carly Sitrin is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Philadelphia. Contact Carly at csitrin@chalkbeat.org.

Newark gave 16-and 17-year-olds the right to vote two years ago. They are still learning their power.

2026-04-15T21:45:00+00:00

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Judah Ancion, a 16-year-old junior at Essex County’s Donald M. Payne School of Technology, found out he could vote in Newark’s school board election from a teacher’s offhand comment last month — only a few weeks before the April 21 election.

Over the weekend, Denisha Kotey, a 19-year-old freshman at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, just learned that there’s even a school board election happening in her city.

Their realizations come two years after Newark’s 16- and 17-year-olds got the right to vote in school board elections, becoming the first city in the state to do so. That historic move prompted former Gov. Phil Murphy, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, an award-winning rapper, and other elected officials to rally students at the city’s School of Data Science and Information Technology to pitch youth voting as a model for the rest of the state.

But even with the push, only 73 teens voted in their first school board election last April, in a city where nearly 7,300 teens are eligible to vote and overall turnout already hovers around 3% to 4% every year.

This year, that momentum has faded even more, overshadowed by the city’s May municipal race and Newark school funding debates. But for the second year in a row, student organizers and other advocates are pushing to turn new voting rights into real participation and prove that student votes can shape decisions in Newark schools.

Assatta Mann, community organizing manager for the New Jersey Institute of Social Justice, said building the youth vote in Newark will take time. She called it “a muscle that needs to grow” while pointing to the barriers keeping students from the polls, including limited access to voting sites and a lack of understanding about the school board’s role.

“Many of the young people who are registered and who do know about the election want to take advantage of this right to vote. But their polling locations are not at their schools, where they’re spending a lot of their time at,” Mann said. “There’s also no in-person early voting, for example, so it’s not even like, young people could then go and use the weekend to vote.”

Both Ancion and Kotey said they only began to understand the role of the Newark Board of Education at Saturday’s Youth Power Action Summit, which brought together more than 50 students for a day-long event organized by a student coalition to boost awareness of teen voting rights and civic participation. The group convened by The Gem Project, a nonprofit organization focused on strengthening youth civic engagement, has spent months alongside teens canvassing, hosting virtual civic education workshops, holding voter registration competitions, and informing 16- and 17-year-olds about their right to vote.

Students who attended the Youth Power Action Summit on April 11, 2026 also heard from Newark school board candidates during a youth-led discussion. From left to right: Amanda Ebokosia, founder of The Gem Project, school board candidates John Farrell, Lisa Gray, Quamid Childs, Jordy Nivar, and Mark Comesañas.

They are one of the few groups working to get students to the polls for the April school board election.

“Oh my gosh, there’s so many things going on. [The city] is finally letting students vote for stuff, they’re the majority, and they’re finally letting this happen,” Kotey said. “But people are not as involved as they should be.”

For students like Ancion and Kotey, that gap is playing out in real time. Newark’s nine-member school board makes decisions that affect more than 41,000 students on issues from curriculums to funding priorities. Teens with the Youth Power Action Coalition have urged board members to work with them and have proposed increasing student oversight over policies around mental health and school facilities. But their proposals were rejected by the city school board.

While Newark expanded voting rights to give teens a voice in those decisions, low turnout has so far limited how much weight that voice carries.

Kanyinsola Oreoluwa Owolabi, a 16-year-old junior at Science Park High School, said she attended Saturday’s Youth Power Action Summit to encourage her peers to vote, even though she can’t vote herself because of her citizenship status.

“Even if you believe that it won’t be impactful, for me, it’s more like getting a view of whom you’re letting run your society,” Oreoluwa Owolabi said.

That message resonated with Collins Esubonteng, also a 16-year-old junior at Science Park High School. He said the summit made him feel included in civic discussion around the upcoming school board race, and it was something he had never experienced in school before.

“It was a lot of fun, but for the most part, it was very informative. We’re all learning. We all learned about the system,” Esubonteng said, “I feel like there was just a lot for us here today. We’re going to see a lot of people voting.”

The Youth Power Action Summit held on April 11, 2026 brought together more than 50 students for a day-long event organized by a student coalition to boost awareness of teen voting rights and hear from Newark school board candidates.

The Youth Coalition is also working to give young people ages 16-24 free rides to polling places. The challenge remains in reaching those young voters.

Ancion, the junior at Essex County’s Payne Tech, wasn’t able to register to vote in time before the March 31 deadline. But after leaving the summit on Saturday, he feels inspired to lead his own voting initiative next year and bring change.

“So it’s just understanding how it all works and just gaining that basic expertise so I can apply everything I learned outside of here,” Ancion said.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Newark will elect a new school board in less than 2 weeks. Here’s what parents, students, and others want.

2026-04-13T18:00:00+00:00

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Newark voters head to the polls on April 21 to elect four members to the city’s Board of Education, which makes key decisions for New Jersey’s largest school district.

But what does the community want those new board members to prioritize once they take their seats?

At a debate last month, the nine candidates vying for four seats pledged to tackle several issues, including fixing aging school buildings; expanding student mental health resources; improving transparency; and including parents, teachers, and students in district decisions.

This year’s school board race is the second time the city’s 16- and 17-year-olds will cast their vote in the election. Last year, only 73 teens voted in the April election despite targeted efforts to get the city’s more than 7,000 eligible youth voters to the polls.

Chalkbeat asked parents, students, teachers, and advocates the same question: What should the new board focus on first?

Their answers touch on some of the most pressing challenges for the district, which serves more than 41,000 students across 65 schools and will run on a $1.6 billion budget next school year. Nearly six years after regaining local control of schools, community members say they still want more input in decisions that shape education in Newark.

Here’s what members of the city’s education community told Chalkbeat what they want to see from the incoming school board members. They have been edited for length and clarity.

Emmanuel Adeola is also a member of the Youth Power Action Coalition in Newark.

Emmanuel Adeola

Junior at Bard High School Early College

Get student feedback

“Students are the school district’s consumers. It makes sense to want to get student feedback because it’s just requiring that you listen to our concerns. And also, there has to be a better way to talk to students. I know sometimes students may not want to listen to adults, but a lot of us can vote now, so how can board members help us understand what’s happening and also listen to us?”

John Abeigon was first elected as president of the Newark Teachers Union in 2015.

John Abeigon

President of the Newark Teachers Union

Boost teacher collaboration with principals and district leaders

“What I would be hoping to get from whoever the new elected board members are, is that we continue to work towards strengthening the collaboration that we’re already creating between teachers and the public school district. We want teachers to be the ones creating the instruction happening in classrooms. Unified instruction, unified learning, unified teaching.”

Alexander Schuetz

Alexander Schuetz is the Chair of the Newark Education Workers Caucus.

Chair of the Newark Education Workers Caucus

More investment in student needs

“We’re an enormous district with a really wide variety of needs. We are really leaning in both words and in cash into the top performing students. We are building these hyper-specialized high schools. We are building evermore, it seems, gifted and talented approaches and internship opportunities, which I don’t have any problem with, of course. But I do not see that same energy being put into our students with the most needs.”

“Our students whether they have a disability or not, or come from another country, so many of our students are just on the back foot from the start, based on the resources they have access to. I would like to see a board that can sort of pause in this victory lap of expansion and take a look at the larger masses of students who feel like they’re being left behind.”

Deborah Smith Gregory urged Newark residents to vote in the upcoming city elections during the 2026 NAACP Newark school board candidate forum.

Debra Smith-Gregory

President of the NAACP Newark

Holding the superintendent accountable

“I want the incoming school board members to work with the current board members to ensure that the best interests of students are put first and that means holding the superintendent accountable for his decisions. I think a prime example is their intent to spend nearly $500 million leasing a building for young people in the East Ward, a building the district will not own until after 30-years. Board members should be asking questions about that.”

Inés Aguilera's daughter is a student at Hawkins Street School located in the East Ward of Newark, New Jersey.

Inés Aguilera

East Ward mom of a third grader at Hawkins Street Elementary School (translated from Spanish)

Fix school lunches

“My daughter tells me she doesn’t have enough time to eat her lunch. Sometimes she brings home the entire lunch I packed for her, or sometimes with only a bite into her sandwich. I also think that the quality of school food isn’t good and the fruits are not good, that’s why I pack my daughter’s lunch every day. And it’s also important to make sure that younger students, especially those whose teeth may be growing in, have their fruits cut up for them. Many of them can’t bite into those hard apples.”

Ade’Kamil Kelly

Ade’Kamil Kelly ran under the "Prioritizing Newark's Children" slate in the 2025 Newark school board election.

Two-time Newark school board candidate

Transparency and fiscal responsibility

“I really would like the board to focus on fiscal responsibility, especially because we’re looking at a budget that just got approved that cuts 30 teachers. Can we tighten up our fiscal responsibility, because all eyes are literally on Newark right now? And I really hate that we constantly have to have the same conversation year after year about the same fundamental things. Even when you look at how the new, proposed Riverfront Elementary School for the East Ward went before everybody, it wasn’t a transparent process that everyone can feel good about. So it’s just a lot of continuous missed opportunities for the school board to just say things clearly to the public.”

Rafael Chavez works with Spanish speaking parents in Newark.

Rafael Chavez

Organizer for New Labor, a Newark-based immigrant rights group

Translation services during Board of Education meetings

“The biggest issue is the lack of translation at board meetings. That’s why some of the parents, actually, maybe most of the parents who don’t speak English don’t really go to those meetings because they don’t understand them. They don’t have a translation there. They throw ridiculous barriers at us, and Spanish-speaking families can’t participate.”

Chesha Hodge

Chesha Hodge leads the Coalition for Healthy Food in Newark Schools, a Greater Newark Conservancy Initiative.

Director, Coalition for Healthy Food in Newark Schools, a Greater Newark Conservancy Initiative

More student involvement in school food decisions

“Students are starting to understand and learn that their voice matters, especially here in Newark, where 16- and 17-year-olds now get to vote in the school board elections. We want to make a way for students to not just have these really basic food conversations, but we also want them to be included in these higher-level conversations that are taking place on the local and state level. Let’s just tap into the power that is our youth right now.”

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

New Jersey Republicans demand federal and state reviews of ‘fiscal failures’ in Newark Public Schools

2026-04-08T10:00:01+00:00

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Six years after New Jersey handed control of Newark Public Schools back to the community, a group of 20 Republican lawmakers is pressing federal and state officials for more oversight of how the district handles money.

The state’s largest school district is under scrutiny after it announced plans last month to enter into a $498 million, 30-year lease agreement to open a new elementary school in the city’s East Ward, Newark’s most densely populated neighborhood, where more than half of schools are overcrowded, according to a Chalkbeat analysis.

But the Republicans — none of whom represent Newark — are raising questions about the proposal, as well as what they allege is Newark’s mismanagement of federal pandemic relief funds.

In an April 2 letter to the state education department, comptroller, and local finance board, Republicans slammed the district for what they claim are “epic fiscal failures and taxpayer waste” and urged officials to reject the district’s proposed lease and ensure the district “stop wasting taxpayer dollars.” District officials have said the proposed lease would help add seats in the East Ward, as the state lacks funding to move forward on new school projects already identified in Newark.

In a separate letter to the U.S. Department of Education on March 31, a state senator and two Assembly members asked Secretary Linda McMahon to conduct an “immediate federal review” into how the district spent $287 million in pandemic relief.

In a statement to Chalkbeat on Tuesday, Ellen Keast, a spokesperson for the U.S Department of Education, said the federal department is taking the legislators’ concerns seriously.

“Misuse of taxpayer funds became widespread under the previous administration, which is why addressing it is a top priority,” Keast said.

Paul Brubaker, Newark Public Schools’ communications director, did not respond to a request for comment.

Michael Yaple, spokesperson for the New Jersey Department of Education, said the department received the letter from lawmakers and is reviewing Newark’s lease proposal. Yaple could not say when the state education department would decide on the proposal.

The Republicans’ calls echo recent efforts across the country to bring back state takeovers of school districts, a practice New Jersey has long used in cases of fiscal mismanagement or academic failures. Critics have said the practice frequently targets districts with large shares of students of color.

But Republicans are now raising the same issues cited when the state originally seized control of the district in 1995: mismanagement, lavish spending, and poor student outcomes.

GOP Assemblywoman Dawn Fantasia, who represents parts of Morris, Sussex, and Warren counties west of Newark, recently cosponsored a bill that would appoint state monitors to school districts that receive 70% or more of aid from the state. Typically, more than 80% of Newark’s funding support comes from state aid.

“Newark has pockets of excellence. I don’t doubt that at all, and they should be very proud of some of the gains that they have made,” said Fantasia, who signed both letters and has alleged on Fox News and social media that Newark has mismanaged money. “That does not excuse egregious, ridiculous spending and behavior on nonsense for adults.”

The scrutiny comes as Superintendent Roger León tries to consolidate the gains Newark has made since the state officially ended its 25-year takeover of the district in 2020. At that time, León said he was worried about the school system’s recovery, not from the pandemic, but from the state’s control.

During a Fox News show last week, León was asked to respond to Fantasia’s concerns about Newark’s spending not resulting in better student outcomes. He said he had “absolutely no idea” what Fantasia was talking about. Instead, León touted the district’s 90% graduation rate and its 10.4% chronic absenteeism rate.

Under León, the district has also opened ten new schools and increased its enrollment. That trend has been fueled in part by a surge in English language learners and students with disabilities who require more money to educate.

For the next school year, the district said its costs are rising and closed a $122.9 million budget gap by reallocating funds, drawing from its budgeted fund balance, and cutting 30 teaching positions.

The district in March approved a $1.67 billion budget for next school year and expects to receive a record $1.38 billion in state aid.

“I don’t think we have a money problem in these large districts,” Fantasia said. “It’s how those dollars are allocated, what the deliverables are, and what student outcomes are.”

Democratic Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s office referred questions about Newark’s lease proposal and investigation into its finances to the state education department. Her proposed fiscal 2027 budget would add funding for new roles there to help districts facing budget deficits.

Newark, the state’s biggest school district, receives the largest share of state aid, which the School Funding Reform Act distributes to districts based on student population, property valuations, and the income of residents, according to Danielle Farrie, research director for the Education Law Center.

Proposed school lease provokes New Jersey Republicans’ anger

At the center of the Republican complaints is the lease proposal for the new site of the Riverfront Elementary School in Newark’s East Ward. Students in the neighborhood learn in school buildings that are on average a century old. But the Schools Development Authority –– the state agency that builds new schools for Newark and 30 other high-poverty districts –– has rebuilt only two new school buildings since 2006, and nine total for the district overall.

Hawkins Street School is located in the East Ward of Newark, New Jersey and was originally built in 1887.

The Republican letter to the state notes that the Riverfront School deal is more than the roughly $284 million cost of Perth Amboy High School, the most expensive school built by the SDA in New Jersey. The district already holds a lease worth over $300 million for the Newark School of Architecture and Interior Design, also in the East Ward.

The links between Mayor Ras Baraka and the proposed Riverfront School’s developer, 56 Freeman Street LLC, have also increased scrutiny of the district.

District officials have defended the lease deal by pointing out delays in projects run by the SDA, which estimates it needs $7 billion to fund construction projects in the 31 high poverty districts alone. Republican lawmakers counter that by saying the nine new schools built for Newark since 2006 are “nearly one every other year.”

The Republican letter also cites a 2024 state audit that required the public school system to return $33,650 in state aid that officials spent on an outdoor party for central office staff and their families. The district has not told Chalkbeat if it returned the money. The state’s education department investigation determined that the spending violated laws on how school boards can spend taxpayer dollars since the event lacked educational or professional development value.

Nearly 70% of students in grades 3-9 fell short of literacy standards on state tests in 2025, and roughly 80% did not meet math standards. The district has improved scores by about two percentage points every year since 2022, and because of the improvements, the state designated Newark as a high-performing district this school year. But Republican lawmakers argue Newark’s spending is still out of sync with its academic results.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

State of the City: Mayor Ras Baraka celebrated Newark’s progress on education but challenges remain

2026-04-01T20:41:37+00:00

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Newark is not the same city it was a decade ago.

Mayor Ras Baraka made that clear during his 12th State of the City address Tuesday, a presentation of Newark’s beauty “in the face of so much ugly.”

On education, Baraka pointed to a number of successes. Last school year, the district’s graduation rate went up to a record-high 90%, chronic absenteeism decreased to 10.4% — achievements that earned the district a top recognition for student attendance and school climate from the Council of Great City Schools — new pipeline programs for high school students are on the way, and hundreds of prekindergarten and middle school seats have been added in light of rising enrollment in those grades.

On top of that, Michael B. Jordan, a graduate of Newark Public Schools, won the Oscar for Best Actor this year, a moment of pride for the city, Baraka said.

“Our city is not perfect, but we are at a damn better place than we were a decade ago,” he said during Tuesday’s address in front of city and state leaders at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center.

Baraka, a former Newark Public Schools teacher and principal, emphasized public school successes in his speech, which were celebrated with loud applause and cheers from the crowd.

Superintendent Roger León, who sat in the front row during Tuesday’s address, inherited a school system in 2018 that barely graduated half of its high school students and had just spent two decades under the state’s control. Many of the gains Baraka shared have been meaningful.

But other metrics, ones Baraka didn’t share, show that many students are still struggling.

Last spring, only 34% of students in grades 3-9 passed the state’s English Language Arts test, while 21% passed the math portion. Those numbers lag behind statewide averages.

But that tension between celebrating how far the district has come and the urgency to move the work forward isn’t lost on those hoping to shape Newark Public Schools’ next chapter. Mark Comesañas, a 2026 school board candidate on the Baraka-endorsed ‘Moving Newark Schools Forward’ slate, said the gains are worth celebrating while also looking ahead. “We need to celebrate, and we should celebrate, but also, how do we stay hungry to do more?”

Comesañas also said he was interested in learning if “there are any groups of young people for which this progress isn’t reaching,” and if so, what specific supports are in place for those students.

Lisa Gray, also a 2026 school board candidate who’s running independently, raised questions about the validity of the data being reported to the public.

“I wonder what processes are in place to ensure the integrity of the data, and how we know that the data being reported is accurate. The school board is supposed to be responsible for that,” said Gray, a former two-decade district employee.

She also said the metrics Baraka shared on Tuesday fail to show the need for more parent, student, and teacher engagement in school district decisions.

“I think we need to involve them more and take them seriously,” Gray added.

That’s something students, parents, and advocates have repeatedly voiced concerns about after demanding more transparency from the district and a better seat at the table.

Baraka acknowledged Tuesday that more needs to be done across the city, even as schools have improved. He said that returning public schools to local control restored community ownership and stability.

And he and other city leaders have started the work to get Newark students reading more, with a goal to expand programs across the city.

In 2023, Baraka launched a 10-point action plan to help foster reading opportunities for city children and boost literacy rates. And last month, Newark hosted a literacy symposium where community members and city partners gathered to talk about building more literacy programs across the area.

“There’s a lot of work to do, but collectively we can get it done,” Baraka said.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Too hot, poor ventilation, overlooked: Newark’s East Ward students are learning in decades-old buildings

2026-03-31T10:00:01+00:00

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Gabrielly Ferreira remembers what it was like to spend kindergarten through eighth grade at Ann Street School in Newark’s East Ward, a building dating back to 1892. The floors were sinking, the paint was peeling off the walls, and sharing a small fan with her classmates during the hotter months distracted her from learning.

Then, in ninth grade, Ferreira went to Science Park High School in the Central Ward and saw a well-maintained school for the first time.

“It was much nicer. It was much cleaner. I guess it was much more open. I felt like even the hallways felt bigger,” said Ferreira, now 16 and a junior.

“It’s a really big change to go from a building like Ann Street to Science Park.”

Ann Street School is a K-8 school located in Newark, New Jersey. The original structure was built in 1892, and is 134 years old.

Ferreira’s experience is not uncommon in the East Ward, where school buildings are, on average, more than a century old and in need of repair. Some are too hot in the summer, too cold in the winter, with poor ventilation, broken water fountains, and peeling paint.

Newark isn’t alone: Philadelphia, Chicago, Memphis, and many other urban districts are also grappling with crumbling schools. What’s different about New Jersey is that the state is legally responsible for building and delivering new schools to 31 high-poverty districts, including Newark.

Parents, students, teachers, and advocates have pushed for new schools for years. When Superintendent Roger León took control in 2018, he promised to fix them and open new ones.

But the problems persist. And nowhere are the issues more apparent than in Newark’s East Ward, the city’s most densely populated area, where more than half of schools are also overcrowded, according to a Chalkbeat analysis.

While other parts of Newark have received new schools in recent years, a confluence of factors on the state, local, and neighborhood levels have slowed change in the East Ward. The state’s Schools Development Authority, the agency responsible for funding and constructing schools known as the SDA, has a multibillion dollar backlog of new school projects. The East Ward also lacks open space and has a history of heavy industry that makes large patches of the area unsuitable for new schools.

There is at least one school coming to the East Ward soon, according to the district, and small-scale renovation projects are ongoing. But the funding gaps and the complexity of new construction mean many of Newark’s most vulnerable students will be stuck in aging, crowded schools for the foreseeable future.

Paul Brubaker, the district’s communications director, did not respond to questions about the district’s efforts to fix the East Ward’s old schools and the needs that remain.

Hawkins Street School serves K-8 students and was built in 1887. The school neighbors the industrial section of the East Ward.

While Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s proposed budget does not add new money to the SDA, Maggie Garbarino, Sherrill’s deputy press secretary, said her administration will follow an existing funding schedule established in 2023 that will add $350 million for school construction projects that have already been started and an additional $50 million for emergency repairs in high-poverty districts this budget cycle.

For advocates like Nikki Baker who’ve spent years pressing state leaders for more money for new schools, the frustration runs deep. An organizer with the Healthy Schools Now coalition, Baker says the cycles of “delayed and deferred” funding have left districts like Newark behind.

Research has shown that poor building conditions and other environmental factors can hurt student attendance and academic performance.

“A clean, healthy environment; to be able to breathe easy, to have a nice new school, access to clean drinking water, the feeling of that,” Baker said, “that does everything for students’ mental and physical health.”

Newark’s East Ward students must cope with old schools

The East Ward, which encompasses parts of Newark’s Ironbound, is home to thousands of Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking immigrant families. It’s an industrial part of the city, and in the southern part of the East Ward, young people are the most at risk of disconnecting from school.

Emma Villa, a sophomore at East Side High School, said warmer days are brutal inside the school due to no air conditioning. On hot days, most teachers open the windows to let fresh air in, while others have fans.

“In the summer, it’s so hot, you just see sweat on everybody’s faces, it’s just disgusting. It’s like a sauna in there,” Villa, 15, said.

Oliver Street School was rebuilt by the Schools Development Authority in 2016 and is one of two East Ward schools rebuilt within the last 10 years.

The East Ward is home to eight elementary schools and two high schools, with some dating as far back as 1848 — before the Civil War. The SDA has rebuilt two elementary schools in the ward: Oliver Street School in 2016, the first building rebuilt in the East Ward in over 100 years, and South Street School in 2018.

Seven others have not been rebuilt. Those untouched buildings are 139 years old on average, according to a Chalkbeat analysis, and the aging facilities are driving up maintenance costs.

The entire city school district is also over capacity by more than 2,000 students, according to a state report. In the East Ward, schools like Wilson Avenue, East Side, Lafayette Street, and Ann Street are significantly overutilized, with some enrolling approximately double the number of students as their buildings were designed for, according to a Chalkbeat analysis of state building capacity data.

East Side sophomore Jason Argueta, 15, feels the impact. He knows his school is run-down, despite school leaders trying to fix things like repainting the walls this year. Still, he said, “You can see the floors cracking, the walls cracking.”

In the East Ward, schools like Wilson, East Side, Lafayette, and Ann Street are significantly overutilized, according to a Chalkbeat analysis.

Students also say getting to class during the school day can be tricky.

The hallways are so congested at East Side that Argueta said he needs to find alternate routes to get to class on time. “I find shortcuts to class, but then [other students] find the same shortcut and it gets crowded again,” Argueta said.

Friends Selena Inahuazo and Ariel Muñoz, both sophomores at East Side, said broken water fountains and questionable old pipes mean they have to bring their own water bottles.

“I don’t drink water there. I try not to,” said Muñoz, 16. “It just tastes different.”

Classrooms also get cold in the winter, and some bathrooms have holes along the walls. Recently, East Side junior Jailyn Leon said, a cockroach crawled out of one of them.

Newark resorts to fixing its own problems as state funding lags

Some money has trickled into Newark from the state in recent years.

In February, León said the district is working to update “every classroom, every office, and every school” after the SDA gave Newark $6.3 million for urgent repairs and annual maintenance work at two high schools. Over the last five fiscal years, the SDA has invested $44 million in Newark school repairs. But that’s a drop in the bucket of what León estimates is a more than $2 billion need to fully update and repair school buildings in the city.

The SDA has identified 31 Newark schools that need to be replaced, up from the 13 aging school buildings flagged in previous plans. But there is no clear timeline or funds available for that work to start soon. The SDA has received funding through bonds, direct appropriations, and on a “pay-as-you-go” basis from the state legislature, with no long-term plans to fund the agency.

In the meantime, the cost for maintenance and temporary fixes keeps rising.

Yearly upkeep at East Side, built in 1911, is budgeted at $963,361 this school year, roughly $45,000 more than last year, according to the district’s maintenance plan. For Ann Street School, maintenance was budgeted at $439,518, roughly $20,000 more than the previous year.

East Side is one of two high schools in Newark's East Ward. Originally built in 1911, the school is just over 300,000 square feet.

But as state funding stalls, Newark’s East Ward schools are getting older, prompting the district to take matters into its own hands. Newark has started to open new schools in existing buildings, a solution that solves one problem but raises new costs and challenges.

The district recently announced plans to open a new elementary school in the East Ward to ease overcrowding. But past efforts to convert existing properties into schools have locked the district into long-term lease agreements, decades of payments, and unforeseen construction delays.

That’s a pattern the district has resorted to because it doesn’t have the legal authority to build new schools in Newark. The state Supreme Court in 1998 ordered New Jersey to cover 100% of school construction costs because Newark and 30 other high-poverty districts lack the tax base to cover their needs. To assure equitable learning opportunities for students in those school districts, the state said it would take on the costs and oversee the construction process.

Nearly 30 years later, districts like Newark are stuck footing the bill for new schools and the complications.

For example, the district opened the East Ward’s first trade school, the Newark School of Architecture and Interior Design, in the old Saint James Hospital building. But that project was completed three years behind schedule in September after renovations began in 2022. It will cost the district more than $300 million over 30 years under its lease agreement with the property owner.

A better solution, according to East Ward Councilman Michael Silva: Build a new high school.

“We need to move forward and start building more schools adequate for the amount of students that we have here, and bringing us up to par with a lot of the schools that are in other cities throughout the state,“ Silva said.

But with no long-term plans to fund the SDA, and an estimated $7 billion in construction projects in high-poverty districts that have yet to be funded, state leaders are scrambling for other solutions.

Senate Majority Leader M. Teresa Ruiz, who represents Newark, agrees that there is a critical need to figure out how to build new schools. She introduced a bill in February that, if approved, would place a question on the November ballot to authorize $10.5 billion in new state bonds for school construction projects in districts across the state.

The last time the state went to bond for school construction funding was during Ruiz’s first budget cycle, roughly 18 years ago.

“That is a disservice to every single student, family, and community and district in the state of New Jersey,” said Ruiz during February’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.

“We’ve added some funding to the budget on an annual basis. It hasn’t been significant enough,” Ruiz added.

But even if the bond is approved, building a new school in the East Ward is challenging.

The lot at 371-395 Ferry St., in Newark, New Jersey, was slated for a new East Side High School but the Schools Development Authority leaders 20 years ago did not deliver on the proposed plans. The site is now Down Bottom Farms.

Twenty years ago, the SDA acquired a plot of land on the corner of Ferry and St. Charles streets as the site for a new high school. The SDA at the time tried to combine the site with other properties to create a large enough area to build on, but funding shortfalls prevented the agency from acquiring the remaining land and including the project in its capital plans, leaving the promise for a new high school in the East Ward unfilled for decades

The price tag on land for areas like Newark’s East Ward will be significant, Ruiz said, a challenge she hopes Sherrill’s administration will take on.

Land in the East Ward is also scarce. Building a new school requires “almost an entire block,” said Brendan Da Silva, a Newark-based real estate agent. Elementary schools like Hawkins Street and Lafayette are just under 70,000 square feet, while East Side is just over 300,000 square feet.

Ruiz and Da Silva suggested building schools on top of existing buildings could be a solution for the East Ward.

That might be the best solution as the Ironbound section of the East Ward alone contains dozens of vacant properties the state has labeled as having actual or suspected contamination, with more scattered across Newark, Da Silva said.

The Ironbound Academy Elementary School opened in 2022. The building was formerly the Ironbound Catholic Academy before Newark Public Schools acquired the space through a lease agreement.

East Ward residents want better conditions in the area

In the meantime, East Ward community members have grown frustrated. They say neighborhood kids are already dealing with health issues outside of school because of the industrial environment.

Francis Nuñez, the director of advocacy and organizing at the Ironbound Community Corporation, a parent and East Ward resident, said she chose to send her daughter to a West Ward school instead because of overcrowding, large class sizes, and previous water quality concerns in the East Ward.

Nuñez, who graduated from Lafayette Street School in 2006, said she has seen new luxury housing developments pop up in her neighborhood despite the community sounding the alarm on the need to remediate land for new schools.

“I also feel like it’s a little bit of an insult to the community to know that most buildings need updates in order to be able to function as needed, and our elementary schools, especially, are struggling to do that,” said Nunez.

Extreme heat and water quality issues in schools also reflect broader environmental concerns in the East Ward, said JV Valladolid, an environmental justice organizer with Ironbound Community Corporation.

Heavy trucking, industrial pollution, and ongoing construction on new housing projects manifest in “not just asthma, but diabetes, cardiovascular issues, reproductive health issues, cancer rates, learning disabilities, absenteeism, and bad smells in the neighborhood,” said JV.

“That means that you don’t go outside for recess, you close your window, or you feel unwell generally.”

The community is “struggling to fight for the very basic necessity of clean air, a safe space to cool down, and quality schools,” JV said.

Jailyn, the junior at East Side, is one of the residents fighting for that.

Lafayette Street School was built in 1848 – before the Civil War era. When it first opened, it was known as the Fifth Ward Grammar School.

As part of the Youth Power Action Coalition, a student-led advocacy group in Newark, Jailyn and her peers are pushing the district to give teens a bigger role in helping to improve schools by establishing a student advisory group to conduct annual building condition reviews along with staff and creating a system where students can report facility concerns.

In February, the district rejected their proposals, but Jailyn still encourages students to “use their voice” to tell school board members what they deal with in school.

After years of watching promises go unfulfilled, “sometimes you feel left out because other schools in the district are brand new,” Jailyn said. “But why is it they’re brand new, and just like the old, oldest buildings are not being renewed?”

This story is part of the NJ 2025 Reporting Fellowship, which collaborates with 15 local and community news organizations, the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University, and NJ Spotlight News. The stories in this collaboration focus on immigration, education, healthcare, the economy, and the environment, highlighting the perspectives of diverse communities in New Jersey.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Newark school board approves $1.67 billion budget as costs for charters, facility needs, and programs grow

2026-03-27T20:35:12+00:00

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Newark Public Schools will spend $1.67 billion next year after the school board approved a budget Thursday that tops last year’s by $100 million.

This year’s budget adds more money to academic programs such as tutoring programs, art and music teachers in every school, new math workbooks, and an elementary school basketball league. It also budgets for more facilities spending to maintain old school buildings and renovate former schools shuttered under state control.

The spending plan is expansive and is supported by record high state funding, which makes up the bulk of the budget. But those added costs come at a price: homeowner taxes will go up, as the district plans to cut 30 teaching positions, six administrative roles, and nine school support staff positions but will keep over 3,000 teaching positions for the upcoming school year and add new teacher aides.

And while districts across the country are struggling with declining enrollment and school closures, Superintendent Roger León said at Thursday’s board meeting that interest in Newark schools is growing across all wards. He said the district does not anticipate closing schools “in this decade or the next.”

Newark grapples with rising costs, supported by record high state aid

School funding, including academic programs, technology, and salary increases, remains the district’s largest expenditure, followed by charter school payments, which grew by $5 million for the upcoming school year.

School Business Administrator José Fuentes, who presented the budget, said anticipated costs next school year grew to $122.9 million, a gap the district was able to close by reallocating funds and drawing from its budgeted fund balance – money set aside that carries over into the next budget cycle.

Contributions to schools were the biggest spending increase in next year’s budget, which includes more money for teacher salaries and benefits under the Newark Teachers Union contract and funding for growing schools. More money is also being provided to schools that are adding a grade level next school year.

Those costs are followed by rising charter school payments, building renovations, school construction costs, and facilities maintenance work, including lease increases and environmental remediation.

Newark taxpayers will feel the district’s growing costs in their pocketbooks.

The 2026-27 budget also includes a $39.94 tax increase for the average homeowner, bringing yearly tax contributions to $2,172.03.

District cuts to school roles next year will bring teaching position totals to 3,285, administrative positions to 390, and school support staff to 797, per the district’s presentation on Thursday. The district will also add 11 new aides, for a total of 382 aides next school year.

More state funding for Newark as district looks to expand schools

State aid for the upcoming school year bumped up to a record-high $1.38 billion contribution, a slight increase from this school year’s $1.32 billion per Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s budget proposal. State funding makes up 82.7% of the district’s overall budget, while the local tax levy makes up 8.8% of the budget next school year. The budget also includes an excess fund balance of 7.6%, which is available to cover expenses next school year, according to the budget presentation.

The upcoming spending plan ensures student support, academics, and programs remain, while adding more clubs, more athletics programs, and more trips for students, León said. He added that programs like after-school tutoring and Saturday School will continue, along with music and art teachers across every school.

León also said the district is adding more for school technology and teacher coaches to support English language arts and math programming, and setting aside funding for students “who actually need technology at home.”

District leaders are also budgeting for more academic programming and plan to spend an extra $5.6 million for K-5 math workbooks, an elementary basketball league, technology in classrooms, staff professional development, and the new Media High School, set to open at Bard High School Early College, with freshmen only starting in September, per the budget presentation.

Demand for more schools grows as families move to Newark

León said the main challenge next school year will be to ensure there are seats for every student who applies to the district. The number of eighth graders who have requested a seat for ninth grade next school year is the largest the district has ever received, said León on Thursday.

He added that the demand to add more seats in schools is “spreading like wildfire” across wards, including in the Ironbound section of Newark’s East Ward. District leaders have previously said that the city’s East Ward schools are more than 100 years old and overcrowded.

“We are projecting that with families that will be moving into the city, there will be a need for more schools than the ones we actually have,” León said.

To keep up with demand, district leaders are planning to open new schools over the next five years.

This week, the district presented its proposal to open the new Riverfront Elementary School through a $498 million lease and the new Media High School, which will take over the former Dayton Street School building in 2027 after renovations are completed, Leon said.

The upcoming school year’s budget plan includes $27.5 million more for renovations at Dayton Street, which closed in 2012 under state control of the district, school bathroom renovations, and other construction projects across the district. Fuentes, during Thursday’s hearing, also said an extra $12.1 million was budgeted for rising costs for maintenance work at schools, lease increases, and environmental remediations.

Charter school payments are rising as enrollment increases

Payments to charters are rising by $5 million, totaling $421 million this upcoming school year, one of the district’s largest financial pressures, Fuentes said during Thursday’s hearing. He explained that as charter school enrollment grows, so does the district’s responsibility to fund them.

Under state law, school districts like Newark must provide charter schools with at least 90% of per-pupil funds for students who live in the district. Roughly 21,400 students are enrolled in 15 charter schools across Newark.

During the meeting, South Ward resident and community advocate Maggie Freeman questioned why charter school representatives weren’t at the budget hearing yesterday to provide transparency on their spending in light of rising costs.

“We don’t know if we’re double, triple, or quadruple paying, and taxpayers are absorbing that cost,” Freeman said.

Aside from the $421 million, the district also projected spending just over $7 million for transportation costs for charter schools and nearly $5 million for students attending schools outside of the district.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Proposed Riverfront Elementary School would add over 650 seats in Newark’s overcrowded East Ward

2026-03-26T01:03:24+00:00

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Newark Public Schools is considering a three-decade, $498 million property lease to open a school in the East Ward, as the district waits for the state to deliver on new buildings.

The new Riverfront Elementary School building would take over an entire block and be constructed from the ground up, said Valerie Wilson, the district’s school business administrator, during Wednesday’s school board hearing on the proposed school.

The proposal highlights the district’s efforts to ease overcrowding in Newark schools, particularly in the city’s East Ward, Newark’s most densely populated neighborhood, where new housing developments are underway.

The district would lease the property from 56 Freeman Street LLC, which owns and would manage the project at 56 Freeman St. across from St. Aloysius Roman Catholic Church. The district would have the option to purchase the building at the end of the agreement at a price yet to be determined, Wilson said.

The new Riverfront school would take over an entire block, more than 150,000 square feet, and serve 667 students, district leaders said during the hearing. Envisioned as a four-floor building, the school would include an underground parking garage with approximately 60 parking spaces for staff, an enclosed rooftop playground for students, and pre-K and early childhood learning classrooms, as well as a full gym with locker rooms.

The proposed Riverfront Elementary School would add over 650 seats to Newark's East Ward.

The district would spend over $1 million a month in rent for the property over 30 years, Wilson added.

The state is responsible for building new schools in Newark but the law allows the district to lease property to build a new school, Superintendent Roger León added.

The proposal highlights the challenges Newark has with the state when it comes to building new schools. Newark is one of 31 high-poverty school districts in New Jersey that are legally barred from building their own schools. That responsibility lies with the state’s Schools Development Authority but that agency lacks the funding to move forward on projects it has already identified in Newark and other high-poverty districts.

Several of the district’s oldest schools are in the East Ward, and require updates to maintain their infrastructure.

“We know that our schools are not providing enough seats,” Vereliz Santana, the school board’s co-vice president, said during the hearing.

The authority has built nine new schools in the district since 2006, including two in the East Ward: Oliver and South Street schools.

Mary Filardo, the executive director for the 21st Century School Fund, a nonprofit organization advocating for the modernization of public school facilities, said the Newark school district is in a “complicated spot” because not only is it trying to maintain old school buildings, but it is also responding to urgent problems like overcrowding through alternate solutions as it waits for the state to construct new buildings.

During Wednesday’s hearing, an East Ward-based real estate agent and a former school board candidate were the only people to raise questions about the new proposal.

Brendan Da Silva, a Newark based real estate agent said the proposed cost of the lease “seems outlandish.”

“The Newark Board of Education should be focused on education, not trying to navigate complex real estate deals without strong, independent oversight,” Da Silva added.

Yolanda Johnson, a former school board candidate and education advocate, asked why the district was considering investing in a new school when many of the district’s current schools “are in need of repairing.”

During the meeting, Superintendent Roger León noted how the district has been working to repair and maintain existing schools, including those in the East Ward, where the schools are 151 years old on average.

Floor plans for the proposed Riverfront Elementary School on display at a Newark Board of Education hearing.

Board member David Daughety acknowledged that the East Ward needs a new school to minimize overcrowding, but asked for more transparency about the proposed cost. Board member Kanileah Anderson agreed and asked if the district had compared costs with other developers in the area.

After Wilson highlighted the district’s work to replace boilers at Arts High School and Chancellor Elementary School, along with facade repairs at East Side High School, León said, “We’ve already spent $400 million on all district school repairs.”

At the end of Wednesday’s hearing, the Newark school board unanimously voted to submit their plans to the New Jersey Department of Education, the state’s local finance board, and the Office of the State Comptroller for approval.

If the state approves the plans, the terms of the lease will be finalized and then the school board will hold a final vote on the lease, Board President Hasani Council said.

If approved, Riverfront Elementary School would be the second new school in the East Ward since the Newark School of Architecture and Interior Design opened in September through a 30-year, $300 million lease also funded with district dollars.

That school opened after a three-year delay, a problem Filardo says is not uncommon in the construction world.

“They’re complicated development deals. So districts should anticipate these kinds of problems and build into their contracts and their agreements and their processes, all of the kind of accountability and sort of due diligence,” Filardo added.

The SDA has promised to pay to replace Newark’s oldest school buildings, but the work to replace those buildings has not yet started.

The SDA receives funding through bonds, direct appropriations, and on a “pay-as-you-go” basis from the state legislature, but would not receive new funding under Democratic Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s proposed $60.7 billion budget this year.

Senator Majority Leader M. Teresa Ruiz, a Democrat, introduced a bill in February that could help unlock $10.5 billion to help fund school construction across all New Jersey school districts.

If approved, the bill would authorize a November ballot item asking voters to approve new state bonds for school construction, expansions, and renovation projects in all districts. Specifically, the bond would allocate $7 billion for high-poverty districts and $3.5 billion for grants in other districts.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Newark is banking on New Jersey’s future in film with new high school

2026-03-12T22:00:00+00:00

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New Jersey, the home of the world’s first film studio, is reasserting its status as the country’s first Hollywood.

And Newark educators, students, and industry professionals are getting ready to meet the moment.

In November, Newark Public Schools officials announced plans to open New Media High School, which will be geared toward film and TV careers and digital creator roles. Students with stars in their eyes no longer have to move to Los Angeles to make their dreams come true.

“They don’t even have to travel into New York across the Hudson River,” said Desireè Hadley, director of the Newark Office of Film and TV.

The New Media High School website promises a September 2026 opening and a school that will prepare a new generation of “content creators, filmmakers, and digital entrepreneurs to shape the evolving landscape of entertainment and new media.” A mission statement defines part of that preparation as “industry experiences” that will be key to building student portfolios.

Superintendent Roger León declined to comment through a spokesman.

But in public statements, León has said the school is already recruiting new teachers and eighth grade students interested in attending New Media High School and becoming part of the school’s first ninth grade class can apply through Newark Enrolls.

A career pipeline is ready and waiting: Investment in film and TV production is surging in New Jersey, having hit a record high of $833 million in 2024, and a major movie studio is moving into Newark, bringing the promise of hundreds of jobs.

These days, Hadley marvels at the massive “now enrolling” New Media High School billboard in downtown Newark.

“I’m Newark born and raised, and I wish that these opportunities were around when I was in high school,” she told Chalkbeat. “It would have been amazing to be able to attend a New Media High School or to even have exposure to what a production set is like.”

Film production grows in Newark and New Jersey

The growth of New Jersey production, fostered by the 2018 restoration of state film tax credits, stands in contrast to flagging production in Los Angeles. In the next two years, Lionsgate, Paramount Skydance and streaming giant Netflix will open Garden State studios. This bustling vision channels the 1910s, when studios like Fox, Universal, and Goldwyn Pictures called Fort Lee home before the industry moved to Hollywood.

Lionsgate Studios Newark is scheduled for a spring 2027 debut at Great Point Studios in the city’s South Ward. Mayor Ras Baraka, then-Gov. Phil Murphy, and city officials marked the groundbreaking in December. The $125 million, 270,000-square-foot studio will occupy the 12-acre site of the former Seth Boyden housing complex.

New Media High School, set to move into the former Dayton Street School, will be its neighbor.

The Dayton Street school, which closed in 2012, has another industry connection: It was a filming location for Adam Sandler’s “Happy Gilmore 2,” Netflix’s biggest U.S. movie opening, which spent a record $152.5 million in New Jersey.

Young people in Newark are already getting their start in the industry.

Aspiring cinematographer Nia Foote, 18, interned as a Newark locations production assistant on the set of Kevin Kline and Laura Linney’s new MGM+ series “American Classic” and was a PA on “72 Hours,” Kevin Hart’s upcoming Netflix movie.

“I was considering going out west to California,” Foote said. But Hollywood’s production decline and New Jersey’s surge persuaded her to study film and TV production at New York University instead.

Zoe Williams, 20, is eyeing a career in set design.

“I thought I would have to be going to New York for the jobs, but they’ve all been in New Jersey — in specifically Newark, a lot of them,” she said.

Williams has been an intern or PA on a number of productions, including Timothée Chalamet’s “A Complete Unknown” and the upcoming “Paper Tiger” with Scarlett Johansson, Adam Driver, and Miles Teller.

Zoe Williams worked as a production assistant on a movie set in May 2025.

Newark is taking measures to add even more locals to film sets. Last year, the state Economic Development Authority awarded a $750,000 NJ Film Works grant to Invest Newark, the city’s economic development corporation, to fund workforce training for people 18 and older.

“Some of the students will be matriculating on to an apprenticeship program, which is great because that means they’re putting in the hours to get their union cards, and that translates as a career,” said Jon Crowley, executive director of the New Jersey Motion Picture and Television Commission. As part of that program, Rutgers Newark’s Community Media Center will host grip training at Express Newark, where Newark Film School will also run PA training, Hadley said.

“We will have all these huge movie stars come into our community, but the city of Newark is making sure it covers the ground of just helping our residents, educating our residents on the industry,” she said.

Newark and Essex County have played important roles in the history of film. Newark’s Rev. Hannibal Goodwin patented transparent flexible nitrocellulose roll film in 1898 and Thomas Edison opened the very first film studio, Black Maria, in West Orange in 1893.

“We’re just taking back our birthright,” said Diane Raver, executive director of the New Jersey Film Academy, which runs certificate programs at 13 colleges, including Essex County College.

And future New Media students could find work at other Jersey studios.

Netflix is accepting applications to work at its soon-to-be $1 billion studio at the former Fort Monmouth, and Paramount Skydance signed on for a minimum of 10 years at Bayonne’s 1888 Studios. Recently announced: the $250 million Filmology Labs, headed to Paterson.

“Now we see a direct pipeline to the studios who are moving in,” said Keith Strudler, dean of the College of Communication and Media at Montclair State University. “We’ve looked at the kinds of roles that they’re going to be hiring for, and really, we teach all of those skill sets.”

New Media High School could be ‘a filmmaker’s dream come true’

Director Nicole L. Thompson, a Malcolm X Shabazz High School alum and founder of the Newark Film School, said New Media High School will be “a filmmaker’s dream come true.”

Thompson, 33, began studying filmmaking at 13, in a pre-college summer program at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. She continued with video production at Shabazz and went on to study at The College of New Jersey, the University of Southern California, and Harvard.

“A lot of people wake up one day and want to become a filmmaker but they don’t know how,” said Thompson, whose 2022 Lifetime TV directorial debut, New Jersey true crime movie “Suitcase Killer: The Melanie McGuire Story,” recently spent two weeks in Netflix’s top 10.

Newark Film School founder Nicole L. Thompson, at right, with student Destiny Diamond at a documentary class at St. Stephan's Church.

At New Media High School, curriculum plans include classes in narrative filmmaking, short documentaries and short-form videos for social media and commercials, along with editing, cinematography, postproduction, podcasting and streaming. Capstone projects will cover feature-length films, animation, 3D effects, pitching and marketing.

“It almost replicates the model of Arts High School,” said Hadley, director of the Newark Office of Film and TV. “The school is going to train young people who are interested right out of middle school.”

The New Jersey Performing Arts Center and Great Point Studios will also partner with local schools to develop a film and TV production curriculum, said John Schreiber, CEO of NJPAC. He’s a stakeholder in a community benefits agreement between Lionsgate Newark, Great Point, and the arts center. (NJPAC is a redeveloper of the Seth Boyden housing site.)

“We started very early talking about what a new studio like this could mean to the community at large, and then more specifically to young people,” Schreiber told Chalkbeat. He noted that the studio agreed to hire 70% of its onsite employees from the local area, likening the “transformational” potential of the film hub to how Steiner Studios changed Brooklyn Navy Yard.

“We will work with Newark Public Schools and with Great Point Lionsgate to create an apprenticeship and an internship program for high school students, the goal of which is eventually that they learn enough so that they can get a union card and go to work on a set,” Schreiber said. “One needn’t go to college in order to get that card … Those jobs can pay over $80,000 a year and more for a young person.”

Schreiber aspired to be an actor when he was younger. After realizing he’d be “broke for 10 years,” he became a PA.

“There are 50 different jobs that somebody can have in our business that support the work of a performing artist,” he said.

“It’s not just about acting and directing,” said Nick Day, president of the Screen Alliance of New Jersey, an industry group, and co-CEO of Newark’s Edge Auto Rental, which supplies trucks and cars for productions. “There’s electricians, carpenters, rental truck companies … lumber companies, stages, postproduction … Whatever your passion might be, the film industry could be a way to take advantage of your passion.”

That doesn’t just mean people starting their first careers. East Orange’s Jessica Sledge, 38, works in education and is a student in one of the first New Jersey Film Academy classes at Essex County College. She was studying industrial design in New York when a field trip to a professor’s set design workshop made an impression.

“I’ve always been a fan of watching all the behind-the-scenes stuff,” she said. With the intro film class at ECC, it “clicked,” she said. “I was like ‘OK, so this could be my way into doing something like that.’”

Jon Crowley, director of the state film commission, got his start as a PA for the Academy Awards. After an editor fell ill, Crowley, a film school graduate with an editing reel, subbed in and was promoted to editor. It all started with his high school TV production class.

“To actually be working with your friends on projects that we were scripting, we were directing, we were acting in and then we were editing was really exciting because it felt like you had some skin in the game,” he said.

Crowley said the commission would be excited to work with future New Media High School students.

“It’s phenomenal that kids at the high school age are going to be able to experience all these different areas of expertise and skill sets and find out what really gets them fired up, for sure,” he said.

Advocates push Newark school board to cut ties with food vendor that supplies controversial ICE facility

2026-03-06T11:00:01+00:00

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As Newark Board of Education members, parents, and students shuffled into Sir Isaac Newton Elementary School in advance of the board’s February meeting, they passed a small group of activists protesting on the sidewalk.

Chatting quietly with each other, some eight activists stood along the school fence and held handwritten signs saying, “I prefer crushed ICE” and “ICE out of New Jersey!!!”

The advocates, members of local groups like Cosecha, Democratic Socialists of America, and Eyes on ICE, were gathered as part of “Ditch Driscoll Foods,” a campaign to pressure the school board to end its relationship with a food vendor that services a controversial immigration detention center.

“We don’t want the school system doing anything that is going to contribute to the current climate of fear that’s going on in our neighborhood,” said Amy Brown, a member of the campaign and a parent at Oliver Street School, where the majority of students are Latino. Many of her daughter’s classmates and their parents, she said, live in fear of ICE.

Amy Brown, a Newark parent speaks during the Newark Board of Education meeting.

Last summer, volunteers photographed a Driscoll Foods truck exiting the Delaney Hall ICE detention facility near Newark. The photo sparked a series of public records requests, which revealed the details of multiple contracts between Newark public schools and Driscoll Foods authorizing the district to spend up to $12 million with the vendor.

The contracts are set to expire on June 30, and advocates hope to pressure the Newark Board of Education to choose a different vendor for the upcoming school year. Advocates testified at the January Board of Education meeting; since then, they say, board members have ignored their repeated requests for comment and information.

“How is it possible that the school district is contracting with a company that already has a history of providing terrible quality food, not only to students but now also in immigration detention centers?” Carlos Castañeda, a member of the immigrants rights organization Cosecha told Chalkbeat, in Spanish. “We are demanding that the school district stop the contract.”

A parent of a 4-year-old girl at Sir Isaac Newton Elementary School spoke with the activists as he left the building before the board meeting.

“I don’t think we should be using our tax dollars, our education dollars to support companies that are getting rich off of feeding inmates bad food. Companies that are supporting essentially concentration camps,” the parent, who declined to share his name, told Chalkbeat. He had not been aware of Newark schools’ connection with the ICE contractor.

“I don’t want my tax money going to that and I hope the Board of Education takes that seriously,” he said.

Advocates want Newark schools to cut ties with Driscoll Foods

Delaney Hall, the privately-run ICE detention facility operated by the GEO Group, the largest prison operator in the United States, has faced a stream of complaints around detainee treatment since it opened last May. Detainees have reported abusive treatment, from frigid temperatures to vindictive guards to missing essential toiletries. In December, Jean Wilson Brutus, an asylum seeker from Haiti, died one day after being detained at Delaney Hall.

Detainees at Delaney Hall also say they have been served rotten and spoiled food, often at irregular times and in insufficient quantities. Last June, dozens of detainees protested the conditions at Delaney Hall, focusing on the quality and quantity of food they were provided.

“The same food that you’re giving to the detained people at Delaney Hall who haven’t gotten their due process, you’re giving to felons and people in jail at Essex County jail. That’s crazy that you’re serving that to elementary school students,” a Newark public school elementary teacher told Chalkbeat. The teacher asked not to share their name because they feared retaliation from the district.

“It kind of says a lot about what you think about the students in Newark,” the teacher said. “They deserve the best. These are children we’re talking about.”

In response to a question from Chalkbeat about the food quality at Newark schools, Hasani Council, president of the school board, said “That's something that we are working on."

Driscoll Foods has also come under criticism for its work in New York City. In 2024, then-Comptroller Brad Lander found the company had overbilled New York City’s Department of Social Services by $9 million, according to reporting at the time from The City.

Driscoll Foods did not reply to a request for comment.

During the school board meeting’s public participation period following reports from the superintendent and board members, advocates associated with the “Ditch Driscoll Foods” campaign spoke against Newark Public Schools’ ties to the company. Some read statements written by undocumented parents of Newark schoolchildren.

They repeatedly expressed frustration that the board had not responded to their messages or requests for information.

Teresa Yi-Bourdett, an activist with “Ditch Driscoll Foods,” urged board members to take action. “They are not a responsible supplier to work with,” she said. “So just remove them from competition, right?”

“That’s not how that works,” a board member said. Other board members appeared to be on their phones as advocates testified.

Teresa Yi-Bourdett, an activist speaks during the February Newark Board of Education meeting.

The presentations were followed by enthusiastic claps from the advocates and some attendees, including high schoolers who’d attended the meeting to push for better mental health support.

Some speakers at the meeting, unaffiliated with “Ditch Driscoll Foods,” called attention to what they said was the poor quality of food served to Newark public school students. Others questioned why the coalition was not advocating for the Newark school board to cut ties to suppliers to Essex County prisons.

“We’re serving a community where most of the students that make up that community are predominantly immigrant students,” the Newark teacher said. “I would think that we wouldn’t want to support a harmful company in that way.”

In response to a series of testimonies, board members repeatedly emphasized that they are required to follow procedural rules in selecting contractors.

Following the public comment period, School Business Administrator Valerie Wilson read a statement that addressed the selection of Driscoll Foods in the previous cycle.

“Vendors must be selected through a competitive procurement process to ensure fairness, compliance, and continuity of service. Does the district endorse all business practices of its vendors? No,” Wilson said. “We have a responsibility to ensure uninterrupted access to nutritious, compliant meals for students while adhering to public contracting law.”

Some advocates were not convinced.

“I just thought [the board members] were advocating for the quality and the nutritional value of the food, but the food isn’t that great,” the Newark teacher told Chalkbeat. She cited several occasions when students have been served expired food, and criticized the uniformity, cold temperature, and insufficient portions of breakfasts.

In response to a question from Chalkbeat about the food quality at Newark schools, Hasani Council, president of the Newark school board, said “That’s something that we are working on and we want to continue to work on and train our staff.”

The choice of food supplier, he added, was not in the power of Newark school board members to decide.

Board members, he said, only have final voting approval on the bid once it has already been awarded after a public bidding process. In response to a question from Chalkbeat about how he would vote if the superintendent were to recommend renewing Driscoll Foods’ contract, Council said, “I don’t know yet.”

Newark to open new school in the East Ward to relieve overcrowding

2026-03-02T18:00:48+00:00

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A new elementary school is coming to Newark’s East Ward, and the city school board wants the public’s input.

Newark Public Schools is in the early planning stages of opening the new Riverfront Elementary School in the St. Aloysius Roman Catholic Church building on Fleming Avenue, board president Hasani Council told Chalkbeat on Friday.

Council did not say whether the district would use all or part of the St. Aloysius building, or if it plans to lease or purchase the property. District officials have not yet released details about the building’s capacity, project timeline, or estimated costs.

The school board will host a special hearing on March 25 at 5 p.m. at Lafayette Street School to present its proposal and hear from residents, according to Council, who made the announcement about the hearing at the end of February’s board meeting. Council on Friday said the district needs a new school in the East Ward to relieve overcrowding.

“It is time. They are severely overcrowded in the East Ward, so this will help alleviate a lot of the burden of overcrowding there,” Council added.

The new elementary school would add seats in one of Newark’s fastest growing neighborhoods as migration and changes in enrollment have strained existing schools. An increase in new housing developments in the ward has limited the amount of land available for new school construction.

In New Jersey, the state Schools Development Authority is responsible for building new schools in Newark and 30 other high-poverty districts. The agency receives funding on a ‘pay-as-you-go’ basis, but advocates for healthy student learning environments say consistent annual investments are needed to cover renovations, replacements, and upgrades to buildings in all districts.

Superintendent Roger León has previously said that it would take more than $2 billion to fully fix and update all district schools. The state’s largest district can’t build a new school using its funds, but it can lease property.

Newark’s East Ward neighborhood is a densely populated area home to eight elementary schools and two high schools. More than half of East Ward schools operate in original buildings that date back to the 1800s. The SDA promised Newark to build a new high school in the South Ward and rebuild 13 of its oldest school buildings, but the East Ward could miss out on the promise due to the scarce availability of land.

As León continues to open new schools, the district has also leased properties. This school year, the Newark School of Architecture and Interior Design opened in the former Saint James Hospital building after the district reached a 30-year, $300 million lease with the property owner. The school opened in September after a nearly three-year delay due to state stop-work orders over wage complaints.

In 2024, the district was weighing whether to present a $1.2 billion bond referendum to city voters to cover school repairs. But district leaders squashed that plan after learning that it was unlikely to gain support, according to León.

State leaders are also sounding the alarm about the need to upgrade New Jersey’s oldest school buildings. Senate Majority Leader M. Teresa Ruiz introduced a bill last month that, if approved, would place a question on the November ballot to authorize $10.5 billion in new state bonds for school construction, expansion, and renovation projects in districts across the state.

During last month’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Ruiz said the last time the state went to bond for school construction funding was during her first budget cycle, roughly 18 years ago.

“That is a disservice to every single student, family and community and district in the state of New Jersey,” Ruiz said.

Last week, the Newark school board approved a $6.3 million state grant for renovations at Technology and Weequahic high schools.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Newark teen coalition pushes back after city school board shuts down student policy proposals

2026-02-27T22:30:08+00:00

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A group of Newark teens took turns scolding Superintendent Roger León and school board members on Thursday for rejecting policy proposals that would have given students more say in how the district addresses mental health needs and building concerns.

“We all are your students, and we’re telling you about what is going on in our schools, in our lives,” Science Park High School junior Cidell Torto told León and board members as she questioned why they wouldn’t want student input.

Another Science Park student, senior Fatoumata Bah, told members that for students, their proposals are “about whether the systems that are supposed to protect and support us are actually visible, accessible, and accountable in our daily lives.”

“This is what it looks like when young people take the reality of their daily lives and turn it into solutions,” Bah added.

The teens are part of the Youth Power Action Coalition, which pushed the proposals that would have allowed for more student participation in policymaking and provided measures to hold the district accountable if systems fall short.

But the response from the Newark Board of Education’s governance committee? We’re good with the status quo.

The committee reviewed the recommended proposals this month and said the district already has mechanisms in place that address the issues. Member Melissa Reed tried to move the proposals to the March agenda, but failed because policies must be approved in committee before reaching a full board vote, said board attorney Brenda Liss during the meeting.

“I heard calls for transparency, accountability, and most importantly, a seat at the table. These concerns matter,” said Reed on Thursday.

Jairo Loaiza Lima, a senior at Bard High School, said he and his peers weren’t there “to replace anything the district already does.”

“It was about a gap we see every day as students, a gap between what exists on paper and what students actually experience,” Lima told the board. “A lot of systems assume students know where to go for help. In reality, many don’t.”

The teens were accompanied by roughly 13 other students who form part of the larger coalition. Two charter school students also spoke about the need to bolster mental health resources in all city schools.

The students’ criticism comes months after they surveyed students on building concerns and current mental health resources in schools. In November, the coalition asked the school board to collaborate with them to strengthen existing policies using data they collected from teen experiences. The group also met in January with board president Hasani Council and member Josephine Garcia to discuss their proposals.

The students’ proposals would have added more frequent mental health surveys and a student mental health support tracker, according to the proposal.

The coalition’s mental health policy would have expanded on the district’s crisis intervention policy, which says “the superintendent and appropriate staff will develop and implement a comprehensive and continuing adolescent suicide awareness, prevention, and intervention program for the entire school community.”

The students’ facilities proposals would have developed a tool for students to report building concerns and a public dashboard tracking reported issues. It would have expanded on the district’s current long-range facilities planning, which describes current facilities needs, projected enrollment challenges, and plans to build, alter, or remodel schools.

The group, convened by the Gem Project, a nonprofit organization focused on strengthening youth civic engagement, is also working to boost youth turnout among Newark’s 16- and 17-year-old voters in this year’s school board election. Only 73 teens voted last year, the first time youth could vote in the Newark school board race.

The school board’s governance committee, in response to the youth proposals, highlighted resources listed online, such as the New Jersey Department of Children and Families Resource Guide, Character Education Initiative, and its teen mental health conference as resources already available for students. The committee also pointed to the district’s automated work order system, School Dude, as a way for district staff, students, and parents to report building issues.

During the meeting, Amanda Ebokosia, founder of the Gem Project and youth advocate, said the policy proposals “did not duplicate current student mental health initiatives or services,” but rather met “the growing need and answered the calls, pleas, and concerns of all students, not just a specific school.”

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

New Jersey’s biggest school district will get $6.3 million to fix old schools

2026-02-27T11:00:01+00:00

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The Newark Board of Education is steering $6.3 million in state funds to repairs at two city high schools as part of efforts to maintain the district’s decades-old buildings.

The board on Thursday approved the bulk of the money — $6 million — for repairs at Technology High School, while just under $350,000 will go to Weequahic High School. The funds come from a Schools Development Authority grant that allocated $6,349,715 to Newark this fiscal year for urgent building needs and to prevent further deterioration. The SDA is the state agency responsible for fully funding school construction projects in Newark and 30 other high-poverty districts.

The district proposes urgent repairs and maintenance projects to the state, and once the SDA approves them, it directs funding to schools that need it. Unlike state funds for urgent repairs, the SDA decides which schools to build or renovate and manages new construction from start to finish.

During Thursday’s board meeting, León did not mention the state’s funding before the board unanimously voted to accept the grant. Instead, he said the ongoing work to fix the district’s aging infrastructure includes using money from the district’s capital maintenance fund.

“We will be impacting every classroom, every office, and every school in this entire district from its roof to whatever is the lower level of the building to make sure that we’re providing for all of the students and the staff the type of school every child in Newark deserves,” said Leon as he discussed recent renovations to the auditorium at Sir Isaac Newton Elementary School, where the board meeting was held.

Before the school board went into executive session, board president Hasani Council said the funds will be used for roof and facade repairs at Technology and HVAC replacements at Weequahic’s gym.

Newark’s public schools are among the oldest in the state, and more than half require yearly updates to roofs, boilers, plumbing, and other areas. Since those repairs can cost millions, districts like Newark depend on the SDA for school construction and help in maintaining buildings. The new funding is part of the SDA’s efforts to stabilize old school infrastructure across the state, as building conditions can disrupt student learning and lead to more costly repairs over time.

Technology High School in the North Ward, built in 1913, is a top-rated magnet school in the district with 662 students in the 2024-25 school year. Weequahic High School in the South Ward is a traditional high school built in 1931 with 592 students last school year. Both schools require new paint, chemical water treatments, annual inspections, and other routine work, according to the district’s comprehensive maintenance plan. State funding remains critical for Newark to prevent worsening building conditions and more costly repairs.

The new grant is funded through the state’s fiscal year 2026 budget, when former Gov. Phil Murphy directed $50 million to the SDA for emergent and capital maintenance projects. Newark, the state’s largest school district, received the largest allocation of the funds in the last budget cycle, with Elizabeth receiving the second-highest amount.

The SDA has also agreed to replace 13 of Newark public schools’ oldest buildings, but that deal leaves out 20 schools that need to be replaced, according to the district. León on Thursday said the district was supposed to receive 40 new school buildings during the state’s takeover of the district between 1995 and 2018 but only received eight.

The SDA has also committed to spending nearly $153 million to rebuild a high school in Newark’s South Ward and relocate a nearby elementary school. That project is currently in the design phase with plans to begin early site work this summer, according to SDA spokesperson Edythe Maier.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

New Jersey blizzard exposed Newark Teachers Union concerns about getting to school safely

2026-02-24T23:11:29+00:00

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Newark Teachers Union president John Abeigon is calling on state lawmakers to loosen restrictions on virtual learning after a blizzard buried the city in snow and raised concerns about getting to school safely.

Newark schools were closed Monday due to the winter storm, but teachers and staff who live in Newark and other parts of the state had been worried about getting to school on Tuesday after some parts of the city got up to 27 inches of snow, Abeigon told Chalkbeat on Tuesday.

By Monday afternoon, Superintendent Roger León decided to move Wednesday’s scheduled staff development day to Tuesday and make it virtual, a decision educators were grateful for as they had an extra day to prepare for the school week, Abeigon added.

But other school districts in New Jersey didn’t have that choice as the current law makes it harder for districts to call for remote learning days during severe weather, even when travel conditions are unsafe, Abeigon said.

“These are not like the days of the ‘Little House on the Prairie’ where teachers lived in town,” Abeigon added. “The vast majority of teachers in Newark don’t live in the city. And that’s the same for any large and mid-size district in the state.”

While schools in New York have the option to move to remote learning during major winter storms, New Jersey’s law doesn’t allow that same flexibility. New York City schools had a snow day on Monday and returned to in-person instruction on Tuesday.

Under state law, districts cannot count remote learning toward their required 180 school days per year unless schools close for three consecutive days. During January’s winter storm, Newark Public Schools also shut down buildings for one day during a week when teachers had a prescheduled staff development day. Abeigon urged legislators to revisit the state law to prevent districts from canceling school altogether in the future.

“We want to find a legislator who would create that legislation so we could support it,” Abeigon added.

Silvia Pereira, one of the vice presidents for the Newark Teachers Union and executive vice president for pre-K to 12 for the American Federation of Teachers New Jersey, said she was thankful to have a virtual professional development day on Tuesday, but had that not been the case, she would’ve found it difficult to get to Newark from her home in Union.

Pereira, a Newark Public Schools teacher, also said the state should come up with a task force that could look at how to address snow days in New Jersey, as the state also contends with strategies to address chronic absenteeism and literacy.

“I think it’s important to look at other factors that could be impacting student learning, and how we can really address them when we have major snowstorms that could prompt school closures for more than one day,” Pereira added.

The area’s massive snowfall also prompted Newark city leaders to enact emergency parking measures that allowed residents to park cars in certain school parking lots until 11 p.m. on Monday. Newark Public Schools’ facilities teams were also seen cleaning up snow around schools.

Mayor Ras Baraka on Tuesday urged residents to report unplowed streets, hazardous snow conditions, or other snow-related issues by calling 973-733-4311.

Newark Public Schools students are expected to return to classrooms on Wednesday.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Four Newark school board seats are up for election this April. Residents who want to run can apply.

2026-02-12T19:15:11+00:00

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The Newark school board race is officially underway.

The annual Newark Board of Education election is scheduled for April 21, and residents interested in running can begin submitting nominating petitions to secure their spot on the ballot.

Candidates have until 4 p.m. on March 2 to collect 25 signatures from city voters and file their nominating petition packet with the district’s board secretary, Nancy Deering. Only Newark residents are eligible to run.

This year, four seats are up for election. Three seats come with full three-year terms, while one is for an unexpired one-year term. A drawing on March 11 will determine the order of names appearing on the April ballot, subject to final approval by the Essex County Clerk’s office.

The seats currently held by Hasani Council, Allison James-Frison, Vereliz Santana, Josephine Garcia, and Melissa Reed are up for election. The board members have not yet publicly announced if they plan to seek reelection.

Newark’s nine-member school board decides policies in the state’s largest school system, which is home to over 40,000 students across 65 schools. The board is also tasked with holding Superintendent Roger León accountable, approving district contracts, and passing the budget. Last year, the board approved a $1.57 billion budget amid federal uncertainties.

This year’s election comes six years after the district regained local control of its schools, as it continues to navigate financial and academic challenges.

The winning candidates will be tasked with finding ways to fix the district’s old school buildings, provide support for English language learners and students with disabilities, manage district finances, improve equity in schools, implement new cellphone policies and state literacy initiatives, and boost student performance.

The 2026 school board race is also the second time the city’s 16- and 17-year-olds will cast their votes after winning the right to vote in 2024. In 2025, only 73 teens voted for the first time in a school board race. Overall, only 3.47% of Newark voters participated in the 2025 election, slightly below the 3.94% turnout rate among the city’s youth voters – and about average for school board elections, in which 3% to 4% of voters typically participate.

Last year, 11 candidates ran for three seats on the school board. The “Moving Newark Schools Forward” slate, which typically gains support from state and local politicians, including Mayor Ras Baraka and state Senate Majority Leader M. Teresa Ruiz, won the 2025 election.

New voters, including youth who will be 16 or 17 by the April 21 election, can register to vote by March 31. Residents can vote at their designated polling location or by mail if they register for that option by April 14. Newark and Irvington school boards are the only ones holding April elections in Essex County.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Los estudiantes de Newark ya no podrán usar teléfonos celulares en las escuelas según la nueva ley estatal

2026-01-28T16:31:43+00:00

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Las escuelas de Newark dejarán de usar teléfonos a partir de septiembre gracias a una nueva ley estatal que exige a los distritos limitar el uso de teléfonos celulares por parte de los estudiantes durante las horas de instrucción.

El jueves 8 de enero, en una sala repleta de educadores, estudiantes y legisladores en la Ramsey High School, el gobernador Phil Murphy firmó la ley que exige a todos los distritos escolares de Nueva Jersey adoptar nuevas restricciones sobre el uso de teléfonos celulares y otros dispositivos con conexión a internet en las escuelas primarias y secundarias. El Departamento de Educación estatal también publicará una guía actualizada sobre teléfonos celulares a finales de este mes.

La nueva ley no prohíbe directamente los teléfonos celulares en las escuelas, sino que insta a los distritos a implementar políticas a principios del año escolar 2026-27.

Las nuevas políticas deberían, como mínimo, proporcionar directrices apropiadas para la edad y el nivel de grado para restringir el uso del teléfono celular y las redes sociales durante la clase. Las políticas también deben permitir excepciones según el caso.

La nueva ley llega después de que el estado, en diciembre, otorgará una subvención a Newark y otros 85 distritos escolares que se comprometieron a tener escuelas sin teléfonos y a implementar una política de “timbre a timbre”.

Murphy ha pedido repetidamente la prohibición de los teléfonos celulares durante el horario escolar, y este año, la organización estatal Commission on the Effects of Social Media Usage on Adolescents (Comisión Sobre los Efectos del Uso de las Redes Sociales en los Adolescentes) publicó un informe que recomendaba su prohibición permanente. La comisión también concluyó que los celulares y las redes sociales pueden afectar la autoestima de los jóvenes y causar ansiedad y depresión.

“Vamos a eliminar de nuestras aulas distracciones innecesarias y alentar a nuestros niños a estar más atentos y comprometidos durante la jornada escolar”, afirmó Murphy.

La iniciativa de Nueva Jersey para escuelas sin teléfonos forma parte de una creciente tendencia nacional de prohibir el uso de celulares desde el primer timbre hasta la salida. California y Nueva York implementaron iniciativas similares para limitar el uso de teléfonos en las escuelas y financiar a los distritos escolares para que implementen las políticas.

El uso excesivo de teléfonos inteligentes y redes sociales puede afectar el sueño, tener efectos negativos en la salud mental de los jóvenes y perjudicar el rendimiento académico, según estudios recientes. Algunos distritos escolares también están observando una mejora en los resultados de las pruebas tras implementar la prohibición del uso de teléfonos celulares.

La nueva ley marca uno de los últimos actos de Murphy como gobernador antes de que la gobernadora electa Mikie Sherrill preste juramento el 20 de enero en Newark. Durante su campaña para gobernadora, Sherrill declaró que apoyaba la prohibición estatal de los teléfonos celulares en las escuelas e impulsó una mayor concienciación sobre los peligros de las redes sociales y sus efectos en la salud mental de los jóvenes.

Esto es lo que sabemos sobre la ley de escuelas sin teléfonos de Nueva Jersey:

¿A quién y a qué se aplica la ley?

Según la nueva ley, el Comisionado de Educación del estado debe actualizar las directrices sobre la restricción del uso de teléfonos celulares y otros dispositivos con conexión a internet, incluyendo relojes inteligentes, por parte de los estudiantes durante el horario escolar, en el autobús escolar o durante eventos escolares. Los estudiantes también tendrán prohibido usar redes sociales durante el horario escolar.

Las directrices se publicarán a mediados de enero después de consultar con las partes interesadas, según el estado.

Las juntas escolares deberán adoptar políticas que se ajusten a las directrices estatales, manteniendo la flexibilidad para ofrecer adaptaciones razonables según corresponda. La ley se aplicará a las escuelas públicas de primaria y secundaria, incluidas las escuelas chárter.

Murphy dijo el jueves que la nueva ley mejorará los entornos de aprendizaje en todo el estado.

“Los estudiantes están más concentrados, están menos ansiosos y socializan y se ríen entre ellos, no a través de una pantalla, sino en los pasillos y las aulas”, dijo Murphy, refiriéndose a Ramsey High School, donde los teléfonos están prohibidos durante el horario escolar.

¿Cómo recogerán los teléfonos las escuelas?

Los distritos escolares pueden adquirir sistemas de almacenamiento para teléfonos, como taquillas, bolsas con llave o armarios de registro, para guardar los celulares al inicio de la jornada escolar. Las nuevas directrices estatales incluirán opciones que los distritos escolares podrán usar para guardar los dispositivos de los estudiantes.

En diciembre, las Escuelas Públicas de Newark recibieron $176,625 para la compra de un sistema de almacenamiento como parte del Programa Estatal de Subvenciones para Escuelas sin Teléfonos, una asignación de $3 millones en el presupuesto del año fiscal 2026. Dos escuelas chárter de Newark también recibieron subvenciones: Maria L. Varisco-Rogers, por $1,490, y Great Oaks Legacy, por $9,022.

El objetivo, como han dicho anteriormente los líderes estatales, es minimizar las distracciones durante el día escolar y garantizar que los estudiantes participen durante las horas de instrucción.

¿Existen excepciones a la ley?

Las nuevas políticas escolares deben abordar el uso de teléfonos celulares durante una emergencia e incluir pautas para los estudiantes que necesitan sus teléfonos para traducir idiomas o aquellos responsables de cuidar a un miembro de la familia.

También se deben hacer excepciones para estudiantes con discapacidades y para aquellos cuyos planes de salud requieren que sus dispositivos gestionen una condición médica. Los padres deberán proporcionar documentación de un profesional de la salud.

En todo el país, los padres han expresado su preocupación por la prohibición de los teléfonos celulares, y otras encuestas demuestran que desean que sus hijos tengan un teléfono en la escuela en caso de emergencia. La política actual de las Escuelas Públicas de Newark sobre teléfonos celulares establece que, en caso de emergencia, los administradores indicarán a los estudiantes cuándo pueden encender un teléfono celular de forma segura.

¿Cómo se hará cumplir?

Las juntas escolares locales adoptarán sus propias políticas de acuerdo con la guía actualizada del Departamento de Educación del estado, que servirá como una “hoja de ruta para crear entornos de aprendizaje más seguros y enfocados”, según el estado.

El estado no ha dicho cómo supervisará la aplicación de la nueva ley por parte de los distritos escolares, pero permitirá que cada distrito desarrolle sus propios planes de aplicación.

Esta traducción fue proporcionada por The Latino Spirit, en asociación con el Centro de Medios Cooperativos de la Universidad Estatal de Montclair, y cuenta con el apoyo financiero del Consorcio de Información Cívica de NJ. La historia fue escrita originalmente en inglés por Chalkbeat Newark y se vuelve a publicar en virtud de un acuerdo especial para compartir contenido a través del Servicio de noticias de traducción al español de NJ News Commons

This translation was provided by The Latino Spirit, in association with the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University and is financially supported by the NJ Civic Information Consortium. The story was originally written in English by Chalkbeat Newark and is republished under a special content sharing agreement through the NJ News Commons Spanish Translation News Service.

Newark Public Schools students get a day off on Monday due to massive winter snowstorm

2026-01-25T18:05:20+00:00

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Newark Public Schools will be closed Monday due to a massive snowstorm predicted to bring at least 12 inches of snow in some parts of the state.

In addition to school closures, the district’s central office will also be closed, according to an announcement posted on the district’s website and Facebook. New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill on Friday declared a state of emergency in the state as temperatures dropped below 20 degrees over the weekend and into Monday. She also announced a temporary suspension of New Jersey Transit services on Sunday after considering the latest forecast for the winter storm.

“Beginning Saturday evening and continuing into Monday, New Jersey is expected to see heavy snowfall and severe conditions, and my top priority is the safety of our residents,” said Sherrill in a press release Friday.

Unlike New York City schools, which will go virtual on Monday, New Jersey school districts can’t offer remote learning on snow days. Districts such as Jersey City and Passaic Public Schools also announced they would close on Monday.

Under state law, remote learning only qualifies as an official school day during emergency closures that last more than three consecutive days. A single day of online classes would not count as one of the 180 required annual school days in New Jersey, according to the law. Schools can call for a school closure, delayed opening, or early closing.

Some districts have identified specific days that could be used to make up school days in the event of cancellations due to bad weather.

Newark officials urged parents to download the NPS Mobile app to receive notifications about school closures due to inclement weather.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

NJ Gov. Phil Murphy underscores education achievements ahead of Sherrill inauguration next week

2026-01-13T21:42:34+00:00

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Gov. Phil Murphy delivered his final State of the State address on Tuesday afternoon, recapping his most long-standing initiatives that have defined his state and education agendas during his eight-year governorship.

Murphy, a two-term Democrat who has served as New Jersey’s governor since 2018, also provided words of encouragement to Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill, who will be sworn into office next Tuesday in Newark. Murphy said 2026 will “mark the beginning of one of the most iconic chapters in our state’s history.”

During his address delivered in Trenton, the state’s outgoing leader pointed to his top education accomplishments, including expanded full-day kindergarten, increased school state aid to districts, including Newark, fully financing the school funding formula, and a new law requiring schools to adopt phone-free policies.

“We made long-neglected, but desperately needed, investments in our state’s future. From fully funding New Jersey’s school funding formula for the first time in history to rebuilding our roads, railways, tunnels, and bridges,” said Murphy during his Tuesday address.

Murphy’s final speech sets the stage for education priorities Sherrill may pursue as districts like Newark Public Schools, the state’s largest, grapple with crumbling school buildings, student performance, and a rise in English language learners and students with disabilities.

On Tuesday, Murphy highlighted his initiative to provide free community college to low-income residents and his administration’s work in bringing artificial intelligence to New Jersey. Last year, the state launched a set of resources aimed at helping educators understand, implement, and manage AI in schools.

“I promised to invest in our students, workers, and innovators — so they can work together to unlock new, AI-powered breakthroughs that change lives — all around the world — for the better,” said Murphy during his address.

Among his final acts as governor, Murphy signed a law last week requiring all New Jersey school districts to adopt new restrictions on the use of cellphones and other internet-enabled devices in K-12 schools. On Tuesday, Murphy said, “the law is common sense” and believes the state should go further.

In December, Newark Public Schools was awarded $176,625 to purchase a storage system as part of the state’s Phone-Free Schools Grant Program, a $3 million appropriation in the fiscal year 2026 budget.

Murphy praised Sherrill for identifying children’s online safety as a priority for her incoming administration. On Monday, Murphy also released the New Jersey Youth Mental Health Strategic Plan, a plan to continue youth mental health support across the state. The plan details strategies already underway and highlights other opportunities “to foster youth resiliency, reduce stigma, facilitate care delivery, and support caregivers,” a state press release stated.

“The bottom line is: We have seen the impact smartphones and social media have had on young New Jerseyans. As a parent, I’ve seen it first-hand,” said Murphy during his address. “It’s time to step up and protect our kids. We owe it to them, as well as future generations.”

Murphy made no mention of the need to fund the state’s Schools Development Authority, which is responsible for paying for construction projects in Newark Public Schools and 30 other high-poverty districts. But with no long-term financing plans, projects such as those to replace University High School in Newark are at a standstill.

Over the last three fiscal years, New Jersey has allocated nearly $2 billion for school construction projects. Still, there is an immediate need to renovate or replace more than 100 buildings in the 31 high-poverty school districts due to age and condition, according to the School Development Authority’s statewide strategic plan. Last year, the state agreed to replace 13 of Newark’s oldest public school buildings, but that deal leaves out 20 schools, district officials have previously said.

On Tuesday, Murphy said his administration is leaving the next governor a nearly $7 billion surplus, “a surplus that is more than 15 times greater” than the $409 million his administration inherited.

Murphy noted Sherrill’s commitment to New Jersey and her varied resume, which includes stints as a U.S. Navy helicopter pilot, a federal prosecutor, and a U.S. Congresswoman.

“Mikie has done it all. Like a true Naval aviator, she has navigated the chaos in Congress with grit and grace. She has inspired millions of New Jerseyans,” Murphy said. “And Mikie and Dale are going to be amazing. This job is not easy. But it is the journey of a lifetime.”

Education leaders are closely watching to see how Sherrill’s administration plans to start the year, including insight into this year’s state budget amid changes to federal funding. This school year, Murphy provided nearly $90 million in K-12 school aid. In New Jersey’s largest school district, 84% of Newark Public Schools’ budget came from state aid, a record-high $1.3 billion, but it’s too early to tell if Newark will receive a similar amount for the upcoming school year.

Sherrill did not make remarks during Tuesday’s State of the State address, but she has previously expressed plans to update the state’s school funding formula to ensure more equity among school districts. During her gubernatorial campaign, Sherrill said she would “work hard to drive down costs” in the state and would evaluate programs that are working and prioritize support for those. She is also focused on getting federal funding for education back from the Trump administration.

The former congresswoman has also pledged to tackle student performance, segregation in schools, and the expansion of the state’s Interdistrict Public School Choice program, which allows students to attend a public school in a different district. Newark Public Schools does not participate in the program, but an expansion could have implications for the district, where enrollment has increased by nearly 20% over the last five years.

Sherrill has supported phone-free schools, a priority in line with her campaign’s push to raise awareness about the dangers of social media and their effects on youth mental health. She will be sworn in on Tuesday, Jan. 20, at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

New state task force could help Newark Public Schools curb chronic absenteeism rates

2026-01-08T20:30:14+00:00

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A new state task force will explore what’s driving chronic absenteeism in schools and how districts can improve attendance. New Jersey could find some clues in Newark Public Schools, where chronic absenteeism rates have dropped in recent years.

A new bill, signed into law by Lt. Gov. Tahesha Way on Dec. 30, directs the state Education Department to create a 17-member task force made up of educators, community members, policymakers, and researchers to study the root causes of absenteeism. The task force will also identify the barriers keeping students out of school, research best practices other states have adopted, and develop recommendations for districts.

Chronic absenteeism, defined by New Jersey as missing 10% or more of the school year, has become an ongoing challenge for schools nationwide, especially in the years following the COVID-19 pandemic. Research shows that high chronic absenteeism rates can result in poor academic performance, dropout risks, and disengagement from school.

According to the most recent state data, nearly 15% of New Jersey students were chronically absent during the 2023-24 school year, a slight improvement from the previous school year’s rate of 16.6%. That means students are missing more school than before the pandemic, when the absenteeism rate was 10.6%.

In Newark Public Schools, the chronic absenteeism rate has significantly dropped since before the pandemic. During the 2023-24 school year, 11.5% of district students were chronically absent, down from 26.8% in 2018-19 school year, according to state school performance data.

As of November, 8.3% of Newark’s public school students have been marked chronically absent or severely chronically absent, meaning students missed six to 10 days of school or more than 10.5 days so far, according to data shared at December’s school board meeting. New Jersey does not have a severely chronically absent category.

Nelida Valentin, vice president of grants and programs for the Princeton Area Community Foundation, a philanthropic organization helping nonprofits tackle local issues, says students miss school for a number of reasons, such as home life struggles or mental health concerns. A coordinated state approach can be useful to “help strengthen and connect what is happening on the ground” with budget priorities to reduce chronic absenteeism rates, Valentin said.

“If we can identify what a healthy community looks like, what a thriving community, what a thriving state looks like, then we need to get down to the nitty-gritty and understand whether that’s happening or not, and how to provide support,” Valentin told Chalkbeat on Thursday.

In previous years, Newark’s public schools have cited housing instability, student health needs, transportation challenges, and the lingering efforts of remote learning as factors that impacted their student attendance. An unstable home life, violence, or trauma could also impact a student’s likelihood of attending and staying in school.

Attendance issues are also far greater in urban school districts compared to rural and suburban districts.

The district, under Superintendent Roger León, has worked to expand its attendance efforts in recent years by launching attendance campaigns such as “Give Me Five,” where each district employee was required to call the families of five students to urge them to show up to school on the first day and launched incentive programs offering gift cards and hockey tickets to high school students who improved their attendance. Despite the efforts, attendance gaps persist.

Valentin said schools have found success in reducing absenteeism rates when “they started to think about their environment, how they collect data,” the ways that they talked, worked, and approached families. In Trenton, the “Arm in Arm” approach funded by their All the Kids Thrive initiative helped place a bilingual “navigator” who worked closely with an elementary school’s attendance team to conduct home visits and find the root causes of absences.

That often looked like connecting families to food pantries, helping install wifi and computer equipment so students could learn at home, and offering referrals to essential services to meet families’ needs, Valentin said.

“The task force is looking at developing recommendations about effective ways to promote family engagement and combat chronic absenteeism. But the next level of that, what kind of modeling would that look like?” Valentin added.

Under the new state law, the task force will also be charged with looking at the disparities in absenteeism among student groups such as low-income families, students with disabilities, English language learners, and homeless students. In Newark Public Schools, 26.4% of homeless students, 11% of low-income students, 15.4% of students with disabilities, and 9.1% of multilingual learners were chronically absent during the 2023-24 school year.

The task force will also examine the role mental health and school climate play on absenteeism and develop recommendations on the ways school districts can promote family engagement to tackle chronic absenteeism.

The state is expected to appoint members to the task force within the next 30 days and must issue a report to the governor and legislature no later than one year after its formation.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Newark schools go phone free as part of New Jersey’s push to limit the use of cellphones in schools

2025-12-19T19:43:19+00:00

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Newark Public Schools is receiving $176,625 from the state to enforce phone-free schools and implement a “bell-to-bell” policy, aligning the state’s largest school district with a growing push in New Jersey to limit cellphone use in classrooms.

The funding, awarded through the state Education Department’s Phone-Free Schools Grant Program, is expected to help school districts purchase phone storage systems such as lockers, locked pouches, or check-in cabinets. The goal, state leaders have said, is to minimize distractions during the school day and ensure students are engaged throughout instructional hours.

The state is also awarding phone-free schools grants to 85 other school districts across the state, including charter schools in Newark, such as Maria L. Varisco-Rogers, which is receiving $1,490, and Great Oaks Legacy charter schools, receiving $9,022.

School boards of grant recipients are expected to adopt a formal policy by the end of the 2025–26 school year and those schools must enforce a “bell-to-bell” ban while maintaining flexibility to provide reasonable accommodations as appropriate, according to Michael Yaple, spokesperson for the New Jersey Department of Education.

New Jersey’s push for phone-free schools is part of a growing trend nationwide to ban cellphone use from the first bell to dismissal. It also comes after California and New York implemented similar initiatives to limit phones in school and provide funding to districts to enforce policies.

The excessive use of smartphones and social media can impact sleep, have negative effects on youth mental health, and hinder academic performance, according to recent studies. Some school districts are also seeing a boost in test scores after implementing cellphone bans.

Gov. Phil Murphy has repeatedly called for banning phones during school, and this year, the state Commission on the Effects of Social Media Usage on Adolescents issued a report that recommended a “bell-to-bell” ban on cellphones. The Commission also found that cellphones and social media can affect youth self-esteem and cause anxiety and depression.

New Jersey lawmakers are also considering a statewide ban on cellphones in schools, as school districts that received the new phone-free grant become the first to implement phone-free schools. The bill is moving through the state assembly.

In Newark, the public school district has already experimented with limiting cellphone use in recent years, with mixed reactions from educators, students, and parents.

Under the district’s existing cellphone policy, adopted in 2008, students are allowed to carry cellphones as long as they are stowed away, turned off, or kept on silent at all times during the school day, and may not be used to make calls, take photos, or videos from within the school building, unless they receive permission from a school administrator.

If a student wants to carry a cellphone during the school day, a parent or guardian must sign a written agreement acknowledging that the district assumes no responsibility for any loss or damage. The form must be on file in the school office before the device is brought to school, per the district’s policy.

Across the country, parents have raised concerns about cellphone bans, and there is evidence in other surveys that parents want their children to have a phone in school in case of an emergency. Newark Public Schools’ cellphone policy says that in the event of an emergency, administrators will direct students on when they may safely turn on a cellphone.

You can find a full list of school districts receiving the new state grant on the education department’s website.

Update: This story has been updated to include a statement from the New Jersey Department of Education.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Newark’s West Side High School debuts 403 Salon and Spa, giving students hands-on cosmetology experience

2025-12-11T21:24:33+00:00

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The first time West Side High School senior Jovonna Robinson picked up a blow dryer and hairbrush to style a client’s hair, she felt nervous.

Robinson, who’s part of the high school’s cosmetology program, worried her client wouldn’t like her work and feared she would run out of things to talk about. But after a year of interacting with customers and practicing finger waves, pin curls, and other hairstyles, Robinson now feels confident in her skills and is considering a career in cosmetology as she nears graduation.

“I actually want to be a dentist, but if it doesn’t work out, I’m definitely going to pursue something in cosmetology. I really love, just, the whole setting of talking to [customers] and making sure they’re comfortable,” said Robinson.

Now, Robinson and other West Side High cosmetology students have a new place to learn their craft: 403 Salon and Spa, a full-service salon located on the first floor of the school. During Thursday’s salon debut, students like junior Amelia Liley were grooming their customers’ cuticles and getting their nails ready for a new coat of paint. Others, like senior Nakira Poole, were giving their classmates facials.

West Side High School teacher Ms. Harper gets a manicure from junior Amelia Liley at the new 403 Salon and Spa on Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025.

Like a traditional beauty salon, 403 Salon and Spa is equipped with a front desk to check in clients, a waiting area, and several hair styling stations with blow dryers, brushes, tall mirrors, and swivel chairs. The salon also includes a hair washing station and a manicure and pedicure area.

Towards the back of the salon, a private room with a spa bed is available for facial and wax services. Roughly 100 students are enrolled in the cosmetology program, but only those who’ve obtained a permit, a certification that allows students to perform cosmetology work under supervision, will practice their skills.

A price list was not available on Thursday, but the salon plans to offer a variety of services, such as shampoo and blow dry, hair cuts, braiding, hair coloring, scalp treatments, and skin and nail care by appointment to the public on Fridays between 3-7 p.m., according to Paul Brubaker, the district’s spokesperson.

Salon coordinator and the school’s cosmetology teacher, Nicole Daniels, said she was adamant about creating a space that allowed students to feel like they were working in a real salon. Daniels learned cosmetology in high school, an opportunity that allowed her to work during college, save money, and pay for schooling as she completed her science degrees. It also helped her buy her first home at 26, Daniels added.

“I want our students to be able to, yes, get a college degree, but not have to worry about how they’re going to pay for their books, pay for their meals, because now they have a license and credentialing that they can have for the rest of their lives,” said Daniels at Thursday’s grand opening.

West Side High School senior Marquesha Gordon washes senior Kylah Masey's hair at the new 403 Salon and Spa on Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025.

Alternative career paths are on the rise

Since returning to local control, Newark Public Schools, under Superintendent Roger León, has launched new trade-focused schools, including Newark Vocational, which offers pathways in culinary arts and hospitality, and the Newark School of Architecture and Design, which offers tracks in HVAC, plumbing, and electrical work.

Those efforts are on par with research that shows that, for the last few decades, just over 40% of recent high school graduates have enrolled in a four-year college. That number has been fairly stable, even as high school graduation rates have grown.

In 2024, only 45% of teens saw a two- or four-year college as their most likely step after high school, down from 50% in 2021 and 73% in 2018, according to research from the American Student Assistance, a nonprofit helping students make informed choices about their career goals. At the same time, students considering vocational schools, apprenticeships, and technical boot camp programs more than tripled from 12% in 2018 to 38% in 2024, according to the nonprofit.

To get a cosmetologist hairstylist license in New Jersey, students must be 17 or older and are required to complete 1,200 hours of instruction at an approved school, pass state exams, and apply to the state board of cosmetology. Those seeking certification as a manicurist or skin care specialist have similar requirements but require fewer hours of instruction. The new salon at West Side allows students to complete their required hours and earn their license by the time they graduate.

That’s a perk for West Side junior Dsyiah Ferdico, who said 403 Salon makes her feel excited about her future. While wearing an apron that read 403 Salon, Ferdico soaked her toes in a foot tub as Robinson, her classmate, sat on a stool to give her a pedicure. To Ferdico’s right, senior Kylah Masey rested her head on a shampoo bowl as senior Marquesha Gordon scrubbed her scalp.

West Side High School junior Dsyiah Ferdico soaks her toes in a foot tub as she prepares to get a pedicure from her classmate.

Like some of her classmates, Ferdico plans to pursue a career in cosmetology after high school, and eventually wants to open her own salon. Ferdico credits the program with teaching her how to engage with clients and lean into her expertise by recommending services and hair styles.

“If you want to pursue cosmetology after you graduate, you can do hair, and you can decide what services you want to do,” Ferdico said. “You don’t have to do everything. You can do what is personally for you. That’s what I love about this. I love how it makes you so confident.”

Jaylen Johnson, a junior football player at West Side, started the cosmetology program thinking he would learn how to be a barber and solely work on men’s hair. But after being exposed to different aspects of the program, he felt comfortable learning how to do braids and other techniques to style women’s hair. With the rise of AI and new technology, Johnson also feels cosmetology is a career “robots” won’t be able to do.

“Learning self-grooming is always wonderful and learning how to groom your peers is always necessary,” said Johnson on Thursday. “Everybody needs haircuts. And that’s one thing I look at, that robots and stuff won’t be able to do.”

Robinson, the senior cosmetology student, agreed that “doing hair is always going to be needed” and is thankful for the opportunity to explore a career she hadn’t considered before.

“It’s good to learn different skills,” Robinson said. “It’s not always good to be stuck on one mindset. I opened my options of what I want to do.”

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Newark teen coalition wants to work with school board to address mental health, infrastructure

2025-11-26T18:14:15+00:00

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Newark students say school building issues, such as irregular classroom temperatures and faulty water fountains, along with mental health struggles, are affecting their learning.

And on Tuesday night, a coalition of those students brought their own research about those and other urgent concerns — as well as solutions — to school board members directly.

During the meeting, Science Park High School Junior Cidell Torto said his school needs more spaces for students “to take a breather.” And former George Washington Carver Elementary School student Patience Iwarimie recalled how hard it was to learn when water started to drip from the ceiling during math class.

Other students, such as Science Park High School Senior Fatoumata Bah, pressed the board for more accountability.

“Tonight, I’m asking the board to keep working with us, to continue bringing students into these conversations before, not after, decisions are made. Let us sit at the table, not just so we can be heard, but so we can help build something that works,” Bah said.

Convened by the Gem Project, a nonprofit organization that aims to strengthen youth civic engagement, the Youth Power Action Coalition has previously met with board members. But now the group wants to share its months-long research on the effects of school infrastructure on learning and student mental health, and to propose solutions to the school board.

The coalition’s efforts come after the city lowered the voting age for school board elections to allow Newark’s 16- and 17-year-olds to vote. But this April, in the first election when those teenagers could vote, only 73 teens voted in the Newark school board race.

Gem Project founder, Amanda Ebokosia, said the teens were at Tuesday’s meeting because “they believe in the promise of this district.”

Through their Youth-Led Accountability Score Card initiative, students held focus groups with their peers to talk about the problems affecting their mental health and learning, with the goal of working with board members to create new policies and track how well they serve students. Students handed out a packet with their findings to those at Tuesday’s meeting.

During the meeting, board members listened to students share their concerns while Superintendent Roger León wrote down notes.

Among the findings, students found that many Newark students feel uncomfortable talking about mental health due to stigmas and negative school climates. They also found that schools often only address mental health issues after problems have escalated. Similarly, the teens found that issues such as inadequate heating, inconsistent water quality, broken desks, and wobbly chairs have affected a student’s ability to focus in class.

Their solutions range from launching a peer mental health education program to prioritizing infrastructure needs and advocating for more school construction funding.

“We bring the perspective, honesty, and creativity that you can’t find in a survey or spreadsheet. We can help you see what’s working on the ground and what’s missing,” Bah said.

After students spoke, Board President Hasani Council said he looks forward to meeting with students from the Gem Project. Brielle Monroe Holland, a senior at Newark Tech, hopes what the student coalition presented at Tuesday’s meeting sparks deeper conversations with board members.

“It was interesting to hear the response we got but I’m not sure if they’re actually going to talk to us. I also think [the meeting] was just hard to follow. They should use more public-friendly words so it’s easier to follow,” Monroe Holland said.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Newark board member says superintendent contract approval was ‘dangerous’ and ‘reeks of impropriety’

2025-11-26T17:59:31+00:00

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In the wake of Newark Superintendent Roger León’s controversial contract extension, a lone board member spoke out Tuesday night raising legal, ethical, and procedural concerns with the approval.

Board member David Daughety called the manner by which the board approved León’s contract extension “dangerous” and said it “reeks of impropriety,” potentially causing the board to be perceived in a “corrosive way.”

León’s contract was apparently extended after a board member said last month she would switch her vote from an abstention to a “yes” vote long after the initial vote failed in September and without any formal motion to reconsider or a notification to the public.

Melissa Reed, the board member who switched her vote, said Tuesday night she was under immense pressure, and her mental health has deteriorated in the weeks since the first contract extension vote was taken.

Board policy experts and education advocates have also called the extension approval into question.

“Unanimous consent of the board was never requested, nor was a motion properly made and seconded to allow such vote altering to take place,” Daughety said during Tuesday night’s board meeting. “The precedent that we have just opened ourselves up to, that any board member at any given time can change a vote from the past without a motion or express consent of the board, is dangerous and reeks of impropriety.”

Approving a superintendent’s contract and overseeing their work running the district are among the most important responsibilities a school board carries out. Since regaining local control from the state, Newark community members have called for more transparency around León’s contract extension requests. This latest confusing and last-minute approval perpetuates uncertainty and “fuels the perception of impropriety,” Daughety said.

Daughety said he attempted to request a second impartial legal opinion on the matter via an email to Board President Hasani Council in October and was denied. On Tuesday night, his public motion to request the second opinion was rebuffed by the board president and called “out of order” by the district’s general counsel.

“My renewed request for a second legal opinion is not personal. I’m not out to get anybody or obstruct anyone getting their contract. If the votes are there, then the votes are there. But this was not the legal or right order of getting it. This was not explained correctly on the record,” Daughety said.

Daughety’s concerns were met with some applause from the public in attendance.

District general counsel Brenda Liss said under the board’s own policy, requests for second opinions can only come from the board president.

“We’ve been violating board policy — be serious,” Daughety said in response.

León and Liss both said that any of Daughety’s concerns with the superintendent’s contract should have been brought to them privately as a privileged personnel matter, out of the public eye. The superintendent’s contract is a public document.

“It’s not that I don’t want the public to understand these issues, but to the extent that they are addressed to me, I discuss them with the full board in closed session,” Liss said.

Council told Daughety that León’s contract “has already been ratified and signed,” saying “the matter is closed at this time.”

“The state is watching. The county is watching. Our city is watching, our district is watching, and our students are watching. All eyes are on Newark right now,” Daughety said. “We need to act in the best interest of the people and this institution. We worked too hard for local control to finally achieve it, but see it perceived in such a corrosive way.”

Melissa Reed, the member who changed her vote, said Tuesday night her mental health “has not been the best” since the contract vote. She said her decision to switch her vote was “not made lightly” and “came after weeks of pressure, conversations, and a deep sense of responsibility” for Newark’s children, schools, “and the stability of this district.”

“Intentional or not, I felt myself being positioned as a scapegoat, the one who would carry the blame for a decision far larger than me,” Reed said. “My vote was not about agreement. It was about preventing harm, it was about preventing chaos.”

Reed said her decision to switch her vote does not erase her concerns about equity, accountability, and transparency in the district, and “it surely does not mean the work is done.”

Carly Sitrin is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Philadelphia. Contact Carly at csitrin@chalkbeat.org.

Newark superintendent’s abrupt contract extension raises ethics questions

2025-10-31T20:01:09+00:00

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Experts say the Newark Board of Education’s late-night move to extend Superintendent Roger León’s contract without public notice or debate was ethically questionable and potentially “totally improper.”

In a surprise move Thursday night, one Newark school board member suddenly requested to switch her abstention on a September vote on León’s contract extension, which failed last month, to a “yes” vote without any formal motion to reconsider.

Both the board president and board counsel said Thursday that this verbal switch constituted an approval for León’s contract extension, and he would remain in office through 2030. The district’s general counsel, Brenda Liss, who is the district and school board’s attorney, said the decision was made possible under Robert’s Rules of Order, a set of rules used by public bodies to conduct business.

The vote switch created confusion among members and the public and reignited familiar concerns about the district and school boards’ transparency. Community members have repeatedly demanded more transparency around León’s contract extension requests and have instead witnessed automatic renewals and limited public discussion.

And experts Friday said the officials’ explanations for why they proceeded without prior notice don’t add up.

Bruce Bishop, executive director of the national Parliamentary Procedure Institute, told Chalkbeat the board’s procedure was not in line with Robert’s Rules. While Liss’s assertion that board members may change their vote if there are no objections is correct, Bishop said, there is a time limit. Once the board moves on to other official business, the time to swap votes has passed.

Because the prior meeting where the original vote was taken had been adjourned, and then a new meeting a month later was called to order, minutes were approved, and a quorum was established, “then certainly by any definition, other business took place or was introduced, and it would be totally improper” and “totally unauthorized” for that board member to change her vote from an abstention to a yes.

“It’s simply too late to authorize that,” Bishop said.

Betsy Ginsburg, executive director of the Garden State Coalition of Schools and a longstanding school board member and board president, said while she doesn’t think “there’s anything illegal” about what the board did Thursday, “it’s not part of the orderly process by which you want a public body to conduct business,” she said. “If you’re going to do something that big, it should at least be an agenda addendum.”

Bishop did note that Robert’s Rules — or any parliamentary rules — create mechanisms by which board members could reconsider or rescind a prior vote. But that would mean giving proper notice and allowing time for debate or discussion in public.

“Absent a motion to reconsider, you can’t just reconsider something,” Bishop said. “If you’ve got an open meeting law, then it would require public notice that the board intends to revisit the issue that they considered last month,” he added. “None of that happened.”

Newark’s school board has quietly approved León’s contract extensions before

Decisions like these have underscored how the promise of community oversight and a more responsive leadership may differ from the reality of the school board and district’s governance. The board’s murky procedural practices also highlight how Newark Public Schools, New Jersey’s largest school system, is rebuilding its governance from scratch after 25 years of state oversight.

The contract extension makes León one of the longest-serving superintendents in state history.

Attempts to quietly move León’s contract extension to allow him to “accomplish the goals” laid out in his 10-year plan have happened before. Those attempts have been made with few opportunities for public input. In 2019, school board members added two years to León’s original contract at a sparsely attended board meeting, extending it to 2023.

School leaders were criticized in 2023 after reports that León’s contract had been automatically renewed because of a clause that extended his term by five years.

In August, Chalkbeat obtained León’s contract extension proposal only through a public records request. The district has also denied Chalkbeat’s public records request for León’s annual evaluations between 2018 and 2025, citing records laws that protect personnel documents.

The school board has also given little insight into other decisions it has made in the past.

In 2023, the board unanimously appointed a charter school teacher to fill a vacant seat, but after an unexplained delay to swear him in, the board eventually appointed someone else. In 2024, former member Dawn Haynes abruptly resigned from her role without a board explanation. Chalkbeat later found that Haynes resigned over a settlement with the district related to her daughters’ legal claim over alleged racist experiences at a Newark high school.

While parents and school advocates have raised concerns over how León addresses issues such as racism in schools, student achievement, and support for vulnerable students, others say extending his tenure to 2030 is necessary for “stability” of the school district.

During a September public hearing to extend León’s contract, Denise Cole, a longtime community advocate who fought for the return to local control, said keeping León on until 2030 is “a simple matter of stability, continuity, and fairness.” Parents raised a long list of complaints, but only a few opposed the extension, while others questioned why the board was considering it three years before Leon’s contract ends.

Ginsburg suggested upcoming elections may have added urgency to the contract extension request and underscored a need for stable leadership in an uncertain time.

The looming gubernatorial election could mean changes for Newark’s public schools, where more than 90% of students identify as Black or Latino, and just under half of district students require English language and special education support.

Republican candidate Jack Ciattarelli has said if he wins, the state’s education department may place more scrutiny on “underperforming” districts like Newark, impact funding for English language learners, and institute changes to the school funding formula that could devastate Newark schools’ budget.

The Newark school board also has an election next spring where four board members’ terms end. Among those whose terms are up is member Josephine Garcia, who was on the committee to appoint León as the district’s first superintendent under local control. Board president Hasani Council, Allison James-Frison, and newly appointed board member Melissa Reed — the member who switched her vote — are also up for election next April.

And while it can be easy to criticize Newark’s governing slips, Ginsburg said, she urged empathy and understanding for board members who are volunteers conducting business in a politically turbulent time.

“It is a scary time for board members all across the state, not just in Newark,” Ginsburg said. “The level of rhetoric has gotten so extreme that just about any decision that boards make that has some amount of impact is not just going to be criticized thoughtfully, it’s going to be criticized in irrational and emotional ways.”

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Carly Sitrin is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Philadelphia. Contact Carly at csitrin@chalkbeat.org.

Newark school board approves superintendent’s contract extension after member abruptly switches vote

2025-10-31T02:48:20+00:00

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In the dead of night and amid a flurry of confusion, Newark’s school board seemingly extended Superintendent Roger León’s contract through 2030 on Thursday — without an official motion or prior public notice.

Last month, the board failed to pass a proposal to extend León’s contract, which had been set to expire in 2028. Four board members voted in favor, two abstained, and two recused themselves due to conflicts of interest. One board member was absent.

A contract extension proposal was not officially on the board’s voting agenda on Thursday. But after the superintendent’s report during the meeting, one board member, Melissa Reed, who previously abstained on the contract extension vote, said she would consider changing her decision and vote for the extension if León were to make a “public commitment” to “fix equity” in the district.

In addition, Reed said León should release a report that details instances of racism and religious harassment at the Newark School of Global Studies. She also said León should implement recommendations included in the report, improve district transparency, and provide a concrete process to register every 16- and 17-year-old to vote, among other changes.

“Mr. Superintendent Roger León, if you’re willing to stand publicly with us on these commitments, then I will stand with you,” Reed said during the board meeting.

León, who was present at the meeting, did not publicly respond to Reed’s request on Thursday.

Board president Hasani Council then asked Reed to clarify if she wanted to change her vote from last month and vote in favor of the extension. “That’s correct,” Reed responded.

Council told Chalkbeat after the meeting that Reed’s decision meant that León’s contract extension through 2030 had been approved.

“She changed her vote from an abstention to a yes, which now allows the superintendent’s two-year extension to pass,” said Council, who recused himself from last month’s vote to extend León’s contract due to a conflict of interest under the district’s nepotism policy.

During Thursday’s board meeting, Brenda Liss, the district’s general counsel, said the board policies and bylaws “have no provision on this, so we look to Robert’s Rules,” referring to a set of rules commonly used by deliberative bodies to conduct business

“Robert’s Rules provides that a board member may change their vote at any time if there is no objection from the board,” said Liss. “If she says that she wants to change her vote, as a matter of courtesy in the past, this board has allowed any member to change their vote without question or without motion.”

Last month’s attempt to extend León’s contract failed to pass after parents and advocates raised concerns about student achievement, racism in schools, and inadequate support for the district’s most vulnerable students.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Carly Sitrin is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Philadelphia. Contact Carly at csitrin@chalkbeat.org.

Newark Superintendent Roger León highlights equity efforts during Council of Great City Schools conference

2025-10-24T20:21:55+00:00

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Newark Public Schools’ approach to equity training “is quite simple,” Superintendent Roger León told a room full of superintendents and staff from the nation’s largest public school districts on Friday.

The strategy, León said during a presentation at the Council of Great City Schools conference in Philadelphia, involves forming leadership teams of principals, parents, students, and teachers that help identify challenges across schools and assess equity efforts.

Those teams serve as a way to “funnel” information from schools and help him “have a pulse of what is occurring in the organization.”

“Talk to me, tell me everything that’s wrong,” Leon said he had told a group of principals.

Newark’s approach also includes deploying equity resources to staff and soliciting expert help, León said during the session on equity training.

The district’s participation in the annual conference was significant as León spoke alongside representatives from public schools in Baltimore and Aurora, Colorado.

The conference convened superintendents and hundreds of employees from 81 of the country’s urban school districts. Superintendents and representatives from school districts in Philadelphia, Detroit, Chicago, New York, and Denver also spoke at sessions during the conference.

Matthew Brewster, Newark’s director of instructional staff development, who also spoke during the equity presentation, said the majority of the district’s professional development on equity comes from consultants.

“Because if you’re going to be a learner, you have to be a learner, right? You have to bring in someone else to help you do the work. Equity work that you’re not uncomfortable doing, you’re not doing right,” Brewster said.

Their comments come as the district continues to face criticism over complaints of racism at the Newark School of Global Studies. In 2022, Black students and teachers described ongoing harassment to the school board member, prompting the district to hire an outside consultant to assess the cultural dynamics of the school. The comments also drew heavy criticism from parents and advocates about the way the school and district leaders handled the situation.

León was also criticized for withholding a scathing report – whose details so far have only been reported in draft form by Chalkbeat — that detailed the problems with racism at the high school and recommended the district improve the effects of anti-Blackness.

In September, Newark school advocates demanded the release of the report and pleaded for a curriculum that challenges racial biases and promotes inclusivity.

Brewster, during Friday’s conference session, also said that the Office of Staff Development has shared a list of books, articles, and research studies with district leaders during professional development sessions. Some of those books include “The Equity & Social Justice 50” by Baruti Kafele, “Becoming the Educator They Need” by Robert Jackson, and “Principal Leadership for Racial Equity” by Raskin, Krull, and Felix.

After the issues at Global Studies came to light, two former teachers sued the district, alleging they suffered “severe emotional problems” as a result of the incidents they experienced, they said. The lawsuit is ongoing.

The controversy also led one of Newark’s longest-serving school board members to step down as part of a settlement with the district after her daughter – a former Global Studies student who said she faced racial harassment at the school – threatened to sue the district.

Newark, New Jersey’s largest school system, is home to 41,000 students, with more than 90% of students identifying as Black or Latino. This school year, Hispanic students represent the largest student group in the district. Since 2019, the number of Black students has declined as Hispanic enrollment has steadily increased.

Jessie Gomez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Newark Public Schools’ state test scores near pre-pandemic levels in English language arts and math

2025-10-07T10:00:01+00:00

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Newark Public Schools students inched closer to pre-pandemic levels on statewide assessments this spring, with English language arts and math scores up by roughly 3 percentage points over last year, according to a district analysis presented last week.

On average, 34% of district students in grades 3 to 9 passed the English language arts test – roughly a percentage point under the 2019 score – while 21.1% of students passed the math test, according to the district’s overview of spring 2025 New Jersey Student Learning Assessment scores. In spring 2024, 31% of students passed the English portion of the test, while 17.7% passed the math assessment.

Former English language learners continue to be the highest performing subgroup across all student populations in English language arts, according to the district. The results indicate that Newark students are continuing to recover from pandemic-era learning disruptions, but the majority are still falling short of state standards. In recent years, district leaders have bolstered tutoring, summer and Saturday school efforts, and introduced a new reading and writing curriculum to help further students’ academic recovery.

The new scores come five years after the emergence of COVID-19 and are the fourth round of tests given to students since then. They also coincide with the district’s fifth year of local control, following 25 years of state oversight of Newark’s public schools.

The state Education Department has not yet released statewide scores publicly. Newark’s analysis is based on state test results given to school districts ahead of time.

Newark’s scores this year are in line with national trends, said Superintendent Roger León, during the September board meeting when scores were presented.

“Students who are in the older grades are able to demonstrate better recovery than the students that are in the younger grades, and English language arts is moving a whole lot faster than the area of mathematics,” León added.

Students who were in grades 5 and 6 in 2020 may need about five years to fully recover, and even longer for those entering eighth grade or high school now, according to the Northwest Evaluation Association, a nonprofit that develops assessments to measure K-12 schools’ student achievement. Students from different racial and ethnic groups, such as Black and Latino, and low-income backgrounds were among the hardest hit by the pandemic’s effects. In Newark, more than 90% of students identify as Black or Latino.

The results are filled with “bright spots” but “do not eclipse the real work that we still have to do,” said Rochanda Jackson, executive director of the Office of Data and Research, who presented the scores last week.

Of the district’s roughly 41,000 students, 3,892 students moved up at least one proficiency level in English language arts since last year, while 3,225 did so in math, according to the district’s analysis.

Students who stayed enrolled from third to fourth grade and seventh to eighth grade saw their average pass rate increase between 2 and 2.5 percentage points, Jackson added. Those who stayed enrolled from fourth to fifth grade and from fifth to sixth grade saw a 3 percentage point increase, while students from sixth to seventh grade saw the largest gain at nearly 8 percentage points, Jackson said.

“These seventh graders were babies in the pandemic. In 2020, they were in the second grade. They spent nearly two years getting foundational math knowledge and virtual classroom experiences they didn’t know,” Jackson added.

Since students began taking the state test after the pandemic, all grades have seen steady growth in English language arts, Jackson said. In 2019, just under 35% of Newark students reached proficiency levels in English, while about 24% of students did so in math.

In comparison to last year, scores in English language arts went up across all elementary grade levels, Jackson said. Students’ math skills are also improving, but more slowly than English language arts, according to the district’s analysis.

As the district continues to work on students’ academic recovery, Jackson said that “with time, rigor, and consistency,” the district can “change the trajectory of students’ lives.”

“We need to keep these at the forefront of our thoughts as we continue to strategize on what needs to be done to accelerate beyond pre-pandemic performance to mastery and sustained academic excellence,” Jackson added.

Jessie Gomez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Rise in Newark Public Schools enrollment is changing student makeup, increasing language needs

2025-10-02T10:00:01+00:00

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Newark Public Schools has experienced a nearly 20% increase in enrollment over the past five years, a rare surge as districts across the country report a decline in students.

The district’s enrollment growth includes a rise in English language learners, students with disabilities, and Hispanic students, who now represent the largest student group in the district. Since 2019, the number of Black students has declined as Hispanic enrollment has steadily increased.

Newark’s surge in student enrollment since 2019 stands out as other public school districts cite decreasing or stagnant student populations. Public school enrollment across the country has dropped by nearly 1.3 million students since the COVID-19 pandemic, partly due to declining birth rates and shifts in migration. Statewide, enrollment grew by only 0.39%, according to a Chalkbeat analysis of state enrollment data.

In a press release on Wednesday, the district noted that it had the highest student enrollment growth of any of the 78 largest U.S. urban districts.

But it’s unclear exactly why Newark’s enrollment has increased so dramatically. Paul Brubaker, the district’s spokesperson, did not respond to multiple requests for comment about Newark’s growing public school enrollment.

In Newark, New Jersey’s largest school system, enrollment is shaped by changing demographics, homeschooling options, and school choice policies, among other factors.

Mark Weber, an education policy analyst at New Jersey Policy Perspective, said the city has seen an influx of Hispanic residents in recent years and a “significant growth” in the number of students who speak English as a second language. But whether those trends are related to Newark’s enrollment boost is unclear, Weber added.

“A 20% increase over five years, that’s a lot,” Weber said.

That growth comes as urban school districts around the country experience declining student enrollment, a trend that began before the pandemic, said Aaron Smith, director of education reform at Reason Foundation, a nonprofit think tank that analyzed national K-12 enrollment data.

“I think you can conclude that public school enrollment is plummeting and will continue to fall for years to come. But of course, the situation is local, and local context is key,” Smith said.

This school year, Newark Public Schools enters its fifth year of local control and has seen steady improvements in state test scores, declines in chronic absenteeism, and the opening of new schools. The district last year also spent more than a quarter of a million dollars to rehire a Memphis-based marketing firm to recruit students into district schools.

But, last week, parents at a public hearing to extend Superintendent Roger León’s contract raised concerns about student achievement, racism in schools, and inadequate support for the district’s most vulnerable students, highlighting questions about whether the district is meeting the needs of all students as enrollment grows.

Newark’s enrollment growth sets it apart from other school districts

Last school year, the district enrolled almost 44,000 pre-K through 12th grade students, up from roughly 36,600 in 2019, according to state enrollment figures. That’s just over 7,000 students who have enrolled in the district since 2019. The district also surpassed charter school growth in 2023, according to a Chalkbeat analysis of pre-K through 12 state enrollment data between 2019 and 2024.

In Essex County, Newark’s public schools have reported the biggest enrollment percentage gains in recent years. Essex Regional Educational Services Commission had a 13.16% growth, Irvington Public Schools experienced an 11.99% boost, and Orange Public Schools had an 11.94% increase, a Chalkbeat analysis found.

Newark’s growth makes it an outlier among other urban school districts in the country. Neighboring New York City has lost some 100,000 students since before the pandemic. Philadelphia schools are down nearly 10,000 students since the 2019-20 school year, and Chicago Public Schools enrollment has dipped by roughly 30,000 students since the 2019-20 school year, according to a Chalkbeat analysis.

A closer look at Newark Public Schools’ enrollment shows that the number of Hispanic students increased by roughly 40% over the last five years and accounts for almost all of the district’s 20% growth since 2019, according to a Chalkbeat analysis of state enrollment data. That’s a sharp contrast from pre-pandemic years, when Black student enrollment was steadily growing at the same rate as Hispanic students. Last school year, the district enrolled more than 26,000 Hispanic students; just under 14,000 students were Black.

The enrollment shifts are on par with demographic changes in Newark. According to the latest U.S. Census figures, Newark is home to more than 317,000 people, with roughly 114,000 identifying as Hispanic or Latino and just over 140,000 identifying as Black or African American.

Last school year, the district enrolled more than 12,000 English learners, according to state fall enrollment data. The number of English learner students rose almost sixfold in 2024 compared to 2019, according to a Chalkbeat analysis of district enrollment figures. In 2022, the district also experienced its most significant growth in English learners.

As the student makeup shifts, district officials are also facing urgent questions about the way they provide resources to students, determine capacity demands, and plan long-term to meet the needs of all students.

Smith, the director at Reason Foundation, added that school districts like Newark that receive state funding based on student enrollment are better equipped to absorb growing populations. In New Jersey, student enrollment numbers are used to calculate how much funding a district gets from the state.

“Generally, it might put a little pressure on the facilities side of things, but otherwise, [school districts] will have to find new talent and hire new staff, which they’ll get the additional resources to do so,” Smith added.

The surge in vulnerable student populations prompted Newark to launch a new bilingual education program at Malcolm X Shabazz High School last fall to help English learners access services closer to where they live. At the same time, some students with disabilities missed class during the first week of the 2024-25 school year after being told they did not have a school placement.

Smith added that enrollment changes “don’t just impact the school system,” they also dictate how a district will have to operate during the school year.

“Schools are just going to have to adjust to their new enrollment reality, and part of that is dealing with staffing issues and sometimes, school closures or budget cuts, which are difficult but necessary,” Smith said.

Jessie Gomez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Newark school board fails to approve Superintendent Roger León’s contract extension after public pushback

2025-09-26T03:43:24+00:00

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A proposal to extend Newark Superintendent Roger León’s contract failed to pass late Thursday after parents and advocates raised concerns about student achievement, racism in schools, and inadequate support for the district’s most vulnerable students.

Four board members voted in favor of extending León through 2030, two abstained, two recused themselves due to conflicts of interest and one board member was not in attendance. The proposal required a majority vote, at least five, to pass.

León’s current contract is set to expire June 30, 2028. The vote Thursday does not necessarily mean an extension is off the table. The board may revisit the issue at a later date.

During Thursday’s heated public hearing, dozens of Newarkers packed Ann Street Elementary School to weigh in on the proposed extension. Those in attendance endured the humidity inside the school’s auditorium as some waited more than an hour to speak for only three minutes.

Parents, teachers, and advocates raised concerns about school lunches, racism, bullying, student achievement, parent engagement, overcrowded classrooms, and support for English language learners and students with disabilities.

Community advocates also demanded the release of a report — whose details so far have only been reported in draft form by Chalkbeat — documenting problems with the cultural climate at a city high school. Advocates also pleaded for a curriculum that challenges racial biases and promotes inclusivity.

Carlos Castañeda, an organizer with Movimiento Cosecha, which advocates for immigrants’ rights, said he opposed the proposed extension because “the process lacks transparency.”

“The public was given a short window to respond, yet the board is considering a decision that will shape our schools for the next five years,” Castañeda said during Thursday’s hearing. “Our families deserve a superintendent that tackles inequities head-on.”

He was joined by a group of Spanish-speaking mothers from the grassroots group New Labor, who also demanded that the board address issues raised instead of deciding on an extension.

Others like Denise Cole, a longtime community advocate who fought for the district’s return to local control, said she was “in strong support” of extending León’s contract and believes the extension would allow him to complete his 10-year plan for the district.

“It’s a simple matter of stability, continuity, and fairness,” Cole added.

After public comment, school board members met for more than an hour behind closed doors to discuss personnel matters. The board voted, without discussion, when it reconvened in public. León did not give a statement about the contract extension or the vote.

Two board members who have relatives who work for the school district recused themselves from the vote in accordance with the board’s nepotism policy.

The hearing lasted nearly five hours and was supposed to be followed by a full school board meeting, which instead was postponed to Sept. 29 at the district’s central office.

León, who became superintendent in 2018, is the first to lead the district under local control and the first Latino to helm New Jersey’s largest school system.

Thursday’s meeting marked another contentious moment between Newark’s school community and district leadership, highlighting growing public scrutiny as the district enters its fifth year under local control and faces questions about whether it has delivered on its promise of a better education for Newark students.

Those in support of the extension pointed to initiatives launched under León’s leadership, including his 10-year plan meant to improve the district by 2030, increased graduation rates, and his commitment to Newark schools after working in the district as a teacher and principal.

But critics said more work needs to be done to improve student reading and address bullying and harassment against students.

This isn’t the first time community members have called on the district to address school issues or provide more transparency into their decision making.

León’s salary this school year is $319,785 according to the district budget.

Victoria Grant, a senior at North Star Academy, a charter school, spoke last and was the only student who spoke during Thursday’s public hearing. Instead of opposing or supporting the extension, she encouraged León to “soak in” the concerns raised.

“What is the school board or superintendent doing to address students’ concerns individually?” Grant added.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Newark Public Schools regained control. Uniting the school community remains a challenge.

2025-09-19T15:35:41+00:00

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Leer en español.

When Newark took its schools back after 25 years of state oversight, the moment marked the beginning of a new era for New Jersey’s largest school system.

For parents, educators, students, and city leaders, the official return to local control in 2020 represented a victory fueled by advocacy and the belief that the community should shape its own schools.

In the five years since, Newark’s schools — once called “abysmal” by state leaders — have shown signs of progress. Graduation rates are up, chronic absenteeism has dropped, enrollment has grown, and test scores have steadily improved. Programs and departments once lost under state oversight were revived, and new schools have opened under Superintendent Roger León, who was appointed in 2018 as the first to lead the district after the return to local control.

Marques Lewis, who led the Newark school board when it was known as the School Advisory Board under state control, says he’s “not totally satisfied” with the current state of Newark schools but feels “better today about the future of the district than I did during state control.”

“Where do I think we are today?” he added. “I think today we still got a lot of work to do.”

While the district has made strides, parents, students, teachers, and advocates say they want more input in decisions about the city’s schools, and have questioned whether local control has delivered on its promise of a more responsive leadership and a better education for Newark students.

“It’s all good to want to restore schools and make it accessible for the families, but we all know that without the families and the community as the driving force … that no school district can thrive, and that’s what they’re struggling with,” said Yolanda Johnson, a former Parent Teacher Association president for the district and advocate for the return to local control.

In an email to Chalkbeat this week, Paul Brubaker, a spokesperson for the district, said officials “meet with and talk to community members every day, we report on matters of public concern all the time, and we are audited by state and federal agencies frequently.”

“We remain committed to ensuring that the public understands what Newark Public Schools is doing,” Brubaker wrote.

Low student test scores, mismanagement led to state control

By the time the state took over Newark in 1995, the district had endured more than a decade of declining graduation rates, disappointing test scores, lagging attendance, and mismanagement.

School buildings were crumbling and leaking, students were not proficient in reading, writing, and math, and school board members were taking lavish trips to Honolulu and dining at fine restaurants on the taxpayers’ dime, according to state officials at the time. The state’s takeover case was bolstered by a damning report authored by Sally Ann Fields, senior state deputy attorney general at the time, that said the district had been “at best flagrantly delinquent and at worst deceptive in discharging its obligations to the children enrolled.”

Although parents and advocates had previously raised concerns about the way schools were run, some saw the state takeover as destructive. Newark was the third school district to be taken over by the state, following Jersey City and Paterson, which also enroll a large share of Black and Latino students. Advocates who criticized the state’s takeover saw it as a political and racially motivated intervention. That idea is backed up by research that shows school districts with predominantly Black students are more likely to be taken over.

Over the next 22 years in Newark, state-appointed superintendents shut down schools, laid off hundreds of employees, and oversaw the expansion of charter schools.

Education reform advocates and philanthropic donors rallied behind the idea that charter schools, which are privately run but publicly funded schools, could deliver the academic turnaround city students desperately needed.

In 2010, a $100 million donation from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg fueled the expansion of charter schools, which boomed across the city, causing a decline in public school enrollment, a decrease in district funding, and budget cuts at traditional public schools.

Under state control, test scores and student achievement slowly increased but Newark’s school community remained skeptical about the efforts.

Lewis, the former Board president under state control, said the board at that time “didn’t really have the power to make decisions” since state-appointed superintendents could veto board actions.

“I think the state crippled us in really being able to educate our children correctly and give them the resources that they need,” Lewis said.

And many parents agreed. “I feel like, under state control, it destroyed our community in Newark,” said Johnson, who added that school closures ordered by state-appointed superintendents were especially damaging. “It destroyed families, separated families, divided families.”

After state takeover, NPS worked to rebuild schools

When the district officially reverted to local control in 2020, after a two-year transition during which the state said it had made “substantial and sustainable progress” to improve schools, León promised to reclaim public school spaces lost under the state’s takeover and slow the spread of charter schools.

León, a Newark Public Schools alum who worked his way up the district ladder, created an ambitious 10-year strategy known as “The Next Decade: 2020-2030,“ aimed at reopening shuttered schools and programs and improving chronic absenteeism, school infrastructure, attendance, and curricula. He also pledged to expand the teacher workforce.

By this year — year six of the strategic plan — “we will have laid the groundwork for progress for all of our priorities, and we will see the image, direction, and formation of a unified school system in the City of Newark,” León’s plan vows.

But those efforts were set back by the COVID-19 pandemic, which shut down schools and caused widespread learning disruptions. Student performance dropped, mental health issues grew, teachers burned out, and the need to support the district’s most vulnerable students became more urgent.

“I’m worried about how this system recovers,” he said at the time, “not from COVID-19 — but from the state-operated school district.”

In 2022, when New Jersey students took state standardized tests for the first time since the pandemic, León called the results “horrible,” noting that just 13% of students in grades 3–9 passed math and about 27% passed English language arts.

But an infusion of federal COVID relief funds was used to overhaul the district’s after-school programming and expand tutoring and academic recovery efforts and helped put León’s plan to boost student achievement back on track.

The efforts — combined with a 2023 overhaul of its reading and writing curriculum— helped grow scores by about two percentage points every year between 2022 and 2024, but state tests showed ongoing student challenges in reading and writing. Nearly 70% of students in grades 3-9 fell short of meeting literacy rates on their state tests in 2024 and around 82% did not meet math standards.

Still, the gains were enough for the district to earn a high-performing designation from the state this year.

Since the return to local control, the district has also opened 10 new schools, including reopening a school for students with disabilities in the city’s North Ward. While districts across the country saw a post-pandemic decline in enrollment, Newark’s enrollment increased, even surpassing charter school growth in 2023. It served roughly 44,000 pre-K through 12th grade students in the 2024-25 school year, up from 37,000 in 2020, when state oversight ended.

Over the last five years, the district has also improved other key metrics. During the 2023-24 school year, the most recent year with available state data, the district raised its graduation rate to 86.3% and reduced chronic absenteeism to 11.5%, up from 75.7% and down from 32%, respectively, in the 2017-18 school year.

The Newark Teachers Union’s formerly “hostile” relationship with the district under state control has also thawed under local control. Union President John Abeigon said state-appointed superintendents “were very dismissive of teachers and their input.” But the union has worked amicably with León to resolve disputes and both parties negotiated a new teachers contract that includes salary raises and opportunities for educators to have more say in curriculum decisions.

Those wins are just a fraction of what district teachers sought, Abeigon said, but “there is more communication and a mutual respect” between leadership and educators now.

Brubaker, the district spokesperson, attributed the gains over the last five years to León’s 10-year strategic plan.

“Successful implementation of the strategic plan has been made possible by the district staff, stakeholders, students, and their families, who believe the total transformation of the Newark Public Schools is possible,” he said in the statement to Chalkbeat.

Newark’s school community wants a seat at the table

Even as the district celebrates the progress under five years of local control, community members say work remains to be done. Students, teachers, and parents have repeatedly voiced concerns about the district’s lack of transparency in decision-making and problem-solving in schools.

Attempts to extend León’s contract have been quietly moved forward with little space for public input, and parents, students, and advocates have slammed León and district officials for withholding a scathing report detailing instances of racism at the Newark School of Global Studies and recommendations to improve the effects of anti-Blackness in the school system.

Former board members have also raised concerns about teacher retention and staff morale, an issue highlighted when two former teachers filed lawsuits alleging harassment in the workplace and racial hostility in schools, and a former employee sued the district for allegedly allowing a hostile work environment.

Abeigon, the teachers union president, says it’s up to the district to resolve the problems.

“If and when we make mistakes, we have to own it. We can no longer blame the state,” Abeigon added.

At the start of the 2021-22 school year, the district started the school year with 120 instructional vacancies and recruited retired teachers amid a staff shortage. Last school year, León also said the district was working to fill “hard-to-staff positions” such as special education aides, bilingual and STEM teachers.

But Lewis, the former board president, said he is concerned about the lack of African American leadership and teacher makeup in Newark schools in the wake of issues at Global Studies. He also raised questions about the way the school board operates.

“I’m praying that the district will continue to move forward, and like I said, there’s room, there’s always room to improve,” Lewis added.

Johnson, the former PTA president who advocated for the return to local control, says the district must do more to engage parents and make them feel heard. When parents of former Global Studies students tried to find a solution to the problems at the school, Johnson was confused as to why they were not included in the process, she said.

“How do you expect [parents] to participate, or be enthusiastic about a school district where they feel like their voices aren’t being heard?” Johnson said.

Johnson said the district could also be doing more to provide services and support for its most vulnerable students. Last school year, the district enrolled more than 11,000 multilingual students and roughly 7,000 special education students, according to state enrollment data.

The U.S. Department of Justice in 2021 found “wide-ranging failures” in the district’s program for English language learners, and some families of students with disabilities have said they’ve struggled to get the services their children are owed. Although Newark has met compliance requirements to exit state monitoring over services to English learners and students with disabilities, parents of those students have called on the district for more support.

To make radical and lasting improvements for students, district leaders “need to give everyone a chance to express their concerns” without fear of retaliation, Lewis said.

“I’m just looking for the day when we can all sit at the same table and say, listen, our main goal is to educate every child in this city and give them the opportunity for a great future,” Lewis said.

A translation of this story was provided by New Jersey Hispano, in partnership with Montclair State University’s Center for Cooperative Media and is supported financially by the NJ Civic Information Consortium. The story was originally written in English by Chalkbeat Newark and is republished under a special content-sharing agreement through NJ News Commons’ Spanish Translation News Service.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Newark Public Schools students head back to class. Here’s what’s new this school year.

2025-09-02T18:21:34+00:00

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On the first day of classes for Newark Public Schools on Tuesday, students dressed in dark blue polo shirts walked through the doors of the Newark School of Architecture and Interior Design, marking the long-awaited opening of the district’s newest campus after a three-year delay.

Dozens of students and their families walked down Jefferson Street to reach the entrance of the high school, located in the heart of the city’s East Ward neighborhood, an area with a high number of Portuguese- and Spanish-speaking families. Students walking to school passed by the construction site of the school’s new gym and auditorium, slated for completion by June 2026. Cars lined up on the side of the school as students said quick goodbyes to their parents before running to the entrance.

One mom kissed her daughter and blessed her with the sign of the cross. Another gave her son a tight hug before he walked through an archway of blue, white, and silver balloons, representing the school colors.

The school opens with a freshman class of 240 this year, marking a significant milestone for the district and students starting their high school journeys. The district plans to add a grade level each year.

Kendrick Thomas, one of the students walking to the new high school, carried his summer reading assignment, a poster explaining 1960s pop culture that he created after reading “The Outsiders” by S.E. Hinton. Thomas is excited to start high school and plans to specialize in the HVAC track, one of three specialties students can choose to study.

Newark School of Architecture and Interior Design ninth grader Kendrick Thomas shows Chalkbeat his summer project on Tues., Sept 2, 2025.

“I chose that because I think I’m good with my hands and, like, it sounded interesting and different,” said Thomas, as he rushed to get to school before the bell rang at 8:15 a.m.

Aside from the HVAC track, the School of Architecture also offers students a chance to specialize in plumbing and electrical trades, while also exploring architecture and interior design. According to district officials, the program will enable students to graduate with both a high school diploma and a trade license.

The new high school is housed in the Ironbound neighborhood at the former St. James Hospital building, which had stood vacant for years before being repurposed. The school was scheduled to open in the fall of 2022, but stop-work orders issued by the state’s Labor Department over wage complaints and changes in contractors delayed the project.

Superintendent Roger León was at the school early Tuesday to greet students, who were among the roughly 40,000 Newark Public Schools students returning to classrooms. He waved to parents driving past the school and shook hands with kids eager to start their first day of classes in a new building.

One mother, who asked to be identified as Maria due to fears of immigration enforcement, said her son, who has a disability, felt nervous to start high school, let alone a new school. But after attending freshman orientation and meeting with teachers and the school’s principal, Soraia Mendes, he was put at ease. The mother hopes León and district leaders will boost efforts to help students with disabilities and better communicate with parents.

“I just hope he gets the academic support he needs,” said Maria in Spanish to Chalkbeat on Tuesday.

Across the street, at the intersection of Congress and Lafayette Streets, cars swerved around pedestrians and honked at each other. A crossing guard held a stop sign as a mom and her three children navigated the busy intersection to reach Lafayette Elementary School. A group of siblings held each other’s hands as they ran down the block and into the elementary school building.

An adult and three kids cross the street on the first day of school on Tues., Sept. 2, 2025 in Newark, New Jersey.

In addition to the opening of the new high school, the 2025-26 school year brings other significant milestones, as well as challenges for the state’s largest public school system.

This school year marks the district’s fifth year under local control after 25 years of state takeover. It also marks the fifth year of León’s 10-year strategy, known as “The Next Decade: 2020-30,” an ambitious plan aimed at tackling learning loss, implementing new curriculums, addressing emerging issues, and adding more teachers, among other goals.

León’s contract is also under consideration for an extension through 2030, which would make him the longest-serving superintendent in New Jersey. The Newark school board has scheduled a public hearing on Sept. 25 to discuss and vote on the proposal.

This school year, district leaders must also address a host of concerns, such as how to support the growing needs of schools as student enrollment increases, manage district finances, tackle transportation issues, expand academic recovery efforts, fix the district’s aging buildings, and assess the effects of anti-Blackness following concerns of racial harassment at a city high school. The district is also expanding AI technology to support student learning and identify struggling readers.

This spring, the Newark school board approved a $1.57 billion budget that included more money for teachers, school renovations, and an increase in charter school payments as district leaders said they budgeted conservatively in light of potential changes to federal funding.

What’s new this school year?

Newark Public Schools will implement new state mandates this year as it works to boost student performance and address other issues. Since 2022, the first year New Jersey students took the state standardized tests since 2019 due to remote learning, standardized test scores have pointed to student difficulties in writing and English language arts.

Newark Public Schools students enter the Newark School of Architecture and Interior Design on Tues., Sept. 2, 2025. The school opened for the 2025-2026 school year after a three-year delay.

In response, New Jersey this fall is launching its new Literacy Framework, which requires public school districts to screen students in grades K-3 for reading difficulties. In Newark, schools will use Amira Learning, an AI-powered tool, as a universal screener to assess students’ ability to read, sound out words, and identify areas needing support.

The state is also introducing a new “adaptive” version of its standardized tests this school year, in which the difficulty of test questions is adjusted based on student responses, according to NJ Spotlight.

León has also said the district is experiencing a growth in student enrollment, which has prompted the opening of new schools and grade-level expansion in others. This fall, Nelson Mandela Elementary School expands to grade 5, Michelle Obama and Sir Isaac Newton Elementary schools expand to grade 6, Ironbound Academy expands to grade 7, and East Ward Elementary School expands to grade 8, according to the district.

The boost in enrollment prompted the district in March to budget for 53 new positions consisting of 20 teachers, 11 aides, and 23 school support staff. It also allocated an additional $1.4 million to support the expansion of schools and an extra $8.1 million to accommodate an additional 1,600 students in the upcoming school year, according to this year’s budget.

The district is also expecting an increase in the number of and English language learners and students with disabilities who require special education services.

Historically, Newark has struggled to implement programs and support for students with disabilities. At the beginning of last school year, some of those students missed class due to enrollment issues that left parents scrambling to find solutions. Students with disabilities also face greater learning challenges as they have been some of the hardest hit by the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The district has not released data on the number of bilingual and special education teachers it has hired for the upcoming school year.

A crossing guard helps students cross a busy street on Tues., Sept. 2, 2025 on the first day of school in Newark, New Jersey.

Last school year, León estimated that roughly $2.5 billion is needed to fix Newark’s dilapidated school buildings. After ruling out a bond to supplement the cost, district officials used some of their capital reserve funds to finance renovations for Newark Schools Stadium and the cafeteria at Sussex Avenue. It was the first time the district used some of its capital reserve funds to finance school renovations.

Newark is also bracing for the potential impacts of ongoing federal changes to education. At the start of the year, President Donald Trump signed an executive order designed to close the U.S. Department of Education. León in March said the district was aware of potential setbacks in federal funding and would make modifications and pivot as needed, but provided no details about its plans to address potential federal cuts.

On Tuesday, as the opening bell at the School of Architecture rang at 8:15 a.m., parents chatting outside began to disperse. They hugged goodbye and wished each other a smooth start to the school year.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Newark quietly schedules Sept. 25 public hearing, vote to extend superintendent’s contract

2025-08-27T19:02:38+00:00

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The Newark Board of Education has quietly scheduled a public hearing and vote to extend Superintendent Roger León’s contract to 2030, according to a public notice posted online over the weekend.

The public hearing, meant to give the community a chance to weigh in on the proposal to extend León’s contract, is set for 5:30 p.m. on Sept. 25 at Ann Street School, just half an hour before the scheduled board meeting that day. As of Wednesday, the public hearing had not been listed on the district calendar on the board’s website.

At the board’s August meeting, community members called for more transparency and public input after news about the board’s plan to extend León’s contract was first reported by NJ.com and Chalkbeat.

State law requires school boards to provide the public with at least 30 days notice before voting on a superintendent’s contract, in addition to a public hearing before the vote, with at least 10 days notice of the hearing.

Essex County Superintendent Joseph Zarra first approved the district’s request to extend León’s contract to 2030 in July, according to letters obtained by Chalkbeat. Zarra also authorized an additional three months at the end of León’s proposed term, pushing the extended end date to Sept. 30, 2030.

The proposal requires board approval, and if passed, it would make León one of the state’s longest-serving superintendents.

This isn’t the first time community members have called for more involvement in the process to renew León’s contract since he was hired in 2018 under a three-year contract. In 2019, the first year of his contract, the school board, at a “sparsely attended” public hearing, voted to add another two years to that contract, extending it to 2023. There was also no notice of a public hearing ahead of that decision on the district website.

León’s current contract took effect on July 1, 2023, after public scrutiny over reports in 2023 that his contract was automatically renewed the year before. It is set to end on June 30, 2028, according to a copy of his 2018 contract that allowed for an automatic, five-year renewal at the end of it.

León’s appointment in 2018 made him the first Latino to lead the district and the first superintendent since the city regained control of its schools. After his appointment, León and his team created a 10-year plan for the district known as “The Next Decade,” which will be in its fifth year this upcoming school year. The plan spans from 2020 to 2030 and is Leòn’s vision to improve district schools following 25 years of state control.

During the 2024-25 school year, León’s base salary was $308,971, according to the district’s budget that year.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Modest increase in state test scores help Newark Public Schools earn high-performing status

2025-08-15T19:50:17+00:00

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Two years after being placed under interim review due to low standardized test scores, Newark Public Schools is meeting state standards, according to a New Jersey Board of Education certification this month.

Under the state’s evaluation system for public school districts, administered every three years, districts are deemed certified, or “high performing,” if they meet benchmarks in five areas: instruction and program, fiscal management, governance, operations, and personnel.

School districts are assessed using a 100-point scale to determine how well they’re meeting standards. Those who score below 80% in any category are placed under an interim review in which a state proxy evaluates the district every six months.

The state board of education certified Newark as being in compliance with state standards in the instruction and program area, a category that assesses state test scores, graduation rates, chronic absenteeism, and a district’s curriculum. The district was placed on the biannual interim review in 2023 after scoring below 80% in the instruction and program area. The district scored a 79 out of 100 in 2023, then dropped slightly to 77 out of 100 in 2024. Any score below 80% in any of the five areas requires an improvement plan with state oversight.

Under Newark’s improvement plan submitted last year, the district met its goal to raise state test scores in English language arts by at least 4 percentage points over 2023. But it fell short of its targets to raise math scores by at least 8 percentage points and science scores by at least 3 percentage points, based on state school performance reports. The district also met its goals to raise graduation rates between 1 and 1.5 percentage points and reduce chronic absenteeism by a minimum of half a percentage point from 2023, based on the state data.

Those modest increases were enough to lift the district out of interim review and earn the high-performing designation.

Although the designation signals a positive mark for the district, education experts have raised questions about the role the state’s evaluation system plays in measuring school performance and student achievement.

Mark Weber, an education policy analyst at New Jersey Policy Perspective, said the state reviews school performance but argues that those measures aren’t necessarily indicators of student achievement.

“There are lots of other things that influence student performance that are not judged by test scores,” Weber told Chalkbeat on Thursday. “We should, in my opinion, be more judicious about how we use these measures, especially when they have high stakes involved, and whether the district has autonomous control of its schools; that’s a high stakes question.”

Paul Brubaker, Newark Public Schools’ communications director, did not respond to a request for comment about this year’s state evaluation.

The state self-evaluation system, known as the New Jersey Quality Single Accountability Continuum, or NJQSAC, was established in 2005 to ensure accountability in school districts requiring state intervention. In 2017, Newark’s evaluation was vital in the state’s decision to initiate the district’s return to local control after it made “significant progress” and satisfied regulatory requirements of the monitoring system, according to the district’s 2017 transition plan for local control.

As part of the state’s evaluation process, districts must also submit their own performance review.

In 2022, Newark gave itself high scores in each area of the evaluation. That year, Superintendent Roger León said the board’s responsibility is to say “we’ve met 100 points,” meaning the highest level of performance the district can reach based on all five components of the state’s monitoring system.

In 2023, the last time Newark received a full evaluation, the district was tasked with proving student achievement to the state despite the effects of the pandemic and learning loss suffered during remote learning.

Many of the trends in Newark, such as students scoring lower in math than English language arts, echo those seen nationally as students continue to recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the spring of 2022, New Jersey students took the state standardized test for the first time since 2019 due to disruptions during remote learning.

León described 2022 scores as “horrible” at the time, citing passing rates of just 13% in math and 27% in English language arts for Newark students in grades 3 through 9. In 2023, students scored 15% in math and 29% in English language arts, and in 2024, 17.7% passed the math test and 31% passed the English language arts test. Although those scores improved by about two percentage points year over year, they still highlighted ongoing struggles among Newark students in math, reading, and science.

“We set these bars for quote, unquote proficiency, and you know, a student could be right below it or right above it. Are we really going to say that that’s the difference? Is that all that’s important?” Weber added.

In addition to scoring 80% on the instruction and program portion of this year’s state evaluation, Newark scored 100% in fiscal, governance, and operations areas, according to the state board of education. The district also scored a 97% in the personnel area.

In the 2025-26 school year, the district will get a full review under the state’s evaluation system. Each of the five areas used to evaluate districts is weighted and used to determine if a district is providing a “thorough and efficient education.”

State test results released last December also showed an overwhelming majority of students in the district are still struggling to perform on grade level in key subjects. Nearly 70% of students in grades 3-9 fell short of meeting literacy rates, around 82% did not meet math standards, and 93% of fifth graders were below grade level in science.

Jessie Gomez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Family ties may block Newark board members from key vote on Superintendent Roger León’s contract

2025-08-11T22:27:04+00:00

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Three Newark school board members have relatives who work for the school district, connections that could prevent them from weighing in on a proposed extension of Superintendent Roger León’s contract.

Board President Hasani Council and members Kanileah Anderson and Louis Maisonave Jr. have more than one family member working for the district, according to this year’s state personal and relative disclosure records.

Under the Newark Board of Education’s nepotism policy, members with a relative working in the district may not participate in matters concerning the superintendent’s contract, including evaluations and contract discussions. Those board members must also exclude themselves from closed session discussions about the matter.

The state’s School Ethics Commission has also issued decisions to school districts that limit a board member’s role in superintendent employment matters.

The district’s policy and state guidance could complicate a proposal to extend León’s contract to 2030.

Board members Anderson and Maisonave did not respond to Chalkbeat’s questions about the perceived conflicts of interest. Council, in an email Monday, said it was “insulting to suggest that board members are unaware of their responsibility to recuse themselves when personally impacted.”

“We are well-trained, fully informed, and take these responsibilities seriously,” Council added, while providing no comment on the proposal to extend Leòn’s contract.

Council’s father, Patrick Council, who is a Newark councilman, works as the district’s youth opportunity coordinator, and his sister is a per diem teacher, state disclosure forms records show.

Anderson’s sister is a school psychologist; her niece is an academic interventionist; and her cousins are district custodians, according to state records. Maisonave’s son is a substitute teacher at Elliot Street School, and his nephew is a per diem security guard at Roberto Clemente Elementary School, state records show.

The superintendent’s proposed contract extension, which is up for consideration at this month’s school board meeting, requires the approval of the majority of the board — or at least five members on the nine-member board –– to be accepted, according to school board voting requirements. If approved, it would put León at the helm of Newark Public Schools for 12 years, making him one of the longest-serving superintendents in the state.

León’s contract extensions have caused controversy in the past, with some in the community raising concerns about the board’s transparency. His contract was last extended in 2022 without public discussion.

State and local anti-nepotism rules provide specific procedures for when a relative is hired by the school district to ensure “what’s in the best public interest,” said Sandra Graise, an associate attorney at Florio Perrucci Steinhardt Cappelli & Tipton. Board members must recuse themselves rather than abstain from voting on employment matters related to the superintendent, Graise added.

She compared the superintendent to the chief executive officer of a company and added that any perceived influence from relatives could blur lines and create distrust between school boards and the public. Graise advises board members to complete conflict of interest questionnaires annually to maintain public trust.

“Any public servancy requires full transparency,” said Graise in a call with Chalkbeat on Monday. “What you want to avoid is this quid pro quo. Hire my relative, I’ll make sure I vote on your contract and you stay in the district.”

The state’s School Ethics Commission, which helps school board members and officials understand how ethics laws apply in practice, has issued several advisory opinions regarding possible nepotism.

In 2015 and again in 2017, the commission issued at least four advisory opinions in districts across the state that provided guidance to school board members whose relatives were hired by the school district and their roles concerning their families’ supervisors, including the superintendent.

In a 2015 advisory opinion, the commission reviewed an instance where seven out of nine school board members had relatives who had been hired by the school district or other districts. In that situation, the commission decided that conflicts of board members “based upon relatives being employed by the District also apply to any matter touching upon the relatives’ employment.”

León was appointed as Newark’s schools chief in 2018, becoming the first superintendent after the city regained control of its schools and the first Latino to lead the district. His current contract took effect on July 1, 2023, after public scrutiny over reports that his contract was automatically renewed the year before. It is set to end on June 30, 2028, according to a copy of his 2018 contract that allowed for an automatic, five-year renewal at the end of it.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Newark Board of Education will consider extending Superintendent Roger León’s contract this month

2025-08-07T00:03:41+00:00

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Newark Superintendent Roger León’s contract would be extended to 2030 under a proposal approved by Essex County Superintendent Joseph Zarra, according to letters obtained by Chalkbeat.

The proposal, outlined in the district’s letter requesting Zarra’s approval obtained by Chalkbeat, will be considered by the Newark Board of Education at its Aug. 21 meeting. If approved, it would put León at the helm of New Jersey’s largest school district for 12 years, making him one of the longest-serving superintendents in the state.

State law requires school boards to hold a public hearing before voting to extend a superintendent’s contract and provide at least 10 days notice before holding the hearing.

León’s current contract took effect on July 1, 2023, after public scrutiny over reports that his contract was automatically renewed the year before. It is set to end on June 30, 2028, according to a copy of his 2018 contract that allowed for an automatic, five-year renewal at the end of it.

Zarra approved the extension and authorized an additional three months at the end of León’s term, pushing the end date to Sept. 30, 2030, according to a copy of Zarra’s July 21 response to the district’s attorney, Brenda Liss. Any changes to the terms of León’s contract must be reviewed and approved by the county before the required public notice and hearing of such changes, according to Zarra’s letter.

During the 2024-25 school year, León’s base salary was $308,971, according to the district’s budget that year.

The Newark school board has not yet posted the agenda for its Aug. 21 meeting, the first of the school year after a virtual retreat on Aug. 16. The district also has not publicly announced its plans to consider extending León’s contract.

León was appointed as Newark’s schools chief in 2018 –– making him the first since the city regained control of its schools and the first Latino to lead the district. At that time, he was hired for a three-year term that extended to June 30, 2021, according to board documents

Newark Public Schools Communications Director Paul Brubaker and school board President Hasani Council did not confirm on Wednesday whether the board plans to discuss León’s contract extension at its Aug. 21 meeting. The district also denied Chalkbeat’s public records request for León’s annual evaluations between 2018 and 2025, citing records laws that protect personnel documents.

So far, the proposal has elicited mixed reviews from community members.

Newark Teachers Union President John Abeigon praised the proposed extension during a call with Chalkbeat on Wednesday, saying that “longevity has its place” and comparing it to how a teacher’s skills improve with experience over time.

“We like longevity in the education field. And I think that the same thing applies for superintendents,” Abeigon said. “Communities have to give a superintendent an opportunity to be successful. Some of them are going to be greeted amicably by the community. Some will not, but the proof is going to be in the pudding.”

Fatoumata Bah, a rising senior at Science Park High School, said the decision to extend a school superintendent’s contract should be driven by public input.

A big decision like that should “not just be made behind closed doors,” especially when families and students have been critical of the leadership, said Bah to Chalkbeat on Wednesday.

A Newark Public Schools student since seventh grade, Bah said she would like to see better communication between the superintendent, schools, and students, a responsibility that she feels should be spearheaded by León. The rising senior said providing more mental health resources for students is important to her, and although the district has created initiatives such as this year’s mental health summit at Montclair State University, Bah doesn’t always receive the information.

“I didn’t even know about the [mental health summit] that they had, but upon further research, I found out about it. So I think that says a lot about … the communication with the students … that they serve,” Bah added.

Extension could make León one of NJ’s longest-serving superintendents

This is not the first time the district has sought to extend León’s contract. In 2023, school leaders were criticized after reports that León’s contract had been automatically renewed in May 2022 due to a clause in his contract that extended his term by five years. The clause said that board members needed to alert León by May 15, 2022, if his term, set to expire on June 30, 2023 at the time, would not be extended the following year.

That move prompted dozens of Newark parents, teachers, students, and advocates to attend a board meeting in January 2023, where they raised issues affecting public school students at the time. Current and former students at Newark’s School of Global Studies brought up concerns over allegations of racist harassment at the school that former students said were unaddressed, high school teachers shared their worries over the lack of bilingual teachers supporting English language learners, and advocates criticized the board’s handling of the superintendent’s contract renewal.

Under state law, boards of education are not required to provide public notice or hearings for new contracts, including contracts that replace expired contracts for tenured and non-tenured employees. But according to that same law, a 10-day public notice on a hearing is required for extensions, amendments, or other alterations to the terms of existing contracts, along with a 30-day notice prior to a school board’s action to alter a contract.

Lisa Gray, a former social worker in the district’s Office of Early Childhood, called the proposal to extend León’s contract a “nightmare.” Gray, who left the district last fall after more than a decade because of issues with her supervisors in the workplace, said she is concerned about test scores, diversity in schools, and teacher retention under León’s tenure.

“Another thing that I was disappointed about with was [León’s] 10-year plan, because people are saying ‘oh he wants to stay on to finish his 10-year plan’ but I’m concerned that there is no plan to desegregate the schools,” Gray told Chalkbeat on Wednesday. “It’s time for us to thank Roger León for his service and move on to another administrator.”

León’s 10-year plan, known as “The Next Decade,” is in its fifth year this upcoming school year. It spans from 2020 to 2030 and is Leòn’s vision to improve district schools following 25 years of state control.

The Newark school board will consider extending Superintendent Roger León's contract to 2030 at its Aug. 21 meeting.

If the board approves León’s contract extension, his tenure would rival other long-serving superintendents in the state.

Mark Toback was the superintendent of Wayne Township Schools for 11 years from 2014 to roughly 2025. Charles T. Epps Jr. led Jersey City Public Schools for 11 years, from 2000 to 2011. But it’s Murray A. Chittick, former superintendent of East Brunswick Schools, who may hold the longest tenure in New Jersey, serving for 28 years between 1929 and 1957.

The Newark school board will meet twice this month, first virtually on Aug. 16 at 6 p.m. for its retreat meeting and then again on Aug. 21 at 6 p.m. at 765 Broad Street for its first regular school board meeting of the year.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Newark school board to pay $200K to settle legal claim filed by ex-school board member’s daughter

2025-08-05T15:00:07+00:00

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Former Newark school board member Dawn Haynes and her daughter, who had both been vocal about alleged racist experiences at a Newark high school, reached a $200,000 settlement with the district in May, according to sources and documents reviewed by Chalkbeat.

The agreement called for Haynes to step down from the school board and for Haynes’ daughter to drop her legal claim to sue the district, according to two people with knowledge of the agreement.

The settlement, which has not been previously reported, offers new clarity about the abrupt end of Haynes’ board term and the culmination of a messy legal and political battle stemming from allegations of discrimination and racist harassment at the Newark School of Global Studies.

Haynes’ resignation in May came without explanation, an unusual move for a member who had advocated for greater transparency on the board. Haynes had spent months petitioning to keep her seat after fellow board members asked the state education department to remove her after her daughter threatened to sue the district.

The settlement, obtained by Chalkbeat through a public records request, acknowledges no wrongdoing by the Newark school board and includes a confidentiality clause that prohibits the parties involved from disclosing the terms and details. It was heavily redacted by the district, citing public records laws that protect confidentiality and student privacy.

Two individuals, whose names were redacted, signed the settlement agreement on May 13, a day after Haynes submitted a resignation letter to the Newark school board. A heavily redacted letter that appears identical to that resignation letter is included as an exhibit in the settlement.

This marks at least the second settlement that the school district has entered into to end potential lawsuits tied to the School of Global Studies, a five-year-old school where incidents of racial harassment in 2022 led to half a dozen Black students transferring and the resignation of educators and the school’s vice principal. A lawsuit from two teachers claiming a hostile work environment, filed in Essex County Superior Court in April 2024, is ongoing.

Haynes and her daughter, Akela Haynes, did not respond to a request for comment. District spokesperson Paul Brubaker and school board President Hasani Council did not answer questions about the settlement or Haynes’ departure. Bryant Horsley, who represented Haynes in the district’s petition to remove her from the school board, did not respond to a request for comment about the petition.

Haynes, her daughter called for change after Global Studies allegations

Throughout Haynes’ three-term tenure on the board, she and her daughter had been vocal about alleged racial discrimination that students and teachers said they faced at Global Studies. In November 2022, a group of Black students and teachers from the high school spoke about the ongoing racial harassment they said they experienced on campus. The way district and school leaders handled the allegations drew heavy criticism from the community.

Haynes’ legal fights around Global Studies began in 2023 when she first faced an ethics complaint filed by former Global Studies parent liaison Samantha Heer, who alleged that Haynes used her position as board president to organize a meeting between parents and the Black student council at the school. The complaint was dropped in July 2024 after Heer failed to appear for hearings, according to the state education department.

Haynes, along with former board members Crystal Williams and A’Dorian Murray-Thomas, was also the subject of an ethics complaint filed by Global Studies Principal Nelson Ruiz in 2023, which remains under review by the state’s School Ethics Commission.

State administrative code requires the School Ethics Commission to keep confidential all matters until there is a finding of probable cause, or a determination of a violation, or the matter is dismissed, according to the state Education Department on Tuesday.

Months later, on Oct. 25, 2024, Akela Haynes filed a legal claim against the school district over allegations of racial and religious harassment during her time as a student at Global Studies, which she described as her dream high school and where she studied Mandarin and looked forward to a trip to China. A Muslim, Akela Haynes, previously told Chalkbeat that she dealt with a student calling her a terrorist and a racial slur. She said she had raised the issue with school administrators, who she said failed to address the problems.

The claim alleged Superintendent Roger León and Ruiz were liable for violating their obligation to protect the former student from “the physical and psychological harms” she experienced there. The settlement between Haynes, her daughter, and the Newark Board of Education marks the first time the district has formally responded to the allegations in the legal claim filed in October. Ruiz has not publicly addressed the allegations.

Akela Haynes’ legal claim was not a lawsuit against the district, but rather a notice of her intent to sue. But the claim kicked off the school board’s efforts to oust her mother, with members citing a conflict of interest as the reason for her immediate removal.

In November 2024, the Newark school board voted to ask the state education department to recommend the removal of Haynes due to a conflict that stemmed from her daughter incorrectly listing her mother’s address on her legal claim rather than Akela Haynes’ new address in Georgia, where she now attends school, according to court filings. But the school board’s request was shot down in January by the state’s education commissioner and was sent back to the state’s office of administrative law for a resolution.

The matter remained unsettled for months until the Newark school board voted on a resolution to approve the settlement with Haynes and her daughter at its May 17 retreat meeting. The resolution said the May 13 settlement was in the district’s best interest “in order to avoid protracted and costly proceedings” and was recommended by León.

A day earlier, on May 12, Haynes submitted a resignation letter to Council, the school board president, effective May 1. In June, the Newark school board appointed South Ward leader Melissa Reed to replace Haynes, but still offered no explanation about why Haynes resigned.

The Newark school board withdrew the petition to remove Haynes on June 20, more than a month after it had approved the settlement, according to a copy of the withdrawal letter obtained by Chalkbeat.

Since 2022, when Global Studies students first spoke out about the allegations of racial harassment, the Newark school district has worked to quell public discussion about the situation at the high school. The district refused to release a report from Creed Strategies, a consulting firm hired by the school board to examine the racial, religious, and cultural dynamics at Global Studies. Haynes, who had read the report, had previously called it “traumatizing to read.”

León had previously said the report would remain internal and inform the district’s strategy on diversity, but no details about the strategy have been made public.

The Newark Teachers Union filed two lawsuits seeking the release of the secret report about the high school, but the district reached a settlement with the union last fall, and the report was not released. Details of that settlement also remained secret.

Chalkbeat obtained a copy of the Creed Strategies’ report, which found that district leaders failed to “quickly and consistently” respond to racist and bigoted incidents against Black students and teachers at Global Studies, a high school designed to embrace world cultures. Creed Strategies also recommended that the district assess the effects of anti-Blackness on the school system.

Before her resignation, Haynes demanded a public apology from the board during the January school board retreat, due in part to the “false information,” she alleged, that was given to board members about the situation. She was never given one.

This story has been updated to include information from the New Jersey Department of Education on the ethics case initiated by Global Studies principal Nelson Ruiz against Haynes and two former board members.

Jessie Gomez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Newark educators and students: Are school buildings overcrowded and affecting teaching or learning?

2025-07-22T19:20:23+00:00

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Newark’s public school buildings are among the oldest in the state, with many dating back to the 1920s and in need of repairs and upgrades to support student learning.

Over the years, the district has asked New Jersey to fix its most egregious infrastructure problems, such as crumbling buildings, damaged roofs, broken windows, leaky boilers, and faulty heating and cooling systems.

But many schools are still in need of major renovations that can only be funded by the state. Chalkbeat is looking for feedback from the community about the state of Newark schools and how it’s affecting teaching and student learning.

Tell us: Do you think your public school building is overcrowded?

This spring, a state education department report found that Newark’s middle schoolers are learning in overcrowded public school buildings that fall short of the state’s space requirements. The report also found that roughly two-thirds of the state’s 31 high-poverty districts do not have enough space to meet student needs, underscoring other existing infrastructure problems in Newark and across the state.

In 2024, the state agreed to replace 13 of the district’s oldest school buildings, but the deal leaves out 20 schools that need to be replaced. The state last year also committed to spending nearly $153 million to build a new high school in Newark’s South Ward and relocate a nearby elementary school – a project still in its early stages that requires state funds to begin.

The state, through the Schools Development Authority, is responsible for funding school construction projects in Newark and 30 other high-poverty districts. Overall, the SDA estimated that more than $7 billion is needed to address current construction needs in the 31 high-poverty districts. But the state legislature provides funding to the SDA on a “pay-as-you-go basis” with no long-term financing plan to support the work.

Newark’s infrastructure problems aren’t new, and in 2016, the district identified more than 100 buildings in need of repairs. The state only approved 11 for repairs.

Newark used some of its money to make emergency repairs, renovate school auditoriums, install contactless water fountains, and install air conditioners last summer. Superintendent Roger Leòn had previously suggested a bond for school construction projects but ruled out that option this year after meeting with parents, teachers, and union members who said they would be unlikely to approve the measure. In January, León said the bond would have supplemented the cost of repairing Newark’s aging school buildings.

Advocates have urged the state legislature to invest $500 million annually to fund the SDA after educators and parents from across the state described the experiences of students and staff forced to learn and work in old and crumbling buildings.

These problems have created issues for the educators teaching in Newark’s school buildings and the students learning in them. Chalkbeat Newark wants to know how the district’s aging and overcrowded buildings may be affecting you.

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Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Equipo de Trump suspende supervisión del fallido programa de aprendizaje de inglés en las escuelas de Newark

2025-07-18T16:11:25+00:00

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El Departamento de Justicia de EE. UU. ha terminado silenciosamente su supervisión del programa de aprendizaje del idioma inglés de las escuelas públicas de Newark, incluso después de que el departamento, bajo el expresidente Joe Biden, encontró que el distrito no usaba regularmente intérpretes calificados para los padres que no hablaban inglés, según descubrió Chalkbeat.

Un acuerdo de 2021 halló “fracasos de amplio alcance” en el programa de aprendizaje de inglés del distrito y dio un plazo al distrito hasta finales de 2024 para solucionar 10 asuntos que violaban la ley federal.

En diciembre de 2024, el Departamento de Justicia encontró que el distrito había solucionado la mayoría de los problemas, pero no estaba utilizando constantemente intérpretes calificados para ayudar a los padres con un dominio limitado del inglés cuando se ponían en contacto con las escuelas o proporcionaban información en un idioma que entendían, según una carta federal que parcialmente terminó y prorrogó el acuerdo de 2021.

El Departamento de Justicia también encontró que el personal del distrito estaba usando Google Translate para proporcionar información escolar a los padres que hablan inglés limitado. Estas deficiencias llevaron al Departamento a prorrogar el acuerdo hasta julio, según la carta de 2024 del departamento federal.

Pero luego, en abril, Alina Habba, que fue nombrada fiscal interina del Distrito de Nueva Jersey por el presidente Donald Trump, notificó al distrito que había cumplido con sus requisitos bajo el acuerdo de 2021 y el acuerdo ampliado de 2024. El distrito no ha anunciado públicamente el fin de la supervisión federal, sino que en lugar de ello incluyó la noticia en un informe del comité de mayo.

El acuerdo ampliado obliga al distrito a realizar pruebas para determinar la capacidad del personal de entender y hablar un idioma en particular y presentar una propuesta al Departamento de Justicia en febrero. También requería que el distrito presentara un informe final para el 1o de julio. No está claro qué pasó con esos requisitos ahora que la vigilancia ha terminado.

La investigación del Departamento de Justicia que resultó en el acuerdo de 2021 comenzó en 2017, cuando el distrito escolar todavía estaba bajo control estatal, en respuesta a las quejas de que Newark estaba fallando a los estudiantes de inglés. La investigación duró cuatro años y encontró que el distrito no estaba cumpliendo con las leyes federales de derechos civiles relacionadas con la educación. Específicamente, se encontró que las prácticas del distrito dejaron a algunos estudiantes de inglés con pocos o ningún servicio lingüístico, mientras que otros fueron retirados de los programas de idiomas antes de que dominaran el inglés.

Como resultado, en 2021 el distrito acordó revisar su programa de aprendizaje de inglés y cumplir con los términos de un acuerdo de 25 páginas que exigía al distrito evaluar a todos los estudiantes que hablaban idiomas distintos del inglés para verificar si necesitaban servicios lingüísticos, proporcionar esos servicios en cualquier escuela a la que asistieran, contratar más maestros calificados, verificar su progreso e informar a los funcionarios federales.

La población que aprende inglés en las escuelas públicas de Newark ha estado creciendo a lo largo de los años, y los funcionarios escolares están luchando con una escasez de maestros bilingües que puedan comunicarse en diferentes idiomas. Desde el año escolar 2020-21, los estudiantes de inglés en el distrito han crecido del 17.1% al 24.2% en 2023, según el informe de rendimiento escolar de Nueva Jersey de 2023-24.

El distrito es hogar de más de 11,000 estudiantes de inglés e incluye una mezcla de estudiantes nacidos en el país y en el extranjero. La mayoría habla español o portugués, aunque algunos hablan árabe, francés, creole haitiano u otros idiomas.

Paul Brubaker, director de comunicaciones del distrito, no respondió a los correos electrónicos sobre el plan de las escuelas públicas de Newark para solucionar problemas con el uso de intérpretes calificados.

El Departamento de Justicia no ha explicado la razón por la que puso fin a su supervisión, ni ha publicado un informe en el que se indique cómo ha cumplido el distrito con sus obligaciones.

La agencia federal se negó a comentar sobre el fin de la supervisión, según un correo electrónico del 5 de junio de NaSheena Porter Poznansky, oficial de asuntos públicos para el U.S. Attorney’s Office District of New Jersey (Fiscalía Federal de EE. UU. en Newark).

Desde que Trump asumió el cargo en enero, ha sido claro acerca de eliminar las prácticas y políticas que apoyan la diversidad, la equidad y la inclusión en las escuelas. En marzo, Trump declaró al inglés el idioma oficial de los Estados Unidos y despidió a casi todos los empleados del Departamento de Educación responsables de asegurar que los distritos escolares estuvieran usando fondos federales destinados a ayudar a los estudiantes de inglés.

El Departamento de Justicia destacó las deficiencias de los traductores de las Escuelas Públicas de Newark a lo largo de los años

Entre las 10 formas en que el distrito violó la ley federal, el Departamento de Justicia ya había encontrado que no se estaba comunicando eficazmente con los padres que no hablaban inglés y que también estaba fallando al personal de sus programas de aprendizaje del inglés con maestros bilingües certificados, según el acuerdo de conciliación de 2021.

Durante una reunión de la junta en enero de 2024, los estudiantes informaron que en los últimos años, usaban aplicaciones de traducción en sus teléfonos para comunicarse con los maestros, mientras que otros dijeron que era difícil comunicarse con los compañeros de clase. En esa misma reunión, un exmaestro también afirmó que los educadores no estaban recibiendo suficiente apoyo para ayudar a los estudiantes bilingües.

Como parte de la vigilancia cuatrienal del Departamento de Justicia que comenzó en 2021, los funcionarios federales visitaron las escuelas del distrito, de acuerdo con las cartas de cumplimiento federal de 2023 y 2024 al distrito. Observaron varias clases de inglés como segunda lengua y bilingües y entrevistaron a directores, maestros bilingües de evaluación de necesidades y secretarios de inscripción, según las cartas.

Los funcionarios del Departamento de Justicia bajo la administración de Biden encontraron que la mayoría de las escuelas tenía una lista de personal, y en algunos casos personal de todo el distrito, que hablaba diferentes idiomas, pero esas listas típicamente incluían una combinación de personal que estaba certificado bilingüe y otros que se autoidentificaron como hablantes de otros idiomas en sus respuestas a una encuesta escolar, según las cartas de cumplimiento federal de 2023.

Del mismo modo, en 2023, los funcionarios federales también encontraron que el distrito aún tenía que capacitar a todos los maestros de ESL que también trabajaban con estudiantes con discapacidades, según las cartas de cumplimiento federal. Los funcionarios federales también encontraron que el distrito no contrató suficiente personal con experiencia relacionada con la intersección de estudiantes de inglés y servicios de educación especial, según las cartas de cumplimiento de 2023.

En 2024, los funcionarios federales continuaron visitando las escuelas de Newark y encontraron que el distrito había progresado al contratar más maestros certificados de inglés como segunda lengua (ESL por sus siglas en inglés) después de descubrir que algunas escuelas no tenían maestros sustitutos ESL a largo plazo. El distrito también proporcionó más recursos a los maestros bilingües de evaluación de necesidades, quienes deben ayudar a los padres con el proceso de inscripción utilizando intérpretes calificados. Newark también mejoró la forma en que rastreaba el progreso de los estudiantes de inglés y fortaleció las necesidades de los estudiantes para salir del programa de aprendizaje de inglés del distrito.

A pesar de las deficiencias de Newark, el distrito “ha trabajado diligentemente” para corregir los problemas descritos en el acuerdo de conciliación de 2021 y ha demostrado un “cumplimiento sustancial” con los términos del acuerdo durante al menos un año, como lo requiere el acuerdo, señaló la carta de diciembre de 2024.

Sin embargo, en la misma carta también se señalaba que el distrito no utilizaba sistemáticamente intérpretes calificados en las escuelas o a través de Language Line, una empresa que proporciona servicios de traducción e interpretación para ayudar a las organizaciones a comunicarse con personas que hablan diferentes idiomas. También señaló que los secretarios escolares y otro personal del distrito son responsables de hablar con los padres que no hablan inglés sobre la registración, matrícula, selección de escuelas, y los servicios de aprendizaje en inglés.

Los funcionarios federales también señalaron en la carta de 2024 que se debe recordar al personal que use intérpretes calificados y materiales traducidos por ellos cuando se comuniquen con padres con un dominio limitado del inglés y deben ser entrenados para usar servicios telefónicos de interpretación.

Este año escolar, el distrito lanzó un nuevo programa de educación bilingüe en la escuela preparatoria Malcolm X Shabazz High School para ayudar a la creciente población de estudiantes de inglés de Newark a tener acceso a los servicios más cerca de donde viven.

Traducido por Bernardo de la Cruz.

Esta traducción fue proporcionada por New Jersey Hispanoen asociación con el Centro de Medios Cooperativos de la Universidad Estatal de Montclair, y cuenta con el apoyo financiero del Consorcio de Información Cívica de NJ. La historia fue escrita originalmente en inglés por Chalkbeat Newark y se vuelve a publicar en virtud de un acuerdo especial para compartir contenido a través del Servicio de noticias de traducción al español de NJ News Commons.

Jessie Gómez es una reportera por Chalkbeat Newark y cubre las escuelas públicas de Newark. Puede ponerse en contacto con ella: jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Newark Public Schools welcomes six first-time principals, new leadership this fall

2025-07-08T19:13:27+00:00

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The Newark Board of Education has named six new principals – all stepping into the role for the first time – with the majority coming from within the district.

Four of the new principals will be at elementary schools, and two will work at high schools, including the new Newark School of Architecture and Interior Design opening this fall after a three-year delay. The majority are veteran educators and administrators and, combined, they bring decades of experience to the job.

Other leadership changes include the appointment of Sandra Marques as the new assistant superintendent of the East and Central School Leadership Team and Corey Dawkins, who comes from a community college in New York, as the new executive director of facilities.

Candidates for principal roles must have the New Jersey principal standard certificate or a certificate of eligibility for principal and complete an application for the position. Each candidate interviews with multiple departments and staff members before a final interview with Superintendent Roger León.

This year’s announcement of top leaders follows last year’s efforts to diversify the ranks of school principals and vice principals and create teacher-to-leader pipelines. Four of the six principal promotions are for women of color, one is for a Black man, and another for a Latino man.

It also follows the district’s trend of hiring first-time principals while reshuffling school leadership. In previous years, the district’s support of first-year heads had been under scrutiny after it replaced first-year principals at Science Park and Vocational High Schools and last school year demoted Avon Avenue Elementary School’s first-year principal to a teacher.

The new principals “bring a deep commitment to academic excellence and student success,” said León in a district press release last week. The appointees “have demonstrated the expertise, integrity, and passion” to lead district schools, added school board President Hasani Council in the release.

The school leaders must also work to help students learn and create inclusive spaces, as recommended by a district consulting firm following allegations of racism and harassment at the Newark School of Global Studies. More than 90% of the student body identifies as Latino or Black, but the district’s teaching force doesn’t always match.

Six first-time principals to lead Newark schools

The Newark School of Architecture and Interior Design is expected to welcome students in September, and district leaders tapped Soraia Mendes, the former vice principal at Technology High School, to lead the new school. The new trade high school opening in the East Ward is set to focus on three trades – plumbing, electricity, and HVAC – and allow students to study architecture and interior design. It was originally scheduled for a 2022 fall opening, but stop-work orders issued by the state over wage complaints and changes in contractors have delayed the project.

Mendes taught English at East Side High School for six years before assuming the role of vice principal at Technology for 12 years. She holds a bachelor’s degree in modern languages and literature from the University of Coimbra in Portugal and a master’s degree in educational administration from the University of Scranton. As a child, Mendes attended Wilson Avenue School before moving to Portugal.

The district also recruited Kean University assistant professor Dr. Rafael Inoa to lead Bard High School Early College. This is Inoa’s first time in a K-12 administrative role. He will replace former principal David Cutts, who was appointed to the principal position in 2023. Inoa brings more than 20 years of experience as a teacher, researcher, and program evaluator. He holds a bachelor of arts in Hispanic and Caribbean studies from Rutgers University, a master of arts in educational leadership from Saint Peter’s University, and a Ph.D. in educational research and program evaluation from Seton Hall University. He started his career as a middle school English teacher in Jersey City.

The district also hired Michael F. Dixon, the former assistant principal at Orange Preparatory Academy, to lead Belmont Runyon Schools. He will replace former principal Robin Williams, who was appointed last school year. Dixon started his career in 2000 as an eighth grade teacher at the district’s former Miller Street School and later became a teacher coach at Ivy Hill Elementary School. He holds a bachelor of arts in management with a minor in retail merchandising from Montclair State University, and a dual master’s in curriculum and instruction math K-14 and leadership from Concordia University.

At the elementary school level, Tania Sousa-Vilar will lead Wilson Avenue Elementary School after former principal Margarita Hernandez-Abeigon retired after more than two decades in the district. Sousa-Vilar graduated from Wilson Avenue and previously served as a teacher at Ann Street Elementary School and a teacher coach and vice principal at Wilson Avenue. She brings 20 years of experience working in the district.

Najie Kennedy was tapped to lead Rafael Hernandez Elementary School this year, replacing former principal Jessica Rios, who was appointed in 2023. Kennedy began her teaching career in the South Bronx and, most recently, was the vice principal at Elliot Street Elementary School. She earned a bachelor of business administration in accounting from Adelphi University and a master’s degree in childhood education with a specialization in special education from Brooklyn College, and another in educational leadership from the College of Saint Rose.

The district also promoted Qadriyyah Williams to a principal role at South Seventeenth Street School. She will replace former principal Clarence Allen, who led the school for more than 10 years. Williams was the vice principal at South Seventeenth and began her career as an English language arts teacher at the district’s former Harold Wilson Middle School. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Montclair State University and a master’s degree in educational leadership from Seton Hall University.

District leaders also recruited two other individuals for top roles.

Newark appointed Marques as the district’s new assistant superintendent of the East and Central School Leadership Team. She brings more than 25 years of experience working in district schools. She is the former district director of career and technical education.

The district appointed Dawkins as the district’s new executive director of facilities, bringing more than 20 years of experience in facilities management. He recently served as the director of campus facilities and chief sustainability officer at SUNY Orange, a public community college.

Jessie Gomez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Newark school board appoints Melissa Reed to fill vacant board seat left by Dawn Haynes

2025-06-27T17:06:26+00:00

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The Newark school board voted to appoint Melissa Reed to fill a board seat that was left empty after one of its longest-serving members abruptly resigned last month.

Reed, a 29-year-old district leader for the South Ward and Newark Public Schools graduate, won a unanimous vote at a board meeting Thursday to join the Newark Board of Education and succeed former member Dawn Haynes. She will serve a one-year term up for election in April 2026. She was one of seven candidates interviewed by the board on Thursday, including several former school board candidates.

In total, nine people applied to fill the vacant board seat, according to information obtained through a public records request. The district was accepting applications for the position until June 2.

Reed’s swearing-in was added to a special school board meeting originally scheduled for so-called “Donaldson hearings,” where staff members can appeal a district decision not to renew their contracts. The agenda for the meeting was posted less than an hour before the meeting began and did not mention the board’s intent to swear in a new member.

The Newark Board of Education swore in Melissa Reed, a Newark resident and public school graduate, for a one-year term to the Newark Board of Education.

Reed recited the oath of office in front of her new board colleagues and attendees, as her sister held the Bible. She then sat in the empty board seat and addressed the other contenders for the seat, many of whom she knew and had worked with.

“You guys have been in the community for years. Like, when I walked through the door, I greeted everybody, because all you guys’ faces are familiar,” she said. “We all do the same thing. We all have the love and passion and compassion for our kids, and we want a better community, and we want a better city for the people that live here.”

She added: “Just because I’m here doesn’t mean that I can’t work with you.”

Reed’s selection is the latest reshuffling of board members and comes after Haynes, who was elected in 2018 and serving her third term, resigned from the board as of May 1. Last school year, Thomas Luna, a charter school teacher, won a unanimous board vote to fill an empty seat after former board President Asia Norton suddenly resigned. But the school board refused to swear in Luna and eventually appointed someone else.

Haynes was under scrutiny from district Superintendent Roger León and other leaders after her daughter filed a legal claim against the district alleging religious, racial, and gender discrimination, and other harassment during her time as a student at Newark School of Global Studies. In November 2024, the school board voted to ask the state education department to recommend removing Haynes on grounds that her daughter’s claim led to a conflict of interest. But the state education commissioner shot down the petition in January.

Reed will join the other eight board members in deciding policies for New Jersey’s largest school system, which has roughly 40,000 students across 64 schools. The board is also tasked with holding the superintendent accountable and addressing the public schools’ most pressing issues, such as managing district finances, transportation, facilities needs, academic recovery efforts, implementing federal and state policies, and supporting its growing number of students, including multilingual learners and students with disabilities.

The school board has also faced criticism from the community over transparency in addressing racism in schools; the district’s decision not to pay board members’ attorneys fees in their fight against an ethics complaint initiated by a high school principal; and the board’s approval of thousands of dollars for a staff fun day that the state’s education department deemed an inappropriate use of funds.

Newark Board of Education members pose for a picture with their newest member, Melissa Reed, and her sister.

Reed works in the Essex County Division of Senior Services and has experience working on political campaigns in Newark. She is serving a two-year term as the South Ward Democratic committee leader for Municipal District 25, a position she was elected to in 2024. She has been an advocate for policies that promote equity, sustainability, and community well-being. Before her interview with the board on Thursday, Reed told Chalkbeat she wanted to become a board member because she wanted to give back to city youth and offer transparency and support to students and parents.

During the meeting, Reed sat next to Elaine Asyah Aquil, who ran for school board this year under the All Kids Matter banner and who was also vying for the empty board seat. Reed said Aquil had inspired her to use her voice, and she praised her for her support throughout the years.

“She really motivated me, and I appreciate that so much,” Reed said.

Along with Aquil, the other candidates who interviewed for the board position were former school board candidates Ade’Kamil Kelly, who ran twice, Latoya Jackson, who ran three times, Sheila Montague, who ran three times, and Yolanda Johnson, who ran four times, along with Fawn Ross, who was vying for a board seat for the first time.

Jessie Gomez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Newark Public Schools adopts AI literacy screener as part of state plan to boost reading skills

2025-06-24T15:07:04+00:00

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Newark Public Schools will use a new artificial intelligence tool this fall to help identify students who may be struggling to read, as part of the state’s new literacy plan aimed at boosting early reading skills.

The Newark school board last week approved the use of Amira, an AI-powered literacy tool developed by San Francisco-based company Amira Learning, as a universal screener, an assessment given to students to identify who may be at risk for reading difficulties. Under the state’s new Literacy Framework, New Jersey school districts are required to screen students in grades K-3 starting this fall.

Amira is designed to assess student reading deficiencies and improve reading skills through personalized intervention plans based on individual needs.

Although the use of AI for literacy screening is a growing trend across the country, the state’s working group on student literacy noted that the tool may have difficulty assessing students with accents or complex speech challenges. That could be a concern in a district like Newark, which has more than 11,000 English language learners, with most speaking Spanish or Portuguese, although some speak Arabic, French, Haitian Creole, or other languages.

The board approved a two-year term contract with Amira Learning that will run from July 1 through June 30, 2027, at a cost not to exceed $900,000.

Amira is the only AI screener recommended by the state’s working group, which helped create the Literacy Framework that is meant to boost early reading skills among young learners starting this fall. The Newark school board last week also approved a $109,260 grant to help fund the district’s screener as part of one of two state grants to help school districts implement the new literacy requirements.

Newark is among a growing number of school districts adopting Amira as a literacy screener. The AI tool is currently used in over 2,000 school districts across the country, including in Oklahoma and Colorado, and has been approved by a number of states, including California, Idaho, and Georgia.

Literacy screeners are reading assessments used to quickly identify students who may be at risk for reading challenges and help educators pinpoint students who may need additional support. Most literacy screeners use digital tools to analyze students’ reading skills, but typically don’t include an AI component.

Using AI literacy screeners such as Amira to identify which students need support could help, but Yaacov Petscher, a professor at Florida State University and associate director at the Florida Center for Reading Research, stressed that AI should add to – not replace – teachers’ expertise, particularly in addressing multilingual diversity and instructional needs.

“We’re in a culture of AI where there’s a rush to integrate, but we need evidence of how well the systems are working without biases,” said Petscher, who also works to build reading assessment tools. “We want to think about how to support and augment systems, but not completely replace teachers and their training for delivering core reading curriculum.”

Amira has been piloted in six Newark Public Schools, and initial data shows increased student growth, according to the district’s request for proposals for screeners. Last school year, the district adopted new approaches to teaching phonics, implemented explicit writing strategies, and began training teachers’ knowledge of the science of reading as part of its plan to boost student achievement after spring state test scores showed student difficulties in writing and English language arts.

Paul Brubaker, the district’s communications director, did not respond to questions about piloting Amira Learning, what type of growth students had shown, and why the district decided to use an AI literacy screener.

What is a literacy screener and how is it used?

Literacy screeners are typically given to young students at the beginning of the school year and again during the winter or spring to test their ability to read, sound out words, and pinpoint trouble areas. Research shows that it’s best to identify at-risk readers at an early age to prevent them from falling further behind as they learn new literacy skills.

Using AI to help screen for student reading deficiencies is new, and the level at which they could improve academic performance is still being researched, according to Petscher, the professor at Florida State. Similarly, an independent research review of literacy tools such as Amira found that AI could be beneficial if it shows evidence of accurately measuring reading deficiencies.

The study also reviewed Amira and found that its measure for predicting reading challenges may not be capturing important aspects of early reading development, but may show accuracy in the future if it conducts a study.

“A company will say, we have a screener that screens for dyslexia, but we have to go deeper to understand well, what do they mean by that?” Petscher added.

Amira Learning was founded in 2018, but the work to develop Amira started at Carnegie Mellon in 1993, according to Mark Angel, CEO of Amira Learning. Angel, who has worked in the AI tech industry for more than three decades, took over Carnegie’s research and collaborated with education experts to launch and train Amira in the science of reading. Amira uses machine learning technology to learn from students and adjust to their needs, Angel added.

Last June, the company announced it had merged with Istation, a reading screening tool widely used in Colorado and other states across the country.

As students read aloud, Amira listens for pauses, hesitations, fluency, and other factors, while pinpointing strengths and areas for growth, Angel said. Student recordings and other data are owned and controlled by each school district, Angel added.

Last school year, Amira reached a more than 95% accuracy rate among all student subgroups, and intervention effectiveness matched or exceeded what would be expected from a skilled human tutor, according to a company assessment.

Angel acknowledged that there are biases with AI based on how each system is trained but the goal with Amira is “to correct that systemic bias” by overexposing the system to different speech patterns and accents so Amira is more accurate in understanding students who have been historically under- or over-identified for reading deficiencies, Angel added.

Similarly, Angel said, Amira is not meant to replace the teacher’s knowledge but rather support their work.

“Our belief is that Amira will help teachers to really get back to a workable, worthwhile situation in the classroom, and in ways that the pandemic and other things have kind of robbed them of,” Angel added.

Literacy screeners aren’t a one-size-fits-all, Petscher said, noting that school districts often use multiple screeners to help inform curriculum decisions and identify student reading challenges.

AI systems “don’t seem to be trained or fine-tuned” well enough to account for linguistic diversity and require humans to double-check outcomes created by systems like Amira, Petscher said.

The state’s working group report noted that teachers are encouraged to listen to Amira’s student recordings and rescore tests if needed, which also helps the software learn a student’s speech profile.

In August 2024, Gov. Phil Murphy signed four bills that launched the New Jersey Literacy Framework and called on school districts to implement literacy screenings for students in K-3, create reading intervention plans, and start new training on reading instruction for pre-K-6 staff starting this fall. The bills also established the Office of Learning Equity and Academic Recovery, or LEAR, in the state’s Education Department, which will oversee the new literacy initiatives.

Jessie Gomez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Biden’s DOJ found lingering issues in Newark’s English language learner program. Trump’s team closed the case.

2025-06-18T09:45:00+00:00

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Leer en español.

The U.S. Department of Justice has quietly ended its monitoring of Newark Public Schools’ English language learner program, even after the department, under former President Joe Biden, found that the district did not consistently use qualified interpreters for non-English speaking parents, Chalkbeat has learned.

A 2021 settlement agreement found “wide-ranging failures” in the district’s English learner program and gave the district until the end of 2024 to fix 10 issues that violated federal law.

In December 2024, the Justice Department found the district had fixed the majority of the problems but was not consistently using qualified interpreters to help parents with limited English proficiency when they contacted schools or provided information in a language they understood, according to a federal letter that partially terminated and extended the 2021 settlement agreement.

The Justice Department also found that district staff were using Google Translate to provide school information to parents who speak limited English. Those deficiencies prompted the department to extend the agreement to July, according to the federal department’s 2024 letter.

But then in April, Alina Habba, who was appointed acting U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey by President Donald Trump, notified the district that it had satisfied its requirements under the 2021 settlement agreement and the 2024 extended agreement. The district has not publicly announced the end of federal monitoring but instead tucked the news into a May board committee report.

The extended agreement required the district to conduct testing to determine staff’s ability to understand and speak a particular language and submit a proposal to the Justice Department in February. It also required the district to submit a final report by July 1. It is unclear what happened to those requirements now that the monitoring has ended.

The Justice Department investigation that resulted in the 2021 settlement agreement began in 2017, when the school district was still under state control, in response to complaints that Newark was failing English learners. The investigation took four years and found that the district was not complying with federal civil rights laws related to education. Specifically, it found that the district’s practices left some English learners with little or no language services, while others were removed from language programs before they were fluent in English.

As a result, the district in 2021 agreed to overhaul its English learner program and comply with the terms of a 25-page settlement agreement that required the district to assess all students who spoke languages other than English to check if they needed language services, provide those services at any school the students attended, hire more qualified teachers, monitor their progress, and report back to federal officials.

Newark Public Schools’ English language learner population has been growing over the years, and school officials are wrestling with a shortage of bilingual teachers who can communicate in different languages. Since the 2020-21 school year, English language learners in the district have grown from 17.1% to 24.2% in 2023, according to 2023-24 New Jersey school performance report.

The district is home to more than 11,000 English language learners and includes a mix of students born in the country and abroad. Most speak Spanish or Portuguese, although some speak Arabic, French, Haitian Creole, or other languages.

Paul Brubaker, the district’s communications director, did not respond to emails about Newark Public Schools’ plan to fix problems with using qualified interpreters.

The Justice Department has not explained its rationale for ending its oversight, nor has it released a report outlining how the district has met its obligations.

The federal agency declined to comment about the end of monitoring, wrote NaSheena Porter Poznansky, public affairs officer for the U.S. Attorney’s Office District of New Jersey, via email on June 5.

Since Trump entered office in January, he has been clear about stripping away practices and policies that support diversity, equity, and inclusion in schools. In March, Trump declared English the official language of the United States and fired nearly every Education Department employee responsible for ensuring that school districts were using federal funds meant to help English learners.

DOJ highlighted NPS’ translator deficiencies over the years

Among the 10 ways the district violated federal law, the Justice Department had already found it was not communicating effectively with non-English speaking parents and that it was also failing to staff its English learner programs with certified bilingual teachers, according to the 2021 settlement agreement.

In recent years, students reported using translator apps on their phones to communicate with teachers, while others, during a January 2024 board meeting, said it was tough to communicate with classmates. A former teacher during the January 2024 meeting also said educators weren’t getting enough support to help bilingual students.

As part of the Justice Department’s four-year monitoring beginning in 2021, federal officials visited district schools, according to 2023 and 2024 federal compliance letters to the district. They observed several English as a second language and bilingual classes and interviewed principals, bilingual needs assessment teachers, and the enrollment clerks, according to the letters.

Justice Department officials under the Biden administration found that most schools had a list of staff, and in some cases districtwide staff, who spoke different languages, but those lists typically included a combination of staff who were certified bilingual and others who self-identified as speaking other languages in response to a school survey, according to 2023 federal compliance letters.

Similarly, federal officials in 2023 also found that the district had yet to train all ESL teachers who also worked with students with disabilities, according to federal compliance letters. Federal officials also found that the district did not hire enough staff with experience related to the intersection of English learners and special education services, according to 2023 compliance letters.

In 2024, federal officials continued to visit Newark schools and found that the district had made progress by hiring more certified ESL teachers after finding that some schools had no long-term ESL substitute teachers. The district also provided more resources to bilingual needs assessment teachers, who are required to help parents with the enrollment process by using qualified interpreters. Newark also improved the way it tracked English learner progress and bolstered student requirements to exit the district’s English learner program.

Despite Newark’s shortcomings, the district “has worked diligently” to correct the problems outlined in the 2021 settlement agreement and has demonstrated “substantial compliance” with the terms of the agreement for at least one year, as required by the agreement, the December 2024 letter noted.

However, that same letter also noted that the district did not consistently use qualified interpreters at schools or through Language Line, a company that provides translation and interpretation services to help organizations communicate with people who speak different languages. It also noted that school clerks and other district staff are responsible for speaking with non-English speaking parents about registration, school selections, enrollment, and English learner services.

Federal officials also noted in the 2024 letter that staff should be reminded to use qualified interpreters and materials translated by them when communicating with parents with limited English proficiency and must be trained on using telephone-based interpretation services.

This school year, the district launched a new bilingual education program at Malcolm X Shabazz High School to help Newark’s growing population of English language learners access services closer to where they live.

A translation of this story was provided by New Jersey Hispano, in partnership with Montclair State University’s Center for Cooperative Media and is supported financially by the NJ Civic Information Consortium. The story was republished under a special content-sharing agreement through NJ News Commons’ Spanish Translation News Service.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Newark’s district and charter schools received over 10,000 applications for enrollment this fall

2025-06-10T21:26:30+00:00

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More than 10,000 students applied to Newark schools for the upcoming school year, with charter schools seeing the highest number of applicants through their recently launched enrollment system.

Newark Public Schools received 7,400 applications through its enrollment platform, Newark Enrolls, while city charter schools had a record-high 3,454 applications submitted through the Newark Common App, which was launched three years ago.

Newark parents must apply for a school if their student is enrolling for the first time, wants to switch schools, or is in the final grade of their current school, for example, a preschooler who will start kindergarten next fall, or an eighth grader who will be starting high school.

For years, the only way to apply to most public schools in the city was through the Newark Enrolls website, but in 2022, 10 Newark charter schools broke ties with the district’s enrollment system and created the Newark Common App. But the Newark school district requires all students, including those attending charter schools, to submit residency documents before formally enrolling in a matched school.

The open enrollment period for Newark Public Schools and charter schools began on Nov. 2, with families receiving school match letters in April.

The application data does not reflect actual enrollment for the 2025-26 school year, but it provides schools with an early projection of how many students to expect. The projections are important because enrollment impacts school funding, staffing decisions, transportation planning, meals, services for students, and school facilities needs.

Public school enrollment in districts across the country has decreased since the pandemic, while rates in some school districts are holding steady, according to data released in December by the National Center for Education Statistics. Across the country, public school enrollment reached 49.5 million students for fall 2023, which represents a less than 1% decrease compared to fall 2022 and a 2.5% decline from pre-pandemic levels in 2019.

Newark Public Schools enrolled over 40,000 students this school year, while city charter schools enrolled over 20,000. As districts dealt with the fallout of the pandemic and declining enrollment, Newark’s public schools surpassed charter school growth in 2023, according to a Chalkbeat analysis of state fall enrollment data between 2019 and 2024. In Newark, charter schools educate more than a third of the city’s public school students, and across the state, they represent about 5% of all public school enrollment.

Among district schools, Newark Enrolls applications slightly decreased from 7,407 for the 2024-25 school year to 7,400 for the upcoming year, according to Newark Enrolls data obtained by Chalkbeat through a public records request. Of the applications for enrollment this fall, 3,981 were for high school grade levels and 3,419 were for pre-K-8 grade levels, according to the data. On April 18, 7,377 match letters were sent to students, according to the figures.

Before the pandemic, Newark Enrolls received 11,800 applications for the 2020-21 school year, but that number dropped sharply to about 7,800 applications for 2021-22. Those applications were submitted before the creation of the Newark Common App in 2022.

Among the charter schools, the Newark Common App applications increased from 3,092 for the 2024-25 school year to 3,454 for the upcoming year, an increase of 362 applications, according to recently released Newark Common App data. Ninth grade received the highest number of applications, followed by kindergarten, according to the data. Overall, 82% of Newark Common App applicants were matched to schools, and 71% received their first choice, according to the figures.

District leaders are preparing for new and expanded costs to support rising enrollment and services for Newark’s most vulnerable students. The costs also include payments to charter schools, which are privately run but publicly funded schools. Under New Jersey law, school districts must provide charter schools with at least 90% of per-pupil funds for students who live in the district.

Since his appointment in 2018, Superintendent Roger León has been vocal about his attempt to stop the expansion of charter schools, while district leaders have raised concerns about the high costs associated with funding them.

Newark Public Schools’ payments to city charter schools are rising by $24.8 million, totalling $416 million for the upcoming school year.

District leaders have also raised concerns about charter schools serving a disproportionate number of vulnerable students, such as English language learners and students with disabilities, which costs schools more money to educate and provide services for them. Newark Public Schools expects more than 11,000 English language learners and over 7,000 students with disabilities next school year.

In New Jersey, enrollment has gradually increased over the last three school years, according to fall enrollment data. The 2024–25 school year marked the highest district and charter school enrollment in recent years, per state data, but those figures do not account for private or homeschool enrollments.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Newark Public Schools to pay over $300 million for trade high school under new 30-year lease

2025-06-04T20:15:38+00:00

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Newark Public Schools will pay over $300 million over 30 years for its new trade high school — but after many delays, the gym and auditorium may not be finished when it opens this fall.

The Newark School of Architecture and Interior Design is expected to welcome students in September, per an amended lease agreement that extended the deal from 20 to 30 years and was approved by the district’s Board of Education last month. But the deadline for the developer to finish those parts of the school isn’t until the middle of 2026.

The district also has the option to purchase the building for $1,000 at the end of the 30-year lease, according to the revised agreement obtained by Chalkbeat through a public records request.

The amended lease agreement comes after the developer of the property and Summit Assets CEO Albert Nigri promised last fall that the entire school facility would be finished by the start of the upcoming school year.

When the lease for the new trade high school was first signed by the district in 2021, NPS agreed to a $160 million, 20-year lease. The following year, Superintendent Roger León announced the opening of the new trade high school in the city’s East Ward at an invite-only groundbreaking ceremony. He touted the school — the first of its kind in the district — as an opportunity for students to fast-track their technical careers and earn a contract to work with the district.

It was originally scheduled to open in the fall of 2022. But stop-work orders issued by the state’s Department of Labor and Workforce Development over wage complaints and changes in contractors have delayed the project.

The district’s communications director Paul Brubaker did not respond to questions from Chalkbeat about the project’s setbacks, how the district plans to pay the lease for the school, or its reasoning for extending the lease agreement. Nigri did not respond to calls seeking comment.

The Newark School of Architecture and Interior Design is set to focus on three trades — plumbing, electricity, and HVAC — and allow students to study architecture and interior design. The curriculum will also give students a high school diploma and a license for trade work, district officials have previously said.

The new school is housed at the former St. James Hospital building that has stood vacant for years in the middle of the city’s Ironbound neighborhood. When it opens, the school will enroll 240 ninth grade students and add a grade level each year. Payments to Nigri, the property’s landlord and developer, are set to begin when the school opens this fall.

New high school delayed amid pay complaints

The latest version of the amended lease, approved by the school board in May, includes two new deadlines for the completion of the school.

By Aug. 1, 2025, the base of the school building must be completed, which includes new walls, roofs, and windows, elevators, restrooms, a courtyard, and landscaping. By June 1, 2026, the newly constructed gym and auditorium must be completed and the building must be finished, according to the lease amendment.

Those deadlines are later than those in the first amendment to the lease approved by NPS in August 2024, which were for the base of the school building to be completed by Jan. 9, the new gym and auditorium to be finished by July 30, and the building to be completed by Sept. 1.

The amended lease also extends the deal from 20 to 30 years and bumps up the total lease to $295,979,990 over 30 years. The district must also pay a total of $20 million in additional payments to Nigri between year two and year six and year 26 and year 30 of the lease.

Union workers at the high school’s construction site also encountered poor working conditions that were making their jobs unsafe and many were being paid late or in cash. That resulted in the union filing wage complaints with the state.

In September 2022, the New Jersey Department of Labor issued stop-work orders to Summit Assets as well as the former general contractor and an ex-subcontractor. That order halted work on the site for months before Nigri hired a new contractor and subcontractor.

Days later, dozens of union workers showed up to a district school board meeting demanding that León intervene after they were forced out of work and owed pay. León addressed laborers’ complaints and reiterated the district’s plan to open the school in September 2023.

In October 2024, the Department of Labor issued a second stop-work order on the site and to the new contractors and subcontractors of the project. Although the work subsequently resumed, district leaders have not addressed the project’s delays or issues related to worker pay.

Instead, the district began to advertise a fall 2025 opening date, and this spring, it opened up enrollment to the school. Brubaker did not respond to a request for comment about the district’s contingency plan if the landlord fails to deliver part of the building by Aug. 1.

State remains responsible for new school construction in Newark

During a May 2021 public hearing on the project, former assistant school business administrator Jason Ballard said that leasing a high school building is more affordable than building a new high school, which he said costs an average of $134 million. That’s less than half of what the district will pay on its lease for the new trade school, based on construction plans in other New Jersey cities.

The Schools Development Authority is the state agency responsible for paying construction projects in Newark and 30 other low-income school districts. According to its 2022 biannual report, the cost per square foot for a high school project was $369 at that time.

The agency’s largest and most expensive construction project is Perth Amboy High School, which opened its doors last fall and cost $284 million to add room for nearly 3,300 students.

Over the years, the agency has promised the district it would pay for school repairs and provide new buildings. But despite efforts to address these challenges, including the allocation of $18 million in state funding for building upgrades over the last three fiscal years, the district estimates that it would need more than $2 billion to repair and update all schools.

The Newark school district has identified 33 out of its 64 total schools that need replacing and dozens more that need renovations. The state agency last summer promised to replace 13 of Newark’s oldest buildings, but the deal still leaves out 20 schools that need replacements. The state agency also said it would spend nearly $153 million to build a new University High School and relocate Hawthorne Avenue Elementary School, but the plan is still in its early stages.

In 2023, the Schools Development Authority purchased the former University Heights Charter School building for $15.5 million and transferred it to the district to fulfill its promise to provide a new elementary school, now known as the Nelson Mandela Elementary School.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Newark middle schoolers face overcrowded classrooms and space shortages, state report says

2025-05-22T09:45:00+00:00

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Middle schoolers in Newark Public Schools are attending classes in overcrowded buildings that fall short of state space requirements, a new report from the New Jersey Department of Education finds.

Newark, New Jersey’s largest school district, does not have a dedicated middle school and enrolls grades 6-8 in elementary and high schools across the district. The district’s enrollment has increased in recent years, pointing to its need for more school space.

The report highlighted Newark’s ongoing need to replace its public schools, some of which date back to the 1920s and are among the oldest in the state. The report also found that roughly two-thirds of high-poverty districts — formerly known as Abbott districts — do not have enough space to meet student needs, underscoring other existing infrastructure problems such as inadequate HVAC systems and outdated school buildings.

Newark faces significant facilities challenges due to its crumbling school buildings and a lack of funding from the state. The district has identified 33 out of its 64 total schools that need replacing and dozens more that need renovations.

The state’s Schools Development Authority, or SDA, is required to pay for construction projects in Newark and 30 other high-poverty districts. Despite efforts to address these challenges in Newark, including the allocation of $18 million in state funding for building upgrades over the last three fiscal years, the district estimates that it would need more than $2 billion to repair and update all schools.

The new report “speaks to the ongoing need to continually assess school facilities” and fund construction projects, said Theresa Luhm, an attorney and managing director at Education Law Center, a nonprofit that works to protect the rights of public school students.

“I would argue it’s also for the SDA to have some kind of consistent funding stream so they can make plans as they go. Right now, it doesn’t matter what needs they identify because there’s no money to fund projects in the long run,” Luhm said.

Studies show that investing in school facilities, and new school construction in particular, can improve K-12 student outcomes, particularly for students from low-income backgrounds. A report from the Annenberg Institute at Brown University found that after three years in a new school building, student attendance improves by “a statistically significant but small one percentage point” annually.

Luhm added that overcrowding can also cause schools to sacrifice specialized spaces to make room for classrooms.

“So now you’ve taken away your science labs or art, music rooms, or other areas because now you’re just using that as regular classroom space,” Luhm added.

Newark among 31 school districts with urgent repair needs

Required every five years to help the SDA prioritize school construction projects, the new report found that 19 of the 31 SDA districts have capacity deficiencies or provide fewer square feet per student than mandated in the New Jersey Facilities Efficiency Standards, which set minimum square footage to support learning.

Newark Public Schools’ buildings serving grades 6-8 are over capacity, and provide less space per student than required, according to the report. The district does not have a school dedicated solely to middle school grades. Of the district’s 64 schools, 36 enroll students in pre-K-8, three enroll K-8, two high schools enroll grades 7-12, one enrolls K-6, and another enrolls pre-K-7, according to the district’s school directory.

Newark’s neighboring city Elizabeth faces the most severe overcrowding and space shortages across all grade levels, the state report says. Bridgeton, Garfield, Irvington, New Brunswick, Orange, and Union City face overcrowding and inadequate space in at least one grade span. Paterson, Perth Amboy, Plainfield, West New York, Union City, and Vineland rank among the districts with the lowest square footage per student.

To fix the problems in these and other districts, the SDA needs more money. Over the last three fiscal years, New Jersey has allocated $2 billion for school construction projects, but that money has already been committed to emergency projects, leaving no money for new projects, according to Sen. Vin Gopal (D-Monmouth) earlier this year.

It currently receives funds from the legislature on a “pay as you go” basis with no long-term funding to support their work.

Last year, Newark Public Schools was weighing whether to present a $1.2 billion bond referendum to city voters this April to cover school repairs. But district leaders squashed that plan after learning that it was unlikely to gain support, Superintendent Roger León said earlier this year.

Luhm and others have called on state leaders to provide more funding. The Healthy Schools Now coalition, which represents more than 100 organizations across the state, is also calling on Gov. Phil Murphy and the legislature to provide $500 million annually to the SDA, starting with the upcoming budget, which must be finalized by June 30.

The SDA last summer promised to replace 13 of Newark’s oldest buildings, but the deal still leaves out 20 schools that need replacements. The state agency also said it would spend nearly $153 million to build a new University High School and relocate Hawthorne Avenue Elementary School, but the plan is still in its early stages.

Since 2006, only nine new schools have been built in the district; one other property was given to Newark by the state to open the Nelson Mandela Elementary School. And since 2016, district officials have asked the SDA to fix more than 100 buildings.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Newark school board member involved in Global Studies cases steps down from her role

2025-05-19T22:06:12+00:00

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Read in Spanish.

One of Newark’s longest-serving school board members, who faced removal from her seat this year and has spoken out about racial harassment and tensions at a controversial district high school, has suddenly left the board, Chalkbeat has learned.

Dawn Haynes, who was serving her third term, has stepped down from the Newark Board of Education effective immediately, according to multiple sources.

First elected in 2018, Haynes recently faced criticism from Newark Public Schools Superintendent Roger León and other district leaders after her daughter filed a legal claim against the district alleging religious, racial, and gender discrimination and other harassment during her time as a Newark School of Global Studies student. In November 2024, the Newark school board voted to ask the state education department to recommend the removal of Haynes due to a conflict that stemmed from her daughter’s legal claim, but the petition was shot down in January by the state’s education commissioner.

The vacancy was announced by board President Hasani Council after an executive session during Saturday’s board retreat. The news comes just weeks after April’s school board election, though Council didn’t identify Haynes by name. Council added that the board is soliciting nominations until June 2 at 4 p.m. to fill a one-year term up for election next year. The vacancy announcement is posted on the district’s Facebook page.

Paul Brubaker, the district’s communications director, and Council did not respond to questions on Monday about the board’s vacancy or Haynes’ departure. Haynes declined to comment.

For the last three years, Haynes, who would have been up for reelection in 2027, and her daughter had been vocal about alleged racial discrimination that students and teachers said they faced at Global Studies. In her claim, her daughter, Akela Haynes, also alleged that between September 2020 and December 2022, she “suffered pervasive and consistent” discrimination, sexual harassment, assault, battery, intimidation, bullying, cyber-bullying, emotional distress, and other inappropriate and unlawful treatment.

Newark resident Dawn Haynes was elected to the city school board in 2018.

Haynes’ departure comes a month after the Moving Newark Schools Forward, a political slate heavily backed by Mayor Ras Baraka and other powerful Democratic lawmakers, won the three seats up for election in this year’s school board race. Haynes was part of the Moving Newark Schools Forward slate, which has consistently won every school board election since 2016.

The new vacancy has already drawn attention from this year’s school board candidates. Ade’Kamil Kelly, who ran on the Prioritizing Newark’s Children slate, announced on Saturday that he submitted his petition to fill Haynes’ seat. In his letter of intent shared with Chalkbeat, Kelly writes that he is a passionate advocate for youth and education. He has spent several years “developing and leading programs” that support youth’s “academic growth, social development, and civic engagement,” the letter reads.

During a school board candidate forum in March, Kelly, who ran alongside first-time candidates Shana Melius and Nathanael Barthelemy, said the district’s harassment, intimidation, and bullying policy wasn’t being properly enforced, particularly in light of complaints of racism and harassment.

“I understand the vital role the Board plays in shaping policy, setting priorities, and ensuring every student has access to a high-quality education. If selected, I will bring a thoughtful, equity-driven perspective to this work,” reads Kelly’s letter of intent submitted to the Newark school board.

Haynes’ departure from the board is the latest fallout from the racial tensions reported at Global Studies.

In January, Chalkbeat Newark obtained a scathing draft of a consultant’s report that found Newark Public Schools leaders failed to “quickly and consistently” respond to racist and bigoted incidents against Black students and teachers at Global Studies. León in 2023 said that the report, commissioned by board members that year, on Global Studies’ cultural, religious, and racial dynamics, would remain internal and inform the district’s strategy on race.

Following León’s comments, the district released three recommendations from the report conducted by the consulting firm Creed Strategies that urged a review of the effects of “anti-Blackness” on the school system, foster conversations about racial issues, and create an environment that is racially conscious and inclusive. León has not said how the report has informed the district’s diversity policies or other school strategies.

Haynes, a Malcolm X Shabazz High School graduate and a city hall staffer, is known for her efforts to raise student performance and improve school culture and diversity. Haynes has also been active in working against gun violence in the community and for helping families, parents, teachers, and youth as the former president of Harriet Tubman Elementary School’s Parent Teacher Association.

During her time at Shabazz, Haynes was part of the ROTC program and later joined the U.S. Air Force, according to her biography on the district’s website. After the Air Force, Haynes went to Lincoln Technical Institute, where she earned her certification as an electronic systems technician.

A translation for this story was provided by New Jersey Hispano, in partnership with Montclair State University’s Center for Cooperative Media and is supported financially by the NJ Civic Information Consortium. The story was originally written in English by Chalkbeat Newark and is republished under a special content-sharing agreement through NJ News Commons’ Spanish Translation News Service.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Meet Newark’s first Gen Z school board member who aims to bridge the gap between generations

2025-04-24T19:11:28+00:00

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At just 23, David Daughety is the first Generation Z member — and among the youngest people — elected to the Newark Board of Education, but he is no stranger to the work it takes to support city youth.

Daughety, a 2020 Arts High School graduate, has been a youth program coordinator, commissioner on the city’s civilian complaint review board, and Rutgers University student, who has experience revising Newark Public Schools policies and working with city organizations to develop youth programming.

In his first few months as a board member, Daughety plans to visit schools, gain district knowledge, and listen before he tackles any issues, he told Chalkbeat last week.

“I want to talk to the staff, the principals. I want to actually go and not just introduce myself, but actually put my ear to the ground,” Daughety said. “I know about the work that [board members] do, but I want to be able to actually see what’s going on for myself.”

Daughety ran on the Moving Newark Schools Forward slate, a ticket backed by Mayor Ras Baraka and other powerful Democratic lawmakers, alongside his running mates, incumbent Kanileah Anderson and city firefighter Louis Maisonave. Daughety’s winning team is part of a slate that has won every school board election since 2016 and, traditionally, makes few attempts to push back on Superintendent Roger León’s policies and ideas during board meetings.

The new member and his running mates secured the lead on April 15, earning them three-year terms on the nine-member school board. They take their oaths of office at a reorganization meeting on May 1.

David Daughety, a former Arts High School student who now attends Rutgers University, advocated for students to be included in policy decisions while attending Newark Public Schools.

On social media, former board members and city leaders praised Daughety for his win and pointed to his work with youth and education, which stems back to his time as a student at Arts High School. Daughety joins the ranks of other young board members – including former board members Marques Aquil-Lewis, first elected in 2009 when he was 21, and A’Dorian Murray-Thomas, who was elected in 2019 at 23.

New generation of leaders enters state, local politics

Gen Z — defined as the generation born between 1997 and 2012 — grew up amid the rise of smartphones, social media, and a global pandemic, but now is running for elected offices at the local, state, and national levels. The rate of young people ages 18 to 25 who seek elected seats has increased in the past 10 years, and more than 20% of youth say they would consider running for office, according to a 2022 study from Tufts University’s Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement.

Among the best-known Gen Z elected officials are U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.), the first Gen Z in the U.S. Congress, Maryland state Del. Joe Vogel (D-Montgomery County), and vice chair of the Democratic National Committee David Hogg, a Parkland High School shooting survivor aiming to unseat longtime lawmakers in upcoming primaries.

In New Jersey, a new fundraising political action committee known as Gen Z for New Jersey was launched with a mission to uplift and empower young leaders across the state to run for office and fund their campaigns.

In Newark, Daughety’s election marks the start of a new generation becoming civically engaged, said Murray-Thomas, the youngest woman elected to the Newark Board of Education. She said Daughety is a prime example of the power of Gen Z because he is “someone who is willing to speak truth to power at a time when it is needed.”

“Our young people, their families, and our communities are under attack at every angle,” Murray-Thomas said. “Now more than ever, we need leaders, we need truth-telling leaders on the board of education, and David is that type of person.”

As board members, the candidates elected this month will be tasked with holding Leòn accountable, reviewing district finances in light of looming federal cuts, and addressing recent criticism from the community over transparency in addressing racism in schools.

The Newark school board has rarely challenged León’s policies.

Recently, León and the board tried to unseat a six-year board member after her daughter filed a legal claim against the district, alleging that she experienced racial harassment during her time as a student. Both the board member and her daughter had been vocal about the racial discrimination that students and teachers said they faced at the Newark School of Global Studies. León has also said the district will not cover the attorneys fees of two former board members at the center of ethics complaints initiated by a Newark principal.

Gen Z board member plans to center youth in policies

Daughety said he understands there is information that’s public and “privy to the board itself” and wants to understand legalities and statutes around board members’ roles before carving a path forward.

“I know a lot of information will be accessible to me as a board member and I’ll be able to actually say, okay I know this, and I know the public knows this much, how can we bridge that gap of information and transparency and come together to put a solution forward, for accountability to be held, but also for healing to take place,” Daughety added.

During his time as a student in Newark Public Schools, Daughety attended First Avenue Elementary School and then Arts High School, where he served as student body president for three years, senior class president, National Honors Society vice president, debate captain, student representative to the Board of Education, and co-chair of the Newark Students Union. In 2021, Daughety wrote a policy amendment that established the district’s first Student Governance Committee.

At a school board candidate forum last month, Daughety said his two main priorities are protecting essential student support services and expanding public-private partnerships, a goal based on his community-oriented mindset. He added that mental health services, especially after-school programs and special education support “must remain priorities.”

Daughety believes it’s important to create partnerships with local businesses, universities, and community organizations to support funding for career training so students who do not want to go to college are prepared.

“I believe coming from the perspective of knowing we operate locally will allow me to be able to influence the rest of the board, or at least attempt to have conversations with them about how we fully step into our authority as a fully authorized locally controlled board,” Daughety said.

Elected to the board at 23, Murray-Thomas also said her unique perspective is a superpower that she shares with Daughety. But young elected officials also have to “build on what’s been done before us” and set an example for generations to come, Murray-Thomas added.

The role “is such a unique privilege and responsibility because when the young people, the students, see you, they really see what is possible for them,” Murray-Thomas said. “It is rare for young people, especially young Black people, young Latinos, folks of color in general, to see enough reflections of themselves reflected in positive ways.”

Daughety’s win on April 15 came as Newark’s 16- and 17-year-olds voted for the first time in a school board election. Nearly 1,800 teens registered to vote and advocates and organizers spent weeks getting students registered and vote ready. City leaders also hoped youth voters would impact the school board election, which historically has drawn around 3% to 4% of registered voters, but overall turnout in this year’s election hovered around 3% while turnout among the registered 16- and 17-year-olds was just under 4% according to unofficial results.

Daughety said voter turnout could increase if the school board elections were moved to November’s general election. He also wants to expand the youth vote next year and civic engagement efforts across the district.

“You can’t have high expectations for young people if the adults themselves aren’t living up to theirs in the election,” Daughety said. “Because to me, that’s the most important election in the city of Newark, local elections, the school board election.”

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public eetucation in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Newark school board election 2025: Moving Newark Schools Forward slate had substantial lead on Tuesday night

2025-04-16T02:30:00+00:00

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Incumbent Kanileah Anderson and her running mates Louis Maisonave Jr. and David Daughety appeared headed to victory Tuesday night in the Newark school board election according to preliminary results that didn’t include mail-in ballots.

The three candidates are part of the Moving Newark Schools Forward slate, a contingent that has historically been heavily backed by Mayor Ras Baraka and other powerful Democrat lawmakers. The slate has won every school board election since 2016.

Among all 11 candidates, Anderson led with 2,915 votes, or 22% of total votes, Daughety received 2,499 votes, or 19%, and Maisonave Jr. received 2,442 votes, or 18%, according to the official results.

If the leading candidates hold onto the win, the nine-member Newark Board of Education will continue to be composed entirely of members who ran for election as part of the Moving Newark Schools Forward slate.

As of 9:17 p.m. Tuesday, candidates on the Prioritizing Newark’s Children slate were trailing behind the mayoral-backed slate. Returning candidate Ade’Kamil Kelly received nearly 8% of the votes, according to preliminary results, and his running mates Shana Melius and Nathanael Barthelemy received roughly 6% of the votes each.

The two slates were joined by returning candidates Latoya Jackson and Yolanda Johnson and newcomer Elaine Asyah Aquil, who received about 5% of the votes each. Jordy Nivar received 3% of the votes, and DeWayne Bush just under 2% of the votes.

The winning candidates will decide policies for the district, which is home to about 40,000 students across 64 schools.

Newark youth become the first in state to take historic vote

On Tuesday, Gabrielly Ferreira started her day like any other: getting ready for school, going to classes, catching up with friends, and taking tests. But in the back of her mind, the 16-year-old student at Science Park High School knew it was a historic day for Newark’s youth.

After school, Ferreira’s mom took her to Hawkins Street School in the city’s Ironbound neighborhood, where she would cast her ballot in an election for the first time. As she walked inside the school’s gym, Ferreira noticed only one other person voting, but she was still excited to participate in the election.

The sophomore student was greeted by poll workers who checked her ID, verified her information, and handed her a ballot marking a milestone moment in her civic journey.

“It was pretty simple, and they were really friendly, actually. I knew who I was voting for, so it only took a couple of minutes. All teens who can vote today should do so,” said Ferreira, who spent weeks preparing to vote and helped organize a school board candidate forum last month.

Ferreira joined hundreds of Newark’s 16- and 17-year-olds who were the first of those ages in New Jersey to vote in a school board election. City residents chose from 11 new and returning candidates running for three seats on the Newark Board of Education.

The winners will serve a three-year term and be tasked with deciding policies, holding the superintendent accountable, approving a budget, and overseeing New Jersey’s largest school district.

Gabrielly Ferreira, 16, a sophomore at Science Park High School in Newark, voted for the first time in the city's school board election on April 15, 2025.

More than 90 churches, senior centers, and schools across the city’s five wards opened their doors from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on election day to serve as polling places.

By midday Tuesday, polling places at East Side and University high schools were quiet, with just a trickle of voters coming in after school. At Science Park, a poll worker said there were roughly 200 16- and 17-year-olds registered to vote at that location, but the worker had yet to see a teen voter by 3:30 p.m. Newark Public Schools students were not allowed to leave class during the school day to vote.

City leaders, organizers spent weeks getting students vote ready

This year, city leaders spent weeks working to get new youth voters registered and ready to vote in the historic election.

Nearly 1,800 teens registered to vote, but that number fell short of the 7,257 eligible to sign up, based on estimates from the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice. Newark Public Schools Superintendent Roger León previously said he aimed to register at least 3,000 students before the March 25 deadline.

City leaders hoped youth voters would impact the school board election, which historically has drawn around 3% to 4% of registered voters.

Charter school students such as Domonique Bateman hope city teens will increase the historically low turnout. A senior at North Star Academy’s Lincoln Park High School, Bateman feels it’s just as important for charter students to vote in the April election because under state law, school districts must provide charter schools with at least 90% of per-pupil funds for students who live in the district.

Bateman wants the winning candidates to focus on providing more bus tickets for students, since many rely on public transit to get to school. She also wants to see more funding for extracurricular programs such as the arts and STEM.

“I know that the funds that [the district] give us go towards our lunches, go towards our extracurricular programs, and help with our students that have special needs and require other educational services. So, I think it’s really important that the people who are directly impacted by this money have a voice in who is elected,” said Bateman on Tuesday.

Science Park senior Tahiyah Williams, 18, said she wasn’t able to vote during the school day on Tuesday despite her polling place being at her school. She plans to vote with her mom later in the day, because she wants to “improve the school system for the kids that are coming” after her.

Tahiyah Williams, 18, a senior at Science Park High School in Newark, voted in the school board election on April 15, 2025.

Jibola Omotoyinbo, a senior at North Academy’s Washington Park High School, also voted to improve the conditions in Newark schools. She wants to have a say in the people that will represent her on the city school board.

“Being able to prioritize education for all and equal education for all is something I do hope, that, like, somebody in office would be able to do,” Omotoyinbo said.

Newark became the first city in New Jersey last year to lower the voting age to 16 for school board elections. But the youth vote was delayed until this election due to voter registration issues, according to city officials in 2024. This year’s youth vote also sparked school and local efforts to ensure teens were ready for Tuesday’s election.

In February, Newark Public Schools launched the Vote 15+ voter registration campaign to get students registered. Nonprofit groups such as The Gem Project held civics trainings for new young voters, where they said they want to see younger school board members represent them, improve school lunches, and adopt a curriculum that reflects their experiences. The Newark branch of the NAACP also held a forum to hear about candidates’ positions on school policies, funding, and looming federal cuts.

Newark Public Schools also welcomed Gov. Phil Murphy, Lt. Gov. Tahesha Way, Baraka, and other officials in March to the Newark School of Data Science and Information Technology to encourage youth to vote in the school board election.

East Side High School in Newark was one of 90 polling sites for the school board election on Tuesday

The winning candidates must also contend with recent criticism from the community over transparency in addressing racism in schools, the school board’s attempt to remove one of its longest serving members, the district’s decision to roll back on paying board members’ attorneys fees in their fight against an ethics complaint initiated by a high school principal, and the board’s approval of thousands of dollars for a staff fun day that the state’s education department deemed an inappropriate use of funds.

In Essex County, Newark joined Irvington in holding April school board elections.

On Tuesday, young voters throughout the city, including Ferreira, were seen wearing “I voted today” stickers to mark the first of many votes they will cast throughout their civic journey.

“Our voice actually does matter even though we may feel like it doesn’t,” Ferreira added.

This story has been updated with official results from the Essex County Clerk’s Office.

Jessie Gomez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

‘I’m just so worried’: Newark educators fear federal funding cuts will have devastating consequences

2025-04-09T21:22:26+00:00

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Jennie Demizio, a special education teacher at Park Elementary School in Newark, stood in a crowd full of dozens of educators and union members and listened to speakers talk about the Trump administration’s threats to cut funding for education.

One by one, speakers listed the potential impacts of federal cuts on programs at New Jersey’s universities and colleges, health care, and research. Protesters yelled “shame” and “boo” after speakers detailed the effects of funding cuts on schools.

After the rally on Tuesday, Demizio held back tears and her voice cracked as she told Chalkbeat Newark how her students with disabilities rely on federal funding to get to school and for services such as speech therapy and classroom aides.

“Half of my students arrive in ambulances. They’re on oxygen, they have seizure disorders, and just their transportation alone to get to school costs thousands of dollars a year,” said Demizio as her voice cracked while holding back tears. “I’m just so worried we’re going to lose this funding.”

Demizio’s fears echo those of many educators in Newark and across the state who feel that students will lose essential resources because of the administration’s threats to education. The protesters hope school districts, higher education institutions, and local leaders will band together to fight looming cuts and protect students and staff.

The protest in Newark was part of the “Kill the Cuts” demonstration, a national day of action with protests in over 30 cities across the country. About 50 city educators and labor unions gathered in front of a bust of John F. Kennedy at Military Park on the windy Tuesday afternoon, where they held signs that read “hands off my students” and chanted “stand up, fight back.”

The protest in Newark centered on threats to health care, immigrants, research, and the Trump administration’s threat to withhold federal funding from school districts and universities that don’t eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion programs deemed unlawful by the administration.

Last week, federal officials gave state education agencies 10 days to certify the elimination of DEI efforts in schools or risk losing federal funding. That directive threatens roughly $1.2 billion in federal funding for New Jersey schools, including $77 million for Newark Public Schools, the state’s largest district. That funding makes up around 5% of the district’s $1.5 billion budget for the upcoming school year.

“There’s no way that municipalities can totally foot that bill,” said Demizio.“I’m in a classroom where there are nurses, aides, and, you know, I think I feel like special education teachers, especially, are vulnerable at this moment.”

Last week’s attack on DEI programs in schools comes days after federal education officials also announced they would revoke deadline extensions to spend federal COVID aid that had been approved by the Biden administration.

As a result, 20 school districts across New Jersey could lose an additional $85 million in federal funding for infrastructure projects already in progress. That includes Newark Public Schools, which was approved for a $17 million extension to finish installing artificial intelligence cameras last fall. Paul Brubaker, the district’s director of communications, did not respond to questions about the status of the district’s AI cameras project or budget plans if federal funds are cut.

For Shelby Wardlaw, a professor and vice president of non-tenure track faculty at Rutgers University, the attacks feel personal. International students are worried about getting their visas revoked, and immigrant students fear they might be targeted due to their legal status, Wardlaw said.

In recent days, roughly a dozen Rutgers students “in good academic standing” learned their visas were revoked “without explanation,” according to an April 6 letter from Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway. Across the country, more than 300 international students and recent graduates have had their legal status changed by the federal government.

Additionally, some Rutgers faculty members are concerned about cuts to DEI initiatives and the impact that could have on teaching and learning.

Melissa Rodgers, a professor at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, spoke to the crowd on Tuesday about the devastating effects funding cuts to the National Institutes of Health and anti-DEI initiatives will have on medical and scientific research. Rodgers, a biomedical professor, has been investigating the impacts of sex on kidney disease, research that’s now at risk under proposed cuts, Rodgers said.

Wardlaw and her colleagues want Rutgers and other universities in the Big Ten Academic Alliance Conference to band together to share legal resources and funds to combat federal funding threats to higher education. Last month, the Rutgers University Senate passed a resolution calling on those universities to form a “Mutual Defense Compact” to protect and defend “academic freedom, institutional integrity and the research enterprise,” according to The Daily Targum, Rutgers student-run newspaper.

“Universities are bastions of knowledge and resistance that would oppose an authoritarian overreach, and they’re going to come after us first,” Wardlaw told Chalkbeat on Tuesday. “They’re trying to break us as a potential site of resistance.”

Newark educators gathered on Tues., April 8, 2025 to protest drastic federal funding cuts for schools, research, and health care.

Protesters at the Newark rally also heard from union leaders, civil rights activist Larry Hamm, and gubernatorial candidates Sean Spiller and Mayor Ras Baraka, who urged educators, laborers, and immigrant rights activists to band together to fight federal threats.

“We must resist,” all three speakers urged the crowd on Tuesday.

“The same people that were trying to stop [workers] from having fair working conditions and a rise in their wages were the same people who were opposed to ending Jim Crow Laws, opposed to civil rights, and opposed to democracy and justice,” Baraka told protesters.

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, also spoke on Tuesday and called the Trump administration’s move to cancel funding for Johns Hopkins University and $400 million in grants to Columbia University an assault on education. The AFT is a party to eight lawsuits against the Trump administration’s attacks on education, access to records, and public health, according to the group.

“We have young people engage in critical thinking and problem solving so they can discern fact from fiction, so they can stand up for themselves, so they know how to think,” Weingarten said. “That is what we do and what this administration is so fearful about.”

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Newark school board approves $1.57 billion budget, remains cautious about changes in federal funding

2025-03-27T17:44:36+00:00

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The Newark Board of Education has approved a $1.57 billion budget for the upcoming school year with increased funding in salaries, school renovations, and charter school payments while budgeting conservatively in light of potential changes to federal funding.

The 2025-26 school year budget approved Wednesday is a slight increase from last year’s $1.51 billion budget. It includes a $33.12 yearly tax increase to the average homeowner and $498 million allocated directly to schools and controlled by principals. Similar to the 2024-25 school year budget, next year’s spending plan for Newark Public Schools also includes more money in state aid, school grade level expansions, and new teaching positions to support the district’s growing enrollment.

State aid for the upcoming school year bumped up to a record-high $1.3 billion contribution, an increase from this school year’s $1.25 billion in state aid. That funding comes as the district – the largest in New Jersey – will no longer receive federal COVID relief funding that supported summer programs, tutoring efforts, and the district’s AI cameras project.

It also comes after President Donald Trump signed an executive order designed to close the U.S. Department of Education. The district is aware of potential setbacks in federal funding but will make modifications and pivot as needed, Superintendent Roger León said on Wednesday.

In past years, residents also cast their vote for the budget during the annual April school board election, but a new state law eliminated that requirement for the first time last year. Residents would vote on the budget if the district proposed a more than 2% increase in property taxes.

León had previously suggested a bond for school construction projects but ruled out that option after meeting with stakeholders, including parents, teachers, and union members, who said they would be unlikely to approve the measure. In January, León said the bond would have supplemented the cost of repairing Newark’s aging school buildings.

Newark’s budget is designed to support León’s 10-year plan known as “The Next Decade,” which enters its sixth year this coming school year. Next school year’s main challenge will be supporting the growing needs of schools as student enrollment increases, León said.

Decrease in savings, more money in state aid, local taxes

At the beginning of this school year, the district started with $116 million in fund balance, the total amount of money remaining at the end of the previous fiscal year, typically used for emerging expenses such as fixing schools. Next school year, the district has budgeted $90.7 million in fund balance after reallocating funds.

The district also receives funding through federal and state grants, IDEA funds that support students with disabilities, and Title I funds that provide financial assistance to school districts with a high number of children from low-income families. But as the Trump administration takes steps to close the Department of Education, it’s unclear how Newark’s funding will be affected.

School business administrator Valerie Wilson, who presented the budget on Wednesday, said the district is being conservative with its spending, specifically in using its Title I funding, ahead of potential changes in federal funding. Next school year, the district anticipates $15.2 million in Title I funding, an increase from last year’s $14.8 million.

“We are being conservative here because we know that there are a number of things happening at the federal level,” Wilson said. “We’re not quite sure what’s happening, how we’re going to deal with that, and you can’t assume that you’re going to have all the money you had in the past. But we are depending, hopefully, that we can retain a large sum of it.”

Next school year, Newark Public Schools will also receive an additional $75 million in funding from New Jersey, making up 84.2% of the district’s budget. City taxes make up 9.1%, an excess fund balance makes up 5.8%, and other local and federal aid makes up the remaining 0.9%.

Newark has historically been one of the most underfunded school districts based on the state’s school funding formula, which uses a weighted student formula to give districts financial support in addition to local taxes. For the upcoming school year, the state has increased funding by 6% but remains $34.2 million under state adequacy according to the state’s funding formula.

Locally, the school district can raise the tax levy up to 2% without requiring voter approval, which it has done for the last 12 years. This upcoming school year, Newark homeowners will contribute $143.9 million in property taxes to the district. But according to the funding formula, Newark remains $149.1 million below its local fair share adequacy, Wilson said.

Charter school payments rise despite low enrollment, district says

Payments to charter schools are rising by $24.8 million, totalling $416 million for the upcoming year. Newark school and community leaders have long raised issues about the payments, but under New Jersey law, school districts must provide charter schools with at least 90% of per-pupil funds for students who live in the district. The publicly funded but privately managed charter schools educate roughly 18,000 students.

Aside from the $416 million to city charter schools, Newark Public Schools is also providing them with roughly $7 million for transportation costs, and nearly $4 million for students attending schools outside of the district.

Despite increased payments to charter schools, Wilson said charter school enrollment is not increasing and in some schools, it’s decreasing. The increased charter payment was a result of an increase in the rate of educating general education students that also impacted the district, Wilson added.

“The programs we are offering are in fact attracting students back to our schools,” Wilson said.

North Star Academy, Team Academy, and Great Oaks Legacy receive the district’s three highest payments to charter schools, according to Wednesday’s budget presentation.

This school year, charter school payments made up the district’s largest expenditure, totaling $401 million, a $47.2 million increase from the 2024-25 school year.

Growing schools and updating aging facilities

District leaders project an increase in enrollment next school year, and as a result, the district has budgeted for 53 new positions consisting of 20 teachers, 11 aides, and 23 school support staff. The district will also lose an administrative role next school year following Wilson’s retirement at the end of this school year.

Next school year’s budget also includes a $15.5 million salary increase, the district’s largest expenditure, following contract renewals with district unions. The budget also adds $18.8 million to support academic initiatives, district renovations, security projects, and rising lease payments. The district is allocating an additional $1.4 million to support the expansion of schools and an extra $8.1 million to accommodate an additional 1,600 students in the upcoming school year, Wilson added.

Starting this fall, Nelson Mandela Elementary School will expand to grade 5, Michelle Obama and Sir Isaac Newton Elementary schools will expand to grade 6, Ironbound Academy will expand to grade 7, and East Ward Elementary School will expand to grade 8, according to the district.

After a three-year delay, the district will also open the Newark School of Architecture and Interior Design this fall in the city’s East Ward. The school will focus on three trades – plumbing, electricity, and HVAC – and allow students to study architecture and interior design. The district will enroll ninth grade students first and add a grade level each year.

District leaders are also working with the state’s School Development Authority to replace 13 school buildings built before the 1920s, but the deal leaves out 20 schools that need to be replaced, district officials said. León estimated that roughly $2.5 billion is needed to fix Newark’s dilapidated school buildings, and after ruling out a bond to supplement the cost, for the first time this year, district officials used some of their capital reserve funds to finance renovations for Newark Schools Stadium and the cafeteria at Sussex Avenue.

Newark expects an increase in vulnerable students

The district enrolls more than 11,000 English language learners and roughly 7,000 students with disabilities who require special education services such as speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, and assistance in the classroom. The district is also expecting an increase in vulnerable students next year.

The district also saw a reduction in its Special Education Medicare Initiative, or SEMI, an initiative required by the state that allows school districts to receive reimbursements for special education services for students, such as speech therapy, medical services, and transportation for students requiring an ambulance or other medical transport to get to school. Wilson said the district was able to claim reimbursement for services at a rate of $16.57 but dropped down to $3.50.

“That simple reduction results in a $2.6 million loss in the district’s budget,” Wilson added.

The district has struggled to implement programs and support for students with disabilities. At the beginning of this school year, some students with disabilities missed class due to enrollment issues that left parents scrambling to find solutions. Students with disabilities also face greater learning challenges as they have been some of the hardest hit by the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.

District leaders did not provide details on additional funding for the district’s bilingual or special education programs, but are budgeting 11 new positions for teacher aides.

This school year’s budget, approved last March, included an additional $4.2 million to grow the bilingual education programs in elementary schools and high schools. The district launched a new bilingual education program at Malcolm X Shabazz High School this school year.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

‘You are now historic’: NJ officials encourage Newark students to vote in school board election

2025-03-18T22:29:52+00:00

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The voter registration drive at Newark’s School of Data Science and Information Technology had pizza, a DJ blasting music throughout the school’s gym, and a surprise appearance by award-winning rapper and recording artist A Boogie With da Hoodie.

It also included elected officials – from New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy to Newark Mayor Ras Baraka – encouraging the city’s 16- and 17-year-olds to register to vote and students excited about participating in a school board election for the time.

What the Tuesday event didn’t have was information about the 11 candidates running for a spot on the Newark Board of Education.

Kaiden Gigante, a 16-year-old junior at Data Science, said it was easy to register during the voter registration event. But when it comes to knowing who to vote for, Gigante said he has to read up on the candidates.

“I don’t know who I’m voting for but I know I am voting,” Gigante said while pointing to his “I got registered to vote” sticker.

His friend Kai Toolsee, also a 16-year-old junior at Data Science, said he hopes his school will have a morning announcement with more information about the candidates running for school board or that his teachers will mention something about it.

“I think we’ll get more information at some point,” Toolsee added.

The event at Data Science was designed to support Newark Public Schools’ efforts to get 16- and 17-year-olds registered to vote ahead of the April 15 school board election. This year, three seats are up for election on the nine-member Board of Education.

“Having 16- and 17-year-olds voting for school board elections is historic,” said Murphy to Data Science students. “It is so historic, Mayor, we want to do this all over the state.”

Lt. Gov. Tahesha Way, First Lady Tammy Murphy, U.S. Rep. LaMonica McIver, Assemblywoman Cleopatra Tucker, and Newark Superintendent Roger León were also at the nonpartisan voter registration drive, with more than 100 students in attendance.

Gov. Murphy also reinforced his support for a bill before a Senate and Assembly committee that would allow 16- and 17-year-olds to vote in local school board elections statewide. Way underscored the historic moment for students by reminding them that the first African American person to vote in a U.S. election was Thomas Mundy from New Jersey in 1870.

“You are now historic, you are special, and you are following in his footsteps,” Way said.

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy visited a voter registration drive at the Newark School of Data Science and Information Technology on Tues., March 18, 2025.

Tuesday’s voter registration drive comes a week before the March 25 deadline to register to vote and less than a month until the school board election. Organizations such as the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice and The Gem Project are working to give young voters an understanding of the school board’s function but are not partnering with Newark Public Schools to host voter registration drives.

The district has said it’s manning its own voter registration efforts and, in a press release on Monday, announced a new partnership with the Victoria Foundation to award three city high schools a cash prize for driving the highest level of student-led civic engagement, such as voter registration drives, assemblies, student-led initiatives, and other nonpartisan civic engagement efforts. León said the goal is to register at least 3,000 students before next week’s deadline.

First place will receive $15,000, second place will receive $12,000, and third place will receive $10,000. The funds can be used for any school-related purpose that supports civic involvement and student growth, according to the district’s press release.

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka greets DJ Wallah, a DJ on HOT 97, during a voter registration drive event at the Newark School of Data Science and Information Technology.

The Newark city council voted last January to become the first city in New Jersey to lower the voting age to 16 for school board elections. That decision has sparked a mix of enthusiasm among young voters and challenges for city leaders and educators tasked with educating the young, first-time voters about the election.

Last month, León said the district launched a Vote 15+ voter registration campaign to get students ready for the election. On Tuesday, Léon said he’s been visiting high schools to discuss the importance of voting and the district also hosted a three-day civics course for high school students. León also said they are working on a new middle school curriculum that incorporates civics learning “to really impress upon our young students the importance of what’s happening right now.”

“It’s not good enough to just register to vote, but it’s extremely important to actually vote. So, we want our young people to influence their classmates across the city schools,” León told Chalkbeat on Tuesday.

Assemblywoman Tucker, one of the sponsors of the bill to allow young adults 16 and up to vote in school board elections statewide, said on Tuesday that she will be visiting polling sites on election day to ensure young people are voting.

Alissa Maynard, a 17-year-old junior at Data Science and one of the students who registered to vote on Tuesday, said she also hasn’t heard anything about the candidates running for school board but her teachers and principals have been telling students to get registered.

Maynard said she is going to vote because “we need to make sure our voices are heard.”

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Newark candidates discuss policies, funding, and accountability at NAACP school board forum

2025-03-14T19:52:08+00:00

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This year’s Newark school board candidates faced off at the city’s first public forum to discuss their positions on teacher recruitment, federal funding cuts, and district policies, among other topics.

During the two-hour forum on Thursday, candidates answered questions about Newark Public Schools policies they would revise, the board’s role in holding the superintendent accountable, and how they would manage the district’s $1.5 billion budget, and other questions asked by audience members at the annual event organized by the Newark branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Eleven candidates are running for three seats on the nine-member board, including one incumbent running to keep her board seat. Three are returning candidates and seven are newcomers, the largest number of first-time contenders in recent years. Louis Maisonave, a city firefighter on the “Moving Newark Schools Forward” slate, was the only candidate not in attendance.

This year’s election on April 15 is also a historic moment for Newark’s 16- and 17-year-olds, who will vote for the first time in a city school board election. Deborah Smith Gregory, president of the Newark NAACP, on Thursday stressed the importance of getting teens registered and educated to vote. She also emphasized the need for all Newark residents to vote in the school board election, which has historically seen around 3% to 4% of registered voters participating.

“We have to do better with getting voter turnout,” Smith Gregory said. “We have to get better.”

Here are four takeaways from the forum held in a full room at Bethany Baptist Church and moderated by Linda McDonald, former head of the paralegal department at Essex County College, Ali McBride Jr., chair of the civic engagement committee of the Newark NAACP, and three Newark high school students.

Candidates discuss revisions to harassment, disciplinary policies

Kanileah Anderson, a school board member since 2024 and member of the Moving Newark Schools Forward slate, said she wouldn’t revise any policies but would “drill down” on parent and family engagement policies because she doesn’t think the district is using it to “its fullest potential.”

Nathanael Barthelemy, a first-time candidate and member of the Prioritizing Newark’s Children slate, wants to address the district’s harassment, intimidation, and bullying policy, an issue his slate is championing. He said the policy and consequences for breaking it should be a reflection of state law that protects children in schools. Barthelemy’s running mate, Ade’Kamil Kelly, added that the policy isn’t properly enforced, particularly in light of complaints of racism and harassment in the district.

“So I say all that to say, our students go to school to learn not to be bullied, harassed and or racially attacked,” Barthelemy said.

Latoya Jackson, a two-time school board candidate running under the slogan “I got you,” said she wants to amend the district’s disciplinary policies and “stop treating our children like criminals.” She believes that change starts with improving relationships between teachers and students.

Jordy Nivar, a newcomer candidate and west ward district leader, said he wants to address policies that support student learning, particularly in literacy. Nivar added that “a lot of our kids are not reading up to grade level,” and he wants to “better engage with them, their parents, and their teachers” to build better communication.

Candidates share their plans to tackle funding cuts

The Trump administration’s vow to dismantle the Department of Education, as well as the end of federal COVID relief funds that supported summer programs and tutoring, were also major topics of discussion.

Shana Melius, a first-time candidate and member of the Prioritizing Newark’s Children slate, said her main issue regarding school funding is accountability and ensuring funds are used to support reading and math instruction.

Yolanda Johnson, an education advocate and three-time school board candidate, said she would support budget decisions that provide money for teachers to pay for classroom supplies. She also said that the district should invest in better curriculums because “we are not even capable of competing at a global level, let alone local level.”

David Daughety, a first-time candidate running on the Moving Newark Schools Forward slate, said his two main priorities are protecting essential student support services and expanding public-private partnerships. He added that mental health services, especially after school programs and special education support “must remain priorities.” Daughety also said that it’s important to create partnerships with local businesses and universities as well as organizations to support funding for career training so students who do not want to college are prepared.

“Let’s get one thing straight. Cuts at the federal level or any level of government should not impact our babies,” Daughety said. “Our students are off the table. Newark is not for sale.”

Anderson, a board member also on the Moving Newark Schools Forward slate, said the district needs to ensure that it’s never in a situation where teachers could be laid off. She added that programming expanded through federal COVID relief dollars should also continue.

Newark NAACP president Deborah Smith Gregory encourages the audience to vote in the April 15 school board election

Newark students ask about accountability, board power dynamics

Science Park High School seniors Breanna Campbell, Nathaniel Esubonteng, and Devin Mitchell each posed one question to the candidates during the forum. They also solicited questions from the public and asked audience members to vote for their favorite questions using an interactive live poll.

Campbell asked the candidates how they would maintain a proper balance or power between the board and Superintendent Roger León to ensure students' needs remain a top priority.

Anderson, who sits on the board, said things are “topsy-turvy” among members, referring to the school board’s attempt to remove one of its longest-serving members and decisions to roll back on paying board members’ attorneys fees, among other issues. She said she wants to see a new board that owns their power and united positions “to really hold the superintendent to task to run this district efficiently.”

Kelly, on the Prioritizing Newark’s Children slate, said the city needs board members who are courageous and aren’t afraid to “just tell it how it is.” He added that he’s running for school board because he hasn’t seen that courage from other members. He’s seen board members “wanting to be friendly with the superintendent and such instead of actually taking charge and demanding better,” Kelly said.

Dewayne Bush, a first-time contender running alone, also said the priorities should remain around children and ensuring the board and the superintendent represent the truth.

Elaine Asyah Aquil, a local chiropractor and grandmother of Newark Public Schools students, said the board should make decisions based on children’s needs, but also include their parents in those decisions.

Johnson, a community advocate, said the board will have to ask León to “relinquish his power over the board.” Board members must also recognize that “we are no longer under state control, but we are and we do have local control,” Johnson added.

Jackson, a former beauty salon owner turned full-time advocate, said it’s important for her to see board members who will “speak candidly” about the issues” and hold the superintendent, district attorneys, “and whoever else we need to hold accountable for the success of our children.”

Candidate priorities: mental health, hunger, parent engagement

Barthelemy, on the Prioritizing Newark’s Children slate, said he aims to support mental health and social-emotional learning and advocate for increased mental health services and trauma-informed education.

“Our students are suffering out here in the worst way. They don’t have the skills to cope … so they choose violence because it’s an easy expression to convey,” Barthelemy added.

Daughety, on the Moving Newark Schools forward slate, emphasized the need to address the root causes that prevent students from learning, such as hunger and housing instability, to strengthen schools and expand community involvement.

“If we don’t strengthen the community, we can’t strengthen our schools,” Daughety added.

His running mate, Anderson, who currently sits on the program and instruction committee, said she wants to continue supporting student learning in areas such as math and literacy.

Johnson, who’s running independently, said she wants to focus on creating more parent engagement opportunities and highlighting the importance of community input for student success.

“We all know that parents and the community members that drive a school district,” Johnson added.”

New voters, including youth who will be 16 or 17 by the April 15 election, can register to vote by March 25. Residents can vote at their designated polling location or vote by mail if they register for that option by April 8. Ballots must be postmarked no later than April 15 and must be received that day before polls close.

Residents can watch the NAACP Newark candidate forum in full on the organization’s Facebook page.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

First-time candidates join returning contenders in this year’s historic Newark school board race

2025-03-07T11:00:01+00:00

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Newark voters will choose from a mix of returning and new candidates in next month’s school board election, including one incumbent running to keep her board seat, three returning candidates, and seven newcomers, the largest number of first-time contenders in recent years.

The 11 candidates are running for three seats on the nine-member Board of Education and are divided between two three-member slates – “Moving Newark Schools Forward,” a city-backed group that has won every election since 2016, and “Prioritizing Newark’s Children,” a new group formed by a former school board candidate – and five candidates running independently. The three winning residents will serve a three-year term.

A drawing on Wednesday determined the order of names appearing on the April 15 ballot. It is subject to final approval by the Essex County Clerk’s office on Friday.

This year’s school board race is also a historic moment for the city’s 16- and 17-year-olds who will cast their votes for the first time. City and school leaders are already working to get youth registered and ready to vote.

Newark leaders have also raised concerns about voter turnout in the annual school board election that has historically seen around 3% to 4% of registered voters participating. But this year, 7,257 16- and 17-year-olds in Newark have the right to vote and influence this year’s election, according to data from the New Jersey Institute of Social Justice.

The winning candidates will decide policies in New Jersey’s largest school system, which is home to just under 40,000 students across 64 schools. The board is also tasked with holding the superintendent accountable, approving district contracts, and last year, approved a $1.5 billion budget.

The candidates will have to work to gain the support of new young voters and address the public school’s most pressing issues such as managing district finances, transportation, facilities needs, academic recovery efforts, implementing federal and state policies, and supporting its growing number of multilingual learners and students with disabilities, among other needs.

They must also contend with recent criticism from the community over transparency in addressing racism in schools, the school boards attempt to remove one of its longest-serving members, the district’s decision to roll back on paying board members’ attorneys fees in their fight against an ethics complaint initiated by a high school principal, and the board’s approval of thousands of dollars for a staff fun day that the state’s education department deemed an inappropriate use of funds.

First-time candidates join incumbent on city-backed slate

School board member Kanileah Anderson is running for reelection along with newcomers Louis Maisonave Jr. and David Daughety on the “Moving Newark Schools Forward” slate.

Moving Newark Schools Forward

Anderson was appointed to the board last year and ran unopposed last April in her bid to complete a one-year term. Known for her community and advocacy work with Newark students, Anderson has rallied around education issues and recently advocated for more resources for special education students in the district. Before running in last year’s school board race, she was appointed to fill a vacant seat left by former board president Asia Norton, who abruptly resigned.

First-time school board candidate Maisonave is a Newark firefighter and president of the Hispanic Firefighters Association of Newark. Maisonave also brings his experience working with city leaders and local organizations to the Moving Newark Schools Forward slate.

Daughety is also a first-time candidate, Newark Public Schools alum and Youth Impact Program Coordinator at the Center for Justice Innovation. He is also a 2020 Arts High School alum and during his high school years, wrote a policy amendment that established the district’s first Student Governance Committee.

All nine current board members were on the “Moving Newark Schools Forward” slate during their elections. The slate garners support from state and local politicians, including Mayor Ras Baraka and state Senate Majority Leader M. Teresa Ruiz, every year.

Former school board candidate forms new slate

Returning candidate Ade’Kamil Kelly is running alongside a duo of newcomers, Shana Melius and Nathanael Barthelemy, on the “Prioritizing Newark’s Children” slate. Kelly brings his experience of running in the 2023 school board race and recruited Melius and Barthelemy, who come from educational, political, and community-oriented backgrounds.

Prioritizing Newark’s Children

Kelly is a program director at the Boys and Girls Club of Newark and has worked as a mentor for the Big Brothers, Big Sisters organization of Essex County and as a volunteer basketball coach in Newark. According to his biography online, Kelly “embodies community service and personal growth, influenced by family values.”

Melius previously worked for the late Rep. Donald Payne Jr. and served as his digital coordinator and constituent services staffer. Last year, she ran for public office for the first time to fill the 10th Congressional District seat left vacant by Payne Jr. but lost the election.

Barthelemy has never run for public office but brings community-based work experience as a program manager at the Unified Vailsburg Service organization and speaks Haitian Creole.

Five independent candidates vie for seat on board

The two slates are joined by community advocates and returning candidates, Latoya Jackson, a two-time school board candidate, and Yolanda Johnson, a three-time candidate.

Jackson, a first-time candidate in 2023, founded the nonprofit T.O.Y.A, Through Obstacles You Adapt, after losing her bid for a school board seat that year. She is a hair stylist and mother of a Newark Public School student focused on special education issues and empowering parents.

Johnson ran for school board in 2018, 2019, and 2021. In 2014, she started the Eagles Parent Teacher Student Association (PTSA) at George Washington Carver and Bruce Street School for the Deaf under the National Parent Teacher Association, where she was the president.

The candidates are also joined by newcomers Elaine Asyah Aquil, a mother, grandmother, and local chiropractor with over 29 years of experience, Jordy Nivar, West Ward district leader, and city resident DeWayne Bush.

Jessie Gomez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Newark school nurses will get boosts in tuition reimbursements, pay under ‘historic’ new contract

2025-03-03T21:55:36+00:00

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Newark Public Schools nurses will get 4.5% annual raises, an extended workday, and higher starting salaries for certified staff under a new five-year contract approved by the Newark Board of Education last week.

Since the start of the school year, the district’s nurses, represented by the Newark Teachers Association, have highlighted the need for higher pay, more nurses, and improved working conditions after taking on more responsibility following the pandemic and its effect on student health. Some nurses have said they struggled to pay rent on their previous salary, while others reported seeing a rise in depression, asthma, and anxiety among district students that has contributed to an increase in their workload.

The district employs 86 nurses across its 64 schools, according to Paul Brubaker, Newark Public Schools’ communications director.

The new contract also includes increased tuition reimbursement and a nurse stipend, and extends the workday from six hours and 40 minutes to seven hours, aligning with teachers’ schedules under the district’s new universal school hours implemented this school year.

“Our nurses play a vital role in the health and well-being of our students every day, and this contract reflects our deep appreciation for their dedication,” Superintendent Roger León said in a press release.

The NTA spent nearly eight months negotiating the new agreement with Leòn and other district staff. Evelyn Ayum, the NTA president, called the new contract a historic win because for the first time in recent years, it acknowledges nurses’ unique skills, which include administering medication, monitoring diabetics, checking students with asthma, and supporting parents and staff.

The new agreement took effect on March 1, Ayum said.

“This contract wouldn’t have been obtained without the advocacy of nurses being at school board meetings and telling their story,” Ayum told Chalkbeat on Friday. “By [nurses] activating their activism for change, they received a new kind of respect from this contract, and they now have the groundwork for it to get better and better.”

Similar to the Newark Teachers Union contract, the five-year agreement provides 4.5% annual raises, though each nurse’s raise may be different based on which step of the salary guide they are on. All nurses will also receive a $3,000 taxable stipend that will also be used to calculate their pension contributions, Ayum said.

The new contract raises the starting salary next school year for instructional certified nurses from $65,000 to $67,000; the salary for non-instructional nurses will go from $58,500 to $60,300. By 2029, certified nurses will have a starting salary of $74,000, and the salary for non-instructional nurses will start at $66,600, according to the new contract. The increases are higher for nurses with master’s or doctoral degrees.

Tuition reimbursement also increases from $26,500 to up to $60,000 with a $600 per credit for course cap. The bump will help support uncertified nurses who are obtaining their certification, attract new nurses, and retain existing ones, Ayum said. School nurses must hold a license as a registered professional nurse in New Jersey, obtain state certification as a school nurse, and have a bachelor’s degree in either school nursing, public health, or health education.

The new five-year contract also requires nurses to attend their school’s Back-to-School night and fall and spring parent conferences as necessary, according to the nurses' contract. Nurses will be able to clear students for sports and educate parents about issues related to asthma and obesity, especially diabetes, which is rising among youth, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Ayum added.

The new seven-hour workday for nurses comes after the Newark Teachers Union agreement approved an extended schedule for teachers to add more time for lunch and transition time between periods. Ayum said nurses are used to staying late and helping students as needed, highlighting the importance of their work in schools.

The district’s nurses had been working without a contract since last summer, and roughly 10 nurses attended several school board meetings throughout this school year to urge Leòn and the district’s school board to approve a new agreement.

During a school board meeting in September 2024, Felecia Briggs-Herbert, a nurse at Arts High School with over 30 years of nursing experience, said some district schools are operating with only one school nurse. That falls below the National Association of School Nurses guidelines, which recommends one nurse per 750 students. For students with more complex health care needs, the organization suggests at least one nurse to 125 students.

“Nurses aren’t only relevant during a pandemic. We are essential every day as we care for our students with various medical conditions,” Briggs-Herbert said during that school board meeting. “Nurses are dealing with more and more students under the influence with no real help on top of everything else we are contending with on a daily basis.”

At the same meeting, Carol Wisneiski, a Bard High School nurse with over 17 years of experience in the public schools, said the district needs to fill its nurse vacancies. This school year, the district hired 18 new nurses but continues to hire more as needed, according to Brubaker.

Wisneiski added that nurses are essential to schools and the relationships they build with students are important when caring for them. While treating a student at Central High School, she noticed that the student looked like she was under the influence, but Wisneiski knew the student wasn’t on any substances. Wisneiski and the nurse she was working with quickly realized the student needed to go to the hospital, where she was diagnosed with diabetic ketoacidosis, a complication of diabetes.

“Folks tend to think that a nurse is a nurse,” said Wisneiski when talking about school nurses and the specialized work they perform in schools. “I can tell you, you can’t put any nurse anywhere.”

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

New Jersey advocates urge state leaders to fix old school buildings by funding construction program

2025-02-14T11:00:01+00:00

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A coalition of more than 100 organizations representing public school advocates, parents, teachers, and community members are calling on Gov. Phil Murphy and the state legislature to invest $500 million annually to fund New Jersey’s school construction program, starting with the upcoming budget.

Dozens of speakers gathered at a virtual town hall described the experiences of students and staff forced to learn and work in old and crumbling buildings to underscore what they say is an “urgent need” for more funding for school construction projects. A Newark Public Schools teacher said numerous students at Bard High School had to be displaced because classrooms were too cold while teachers from Jersey City and Paterson explained how schools in their districts were dealing with rodents and leaky roofs.

Healthy Schools Now, a coalition of 135 organizations across New Jersey, said it hosted the virtual town hall last week to highlight how years of inadequate funding for the New Jersey Schools Development Authority has left dozens of schools across the state in dire need of repair and replacement. The SDA is responsible for fully funding school construction projects in Newark and 30 other high-poverty districts in the state. It also provides grants and undertakes construction projects in regular operating districts under a cost-sharing arrangement.

Murphy will deliver his fiscal year 2026 budget address on Feb. 25 and the coalition hopes his final budget proposal will include an increase to school construction funding.

Over the last three fiscal years, New Jersey has allocated nearly $2 billion for school construction projects but those funds have already been committed to emergency projects, leaving no money for new projects, according to state Sen. Vin Gopal (D-Monmouth), who also chairs the Senate Education Committee.

“What happens outside the classroom impacts inside the classroom,” said Gopal during the town hall. “We have to make sure all of our school districts, especially our urban school districts, are up to date on everything related to HVAC, plumbing, and heating.”

There is an immediate need for an additional 8,000 seats to address overcrowding in schools across the state and more than 50 buildings need to be renovated or replaced due to age and condition just in the 31 high-poverty school districts, according to the SDA’s statewide strategic plan.

The state agency has estimated it will cost, at minimum, an additional $7 billion to address capital projects, such as school building renovations and upgrades, but that amount does not include urgently needed projects in regular operating districts. Last year’s state budget included only $50 million to fund capital maintenance projects across the state.

Some New Jersey students learn in cold classrooms, old schools

During last week’s virtual town hall, state Sen. Raj Mukherji (D-Hudson) said more funding is needed to identify and launch new school construction projects as the need to fix old schools continues to grow.

“It’s just unfair to the children who are going to be tomorrow’s leaders in our state to be educated in these types of environments and in outdated school buildings where the HVAC may not even be comfortable to learn in, let alone the state of disrepair to facilities,” Mukherji added.

Silvia Pereira, an executive vice president for the American Federation of Teachers New Jersey and an English as second language teacher at South Street School, said during the virtual meeting that a substantial investment is needed “to ensure a safe and healthy and modern learning environment for all students, their teachers, and their support staff.”

The state legislature provides funding to the SDA on a “pay-as-you-go basis” with no long-term funding to support school construction work in Newark and the 30 other high-poverty school districts.

At Bard High School, Pereira said, numerous students were relocated because classrooms had no heat and indoor temperatures were dropping to 57 degrees. The heat at Abington Avenue School is also inconsistent, Pereira said, often forcing staff and students to wear their jackets during class. Pereira also described how a teacher at Wilson Avenue School was forced to pump breast milk in her classroom bathroom with no locks on the door because there was no space available.

“While significant strides have been made in funding the school construction program, the ongoing needs in SDA districts necessitate continued and increased investment,” said Pereira during the virtual town hall.

Over the past three fiscal years, the SDA has provided roughly $18 million in funding to Newark Public Schools to address urgent repairs such as HVAC repairs or replacement, masonry, and roofing repairs, among other work. The district can direct the funds to facility improvement projects they deem most needed but ultimately, the SDA is the only one that can build new schools.

Superintendent Roger León estimated that it would take more than $2 billion to fully repair and update all of the district’s schools. Last summer, the SDA agreed to replace 13 of Newark’s oldest school buildings but the deal leaves out 20 schools that need replacement. The agency also committed to spending nearly $153 million to build a new University High School but the plan is in the early stages and needs more funding.

District officials have said that a construction bond referendum would allow them to pay for all their facilities' needs that can’t be funded through its yearly budget. But during January’s school board meeting, León said the district would not present Newark voters with a $1.2 billion bond question in April’s school board election after a poll of district stakeholders showed they would overwhelmingly vote against it, according to León last month. Instead, they would seek other options to fully repair schools but León has not shared what those options would be.

Since 2006, only eight new schools have been built in the district and one other property, which later became the Nelson Mandela Elementary School, was given to the district. Murphy’s budget address will be livestreamed on the governor’s Facebook, X, and YouTube pages.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Un año después del plan de mejoramiento de las escuelas públicas de Newark, ¿cómo ha progresado?

2025-02-12T21:34:42+00:00

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Después de que las escuelas públicas de Newark no alcanzaran el rendimiento de los estudiantes en las pruebas estandarizadas durante varios años consecutivos, el estado intervino y puso al distrito en un plan de mejoramiento que delineaba métricas claramente definidas necesarias para mostrar el progreso del estudiante.

Eso fue hace casi un año. Ahora, los resultados de la última ronda de la New Jersey Student Learning Assessment (Evaluación de Aprendizaje de Estudiantes de Nueva Jersey) mostraron pocos cambios, una vez más, con la gran mayoría de los estudiantes de Newark todavía por debajo del nivel de grado en lectura, matemáticas y ciencias.

Eso significa que el distrito permanecerá bajo la vigilancia del superintendente ejecutivo del condado de Essex, un representante del departamento estatal de educación, quien tiene el mandato de intervenir para evaluar el progreso del distrito cada seis meses. La supervisión tiene ecos de los 25 años del distrito bajo control estatal, que se suspendió hace cinco años en medio de la pandemia.

Los objetivos del plan de mejora de Newark aprobado por el estado son elevados en algunos aspectos y modestos en otros. Incluyen objetivos anuales para mejorar las tasas de competencia en lectura en 4 puntos porcentuales, matemáticas en 8 puntos porcentuales y ciencias en 3 puntos porcentuales, además de aumentar la tasa de graduación en 1.5 puntos porcentuales, y la disminución del ausentismo crónico en medio punto porcentual.

Según datos estatales y distritales disponibles públicamente, Newark logró solo uno de esos objetivos: reducir su tasa de ausentismo crónico del 12.7% en 2023 al 12.1% en 2024. El estado define el ausentismo crónico como falta del 10% del año escolar, o 18 días en un año escolar de 180 días.

Un portavoz de las escuelas públicas de Newark no respondió a una solicitud de comentarios sobre la situación actual del distrito en el marco del plan de mejora. Según la ley estatal, si el desempeño del distrito empeora drásticamente bajo el plan de mejoramiento, eso podría desencadenar una intervención estatal parcial o completa, aunque también se necesitarían subsanar las deficiencias en varias otras áreas.

Algunos críticos del sistema de evaluación estatal argumentan que medir el desempeño de un distrito en base a los resultados de los estudiantes en las pruebas estatales no representa con precisión lo bien que se está enseñando a los estudiantes.

“Estás juzgando la calidad del distrito escolar en base a métricas que no dependen enteramente sobre cómo le está yendo a la escuela”, dijo Mark Weber, analista de políticas educativas de New Jersey Policy Perspective y profesor de la Rutgers University. “Si tienes un distrito que tiene una alta tasa de pobreza, eso va a afectar las puntuaciones en los exámenes, y el distrito está siendo juzgado por eso”.

Una revisión intermedia en junio mostró que el distrito aún no cumplía con los estándares estatales, según documentos obtenidos por Chalkbeat Newark a través de una solicitud de registros públicos. Según la directriz de seis meses en el estatuto estatal, una revisión posterior estaba prevista para diciembre, pero aún no se había completado hasta esta semana, dijo el martes el portavoz del departamento de educación estatal, Michael Yaple.

El distrito seguirá bajo un plan de mejoramiento, agregó Yaple, hasta que cumpla con los objetivos en la próxima revisión intermedia o cumpla con las normas estatales en la revisión integral que se realizará en el año escolar 2025-26.

El panorama de los resultados de los estudiantes en Newark no ha cambiado significativamente en las últimas tres rondas de pruebas estatales desde que la pandemia de COVID interrumpió el aprendizaje.

Los resultados de las pruebas estatales publicadas en diciembre mostraron que una abrumadora mayoría de los estudiantes del distrito todavía tienen dificultades para rendir a nivel de grado en materias clave. Casi el 70% de los estudiantes de los grados 3 a 9 no alcanzan los niveles de alfabetización, alrededor del 82% no cumplen con los estándares de matemáticas y el 93% de los alumnos de quinto grado están por debajo del nivel de ciencia.

Los resultados mostraron aumentos limitados sobre el 2023, destacando la lenta recuperación de Newark de la convulsión del aprendizaje en la era de la pandemia. En los últimos años, con la ayuda de fondos federales para el alivio de la pandemia, el superintendente Roger León aumentó los esfuerzos de tutoría con programas de verano y sábados. El distrito asignó $6.8 millones para tutoría este año escolar, ofreciendo sesiones adicionales desde el comienzo del año escolar.

Pero algunas de esas actividades de tutoría corren el riesgo de ser reducidas el próximo año, debido a que el distrito ya no tiene acceso a esos fondos federales, que expiraron en septiembre.

La puntuación de evaluación desciende por debajo del nivel estándar, pero no a niveles históricamente bajos

El Departamento de Educación del estado revisa el desempeño general de un distrito cada tres años en base a cinco categorías clave de su sistema de evaluación —el Quality Single Accountability Continuum (Continuo Único de Rendición de Cuentas de Calidad)— que incluye instrucción, gestión fiscal, gobierno, operaciones y personal. En cada categoría, hay varias maneras en que los distritos son juzgados usando una escala de 100 puntos para determinar cómo cumplen con los estándares descritos. Cuando un distrito cae por debajo de la puntuación mínima de aprobación de 80 en cualquier categoría dada, se le ordena crear un plan de mejoramiento del distrito con aprobación y supervisión estatal.

Newark debía ser revisada por el estado en el año escolar 2022-2023 por primera vez desde que recuperó el control local completo en 2020. El distrito se dio altas calificaciones en todas las categorías, pero a fines de 2023, el estado le dio al distrito una puntuación de 79 en instrucción, en particular descontando puntos en lo que respecta al rendimiento de los estudiantes, las tasas de graduación y el ausentismo crónico.

Joseph Zarra, el superintendente ejecutivo interino del condado de Essex, realizó una revisión semestral en junio y redujo dos puntos adicionales de la puntuación de instrucción del distrito a 77 debido a su fracaso para cumplir con los objetivos del plan de mejora, según documentos estatales.

El portavoz de las escuelas públicas de Newark, Paul Brubaker, no respondió a preguntas sobre la lucha del distrito para cumplir con los objetivos de su plan de mejoramiento.

Aunque el distrito sigue teniendo un plan de mejora, las razones son muy diferentes a lo que llevó al control estatal en 1995 cuando los niveles de rendimiento de los estudiantes se contraponían a los gastos exorbitantes entre los líderes del distrito. Fue durante los 25 años de la toma del poder por el estado, cuando se creó el sistema de evaluación del departamento de educación y luego se utilizó para determinar la preparación del distrito en su transición de vuelta al control local.

Los críticos dicen que el sistema de evaluación favorece a los distritos más ricos

Una vez que el distrito recuperó el control local en 2020, se enfrentó a un obstáculo pronunciado ya que los estudiantes de toda la ciudad se vieron afectados de manera desproporcionada por el aprendizaje remoto durante los cierres por COVID-19 debido al acceso limitado a internet, la falta de computadoras portátiles o tabletas digitales en casa, y los obstáculos a los recursos para los estudiantes con discapacidades, entre otros temas.

La pandemia llegó poco después de que el distrito ya estaba viendo volver a caer el rendimiento de los estudiantes en las puntuaciones de los exámenes estatales después de años de avances.

Con la entrada de $287 millones en fondos federales de socorro, los líderes del distrito destinaron grandes sumas de esos fondos para reparar sus edificios escolares dilapidados, y una proporción menor se destinó a aumentar las actividades de tutoría. Newark no fue el único en tomar esas decisiones, ya que muchos distritos escolares de alta pobreza gastaron los fondos de manera similar.

Los críticos del sistema de evaluación estatal señalan las desigualdades subyacentes en el sistema, diciendo que las críticas a un distrito con altas necesidades como Newark basadas en los resultados de los estudiantes en las pruebas estatales no tienen en cuenta factores que contribuyen al bajo rendimiento de los estudiantes, como la pobreza.

“Para un distrito que comienza con puntuaciones más bajas en los exámenes, es más difícil mostrar crecimiento”, dijo Weber, el profesor de Rutgers, agregando que el distrito también ha visto una afluencia de estudiantes de inglés en los últimos años que requieren recursos adicionales.

“¿Es racional y razonable esperar que el distrito obtenga las mismas puntuaciones que otro distrito que no tiene, digamos, tantos estudiantes de inglés?” Weber dijo. “Debido a esta dependencia de los resultados de las pruebas para determinar si se necesita alguna corrección o no, hay un sesgo inherente en contra de un distrito como Newark, Paterson, Trenton y Camden. Eso es problemático”.

Otras categorías del sistema de evaluación, como la gestión y las operaciones, se basan exclusivamente en las políticas y prácticas vigentes.

“Esas son cosas que el distrito escolar podría controlar directamente. Los resultados de los estudiantes no lo son”, dijo Weber.

En los últimos meses, líderes escolares a nivel estatal han instado a la Junta de Educación del estado a cambiar el énfasis del sistema en los resultados estudiantiles, que dicen favorece a distritos más ricos. En octubre, el Comisionado de Educación interino Kevin Dehmer informó a la junta escolar estatal que de 56 exámenes de desempeño de distrito realizados durante ese período, 42 distritos no cumplieron con los estándares estatales, debido principalmente a deficiencias en el rendimiento académico.

Si Newark aún no cumple con los objetivos establecidos en su plan de mejoramiento durante los próximos seis meses, el estado hará una revisión integral en el año escolar 2025-26 y determinará en ese momento si se debe implementar un nuevo plan de mejoramiento, de acuerdo con la ley estatal.

El distrito podría enfrentar una intervención estatal parcial si su puntuación en cualquiera de las cinco categorías de evaluación cae por debajo de 50 puntos y no implementa el plan de mejoramiento, según la ley estatal. Si las circunstancias adicionales también impiden que el distrito proporcione una educación completa y eficiente, como lo exige la constitución del estado, entonces el comisionado de educación podría invocar la intervención total del estado, dice la ley.

Traducido por Bernardo de la Cruz

Esta traducción fue proporcionada por New Jersey Hispano, en asociación con el Centro de Medios Cooperativos de la Universidad Estatal de Montclair, y cuenta con el apoyo financiero del Consorcio de Información Cívica de NJ. La historia fue escrita originalmente en inglés por Chalkbeat Newark y se vuelve a publicar en virtud de un acuerdo especial para compartir contenido a través del Servicio de noticias de traducción al español de NJ News Commons.

Catherine Carrera es la corresponsal jefa de Chalkbeat Newark. Comunícate con ella por correo electrónico a ccarrera@chalkbeat.org.

A year into Newark Public Schools’ improvement plan, how has the district progressed?

2025-02-06T11:00:01+00:00

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After Newark Public Schools fell short on student achievement in standardized tests several years running, the state stepped in and put the district on an improvement plan that outlined clearly defined metrics needed to show student progress.

That was nearly a year ago. Now, the most recent round of New Jersey Student Learning Assessment results showed little change, once again, with the overwhelming majority of Newark students still performing below grade-level proficiency in reading, math, and science.

That means the district will remain under the watch of the Essex County executive superintendent, a proxy for the state education department, who is mandated to step in to evaluate the district’s progress every six months. The oversight carries echoes of the district’s 25 years under state control, which was lifted five years ago amid the pandemic.

Newark’s state-approved improvement plan goals are lofty by some measures and modest by others. They include year-over-year objectives to improve proficiency rates in reading by 4 percentage points, math by 8 percentage points, and science by 3 percentage points, in addition to increasing the graduation rate by 1.5 percentage points, and decreasing chronic absenteeism by half of a percentage point.

Based on publicly available state and district data, Newark succeeded in only one of those goals — decreasing its chronic absenteeism rate from 12.7% in 2023 to 12.1% in 2024. The state defines chronic absenteeism as missing 10% of the school year, or 18 days in a 180-day school year.

A Newark Public Schools spokesman did not respond to a request for comment on the district’s current standing under the improvement plan. According to state statute, if the district’s performance drastically worsens while under the improvement plan, that could trigger partial or full state intervention, though insufficiencies in several other areas would also need to be met.

Some critics of the state’s evaluation system argue that measuring a district’s performance on student outcomes in state tests doesn’t accurately represent how well it’s teaching students.

“You’re judging the quality of the school district based on metrics that are not entirely dependent on how the school is doing,” said Mark Weber, an education policy analyst at New Jersey Policy Perspective and lecturer at Rutgers University. “If you have a district that has a high poverty rate, that’s going to affect test scores, and the district is being judged on that.”

An interim review in June showed the district still wasn’t meeting state standards, according to documents Chalkbeat Newark obtained through a public records request. Based on the six-month guideline in the state statute, a subsequent review was due in December, but it had not been completed yet as of this week, state education department spokesman Michael Yaple said Tuesday.

The district will remain under an improvement plan status, Yaple added, until it either satisfies the goals in the next interim review or it meets state standards in the comprehensive review due in the 2025-26 school year.

The dire landscape of student achievement in Newark hasn’t significantly changed in the last three rounds of state testing since the COVID pandemic disrupted learning.

State test results released in December showed an overwhelming majority of students in the district are still struggling to perform on grade level in key subjects. Nearly 70% of students in grades 3-9 are falling short of meeting literacy benchmarks, around 82% aren’t meeting math standards, and 93% of fifth graders are below grade-level in science.

The results showed limited increases over 2023, highlighting Newark’s slow recovery from pandemic-era learning upheaval. Over the last few years with the help of federal pandemic relief funds, Superintendent Roger León ramped up tutoring efforts with summer and Saturday programs. The district allocated $6.8 million for tutoring this school year, offering extra tutoring sessions from the start of the school year.

But some of those tutoring efforts are at risk of being scaled back next year, as the district no longer has access to those federal dollars, which expired in September.

Evaluation score dips below standard, but not at historically low levels

The state Department of Education reviews a district’s overall performance every three years based on five key categories in its evaluation system — the Quality Single Accountability Continuum — which includes instruction, fiscal management, governance, operations, and personnel. Under each category, there are several ways districts get judged using a scale of 100 points to determine how well they’re meeting the standards outlined. When a district falls below the minimum passing score of 80 in any given category, it’s mandated to create a district improvement plan with state approval and oversight.

Newark was due for its state review in the 2022-23 school year for the first time since it regained full local control in 2020. The district gave itself high marks in all categories, but, in late 2023, the state gave the district a score of 79 for instruction, particularly docking points as it related to student achievement, graduation rates, and chronic absenteeism.

Joseph Zarra, the interim Essex County executive superintendent, conducted a six-month review in June and knocked two additional points from the district’s instruction score to a 77 due to its failure to meet goals in the improvement plan, state documents showed.

Newark Public Schools spokesman Paul Brubaker did not respond to questions about the district’s struggle to meet its improvement plan goals.

Though the district remains under an improvement plan, the reasons are starkly different from what led to state control in 1995 when staggeringly low student achievement levels contrasted exorbitantly high spending among district leaders. It was during the state’s 25-year takeover, that the education department’s evaluation system was created and then used to determine the district’s readiness in its transition back to local control.

Critics say evaluation system favors wealthier districts

Once the district regained local control in 2020, it faced a steep hurdle as students citywide were disproportionately affected by remote learning during COVID-19 shutdowns due to limited internet access, lack of laptops or digital tablets at home, and barriers to resources for students with disabilities, among other issues.

The pandemic came soon after the district was already seeing student performance on state test scores slide back after years of improvement.

With the influx of $287 million in federal relief funding, district leaders earmarked large sums of those funds to fix up its dilapidated school buildings, with a smaller proportion going toward increased tutoring efforts. Newark wasn’t alone in those decisions, as many high-poverty school districts spent the funds similarly.

Critics of the state’s evaluation system point to the underlying inequities in the system, saying that critiques of a high-needs district like Newark based on student outcomes in state tests don’t account for factors that contribute to low student achievement, such as poverty.

“For a district that starts with lower test scores, it’s harder to show growth,” said Weber, the Rutgers lecturer, adding that the district has also seen an influx of English language learners in recent years who require additional resources.

“Is it rational and reasonable to expect the district to get the same scores as another district that doesn’t have, let’s say, as many English language learners?” Weber said. “Because of this reliance on test score outcomes to determine whether you’re in need of correction or not, you’ve inherently got a bias against a district like Newark, Paterson, Trenton, and Camden. That’s problematic.”

Other categories in the evaluation system, such as governance and operations, are solely based on policies and practices in place.

“Those are things that the school district could directly control. Student outcomes are not,” Weber said.

In recent months, school leaders statewide have urged the state Board of Education to change the system’s emphasis on student outcomes, which they say favors wealthier districts. In October, Acting Education Commissioner Kevin Dehmer reported a notice to the state school board that of 56 total district performance reviews conducted during that period, 42 districts didn’t meet state standards, largely due to shortcomings in academic achievement.

If Newark still doesn’t meet the goals outlined in its improvement plan over the next six months, the state will do a comprehensive review in the 2025-26 school year, and determine at that point if a new improvement plan should be implemented, according to state statute.

The district could face partial state intervention if its score in any of the five evaluation categories falls below 50 points and it fails to implement the improvement plan, according to state statute. If additional circumstances are also preventing the district from providing a thorough and efficient education, as the state’s constitution mandates, then the education commissioner could invoke full state intervention, the statute says.

Catherine Carrera is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Newark. Contact Catherine at ccarrera@chalkbeat.org.

Newark community leaders urge school district for solutions to address racism allegations

2025-01-24T20:19:43+00:00

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Newark leaders and advocates are urging Superintendent Roger León and the Newark school board to address racial tensions after Chalkbeat obtained a copy of a scathing draft report that found Black students and teachers at a city high school endured racial and religious harassment.

The review, conducted by the consulting firm Creed Strategies, also found district and school leaders failed to “quickly and consistently” address the problems at the Newark School of Global Studies and in some cases, magnified racial issues. The draft obtained by Chalkbeat is not the latest version of the report but Newark Public Schools has fought to keep all versions of the report private.

During Thursday’s school board meeting, three residents demanded transparency from the district about the steps it is taking to find solutions.

Tony Al-Amin, a Weequahic High School alum and Imam at Newark’s Masjid Muhammad, raised concerns about the “racism that exists in our schools.”

“Racism is a social terror. This is not my imagination, this is what is actually happening,” Al-Amin said. “When people are treated unjustly, unfairly in one place, it makes injustice acceptable in other places.”

Yolanda Johnson, an education advocate, spoke about the need for transparency and said “it was painful to read” the draft report on Global Studies.

“It’s 2025, we are demanding and we want inclusion, equity, accountability, and we want transparency,” Johnson added.

León did not respond to the comments but board member Josephine Garcia said the board has access to a “wide range of non-public information” that offers a “perspective vastly different from the narrative being presented.” Once all the information is made available, “a much clearer and more informed understanding will emerge,” Garcia added.

“No issue can be fully addressed without considering both sides and at the moment, one side of the issue remains suppressed,” Garcia said.

Board member Dawn Haynes, who faced removal from her role after her daughter filed a legal claim against the district alleging discrimination during her time as a Global Studies student, recalled how her husband “was hurt, disappointed, and ignored” and, out of fear of being labeled as a threatening parent, could not do anything about the situation.

“I held my composure for three years … knowing that my child and her friends were harmed and it was covered up,” said Haynes during Thursday’s meeting.

Earlier this week, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and North Ward Councilman Anibal Ramos also said they plan to call on León to discuss the findings and will continue to raise awareness about equity and inclusion.

“Nurturing student growth toward equality and inclusion however, takes a lot more than holding forums and events. This work is an ongoing historic and cultural transformation that relies on continued curriculum focus and the student dialogue it spurs,” Baraka said in a statement Tuesday.

Former Global Studies students first raised the allegations of racism detailed in the draft report during a November 2022 school board meeting. In response, school board members commissioned a review of the cultural, racial, and religious dynamics at Global Studies that pushed some Black students to transfer and teachers to resign.

But in 2023, León said the report would remain internal and inform the district’s strategy on race. The issues also caught the attention of Baraka, who hosted a town hall in March 2023 to discuss unity among Black and brown communities months after students spoke publicly about their experiences.

In his Tuesday statement, Baraka said he spoke in depth with the former students at Global studies and their parents about “how we cannot tolerate racism.” He also spoke with León about the issues, which led to the school bringing in a consultant “to try to get a handle on the situation.”

“Our goal is to raise awareness in our children so they won’t fall victim to what is going on around the country, and in fact become leaders for tolerance and inclusion as adults,” Baraka added.

Ramos, a city councilman, in a statement last week said council members had received “limited information” from the district about the Global Studies report due to confidentiality issues. His office had met with a few parents from the school over the past year and at one point, some of the parents met with him and Baraka.

“The allegations referenced in the leaked report are concerning and any type of racist comments – regardless of who they came from – are disturbing and unacceptable,” Ramos added.

He plans to speak with other council members about having Leon and others come before the city council’s education committee to discuss the report’s findings and the district’s plans to address the issues and improve the environment at Global Studies.

At Thursday’s school board meeting, Hassana Shaw, an educator and member of the Council of Imams in New Jersey, said the district “needs to be truthful about what is going on in our schools.”

“We can’t keep quiet about things that are happening with our kids. We have to take direct action to make sure our students are being educated in a place that’s safe, because we can’t teach them if they don’t feel safe,” said Shaw.

She also spoke against the district’s efforts to unseat Haynes, saying the board should not get rid of “board members who try to ensure that our children don’t encounter the trauma and hardship while they’re in school.”

“And with that said, board member Dawn Haynes is owed an apology for the covert actions taken to try to remove her from her position,” added Shaw on Thursday.

Malkia King, the daughter of former board member Barbara King, said the current board is “different from the board my mother sat on.” She recalled how Black and Puerto Rican residents came together to fight for local control of the school board.

“We worked too hard to overcome [racism] and we’re supposed to be the model going forward, and it [would] seem like we’re going backward,” King said.

Jessie Gomez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

NJ Education commissioner denies district petition to unseat Newark school board member

2025-01-22T21:48:57+00:00

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The state’s Acting Commissioner of Education Kevin Dehmer denied Newark Public Schools’ request to remove board member Dawn Haynes over a conflict of interest, according to his decision issued Tuesday.

In his decision, Dehmer said the school district failed to prove how the board would “suffer irreparable harm” if Haynes was not removed and if a threat to sue the district by Haynes’ daughter prevails.

Dehmer’s decision does not end the case but instead orders it to continue at the state’s Office of Administrative Law, which reviews contested cases for state agencies and issues initial decisions, with additional hearings as needed to close it.

The school district petitioned to unseat Haynes in December claiming a conflict of interest after her daughter, Akela Haynes, filed a legal claim against Newark Public Schools alleging that she experienced religious, racial, and gender discrimination and other harassment during her time as a Newark School of Global Studies student.

Paul Brubaker, the district’s communications director, did not respond to questions on Wednesday about why the district called for the immediate removal of Haynes or if it would continue to argue for the board member’s removal.

Before Dehmer’s Tuesday decision, state Administrative Law Judge William J. Courtney had also denied the district’s petition earlier this month. In his decision, Courtney wrote that “there is no reason why” Haynes can’t abstain “from participation in any such discussion or board action” on the claim filed by her daughter, Akela Haynes.

Haynes, a six-year board member, and her daughter have been vocal about the racial discrimination students and teachers said they faced at Global Studies. In her claim, Akela Haynes alleges that between September 2020 and December 2022, she “suffered pervasive and consistent” discrimination, sexual harassment, assault, battery, intimidation, bullying, cyber-bullying, emotional distress, and other inappropriate and unlawful treatment.

Earlier this month, Chalkbeat Newark obtained an unreleased draft of a consultant’s report that found students and teachers at Global Studies endured anti-Black racism and religious harassment.

Akela Haynes sent her claim to the district in October and under state law, can file a lawsuit after six months. Two former Global Studies teachers also filed a lawsuit against the district last spring alleging that Global Studies administrators and district leaders created a hostile work environment where they experienced racial discrimination and retaliation, according to that lawsuit, which is ongoing.

The district’s petition to the state, signed by Superintendent Roger León, the district’s attorney Brenda Liss, and school business administrator Valerie Wilson, was discussed by board members in a November 2024 session closed to the public. In its petition, the district argued that Haynes and her daughter are members of the same household and under state law, Haynes “must be immediately removed from her positions as board member because she is directly or indirectly interested in her daughter’s claim.”

But Haynes and her daughter deny they live in the same household, according to Dehmer’s decision this week. Akela Haynes is a freshman student at Clark Atlanta University in Georgia where she lives on campus and intends to live with her cousin in Marietta, Georgia during the summer months, according to the decision. In the legal claim sent to the school district, Akela Haynes listed her mother’s address “for purposes of convenience,” but provided the state with proof that she no longer lives with Haynes in Newark, read Dehmer’s decision.

Dehmer also said the district failed to prove that the board would “suffer greater harm” than Haynes will suffer if the request for her removal was not approved. The district’s school board has not publicly discussed their petition to unseat Haynes or voted on a formal action against Akela Haynes’ claim.

Earlier this month, at a school board retreat, Haynes demanded a public apology from the board because of the “public scrutiny” and “false information given to my board colleagues,” she said. She also said the district is “missing the point” about the allegations of racist harassment at Global Studies and called the boards efforts to remove her “a public lynching of a Black woman.”

“It’s not about the Global Studies report that board members never had access to unless we were under the watchful eye of the general counsel and still do not have access to,” Haynes said, “it’s not about my daughters pending lawsuit, it’s about the students who stood before us who was exhausted after being harmed and ignored.”

Jessie Gomez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Leaked draft: Global Studies unreleased report found students endured anti-Black racism

2025-01-13T20:42:34+00:00

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Editor’s note: This story, and a draft report linked to in the story, include references to racist, Islamophobic language and bigoted views that are violent in nature.

Newark Public Schools leaders failed to “quickly and consistently” respond to racist and bigoted incidents against Black students and teachers at a city school designed to embrace world cultures, according to a draft of a scathing report that district officials have sought to keep private.

A copy of the 39-page draft, obtained by Chalkbeat Newark, details harrowing examples of how Black students and teachers at the Newark School of Global Studies were “subjected to acts of anti-Blackness and anti-Black racism.” The review also highlighted how the school’s response failed to address the problems, and in some cases, magnified racial issues.

The May 2023 draft of the report written by the consulting firm Creed Strategies is the public’s first look into the firm’s review of the cultural, racial, and religious dynamics at Global Studies that pushed some Black students to transfer and teachers to resign. The draft obtained by Chalkbeat is not the latest version of the report. But the district has fought to keep all versions of the report private, nearly two years after Newark school board leaders commissioned it.

Attorneys for the district have argued in court filings that the report is a “predecisional draft document” and therefore exempt from the state’s public records law. If portions of the report were disclosed, “it would have a chilling effect” on the district’s ongoing efforts “to improve dialogue and sensitivity practices” at Global Studies and other schools, according to a court record outlining the district’s opposition to the Newark Teachers Union lawsuit seeking the release of the report.

In 2023, the Newark Teachers Union filed two lawsuits against the district over the release of the report, but the union agreed to settle the lawsuits last fall without its release.

The draft report paints a picture of a campus where Black students and teachers reported being called racial slurs by Latino students, the N-word was commonly used among non-Black students, and where complaints by Black students were often dismissed or minimized by administrators and non-Black staff. A male student was repeatedly called an anti-gay slur in class while a teacher was present, and other students made threats to “take off” and “stomp on” the hijabs of Black and Arab Muslim female teachers, according to the review.

Read takeaways from the draft report here.

Many of the allegations in the draft report have been brought up in public, substantiated in Chalkbeat interviews, and are mentioned in lawsuits against the district. The issues also caught the attention of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, who hosted a town hall to discuss unity among Black and brown communities months after students spoke publicly about their experiences.

Former Global Studies teachers filed a lawsuit against the district alleging that school and district leaders created a hostile work environment where they experienced racial discrimination and retaliation, according to the lawsuit filed in Essex County Superior Court last spring. The lawsuit is ongoing.

The former teachers also filed claims with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. The department opened an investigation into the claim on Dec. 21, 2023, and it is ongoing.

Paul Brubaker, the district’s communications director, did not respond to Chalkbeat’s request to provide a copy of the full Global Studies report. Instead, in an emailed response, he reiterated the district’s stance that the report is “privileged and confidential.” Brubaker said the school board “reserves the right to take any and all appropriate action to prevent or redress injury to itself,” district staff, school or students.

Brubaker did not respond to questions about the district’s efforts to fix the problems at the high school, how it changed its policies to address racial problems, and the professional support it has provided teachers with since the incidents at the school surfaced.

Newark Global Studies draft report finds students, teachers subjected to acts of anti-Blackness.

Do you have more information, tips, or insights about the Newark School of Global Studies?You can reach us at newark.tips@chalkbeat.org.

Superintendent Roger León promised to fix the problems

Staff, parents, and students were interviewed by Creed Strategies’ six-member review team about their experiences at the high school and were anonymously quoted throughout the draft report. The research team was made up of professors and education experts with experience in school leadership and representative of the demographics at Global Studies.

In interviews with Creed researchers, Black students described a “sense of betrayal” when their peers and adults used racial slurs, according to the draft report. Most Black students “felt stunned, at a loss for words, or angry” when the incidents occurred, the report read.

When asked by researchers about the reported incidents, some of the staff responded defensively, while others said they did not know about the issues until students spoke publicly in 2022, the review found. Teachers reported that the lack of transparency about the issues at Global Studies limited their ability to understand what was happening and eroded morale, the report read. Other staff said the aftermath of the issues becoming public caused “some upheaval” at Global Studies with “very few” attributing the chaos to the racist incidents Black students and teachers had described in 2022, the draft report stated.

But emails obtained by Chalkbeat revealed that school administrators had known about the issues before they became public, and a parent begged state and district officials for an end to the harassment against her son. School leaders missed an opportunity “to address the professional learning needs” of teachers to be responsive to the incidents and create “culturally responsive” learning, according to the draft.

Some interviewees cited in the report also framed “Black women and girls” as “easily triggered and angry” when discussing the incidents at the school, the review notes. “Instead of focusing on the systemic racism that Black women and girls are speaking up against, there was a sense of defensiveness,” the draft report says. In claims filed by former Global Studies teachers, they alleged they “suffered harassment and racial hostility by students and supervisors” and felt their “worth as a teacher and human being has been diminished.”

Newark school board leaders commissioned the review of Global Studies at the start of 2023 in response to Black students speaking publicly about a pattern of racist harassment on campus. The May 2023 draft provided the district with three recommendations, which were released publicly, and meant to be “proactively implemented” to tackle anti-Blackness and build Global Studies’ understanding of diversity, the draft read.

A mix of Global Studies parents, students, teachers, some board members, and community advocates have been calling on Superintendent Roger León to release the full report on the high school and address the problems. León promised students he would fix the problems at the school but he has not said what changes or efforts have been made at Global Studies, one of the district’s top magnet schools. Deborah Smith Gregory, president of NAACP Newark, is one of the advocates who has called on León to release the Global Studies report but has been ignored, she said during a school board meeting last month.

“It seems that the rule of the superintendent is being sanctioned by the board with little oversight and question,” said Smith Gregory in December.

Despite calls for transparency, the Newark school board last month quietly sent a petition to the state to remove one of its longest-serving members after her daughter filed a legal claim against the district alleging racial harassment and discrimination during her time as a student at Global Studies. A New Jersey judge denied the petition but the state’s commissioner of education will issue a final decision by February.

School leaders did not communicate seriousness of harassment

Students reported racist incidents at the high school since the school opened during remote learning in 2020, while the number of Black students has decreased steadily since then, according to the draft.

According to the draft report, Global Studies’ leaders had a “limited response” to the harassment reported by students and “centered impact rather than intent” of the incidents. Interviews found that some school staff learned about the incidents through their relationships with students and the teachers involved. A “very small group” said “they had no knowledge of the incidents before the students' public comments” in November 2022, the report read.

Staff interviewees also said “the effect of the public reports and media” on the school environment led to “chaos” and “ill feelings,” the draft states. Some suggested that the feelings were “intensified by the lack of clear communication about why students were complaining and leaving the school,” the report read.

“I think that has made some students more like, upset, angry ... Unraveled things a little bit. So that’s like an unfortunate thing that it’s like kind of causing some upheaval,” said one interviewee in the report.

As part of the review, teachers and administrators told researchers about 11 reported incidents. Discipline for those incidents ranged from written apologies and cultural sensitivity training to mediation and suspensions, according to the draft. Of the consequences, 22 students had in-school detention, seven received out-of-school suspensions, seven had a parent conference, six received mediation, four participated in out-of-school counseling, three received after-school detention, and three more had a conflict resolution session, according to the draft.

With one exception, Black adult interviewees expressed their belief that Black students experienced racial harm at the high school, while six out of the seven non-Black, non-Latino adults interviewed said “they believed the students and expressed concern about their well-being,” according to the report.

Some said they were also aware of racist incidents against Black and Asian American teachers in the building, the report found. The former teachers who filed a lawsuit against the district claimed they also suffered “severe emotional problems” leading them to seek “psychological counseling” after experiencing racial harassment at the high school. But nine interviewees also suggested the reports of Black students and media coverage “were exaggerated and wanted to set the record straight,” according to the report.

Others lamented the school’s approaches to addressing the incidents and “lack of communication about them were eroding teacher morale,” according to the draft. One teacher specifically suggested that because of the public scrutiny, “administrators started to backtrack reports stated about one of the formally reported incidents,” the report read.

“I want to say that when I hear these recordings about what people are saying and including the students that are in the school, to me, it feels like they’re talking about another school. Because I do not see that. You know, I have not heard that,” an interviewee told researchers.

Missed opportunity to support staff, teachers at Global Studies

One of the main draws of Global Studies was that it promised students would “develop a global perspective” through second-language immersion, exploration of different cultures and career pathways that emphasized international relations in business and diplomacy.

But the overall environment at the school – and the way it was run – led to administrators “missing the opportunity to represent the diversity of its students’ lived experiences and aspirations within the environment and their learning,” according to the report.

When Global Studies opened its doors in 2021 following remote learning, the school was newly renovated and well maintained with college-related signs throughout hallways. But researchers found that the overall tone of the school lacked “the spirit and vitality typical of a high school,” with much of it resembling an elementary and middle school, according to the report.

Most classroom walls were decorated with word walls and inspirational posters or pictures, the report found. Wall displays “rarely demonstrated” how students grappled with topics like geographical and linguistic diversity and global political institutions, the report found. The main theme of the school, which highlights students as global citizens, was often tied by staff to specific celebrations such as Hispanic Heritage and Black History months and notable figures, according to the report.

Additionally, most teachers lacked previous high school teaching experience, according to the report. Students spent “extended periods of time sitting silently” and had a lack of dialogue in classrooms, the report found.

Early on, the school and district administration had not cultivated an environment that encouraged staff to examine and challenge their assumptions of implicit bias and other forms of racism, according to the report.

When Black students spoke about their experiences of racial harassment, school administrators hosted a staff discussion of a book called “Courageous Conversations About Race,” according to the report. But staff members weren’t clear about why they were attending the discussions and told Creed researchers the conversations felt “surface-level” and “lacked transparency and support, and limited their capacity to understand and address the issues” that were happening, the report read.

“There was a missed opportunity to address the professional learning needs of instructional staff to be responsive to these issues as a part of student learning,” the report said.

Response did more damage, leading to transfers, resignations

After Black students spoke out publicly, district leaders held assemblies largely viewed “as insufficient and ineffective” by others, according to the report.

During the 2022-23 school year, Global Studies principal Nelson Ruiz held an assembly for the entire school where he told all students not to use the N-word or they would be suspended, according to the report. The school’s zero-tolerance for the N-word was “not only viewed as harming victims, but it also policed the language and speaking practices of Black students,” the report read.

Interviewees also discussed a pizza party for Black students that some students felt “was an attempt to drive their attention away from the issue,” according to the report. During the January 2023 school board meeting, a former Global Studies student said school administrators called members of the Black Student Union “and gave us pizza, candy and even soda,” in what she felt was an attempt to silence students. Ruiz did not respond to calls, a text, or emailed questions from Chalkbeat about his response to the incidents.

León also held an assembly during the 2022-23 school year, specifically for the junior class, where students were told, “If they don’t feel comfortable [at NSGS], basically they can leave,” a student interviewee said. Students interpreted León’s comment as “If you don’t like it, you can leave,” according to the report. Student interviewees also felt as if school staff were not facilitating their transfer requests because of a lack of communication between León and the school, while others said it was because the school “did not want to lose high-achieving Black students,” the draft report stated.

Those findings echo what students had told Newark school board members. During the January 2023 board meeting, three students said they were being told by guidance counselors that they couldn’t transfer. One student told board members that Leon’s speech “didn’t feel like it had any empathy and it gave very much, ‘if you don’t like it, then go home.” Another student said “a vast amount of students” lined up outside of the guidance counselors’ offices the day after León’s assembly. A third student said guidance counselors told her multiple times that she couldn’t transfer and if she left “how would that make us feel.”

Staff interviewees also said high-performing Black students were the first students to try to transfer out and some considered how that would impact the school’s image, according to the draft report.

The transfer rates of Black students have “significantly increased” each year at Global Studies in comparison to all other student groups, according to data included in the draft report. Black students have been less likely to complete an academic year at the school than their peers at Newark School of Data Science and Information Technology, Newark Fashion and Design, and Newark Vocational, the report stated.

At the end of the 2021-22 school year, six Black students transferred out of Global Studies and in the following school year, another seven Black students had transferred as of March 15, 2023, according to the report. During the 2022-23 school year, three Black female teachers resigned, all from the same department, and two Latino students were transferred out, the report notes.

Throughout the report, researchers also found that the school’s restorative approach to the issues did not adequately address “the persistence or saliency” of racist comments by students. To address the incidents, administrators called for parent conferences and time of reflection with students that led Black students to feel emotionally unsafe about being forced to work with students who used racist language toward them and were allowed to remain in classes, according to the report.

The practices also “created an atmosphere where some Latino students felt they could use racist language toward Black students and teachers without consequence,” the draft reads.

Staff members who were interviewed said they were following district policy and “employing a restorative approach” to discipline students while others acknowledged they had an “educative role” to address the use of racial language by non-Black students, the report found.

One teacher acknowledged that education “on the background of why some of the things [students] say to each other are so hurtful” would be useful.

“I think especially for recent immigrants, they come here, and they hear that kind of dialogue, and they adopt it thinking like they’re gonna be proud and part of American culture and have no background for it, and don’t realize that for them, it’s not appropriate to talk that way,” according to the teacher.

The report recommended the district build school staff’s capacity to identify cultural gaps, create a racially conscious and inclusive environment, foster conversations about race, and assess the effects of anti-Blackness on the school system.

Researchers also noted that “the courage and resilience” of Black students at Global Studies who assumed leadership positions in school organizations, participated in extracurricular activities, and are high achievers demonstrated a level “of social awareness and activism” by challenging racial discrimination.

Their efforts were aligned with the Global Studies theme, the report found.

Jessie Gomez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

State judge denies Newark school board petition to unseat Dawn Haynes over legal conflict

2025-01-07T11:00:00+00:00

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A state judge has denied the Newark Board of Education’s petition to remove one of its longest-serving members over her daughter’s attempt to sue the school district.

The December decision by State Administrative Law Judge William J. Courtney is a setback in the district’s attempt to unseat six-year board member Dawn Haynes and exclude her from participating in board business and activities. Acting State Commissioner of Education Kevin Dehmer will review the case and must make a final decision on the petition by Feb. 3, 45 days from the judge’s ruling, according to Courtney’s decision obtained by Chalkbeat through a public records request.

The district’s petition, also obtained through a public records request, argued that Haynes had an “irreconcilable conflict of interest” and keeping her on the board would cause “irreparable harm” after her adult daughter filed a legal claim against Newark Public Schools. In the claim, Akela Haynes alleges that she experienced religious, racial, and gender discrimination and other harassment during her time as a Newark School of Global Studies student.

Last month, Akela Haynes, who waited until she was 18 to file her claim, said she wants transparency about the discrimination she says she and her peers experienced at Global Studies. She sent her legal claim to the district in October, and under state law, can file a lawsuit against the district after six months.

The petition, which the Newark school board filed to the state education department in early December, was sent to the New Jersey Office of Administrative Law, which reviews contested cases for state agencies and issues initial decisions.

In his decision, Courtney wrote that “the first weakness” in the district’s argument is that Akela Haynes has not filed a lawsuit against the board and therefore, there is “no evidence” in the district’s assertion that Haynes would cause “irreparable harm.”

“I find no harm to the board as a result of receiving notice of a potential tort claim from respondent’s daughter,” wrote Courtney in last month’s decision.

On Monday, the district’s communications director Paul Brubaker did not respond to emailed questions asking if the district would appeal the judge’s decision, what “irreparable harm” Haynes has caused or could cause, and if it would respond to Akela Haynes’ claim. On Dec. 20, 2024, Brubaker wrote that the district “does not comment on matters in litigation, and we look forward to articulating our position in court.”

“We will happily consider discussing these matters after they have been fully adjudicated,” Brubaker added.

Since 2023, Haynes, her daughter, and community members have been calling on León to release a scathing report from an outside consultant on the racial, religious, and cultural atmosphere at Global Studies. The board commissioned the report in January 2023 after students and teachers first described a pattern of racist harassment at the high school in November 2022.

Emails obtained by Chalkbeat in 2023 showed students and teachers endured months of racial harassment and discrimination before they pleaded to the school board for help. But few details have been released about the district’s efforts to address racial tensions and concerns.

NPS argued that board member could cause “irreparable harm”

Dawn Haynes is a City Hall staffer and was elected to the Newark Board of Education in 2018.

In her claim, Akela Haynes alleges that between September 2020 and December 2022, she “suffered pervasive and consistent” discrimination, sexual harassment, assault, battery, intimidation, bullying, cyber-bullying, emotional distress, and other inappropriate and unlawful treatment. She also alleges León and Global Studies principal Nelson Ruiz are liable for “substantial monetary and non-monetary damages” for violating their obligation to protect the former student from “the physical and psychological harms” she experienced.

But the amount was not specified in her claim because Akela Haynes is “still traumatized and requires the treatment of specialists and medical experts,” the claim read.

In the petition, Liss, the district’s attorney, argued for board member Haynes’ immediate removal ahead of the Dec. 19, 2024 school board meeting, saying she could cause “irreparable harm.” Haynes attended the December board meeting but did not speak about her case.

Liss also argued that Haynes had a “disqualifying interest,” or personal connection to her daughter’s claim because they live at the same address and are members of the same household. Akela Haynes is currently a freshman sociology major at Clark Atlanta University and does not live in Newark, she told Chalkbeat in December.

In addition, Liss argued, Haynes “cannot legitimately claim a substantial interest in continued participation on the board” while her daughter pursues the monetary relief in her claim.

In ruling against the district’s request, Courtney wrote that “there is no reason why” Haynes can’t abstain “from participation in any such discussion or board action” on Akela Haynes’ claim. The board has not voted on a formal action against the claim.

Courtney also decided that a board member’s removal “is not mandatory” when a claim is filed against the district but wrote that “there needs to be a fact sensitive analysis of the alleged direct, or in this case indirect interest” of Akela Haynes’ claim.

Board member Haynes also faced a state ethics complaint last year alleging that she used her position as board president to pressure Global Studies parent liaison Samantha Heer to organize a meeting between parents and the school’s student council.

In an email to Chalkbeat on Dec. 19, 2024, state education department communications director Laura Fredrick said the matter was dismissed in July 2024 after Heer, who filed the complaint, failed to appear for hearings.

Community speaks against board’s effort to remove Haynes

At the December school board meeting, community members spoke out against the board’s attempt to remove Haynes and criticized the district’s response to the allegations of racial harassment at Global Studies.

Former board member Marques-Aquil Lewis said he never “sat on a school board and met about removing a board member.” His board “understood that it wasn’t our responsibility to remove [members] from their seat but the people that elect them,” Lewis added.

“The local control that I remember sitting on that board fighting for was a local control that would point out injustice everywhere despite your color, despite your gender. We point it out, we’ll resolve it, and we’ll handle it,” Lewis said.

Lyndon Brown, whose nephew, a former student at Global Studies, said he was called a racial slur in his English class, “was not pleased with what happened there.”

He commended Haynes and board member Crystal Williams for bringing attention to the school’s issues.

“I do think that the voices of the parents and the transparency of this board is critical in moving this district forward. Our kids deserve better than what they’ve been getting,” Brown said during the board meeting.

Deborah Smith Gregory, president of NAACP Newark, said during the December meeting that she’s been requesting the report on Global Studies detailing racial harassment, hostility, and other problems.

The report was commissioned by the school board in January 2023 and conducted by Creed Strategies. But in June 2023, León said that report was meant to inform the district’s strategy on race and would remain internal. The board has not released the report despite requests from board members to publicize it and public records requests from Chalkbeat.

The district released three of the report’s recommendations that call on the district to assess the effects of “anti-Blackness in schools.” But León nor district leaders have shared details about their efforts to fix the problems.

“For 12 months, I have come to this mic requesting its release every month and I have been ignored,” Smith Gregory said. “When I think about the struggle of returning our schools to local control and the current state of affairs, I am disheartened. It seems that the rule of the superintendent is being sanctioned by the board with little oversight and question.”

Smith Gregory added that Haynes should remain on the board.

“She has had the courage to challenge, she has had the courage of her conviction,”said Smith Gregory. “And her daughter who is now an adult, did what she felt was necessary based on it seeming to be that the issue was swept under the rug by this board of education.”

Last month, the Newark Teachers Union withdrew two lawsuits seeking the release of the report after reaching a deal with the district almost a year after filing its first suit.

Union President John Abeigon, who spearheaded the lawsuit, wouldn’t disclose the terms of the agreement or say if the settlement would require the district to release the report to the union or the public.

Jessie Gomez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Newark school board seeks to unseat board member after daughter files legal claim against district

2024-12-19T14:22:25+00:00

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A Newark Board of Education member whose family has spoken out about racial harassment and tensions at a controversial district high school may be facing removal from her seat, Chalkbeat has learned.

In November, the school board voted to ask the state education department to recommend the removal of six-year board member Dawn Haynes, according to a source who has seen the petition. The petition, which was discussed in a closed-door session not open to the public last month, has not been made public by the district.

Four board members voted to send the petition to the state, three abstained, and one voted against it.

Paul Brubaker, Newark Public Schools’ communications director, did not respond to emailed questions about why the district is asking the state to recommend Haynes’ removal and why the petition is not public.

The board’s petition, signed by Superintendent Roger León, comes after Haynes’ daughter, Akela Haynes, filed a legal claim in October against the district alleging religious, racial, and gender discrimination and other harassment during her time as a Newark School of Global Studies student. The claim also alleges León and principal Nelson Ruiz are liable for violating their obligation to protect Akela Haynes from “the physical and psychological harms” she experienced at the school.

In a call with Chalkbeat on Monday, Akela Haynes, who waited until she was 18 to file her claim, said she wants transparency on the harassment she says she and her peers experienced at Global Studies and wants to “make it very clear that what happened should never happen again.”

After filing notice of a claim, under state law, an individual must wait six months to file a lawsuit to give a public entity a chance to respond. Akela Haynes sent her claim to Newark Public Schools on Oct. 25.

Brubaker did not respond to an email asking the district for a response to Akela Haynes’ claim or what it has done to address the problems at Global Studies.

Additionally, board member Haynes — who’s currently serving her third term — also faced an ethics complaint in March 2023 alleging she used her position as board president to pressure Global Studies parent liaison Samantha Heer to organize a meeting between parents and the school’s student council, according to the complaint obtained by Chalkbeat via a public records request. Heer filed the complaint, but a decision on it has not been posted online by the state’s School Ethics Commission.

Dawn Haynes is a City Hall staffer and was elected to the Newark Board of Education in 2018.

Haynes’ possible removal from the board is the latest fallout from the ongoing controversy about Global Studies. Since 2022, students and teachers have come forward to describe a pattern of racist harassment at Global Studies and emails obtained by Chalkbeat in 2023 showed they endured months of harassment and abuse before they pleaded to the school board for help.

Incidents at the school led the Newark Board of Education to commission an outside consultant to study the cultural, racial, and religious dynamics on campus and create recommendations – but the board has refused to release the report despite a lawsuit from the teachers union.

Former Global Studies students allege racist harassment

In November 2022, Akela Haynes joined a group of Black students who spoke at a board meeting about the racial harassment they say they experienced at Global Studies. But the tensions at the school persisted without help from the school’s administration, she said, forcing Akela Haynes to transfer out in the middle of her junior year despite being an honor roll student and student body secretary.

During her time as a Global Studies student, Akela Haynes recalled getting into a verbal altercation with a male peer because “he basically walked past me and called me the N-word,” she told Chalkbeat. She also had another encounter with the same student where he called her a terrorist, said Akela Haynes, who is Muslim, as her voice became shaky and cracked with emotion.

But “the final straw” that prompted her transfer was when a student destroyed her headphones, she said. She says she raised the issue with the school’s leadership but “not only did they try to cover it up, they also treated me as if I was the person who destroyed property,” Akela Haynes said.

Some of her peers also transferred out of the high school, including David Allen, former president of the Black Student Union at Global Studies. Allen was a Chalkbeat Student Voices fellow last year and wrote about the situation at the high school that had “escalated from kids teasing each other” to Black students “being the targets of racist harassment and hostility.”

During a press conference last year, León said the district was working on taking “corrective action” at the school but it has not shared specific details about its plan. León added that he wanted to “tap the students at Global Studies” to work with him and help inform the district’s strategy on race.

In March 2023, four months after Akela Haynes went public with allegations of racial harassment at Global Studies, Dawn Haynes received an ethics complaint for “demanding a meeting without following school protocols” at Global Studies in December 2022, according to the complaint filed by Heer, the parent liaison at the high school. The complaint further alleges that Dawn Haynes used her position as board president at the time to pressure Heer to set up the meeting.

“Ms. Haynes did not recognize that authority rests with the Newark Board of Education and took private action after racial tensions at a NBOE meeting on November 22, 2022,” the complaint read.

Community demands the release of Global Studies report

Akela Hayne’s claim isn’t the first time the district has faced a potential lawsuit over allegations of racial harassment at the high school.

In June 2023, former Global Studies English teachers Tammy Davis and Nubia Lumumba said they “suffered severe emotional problems” leading them to seek “psychological counseling” after experiencing racial harassment during the 2022-23 school year. The former Newark teachers filed claims with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights over racial discrimination against students and retaliation against Davis and Lumumba for complaining about the harassment, according to a letter from the department sent to León last December. The federal office launched an investigation on Dec. 21, 2023, which is ongoing.

Board members, including Haynes, have also been vocal about calling for the release of a scathing report that details the racial harassment and hostility students and staff experienced at Global Studies. In 2023, Haynes said the report was “traumatizing to read.”

The district has so far released three recommendations provided by the report that call on Newark to assess the effects of “anti-Blackness” on the school system and foster conversations about racial issues. But the report, commissioned by school board members in January 2023 and conducted by the consulting firm Creed Strategies, has remained private despite public records requests from Chalkbeat and calls from the community to release it.

In June 2023, León said the report was meant to inform the district’s strategy on race, but few details have been released about the district’s efforts to address the problems at the high school.

Last month, the Newark Teachers Union withdrew two lawsuits seeking the release of the report after reaching a deal with the district almost a year after filing its first case.

The Newark Board of Education will meet on Thursday, Dec. 19 at 6 p.m. at East Ward Elementary School for its last meeting of 2024.

Jessie Gomez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Newark Public Schools taps Planned Parenthood to teach sex ed, health care to students with disabilities

2024-11-20T20:19:03+00:00

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Students with disabilities at American History High School are learning about sexuality, healthy relationships, and LGBTQ+ inclusivity among other health-related topics through a partnership between Newark Public Schools and Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan New Jersey.

The nonprofit organization, which provides sexual and reproductive health care and education across the country, is offering eight sex education workshops to students ages 18 to 21 in the transition program at American History. Parents do not have to provide consent for their children to participate in the workshops, according to Paul Brubaker, the district’s communications director.

The transition program teaches students with disabilities life skills and provides support as they leave the school system and head to the workforce and life outside school. Last month, the Newark school board approved a “memorandum of understanding” with Planned Parenthood, a formalized partnership that allows the organization to provide workshops on the introduction to sexuality, self-advocacy, puberty, self-esteem, and consent, among other topics at no cost to the district this school year.

Planned Parenthood’s staff “has the education, certification, training, and work experience in this area so as to be able to provide the services responsibly,” wrote Brubaker in an email to Chalkbeat on Wednesday.

With students having more access to information and social media than ever before, it’s vital to provide a basic education on sexuality and health care rights, said Jessica Preleski, senior director of education services at Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan New Jersey. For students with disabilities, it’s important to offer that education in a way they can understand and that allows them to ask questions, Preleski added.

“We really let people know that people with disabilities also have changing bodies,” Preleski said. “They have relationships and they even have sex. We try to simplify the presentations a little more and provide visuals so the understanding is there.”

Typically, Planned Parenthood’s workshops are for middle and high school students. At the middle school level, students learn about reproductive anatomy and hygiene and when they get into high school, those conversations also cover sex.

“We always say, it’s not a one-time conversation,” Preleski said.

At American History, the 45 students in the transition program will learn about a range of topics, including the difference between sex, gender, and identity as well as 20 options to prevent pregnancy, including abstinence, hormonal & barrier methods, and lifestyle choices. Last school year, the organization also provided workshops to American History students in the transition program, Preleski said. Every year, Planned Parenthood also provides high school and transition program students at New Jersey Regional Day, a district school for students with disabilities, with their sex and health-related education workshops.

But before Planned Parenthood enters any classroom, they speak with school and district leaders to learn more about the type of instruction their students may need. The school’s administration also notifies parents of the program and topics that will be covered. Planned Parenthood met with team leaders at American History to understand what instruction works for their students and what information they need.

“Why were we requested? What is it about healthy relationships that students need to know?” Preleski said. “Did something happen? Do they have questions about consent?”

From there, school districts receive a copy of the lesson plan in which Planned Parenthood lays out its objectives and connects them with state learning standards, Preleski added.

Each lesson is 40 minutes long and interactive to ensure students are engaged, learning, and feeling safe. For students with disabilities at American History, the organization takes a different approach by providing more visuals with their lessons, printing out photos and placing them in front of students, and repeating things more frequently to support their understanding.

During the workshops, students can also ask questions anonymously by writing them down on index cards. At home, students can also use Planned Parenthood’s sexual health chatbot called Roo. The AI chatbot answers questions backed by professional health educators from the organization, Preleski said.

Sex ed lessons cover internet safety, consent, self-esteem

Planned Parenthood provides workshops to help parents and teachers understand health-related topics and support them in answering student questions. Planned Parenthood also attended the district’s Parent University program, where district parents, community leaders, and staff discuss a wide range of topics related to youth and schools. Last school year, the organization provided an overview for parents to navigate conversations about sex and also provided training to teachers during professional development days about creating safe spaces for students and handling tough questions.

“Sex ed has changed so much from when I got it. It used to be more prevention-based, and now, it’s also about internet safety, consent, and self-esteem,” Preleski said “It can be really hard and daunting but we want to provide the resources and help guide those conversations.”

During training, teachers have also raised questions about referring students to Planned Parenthood health centers and pregnancy options through safe haven laws in New Jersey. Under New Jersey’s Safe Haven Infant Protection Act, the state allows any individual to safely surrender an infant, legally and anonymously at any hospital, police station, fire station, ambulance, first aid, or rescue squad.

New Jersey laws also require schools to provide human sexuality instruction but each district is responsible for creating its own curriculum, provided they comply with learning standards set by the state’s department of education. The state’s Comprehensive Health and Physical Education portion of New Jersey Student Learning Standards requires sex education programs to provide a “comprehensive range of high-quality information” in schools but also mandates that curricula stress abstinence as the most reliable means of avoiding sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy.

The state also has several laws that allow minors to either receive certain services without prior parental consent or authorize them to consent for specific health care services, including some preventive services, according to the New Jersey chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. In particular, state laws cover care for pregnant minors, STD care, HIV treatment, treatment for drug or alcohol use or dependency, outpatient mental health treatment, and services related to sexual assault. Young adults 18 and older are allowed to consent for their health care, but their rights may be limited if they are cognitively impaired and unable to give informed consent, according to the NJAAP.

As part of its partnership with Newark Public Schools, Planned Parenthood also provides a student internship program called Teen LINKS. The organization recruits and trains high school students to teach their peers about sex through school events or formal classroom visits. Students at Science Park and East Side High Schools and BRICK Gateway Academy are part of the Teen Links program.

“Sex ed isn’t just for youth, it’s for everyone,” Preleski said. “We’re constantly learning about issues and really enforcing that informed decisions really promotes safer decisions.”

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Newark Public Schools receives $25K grant from Gates Foundation as it expands AI tutor chatbot

2024-11-15T11:00:01+00:00

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Newark Public Schools is planning the next phase of Khanmigo, an artificial intelligence tutoring tool piloted at First Avenue School last year that’s gained support from teachers, district leaders said.

Last month, the Newark school board approved a $25,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support the expansion of Khanmigo. The grant will also help enhance the district’s STEAM program and add new tools such as 3D printers, according to Paul Brubaker, the district’s communications director.

Last school year, the district was among the first in the country to test Khanmigo, an AI program developed by online learning giant Khan Academy that is designed for classrooms and acts as a tutor to students and an assistant for teachers.

The new grant comes after philanthropist Bill Gates visited First Avenue in May with Superintendent Roger León and toured classrooms using Khanmigo. Gates, who is also the co-founder of Microsoft, is in support of developing AI technology. (The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is a Chalkbeat funder. Learn more about our funding here.)

“All together, these resources are intended to enrich the overall learning experience and promote innovation throughout the school,” Brubaker added.

After the pandemic, city leaders sounded the alarm about the need to provide more support to improve student achievement. This spring, student scores in math and English language arts standardized tests went up by 2 percentage points for the second year in a row but remained behind pre-pandemic levels signaling students’ slow academic progress post-COVID. District leaders also developed plans in science and English language arts that focus on new approaches to learning to boost student achievement.

The district said students who used Khanmigo during its pilot phase in the 2023-24 school year showed improvements in their math scores. Among North Ward schools, First Avenue School had the second-highest math proficiency rate in spring 2024 state test scores. Overall, 17.7% of district students who took the standardized test in the spring passed the math portion – a bump from 2023 math scores when 15% of district students passed.

But it’s unclear how much of Khanmigo’s tutoring in classrooms impacted that rate. The Newark school board in March approved a data-sharing agreement with Khan Academy to study whether the tool was effective in North Ward schools, but the district has not released that data.

The tutoring tool, powered by ChatGPT technology, was launched at First Avenue last year for grades 5-8 and was primarily used to support students in math, reading, and writing. This school year, Khanmigo is being used in 13 other kindergarten through eighth grade North Ward schools including Abington Avenue, Elliot Street, Luis Muñoz Marin, and Sussex Avenue, Brubaker said. Khanmigo also expanded to grades 3-8 this school year, according to Superintendent Roger León in August.

The district did not say if the next phase of Khanmigo would include expanding it to more schools across the city or grade levels.

The Khanmigo program is still in its pilot phase but is designed to guide students as they progress through lessons and ask questions like a human tutor would, according to Khan Academy. It can also assist teachers with tasks such as planning lessons, tailoring instruction, creating texts and images, and providing recommendations on what students could work on next.

Newark is one of 53 school districts across the country to pilot the tool, which is accessed through Khan Academy’s website rather than a separate app. North Ward students have access to Khanmigo at no cost to the district, Brubaker said. The price for school districts to use Khanmigo starts at $35 per student for the school year with discounts for schools and districts that have a high number of students who qualify for free and reduced lunch.

In Newark schools where Khanmigo is used, “teachers appreciate its ability to provide real-time data on student progress,” Brubaker said.

Data on student progress is “one of several tools” the district is using to tailor instruction, “enabling teachers to form small groups and address specific learning needs with Khanmigo’s support,” Brubaker added. Teachers may use Khanmigo to draft ideas for lessons, but ultimately, “the author is responsible for the quality of the writing and the accuracy of the information,” he added.

Students also enjoyed interacting with Khanmigo by using it to work through exercises on the platform, Brubaker said. The district’s “building thinking classrooms” approach emphasizes “problem-solving, collaboration, and critical thinking in a structured learning environment,” which is also supported by Khanmigo, according to Brubaker.

The tool also enables students to work through challenges before approaching the teacher, a process that encourages students “to self-correct, engage with the problem, reflect on their understanding, and build on their confidence,” Brubaker said.

“Khanmigo served as a valuable tool that helped us expand on the best practices we already had in place,” Brubaker said.

At the state level, Gov. Phil Murphy has called to create an “artificial intelligence moonshot” in New Jersey. This week, the state’s Artificial Intelligence Task Force released a report on AI innovations in New Jersey and recommended ways to expand the technology in education and literacy. The recommendations suggest expanding exposure to AI tools and resources to students, parents, and educators and supporting educators to integrate AI in classrooms. In June, the state’s department of education launched a set of resources that ranged from online training videos and articles aimed at helping educators understand, implement, and manage artificial intelligence in schools.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Families can apply for schools using Newark Enrolls or Newark Common App. Here’s what to know.

2024-11-13T21:18:24+00:00

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It may feel like the school year just started, but education officials in Newark are already encouraging families to think about next year.

The open enrollment period for Newark Public Schools and city charter schools began on Nov. 2. The public school district held an “all schools fair” on that day for families to learn more about their options, including specialized schools across the city.

Parents also can find videos with more information about programs offered at district schools on the Newark Enrolls website. This year, 10 charter schools — which are free, independently operated public schools — are not participating in Newark Enrolls. Families must apply separately to those schools by using the Newark Common App.

Chalkbeat put together an application guide with key information on this year’s enrollment process. Here’s what Newark families need to know:

How do I apply?

Parents must apply for a school if their child is enrolling for the first time, wants to switch schools, or is in the final grade of their current school –– for example, a preschooler who will start kindergarten next fall, or an eighth grader who will be starting high school.

Families who want to enroll in any of Newark Public Schools’ 60-plus traditional, specialized, or magnet schools will use the Newark Enrolls application, which uses SchoolMint to run the application process. If you don’t have a SchoolMint account, you can create one on the Newark Enrolls website.

From there, parents will be asked to complete a series of forms with questions about their student before selecting a preferred school. Parents can apply to up to eight schools, which families rank in order of preference on their application online.

A full list of participating schools and videos are available on the Newark Enrolls website or in this guidebook. The application also offers one charter school option for elementary students, New Horizons Community Charter School.

Families have until Feb. 7, 2025, to submit a Newark Enrolls application, and school match letters will be released on April 18, 2025.

Last school year, 82% of kindergarten families got their first choice and 82.5% of ninth graders were matched to one of their top three choices, according to Newark Enrolls FAQs. The only reason a Newark student would not get into his or her first choice would be if the school does not have enough seats for all applicants, according to the district. At that point, students will be matched with their highest-ranked school with available seats.

For admission into one of the district’s six magnet schools, schools will rank applicants based on standardized test scores, grades, and attendance. Some schools may also require an audition or interview process.

Charter school applications

Those looking to enroll in city charter schools will use the Newark Common App, a new platform launched in 2022 by the New Jersey Children’s Foundation, a charter-aligned nonprofit. Similar to Newark Enrolls, the Newark Common App features a centralized application, lottery, and waitlist process, but it may feel different for families accustomed to one application process for both traditional public and charter schools.

The process can be completed in 5-10 minutes and families can apply to up to five schools, according to the application’s FAQs. The application’s computer-based lottery system will assign students to the highest choice on their list with space available, similar to Newark Enrolls. The first application phase ends on March 17, 2025, and parents can apply and edit applications anytime during that window.

If parents miss Phase 1, families can apply during Phase 2 starting on March 4, 2025. Those applications are processed on a rolling basis.

There are no documentation requirements to create or submit a Newark Common App application. In previous years, families had to prove they lived in the city before applying, but now, parents must register their child with Newark Public Schools before formally enrolling in a matched school, according to the application’s FAQs. Families who applied by the end of Phase 1 will be notified of their school offer on April 10, 2025.

You can find more information about the 10 schools participating in the Newark Common App online.

Families can also use My Schools Newark, created by the charter-aligned New Jersey Children’s Foundation, to search for any school in the city, regardless of which application process it is under. The Newark Enrolls search feature only has information on schools that take part in the platform.

Bilingual and special education

Students who have an individualized education program, or IEP, and require special education services may receive a preference to be matched to a school of their choice that provides the services required by their IEP, according to Newark Public Schools. The Newark Enrolls guidebook provides a full list of schools offering bilingual, English as a second language, and special education programs.

Under New Jersey law, charter schools are also required to serve any student who is matched to them, including students who need special education or multi-lingual services.

Jessie Gomez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Newark Teachers Union ends lawsuits for Global Studies report without district promise to release it

2024-11-07T21:16:16+00:00

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The Newark Teachers Union has withdrawn two lawsuits seeking the release of a scathing report on the cultural dynamics at the Newark School of Global Studies after reaching a deal with the district – but it remains unclear if the public will get to see the report.

Union President John Abeigon, who spearheaded the lawsuit, wouldn’t disclose the terms of the agreement in a call with Chalkbeat Thursday, or say if the settlement would require the district to release the consultant’s report to the union or the public. The agreement has not been filed yet in Essex County Superior Court, and neither party has provided it to Chalkbeat.

In the lawsuits filed a year ago, the union called on the district to release the Creed Strategies report, which school officials have claimed was a draft and therefore exempt from public records law. The report was part of a research and data-sharing agreement with the firm that came at no cost to the district, according to board records.

Abeigon, who has previously criticized the district for “being less than forthcoming with information” about the report, said Thursday he had not seen the report and does not know if Superintendent Roger León will release it.

“I’m convinced that there’s nothing in that report that can’t be resolved within the current structures of the Newark Board of Education and its responsibility to the public,” Abeigon said.

When asked what changed the union’s position about demanding the release of the report, Abeigon said “we changed our position. That’s it.”

The district didn’t respond for requests for comment on the case Thursday.

Last month, the union and Newark Public Schools reached a tentative agreement in the cases that would require the union to withdraw its 2023 and 2024 lawsuits without admission of liability or fault, according to a letter filed by the district’s attorney, Eltia Montano Galarza of the Taylor Law Group.

The end of the union’s lawsuits comes two years after a group of Black students at Global Studies spoke at a board meeting in November 2022 about the racial harassment they experienced at the school. Emails obtained by Chalkbeat Newark showed parents and students had brought their concerns to the school’s principal, Nelson Ruiz, and vice principal Hoda Abdelwahab months before the board meeting. Parents called for the removal of Ruiz after criticizing him for handling the situation poorly. Ruiz continues to be the principal at Global Studies, and Abdelwahab resigned from her role in 2023.

In response, the Newark school board in January 2023 commissioned Creed Strategies, a consulting firm specializing in diversity issues, to conduct a review of the high school’s cultural, racial, and religious dynamics. The firm, which previously helped the district create its one-year plan after the end of state operation in 2020, completed its review months later, but Leòn said the report would remain internal despite numerous calls from the community, board members, and advocacy groups to release it.

In September 2023, León provided the first and only glimpse into the report by releasing three recommendations that called on the district to assess the effects of “anti-Blackness” on the school system, foster conversations about racial issues, and build school staff’s capacity to identify cultural gaps and create a racially conscious environment.

The Newark Teachers Union first sued the district in November 2023 for access to the Global Studies report, after its public records request for the document was denied a month before. Chalkbeat Newark filed two public records requests in 2023 seeking the report, but the district also denied those requests.

The union’s attorney, Raymond Baldino of the Zazzali law firm, argued that the union had an interest in the report and in knowing how any changes or recommendations to the district’s approach in handling student and staff issues related to “anti-Blackness” or “cultural sensitivity,” would affect teachers in the district, according to court records.

The agreement between the teachers union and the district comes after Judge Mayra Tarantino, who heard the cases, ordered the district to submit the Global Studies report in January for the court’s private review.

In April 2024, the union filed a second lawsuit after a second public records request – seeking access to billing records and the contract between Creed Strategies and the district – was denied in February. Last month, Montano Galarza, the district’s attorney, filed a letter in court arguing that the union’s 2024 lawsuit was “moot” because they had later provided the documents. In response, Baldino argued that the district had violated state public records laws because the union was denied the documents in its initial request.

During October’s school board meeting, members voted to approve a proposed settlement agreement that concerned a “legal matter” but did not disclose the terms of the agreement or the related lawsuit.

Before the vote on the agreement, Board member Dawn Haynes said the motion to approve the deal was “perplexing to me.” Haynes, who in 2023 said it was “traumatizing to read” the report, has called on the district to release it. Haynes’ daughter was among the students at Global Studies who experienced ongoing racial harassment, which resulted in her and other students transferring to other district schools.

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights is investigating the allegations of racial harassment against students and staff at the high school after two former Global Studies teachers filed legal claims with state and federal offices in 2023. The investigation is ongoing.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Newark Public Schools partners with NJ LEEP to launch new program to help students get to college

2024-11-01T19:23:18+00:00

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At the beginning of his senior year in September, Samuel DaSilva was in the dark about the college application process.

The senior at East Side High School said the process seemed “long-winded” at first, as he recapped his experience to a room full of Newark education leaders on Friday.

A soon-to-be first-generation college student, DaSilva wasn’t sure where to begin, and his parents didn’t know much about the process either. He also didn’t know about the types of scholarships he could apply for until NJ LEEP, a nonprofit working with first-generation and low-income students to help them reach college, explained the process to him and his parents.

Through a partnership with Newark Public Schools and a grant from MacKenzie Scott’s Yield Giving Foundation, the nonprofit will launch a school-based program next year at Central and East Side high schools to expand students’ access to college opportunities and support high school students like DaSilva.

“NJ LEEP staff spent a lot of time informing my family and I about the long-winded, multifaceted college application process,” said DaSilva at a press conference at Central High School on Friday. “Now that I’m in the midst of these applications, they are my guiding anchor and my guiding light in all of this.”

With application deadlines for colleges and universities approaching, students are busy thinking about what school they want to attend and writing personal statements while savoring their last moments of senior year. But even after students submit their college applications, those who are the first to go to college or come from low-income families face additional challenges, such as finding ways to pay for college, navigating the new Better Free Application for Federal Student Aid, understanding financial aid options, and deciding what to major in.

Newark Public Schools, NJ LEEP, Mayor Ras Baraka and other elected officials held a press conference to announce the start of a pilot program that provides opportunities for district students to develop skills and participate in experiences to help them achieve success in college.

NJ LEEP will support district students in getting a college education by providing college resources and guidance to students at Central and East Side for the first time. The nonprofit has been in the community since 2007 and has previously supported students in their college process. The new partnership will allow NJ LEEP to connect with students and provide their services after school, at Saturday school, and during the summer at no cost to the district.

The nonprofit will hire district teachers and counselors who are familiar with the students, schools, and community to guide students before, during, and after the college process, according to NJ LEEP. They offer a range of services from SAT/ACT prep to opportunities to develop social-emotional skills, internships, field trips, and volunteer experiences.

Superintendent Roger Leòn on Friday said the district understands the necessary support system needed to get to college and by providing NJ LEEP’s program in two district high schools, they are providing students with “someone who understands all of the work.”

Ziven Lewis has also benefited from NJ LEEP’s resources. A sophomore at Central High School, Lewis has been a part of the organization’s program since middle school. He said his confidence has grown, his grades have improved, and he’s been able to manage his responsibilities while also playing football at Central High School.

“Seeing how much I’ve grown from last year, I am confident that I will be able to achieve the goals I have for myself. I’m excited to begin exploring life after high school,” said Lewis during Friday’s press conference.

Newark Public School’s Class of 2024 earned $169 million in college scholarships, and 48.9% of students in the Class of 2023 completed their freshman year in college, said León on Friday. The statistics point to the need to provide continuous support to students after high school, León added.

“The ultimate goal is not only graduating students from high school — we know we do that — but actually having them successfully complete college as well,” León said.

DaSilva, the senior at East Side, said NJ LEEP “changed the future outlook of his life” and has increased his confidence and public speaking skills through the nonprofit’s resources. He completed his college applications on Thursday and is a finalist for the QuestBridge scholarship, a program that provides full four-year scholarships to high-achieving students from low-income families.

He wants to attend Case Western Reserve University and major in mechanical engineering.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

West Side High School celebrates new entrepreneurship program with Leonidas Foundation

2024-11-01T19:20:09+00:00

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West Side High School celebrated the launch of the school’s new L.E.O. (Leadership, Entrepreneurship, and Opportunity) Program in partnership with the Leonidas Foundation on Monday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. West Side received a $15,000 endowment from the foundation for the development and launch of the program, and the grant will support it for at least five years.

West Side Principal Akbar Cook, West Ward Councilman Dupré Kelly, Leonidas Foundation Vice President James Ebert, and hip-hop legend Anthony “Treach” Criss of Naughty By Nature attended. The ceremony took place at the school’s newly redesigned business center, the centerpiece of which is a stock ticker.

The L.E.O program, which began this week and will extend into next fall, is teaching 19 juniors business skills such as public speaking and networking.

Students had to fill out both an online application and questionnaire. Dale Omowa, one of the students selected, never envisioned himself in a program like this.

“I would never be doing this if not for this class. I would be at home sleeping,” Omowa, 17, said. “But now, there’s so many people, so many things to do, so many opportunities, and I want to take advantage of this.”

Jamal Smith, the program’s teaching advisor initially was hesitant to take on the extra work. “But [Principal Cook], he always talks about being extraordinary and not ordinary,” Smith said. “And he asked me, ‘So, you want to be ordinary?’ and I’m like, ‘Nah, I don’t want to be ordinary.’”

Smith is glad he took the chance and is able to show students a path to entrepreneurship.

“I think starting a business is very important for students to understand, especially at this age, so that if they don’t go to college, or if they don’t do something else they’ll have entrepreneurship to lean on,” he said.

Cook described the program as “a happy marriage, because we are the school of business and finance, and the Leonidas Foundation talks a lot about entrepreneurship, and kids finding a way to a living wage. But how do we get them to a living wage? And I think this is one of the out-of-the-box ways of thinking to get them towards that.”

The Leonidas Foundation, founded in 2017, honors Leonidas Vagias, who passed away in 2016 in a car accident while in college at the University of Rhode Island studying business. Vagias was one of the top kickers in the country. His father, Ted Vagias, who’s on the board of trustees, said that “families, friends all got together and said, ‘We have to honor Leo’s name,’ because he loved his school, loved business, the camaraderie. So that’s when we said, ‘Let’s start a program that is just like Leo.’”

The program began at Leonidas’ high school alma mater, Don Bosco Preparatory High School, an all-boys private school in Ramsey, then expanded to Mount St. Dominic Academy, an all-girls academy in Caldwell. West Side is now the first coed and public school to host this program.

Matthew Frankel, a spokesperson for the Leonidas Foundation, said West Side was chosen as the first Newark public school because of its emphasis on work-study opportunities for students.

“Our first two programs were at private schools, so it was a more involved process of getting into the public school system,” Leonidas Foundation Vice President James Ebert said. “So that’s what makes today a big, big milestone for us.”

“When you’re fighting for Newark students and ensuring every child is provided equity, this is what it looks like,” Kelly said. “And it starts with creating innovative and valuable programs like this for our children and rightfully provides opportunities that they deserve.”

Darius McClain is a Rutgers University-Newark reporting intern for Chalkbeat Newark covering public education in the city. Get in touch with Darius at dmcclain@chalkbeat.org or reach the bureau newsroom at newark.tips@chalkbeat.org.

Newark Public Schools to appeal judge’s dismissal of lawsuit to reclaim Maple Avenue building

2024-10-31T21:34:58+00:00

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Newark Public Schools will continue its legal fight to reclaim the former Maple Avenue school building after a state judge ruled to dismiss its lawsuit in May. The same judge this week ordered the district to pay more than half a million dollars in costs to a nonprofit connected to KIPP New Jersey.

The school district will appeal Essex County Superior Court Judge Lisa Adubato’s ruling that denies “its right to regain ownership of the building” that reopened as KIPP SEEK Academy in the city’s South Ward, according to a district press release issued Thursday. The district launched its battle to reclaim the property in 2020 after filing a lawsuit against the Newark Housing Authority and Friends of TEAM Charter Schools that demanded the court void the sale of the Maple Avenue building and give it back to the district.

On Tuesday, Adubato ordered the district to pay $768,487.05 to Friends of TEAM Charter Schools, the group that owns the building and claimed it incurred additional property costs as a result of the district’s 2020 lawsuit. In May, Adubato dismissed the case after calling the district’s efforts “shameful.” She added that the lawsuit could have been avoided if the district had specified language in the property’s title that sales to charter schools were prohibited.

“This matter must be put to rest,” said Adubato on Tuesday. The district “made a promise that it would not encumber” the property, and that was a promise the owners of the building relied on, she added.

The district’s announcement to appeal Adubato’s ruling signals the next chapter in a four-year battle that started after Superintendent Roger León made a plan to expand the district and reclaim former public school buildings after becoming the first superintendent to lead the district under local control. When the district was under state control from 1995 until 2020, state-appointed superintendents closed many public schools while the charter sector boomed across the city.

The efforts to reclaim the Maple Avenue property also add to the district’s mounting legal fees in battles to reclaim other charter-owned properties and a lawsuit against it for withholding a report on the cultural analysis of Newark’s School of Global Studies, among other lawsuits. During the district’s October school board meeting, which was not live-streamed to the public, the district said pending legal settlements were one of two items posing a financial risk to the district.

“The ruling was not unexpected, as Judge Adubato had made statements on the record months ago indicating that she would rule against the Board of Education,” the district said in its Thursday’s press release.

Judge James Paganelli was initially assigned to the case in 2020 and had ruled in favor of the district, “thus paving the way for trial,” according to the release.

“However, Judge Adubato granted requests to reconsider those decisions and ruled against the board, finding that there were no issues of fact creating a need for trial,” the press release read.

Paganelli was moved to the Appellate Division of the Superior Court, where the district will file its appeal.

In 2016, Newark Public Schools, under state-appointed Superintendent Christopher Cerf, transferred the Maple Avenue property and 11 others to the city’s housing authority under an agreement that the agency would sell the buildings through a public bidding process and return most of the profits to the district to help alleviate its budget crisis.

The sales were also meant to help eliminate $2 to $4 million in annual maintenance costs for buildings that were unused, according to an audio transcript of Tuesday’s hearing. The city had planned to transform the Maple Avenue building into apartments, but it is now home to more than 560 KIPP SEEK Academy elementary students. KIPP operates 11 Newark charter schools that enroll more than 5,200 students.

In 2017, the city sold the Maple Avenue property for $1.2 million to Newark-based developer Hanini Group. In 2020, the developer sold the property, which had been significantly updated, for $10 million to Friends of TEAM Charter Schools. District attorneys filed their lawsuit shortly after the KIPP-affiliated nonprofit bought the building.

The 2020 lawsuit alleged that the Maple Avenue building’s sale violated the housing authority’s deal with the district because the authority did not involve the district in the original sale, the lawsuit claims. It also alleges that the housing authority sold the building for a fraction of its appraised value and that the district-agency agreement did not allow the building to be used as a school, claims that were dismissed by Adubato earlier this year after years of arguments and reiterated on Tuesday.

“We appreciate the court’s decision to order that a significant portion of KIPP New Jersey’s expenses associated with the multi-year lawsuit be covered. Our focus remains on providing Newark students with high-quality education and safe, supportive learning environments,” said Gabriella DiFilippo, chief operating officer at KIPP NJ.

Charter schools now educate more than a third of Newark’s public school students. Since at least 2022, Newark schools have worked with a Memphis-based marketing firm to recruit students into district schools to boost enrollment. The firm, called Caissa Public Strategy, has a track record of attracting students from charter schools into districts.

León has also called on the state to close charter schools such as North Star Academy and People’s Preparatory Charter School, arguing that those schools created “a segregative effect” and prevented the district from expanding. Also in 2020, the district filed a lawsuit against People’s Prep, and the court forced the school to leave its space at Bard Early College High School earlier this year.

The district is also reviewing leases with other charter schools it houses for the “possible return of those school properties to the Board of Education,” according to school board reports. Last year, the district repurchased State Street School, one of the 12 schools transferred to the city in 2016.

State Street, Newark’s oldest school building, was also sold to the Hanini Group. Details about the agreement between the public schools and the developer have not been disclosed, according to documents in a 2023 lawsuit filed against the district by Skyway Publishing LLC, a New Jersey-based company that publishes TAPInto Newark. The district plans to renovate the school as a district museum, León has previously said.

Last spring, the district acquired the former four-story University Heights Charter School building from the state. It now houses the Nelson Mandela Elementary School. In 2022, the building was purchased by the state’s School Development Authority, which pays for school construction projects in 31 low-income districts, including Newark.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Newark Teachers Union, district reach tentative deal in battle over Global Studies racial report

2024-10-22T22:21:43+00:00

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The Newark Teachers Union reached a tentative settlement with the district on Monday in lawsuits demanding the release of a report detailing the racial, cultural, and religious dynamics at the Newark School of Global Studies after incidents of racial harassment surfaced in 2022.

As part of the proposed deal, Newark Public Schools would ask the union to withdraw two lawsuits it filed in 2023 and 2024 without admission of liability or fault, according to a letter filed in Essex County Superior Court on Monday by Eltia Montano Galarza of the Taylor Law Group, the district’s attorney in the cases. The full details about the tentative settlement and whether the district would release the Global Studies report as part of the deal have not been disclosed by either party.

The union’s lawsuits are part of a more than two-year battle between the community and the district over the lack of solutions and transparency after incidents of racial harassment against Black students and staff at Newark’s Global Studies High School surfaced two years ago. Since then, district leaders have provided few details about the steps they have taken to resolve the issues at the high school. Superintendent Roger León has said the report would remain confidential and inform the district’s diversity strategy, which remains private.

The proposed agreement comes three months after the union’s attorney, Raymond Baldino of the Zazzali law firm, filed a letter to the courts requesting an update on the case after Superior Court Judge Mayra Tarantino ordered a private review of the Global Studies report in January.

Montano Galarza, the district’s attorney, directed questions about the case to Paul Brubaker, the district’s director of communications. Brubaker did not respond to Chalkbeat Newark’s email about the case on Tuesday. Baldino said the union cannot comment at this time.

The Newark Teachers Union first sued the district in November 2023 for access to the Global Studies report after León said the document would remain internal and the union’s public records request for the report was denied in October 2023. In April 2024, the teachers union filed another lawsuit against the district after a second public records request seeking access to billing records and the contract between the district and Creed Strategies, the firm that was hired to conduct the Global Studies report, was denied in February.

Chalkbeat Newark filed two public records requests in 2023 seeking the report, but the district denied those requests.

On Oct. 9, the district’s attorney filed a letter to the court arguing that the union’s second lawsuit over Creed Strategies billing records and its contract with the district is “moot” because the district later provided the documents. In an Oct. 10 response, Baldino, the union’s lawyer, argues that the documents, which had since been provided to the union, show the district violated state public records laws because they were denied in the union’s initial request for the records in February.

“Despite the absurdity of claiming to not have records related to Plaintiff’s requests related to such a substantial public contract, Defendant now has the audacity to claim that its delay was in good faith,” Baldino said in the letter filed in Essex County Superior Court.

District plans after racial incidents at Global Studies remain private

In November 2022, Black students at Global Studies spoke at a board meeting about the racial harassment they endured at the high school. In response, in January 2023, the Newark school board commissioned the Creed Strategies report analyzing the cultural, racial, and religious dynamics at the high school. The incidents at the high school resulted in at least half a dozen Black students requesting transfers and two Black teachers resigning.

Despite the continued calls for more transparency into the issue, the Global Studies report has not been made public. In June 2023, León said the report would not be released publicly despite requests from members and community leaders, including the NAACP Newark branch. Deborah Smith-Gregory, who leads the NAACP Newark, said she has been asking the district to release the report or provide a summary of the findings but has not heard back.

“Nothing about the report was ever released, and that’s wrong. It is a blatant disrespect by the district,” said Smith-Gregory in a call to Chalkbeat Newark on Tuesday. “And now mind you, the young people who were involved have graduated. They’ve graduated and they’ve gone on, and this still lingers.”

In September 2023, the district provided the first and only glimpse into the unreleased review by releasing three recommendations that call on the district to assess the effects of “anti-Blackness” on the school system, foster conversations about racial issues, and build school staff’s capacity to identify cultural gaps and create an environment that is racially conscious and inclusive. In a school board meeting that same month, León said that “people not having the report in their hands doesn’t mean that there isn’t work … occurring” at the school.

The recommendations came as the high school’s former vice principal, Hoda Abdelwahab, left the district. She was among those called out by parents during board meetings and in legal claims filed by former teachers at the high school for handling the issues poorly. Parents of students at the high school also called for the removal of Global Studies principal, Nelson Ruiz, who has remained in his role.

During a November 2023 school board meeting, board member Crystal Williams asked León for an update on the changes at Global Studies, if any, and member Allison James-Frison said she hoped the report would be released.

Former board member and now Essex County Commissioner A’Dorian Murray Thomas during that meeting also said the district needed to be “firmer and clearer” about its plans to fix the problems at the high school.

But Smith-Gregory on Tuesday said she feels “disappointed in the board” because “members have one job, and that is to hold the superintendent accountable.”

“They didn’t press to get information that could be shared with the public. They did not do that,” Smith-Gregory added.

In documents submitted to the Superior Court in December 2023, León argued that releasing the report would have a “chilling effect” on discussions about racial dialogue and sensitivity practices at Global Studies and districtwide.

Two former Global Studies teachers also filed legal claims with state and federal offices in 2023, alleging they experienced harassment and racial hostility from students and supervisors. The allegations of racial harassment against students and staff are currently under investigation by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, according to Jim Bradshaw, a department spokesperson.

In an email to Chalkbeat on Tuesday, Bradshaw wrote that the “Office for Civil Rights does not comment on pending investigations.”

“We know something happened and we know that there was some type of injustice somewhere,” Smith-Gregory said, “but what are the specifics?”

Jessie Gomez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Newark’s high school of architecture, design expected to open next fall after three-year delay

2024-10-18T20:55:26+00:00

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When Superintendent Roger León announced the opening of a new trade school in the city’s East Ward three years ago, he touted the school as an opportunity for students to fast-track their technical careers and earn a contract to work with Newark Public Schools.

But the project has been plagued by worker complaints over unfair wages and late payments that launched a state investigation. The Newark School of Architecture and Interior Design, originally scheduled to open in fall 2022, is now set to open in September 2025, and the developer of the site says a new stop-work order issued to a subcontractor is not expected to slow down the timeline.

District officials this week refused to answer questions about the school’s expected opening next school year or whether students will see the new school listed as an option when the district’s enrollment system, Newark Enrolls, opens next month.

Partial construction at 155 Jefferson Street, the site of the former St. James Hospital being overhauled into the new school, was interrupted last month after the New Jersey Department of Labor issued the latest stop-work order to Allied Construction Services L.L.C. of Newark, one of the subcontractors performing work on the property, for failing to pay workers a proper wage and keep payroll records, among other violations.

It was the second violation over improper wages for a project that has had its completion date delayed for three straight years. District leaders have said the school will teach students about skilled trades, interior design, and architecture.

Despite disruptions, the developer of the property says it is on track to complete the first phase of construction by January 2025.

In 2021, the district entered into a $160 million, 20-year lease with the developer of the property and Summit Assets CEO, Albert Nigri. In 2022, Newark spent $672,000 to hire engineering consulting firm Remington & Vernick to help the district with construction management services, such as reviewing contract documents, project schedules, securing bonds, insurance, and permits, according to the firm’s website. But it’s unclear if the district has accrued new costs over the years.

In an email to Chalkbeat Newark on Wednesday, Paul Brubaker, the district’s communications director, said the delayed opening was due to “reasons beyond the district’s control” and directed construction questions to Nigri.

Nigri told Chalkbeat Newark on Friday that changes in contractors, subcontractors, and an increase in the size of the building per the district’s request have impacted the delivery date. Allied Construction Services, the subcontractor issued the state stop-work order in September, was fired from the project last month, Nigri said. He did not say who replaced the company.

The state Department of Labor issued the first stop-work order in September 2022 to Summit Assets, Townhouse Builders Inc. of Brooklyn, N.Y, the general contractor of the site at the time, and Dimension Contractors LLC of Newark, the subcontractor at that time. That order completely halted work on the site for months before Nigri hired a new contractor and subcontractor, Hughes & Hughes General Contracting of New York, N.Y and Allied Construction Services L.L.C. respectively.

The Newark School of Architecture and Interior Design is set to focus on three trades – plumbing, electricity, and HVAC – and allow students to study architecture and interior design. The curriculum will also give students a high school diploma and a license for trade work, district officials have previously said.

The new school, district officials have said, would bring life to the dilapidated hospital building that has stood vacant for years in the middle of the city’s Ironbound neighborhood. When it opens, the school will first enroll ninth-grade students and add a grade level each year, wrote Brubaker via email.

The state’s second stop-work order came weeks before the Nov. 2 opening of Newark Enrolls, the only way city students can apply for a spot at their preferred district school for the coming year. That day, the district also holds its annual all-schools fair, where families can learn more about Newark schools and meet teachers and staff.

The latest version of the amended lease, approved by the school board in August, lists the high school’s updated opening date as fall 2025. The amended lease includes three new deadlines for the completion of the school: by Jan. 9, 2025, the base of the school building must be completed; by July 30, 2025, the newly constructed gym and auditorium must be completed; and by Sept. 1, 2025 the building must be completed, according to that lease obtained by Chalkbeat Newark through public records.

On Tuesday morning, a few workers walked on the construction site of the new school, where windows and plywood could be seen on the outside of the building.

The new high school is meant to help address the country’s shortage of skilled trade workers while carrying out León’s goal to expand the district, reclaim former public school buildings, and stop the expansion of charter schools, which are privately run but publicly funded. District leaders are also working to upgrade some of the city’s oldest public school buildings, many of which need new heating and air conditioning systems and upgrades to boilers and roofs, among other needs.

Ahead of filing wage complaints with the state in 2022, laborers at the high school’s construction site told TAPInto Newark that poor working conditions were making their jobs unsafe and many were being paid in cash.

In September 2022, after the state’s first order stalled work on the construction site, dozens of union worker workers showed up to a school board meeting demanding that León intervene after they were forced out of work and owed wages. During that meeting, León acknowledged some of the confusion by addressing laborers’ complaints and reiterated the district’s plan to move forward with a September 2023 opening, which would later be delayed.

Under a previous timeline given by the district, the school was supposed to see its first graduating class in June 2027.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Newark students battle with full buses, city traffic to get to school on time, parents say

2024-10-11T20:09:23+00:00

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Earlier this school year, Newark Board of Education co-vice president Allison James-Frison said she saw crowded New Jersey Transit buses passing Newark students waiting at bus stops long after they were supposed to be in class.

Her own daughter was tardy three times in September because the buses were full and drove past her in the morning, she recently told the school board.

James-Frison is not alone. Maggie Freeman, another Newark parent, said she drove her son and his friends to school one morning because NJ Transit buses were late and full.

Newark Public Schools partners with NJ Transit to provide single-use bus tickets and monthly passes to more than 14,000 of Newark’s nearly 40,000 students, according to statistics from the 2022-23 school year. Students are eligible for bus tickets based on a number of factors, such as distance from school and a student’s needs.

In recent months, NJ Transit has been criticized by riders over delays to their bus and train services. But some parents wonder if traffic and transit challenges have been exacerbated this year by a new universal schedule that requires all of the district’s students to be at school by 8:15 a.m.

While it’s unclear if absences or tardy students have increased, the district has noticed the overcrowding and is in conversation with NJ Transit about the issues – the latest in ongoing transportation woes that have plagued the district since the pandemic and as student enrollment has grown.

During the September school board meeting, James-Frison said she wasn’t sure if the fact that “everyone is going to school at the same time” is affecting student commutes but she believes the district “will see an increase in tardiness.”

“When I’m riding through the community, there are a bunch of students that are still waiting at 9:00, 9:30, waiting to get on the bus, because the buses are passing them by. They have the sign on saying it’s full,” James-Frison added.

Newark Public Schools reports monthly attendance data during its school board meetings but it does not report on student tardiness. Attendance data for September 2024 has not been released.

But district transportation inspectors have noticed crowded buses passing students in the mornings. They are in conversation with NJ Transit to fix the problems and will continue to report their findings to the agency, according to district communications director Paul Brubaker.

NJ Transit did not respond to questions about its conversations with the district following complaints.

The public busing complaints come as Newark Public Schools faces rising demand due to increased enrollment and soaring costs. The district also has a history of struggling with bus transportation, a problem heightened by a shortage of school bus drivers that peaked during the pandemic. In previous years, parents of students with disabilities have also had to absorb transportation costs by relying on NJ Transit and Lyft after being left without district-provided transportation at the start of the school year.

Newark’s transportation challenges are similar to problems across other New Jersey districts that have been forced to consolidate bus stops and charge parents for bus services.

Under New Jersey law, the district is required to provide transportation to and from school for elementary school students who live more than two miles from their public school or high school students who live more than two and a half miles from their school.

Overall, the district is spending $60 million on student transportation for the 2024-25 school year, according to Brubaker. The cost includes monthly bus passes and tickets, as well as transportation for athletic teams to sporting events, for students going on field trips, and for students with disabilities. Additionally, the district provides $7 million to charter schools to cover transportation costs for those students as part of the district’s $401 million payment to charter schools, according to this school year’s budget.

The state gave Newark $8.5 million to cover transportation costs this school year, with the rest being paid through the district’s local and general fund, according to Brubaker.

For her part, Freeman emailed NJ Transit requesting more buses on the 99 bus line, a popular route for Newark students to get to city schools, after she had to drive her son, Javon, and his friends to their schools when an overcrowded bus passed them by.

“They were standing there. If I did not take them to school, they would have been late. And they weren’t the only ones,” Freeman added.

In response to Freeman’s email, NJ Transit said they added two additional buses to the 99 route in the mornings and one additional bus in the afternoon peak, according to a copy of the email reviewed by Chalkbeat Newark.

A longtime resident, Freeman believes local traffic and road closures are causing more congestion across the city, making more difficult commutes for students across neighborhoods.

“The district can help advocate for more buses on New Jersey Transit but then it’s like the state has to get involved to help with easing the traffic issues. It’s so many different entities that have to be involved with the plan for moving people in the city,” Freeman said.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

State test scores highlight ongoing need to support Newark Public Schools student academic recovery

2024-09-30T10:00:00+00:00

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For a second year in a row, Newark Public Schools’ scores on statewide assessments given in May rose by roughly 2 percentage points in English language arts and math, but remain behind pre-pandemic levels, according to a district analysis presented on Thursday.

Among Newark students in grades 3-9, 31% passed their English language arts assessment while 17.7% passed the math test, according to spring 2024 New Jersey Student Learning Assessments scores, or NJSLA, which measure student proficiency across subjects and grade levels. In spring 2023, 29% of students passed the English assessment while 15% passed the math test.

Additionally, third grade English scores remain the lowest of any grade for a third year in a row, but higher than last year’s rate of 19%.

The new scores – the third round of tests since 2019 before the emergence of COVID – highlight Newark students’ slow recovery from pandemic-era learning disruptions. In recent years, Superintendent Roger León has scaled up tutoring, summer and Saturday school efforts, and implemented new curriculums to boost academic progress among students. The district allocated an additional $6.8 million for tutoring this school year and began offering sessions on the first day of classes.

The state’s Department of Education has not yet released statewide scores.

“Parents, we need you to ensure that your child participates in tutoring this year so that we can continue to raise achievement,” said Rochanda Jackson, executive director of the Office of Policy, Planning, Evaluation, and Testing, when she presented the scores at Thursday’s school board meeting.

Students across the country are still improving academically, but not at the same pace as before the pandemic, according to the Northwest Evaluation Association. According to NWEA, students who were in grades 5 and 6 during the pandemic may need up to five years to fully recover, and even longer for those entering eighth grade or high school.

The effects of the pandemic on marginalized students, such as those from low-income families and different ethnic and racial groups, are more pronounced since those groups were among the hardest hit and remain the furthest from recovery.

In Newark, more than 90% of students identify as Black or Latino, and this year, nearly 11,000 are English language learners and roughly 7,000 are students with disabilities. In 2022, the first set of state scores since the pandemic, 27% of Newark students passed the English assessment and 13% passed the math test.

Despite slow gains, some students exceeded district expectations.

Of the district’s nearly 40,000 students, 100 received a perfect score in English, nine received a perfect score in math, and four received a perfect score in both subjects. District leaders also said they saw an increase in proficiency levels among all grade levels despite small gains.

Students show gradual improvements after district efforts

Nearly all grades experienced an increase in English language arts proficiency levels compared to spring 2023, with the most dramatic increases in grades 3, 6, and 9, according to district leaders.

But middle and high schoolers scored higher than the district’s average in English language arts last spring. Specifically, grades 6, 7, 8, and 9 are consistent with national patterns of older students performing better than their younger counterparts, Jackson added.

In spring 2024, ninth grade English proficiency scores increased by six percentage points compared to the prior year, from 32.4% to 38.1%. Sixth graders also saw a five percentage point increase this spring, from 27% to 32.2%. In third grade, a crucial year when students learn to read, scores increased by four points, from 19% to 23.4%.

Among schools, First Avenue, Ivy Hill, Lafayette, Michelle Obama, Mount Vernon, Newton, Oliver Street, Park, Ridge Street, and Wilson elementary schools had higher scores than the district’s average in English language arts, Jackson said. Among schools where ninth graders took the state test, Arts, Bard, Data Science and Information Technology, Newark Vocational, Science Park, Technology, and University high schools scored higher than the district’s average in the same subject.

District leaders are attributing the gains to the implementation of a new ELA curriculum last school year for grades K-8 to help students struggling with writing and reading issues. The district adopted a structured approach to teaching phonics by implementing SIPPS, also known as Systematic Instruction in Phonological Awareness, Phonics, and Sight Words. The district also implemented Wilson Fundations, a curriculum rooted in the science of reading that builds the foundations for reading, spelling, and handwriting.

Despite the gains in spring 2024 scores, only 23% of third graders passed the English language arts assessment, the lowest of any grade for a third year, but higher than last year’s rate of 19%. Students in grades 3, 4, and 5 were among the lowest-scoring of all grades.

Public school leaders have attributed reading issues in early grades to the switch to remote learning during the pandemic, which they say hindered students’ reading progress. The district has also said students struggle with alphabetic knowledge, or the basic ability to recognize letters and their sounds.

Overall, 3,713 students of Newark’s nearly 18,000 students who took the English language arts test moved up in proficiency levels, according to the district’s data.

The ‘lift is far greater in math’

The district’s average passing rate in math increased by 2.6 percentage points this school year and lower than in pre-pandemic years, according to Jackson.

“The lift is far greater” in math but still an increase from state test scores in spring 2022 and 2023, León said during Thursday’s school board meeting.

Districtwide, 27% of students scored proficient in the geometry assessment, a relatively small group, Jackson said, but the highest scoring of all grades. Among third graders who took the math test, 24% reached proficiency levels, the second highest scoring grade level.

Students in grades 5, 6, and 8 were among the lowest scoring of all grades, a trend inconsistent with English language arts scores. But the highest percentage of students scoring a five, or students who exceeded expectations on the test, were in grades 3, 7, 8, and those who took geometry.

Among the elementary schools, Ann Street, Roberto Clemente, First Avenue, Franklin, Ivy Hill, Lafayette, Michelle Obama, Mt. Vernon, Nelson Mandela, Sir Issac Newton, Oliver Street, Park, Ridge Street, Salome Ureña, South 17th Street, and Wilson Avenue scored higher than the district’s proficiency rate. Among the high schools, Arts, Bard, Data Science and Information Technology, Newark Vocational, Science Park, Technology, and University high schools scored higher than the district’s rate in math.

But Jackson says tutoring can help bump students to higher proficiency levels.

“If we continue to be successful in pushing those level threes to level four or five with tutoring participation this year, the math passing rate could be as high as 67%,” Jackson said.

Overall, 2,891 students of the roughly 19,500 students who took the math test moved up in proficiency levels, according to the district’s data.

Jessie Gomez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Newark gets federal COVID funding extension for asbestos, lead remediation during AI camera project

2024-09-23T10:00:00+00:00

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A multimillion dollar project to install AI cameras in Newark Public Schools is delayed due to extensive lead stabilization and asbestos abatement that needs to be completed on the city’s aging schools, Chalkbeat has learned.

The district had planned to upgrade its surveillance systems by the start of the school year using federal American Rescue Plan funds, which are set to expire Sept. 30. But the project to install roughly 7,000 AI cameras across all schools is being delayed so the remediation work can be completed as the project progresses, according to a request for a federal extension obtained by Chalkbeat. District leaders also cited delays with vendors who required certified and qualified staff to complete the work and issues in getting buildings empty.

Newark’s school buildings are among the oldest in the state and many have been crumbling for decades. State officials have been slow to address the needs but in 2019, gave Newark $3.9 million to cover asbestos removal from school buildings, the same year data showed elevated levels of lead were found in seven district schools.

When asbestos fibers are inhaled, they could get trapped in the lungs and over time, cause scarring and inflammation that affect breathing and may lead to cancer, the National Cancer Institute says. Similarly, exposure to lead can result in problems such as anemia, kidney and brain damage, and learning disabilities and developmental problems in children, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Despite cleanup over the years, many district buildings continue to require asbestos abatement, lead stabilization, and structural upgrades among other needs.

Newark Public Schools did not respond to questions about asbestos and lead remediation in schools.

The U.S Department of Education has encouraged school districts to spend their COVID relief funds before the deadline this fall but has allowed districts to request an additional 14 months to close out and finalize construction projects, programs, or other work funded by American Rescue Plan dollars, the final and largest of three relief packages approved by Congress. Districts have to explain why they need the extra time and requests to extend funds must be tied to existing contracts for school projects or purchases.

The work to install Newark’s cameras and connect the required cabling districtwide is projected to cost $17.5 million with funding coming from $2.3 million in local funds and the rest through American Rescue Plan dollars, according to the district. Newark has said it needs to update its outdated surveillance system to make schools safer and allow for 24/7 monitoring following two shootings outside schools that left three students injured last school year.

Like many districts, Newark school officials have had to rethink their needs as they face the end of the one-time funding. They no longer require plexiglass shields and masks used at the height of the pandemic but other needs remain.

But it’s too early to gauge the impacts of school districts’ use of relief funds, said Julia Martin, director of policy and government affairs for the Bruman Group, a Washington law firm focused on education.

“School districts are reluctant to spend the money on short-term items because they know they won’t last, and it’s hard for them to spend the money on things like staffing, because when the money runs out, then you have to let that person go,” Martin said.

In total, Newark received $287 million in federal COVID relief funds, less than a quarter of Newark’s $1.5 billion budget this school year. That money was distributed through three relief packages meant to help districts reopen schools and recover from the pandemic. Half of the district’s American Rescue Plan dollars was slated for facilities projects to update its aging buildings, a problem about which school officials have been sounding the alarm for years.

During the pandemic, district leaders were concerned about updating Newark’s ventilation systems in schools to prevent the spread of COVID in classrooms. Although those concerns aren’t as prevalent, Martin says school districts are still focusing on improvements to their buildings to mitigate the long-term effects of the pandemic. In one district, officials used federal funds to fix leaky roofs where mold was growing, a factor that could have exacerbated asthma among students, Martin said. Another school district used COVID funds to renovate its bathrooms after noticing an uptick in students smashing mirrors and fighting in bathrooms post-pandemic, Martin said.

In Newark, district leaders are also faced with helping nearly 40,000 students recover from the negative effects of the pandemic. New Jersey’s youth has faced an unprecedented mental health crisis, a trend on par with students nationally as many struggle with anxiety and depression at levels higher than those pre-pandemic. Last school year, district state test scores went up by 2 percentage points in math and English language arts while only 19% of third graders passed the English assessment, the lowest of any grade in the city for a second year in a row. The challenges point to the ongoing need to help students recover academically from pandemic-era learning disruptions.

“If you just cared about the future of the district, you might say these facilities are going to be around for a long time,” said Marguerite Roza, director of the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University. “But if you care about the future of the kids that suffered during the pandemic, they’re going to walk out the door with permanent impacts that will never get addressed.”

Newark’s request to extend the funds for its AI camera project was approved in July, allowing the district to cash out almost $17 million by March 2026, roughly 9% of Newark’s $182 million in American Rescue Plan funding. Of that money, roughly $13 million is being used to pay for two vendors to install the AI cameras and respective cabling work, according to purchase orders included in Newark’s request to the state. Another $4 million is tied to expenses for school upgrades, paint jobs, and new furniture that were on back order or delayed due to environmental issues “beyond the district’s control,” according to Newark’s June application to the state.

“How does this decision fit into this bigger agenda to get kids back on track after the pandemic? Because they fell a lot in the pandemic,” said Roza, about the school district’s use of federal COVID relief funds.

The district has used previous COVID relief funds to help pay for items such as air conditioners, Smart Boards, internet access, mental health programs, and professional development for teachers among other things. It also helped expand summer and tutoring programs, which Superintendent Roger León has previously said were the district’s “saving grace” in helping students move forward academically.

According to a national survey by the School Superintendents Association, adding instructional time and addressing mental health needs were the top two priorities for districts across the country followed by purchasing technology and providing students with internet access. The fourth and most common priority was investing in high-dosage tutoring and professional development followed by renovating school facilities to improve learning, air quality, and overall conditions of learning.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Newark Public Schools in compliance with special education timelines after years of monitoring

2024-09-13T10:00:00+00:00

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After 12 years of monitoring, Newark Public Schools is now in compliance with federal and state timelines for identifying and evaluating students with disabilities and will no longer be required to provide semi-annual reports showing data in reaching mandated goals.

The district has shown improvements in raising its compliance rate for meeting with parents who request a special education evaluation, evaluating eligible students, and implementing special education services, according to a state monitor. The progress is a result of a 2012 class action settlement agreement in M.A. v. Newark Public Schools, et al., a federal lawsuit that set a 95% compliance goal for the district to raise its historically low rates in evaluating students and delivering services on time.

The progress achieved by the district is a victory for Newark’s parents and children but the state’s monitoring focused solely on complying with federal and state timelines, said Elizabeth Athos, senior educational equity attorney at Education Law Center.

“The case doesn’t necessarily address the quality of the services that kids are getting,” said Athos, who along with a team of attorneys spent a decade in court arguing a lawsuit that resulted in the state’s monitoring under the settlement agreement.

The 2012 settlement agreement stemmed from a 2001 lawsuit filed by a group of six parents represented by the Education Law Center and Gibbons P.C. The case alleged that Newark was violating its “Child Find” duties, a mandate under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act that requires all school districts to identify, locate, and evaluate children with disabilities, regardless of the severity of their disabilities.

Newark Public Schools has seen a dramatic increase in the number of students with disabilities in recent years. This school year, roughly 7,000 students with disabilities are enrolled in district schools and make up less than a quarter of the district’s nearly 40,000 students. This fall, another 11,000 students are English language learners, pointing to the district’s growing need to provide additional support and resources for vulnerable students.

During the first week of school this month, some students with disabilities missed class due to enrollment issues. In previous years, parents of students with disabilities have had trouble securing school services such as transportation and other services required under their child’s Individualized Education Program. The COVID-19 pandemic also affected students with disabilities who were some of the hardest hit by learning disruptions with some requiring makeup services they lost during that time.

Since the monitoring process began in July 2012, the district has been required to issue reports every six months to verify its compliance with state and federal timelines, as part of the settlement agreement approved by the federal district court on Jan. 27, 2012. The agreement tasked the district with achieving 95% compliance with the following two requirements:

Within 20 days of a request for a special education evaluation, the district must meet with parents to determine if a student is eligible for an evaluation, and, if so, obtain parental consent for evaluation; and
Within 90 days of parental consent, the district must conduct a special education evaluation and implement special education and related services for eligible students.

Under state law, the district has to continue to follow those requirements despite the end of the compliance monitoring.

The district started the monitoring process with a 90-day compliance rate of 32% and is now achieving compliance rates above the 95% goal, according to the Education Law Center. The district’s 20-day compliance rate has also risen since July 2012, when it started at 84%. The rate has been consistently at 98% or higher since February 2021, the Education Law Center said.

“While we are pleased with the progress that has been achieved, going forward, the district must broaden its focus to ensuring the quality of its decision-making during the child find and evaluation process,” said class co-counsel Lawrence S. Lustberg, of the Gibbons law firm. “We will not demand that NPS continue its extensive reporting to us, but we intend to watch closely during the next year, to make sure there are no signs of backsliding.”

Diane Janson, the designated special education compliance monitor, and Kim Murray, director of the New Jersey Department of Education’s Office of Special Education, assured Athos and the plaintiffs in the case that the district and Superintendent Roger León had “the support and structure in place to sustain the progress it has made,” according to a press release issued by the Education Law Center.

The district will continue internal monitoring and would reach out to Janson for assistance as “it works to continue improving its special education program,” the press release said.

Newark has also worked to improve its special education program after citations from the New Jersey Department of Education. In 2019, the state cited the district for failing to meet key mandates related to education plans for students with disabilities. In 2022, the state department also found the district had problems with reporting in education plans, notifying parents of meetings, and missing meetings with parents and students with disabilities as part of responsibilities mandated under IDEA. The state ordered the district to take corrective action by November 2022.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

‘We’re already overwhelmed’: Students with disabilities miss class during the first week of school

2024-09-11T20:42:29+00:00

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Robert Brown and his wife moved to Newark after 10 years of living in Florida, where they faced challenges in getting special education services for their two sons who have autism.

Their children, Warren, 9, and Nathaniel, 6, are both nonverbal and require speech, applied behavior analysis, and occupational therapies. Nathaniel has a more severe disability, Brown said, and requires the same services as his older brother along with behavioral therapy and a classroom aide.

After enrolling his sons in Newark Public Schools in July using the Newark Enrolls application online, he thought they were all set.

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But on Sept. 3, Newark Public Schools’ first day of school, Brown took his sons to McKinley Elementary School, the school they were supposed to attend, only to be told McKinley had space for Warren, but not for Nathaniel. The younger boy has been forced to stay home ever since — missing the crucial first week of a school year as well as much-needed services that help with Nathaniel’s disability.

The Browns are not the only family whose return to school has been marked by confusion and disruption. Several other parents of children with disabilities told Chalkbeat Newark that on the first day of school, they were told their child did not have a school placement. Other parents said they were told their child was enrolled at a different school.

The issues families are grappling with this year speak to a growing need in the district where an increasing number of students require special education services. This school year, roughly half of Newark Public Schools’ nearly 40,000 students is made up of vulnerable students in need of additional support and resources. This fall, roughly 7,000 students need special education services and another 11,000 are English language learners.

The district said it’s not experiencing a problem with enrollment and that those seeking a placement can visit the Newark Enrolls website or the school closest to their home for direct assistance and support, Paul Brubaker, Newark Public Schools communication director, said in a Sept. 6 email to Chalkbeat. Students who have completed the enrollment process and are placed at school receive the services and accommodations they are entitled to from their first day of attendance, Brubaker added.

But Brown said that’s not what his family has experienced.

After a plan to move to New York fell through, the family scrambled to secure an apartment in Newark over the summer. Brown said he enrolled his sons in the district by using the Newark Enrolls application. By early August, he had already sent the district his children’s Individualized Education Program, a written plan that outlines the services a student with a disability needs in school, along with a list of 10 schools he would prefer his children to attend.

“We’re going through the motions, but it’s frustrating, you know because I did everything early, I figured that, you know, that would have helped,” Brown said. “I know there’s an overcrowding problem, but you know, he needs to go somewhere. He can’t be out of school, this isn’t the 1700s.”

Brown says he’s reached out to the district’s Board of Education and a special needs coordinator at the state’s department of education, which are in the process of finding a school for Nathaniel but the principal at McKinley told him no seats are available for students with disabilities across the city.

And the clock is ticking. Brown is set to begin work in a few weeks, while Nathaniel sits at home along with his sick grandmother who is cared for by Brown’s wife.

Nathaniel, who has severe autism, will run around the house and scream when he’s told not to do something, Brown said. The family goes to bed by 10:30 p.m. every night so Nathaniel can sleep through the night but often he wakes up around 3:30 a.m. full of energy. His son’s neurologist prescribed medication for Nathaniel but in the end, Brown said, his son needs the proper services to help him manage his disability.

Like Brown, Alyssa Drysdale was told on the first day of school that her kindergarten daughter Eva, who has an IEP, was not enrolled at the school she was supposed to attend: Quitman Street Elementary School where she had gone to pre-K last year.

Drysdale waited over an hour on the first day of classes in the school’s gym with her daughter Eva, who requires speech therapy and may need an aide this school year as she can be easily triggered in a classroom environment. Drysdale wasn’t told why she and other parents had to wait until she spoke with school staff who told her that Eva wasn’t enrolled in the school, Drysdale said.

The school’s principal and her staff were working to find a placement for Eva when Drysdale realized she needed to check her car. As she was walking out, she saw her car getting towed.

“I see my car in the back of a tow truck, and I had to pick up Eva, and she’s so heavy, and I’m literally chasing the tow truck down. Like, please, oh my God, can I have my car back now? I wasn’t expecting to take this long,” Drysdale said.

When she went back to the school, Drysdale “just wanted to cry there, like I was so sad.” She spoke with a caseworker who said to wait for a call from the district with a placement for Eva. In the meantime, Drysdale said, they offered a take-home packet so Eva could do school work at home.

Instead, Drysdale said she returned the next day to drop Eva off at the school.

“I do work overnight, but the only time I do get to rest is during school, so I ended up dropping her in the morning, but this situation was a little weird to me,” Drysdale said.

The next day, a caseworker told Drysdale they would take Eva while the school figured out a permanent placement for her. But Drysdale isn’t sure if her daughter will move to another classroom or when her speech therapy, which Eva needs so she can learn to express herself better, will begin, Drysdale said.

“She can express her needs,” Drysdale said, ”but as far as being in depth, she wouldn’t be able to explain herself.”

Newark students with disabilities face recurring problems

Brown’s and Drysdale’s enrollment issues are just a fraction of the problems parents of students with disabilities have faced in Newark. Students with disabilities also face greater learning challenges as they have been some of the hardest hit by the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, with some requiring makeup services from learning disruptions.

In 2019, the New Jersey Department of Education cited the district for failing to meet key mandates related to education plans for students with disabilities.

In 2022, the state department also found the district had problems with reporting in education plans, notifying parents of meetings, and missing meetings with parents and students with disabilities as part of responsibilities mandated under the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA). The state ordered the district to take corrective action by November 2022.

This year’s enrollment problems are also affecting high school students. Tameerah Green’s son, Jaimir Velez, is a 10th grade student with an IEP, who last year, attended Eagle Academy located inside Weequahic High School. On Aug. 16, Green received a letter from the district confirming that her son’s district-provided transportation would arrive on the first day of school and drop him off at Eagle Academy.

But on Sept. 3, after her son was picked up by his bus and dropped off at Eagle Academy, Green received a call from Clark Thompson, the school’s child study team social worker, notifying her Jaimir was supposed to attend Malcolm X Shabazz High school, not Eagle. No one had told her about the school change prior to that morning.

Jaimir has a learning disability and needs a stable environment with familiar teachers to avoid sparking behavioral issues, Green said. The mother sent Jaimir to Eagle Academy the next day, on Sept. 4, but when he returned home, Jaimir said a teacher told him he wasn’t supposed to be at the school.

On the third day of school, Jaimir started to complain about headaches and stomach cramps, which Green feels is a result of not feeling welcomed at the school. Jaimir hasn’t been back to school since Sept. 4.

“I took him to the doctor today to make sure everything was fine but I know where it’s coming from,” said Green on Monday.

Advocate Nadine Wright-Arbubakrr has a long history of working with Newark families to secure school services such as transportation and, through her nonprofit Nassan’s Place, offers summer camps for children with disabilities. But this is the first time she has heard about parents of students with disabilities facing enrollment issues during the first days of school.

“How is it possible that these parents continue to deal with these problems every school year? It’s just not fair,” said Wright-Arbubakrr, who founded Nassan’s Place more than 10 years ago to help families navigate the problems she once faced as a Newark parent of a student with autism.

With the second week of school underway, Brown and his family are hoping the district can find a school for Nathaniel soon. In the meantime, he’s looking at schools outside of the district, including The Deron School of New Jersey, a private K-12 school that offers programs for students with disabilities at its Montclair and Union campuses.

But ultimately, he hopes Newark can provide his youngest son with a public school education, “because that’s why we came here.”

“I’m going to start working in maybe a couple weeks, but I’m not going to be here, then everything, mostly, is going to be on my wife,” Brown said. “We’re already overwhelmed.”

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Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Newark Public Schools’ $17.5 million AI camera project delayed until the end of the school year

2024-09-06T17:19:30+00:00

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The installation of a new artificially intelligent surveillance system meant to make Newark schools safer has been delayed and won’t be completed until the end of the school year, the district said.

Newark Public Schools had planned to install over 7,000 cameras equipped with AI capabilities — one for every five students — by Aug. 31, before the start of the school year. The district did not provide details about the reasons for the delay but sources close to the project said it was due to challenges in connecting required cabling and wiring through Newark’s aging school buildings.

Newark’s multimillion dollar AI camera project is largely funded by federal COVID relief money through the American Rescue Plan — funding that was set to expire on Sept. 30. The Newark school district received a federal extension to use the funds past the September deadline following project delays, according to Paul Brubaker, the district’s communications director, in an email to Chalkbeat.

The work to install cameras and connect the required cabling districtwide is projected to cost $17.5 million, according to Brubaker. The installation work will take place outside school hours, Brubaker added.

Millennium Communications Group Inc., based in East Hanover, N.J., is responsible for completing the cabling work required to connect and activate cameras to district servers. Millennium declined to comment “because of the sensitive nature of our work,” according to an email to Chalkbeat Newark. The company said it is “not authorized to comment on active projects” and referred all questions to the district.

The work to install over 7,000 cameras in Newark’s school buildings, some of the oldest in the state dating back to the early 1900s, is a massive infrastructure project for the district, where many schools need asbestos removal among other structural upgrades.

In May, the Newark school board first approved a contract up to $12 million for Turn-Key Technologies Inc., based in Sayreville, N.J., to install the AI surveillance system across all schools. The board also approved a separate contract up to $10 million for Millennium to complete the cabling work required to connect and activate cameras to district servers. In 2021, the district allocated $2.4 million in federal COVID money for security cameras, which Superintendent Roger León has said are meant to make schools safer.

But security experts warn that systems with AI capabilities could result in an invasion of privacy or could potentially misidentify items or students if proper safeguards or policies are not in place.

Millennium is a fiber optics and technology company that has encouraged school districts to use American Rescue Plan dollars on security, surveillance, and network infrastructure. Millennium, which beat out two other vendors for the bid, is also an authorized reseller on the New Jersey School Board Association’s Technology & Cybersecurity contract through its partnership with Carahsoft, a government IT solutions company, and the school board association. The contract allows Millennium to supply school districts and member charter schools throughout New Jersey with cybersecurity solutions.

The district’s new surveillance system is an upgrade from its previous cameras. The new setup will use Avigilon cameras, a type of system compatible with Motorola radios used by district school security guards. The integration also expands Newark’s security capabilities by designating personnel to access camera footage, allowing the district to search through footage, hone in on specific incidents, and detect unusual activities throughout the school day.

That system will work with the district’s HALO sensors that can detect vape, gun sounds, and abnormal noise in areas where there are no cameras such as bathrooms, according to Newark’s request for proposals.

Wilson said in May that city police officials would not have access to the system, which includes cameras inside and outside of school buildings and other district locations.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Newark Public Schools students return to classes amid changes, challenges

2024-09-03T21:15:12+00:00

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It was an exciting morning for Rachel, a fourth grader at Franklin Elementary School, who was eager to help her younger brother Romeo navigate his first day of pre-K on Tuesday.

“Lightning McQueen!” said Romeo, turning around to show off his backpack decorated with the character from the Disney movie “Cars.”

“I’m his big sister, and he’s my little brother,” Rachel said, as she held Romeo’s hand and twirled her purple lunch box emblazoned with hearts.

Around the corner, a small crowd gathered outside the school’s playground, where parents snagged quick pictures of their children before they made their way into the building. Principal Robert Spat, starting his first year leading the school, stood outside wearing a blue cape and greeting students and parents with the help of a staff member in a brown eagle costume, the school’s mascot.

Superintendent Roger León was also there to greet Franklin Elementary students, who were among the nearly 40,000 Newark Public Schools students who returned to classrooms on Tuesday.

“Good morning, buenos días,” said León, a child of Cuban immigrants, as he welcomed Spanish-speaking students and parents.

Franklin Elementary is one of 14 elementary schools in the North Ward where students receive bilingual instruction. At Franklin’s bilingual program, the largest in the district, the majority of students come from homes where Spanish is their first language.

The number of English learners is growing – to just over 11,000 students districtwide this year, 822 more than last year. The district is also home to another 7,000 students with disabilities who, along with English language learners, are considered vulnerable students in need of support services and classroom resources.

“I don’t see it as a challenge, I see it as an opportunity,” said León after visiting classrooms at Franklin Elementary, referring to providing support for English language learners and students with disabilities. Vulnerable students make up just under half of the district’s enrollment this school year.

District leaders are also facing the end of $287 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds this school year that helped boost tutoring programs and expand summer programming. In addition, families are also adjusting to a new school day routine.

Students arrive at Franklin Elementary School on the first day of school in Newark, New Jersey, on Tuesday, September 3, 2024.

This year, all Newark public school students are expected to arrive at school by 8:15 a.m. under a new universal schedule that was part of an agreement between the Newark Teachers Union and the district. The new schedule extends the school day, allowing for more instruction time and an extra 30 hours of tutoring for elementary students during the day per year, according to the district. The change also means elementary students must arrive at school 10 minutes earlier than last year and high school students are dismissed 25 minutes later than last year.

On Tuesday, some parents and students ran to the front of Franklin Elementary after the bell rang at 8:15 a.m. Jaymie Paola, the mother of a first grader at Franklin, said she made sure her son went to bed early so he could wake up on time. Others like Claudia Ramos said they had a hard time waking up their students for school.

The 2024-25 school year marks the fifth year of León’s 10-year strategy, known as “The Next Decade: 2020-30,” an ambitious plan aimed at tackling learning loss, implementing new curriculums, scaling up tutoring efforts, addressing emerging issues, and adding more teachers, among other goals.

School leaders must also address a host of concerns such as improving schools, supporting the growing number of vulnerable students, raising attendance, supporting academic recovery efforts, and assessing the effects of anti-Blackness in schools following concerns of racial harassment at a city high school. The district is expanding AI technology to support teachers in the classroom and keep students safe following shooting incidents outside two high schools last year.

This spring, the Newark school board approved a $1.5 billion budget that included a $6.8 million increase in tutoring efforts previously covered by American Rescue Plan dollars – a one-time payment to school districts across the country as part of the federal government’s three-part relief package to help schools respond to the pandemic.

León visits district schools with new leaders

On Tuesday morning, in addition to his stop at Franklin, León visited three other North Ward schools with new principals: Salomé Ureña, First Avenue, and Branch Brook Elementary School.

At Salomé Ureña, León visited Mrs. Ramos’ bilingual kindergarten classroom as “Remember Me” from the Disney movie “Coco” played in the background. Students in the classroom sat on a colorful rug as they listened to their teacher read “Una carta de tu maestra,” or “A letter from your teacher,” a book that helps educators welcome students on their first day of school.

León also visited two eighth grade classrooms, including one equipped with two air conditioners as part of the district’s ongoing efforts to install the units in classrooms following concerns about hot temperatures at the start of each school year. In late August, the district said it had installed nearly 900 air conditioners with more on the way.

This year, students will also see contactless water fountains in their schools. During August’s school board meeting, the district reported that 79 contactless water fountains out of 843 remained to be installed. The district will continue to install the contactless water fountains this year, a $5 million project funded through COVID relief dollars that began in 2022.

Newark Schools Superintendent Roger Léon speaks to students at Salomé Ureña Elementary School on the first day of school in Newark, New Jersey, on Tuesday, September 3, 2024.

At First Avenue Elementary, León spoke with the school’s entire eighth grade class and asked about their plans for high school, in anticipation of the enrollment application for the next school year opening on Nov. 2. One student said they wanted to go to Science Park, León’s alma mater. Others said they wanted to attend Newark Vocational and Arts High School.

León finished his chat by motivating students to accomplish their goals. “The superintendent’s job is to make all dreams of all students real,” he said.

León also visited the new Branch Brook Elementary School, formerly known as ECC-North, which welcomed 48 pre-K to second grade students with disabilities on Tuesday. The school will expand one grade level next year. The new building is equipped with a sensory room and designated quiet areas for speech, physical, and occupational therapies, said Cristina Pennetti, the school’s new principal, on Tuesday. Inside classrooms, students played with toys while others listened as their teacher read a book to them.

Newark continues academic recovery efforts for students

As Newark students returned to class on Tuesday, officials hoped summer initiatives such as high-dosage tutoring aimed at helping those who have fallen behind will improve student performance this school year. León has said federal COVID relief dollars were the district’s “saving grace” in expanding summer programs to 16 elementary schools this year, up from 14 last summer, and across 10 high schools. The district also extended summer enrichment programs – which were provided by teachers and community-based organizations – to 6 p.m. over the summer.

After-school tutoring starts on the first day of school, León said during August’s school board meeting. Saturday school for high school juniors preparing for the New Jersey Graduation Proficiency Assessment begins in December and, for a second year in a row, Saturday school will be offered to elementary students in grades 3 to 8 beginning in January in preparation for the New Jersey Student Learning Assessments.

Teacher Ana Enriquez-Kozlow reads a book out loud in a pre-K autism class at Branch Brook School in Newark, New Jersey, on Tuesday, September 3, 2024.

Spring 2024 NJSLA scores are embargoed by the state, but spring 2023 test results showed district third graders didn’t see improvements in reading from the year prior. Overall, the district’s state test scores went up by 2 percentage points in both math and English language arts in 2023 but point to students’ slow recovery after the pandemic.

In addition to tutoring, León said lowering the district’s chronic absenteeism rate, which reached 12.1% last school year, down from 12.7% in 2022-23, is one of his top priorities this school year.

In addition to new principals, the district also hired 402 new teachers and at least 14 new special education teachers, 10 new bilingual education teachers, and three educators teaching English as a second language. Every year, the district faces challenges in recruiting special education and bilingual teachers but this year nearly half of the district’s enrollment consists of vulnerable students.

During the August school board meeting, the district reported 197 instructional vacancies. For this upcoming school year, the district created 338 new positions, the district reported.

Before school began at Franklin Elementary on Tuesday, Romeo and Rachel posed for their mom, Sylvana Lopez, in front of a banner that hung outside of the building. They only had 15 minutes before classes were set to start, but Lopez wanted to remember the pair’s first day of school and their excitement before heading inside.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Longer days, new teachers: What Newark Public Schools students can expect on the first day of school

2024-08-30T10:00:00+00:00

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Thousands of Newark Public Schools students are expected to return to school next week where they will be greeted by new teachers, new classmates, and a new schedule.

Approximately 40,000 students are enrolled in the district this school year and, under a new universal schedule, will have a longer school day that guarantees a lunch break for teachers. This year, the district said it hired hundreds of new teachers but continues to face challenges in recruiting educators who can teach science, math, students with disabilities, and multilingual students.

The district has seen a surge in English language learners, who make up more than a quarter of enrollment this upcoming year. Another 7,000 students with disabilities will return to classrooms next week, adding to the district’s growing number of vulnerable students.

District leaders are managing a $1.5 billion budget with more money allocated for vulnerable students but face the end of federal COVID relief funds that helped expand tutoring in schools and other initiatives. The district said it installed nearly 900 air conditioners across classrooms this summer, with more on the way. The efforts came after parents, teachers, and students had long raised concerns about the uncomfortably hot temperatures in classrooms at the start of each school year.

The district must also confront several pressing needs such as upgrading its aging school buildings, raising student attendance supporting student academic recovery, and grappling with the impacts of racial harassment and diversity. Superintendent Roger León has said he plans to further artificial intelligence technology to support teachers in the classroom and keep students safe.

New school hours, longer days

This year’s biggest change for students comes after the Newark Teachers Union and the district agreed to a new school schedule that guarantees all teachers a 45-minute lunch break and transition time.

Students across all grades are expected to arrive at school at 8:15 a.m. and will be dismissed at 3:05 p.m. starting on Sept. 3. Last year, the school day ran from 8:25 a.m. to 2:55 p.m. for elementary school students and from 8:15 a.m. to 2:40 p.m. for high school students. The new schedule means students will spend six hours and 50 minutes in school – 20 minutes more than last year for elementary school students and 25 minutes more for high schoolers.

The new hours also extend the work day for teachers to seven hours as they are required to arrive no later than five minutes before students.

More vulnerable students in need of classroom support

Just under half of the district’s enrollment this school year will be made up of vulnerable students.

This year, 11,072 English language learners are enrolled in Newark Public Schools, 822 more than last year. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the district’s number of students learning English has grown, a trend on par with schools across the country.

District leaders anticipated the increases and this year are launching a new bilingual program at Malcolm X Shabazz High School. As of late August, the district planned to enroll 48 students in both ninth and 10th grade but has enrolled 92 ninth graders and 35 10th graders, according to León. Four teachers will teach bilingual education at the high school, the district previously said.

Additionally, the district expects more than 7,000 students with disabilities – who require specialized services such as speech therapists and classroom aides – to return to schools, pointing to a growing need for more teachers and services.

A spike in autism cases in New Jersey, largely due to autism going under-detected in the past among children with average or above-average intellect, is resulting in more students with disabilities in district schools.

More teachers as district enrollment grows

Every year, the district faces challenges in recruiting teachers, specifically in science, math, and bilingual education. Over the summer, the district hired at least 14 new special education teachers, 10 new bilingual education teachers, and three educators teaching English as a second language.

During August’s school board meeting, board member Allison James-Frison said the district hired 402 teachers who attended an orientation at Science Park High School nearly two weeks before the start of school. The district also reported that there were 197 instructional vacancies, during the August meeting. For this upcoming school year, the district created 338 new positions, the district reported.

Transportation needs continue this school year

This year, the district’s high school bus pass program will continue, and eligible students will receive a monthly pass. The program, piloted in January 2023, provides students in high school with monthly bus passes instead of daily tickets that can be used for transportation to and from school, as well as outside of school. Elementary students eligible for a bus ticket can apply for one.

Application packets for bus tickets and monthly passes will be available to students on the first day of school, according to the district.

Students with disabilities must also be provided with transportation under their Individualized Education Program. Beginning Aug. 26, student transportation information will be available to parents of students with disabilities if they were enrolled in the district before Aug. 26, according to the office of Special Education. Transportation applications approved by the district and received after Aug. 26 will be processed as received, but busing may not be assigned until the week of Sept, 3, according to the office.

District continues to push upgrades in old school buildings

District officials are also looking to upgrade Newark’s school buildings, some of the oldest in the state.

Historically, Newark students begin school as summer winds down but some years, they struggled to learn in hot schools amid heat waves as they returned to classes. Over the summer, the district ordered 1,300 air conditioners for classrooms and as of late August, has installed just under 900 across schools. The district expects to continue installing air conditioners through the first day of school.

The district continues to install contactless water fountains in schools, a $5 million project funded through COVID relief dollars that began in 2022. During August’s school board meeting, the district reported that 79 contactless water fountains out of 843 remained to be installed

Additionally, León plans to host a series of community meetings this school year after state leaders promised to replace 13 of Newark’s oldest school buildings built before the 1920s. León wants community input to prioritize school construction projects and allow residents to weigh in on a bond referendum to fund those projects. As of late August, district leaders have not said if voters would be asked to vote on a referendum in April’s school board election.

Under New Jersey law, a ballot question is required for any school district to issue new bonds for construction projects to improve existing facilities or to build new facilities.

Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.