Jessie Gómez

Jessie Gómez

Reporter, Chalkbeat Newark

Jessie Gomez is a Reporter at Chalkbeat Newark covering Newark Public Schools. She is a proud Latina and first-generation college student with experience covering local communities and Black and Latino communities. Jessie was previously a reporter at The Record/Northjersey.com covering Morris and Bergen County communities in New Jersey. Before that, Jessie had a one-year fellowship at MuckRock, a non-profit news site based in Boston, focused on public records law and FOIA work. Jessie also has experience in political communications, broadcast and digital media.

Luna won a unanimous vote to fill the vacant seat on the school board in October, but the board didn't swear him in during its November meeting.

District officials say students are struggling to learn letter sounds and recognize words, a problem they need to overcome to read, spell, write, and ultimately learn.

The union joined other community members in demanding the release of a report on the racial, cultural, and religious dynamics at Newark’s School of Global Studies after Superintendent Roger León said the review would remain internal.

The two-time public school board candidate will fill the empty seat after Hasani Council was sworn in as president following the abrupt departure of the board’s former president.

Join Chalkbeat Newark, NJ Spotlight News, and New York Public Radio on Thursday, Oct. 26 at the Newark Public Library for a discussion on “The State of Segregation” in New Jersey schools.

Over the last five years, families and community advocates have argued that New Jersey violated its constitution and allowed its public schools to become racially and socioeconomically segregated.

State test results for the city’s public schools show scores grew by 2 percentage points in math and English language arts this year.

The report, conducted by CREED Strategies, reveals the cultural problems at the Newark School of Global Studies after incidents of racial harassment surfaced last fall.

Shuffling of leaders leaves a vacant seat on the board, just ahead of key planning meeting.