Sign up for Chalkbeat Newark’s free newsletter to get the latest news about the city’s public school system delivered to your inbox.
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.
