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More transparency and community input.
That’s what Newark residents demanded from the Board of Education at a meeting Thursday as the board has quietly pursued a new five-year contract for Superintendent Roger León.
The drastic move by the board could set him up to be among the longest-serving superintendents in the state.
León’s current five-year contract has three years remaining, but last month, Board Attorney Brenda Liss requested the Essex County superintendent of schools, a proxy for the New Jersey Department of Education, approve a proposed new contract for him that would run from July 1 to June 30, 2030.
The request and subsequent approval from County Superintendent Joseph Zarra were obtained by Chalkbeat through a public records request.
Zarra’s approval notes an additional three months to the proposed contract with an expiration of Sept. 30, 2030. Further details of the proposed five-year contract could not be made available as it is a draft document, which is exempt from public records requests, per state law.
The proposed new contract for the superintendent has not been publicly announced or discussed by the Newark school board.
State law requires school boards to give the public at least 30 days notice prior to voting on a superintendent’s contract, in addition to a public hearing before the vote, with at least 10 days notice of the hearing.
Though Liss’ correspondence with Zarra stated the board would consider León’s contract at its meeting on Thursday, the contract was not listed on the agenda for that meeting nor was it publicly discussed by the board.
Several community members, including former district students, urged the board to gather public input before taking further steps on the contract for León, who has been at the helm for seven years.
“While the decision has not yet been made, it is crucial that this process remains fully transparent and that the community has a genuine opportunity to engage before action is taken,” said Yasmina Ouedraogo, a Newark Public Schools graduate, during the public comment portion of the meeting. “Extending the superintendent’s contract right now is not necessary.”
Word of the board’s steps to start the process of extending León’s tenure to 2030 came earlier this month through news reports by NJ.com and Chalkbeat.
Before it could vote on a new budget for the superintendent, the board would need approval from the county superintendent, according to state code, which it obtained through the correspondence between Liss and Zarra in July.
“For a school district that manages a budget larger than our city’s, we need transparency about spending,” said Mark Pinkney, a Newark Public School alum and city resident, who also spoke during public comment. “We don’t yet know if district improvements are happening. We deserve a transparent community-driven process.”
The City of Newark’s budget last year was about $968 million, about $600 million less than the school district’s $1.57 billion budget for the upcoming year. About $1.3 billion of the district’s budget comes from state aid.
Decisions to extend León’s contract since he was hired for the position in 2018 — when the district began its transition to local control after 25 years under a state monitor — have consistently been made with little to no public input.
In 2019, a year into his initial three-year contract, the school board voted to tack on another two years to that contract, extending it to 2025. There was no notice of a public hearing ahead of that decision on the district calendar of the board’s website and the meeting was sparsely attended, though a district official at the time said they had alerted the public using other methods.
A few years later, León’s contract was automatically renewed without any public discussion or notification due to a renewal clause in his contract. That clause allowed for an automatic five-year renewal in May 2022, more than a year in advance of when the contract was set to expire on June 30, 2023. Board members would have had to alert León by May 15, 2022, per the clause, if they planned not to renew the contract.
After news surfaced in January 2023 of the quiet renewal that had taken place months earlier, school community members expressed disappointment in the board and urged for more transparency.
“Each time, the community was left in the dark,” Ouedraogo said during her three-minute public comment on Thursday.
“What’s happening right now in Newark mirrors troubling patterns we’ve seen on the national stage, where leaders like President Donald Trump and his administration have been accused of bending rules and undermining public trust to maintain power,” Ouedraogo added. “In both cases, the people’s voice is pushed aside for political maneuvering.”
Board members with conflicts of interest stayed out of executive discussion
At Thursday’s meeting, the board went into an executive session for about 40 minutes to discuss matters that fall under attorney-client privilege, they said.
Board members Kanileah Anderson and Louis Maisonave Jr. stayed out of the executive session. The two are among three board members who have relatives working for the school district, connections that are a conflict of interest that could prevent them from weighing in on the superintendent’s contract.
Board President Hasani Council, who also has relatives working for the district, was absent from Thursday’s meeting.
León’s last eight years at the helm of New Jersey’s largest school district has been entangled in controversies — allegations of anti-Black racism and religious bias at the Newark School of Global Studies; worksite issues and construction delays at a new trade high school; and alarmingly low literacy rates that put the district under state review for two years.
The district was also ordered last year to return almost $34,000 to the state for misusing public funds for a “Staff Fun Day.” The event cost the district about $44,000 and spurred an investigation by the state Education Department. The department found that taxpayer money was inappropriately spent for the outdoor party, which included a DJ and four inflatable carnival booths.
Citing that misuse of funds and spending for travel to conferences, some Republican lawmakers have called to put the district under a fiscal monitor.
Dante Howell, a Newark resident who also spoke at the meeting on Thursday, said that he wants the board to ensure that “visions are aligned” for the “good of the community” before a decision is made to extend León’s tenure.
“Before approving contract extensions, I encourage the board to hold community meetings at schools and gather input from staff and parents,” said Carlos Merino, a community member who also spoke during public comment. “Leadership decisions should be based on measurable results, not just presentations.”
Catherine Carrera is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Newark. Contact Catherine at ccarrera@chalkbeat.org.
