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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.
