Hawthorne Ave suffers as Newark plays Let’s Make a Deal
Nothing illustrates the bizarre internal politics of state control of Newark schools more dramatically than the fate of the city’s Hawthorne Avenue school. Neglected for years, in a bad state of repair, its students failing, the old South Ward castle of a school is now the desired object of a three-way power struggle that leaves local parents frustrated, even frightened, over the future.
“We have one parent with three children—and each of them will probably end up going to different schools,” said Grace Sergio, the president of the school’s parent organization. “They don’t know what to do.’’
What has happened to Hawthorne Avenue probably could not happen anywhere else except in Newark—or, perhaps, other cities where the central administration uses the excuse of reform to spread the wealth of the reform movement: Control over property, access to grants, expansion of a brand. Money.
One of the three contenders for control of the future of Hawthorne Avenue is the TEAM Academy Charter Schools, a politically well-connected charter franchise