Newark school board votes to block Cami’s salary–but will it work?
- Newark student leader Kristin Towkaniuk, whose arm was broken in an anti-Anderson protest, testified at last night’s board meeting.
The Newark school board Tuesday night voted unanimously to freeze the salary of state-imposed superintendent Cami Anderson. It also passed a resolution making it more difficult for her to boycott board meetings. Finally, in what might be the only resolution to have an impact, the board rejected an effort by Anderson to spend $1 million in private funds to evaluate the labor contract she reached with the Newark Teachers Union.
The votes, which displayed the now near-unanimous contempt the board feels for Anderson, were largely symbolic. Although the board technically has fiscal control of the city school system, its members are unclear how they can use it.
“We really don’t know how to go about exercising that right,” says member Antoinette Baskerville-Richardson, pointing out that, while Anderson has lawyers working for her, the school board does not. “No one is giving us a lot of help.”
Gov. Chris Christie, who appointed Anderson, has dismissed virtually any effort by the popularly-elected board to assert control, declaring, “I am the decider.” The schools, running a deficit of nearly $100 million, have been under state control since 1995.
If nothing else, the three anti-Anderson votes showed the depth of frustration the board feels about how badly Anderson engineered the opening of school this year and the pollyannish media tour she has conducted, trying to persuade the rest of the state that her wildly disruptive “One Newark” plan for closing neighborhood schools and launching new charters has been successful when it clearly has not.
As usual, Anderson did not show up for the public board meeting, but sent Newark school board votes to block Cami’s salary–but will it work? | Bob Braun's Ledger: