State may delay quick return to local control of Newark’s schools
NESB members (from left) Mary Bennett, Grace Sergio, Donald Katz, Rev. Perry Simmons, Ross Danis, Christopher Cerf and Jose Leonardo. Absent were Al Koeppe and Rochelle Hendricks.
The head of a committee established to find a “road map” to return local control to Newark’s public schools revealed Wednesday night that the end of state operation of New Jersey’s largest school district may be delayed further into the future than originally hoped. Mary Bennett also warned an audience of some 100 city residents that the district that is returned to a locally elected school board, it “will not look very much like” the school system seized by the state in 1995.
Bennett, one of nine members of the so-called “Newark Educational Success Board,” (NESB) said the panel had been told by state education officials that the current school board will have to “demonstrate over time that (it) can govern itself.” She said the state officials alone would determine how long that “over time” would last.
Bennett, the former principal of Malcolm X Shabazz High School, was one of four Newark residents appointed to the panel by Newark Mayor Ras Baraka. The other five were appointed by Gov. Chris Christie. She said the judgment of those state officials might be overturned by state Education Commissioner David Hespe.
“We were told the education commissioner had great latitude in determining when State may delay quick return to local control of Newark’s schools | Bob Braun's Ledger:
