Officials to Discuss Control of Newark School Finances

A few weeks after the state Department of Education agreed to discuss handing over control of district finances to the Newark Schools Advisory Board, state officials have set a date of July 26 for a meeting, according to Antoinette Baskerville Richardson, the board’s president.

The state’s apparent decision to hand over financial control was heralded at the time as a victory for those who wish to see New Jersey’s largest school district wrested from state control. Newark’s schools have been run by a state-appointed superintendent since 1995.

There is a legal mechanism where the Newark Schools Advisory Board can once again have final say over all aspects of district management, a role now largely filled by Cami Anderson, the state-appointed superintendent. The district is regularly graded in several areas of governance and given a score.

In 2011, the district achieved scores sufficient to restore control in a number of these areas, but Christopher Cerf, the state education commissioner, declined to surrender authority over these areas. The state’s decision to return control in the fiscal area early this month stemmed from a lawsuit seeking to force Cerf to hand over control in all areas where Newark’s scores were high enough to warrant it under the law.

But the state’s decision on financial matters is much less than it seems. Anderson, the superintendent, still would retain veto power over any fiscal decision the advisory board makes. For a true return to local control, Newark’s school advisory board would have to be given control over the “governance” area -- an area in which the district also achieved a sufficient grade to justify the resumption of Newark school board control.   

Getting back control of governance would mean the superintendent would become answerable to the Newark school board, instead of the state, as is the case in virtually every other school district in the state. 

“As a practical matter it doesn’t mean much because until the district gets governance back, the state superintendent had veto power over any decision the board makes. The real issue in this case is governance,” said David Sciarra of the Newark-based  Education Law Center, which is involved in the ongoing litigation with Trenton.

“Governance,” Sciarra added, “is where the rubber hits the road.”