Education Week - September 9, 2015 - 15

Newark Takes
Small Steps to
Regain Control
sentation laying out his vision for the district.
He was interrupted by audience members
who disagreed with his data analysis showing
that the majority of kindergartners' parents
who participated in the district's controversial
One Newark plan chose schools outside their
neighborhoods, and that no child had been
placed into a charter school unless that was
the parent's choice. A small group of student
protestors with the Newark Students Union
covered their mouths with stickers with the
words "state control" written on it, a reference
to the continued state presence in the district,
and held up signs that declared "Classrooms
spark revolutions" and "Our schools will not be
privatized."
And the advisory school board's first official
order of business was to pass a resolution calling for the immediate end of One Newark.

'One Newark' Plan Persists
The One Newark plan, which Anderson unveiled in December 2013 as part of her strategy to create 100 "excellent schools," included
relocating some schools and replacing the leadership in others. A central component of the
strategy, a universal enrollment system for both
regular and charter schools, was stridently opposed by some parents and community activists
who contended that it prioritized charters over
neighborhood schools, separated siblings, and,
in some cases, forced young students to travel
long distances. Discontent spawned protests,
sit-ins, and a federal civil rights complaint. Supporters, on the other hand, acknowledged that
there were problems with how the plan was
rolled out, but said that the merits had been
drowned out by misinformation.
Cerf is likely to be the last state-appointed
superintendent of New Jersey's largest district, which the state took over in 1995 because of poor academic performance, mismanagement, crumbling facilities, and political
patronage. Gov. Chris Christie recommended
Cerf as the best person to lay the groundwork
to return the district to local governance.
Cerf was New Jersey's state education commissioner from 2011 to 2014 before leaving to
join Amplify, News Corp's education division
that is now up for sale. The state Board of Education narrowly confirmed him as Newark's
chief with a 6-4 vote in July, with only Christie
appointees voting for him.
At the same time, a nine-member Newark
Educational Success Board-made up of the superintendent and other community members-
is working to draw a road map that will help
guide the district toward local governance. That
board is expected to seek community input and
provide its recommendations by next spring.
With so much at stake, Cerf is being watched
closely, with skepticism and guarded optimism.
Aware of that scrutiny, Cerf told the school
board and members of the public at the meeting that he was "unalterably, authentically,
and completely committed" to local control. He
said that he wants to give parents good public school options, regardless of whether those
choices are at traditional, charter, or magnet
schools. But he also emphasized that he had
no plans to upend the current balance of traditional schools and charters and that the
district will continue to consist primarily of
regular public schools.
The district's nearly $1 billion budget has
a remaining deficit of between $15 million to
$20 million, and Cerf told the audience that

Photos by John O'Boyle for Education Week

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

he was working to close the gap without mass
layoffs and with as little impact as possible on
classrooms. Some cuts have already been made
in the central office; other savings came from
reducing the district's excess educator pool.
But he acknowledged that schools will feel
some pinch from reductions that must be made.
Last week, Cerf announced that $750,000 from
the Foundation for Newark's Future would be
given to schools to help buy supplies and other
necessities that are not covered in their budgets, the Associated Press reported. Those funds
are coming from what remains of a $100 million gift that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg
bestowed on the city's schools in 2010 with the
goal of radically transforming the district into
a national model of urban education reform, an
ambition largely viewed as having fallen short.
Cerf pledged to put a premium on "access,
openness, and transparency."
"I think it's important that we all commit to
and pledge ourselves to civility, and respect,
and to serious engagement," Cerf said in an
interview. "Part of it is, frankly, children are
watching this process unfold. And we all,
whether we like it or not, are modeling a little
bit."
He also noted that empowering principals
to make more decisions at their schools and
to provide better supports and strategies to
their teachers to improve instruction were key
parts of his school improvement vision.

Relationship With Local Board
Such overtures have gained him some
positive nods, in both traditional and charter
circles. He attended the school board's retreat
last month, and spent nearly an hour with the
board members, reviewing plans and providing them with a snapshot of his vision. He also
agreed to drop the word "advisory" from the
school board's official name, a small measure,
he acknowledged, but one he hopes will help
build trust and bolster his commitment to listen, restore civility, and treat people with dignity, he said.
Cerf has also promised to attend every
school board meeting, an expected requirement of any superintendent, but one that has
deeper resonance in Newark. Anderson, who
had been subjected to some personal attacks,
did not attend board meetings for nearly a
year before she resigned.
"He has been open to listening to any comments and suggestions that the board may
have," said Ariagna Perello, the school board
president.
The board remains focused on taking the
reins, and members were taking Cerf at his

ABOVE: Nenseh Koneh, a
senior at Science Park High
School in Newark, protests
late last month as
Christopher Cerf, the
still-new superintendent,
attends his first school
board meeting.
Cerf, at left, is expected to
be Newark's last stateappointed superintendent as
he helps the district regain
local control.

word that he was committed to helping the
district get to that point, Perello said. School
board members, who are elected by residents,
have been preparing to lead the district and
have been taking courses through the New
Jersey School Boards Association in governance, ethics, and special education issues. .
Mashea Ashton, the chief executive officer
of the Newark Charter School Fund, said that
so far she likes what she is hearing from Cerf,
including his commitment to expanding highquality schools for all students and ensuring
true equity for students regardless of where
they attend school.
Cerf was the state education commissioner
when Anderson was selected to run Newark's
schools. The two administrators worked under
former New York City Schools Chancellor Joel
I. Klein, a connection that has given some locals pause.
John Abeigon, the president of the Newark
Teachers Union, said the new superintendent
was "philosophically and morally the same as
Cami Anderson" in his approach to school reform. Cerf may have "a more receptive personality, but that doesn't make him any different,"
he said.
Abeigon said he was waiting to see how Cerf
responds to the union's request to do away with
or modify the district's current teacher-evaluation framework and use a model that is more in
line with what other districts in the state use.
Under the state's own evaluation process,
Abeigon said, the state had failed to measurably improve the district's performance, and
he gives the state a grade of F-plus.
The district's evaluation results this year
are evidence that the state has not gotten the
job done, he said.
With rising evaluation scores last year, Newark's school board was given more responsibilities over financial matters. However, this
year's evaluation shows the district slipping
in three key areas and falling under the re-

quired 80 percent mark the state uses as a
satisfactory measure for meeting benchmarks.
(The district produced its best results in recent years in 2011, exceeding 80 percent in
four of five areas of the state's evaluation.)

Lingering Doubts
The annual evaluation is also the measure
the state uses to determine local school governance. The district has until Oct. 1 to submit
its improvement plans to the state, and many,
including Mayor Ras Baraka, have said that
focusing on improving the district's evaluation
scores was one of the most important things
the school board could do right now.
Nenseh Koneh, a senior at Science Park
High School, a magnet school, protested with
fellow members of the Newark Students
Union. She said her main objective was to
stress the of importance of local control. While
she took issue with Cerf's assertion that students were not enrolled in charter schools
unless they chose them, she said it was not
difficult to believe that parents would opt for
charters given the sorry state of some neighborhood schools.
"Not only have they been closed," she said of
some neighborhood schools, "but they are also
grossly underfunded ... charter schools and
local public schools are not on the same level.
Who would choose a crumbling school over a
shiny, new charter school?"
Kyeatta Hendricks, a parent who spoke
to Cerf at the meeting, said she appreciated
what she heard from the superintendent,
but she has more questions. "I am skeptical
about everything, and everybody needs to be
skeptical," she said. "Just because someone is
new here, doesn't mean they are going to do
the right thing. It doesn't mean that they are
going to do the wrong thing."
"Do I have faith?" Hendricks asked. "No. But
let's see what happens."

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Education Week - September 9, 2015

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