Creating a Community Alternative to School Closings (Part 2)

Abbott Leadership Institute Series 21: Moving Newark Schools Forward

Creating a Community Alternative to Closing Schools

Saturday, February 10th, 10-1pm


Newark, Rutgers University

Wow, Lin gave a very substantial recap of Saturday's ALI session regarding the seven school closings proposed by Cami Anderson. Instead of repeating information that Lin provided, I'll add in some issues that I hadn't thought of in regard to the school closings that were raised during the meeting.

1. According to Junius and the other attendees, Cami did not present any plans on how the progress of the merging schools will be assessed or what will be done to ensure that students are not simply leaving one failing school to attend another.  Newark schools have been closed in the past, with no system put in place to track student progress and measure the effectiveness of closing the "failing school."

2. Schools have different personalities.  All of us have had ample opportunities to visit and observe different schools in Newark.  no two schools are alike in regard to school culture.  Cami's plans involve the mergings of several schools that have different school cultures and different needs specific to their students and community.  Combining schools with no mention of how the needs of students and their communities will be addressed puts the success of students and the improvement of their communities at risk.

In addition to the differences in school cultures, one parent expressed that tension exists between different communities in Newark.  According to her, "They want to send our kids to (name of school).  There's a war going on [between these two areas]."  This perspective raises the question of safety for all students, but particularly those who will be bused to the new school.

3. Due to the outraged response of parents and community members when Cami first announced the school closings, she was forced to leave early and was not able to communicate all of the details or reasons behind her plans. As a result, she will be conducting small meetings at each school that will be affected, but these meetings will be invitation only (for safety reasons, perhaps).  Allowing only those lucky invitees to participate in these smaller meetings shuts out the concerns of those who are not invited.  Parents and students are stakeholders in NPS just as much (or even more) as Cami Anderson is, and silencing their voices shows that their opinions are neither valued nor taken into consideration.

4. Lastly, one attendee brought up a good point that I never would have thought of.  Cami announced the closing of seven schools, and she likely knew that this would create a drastic, negative response.  Two of the schools (Dayton Street and Miller Street) have very valid reasons for why they should remain open (Dayton Street School is in an area that's very isolated from the rest of Newark and Miller Street School has a high population of Spanish speakers who receive bilingual education). The young man who spoke said that it's possible Cami anticipated the angry response and added two schools to the list of closings that she would be able to rescind from the list.  In doing this, Cami could say she is listening to the community response and respecting their concerns and opinions.

Overall, only time will truly tell whether these schools close or remain open. Some schools (like 18th Avenue) have been threatened with closure in the past, only to remain open and continue serving their students.  Groups like ALI are doing everything in their power to effectively and articulately communicate to Cami that closing these schools with no plan for how to improve the education experience of their students or provide their communities with resources will only serve to be detrimental to every party involved.