School closing plan dominates Newark board election

Read this story as it appeared in The Star-Ledger

The old political adage says, "Elections have consequences."

And though Newark’s school advisory board has had virtually no authority since 1995, the trope still rings true in the annual race to fill three seats on the nine-member board.

While the board is advisory, it reflects Newark’s political leanings and can drastically affect how reform efforts undertaken by Superintendent Cami Anderson are received in the city.

Read this article as it originally appeared March 28, 2012 in Newark Patch.

The 10 candidates vying for three open spots on the Newark Advisory Board will take questions Wednesday night at the Newark Trust for Education's Committee of Advocates forum at Essex County College.

The forum, which is open to the public and will start at 6 p.m. in the Smith Lecture Hall, will be broadcasted on Cablevision Channel 77 and 19 (see schedule below) and available for live viewing on the Trust's Livestream page, new.livestream.com/newarktrust, where it will also be archived.

Collaboration and cooperation are the order of the day, but some inequalities remain

This article originally appeared Oct. 18 on njspotlight.com

The fight was fierce this winter, just at the idea of Newark district schools sharing space with charters. At times, ugly hearings revealed the sense of have and have-not that often mars debates about charters across the state.

Six months later, the new shared campuses in four Newark school buildings have opened. While the turmoil has faded -- some -- the challenges are just as real.

This article originally ran Oct. 17, 2011 in LocalTalkNews.com

Schools that are sharing campuses in Newark will be able to apply for $350,000 in grant money under a program designed to foster collaboration among schools.

The Shared Campus Grant program is a partnership between Newark Public Schools, the Foundation for Newark's Future and the Newark Trust for Education, the city's local education fund.

Cash will foster community at shared campuses in Newark

This article originally appeared Oct. 17 in the Patch.

Public and charter schools in Newark will have an easier time coexisting in shared campuses, thanks to a $350,000 grant partially funded by the $100 million donated by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, officials announced Monday. The grant will facilitate a more unified environment at shared campuses throughout the city by funding community-oriented initiatives.

"We've seen across the city the very beginnings of relationship building and these grants will accelerate that," said Newark Superintendent Cami Anderson. "(It will allows us to) ask teams … what can we do to share what's working in School A and School B and use them as ingredients to lift up all of our kids?"

Read this article as it originally appeared on The Patch | LocalTalkNews.

The Rev. M. William Howard Jr., the pastor of Bethany Baptist Church in Newark, was recently appointed to the Board of Directors of the Newark Trust for Education, the city's local education fund.

"We are honored to have Rev. Howard on our board," said Ross Danis, the executive director of the Newark Trust for Education. "His knowledge and experience will help ensure that all of Newark's children receive a quality public education."

The Newark Trust was featured in an article in the Newark Regional Business Partnership's August Connections newsletter. The article was about an education reform panel convened by the Newark business group as part of its Newark Insider's Forum series.  

Read this story as it originally appeared in the Des Moines Register.

Download a PDF of the article

As Iowa political and education leaders prepare to make sweeping changes in the state's schools, experts monitoring similar efforts across the country caution that much of what is being tried is still controversial and uncharted territory.