| Assemblyman Alex Sauickie is again demanding answers as the Newark Public School District continues to waste millions of taxpayer dollars. Newark schools spare no expense throwing parties for administrators, covering overnight travel and entertainment for board members, and planning field trips to area amusements, all while other schools across the state are forced to cut programs, fire teachers, and sell property to stay afloat, Sauickie said in an email to the state’s Department of Education Acting Commissioner Kevin Dehmer this week.
“The idea that Newark has no problem sending at least 18 school board members and district staffers to Dallas, 14 to Atlantic City, and 10 to a conference at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, in October alone, is outrageous,” Sauickie (R-Ocean) wrote.
Travel expenses are up 78% in just two years. The school district spent more than $1 million in travel and entertainment in 2024 for the administration and school board.
“This frivolous $1 million spend alone could have restored all of the after school busing lost in ALL school districts in Monmouth, Ocean, Middlesex, and Burlington Counties,” Sauickie added.
Sauickie represents 16 school districts. Five were either cut or held flat and overall funding is down almost $1.2 million compared to last year. In total, 152 school districts across the state lost $107.3 million. Meanwhile, Newark received an additional $101 million in state funding this year.
The district’s nearly $44,000 staff fun day at Forest Lodge in Warren on June 1 for 275 adults included games like cornhole and egg toss, but was of no educational value, according to the state. The education department’s accountability and compliance office found that spending on the event violated laws, which govern fiscal accountability, and travel and field trips, and ordered the district to pay the state back for the cost.
Sauickie questioned why the district only repaid a portion of the total.
“I request that your department press the district that 100% of taxpayer funding be returned to the state, and regardless of the amount, that it be returned with interest,” he wrote.
Sauickie also wants to know how Newark is able to fund district-administered grant programs costing $3 million annually and suggests the taxpayer money might be better spent restoring the clubs and sports that schools had to cut.
Considering other district expenditures like student field trips to places like Dave and Busters, Medieval Times, and parades, as well as the poor state test scores, Sauickie requested the commissioner to conduct an investigation and appoint a fiscal monitor.
“School districts lost services for their children while Newark has staff parties, sends their administration and school board members on paid vacations, while also severely underperforming,” he wrote.
In the spring of 2023, only 28% of Newark students in grades 3 through 8 met the English and reading standards on the statewide assessment. A mere 15% of those students met the math standards. The district’s four-year high school graduation rate is also five percentage points below the state average.
“It might make sense to assign Newark a state-appointed fiscal monitor, as your department has done with those school districts whose taxpayers fund the Newark City School District, but they themselves lack the funding necessary to meet the state’s own definition of adequacy spending for their respective school districts,” he added.
State taxpayers outside of Newark fund $1.25 billion of the school district’s $1.5 billion budget. |
