Education advocates in Newark are looking to Governor Sherrill to deliver on her campaign promises with regard to schools. The city has concerns about outdated school buildings, rising costs, student attendance, segregation, and support for the most vulnerable students.
Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. She says some school buildings are very old.
“There are buildings where Abraham Lincoln walked and things like that,” she said, “so these buildings are really old, and without that commitment from the state, Newark can’t build anything new.”
The commitment from the state would be long term financing from the Schools Development Authority, which Sherrill would have to fund.
In just the past five years Newark has seen a substantial rise in demand for services for disabled students. Gomez says those close to the situation say more needs to be done.
“The public school district offers contracts with outside providers to provide therapy, speech therapy, other things that a student might need, but right now I think what we’re hearing from advocates on the ground is that they want the state to provide more centralized resources,” she said.
Historically Newark has struggled to provide adequate services to students with disabilities.
Students in Newark public schools lost a lot of ground when schools were closed during the pandemic. Gomez says the governor has gotten behind one method of helping students catch up.
“Governor Sherrill has supported high impact tutoring which is basically tutoring that lasts about half an hour three times a week with the same tutor,” she said. “It is a research-based approach that shows that it works to tackle learning loss.”
Sherrill has also indicated she may look to modernize the school funding formula as a way to send more money to districts to pay for programs to combat post- pandemic learning loss.