The Newark school board is expected to choose a new superintendent at its meeting Tuesday evening — the first time it has done so in more than two decades.
In February, the state returned control of the 35,000-student school system to the school board, restoring its authority to pick a schools chief. Now, the board is set to choose from four superintendent finalists at its meeting at 6 tonight at Speedway Academies.
Before the big decision, here’s a quick rundown of what’s happened so far.
- The four finalists are:
- Andres Alonso: the former Baltimore City Public Schools chief, he’s now a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
- A. Robert Gregory: the founding principal of American History High School, he has served as Newark’s interim superintendent since February.
- Roger León: the former principal of Newark’s University High School, he has been an assistant superintendent for 10 years.
- Sito Narcisse: chief of schools for Metro Nashville Public Schools in Tennessee, he also has been a high-ranking official in two large Maryland school districts.
- You can find their official bios here.
- They each gave 30-minute presentations about themselves at a public forum on Friday, where the audience was not allowed to ask questions. The board interviewed the candidates in private on Saturday.
- The finalists were selected according to a state plan that the district must follow to fully return to local control.
- The plan says that the search must be led by a seven-person committee that includes three school board members, a state representative appointed by the state education commissioner, and three people with a “longstanding connection to Newark” jointly chosen by Mayor Ras Baraka and the commissioner.
- The board hired the firm Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates to conduct a national search (as required by the plan), and presented candidates to the search committee.
- The plan called for the committee to select three finalists for the full board to vote on. However, board chair Josephine Garcia requested four choices instead of three. The state education commissioner agreed, and four finalists were presented.
- The plan sets a deadline of May 31 for the board to choose a superintendent and that person to accept the offer.