West Side High School Stands to Benefit from Murphy
West Side High School in Newark, N.J., has not thrived during the eight-year tenure of Gov. Chris Christie, and many of its supporters are looking forward to more support from his successor, Phil Murphy, who will be sworn into office on Jan. 16.
The school serves about 700 kids, most of them African-American and low-income, and they wrestle with issues like chronic absenteeism, tardiness and violence. Three years ago, the year started on a painful note: a neighborhood girl was shot to death.
Leaders like Vice Principal Akbar Cook said they have had to compete for state money and attention with the growing number of charter schools in Newark. This was a common tension throughout Christie’s tenure when charter schools doubled in number, and stole much of the spotlight from the chronically underfunded traditional public schools.
It left people like Cook tapping alumni and private money to do basic things for his school. One example: Cook said he converted a classroom into a popular gathering place. On Friday nights, volunteers use the space to cook and serve hot meals to the community.
"The day before Thanksgiving, I had 241 families come out," Cook said.
But, as successful as that room is, there were even bigger plans for students eight years ago. The New Jersey School Redevelopment Authority planned to build an entirely new West Side High School.
"Incredible Olympic-sized and state-of-the-art fields — basketball courts you name it," said Ron Rice, who was the West Ward councilman in 2009, when then-Gov. Jon Corzine green lit the project.
Wilhelmina Holder, a leader on the West Side Parent Teachers Association, said she hasn’t forgotten the impact of the loss of that school. Parents were excited about the expanded honors and world language programs, and fully-equipped science labs.
But shortly after Christie came into office, the project was canceled amid allegations the School Development Authority had mismanaged state money.
"I mean it was just excitement. I mean community meetings people came out they share their vision and ideas. There was hope - hope and when that was dashed it was anger," Holder recalled.
Ironically, Christie's childhood home was directly across the street from West Side High School. Up until age 5, he lived in the West Ward — in a fourth-story walk-up apartment at South Orange Avenue and South 14th Street. Christie has spoken about his childhood in Newark, and his parents' decision to leave.
"My mom and dad who were lifelong Newarkers left for one reason and one reason only. They were worried that the Newark Public Schools would not provide for their children, what the Newark Public Schools had provided for them," he said.
Not only did West Side not get a new building, the district would see funding cuts under his leadership.
As a champion of charter schools, Christie held them up as evidence that schools could achieve academic success without more state dollars. Charter school kids received 90 cents for every state dollar that goes to traditional public school kids, but many charters have been successful at raising money privately to supplement state dollars.
Schools in New Jersey are funded through a combination of local property taxes and state aid. Newark is one of several poor districts that gets the overwhelming majority of its money from the state - about 90 percent.
But the Christie administration has not given most districts what they’re supposed to get under an education funding formula that factors in poverty and the number of students with special needs.
A spokesman for the governor said Newark’s school district got $8 million more in school aid last year compared to the prior year. But over the last eight years under Christie, it has been shorted $611 million, according to the Newark-based Education Law Center, which advocates for poor districts.
Christopher Cerf is the outgoing Superintendent of Newark schools and previously served as State Education Commissioner under Christie. He said Newark’s public school kids are better off now than they were eight years ago.
"Our graduation rate is up 20 percentile points. Our achievement gap has dramatically closed," he said. "Newark is outperforming virtually every single city in the country for whom we have comparable achievement data."
Charters have especially seen improvement, so much so that the Christie Administration points out there is a waiting list to get into many.
But that doesn't fix the troubling scores at many of the traditional public schools, including West Side where 85 percent of African-American students failed the state English language test in 2016.
Some education advocates like Denise Cole say Christie’s education agenda put too much emphasis on charter schools and not enough on the traditional ones that serve the majority of kids.
"He came here with his plan for Newark, not the public’s plan for Newark," she said.
That plan, launched in 2011, was known as "One Newark." It brought universal school choice in the district. Any student could attend any public school, including charter schools, which he held up as the model for urban education. The number of charters in Newark has more than doubled since Christie took office.
But for kids enrolled in traditional district schools, concerns remain. Administrators said they were frustrated with losing money when a child enrolls in a charter. And they said they needed major investment in facilities and staff.
Governor-elect Phil Murphy said he would fund schools differently than his predecessor.
"We will fully fund public education in this state," he said on the campaign trail. "It’s been underfunded by over $9 billion dollars over the past, almost eight years."
Murphy also said he wanted to improve the relationship between charters and traditional district schools. Back at West Side, Vice Principal Cook was focused on more immediate concerns: he needed money to buy a washer and dryer so his students have clean clothes to wear.
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