Overcrowded Schools in East Ward Becomes Trenton Issue

Assemblywoman Eliana Pintor Marin grilled the New Jersey Schools Development Authority chief at an Assembly Budget Hearing in Trenton last week, drilling into the overcrowded schools crisis in the East Ward.

“I have to look at those parents every day and be questioned: Why does my child have to go to a school with over 35 kids in their classroom?” the assemblywoman said to Manuel Da Silva, the CEO NJSDA, the government agency tasked with providing school buildings to Newark and other poor cities.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE FREE TAPINTO.NET NEWSLETTER

The Assemblywoman noted that the SDA last year purchased a former charter-school building in the Central Ward at the request of the Newark Board of Education and asked Da Silva how the agency determined that the district needed that building, as opposed to one in the more overcrowded East Ward.

Da Silva noted that given there are extra open seats in other parts of the city, that “according to at least the numbers that we see, it says that there’s a zero need from a capacity needs perspective,” in Newark. He added that “it's a discussion with the superintendent and he may have flexibility to move students around into other areas of the city, let’s say that.”

He added that the long range facilities plan that the district developed showed no need and, in fact, that the agency found the need.

“When we look at the long range facilities plan that the district prepared, initially there was no need and then we identified a new need,” he testified.

DOWNLOAD THE FREE TAPINTO APP FOR MORE LOCAL NEWS. AVAILABLE IN THE APPLE STORE AND THE GOOGLE PLAY STORE .

The issue of overcrowding and overcapacity has come up before the Newark Board of Education in the past, especially given that a number of schools in the district are up to 66% empty . Malcolm X. Shabazz High School for instance is only 30% full, while East Side High School in the East Ward has twice as many students than the building was constructed for.

But in the East Ward, schools like Lafayette and Wilson are overflowing with children. At Lafayette, 1235 students attend in a building meant for 650 and at Wilson Avenue School, 1033 students attend the school built for 415 students.

Superintendent Roger Leon has been opening schools at a fast clip, with nine schools already and more on the way. But data shows that the new schools are losing grade-level enrollment, and in some cases operate with only seven children in a particular class. At Sir Isaac Newton, 22 Kindergartners started in 2020, but only 18 stayed to become first graders in 2021. Of those 18 first graders, only 12 remained as second graders as of the end of last school year (June 2023).

The building that the SDA purchased for the district became the Nelson Mandela School, which opened in September of 2023 and is a few blocks away from Sir Isaac Newton.

For more local news, visit TAPinto.net