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A state judge has denied the Newark Board of Education’s petition to remove one of its longest-serving members over her daughter’s attempt to sue the school district.
The December decision by State Administrative Law Judge William J. Courtney is a setback in the district’s attempt to unseat six-year board member Dawn Haynes and exclude her from participating in board business and activities. Acting State Commissioner of Education Kevin Dehmer will review the case and must make a final decision on the petition by Feb. 3, 45 days from the judge’s ruling, according to Courtney’s decision obtained by Chalkbeat through a public records request.
The district’s petition, also obtained through a public records request, argued that Haynes had an “irreconcilable conflict of interest” and keeping her on the board would cause “irreparable harm” after her adult daughter filed a legal claim against Newark Public Schools. In the claim, Akela Haynes alleges that she experienced religious, racial, and gender discrimination and other harassment during her time as a Newark School of Global Studies student.
Last month, Akela Haynes, who waited until she was 18 to file her claim, said she wants transparency about the discrimination she says she and her peers experienced at Global Studies. She sent her legal claim to the district in October, and under state law, can file a lawsuit against the district after six months.
The petition, which the Newark school board filed to the state education department in early December, was sent to the New Jersey Office of Administrative Law, which reviews contested cases for state agencies and issues initial decisions.
In his decision, Courtney wrote that “the first weakness” in the district’s argument is that Akela Haynes has not filed a lawsuit against the board and therefore, there is “no evidence” in the district’s assertion that Haynes would cause “irreparable harm.”
“I find no harm to the board as a result of receiving notice of a potential tort claim from respondent’s daughter,” wrote Courtney in last month’s decision.
On Monday, the district’s communications director Paul Brubaker did not respond to emailed questions asking if the district would appeal the judge’s decision, what “irreparable harm” Haynes has caused or could cause, and if it would respond to Akela Haynes’ claim. On Dec. 20, 2024, Brubaker wrote that the district “does not comment on matters in litigation, and we look forward to articulating our position in court.”
“We will happily consider discussing these matters after they have been fully adjudicated,” Brubaker added.
Since 2023, Haynes, her daughter, and community members have been calling on León to release a scathing report from an outside consultant on the racial, religious, and cultural atmosphere at Global Studies. The board commissioned the report in January 2023 after students and teachers first described a pattern of racist harassment at the high school in November 2022.
Emails obtained by Chalkbeat in 2023 showed students and teachers endured months of racial harassment and discrimination before they pleaded to the school board for help. But few details have been released about the district’s efforts to address racial tensions and concerns.
NPS argued that board member could cause “irreparable harm”
In her claim, Akela Haynes alleges that between September 2020 and December 2022, she “suffered pervasive and consistent” discrimination, sexual harassment, assault, battery, intimidation, bullying, cyber-bullying, emotional distress, and other inappropriate and unlawful treatment. She also alleges León and Global Studies principal Nelson Ruiz are liable for “substantial monetary and non-monetary damages” for violating their obligation to protect the former student from “the physical and psychological harms” she experienced.
But the amount was not specified in her claim because Akela Haynes is “still traumatized and requires the treatment of specialists and medical experts,” the claim read.
The district’s petition to the state, signed by Superintendent Roger León, the district’s attorney Brenda Liss, and school business administrator Valerie Wilson, was discussed by board members in a November 2024 session closed to the public.
In the petition, Liss, the district’s attorney, argued for board member Haynes’ immediate removal ahead of the Dec. 19, 2024 school board meeting, saying she could cause “irreparable harm.” Haynes attended the December board meeting but did not speak about her case.
Liss also argued that Haynes had a “disqualifying interest,” or personal connection to her daughter’s claim because they live at the same address and are members of the same household. Akela Haynes is currently a freshman sociology major at Clark Atlanta University and does not live in Newark, she told Chalkbeat in December.
In addition, Liss argued, Haynes “cannot legitimately claim a substantial interest in continued participation on the board” while her daughter pursues the monetary relief in her claim.
In ruling against the district’s request, Courtney wrote that “there is no reason why” Haynes can’t abstain “from participation in any such discussion or board action” on Akela Haynes’ claim. The board has not voted on a formal action against the claim.
Courtney also decided that a board member’s removal “is not mandatory” when a claim is filed against the district but wrote that “there needs to be a fact sensitive analysis of the alleged direct, or in this case indirect interest” of Akela Haynes’ claim.
Board member Haynes also faced a state ethics complaint last year alleging that she used her position as board president to pressure Global Studies parent liaison Samantha Heer to organize a meeting between parents and the school’s student council.
In an email to Chalkbeat on Dec. 19, 2024, state education department communications director Laura Fredrick said the matter was dismissed in July 2024 after Heer, who filed the complaint, failed to appear for hearings.
Community speaks against board’s effort to remove Haynes
At the December school board meeting, community members spoke out against the board’s attempt to remove Haynes and criticized the district’s response to the allegations of racial harassment at Global Studies.
Former board member Marques-Aquil Lewis said he never “sat on a school board and met about removing a board member.” His board “understood that it wasn’t our responsibility to remove [members] from their seat but the people that elect them,” Lewis added.
“The local control that I remember sitting on that board fighting for was a local control that would point out injustice everywhere despite your color, despite your gender. We point it out, we’ll resolve it, and we’ll handle it,” Lewis said.
Lyndon Brown, whose nephew, a former student at Global Studies, said he was called a racial slur in his English class, “was not pleased with what happened there.”
He commended Haynes and board member Crystal Williams for bringing attention to the school’s issues.
“I do think that the voices of the parents and the transparency of this board is critical in moving this district forward. Our kids deserve better than what they’ve been getting,” Brown said during the board meeting.
Deborah Smith Gregory, president of NAACP Newark, said during the December meeting that she’s been requesting the report on Global Studies detailing racial harassment, hostility, and other problems.
The report was commissioned by the school board in January 2023 and conducted by Creed Strategies. But in June 2023, León said that report was meant to inform the district’s strategy on race and would remain internal. The board has not released the report despite requests from board members to publicize it and public records requests from Chalkbeat.
The district released three of the report’s recommendations that call on the district to assess the effects of “anti-Blackness in schools.” But León nor district leaders have shared details about their efforts to fix the problems.
“For 12 months, I have come to this mic requesting its release every month and I have been ignored,” Smith Gregory said. “When I think about the struggle of returning our schools to local control and the current state of affairs, I am disheartened. It seems that the rule of the superintendent is being sanctioned by the board with little oversight and question.”
Smith Gregory added that Haynes should remain on the board.
“She has had the courage to challenge, she has had the courage of her conviction,”said Smith Gregory. “And her daughter who is now an adult, did what she felt was necessary based on it seeming to be that the issue was swept under the rug by this board of education.”
In June 2023, former Global Studies English teachers Tammy Davis and Nubia Lumumba said they “suffered severe emotional problems” leading them to seek “psychological counseling” after experiencing racial harassment during the 2022-23 school year. They sent legal claims to the district and the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, which launched a federal investigation on Dec. 21, 2023, and is ongoing.
Last month, the Newark Teachers Union withdrew two lawsuits seeking the release of the report after reaching a deal with the district almost a year after filing its first suit.
Union President John Abeigon, who spearheaded the lawsuit, wouldn’t disclose the terms of the agreement or say if the settlement would require the district to release the report to the union or the public.
Jessie Gomez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.
