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A New Jersey lawmaker is demanding that the state immediately investigate Newark schools’ “brazen and frivolous” spending in recent years, including $17.5 million for an artificial intelligence security camera system and $44,000 for a staff fun day, among other costs in the district’s $1.5 billion budget.
Republican Assemblyman Alex Sauickie, who represents parts of Middlesex, Monmouth, Ocean, and Burlington counties, urged state Education Commissioner Kevin Dehmer to audit the district’s budgets and expenditures for the current academic year and the last five years, according to an emailed letter shared with Chalkbeat Newark.
“This request is not made lightly,” wrote Sauickie in the April 15 letter. “It is based on a growing body of publicly available financial information and reports that reveal what most would consider brazen and frivolous expenditures inconsistent with the fiduciary responsibility expected of a district receiving over $1.3 billion in taxpayer dollars — most of which come from residents outside of Newark.”
The South Jersey lawmaker who champions the Trump administration’s U.S. DOGE Service — an initiative the administration says is intended to cut federal spending it considers wasteful — also proposed legislation earlier this year that would assign a fiscal monitor to Newark and other high-poverty school districts.
Newark Public Schools spokesman Paul Brubaker called the lawmaker’s statements “baseless and outrageous attacks” on the district. The calls from the lawmaker “expose deep-seated misconceptions about our district and, more generally, New Jersey’s urban school districts,” Brubaker said in an emailed statement on Tuesday.
Sauickie takes particular aim at the $1.25 billion the district received in state aid for the current school year and the additional $75 million earmarked for the district next school year. That state aid marks the first time New Jersey is fully funding the district based on the current school aid formula.
Shifting funds to historically underfunded districts, such as Newark, caused some cuts in state aid for districts that have been overfunded based on the state’s school aid formula. Because of that, districts in his region have experienced state aid reductions and have had to face difficult, and often, controversial cuts in their budgets in the last few years, Sauickie said.
The Jackson school district, for example, has cited state aid cuts for its decision to sell an elementary school and merge its two high schools.
The lawmaker’s push for auditing Newark’s spending comes at a time when the Trump administration is scrutinizing costs it considers wasteful, fraudulent, or an abuse of funding at the federal level. In recent weeks, the administration put an end to federal pandemic relief funding, asked schools to end diversity, equity, and inclusion programs it considers illegal, and gutted staffing in the U.S. Education Department.
The state Department of Education did not respond to a request for comment by publication. Sauickie said he hadn’t gotten a response from Dehmer or the state education department since he sent the letter last week.
District was ordered to refund state for misuse of aid
Sauickie was successful in a recent push to investigate the district’s spending after news reports last year highlighted Newark Superintendent Roger León’s “staff fun day,” which ran at a cost of $44,000. After reading the reports, the lawmaker wrote a letter to Dehmer and urged an audit.
The state Education Department subsequently audited the district and determined it needed to pay back $33,650 in state aid, which it said was inappropriately spent when hosting the staff fun day. The daylong event included a DJ and four inflatable carnival booths, among other entertainment, but lacked educational or professional development components, the audit determined.
In his recent letter to state officials, Sauickie also said he wants the state education department to investigate Essex County Superintendent Joseph S. Zarra for the “level of oversight or lack thereof” in reviewing the district’s budgets.
The state education department’s press team, which responds on behalf of the county superintendents, also did not respond to a request for a response from Zarra.
“If other districts have not received the funding they need to provide a thorough and efficient educational program, we join in their advocacy for additional state aid,” Brubaker added in his emailed statement. “However, everyone should be wary of legislators who attempt to deflect from the needs of their own communities by making offensive, disparaging, and false statements about other communities, like Newark, instead of tackling those needs head-on.”
Newark budgeted $17.5 million for an artificial intelligence security camera system, which was mostly funded by federal pandemic relief dollars. The district hasn’t confirmed if the federal government dispersed the funds it needed to cover the cost of that project, which was stalled in the fall due to asbestos and lead issues.
In recent years, the Newark Board of Education has also spent thousands of dollars on travel to conferences from Miami to Honolulu, according to The Star-Ledger editorial board. Over the last two years, the school board has approved up to $2.8 million for catering for staff events, including back-to-school nights, according to Tap Into Newark.
When asked about the travel expenses, Brubaker said in an email response, “The district has not spent millions on travel, and it does not control where conferences are held.”
Similarly, when asked about the budgeted funds for catering, Brubaker said, “We have never done so.”
This year marks five years since local control was fully restored for Newark Public Schools. The district had been under state takeover since 1995, a move that was intended to improve student academic performance and the district’s finances. Several district schools were closed and sold during that time, which León has made one of his priorities to reclaim.
Catherine Carrera is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Newark. Contact Catherine at ccarrera@chalkbeat.org.
