Christopher D. Cerf

Newark Public Schools Honors Football State Champions Shabazz and State Finalists Weequahic

[December 21, 2017 – Newark, NJ] Newark Public Schools (NPS) and the Newark Board of Education honored state football champions Malcolm X Shabazz High School and state football finalists Weequahic High School at the Board meeting on Tuesday night.

Superintendent of Newark Public Schools Christopher D. Cerf said, “Both high schools have brought great honor to the sports programs and to the city of Newark with their successful football seasons this year. Thank you to the players, the coaches, the parents, the teachers and everyone who has contributed to a successful season for both teams.”

In addition to remarks from the Superintendent, Board Chair Marques Aquil-Lewis spoke, in addition to Principals, Athletic Directors, Head Coaches and Student Athletes from both schools. Assistant Superintendent Roger León thanked Shabazz representatives Principal Damon Holmes, Elizabeth Aranjo, Darnell Grant and Michael Fields. Speaking on behalf of Weequahic were Principal Andre Hollis, Gary Westberry, Brian Logan and Quaison Home.

Shabazz Student Athlete Michael Fields said, “On behalf of my brothers and teammates, I am proud of how far we have come and how we have worked together to achieve what we did this season, thank you. Weequahic Student Athlete Quaison Home said, “Although we didn’t win the championship, we came far and we did it together, particularly with a lot of underclassmen. I congratulate Shabazz on their win.”

Newark Public Schools Partners with Newark Yoga Movement to Host Staff Development Focused on Wellness

[Newark, NJ – August 31, 2017] This week, Newark Public Schools (NPS), in partnership with the Newark Yoga Movement (NYM), hosted a staff development (SD) for teachers and administrators at 8 schools in Newark. The SD was focused on wellness of the mind, body and spirit and provided tools for school staff (administrators and teachers) to learn and apply breathing and calming techniques in school and in their daily lives. The SD took place at 8 different Newark district schools; West Side High School, Camden, Cleveland, 14th Avenue, George Washington Carver, Hawkins Street, NJ Regional Day and Rafael Hernandez schools and included administrators and staff. According to the Newark Yoga Movement (NYM), over 400 staff members were trained over the course of the week, including students and staff at George Washington Carver School.

The SD provided staff members with tools to self-soothe and self-regulate themselves to get them ready to better serve their students. Christopher N. Cerf, NPS Superintendent of Schools said, “The benefits of offering yoga to both administration and staff are many, which is why NPS has worked with NYM since 2009 and is now extending the NYM program to more schools in the district and to the administrative arm of teaching and learning.”

Debbie Kaminsky, founder of Newark Yoga Movement said she is honored to be the recipient of these unique micro grants from NPS to provide yoga to students and administrators. She stated, “Teaching students to breathe and relax as they learn is a great step forward in education and in social and emotional learning.”

The Newark Yoga Movement will be teaching yoga and its related properties and benefits to 9 schools this year. More than 500 students at Sussex Avenue Renew School learned yoga as a way to reduce stress, help them concentrate and remain calm in different situations according to school administrators.

Newark Yoga Movement team has been meeting with school leaders and tailoring yoga programs that fills their school needs. According to Ms. Kaminsky, many of the schools are looking to yoga to help give children dealing with behavioral issues a leg up through gaining additional tools. She said one school has added the important parent component and children with special needs will also be receiving yoga in several schools especially for the self-soothing/self-regulating benefits and beginning in September at one school, Newark Yoga Movement will be teaching yoga to both children who are deaf or blind.

Weequahic’s Marching Band Recognized at Board Meeting for Winning First Place at National Band Competition in Florida

Weequahic Marching Band 2017
[Newark, NJ – June 28, 2017] The Weequahic High School Marching Band was presented with the 1st Place High School Parade Band, Class A Award in Orlando, Florida in May. The award recognizes the best high school marching bands in the nation. The marching band has received national honors in the past, winning 1st, 2nd and 3rd place honors in the same national competition over the last several years. This year’s performance was at ORLANDOFEST, the annual national high school marching band competition.

Weequahic Marching Band Board Recognition 2017
Weequahic High School Marching Band

NPS Superintendent Christopher D. Cerf said, “The Weequahic High School Marching Band continues to represent their high school, Newark Public Schools and the city of Newark with distinction and honor, with their dedication to their craft and their high performance ability. They continue to carry the torch as one of the best marching bands in this nation. We are proud of their achievements.”

Board Chairman Marquis Aquil-Lewis said, “I am so proud of the student band members. They practice the Core Beliefs of the high school; namely, Every Student Can Achieve; Every Student Achieves when they develop self-esteem and self-advocacy skills; and Every Student Achieves in an environment that fosters high expectations.”

In addition to recognizing the band at the Board Meeting, board members also recognized the dedicated leadership of Band Director Michael Page, who this year is celebrating 20 years as Director; along with volunteer alumni Darryl Taylor, who has volunteered for 30 years, his son Maurice Taylor, who has volunteered for 10 years as drum line instructor and Jamal Littles, who has volunteered for 15 years as horn line instructor. Also recognized was Principal Lisa McDonald and the staff whose continuous support, guidance, mentorship and encouragement have allowed band members to achieve national recognition as one of the best bands in the nation.

5 Trends That Newark Leaders Say Show Schools Are Turning A Corner

By: Jessica Mazzola | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com | Email the author | Follow on Twitter

NEWARK – The nearly 2,000 Newark students who have graduated high school over the past few weeks, district leaders say, are a symbol. The long-struggling district — which is in the midst of transitioning out of a twenty-plus year period of state control — is finally seeing signs of progress across the board, Deputy Superintendent Robert Gregory said in a phone interview last week.

“We are definitely trending up, and at the same time, trying to transform, and create a college-going culture at each school,” Gregory said, noting that different high schools in the city have had different practices and strategies in place, leading to vastly different graduation rates and student performance.

“We are trying to create systemic solutions to systemic failures,” he said. “Past inequities have shaped current realities.”

Class of 2017

Newark’s 16 high schools graduated more than 1,900 students, which Superintendent Christopher Cerf called a “monumental milestone” for the kids.

Though district officials say statistics about the Class of 2017 will not be finalized until August graduates are counted, preliminary numbers show statistics are moving in a positive direction. Gregory said the trends are thanks to several key graduation and post-grad policies the district has implemented over the past few school years.

1. Graduation rate

The district has long struggled with its graduation rate. Even after a four-point bump to 73.5 percent last year, it still remained well below the statewide 90.1 percent graduation rate.

The numbers of students graduating also varied dramatically school to school within Newark Public Schools.

Though the numbers are not yet finalized for this year, “we definitely expect to see an increase in graduation rates based on the data we’re seeing right now,” Gregory said. The immediate goal, he said, is to raise the district-wide graduation rate to 80 percent, which officials project should be attainable within the next several years.

The anticipated increase, Gregory said, can be traced to several new practices, including allowing students to make up failed classes online, and at night school. The district has also mandated every school implement graduation trackers, which chart the progress of every senior in every school, and require school leaders to intervene if students fall behind on graduation requirements. The district’s new credit accumulation trackers chart the credits earned each quarter by every student in every high school, starting freshman year.

2. College culture

About 75 percent of students who graduated this year are expected to attend two- or four-year schools, officials said. The Class of 2017 members have been accepted to 135 technical, community, and four-year colleges across the country.

Seven students will be attending Ivy League universities (Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and the University of Pennsylvania) on full scholarships.

Before this year, Gregory said schools were not required to track students’ post-graduation plans, so only about six of the district’s high schools did. Now that it is centrally required, he said, this year’s graduating class can “act as a baseline” to which future classes will be compared.

3. Acceptances

School officials said about 14 percent of this year’s graduating seniors were accepted to five or more colleges. The move to focus on college while kids are still in high school can also be seen, officials said, in several programs that this year saw 71 students graduate high school with Associate’s Degrees from Essex County College and Bard College.

Another 52 students, officials said, plan to join the armed forces.

4. Scholarships

Newark seniors have received more than $15.7 million in scholarships, school officials said.

Several students who plan on going to school this fall on full scholarships articulated an attitude Gregory said the district is working to spread to the whole student body in every high school.

Michael Lawrence, a West Side High graduate going to NJIT, said his family members, friends, and teachers “pushed me to be someone who is passionate for success.” Lucia Couto, Arts High School’s valedictorian, who will be attending Harvard, said she was thankful to take advantage of opportunities in the city.

“Don’t let people’s opinions about where you come from make you think in a certain way,” she said. “I love Newark and I’m proud to say I live here. A lot of good things and people come from Newark.”

5. Keeping track

Many of the district’s new strategies, Gregory said, focus on keeping centralized tabs on students’ progress through high school, and on generating excitement about college and post-graduation plans among students and their families.

To those ends, he said, the Newark City Learning Collaborative — an organization supporting post-secondary education for city residents — has hired a College and Career Readiness specialist and a College Coordinator, who will work with Newark seniors.

NPS has also purchased software that Gregory said will allow it to more easily track student progress, and work with individual students to set post-graduation plans. Better data management in central administration will allow for more pointed intervention and student progress management, he said.

“We want every student to be accounted for,” he said.

View the story on nj.com.

Nearly 2,000 NPS 3rd & 4th Grade Students Perform At NJPAC

Recorder Arts Program Highlights Newark Students and A Commitment to the Arts


[NEWARK, NJ – June 27, 2017] Nearly 2,000 Newark Public Schools (NPS) 4th and 5th grade students recently performed at NJPAC as part of the Recorder Arts for Musical Pathways Program; a partnership between NPS and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. This participation more than doubled the 739 students who participated last year.

“Thank you to NJPAC and Margaret El for their dedication to this important program that brings the arts to our students and allows them to play in the best concert hall in this country,” noted Superintendent of Newark Public Schools Christopher D. Cerf. “We must continue to grow programs like this because the arts are a vital part of our students’ education.”

The partnership includes 20 schools and teachers, who participated in a two day professional development program. As part of the program, NJPAC’s Recorder Arts master teacher conducted two site visits at each school during the first and second semester of the school year for in class support. In addition, NPS teachers from each of the 20 schools made nominations for the All-Star Recorder Choir, who performed on stage during the concert. The concert was held on June 15 at NJPAC’s Prudential Hall.

“I absolutely got chills looking out over the orchestra and all the way up to the third tier in Prudential Theater, seeing and hearing over 1900 third and fourth graders from Newark Public Schools performing in unison,” Added Margaret El, Director of Arts Education at NPS. “We are so excited about the work NPS music students and teachers have accomplished, and look forward to many students pursuing an instrument of choice in the future.”

Click here to listen to the concert.

Participating schools included:

  1. 14th Avenue School
  2. B.R.I.C.K. Avon Academy
  3. Camden Street School
  4. Elliott Street School
  5. First Avenue School
  6. Harriet Tubman School
  7. Ivy Hill School
  8. Lafayette Street School
  9. Lincoln School
  10. Louise A Spencer School
  11. McKinley School
  12. Mt. Vernon School
  13. Oliver Street School
  14. Park Elementary School
  15. Quitman Street Community School
  16. Rafael Hernandez School
  17. Ridge Street School
  18. Roberto Clemente School
  19. South Street School
  20. Wilson Avenue School

Newark surprises its 2017 Teacher of the Year

NEWARK — Walk into Brian Klasner’s classroom and odds are, you won’t find him sitting at his desk or lecturing at the front — he’ll be among his students.

On Tuesday, when a dozen school administrators, members of the media and fellow colleagues surprised Klasner to crown him Newark’s Teacher of the Year, he was sitting near the back of the room with a group of students.

“These are my parents guys,” Klasner, 29, said as he stood up to greet Schools Superintendent Christopher Cerf and his parents, Lisa and Joe Klasner.

“It’s validation of years of people telling me ‘No, you can’t do this,’ ‘No, that doesn’t work, use a textbook, don’t break the mold,'” said Klasner, a social studies teacher at East Side High. “I’ve always had these ideas and I’ve pushed as much as I could.”

Students sit in groups peering over iPads and talk about the internships they’ve landed at the East Orange Animal Hospital or as a physical education instructor. Their business cards are displayed along a wall.

“Coming from elementary school for me, it was difficult to adjust to high school,” said junior Romaine Johnson, 16. “He was always there for me and making sure I was on the right track … if it looks like if you have a bad day, he’ll say a pointed joke and just brighten your day.”

“Other teachers won’t take time out of their day to help you even with your personal issues,” said student Destiny Diaz, 16. “We’re learning in a different way.”

Diaz said the Klasner is always finding new ways to learn through technology. She looked around the room and said, “I don’t even know where the textbooks are.”

Klasner’s classroom is coated in posters of history icons like Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr., but also quirky images like a photo of a viral cat meme with the words “Mr. Klasner’s caring face.”

“I can never see myself sleeping in his class,” Johnson said — partly because Klasner will draw on your face with a dry-erase marker if you do, Diaz added.

Students say Klasner is always making jokes and showing funny pictures. The classroom Smart Board on Tuesday was projecting a picture of a baby elephant.

“If you’re singing a song, he’ll ask who sings it and say, ‘Let’s keep it that way,'” Johnson added.

Klasner was chosen from a pool of 22 other educators who were nominated by their principals. A graduate of Quinnipiac University, Klasner has taught for seven years and leads the school’s first Comic Book Club.

“This is a tremendous honor and a very well deserved one. We are incredibly impressed,” Superintendent Cerf said.

Klasner is an advisor for the school’s Big Picture Learning program, a national model that challenges traditional forms of schooling and lets students to take control of their learning through practical applications, such as internships.

The Big Picture academy enrolls 110 students at East Side and requires every student complete an internship.

“You don’t need a textbook to teach,” said Klasner who has taught at East Side for four years. “I also want to take them outside of the school, outside of class. Every one of my students has a business card, everyone has a resume, everyone has a cover letter, everyone has interviewed … there’s great traditional teachers, but I’ve been supported with every one of my crazy ideas.”

Source: By Karen Yi | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com