By Chase Brush
TRENTON — Legislators and education officials spent Tuesday morning thrashing an embattled Schools Superintendent Cami Anderson and a controversial One Newark school reorganization plan during a hearing of the Joint Committee on Public Schools.
Accusing the former of engaging in “behavior destructive to students” and calling the latter’s implementation “botched,” several members of the Newark education community as well as state and local officials double-down on their criticisms of Anderson and the plan, rolled out in September of last year to a rash of controversy. Meant to improve the city’s public education system by increasing student options, including an open enrollment initiative, public outcry and student and teacher protests have mostly defined the plan’s reception over the last few months, and Anderson, appointed by Gov. Chris Christie to her post in 2011, has largely taken the blame for the problems it’s caused.
“I’ve always been a fan of new things — I don’t believe in doing things just because they’ve always been done that way. But I also don’t believe in shoving things down people’s throat,” said Assemblyman David Wolfe (R-10).
The hearing was a follow-up to the fiery cross-examination of Anderson herself at the committee’s meeting in January, when lawmakers from Essex County’s delegation laced into the administrator for the direction the city’s schools are taking under her leadership. Frustrations over Anderson’s tenure were compounded just last month when Christie announced a three-year renewal of Anderson’s contract, paying her $255,000 for the year, including a 1.6 percent cost-of-living raise.
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