By Naomi Nix, NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
NEWARK — By early 1995, the competition for control over Newark Public Schools was in its final inning and the winner was a clear.
Eugene Campbell walked out Newark Public Schools’ headquarters carrying a handful of his personal belongings and the memories of more than decade spent as the superintendent of the state’s largest school district.
Campbell would go onto to tell reporters that his administration ceded control of the district without incident.
But Charles Bell, a feisty school board member, would be stripped of his power less quietly, still talking about an overly aggressive state government.
Then Newark Mayor Sharpe James would plead for community involvement in the district even after the state took control.
What none of them expected that year was that that state takeover would continue for two decades.
After a bitter and protracted fight between district officials and the administrations of two governors, state authorities took control of Newark Public Schools in July of 1995, aiming to turn around a district it said was mired by corruption, crumbling facilities and low-performing students.
Today, the debate over who should control Newark Public Schools is no less fervent — but it has taken on a new shape with different actors and political realities.
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