No one barely noticed when Newark Superintendent of Schools Roger Len received a new contract.
Until they did.In January 2023, it was revealed that his first contract with the district had been automatically extended for an additional five years without public notice or a board vote. This legal action infuriated district parents, transparency activists, and several members of the Newark Board of Education.
Len, 56, is one of the highest paid school administrators in the state, earning $308,971 in 2024, despite having a contentious tenure.
According to current records, Len, who hails from his hometown of Newark, is attempting to prolong his term as the leader of the largest school district in New Jersey by an additional two years by proposing a new five-year contract. This is in accordance with a letter that NJ Advance Media got from a state Department of Education representative approving the transaction.
In a letter to the district’s general counsel, Brenda Liss, interim Executive County Superintendent Joseph Zarra stated, “I have concluded that those provisions of the contract subject to my review are in compliance with applicable laws and regulations.” As a result, I give my approval for the contract to run from July 1, 2025, to September 30, 2030.
The five-year contract that was automatically renewed on May 15, 2022, when the Newark school board would have been required to inform Len that it did not intend to extend his original five-year contract, would be replaced by the new one.
More than a year later, on July 1, 2023, the renewed contract went into force. If the newly proposed agreement doesn’t take its place, it will expire on June 30, 2028. With the new agreement, Len’s term would be essentially extended by two years.
According to N.J.S.A. 18A:7-8(j), the executive county superintendent must examine and approve his contract before the local board of education votes in favor of it because the recent request for a new contract deviates from the automatic renewal procedure.
In order to approve it, the board must also have a public hearing and vote in open session, as required by state law. It needs to be promoted 30 days beforehand.
Zarra’s letter told Liss that any modifications to the new contract would need to be submitted to him by the district before the necessary public notice and hearing could take place.
A Newark Public Schools representative did not respond to inquiries about Zarra’s letter authorizing a new contract, including if the board had advertised or taken any other action on the subject, and the district has not made any announcements regarding its intentions to give Len a new contract.
This month, the board meets twice. A normal meeting in its Broad Street office on August 21 at 6 p.m. follows a remote-only retreat on August 16 at 9 a.m.
Requests for response from Hasani Council, the board president and the only member permitted by district policy to address the media, were not answered.
Additionally, Zarra’s office did not reply, and a Department of Education spokesman instructed NJ Advance Media to submit a request under the state’s Open Public Records Act, or OPRA, instead of offering copies of Zarra’s letter or the district communication that preceded it.
After serving as the district’s first locally appointed superintendent for eight years, starting in 2018, after the education department took charge for a quarter-century, Len is attempting to prolong his term.
As the district works to raise the lagging test results of its mostly impoverished and otherwise disadvantaged kids, Len has overseen the establishment of multiple new schools throughout that time.
His tenure has also been controversial from the beginning, beginning with the dismissal of 31 district staff shortly after taking office. He made a unique agreement with a developer in New York City to turn a former hospital into a high school for architecture and design. The project was put on hold because of frequent infractions at the workplace.
Legislators from states where state funding for schools has been reduced have blasted Len for what they claim is excessive expenditure on a Fun Day, food, and travel for central office workers. Additionally, the School of Global Studies was accused of anti-Black bias. The district refused to issue a scathing report on the issue, but ChalkBeat.org eventually managed to get and post the report.
Like other district budgets, Newark’s has increased significantly under Len, primarily thanks to increased state funding under Governor Phil Murphy. The 2025–2026 spending projection is $1.57 billion, of which $1.3 billion, or 83%, is funded by state funding.
When it was revealed last week that the superintendent seemed to be looking for a two-year extension, the critics of Len’s automatic contract renewal three years prior had differing opinions.
“It was encouraging to hear that the contract process would be more transparent than last time, which created confusion for the public as to how our superintendent became an extended superintendent for over 5 years,” said Shennell Barnes McCloud, CEO of Project Ready, a non-profit organization based in Newark that encourages voting in local elections.
Therefore, McCloud praised the school board for taking that action this time.
The district watchdog and parent of a graduate of Newark Public Schools, Denise Cole, expressed her continued anger at what she described as Liss, the corporation counsel, failing to notify board members three years ago of the impending notification deadline that would have drawn attention to the automatic contract renewal.
Cole claimed that Brenda Liss was responsible for alerting them.
Cole claimed that since Len controlled a school board that is legally meant to be his boss, she had little reason to doubt that the board would approve his new contract.
For instance, Newark City Councilman Patrick Council, the father of the board’s president, is also employed by the school district and, therefore, effectively works for Len.
Some of the board members who have openly questioned Len in recent years have resigned, such as Dawn Haynes, who resigned in the spring after a scandal involving bias at the School of Global Studies.
Crystal Williams did not run for reelection in April 2022, despite joining Haynes and two other board members in January 2022 in voting 4-0 to employ their own attorney—something that never transpired.
Cole compared Len to President Donald Trump, saying, “He keeps doing what Trump does.” The board is filled with people who support his agenda.
Stories by
Steve Strunsky
-
N.J. families describe relatives killed, starving in Gaza
-
Ciattarelli opposes ICE plan to house detainees at N.J. base, but blames Dems for crisis
-
Attempted murder suspect arrested after shooting at police during standoff in N.J. city, officials say
