Dive Brief:
- Chris Cerf, the former New Jersey education commissioner who backed Newark’s controversial overhaul, was named superintendent of the troubled school district Wednesday.
- The vote to elect him was close, with just six of the 10 Newark Board of Education members voting in favor of his appointment
- Cerf was formerly the CEO of NewsCorp-owned ed tech company Amplify Insight and, prior to becoming New Jersey’s top education official, the deputy schools chancellor in New York City.
Dive Insight:
Cerf enters a politically fraught role, and the news of his appointment was met with a deeply divided response from those who have criticized Newark’s overhaul and those who still back it. After the vote to name him superintendent, the head of Newark's teacher union reportedly shouted, “You guys are complicit!” at school board members and was removed from the room by a security guard.
Cerf’s embattled predecessor, Cami Anderson, who he was instrumental in hiring, became frustrated with the political entrenchment and stopped attending school board meetings over a year ago. Cerf has promised to take a different path and spend the first months of his tenure listening to community members. He also committed to figuring out what it would take to reinstate local control over Newark schools, which have been state-supervised for two decades.
“I am immune to the politics of personal insult or screaming or other forms of political conversation that lack the basic requirements of civility,” Cerf told the Wall Street Journal.
