NEWARK -- It's been more than 20 years since the state took the reins of Newark's public school system, choosing its succession of superintendents and making decisions on staffing, instruction and budgeting.

But next school year, the School Advisory Board is expected to shed its enfeebling title and become a fully-functioning board with the power to hire and fire its own chief of schools -- governance of Newark's 65 public schools will finally return to local control.

"This is a heavy responsibility," School Advisory Board Chair Marques-Aquil Lewis told NJ Advance Media. "This board has not been taking this lightly at all, we have been training to prepare ourselves for local control ... The public needs to understand that at the end it's not just about the board members, we're going to need the public to be our partners."

For residents, the shift in power means they'll have more of a direct say in who heads the schools and how the Newark School Board is structured. The district must hold a referendum to let the public vote on whether they want an elected board or one appointed by the mayor.

The board, which will no longer be advisory, will then have the power to pick a superintendent, who is in charge of the day-to-day management of the schools. Since 1995, the state has appointed the district's superintendent who has veto power over decisions by the board.

Schools Superintendent Christopher Cerf said state oversight of Newark schools will continue -- like it does in every other New Jersey school district -- even after local control is returned.

"The state constitution imposes on the state the obligation to create a thorough and efficient system of schools. That constitutional duty belongs to the state," he said. "Traditionally the state delegates to local school boards that authority but it's always subject to state oversight and when state control happens is because the state goes, 'Hey, we asked you to run this school district in a financially responsible way and you're not doing it.'"

If the district passes a state review conducted earlier this year, the New Jersey State Board of Education is expected to vote to return local control in the fall, Cerf said. At that point the state Education Commissioner and the district will create a transition plan that will likely detail the process for finding a superintendent.

Cerf, who was appointed by the state to his role in 2015, said he remains focused on a smooth transition to local control and said his personal plans were unformed.

"We are doing everything we can to get to full local control and all indicators point to this process being on track to happen in the upcoming school year," he said.

Cerf's $255,500 three-year contract expires June 30, 2018 but allows for modifications should local control be returned. The transition plan could outline whether an interim superintendent is named or Cerf remains at the helm while a new leader is chosen.

"This is not about power or control," Cerf said. "I hope it will continue to be about serving the best interest of the children of Newark so that we adequately prepare every single one of them for success in life."

The Quality Single Accountability System (QSAC), which is the state's way of monitoring schools, gives the state the power to take over a district. It measures a district's performance in five areas, three of which have already been returned to local control.

This May, the state reviewed the areas of governance (which allows the board to hire a superintendent) and instruction and program. The results of that review will be released later this summer, district officials estimate.

The state board will move to accept the scores, and if they are high enough to meet the 80 percent threshold, the state Education Commissioner will recommend the state board formally vote to return local control to the district -- a complicated transition that will take months to complete.

"This is not like hitting a light switch where there's one moment when there's no local control," Cerf said. "It is a statutorily set process that has a number milestones and checkpoints."

Karen Yi may be reached at kyi@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at @karen_yi or on Facebook.