NEWARK—Newark Public Schools has laid off more than 100 employees across the district who oversee departments such as mathematics, world language and athletics, a district spokeswoman said yesterday.

The decision to eliminate 129 supervisory positions comes as the district aims to create small schools within the 40,000-student district—a shift that would make many of the administrative positions redundant, spokeswoman Renee Harper said.



"When department chairs were first introduced in Newark, they oversaw operations at huge schools," Harper said. "Now that we're moving to smaller school models—which are safer and produce better student achievement results— department chairs will no longer be needed."

The layoffs are scheduled to take effect July 1, but Harper said some administrators will be rehired to fill different roles. Eliminating the positions will save the district roughly $16 million.

City Association of Supervisors and Administrators President Tina Taylor said the cuts will have an “irreversible, negative impact” on city students’ education and a “chilling” effect on the district’s ability to recruit qualified administrators.

Harper, however, said the cuts will have minimal impact on classroom instruction since none of the district’s department chairs or administrators teach.

“Strong leaders and high quality teachers are essential for a school to be effective,” Taylor said. “The personnel being eliminated are the individuals who are in the schools daily mentoring, training, observing, coaching and teaching teachers, as well as working with students.”

Taylor said a coalition of city politicians, community leaders, civic groups and religious leaders oppose the cuts, which will deplete the union’s membership by roughly one third.

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