By Karen Yi | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

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NEWARK -- The state could vote as early as next month to finally return control of Newark public schools to the locally-elected school board.

"It's a long time coming," Mayor Ras Baraka told NJ Advance Media. "At the end of the day, this was supposed to be for five years and turned out to be 20 years."

The state took over in 1995 citing a culture of corruption, crumbling facilities and low-performing students. Baraka, who worked as a Newark public school teacher and high school principal reflected on what this shift means for the city -- and the challenges that will come with it. His interview with NJ Advance Media has been edited for brevity.

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Q: What does this mean for the city?

I was a teacher when the schools were taken over. I was at Warren Street School and (former Superintendent) Beverly Hall came. They called us all to one location and they said the school district is now under state control. I was like, wow; it felt like we were being annexed.

The superintendent of the state was supposed to get the district ready to go back under its own authority ... but no superintendent did that so it almost became a sham. If the superintendent can't get you the scores you need to get then they haven't done their job.

It seemed to be a game and the people in the city became very cynical. Now the real work will actually have to start.

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Q. How did being under state control impact the schools?

It took direct say-so and authority away from the people in the city in terms of the direction the schools were going in, the curriculum that was being introduced in the schools, how teachers were being prepared, what schools kids could and couldn't go to. All these are questions we used to grapple with and we had no control over it.

All that stuff was taken out of the hands of people and it really created this kind of contentious environment that we have: People yelling at the state and nothing gets accomplished.

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Q: As a teacher how did things change?

The minute they took over, they began doing all this reform stuff. Teachers started becoming very leery of this stuff, it was one reform model after the next. And in two, three years it's gone. All of it was top down. The charter stuff is really the last iteration of all the reform that's supposed to take place in the district.

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Q: The public has to vote on whether they want a mayor-appointed school board or an elected one. What do you think should happen?

There needs to be serious discussion with the residents of this town. I always agree that more democracy is better. I think that people should have a right to decide and I don't think that lessens my influence over what happens in the school district. It doesn't lessen my accountability. We are going to be involved in it because we have to be.

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TIMELINE: What's next for Newark schools as local control looms?

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Q: How should the district conduct its superintendent search?

I think it needs to be a national search, I absolutely believe that. I just believe that there may be some Newarkers who can compete with folks on the national level ... and those people need to step up to the plate and put their name in.

When they say national, people usually believe that means everybody but Newarkers, and that's not necessarily the case. It means that you're broadening your opportunities and scope and you allow other people a chance to get in here and take a shot at it.

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Q: What do you think needs to happen for the district to succeed?

I believe the (superintendent) has to be somebody that is open to accepting the kind of help and discussion that the city has to offer. But also be able to be strong enough to take the things that were working and positive from the administration that just left and use those things and change the things that they think could enhance and improve the district.

There's one piece that we've been missing for a long time: They have to believe that the schools can go forward and be productive with community input. Some people believe that one can't happen if you have the other. I think we need to be able to move the district forward with as much community involvement as we can.

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Q: What are the challenges the district faces?

Obviously the finances are a problem, there's still a structural deficit. It's been that way for a long time. I think Superintendent Cerf has done a great job in managing the finances of the district but it's still in an awful place and part of it is because the enrollment is increasing and (the state is) continually flat funding the district.

The issue of enrollment is still a problem. How kids are going to get enrolled ... how do we deal with the most vulnerable in there and how do we provide as much access as possible to the best schools in the city and how do we focus on the schools that are not doing too well and make them do better? The idea that we need to close schools has been a problem for us and I think that we need to get out of that idea. I think it's a bad strategy. We need to do better and be more creative to make sure these school are successful.

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Q: Do you have faith in the school board?

I do. They're not up there by themselves and they're not doing this alone. They have hundreds and thousands of people that are in this town who are going to be pushing and watching and helping to make sure that they're successful. We can't afford for them to fail so I'm not going to be watching from the side ... my position is whoever is elected, we're going to make sure that they do it right.

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