Newark Unified To Close 2 Elementary Schools

NEWARK, CA — Newark Unified School District will close Snow and Musick elementary schools and Newark Junior High will be converted into a middle school for grades 6 through 8, the school board voted Thursday night.

The board made the move to control a projected $6 million budget deficit, as enrollment has declined by about 20 percent over the past decade.

But it’s not just enrollment causing problems at the district, a state fiscal review released in August said that the district has a “lack of critical controls” in its business office that have caused “insufficient budgeting and monitoring of funds…insufficient cash flow projections,” and a “failure to analyze and disclose the effects of negotiations prior to settlement,” according to the East Bay Times.

Board members acknowledge the problem and say they are working to sort out the mess they inherited.

Snow will close at the end of this school year, and all students will transfer to Graham Elementary.

The Graham community led an impassioned effort to save their school. “This is a community that is already underprivileged,” Anabel Zarate told Channel 5 News. “It’s disadvantaged. It already faces language barriers, and to close the school and to close the school and distribute kids into three different campuses just doesn’t make sense to me.”

Musick will remain open one more year. Current students will spread out to other schools with no guarantee that all children from one family will go to the same school.

Newark Junior High will transition to a middle school at the start of the 2022-23 school year.