New Jersey taxpayers, you are getting duped by Newark Public Schools. How? You are paying $650 dollars an hour for lawyers to negotiate a building lease that Newark students don’t need.

That’s right: According to TAPinto Newark, which was able to get a hold of the district’s legal invoices, three attorneys from the law firm Lasser Hochman LLC billed you $23,605.70 for 58 hours of work reviewing documents related to the NPS’s contract with a developer who is converting the old St. James Hospital into what Superintendent Roger Leon calls the “Newark High School of Architecture & Interior Design.”  Currently the whole project will cost about $200 million, about twice as much as the building is worth.

By the way, this estimate, rising all the time, doesn’t include legal fees.

Why do I say “you” are paying for the new high school? Because New Jersey and Newark taxpayers foot the entire bill for the district’s $1.53 billion budget. And, if you’ve been paying attention, you know Leon likes to spend money on non-educational items like $50,000 for a “Superintendent Fun Day”— which paid for his besties to party at an upscale suburban wedding venue—and for trips to Las Vegas and Hawaii for staff and school board members.

But don’t blame the school board for this one. Yes, they approved up to $350 per hour back in February for a lawyer to review documents related to the new trade school. $650 an hour? Not so much. 

Let’s look at this more closely. Do our students in the East Ward really need a specialized trade school like the “High School of Architecture and Design” that is focused on preparing students for skilled jobs, as opposed to comprehensive high schools, which offer a full menu of coursework in case they want to attend college? Our kids are voting with their feet: East Side High School enrolls 2,200 students  even though the building is meant to educate half that many. (Assemblywoman Eliana Pintor Marin says there are as many as 35 kids in a classroom. Maybe that’s why only 18% of East Side students can read at grade level and fewer than 10% can do math.)  

Would those East Side High students want to transfer to the new trade school? No! They’re at East Side High because they want to attend a comprehensive high school, not a trade school.

Just ask Newark Teacher Union President John Abeigon, who told TAPinto that the site of the new building would be perfect for a middle school, which is what NTU recommended. A trade school? Not so much. After all, he pointed out, Newark already has trade schools run by Essex County and the Hudson County Central Labor Council.

Let’s also remember at the ground-breaking for this expensive and unnecessary building, Leon promised it would be open in September 2023. Um, let’s make that September 2024. Or—newsflash—now it’s September 2025.

Meanwhile our kids can’t read or do math, East Ward schools are overcrowded, and lawyers are getting rich off our tax money. Leon should stop pretending he’s a real estate tycoon and start acting like an educational leader.