Earlier today Paul Brubaker, spokesperson for Newark Public Schools, issued a press release regarding Essex Superior Court Judge Lisa Adubato’s ruling , first reported here, that the district must reimburse KIPP New Jersey for the legal expenses incurred over the last four years while it fought to maintain ownership of a building where it currently educates 561 KIPP Seek Academy students. The ruling mandates that NPS send KIPP, the highly-regarded public charter network, $768,487.

KIPP Seek Academy, located in the South Ward, was once called Maple Avenue School. In 2017, while under state control, the advisory school board sold twelve empty old buildings to raise revenue. In 2020 Superintendent Roger Leon tried to claw back two of those buildings. He acquired one, the old State Street School, for $4.5 million with the intention of turning it into a museum. He sued KIPP and the Newark Housing Authority in an unsuccessful effort to reclaim Maple Avenue School. TAPinto Newark estimates that taxpayers have spent $2.4 million in legal fees for NPS on behalf of this lawsuit.

In an emailed response for a request for comment, KIPP New Jersey said,,

“We appreciate the court’s decision to order that a significant portion of KIPP New Jersey’s expenses associated with the multi-year lawsuit be covered. Our focus remains on providing Newark students with high-quality education and safe, supportive learning environments.”

Here is the district’s full press release:

District officials said they will file an appeal of the ruling by Superior Court Judge Lisa M. Adubato denying the Board of Education’s right to regain ownership of the former Maple Avenue School in the city’s South Ward.

The ruling begins a new phase of the Board’s case against the Newark Housing Authority (NHA), by which it has sought to enforce its rights of reversion under a 2016 agreement between the Newark school district – then under state operation – and the NHA. In that agreement, NHA was to sell 12 school sites owned by the school district for the sole purpose of “housing, redevelopment, and economic development” to have been substantially completed within three years.  The NHA failed to do that with several of the 12 sites. Two of those sites that were not developed for any of the permitted uses were successfully returned to the Board of Education after the district regained local control, but not all of them.

The ruling was not unexpected, as Judge Adubato had made statements on the record months ago indicating that she would rule against the Board of Education.  She took over the case after the judge initially assigned, Judge James R. Paganelli, was elevated to the Appellate Division of the Superior Court.

Judge Paganelli had ruled in favor of the district by denying the defendants’ motions to dismiss and for summary judgment, thus paving the way for trial. However, Judge Adubato granted requests to reconsider those decisions and ruled against the Board, finding that there were no issues of fact creating a need for trial.  Judge Adubato further ruled that the Board must reimburse the current owner for costs it incurred after the filing of the lawsuit.  

On a wall in the Essex County Courthouse, not far from Judge Adubato’s courtroom, a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. reads, “… the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” In this instance, the blindfold on Lady Justice appears to have punctured holes.

The next step is to the Appellate Division of the Superior Court.