Numerous ‘brazen and frivolous’ expenditures by the Newark City School District, including $1.2 million on catering, $4 million-plus on a museum, and a $12 million AI surveillance system, demand a full and independent audit, said Assemblyman Alex Sauickie in an email to the state’s Department of Education Commissioner Kevin Dehmer this week. Sauickie’s renewed call for an investigation into Newark’s budgets follow additional state funding cuts that disproportionately impact rural and suburban schools in the southern half of the state. 

Sauickie, who sponsors legislation (A5179) assigning a fiscal monitor to schools like Newark, demanded the state Department of Education immediately conduct an audit of Newark’s budget and spending for the 2024–2025 academic year, as well as for the past five fiscal years. He also wants the Essex County Superintendent of Schools’ supposed oversight of the budgets investigated.

“This request is not made lightly. It is based on a growing body of publicly available financial information and reports that reveal what most would consider brazen and frivolous expenditures, inconsistent with the fiduciary responsibility expected of a district receiving over $1.3 billion in taxpayer dollars—most of which come from residents outside of Newark,” Sauickie wrote. 

The lawmaker specifically questioned the more than $40 million budgeted for food and travel expenses, a superintendent grant program, costly professional development, unvetted security, and a proposed museum. He also drew attention to Superintendent Roger León’s nearly $300,000 annual salary, the district’s poor academic record, and the additional $300 million in state aid the district has received just in the past couple of years. 

“Newark appears to be receiving more state aid than it can responsibly manage,” he wrote before suggesting the $75 million set to go to Newark this year be redirected to schools in Atlantic, Cumberland, Gloucester, Burlington, Ocean and Monmouth counties. 

“These southern school districts are being forced to take drastic actions: laying off teachers, cutting AP courses, eliminating courtesy and after school busing, eliminating arts and music programs, disbanding sports teams, reducing extracurriculars, and even selling multiple school buildings—just to stay afloat,” he said.

About 180 of the state’s 580 school districts are either being cut or held flat for the 2025-2026 school year. The schools receiving increases are capped at a modest 6%, which will not offset the cumulative cuts over the past seven years. Meanwhile, 83%, or $1.3 billion, of Newark’s $1.57 billion budget for next school year is funded by taxpayers outside the city. 

“The scope and severity of the concerns surrounding Newark’s spending demand more than internal reviews or isolated corrections. A full, independent audit is warranted—not just for the sake of transparency, but to restore the public trust in how educational tax dollars are being stewarded in this state,” Sauickie said. 

Acting State Comptroller Kevin Walsh and State Auditor David Kaschak were copied on Sauickie’s email to Dehmer.