Newark Public Schools spent $566,000 on an “administrative gym” that attracts an average of just seven visitors a day, according to a state audit. The spending comes as fewer than half of the district’s students read at grade level and an even smaller share demonstrate proficiency in math.
New Jersey’s largest public school district is facing heightened scrutiny after State Auditor David Kaschak identified the little-used fitness facility among a series of questionable expenditures.
Kaschak also said that “certain matters” uncovered during the audit had been referred to the state Attorney General’s Office for a criminal investigation.
The district spent $300,000 to build the gym without securing school board approval or soliciting competitive bids, the 36-page audit found. Administrators also hired a full-time personal trainer to oversee the facility, paying $82,800 during the 2024-2025 academic year and $86,940 the previous school year.
Yet sign-in sheets reviewed over several months last year contained an average of only seven names per day — all belonging to district administrators. The gym opened in November 2024 in the basement of the district’s leased headquarters, according to the report.
The audit cited several other troubling expenses, including $2.5 million spent on an unfinished school district museum and more than $700,000 for three separate “Senior Day” class trips that lacked documented educational purposes.
Auditors also found that Newark officials overstated student enrollment by 128 students in both 2023 and 2024. As a result, the district received nearly $6.7 million in excess state funding.
Newark Public Schools serves more than 41,000 students across 65 district schools and employs about 7,000 people.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE: Horror zombie drug made with HUMAN BONES kills dozens weekly with dealers turning grave robbers to keep up with demand – NewsFinale
During the period examined, the district received an average of 81% of its general operating funding from the state.
Superintendent Roger León, whose annual salary is $330,000, has defended the district’s spending.
District officials said every employee has access to the gym and argued that taxpayers did not pay for it. They said the facility was funded through “wellness benefit funds” provided under the staff health program.
The audit also found that 10 active Newark employees had never undergone criminal background checks, including one worker who had been hired 27 years earlier.
New Jersey took control of Newark’s schools for 25 years after decades of poor performance and mismanagement. The city’s local school board regained control in 2020.
Following the report’s release last week, Newark school officials called the criminal referral “gratuitous and irresponsible.” In a statement, they said the audit identified neither “any intentional wrongdoing or violation.”
State Assemblywoman Dawn Fantasia, a Republican from Franklin, said the audit’s publication does not resolve the district’s problems. She has spent more than a year raising concerns about alleged misconduct and questionable spending in Newark schools.
“This ‘I told you so’ doesn’t feel so good because kids, families, and taxpayers got hammered while apparently the board was dozing, elected officials deflected or buried their heads in the sand, and the superintendent ran the district like a drunk college kid on spring break with his parents’ credit card,” Fantasia said.
Student performance remains a central concern. Chalkbeat reported that only one in three Newark students in grades 3 through 9 passed the state’s English Language Arts assessment in spring 2025, while just 17.7% passed the math test.