Newark Public Schools is considering a three-decade, $498 million property lease to open a school in the East Ward, as the district waits for the state to deliver on new buildings.
The new Riverfront Elementary School building would take over an entire block and be constructed from the ground up, said Valerie Wilson, the district’s school business administrator, during Wednesday’s school board hearing on the proposed school.
The proposal highlights the district’s efforts to ease overcrowding in Newark schools, particularly in the city’s East Ward, Newark’s most densely populated neighborhood, where new housing developments are underway…