Newark Unified School District (NUSD) unanimously approved a response to the civil grand jury report about the way they govern the school district. The report was written after a year of investigating the school district.
Foreperson Rick Smith said in a letter that the 19-member jury first met in July 2025 to discuss 38 complaints made by citizens that involve local government. After researching, the grand jury decided to focus on 10 complaints and came up with three issues after a year of investigating, including NUSD’s governance issues.
The report was released to the public in mid-June. NUSD superintendent William Eger said in a phone interview that the grand jury report is constructive feedback on how to improve the district.
“This report is a helpful data point,” said Eger, “it outlines things that Newark could likely do better, and is one of many data points that I’m looking at, as I work to improve the district over the next several years.”
Eger is not mentioned in any of the grand jury reports. He was hired this year and officially became superintendent in July 2026.
A civil grand jury is different from a criminal grand jury. A criminal grand jury goes through evidence to see if a crime has been made. A civil grand jury looks at local government as a whole and decides if taxpayer money is being spent correctly and that government is running the way it should be. Smith said in the letter that the jury wants to foster government accountability, civic engagement and opportunities for improved government performance.
The grand jury report opens by saying that the district has a history of leadership crisis and fiscal challenges. NUSD was the subject of a grand jury report 10 years ago, according to the 2014-2015 grand jury final report. It talked about the then school board’s disregard for rules and regulations of board member duties.
The 2025-2026 grand jury report involved complaints about the board members and superintendent in office during the 2024-2025 school year. The report said the board lacked trust in the last superintendent. Some board members challenged purchase orders and contracts and questioned her choice of vendors and consultants.
The recent jury said NUSD is having the same issues from 10 years ago, which include “violations of governance team policies, a lack of trust in the superintendent, leadership instability and inadequate fiscal oversight.”
The grand jury report went on to give advice involving NUSD and the incoming superintendent, saying, “Success will require a well-functioning board that enforces and follows its own rules and displays a degree of trust in its new chief executive.”
NUSD approved a letter to the grand jury and plans to send it on Aug. 15. They responded to the 18 findings and 13 recommendations in the grand jury report with “partially agree,” to some findings.
The district admitted that occasionally they “fell short of the professional demeanor” in their NUSD governance team handbook, but it’s not something that happens in all meetings. NUSD said the board needs to agree to any censure. They don’t have to censure someone for unprofessional or disruptive behavior at meetings. They also don’t think there’s evidence that a censure would “prevent disruptive and unprofessional behavior at board meetings.”
The district said there is a budget deficit that they need to address in future years. They have experienced superintendent turnover and there is a safety hazard for staff.
The recommendations NUSD plans to implement include evaluating the superintendent in July 2027, conducting an annual board self evaluation starting in 2026-2027, and updating the website to reflect stakeholder committee titles. They plan to schedule a CAL OSHA consultation to address district office safety issues. The district said they do not want to implement the recommendation of merging into another district because only one anonymous official recommends it.
Reports can be found at grandjury.acgov.org.
