Editor’s note: An update to this story is available here.
At Wednesday night’s meeting of the Newark school board, members of the public repeatedly pressed to learn the identity of the developer who was in line to win a $500 million contract to secure a new elementary school building.
This was an unusually large sum of money for a school building, awarded in a non-competitive contract, and board members would say only that the payments would go to a limited liability corporation.
NJ Spotlight has found public records that reveal the builder’s name: He is Scott Fields, a donor to Mayor Ras Baraka’s failed campaign for governor last year. His name is on a business status report filed through the state Treasury’s Division of Revenue and Enterprise Services.
Around the state, critics often point to donations from developers as evidence of a “pay-to-play” culture, suggesting that massive, non-competitive contracts are awarded to major campaign donors.
Baraka did not respond immediately Thursday to a request for comment from NJ Spotlight News on the $500 million school deal. A call to Fields at his trucking company was not returned.
Credit: (Newark Mayor’s Office)Fields, along with his relatives and employees, donated at least $92,500 to Baraka’s gubernatorial campaign, according to reporting by Ian Shearn, the former Trenton bureau chief at the Star-Ledger and NJ.com, who cited state and federal election records. Shearn published his findings in June 2025 on The Gumption Group, his independent website. Baraka told Shearn through a spokesman that while he has taken contributions from developers, “his record shows he does them no special favors.”
The school deal is a highly unusual one that has drawn sharp criticism as wasteful. Typically, public schools in Newark are built by the state, and are then owned by the district, a practice common throughout the state.
In 2021, Newark district officials estimated that building a new high school — which is generally more expensive than an elementary school — costs an average $134 million, Chalkbeat.org reported.
In this case, the district chose a different strategy. It moved to lease a building from Fields at a cost of $500 million over 30 years. At the end, Fields would still own the building, though he could negotiate with the district over a possible sale.
Critics call this an eye-popping sum for a lease, given that there is no guarantee that the district will own the building. The proposed school lease would cost nearly four times as much as building a $130 million high school.
“We’ve seen so much corruption in our city,” Jhamar Youngblood, a lifelong Newark resident who plans to run for mayor, said after being told the developer’s identity. “We’ve been hurt by our elected officials selling us out.”
Like others, Youngblood marveled that the city won’t own the property after paying close to $500 million.
“You see a $500 million deal like this, and then you see the test scores and the reading and the math levels of our students,” he said. “And you’re just like, why isn’t that money being spent on the actual students, instead of these deals that you guys are making?”
Credit: Newark Public SchoolsAt the school board meeting Wednesday, the district presented plans for the four-story school at 56 Freeman St., which would be built for 667 students. It would include a parking garage, rooftop playground, a gym and a playing field.
The site is home to a closed Catholic school.
For the new school facility, the district would pay about $1 million per month in rent, leasing the building with an option to purchase it at the end of the 30-year term, district officials said during Wednesday’s meeting.
The few residents who spoke at the meeting opposed the deal and the lack of transparency. A Newark resident who works as a real estate agent, Brendan Da Silva, found the cost “outlandish.”
He called for more oversight and review.
“This feels like a padded number and it raises serious concerns,” he said, adding that he’s spoken with other developers in the site’s Ironbound neighborhood, one of whom expressed interest in building this on his land, at lower cost.
“If that’s the case,” Da Silva said, “why isn’t that being explored openly?”
He added that the School of Architecture and Design project went over budget and took longer than expected, with a developer he argued had a poor track record.
“That should not be repeated,” said Da Silva, asking the district to share the name of the developer who won this $500 million deal.
District officials would not give details about the developer, even after board member David Daughety also asked, identifying it only as 56 Freeman St. LLC.
Fields has also donated small amounts to other Newark politicians, including Sen. Teresa Ruiz and Councilman Anibal Ramos; and to Amir Jones, the son of state Democratic chairman LeRoy Jones.
Ruiz did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
Ramos noted that he has many donors to his campaigns, is not involved in vetting school projects and has questions about “the big price tag” as well.
“We did make a request to have the district come before our education committee to go over this,” Ramos told NJ Spotlight News. “We’re hoping to see justification behind that number.”
District officials have argued that while the state is typically responsible for school construction projects in Newark and other cities, they can use the district’s own budget to lease properties to ease crowding without having to wait for that state funding.
The board president, Hasani Council, recently told Chalkbeat.org that a new school is necessary because the East Ward is “severely overcrowded.”
The board unanimously voted Wednesday to submit the plans to the state Department of Education and the Office of the State Comptroller for approval. If the state approves, the board will hold a final vote on the project.
