Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive and founder of Facebook, has agreed to donate $100 million to improve the troubled public schools in Newark, N.J., and Gov. Chris Christie will cede some control of the state-run system to Mayor Cory A. Booker in conjunction with the huge gift, officials said Wednesday. The three men plan to announce the arrangement Friday on 'The Oprah Winfrey Show.' The changes would not formally relax the legal power the state seized in 1995, when it declared Newark's schools a failure and took control of the system, replacing the elected school board with a mostly toothless advisory board. Rather, Christie plans to give the mayor a major role in choosing a new superintendent and redesigning the system, but to retain the right to take control back. For now, at least, the arrangement tightens an already friendly relationship between the governor, a Republican, and the mayor, a Democrat. It also promises to be a rare happy moment in a state troubled by budget crises, scandals, political infighting and, most recently, the loss of a $400 million federal education grant because of a clerical error. Zuckerberg, 26, who grew up in New York's Westchester County and now lives in California, has no particular connection to Newark. But in July, he and Booker met at a conference and began a continuing conversation about the mayor's plans for the city, according to people familiar with their relationship. The $100 million for Newark is the initial gift to start a foundation for education financed by Zuckerberg. This would be by far the largest publicly known gift by Zuckerberg, whose fortune Forbes magazine estimated last year at $2 billion. Booker, Christie and Zuckerberg all declined to be interviewed Wednesday. The officials who spoke about the plan did so on the condition of anonymity because it was two days before the scheduled announcement. Less than a month ago, the governor informed the city's schools superintendent, Clifford B. Janey, that he would not be rehired and that the state was looking for a successor. Officials said Christie planned to announce that he and Booker would jointly select a new superintendent, a decision the governor has the power to make on his own. And they said he would instruct the mayor to come up with a reform plan for the system: in effect, asking Booker to redesign it. 'We can't speculate too much at this point about what the specifics would be,' a person briefed on the plans said. But on issues like expansion of charter schools, rigorous testing and rewarding teachers and administrators whose students succeed, this person said, 'their vision is very much in step.' 