in biggest
shakeup since taking office
Out with the old and in with the new.
A slew of high-ranking school officials have been pushed out of their jobs
and replaced, as Education Department boss Carmen Fariña enacts a plan to fix
the city’s troubled classrooms, the Daily News has learned.
Chancellor Fariña, who’s been blasted in recent weeks for failing to
roll out a program for citywide school improvement, has just swapped 15 of 42
city school superintendents, or nearly 36%, in her biggest personnel shakeup
since taking office.
The superintendents, who earn more than $150,000 on average, each
oversee administrative supports for dozens of schools. They will report
directly to the chancellor’s office.
Fariña’s goal is to create a handpicked cadre of lieutenants capable of
whipping the nation’s largest school system into shape. They start their jobs
Tuesday.
“We’re going to get it right,” said Fariña, 71, who’s worked in city
schools for five decades. “We’re making sure every child is in a school where
they can be successful.”
The chancellor’s shakeup of the school system has been months in the
making. In July, she told the city’s supers that they would all have to reapply
for their jobs. Of 42 who reapplied, 27 kept their positions. Seven resigned.
Two retired, two found other jobs with the Education Department and four more
will be employed through Dec. 31, unless they find other work at the agency.
Fariña called it the first time in city history that an entire division
of senior education officials had been called on to reapply for their jobs.
Those who remain all meet Fariña’s new minimum requirements of at least 10
years of experience in schools, including three as a principal.
They will be expected to visit all of the schools under their watch and
drop in on classrooms to see which teachers are doing their jobs well and which
are not.
They will help principals identify problems and provide schools with
resources to fix them. The superintendents will also tell Fariña which
principals are doing their jobs properly and those who must be replaced.
“The chancellor wants to be able to hold people accountable and get
answers with a single phone call,” said an agency official who asked to remain
anonymous. “It feels like a big, new idea. But her exact plans are still
unclear.”
The new superintendents will meet with Fariña at a professional
development meeting Tuesday morning in Brooklyn.
They’ll be introduced to school staffers, parent leaders and the
Education Department leadership in the coming weeks.
Fariña is expected to announce a comprehensive program for the city’s
struggling schools soon. She said the new superintendents are a key part of
that plan.
“Change is crucial — and it has to be change moving in the right
direction,” said Fariña. “This is not about going back to the past. That’s not
going to do it in my book.”
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