NEW YORK CITY (WABC) New York City Schools Chancellor Meisha Porter started her first day on the job in Red Hook, Brooklyn at PS 15, The Patrick Day School.
Fifth-grade students Annabri McCloud and Maliyah Bell served as docents and tour guides for the new chancellor. Strung across the wall was a banner with Chancellor Porter s name written in glittery red letters, reading Welcome Chancellor Porter, dream it, believe it, achieve it.
Chancellor Porter thanked the employees at the school for their work during the pandemic.
The fifth-grade tour guides presented Porter with two gifts to mark her first day, and the historic first appointment of a Black woman as chancellor.
As Porter begins her new position, the city looks to move forward from a pandemic that ravaged so many lives and left tens of thousands of families struggling with hard decisions about remote vs in-person learning. High school students return in person to their classrooms in a week for the first time since mid-November; middle schoolers returned last month, while elementary and special education students had been back in-person since early December.
Nearly 300,000 students in grades 9-12 opted to continue to learn remotely.
Porter signs on at a particularly challenging time in the Department of Education s history. The mayor and the city are currently facing a lawsuit that alleged that the school system s policies have contributed to segregation and racism.
Meisha Porter takes over as New York City s new schools chancellor today abc7ny.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from abc7ny.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Photo Courtesy of Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office
“As a lifelong New Yorker, a product of our City’s public schools, and a career educator, it is the honor of my lifetime to serve as Chancellor,” said Incoming Schools Chancellor Meisha Porter.
By Michael V. Cusenza
Mayor Bill de Blasio on Friday appointed Meisha Porter a borough native, City public school graduate, and 20-year veteran who has led at every level in the system the next chancellor of New York City public schools, and the first Black woman to serve in the role.
After three years at the helm, Richard Carranza will begin transitioning out of the role of chancellor. Porter will begin as chancellor on March 15.
3 out of 4 of the city’s students are considered economically disadvantaged (New York City Office of the Mayor/AP; iStock; Lily illustration) Anne Branigin
Mar. 3, 2021
Rasheedah Harris knows how easy it can be for students and their families to be overlooked in New York City schools. As a student, she says she learned early on that only the loudest voices are heard.
Years later, she says she felt the same way when her own daughter was a student in New York.
Then she met Meisha Ross Porter, a Bronx executive superintendent who also grew up in the public school system.