New York City Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza Stepping Down
CBS New York 2/27/2021 Syndicated Local – CBS New York
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza suddenly announced Friday that he will step down, the latest top commissioner to flee the lame duck de Blasio administration in the middle of the pandemic.
The torch is being passed to a homegrown product of New York City schools – who becomes the city’s first African-American woman chancellor.
As CBS2’s political reporter Marcia Kramer reports, when Mayor Bill de Blasio went to the reopening of a Bronx middle school Thursday, he had a secret: Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza was calling it quits, and a woman wearing a blue blazer who was with him, Meisha Ross Porter, was his replacement.
arrow Meisha Porter Department of Education handout
Meisha Porter’s rise as the next New York City Schools Chancellor is being praised by advocates and lawmakers who see the veteran educator, herself a product of local schools with 20 years of experience at the Department of Education, as an on-the-ground leader ready to reopen the nation’s largest school system still reeling from the pandemic.
With just 10 months before the start of a new mayoral administration, Porter inherits a system in which the pandemic inflamed educational inequities, highlighted by remote learningdifficulties ranging from lack of technological equipment to connectivity issues to disengagement. She’ll have to grapple with school desegregation issues that have dogged Mayor Bill de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza for years, in a sprawling 960,000-student system whose enrollment is 41% Latino, 26% Black, 16% Asian and 15% white.
Carranza actually drafted a resignation letter earlier this month but did not resign.
It is the second high-profile resignation that was apparently the culmination of a long-standing dispute with the mayor over the direction of the agency.
Just last August, Health Commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot, left the administration, in the middle of a pandemic. Richard Carranza was a real partner in our efforts to open school safely. Too often he had to fight behind the scenes to keep the needs of students, staff and their families ahead of politics. We wish him well. He will be missed, UFT President Michael Mulgrew said in a statement.
NEW YORK CITY (WABC) New York City Schools will soon have a new chancellor at the helm.
Current Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza announced he would be stepping down from the post on Friday during Mayor Bill de Blasio s daily press conference.
The Department of Education, and the mayor, announced Carranza will be replaced by Bronx Executive Superintendent Meisha Porter.
Porter will take over the job starting on March 15.
She is a New York City public school graduate, a 20-year veteran employee, who has led at every level in the system. Porter will be the first Black woman to serve in the role.
Meisha Porter (Twitter)
“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 Porter in a statement. “Mayor de Blasio and Chancellor Carranza have laid an incredible foundation for me and I am ready to hit the ground running and lead New York City schools to a full recovery.”
After three years leading @NYCschools, @DOEChancellor Richard Carranza will be stepping down as Chancellor in March. @MeishaPorter, a 20-year veteran of New York City public schools, and currently Bronx Executive Superintendent, will become the next Chancellor. https://t.co/ycf7WUK3Ev NYC Public Schools (@NYCSchools) February 26, 2021