Mayor Bloomberg won the right to run New York City’s public schools yesterday – and the revved-up mayor said he hopes to have a new chancellor ready to greet kids by September.
“I would be very disappointed if we did not have it done by the first day of school,” Bloomberg said after a ceremony at PS 171 in East Harlem, where Gov. Pataki signed the school bill into law.
“But having said that, I will not be browbeaten into making a bad decision.”
Schools officials also likely will find themselves toiling in Bloomberg’s beloved “bullpens” – communal-style offices – at Tweed Courthouse by the fall.
Architects already are tinkering with the historic building’s layout to convert it into an education Mecca, although the mayor’s plan to put a school in the site will take longer, an administration source said.
A political newcomer just over a year ago, Bloomberg managed to snag a prize that eluded four mayors before him and amounts to the most sweeping change to the school system in three decades.
Pataki gathered a gaggle of PS 171 kids around him as he inked the law allowing the mayor to choose the chancellor and stripping the Board of Education of most of its power on July 1.
“Today we make the most dramatic change in how New York City schools are run in a generation,” Pataki said during an exuberant ceremony. “And today we sweep aside those bureaucratic defenders of the status quo.” Some officials hinted at the nasty battles that marked the long fight to return school control to City Hall.
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver – who had demanded the mayor maintain a certain level of school funding in the future before agreeing to the deal – said he “knows” Bloomberg will fund schools “to the minimum set out in the law.”
And teachers union head Randi Weingarten got in a thinly veiled shot at former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who once said he wanted to “blow up” the Board of Education.
“We owe [Bloomberg] a debt of gratitude for wanting to be part of the solution instead of blaming people for the failures,” Weingarten said.
Bloomberg did not offer many specifics on his vision for the school system, although he repeated his pledge that voters should toss him out in three years if there’s no improvement.
“We wanted to have the mayor accountable for the school system so that the public has a real say. We asked for it and now we’ve gotta live with it,” Bloomberg said.
The hands-off mayor said most of the decisions will be made by the new chancellor.
Bloomberg said he and his inner circle will choose a new leader after transition aide Nat Leventhal reduces the pool to a few candidates.
If the mayor chooses a new schools CEO from the business world, he may also need a state waiver from a requirement that the leader be a professional educator.
The administration and the borough presidents have said they hope to have the new 13-member education policy board in place by July.
MAYOR MIKE’S EDUCATION PROMISES
EDUCATION PROMISES
Here are the major education proposals Mayor Bloomberg unveiled last year when he was running for office:
PROPOSAL: Win control of the New York City public school system.
STATUS: Done.
PROPOSAL: Make every student wear a school uniform.
STATUS: Still supports uniforms but said he will leave the decision up to the new chancellor.
PROPOSAL: Set up a voicemail system for each student so parents can check their children’s homework, attendance and other information.
STATUS: “You may rest assured we will work on it,” Bloomberg said yesterday.
PROPOSAL: Require teachers or other school employees to visit the homes of all 1.1 million public school kids at least once a year.
STATUS: Couldn’t happen without a change to the teachers’ contract, and Bloomberg did not push it during the negotiations. Union head Randi Weingarten says the mayor now would rather see parent-teacher interaction at schools.
PROPOSAL: Set up a system under which all 80,000 teachers would be evaluated by their fellow educators every two years.
STATUS: A contractual issue the mayor did not push in this go-round. Could resurface in 2003.