Schools Chancellor Harold Levy was dismissed from class yesterday.
Levy rang a school bell to end his stormy 30-month tenure as the city’s top educator. “It’s liberty for me. I’m free!” he quipped.
Mayor Bloomberg’s hand-picked successor – Joel Klein – officially becomes schools boss on Monday.
“I’m leaving this bell for Joel,” Levy said. “It will help him bring order to chaos and ring in the new school year.”
Levy held a breakfast in the chancellor’s conference room at 110 Livingston St. in downtown Brooklyn, thanking staffers while serving non-alcoholic champagne.
“I knew what you all were capable of, and you rose to the occasion,” he said.
Levy appeared in good spirits, telling war stories and wearing a “6+5=13” cuff link designed by his wife.
He said he was pleased to be able to hand the reins to Klein. (Several prior chancellors were run out of town in rocky transitions.)
Levy was appointed chancellor in December of 2000 by a divided Board of Education – and over the objections of former Mayor Giuliani, who didn’t talk to him for three months.
He never gained Giuliani’s trust – until Sept. 11. Levy oversaw the safe evacuation of thousands of students from Ground Zero, which earned him plaudits.
“I’m feeling very good about my time here,” he said. “There’s a lot that got done.”
CM+NT Levy said he believed he made progress on his four top priorities: improving teaching quality, math scores, putting in place an accountability system for superintendents and managing a massive summer school program.
He boasted that 100 percent of the new teachers hired are certified, thanks in large part to the boost in pay in the new teachers’ union contract. In prior years, only about half the teachers were licensed.
CM+NT Levy said he believed he made progress on his four top priorities: improving teaching quality, math scores, putting in place an accountability system for superintendents and managing a massive summer school program.
He boasted that 100 percent of the new teachers hired are certified, thanks in large part to the boost in pay in the new teachers’ union contract. In prior years, only about half the teachers were licensed.