Meisha R. Porter became New York City’s schools chancellor in March, charged with reopening the nation’s largest school district, serving nearly one million students, during the pandemic.Before becoming chancellor, she served as executive superintendent for the Bronx, a school superintendent, a principal, an assistant principal and a teacher. She was also a public school student herself, graduating from Queens Technical High School as one of its first female plumbing majors. Her daughter is a public high school student at Frederick Douglass Academy in Harlem.Ms. Porter, 48, who was the city’s first Black female schools chief, led the push to bring high school students back into classrooms, launch summer programs and ensure that all students could safely return to school in September.She is set to become the president and chief executive officer of the Bronx Community Foundation, which is dedicated to improving equity in the borough, after Mayor Bill de Blasio leaves office.Her departure as chancellor comes as coronavirus cases surge in New York City, fueled largely by the highly contagious Omicron variant. Cases have increased 618 percent in the past two weeks, according to The New York Times’s tracker. Hospitalizations have increased 73 percent during the same time period.Mr. de Blasio and Mayor-elect Eric Adams are set on avoiding a return to remote learning after the holiday break. They announced a new policy this week that aims to keep schools open by increasing the testing of students and staff.David C. Banks, a longtime New York City educator who created a network of public all-boys schools, will become schools chancellor in the Adams administration.Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Time in Office
s Mayor Bill de Blasio prepares to leave office, we look back at his performance on some key issues.InequalityWhen Mr. de Blasio first ran for mayor in 2013, he vowed to reduce inequities across the city. These numbers show that the results have been mixed.HomelessnessFacing a homeless crisis, de Blasio promised to revamp the city’s shelter system. The city relied on an infamous building owner to achieve that goal.Safe StreetsAs traffic deaths surged this year to their highest level in nearly a decade, the mayor came under fire for not moving aggressively enough on the issue.Ms. Porter reflected on her tenure in two interviews with The New York Times. The conversations have been condensed and edited.Could you walk me through from March to now — What was on your to-do list, and what was your strategy for reopening schools?When I first walked into this role, I said to the team that we had three priorities. It was to open, open, open. To open our high schools, to open a summer program like no other and to reopen our classrooms in September. Watching students across the city grapple through the pandemic, I knew that one of the most important things that we could do was to ensure that we were positioned to safely reopen.What made you so sure that reopening was the right thing to do?My daughter was in her first year of high school when the pandemic hit. If that had been when I was in high school, I would not have had the device. I would not have had the space to learn privately. I grew up with a house full. It would have been really hard for me to grapple with algebra remotely as a ninth grader. And I knew that was true for many, many students and families. There’s so many Wi-Fi deserts in the Bronx and across New York City in our neediest communities.Image
Ms. Porter said the days she visited schools were her favorite. “The best part of this job is getting to see the impact of what we’ve put in place in action,” she said.Credit...Celeste Sloman for The New York TimesAnd then I watched my daughter, who was super high-performing, getBy: Lola Fadulu
Title: Meisha Porter Had 3 Goals as Schools Chief: ‘Open. Open. Open.’
Sourced From: www.nytimes.com/2021/12/31/nyregion/meisha-porter-nyc-schools-covid.html
Published Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2021 08:00:13 +0000
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