Chancellor Carranza's Folly

Chancellor Richard Carranza oversaw the well deserved demise of the ill-fated "Renewal Schools" program but he has replaced it with a more undeserving program called the "Academic Response Team" (ART).

The ART was formed in September to provide struggling schools with administrative supervision to help the Principal with strategies to improve student academic performance.  The DOE provided 10 million dollars for the school year.  However, for the first three months the 69, six figure salaried  person ART group never set foot into a school as the CSA objected to the surprise visits and what they saw was a wasteful allocation of money, with no tangible academic improvements.  Many principals rather had the money spent in the classrooms for more teachers and paras.

One of the Deputy "Leads" is the infamous Ben Sherman who alienated staff when he was Principal of Forest Hills High School and was forced to resign due to the publicity in the media.  Few, if any, of the 69 person staff are teachers and I suspect they are administrators who were removed from their school positions due to incompetence, discipline issues, or could not get along with school staff that caused morale problems. I wouldn't be surprised if they came form the Renewal Schools program.

Susan Edelman of the New York Post has a complete article on the ART program and is a must read on Chancellor Richard Carranza's folly..

Chancellor Carranza Keeps Selecting Perverts In His Inner Circle

Chancellor Richard Carranza selected as his Deputy Chief of staff David Hay, despite the DOE not fully vetting him.  It turns out that David Hay was arrested in Wisconsin for arraigning for a sexual tryst with a 14 year old boy.  Read the New York Post article Here.

This follows the abrupt resignation of Richard Carranza's protege, Abram Jimenez, tapped as  “senior executive director for continuous school improvement”. only two weeks into the school year.  Mr Jimenez was also not fully vetted by the DOE despite his high level position.  He was found to have alleged financial mismanagement and was forced to quit as an Assistant Principal.  Moreover, as a teacher he accepted a three year probation for inappropriate comments to students, including sexual innuendoes and threatening behavior.

Then there is Carranza appointed Bronx Executive Superintendent, Meisha Porter, who organized and raised funds from subordinates for a lavish party celebrating her birthday and August 2018 promotion by Carranza, which apparently violated the Chancellor's conflict of interest rules. It appears SCI, while notified of the lavish party, chose not to investigate.  You can read the entire story Here.  Did the Chancellor take appropriate action and fire her?  Of course not.

Finally, there is the deep seated academic fraud that exists in the DOE that the Chancellor refuses to address and even protects the perpetrators Here.

Chancellor Carranza's Cronies Grab Salary Raises As High As 35%

Chancellor Richard Carranza approved raises as high as 35% for his cronies while the teachers negotiated raises of a messily 2% this year.  How can the Chancellor justify such outrageous raises when he shortchanges school budgets by only funding 90% of their fair student funding?

Susan Edelman has an article that tells all and is a must read Here. The only question I have is that quoting Eric Nadelstern is questionable since he, as Deputy Chancellor under the infamous Joel Klein, implemented some of the more anti-teacher policies that still exist

What Chancellor Richard Carranza needs to do is eliminate the bloat at the DOE something which he has failed to do since taking charge.  In fact, he actually added an extra layer of Bureaucracy by appointing executive superintendents to oversee the 31 District superintendents.  Many of then political appointees from the Joel Klein/Carmen Farina days..

The Carranza Hypocrites

Chancellor Richard Carranza's prime objective is to integrate schools, by any means possible.  However, the Chancellor's integration policy seems not to apply to his top level cronies.  According to columnist, Susan Edelmen, of the New York Post, two of his cronies, Deputy Chancellor, Cheryl Watson-Harris and Executive Superintendent Meisha Ross-Porter got DOE zoned waivers from their majority Black and Hispanic schools to a more Asian and White schools outside their zone.

Deputy Chancellor Cheryl Watson-Harri's younger child was zoned for PS 170 an elementary school; that largely serves immigrant children. Its 1,000-student body is 24 percent white and 58 percent Asian, with 32 percent of students learning English. In contrast, PS 185’s 650-student body is 68 percent white — the kind of school Carranza would blast as “segregated.” Only 7 percent are English language learners.

Moreover, Deputy Chancellor's  Watson-Harris' older child was given an exemption to get in the highly selective IS 187 schools which is  91% Asian and White, despite not going through an academic screening committee like everyone else

Supervising Superintendent, Meisha Ross-Porter who took in a friend's child, using her connections she, Instead of enrolling the child in her zoned Mott Hall Community School — which is 90 percent Hispanic and black and 8 percent white — Porter requested a seat at MS X101, which offers advanced classes for gifted kids. Its student body is 67 percent Hispanic and black and 15 percent white.

What a bunch of hypocrites!

Should Richard Carranza Resign As Chancellor?

 



When Mayor Bill de Blasio hired Richard Carranza as Chancellor of the New York City Public Schools and I was somewhat pleased.  Hiring a well qualified outsider, with no ties to the Bloomberg era, I expected the new Chancellor to "clean house" and to some degree he has.

The problem is that Chancellor Carranza is playing racial politics, replacing White female administrators with lesser qualified minorities.  At first, I supported the Chancellor as he was pushing out Bloomberg holdovers, mostly long term White females an to a lesser degree Black females.  However, it is quite obvious that he is appointing his cronies, some without proper credentials to lead highly sensitive positions at Tweed.

His policies are so appalling that seven members of the City Council'  penned a letter to the Mayor objecting to what Chancellor Carranza is doing. Also another Cararnza aide hs been reported for alleged misconduct.

Just look at the latest selection, Abram Jimenez, who was hired for a newly created $205,416 position to improve schools.  It turned out that Mr. Jimenez had an extensive disciplinary history and was forced to resign due to mismanagement. Now it seems that Mr. Jimenez has taken some "personal leave" once the New York Post wrote an article about his disciplinary record.

While I don't think Chancellor Carranza is a racist, he appears to be playing racial politics and that is unacceptable and should resign.

Is Chancellor Richard Carranza A Racist?

Susan Edelman of the New York Post writes many insightful articles and is my favorite columnist.  However, I must disagree with her latest article which she seems to side with four White female DOE administrators who are planning to file a lawsuit that Chancellor Richard Carranza is a racist

One must look in the history of the DOE and see that many of the high level administrators were selected during the Bloomberg/Klein era.  These administrators were mostly Black and White, with very few Hispanics and Asians..   When Carmen Farina became Chancellor she failed to "clean house". and kept 80% of the Bloomberg era administrators in place.  This made sense since Carmen Farina was part of the "old gang" as a Deputy Chancellor under Chancellor Joel Klein before being pushed out by Joel Klein in favor of Eric Nadelstern.

For example she kept her close friend and incompetent Superintendent Amiee Horowitz, despite her repeated failures.  She also kept Dorita Gibson as a Deputy Chancellor, despite her sickness and couldn't perform her duties. Carmen Farina was part of the problem and not the solution to cleaning up the DOE.

If I was the Chancellor and decided to clean house, many of the people that I would ask to retire, resign, or be demoted would be the Black and White high level administrators and replace them with a more diverse talent pool.  That means that there would be less Black and White administrators and more Hispanic and Asian administrators.

Chancellor Carranza is not anti-white as the article seems to insinuate but simply a changing of the guard from the Bloomberg era administrators to what the present administration represents.

The Hypocracy Of The Chancellor And His First Deputy

Chancellor Richard Carranza has pushed for integrating schools by eliminating the screened and specialized schools, especially for the middle schools.  However, it appears that his First Deputy Chancellor, Cheryl Watson-Harris was able to get her two children into selective middle schools, despite the fact that the admissions window for the two schools had closed.

Acceding to Susan Edelman article, Ms. Watson-Harris children were enrolled late and it appears the DOE has different rules for well-connected people.  Ms. Watson-Harris being a Deputy Chancellor, was able to place her two middle school children into schools that were closed to other parents. A real double standard, common with the DOE.

Unlike most parents, the DOE gave Ms. Harris-Watson a "placement exemption request" for her two middle school children.  It just goes to prove that the Chancellor and his DOE minions have different rules for their administrators and are hypocrites.

A New Chancellor But The Same Toxic Culture Exists At The DOE

Chancellor Richard Carranza is a distinct improvement over Carmen Farina.  He seems not to target teachers and cares about the public schools.  He also wants what's best for the students.  However, just like Carmen Farina, Chancellor Carranza has failed to "clean house" at the DOE.  Sure, he made a few changes like removing the terrible Director of the adult education program and the head of the pupil transportation office.  Unfortunately, the DOE policymakers, appointed during the Bloomberg Administration are essentially in place and their "gotcha" mentally is as strong as ever.

Moreover, Chancellor Carranza has failed to eliminate school based fair student funding, fully fund the public schools, reduce class size, eliminate the DOE bloat, and resolve the ATR crisis.  While our union leadership is having a love affair with the Chancellor, for teachers, the same old Bloomberg rules continue to apply at the schools, with incompetent administrators and a hostile work environment in the classroom.

While Chancellor Carranza is a friend to our union leadership, his DOE is still the enemy when it comes to the teachers.

I'm willing to wait to the summer and see if Chancellor Carranza can change the toxic culture at the DOE but I am not holding my breath.

What Chancellor Carranza Needs To Do This Year.

Richard Carranza has made a few positive changes since taking over as Chancellor of the NYC public schools..  He has pushed out Carmen Farina's favorite , Amiee Horowitz and has removed a couple of misbehaving principals.  However, he has failed to significantly change the culture at Tweed.  Just read the NYC Public School Parents Blog and you can see how. the pro charter and education reformers still dominate Tweed.

While the Chancellor is not anti teacher like the previous five Chancellors (Levy, Klein, Black, Walcott, and Farina), he has failed to make significant changes to the DOE that is still dominated by Bloomberg era policymakers.  What does Chancellor Carranza need to do?  Let me count the ways.he can tackle the issues.

• Eliminate Fair Student Funding
• Remove the Bloomberg policymakers at Tweed. 
• Let teachers teach and control their classroom.
• Stop schools from hiring "newbies" when ATRs are available for the subject area.
• Fully fund schools.
• Reduce the administrative bloat at the DOE.
• Lower class sizes.
• Eliminate Charlotte Danielson rubric for teachers.
• Reduce paperwork.
• Hire independent investigators for teachers accused. 
• More rights for Chapter Leaders.
• Stop discriminating against veteran teachers.

Come January 1, 2020, let's see if anything changes for the better.

Chancellor Richard Carranza Has Been A Disappointment So Far.

Half the summer has passed and its time to evaluate Chancellor Richard Carranza..  Here is what I evaluated the Chancellor on:

• Cleaning out the Bloomberg era policymakers at the DOE.
• Eliminate "fair student funding".
• Resolving the ATR situation.
• Removing misbehaving and vindictive principals.
• Removing the many incompetent Superintendents.
• Reduce the administrative bloat at the DOE.
• Reduce teacher observations to two per year. 
• Eliminate the hostile classroom environment.
• Lower class sizes.

Cleaning out the Bloomberg era policymakers at the DOE:
So far Chancellor Richard Carranza has failed to do any "Spring cleaning" and the Bloomberg era policymakers remain in place.  Grade "F".

Eliminating fair student funding:
The 800 pound guerilla is fair student funding that discriminates against experienced teachers and incentivizes principals to "hire the cheapest and not the best teachers for their schools". 

Resolving the ATR situation:
Presently, the new Chancellor has done nothing to solve the ATR situation for the next school year.  Grade "F".

Removing misbehaving and vindictive principals:
Under the new Chancellor we have seen a few principals removed when their misdeeds were exposed by the newspapers.  Otherwise, little has changed,  Grade "C".

Reduce the administrative bloat at the DOE:
The new Chancellor failed to reduce the administrative bloat at the DOE.  In fact, he added a layer of bureaucracy by appointing a group of Super Superintendents that will oversee the other Superintendents and will cost 2.5 Million dollars!  Grade "F".

Reduce teacher observations to two per year.
So far Chancellor Richard Carranza has not offered to change the number of observations or the Charlotte Danielson evaluation.  Grade "F".

Eliminate the hostile classroom environment.
The new Chancellor claims he is teacher friendly but only time will tell if it translates to actions in the classroom like "let teachers have autonomy on instructing their students.   Grade "C".

Reducing class sizes:
There s no indication that Chancellor Richard Carranza will reduce class sizes the next school year.  Grade "F".

Final grade "D-".