ED. BOSS JUMPS GUN ON FIRINGS
Backlash forces Banks to let targeted school superintendents publicly argue to keep jobs
City school superintendents handed their pink slips last week as part of a citywide administrative shakeup will get another shot at keeping their jobs following community outrage over several of the firings, Schools Chancellor David Banks announced Monday.
Banks asked all 45 sitting superintendents to reapply for their positions and opened the role to other applicants as part of a major bureaucratic reshuffling.
Last week, Department of Education officials began notifying contenders whether they’d made it through to the next stage of the interview process, where finalists for each position will participate in a public town hall with parents and community members.
Some sitting superintendents who reapplied for their positions — including a beloved schools leader in Queens’ District 30 — were told that they didn’t make the cut and would have to leave their posts by June 30, a decision that outraged some parents and elected officials who said they should at least get a chance to formally participate in a decision about whether to retain experienced sitting superintendents.
In response to the uproar, the Education Department reversed course Monday, allowing all incumbent superintendents who reapplied to advance to the town hall stage.
“After listening to community feedback we are inviting all incumbent superintendents to be interviewed as part of the community process,” Banks said in a statement. “The central pillar of this administration is parent and community engagement, and we’ve worked with CEC and Presidents’ Council members in creating a historically inclusive hiring process.
“When I make the final determination of who will best serve all students in each district, that decision will combine the passionate feedback of parents and community members and each candidate’s ability to articulate a comprehensive vision for the future,” he added.
It wasn’t immediately clear how many of the 45 sitting district superintendents reapplied for their positions or how many were notified last week that they didn’t make the cut. Education officials said about 130 candidates, in addition to the sitting superintendents, participated in a first-round interview with Deputy Chancellor Desmond Blackburn. Two or three candidates from each district had advanced to the town halls.
Outrage over the early terminations was particularly fierce in Queens’ District 30,
where parents and elected officials argued that 40-year Education Department veteran Philip Composto, who has led the district for years and spearheaded a popular initiative to set up kindergarten students with college savings accounts, shouldn’t be axed at all — and especially not before parents and community members got a chance to give their input.
“Our community is most distressed at the approach taken by your administration, which does not even appear to be giving fair consideration to Dr. Composto or the community he works with,” wrote state Sen. Michael Gianaris (D-Queens), Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani (D-Queens) and City Councilwoman Tiffany Caban (D-Queens), in a joint letter to Mayor Adams and Banks last week.
The superintendent shakeup — which will also expand the responsibilities associated with the role — is part of Banks’ efforts to reshape the vast bureaucracy underpinning the nation’s largest school system.
The town halls are scheduled to begin this Thursday and run through next week after delays due to difficulty finding language interpreters, according to DOE communications reviewed by the Daily News.