Parents, Community Leaders React To Schools Chancellor Compromise

Area residents contacted by Patch on Sunday reacted mostly favorably to a recent deal clearing the way for Mayor Michael Bloomberg's pick for schools chancellor.

Cathleen Black, a former media executive with no background in education, received a waiver from State Education Commissioner David Steiner on Friday. In exchange for the nod, the Bloomberg administration agreed to hire a veteran educator as Black's second-in-command.

"I'm just glad the uncertainty is over," said Irene Yoo, a mother of two boys at J.H.S. 67 in Little Neck. "It's time to move on."

Yoo, like many other parents and some elected officials, said she was "irked" by the Black's lack of classroom experience. However, the appointment of career educator Shael Polakow-Suransky as chief academic officer seemed to allay most of her concerns.

"I think he will act as a counterweight to the mayor," she said.

A vocal critic of what he called a "rush to judgment" among some parents and elected officials against Black, Glen Oaks Village president Bob Friedrich reacted positively to news of the waiver's approval.

"The school system is huge," Friedrich said. "We need someone who is independent of the unions — a manager."

Friedrich pointed to looming negotiations between the city Department of Education and the United Federation of Teachers as his primary reason for backing Black.

"The chancellor's number one priority needs to be the children," he said. "It's better to have an outsider, someone without ties to the teachers, at the top."

However, opposition to the mayor's school policy is likely to continue, even as Black prepares to take over the city Department of Education from current chancellor Joel Klein.

"The compromise is a joke. Black is simply not qualified for a waiver," said Rob Caloras, president of the Community Education District Council 26, which covers Little Neck. "She can have 100 advisors. It doesn't mean she has to listen to them."

The deal allowing Black to assume the schools chancellor's post came only a few days after an eight-member state education panel voted to recommend denying the former Hearst Corp. executive's request for a waiver.

The reversal, a rare rebuke of the Bloomberg administration's education policy,  of the city's schools system.