EPA press release on WTC cleaning hotline launch, June 2002

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

Mayor Wrests Control "Of City School System '0 LOCAL SWAY Under Tentative Deal eliminate the boards bv June 30, affect student outcomes,” said Rob­ 2003. ert Berne, the vice president for aca­ But the Senate — most of whose demic and health affairs at New members reside outside New York York University and an expert on the City — would rather preserve the Bloomberg Victory Sets school system. “Control of the local boards indefinitely while public schools is a reasonable and appropri­ hearings are held to decide how, or Up a Major Overhaul ---------- personjwbo ate form of accountability for the holds the highest elected even whether, to replace them. Any plan to abolish the boards office in the city/’ ‘ ~ wouidalsahave^^jassmusterwitlL___ After 3 Decades If die deal goes through. New York the federal Department of Justice. City will join a growing number of The department must approve any cities, including Boston, Chicago, changes to the boards — including By ABBY GOODNOUGH Cleveland and Detroit, who have their reduced role in hiring superin­ Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and made the mayor directly responsible tendents — to ensure that they do not New York State legislative leaders for the academic performance of dilute the voting power of minorities reached a tentative agreement yes­ public school children after years of in the Bronx, Manhattan and Brook­ terday that would give the mayor Jagging test scores. lyn. control of New York City’s problem- In separate announcements that Mr. Silver said that the Assembly plagued school system and strip lo­ came after five months of often tur­ and Senate education committees bulent negotiations, Mr. Bloomberg, would hold hearings starting this fall cal school boards of their last major a Republican, and Sheldon Silver, the to solicit public opinion on how to power in the most significant over­ Democratic speaker of the State As­ replace the boards. haul of the system in more than three sembly, said yesterday that they had Three Republican Senators from decades. reached an understanding to expand If the Legislature approves the plan in the next few weeks, Mr. the Board of Education from 7 to 13 X plan to restore the members and let the mayor appoint Bloomberg will have reshaped the management of the school system to an 8-member majority. school system almost something much closer to the form it One of the those appointees would took until 1969, when the State Legis­ be the schools chancellor, who would be the board’s presiding officer and to what it used to be. lature decentralized it to reduce the report directly to the mayor, carry­ power of the n^ayor and give neigh- boihoods say in how their ing out his education policies, Mr. the city — Guy J. Velella of the Bronx schools were ’ run. Those changes Silver said. and Serphin R. Maltese and Frank were borne of struggle in the late Although Mr. Silver and Mr. Padavan of Queens — have defended ’6O’s, when black and Hispanic resi­ Bloomberg both said they had re­ solved all their disagreements, Gov. the community school boards during dents. angry at the quality of their past legislative attempts to get rid of children’s education, successfully George E. Pataki warned that the Assembly and the Republican-con­ them. Those attempts failed in part agitated for neighborhood control of because many school board mem­ the schools in a dispute that pro­ trolled State Senate still had some differences to work out before he bers belonged to the same neighbor­ voked a bitter strike by teachers. hood political clubs as their repre­ In returning control of the schools could sign a bill into law. "I’m going to be working to try to sentatives in Albany. to City Hall, Mr. Bloomberg will alsc' Joseph L. Bruno, the Senate ma­ have captured a prize that eluded his bring the Assembly and the Senate together to resolve those outstanding jority leader, said yesterday that he three most recent predecessors in would dispatch Mr. Velella — a for­ City Hall. Rudolph W. Giuliani fought issues,” Mr. Pataki said during an appearance with Mr. Bloomberg in mer president of his own local school for control of the schools throughout board — and two other senators to his two terms, and described his fail­ Manhattan. “We are very close, and ure to win it as the only regret of his -we will continue to work to make City Hall tomorrow morning in an mayoralty. Mr. Giuliani, like Mr. sure that we get over the goal line.” effort to work out a three-way com­ Bloomberg, believed that the school Mr. Bloomberg won the right for promise on the remaining issues. Mr. System would continue to languish the chancellor to appoint local school superintendents directly, instead of Bruno said that he expected that a until a single person — the mayor — bill could be drafted and passed by was'faeld directly responsible. choosing among candidates pro­ posed by the city’s 32 elected local early next week. Until now, the system of 1.1 million teachers - the boards. natioir slafgest — has been run by a But it was not clear yesterday Board of Education appointed by the whether Mr. Bloomberg also won his mayor and five borough presidents. Critics charge that this has diffused campaign to abolish the local boards th^selv^i-which were crealed in N^Tirms authority, provoked near-constant infightii^ and hidden the blame for the systems’ failings. iSyOto-givecommunitiesmorepow- er ipwrto Mv® ineffective -and G. "loa fbgsiofs “The pendulum has swung from a often corrupt. Mr. Silver, of Manhat­ dysfunctional, decentralized system tan, said that he was prepared to to a system that has the pos^ential to

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