Richard Carranza, the New York City schools chancellor who ignited fiery conversations about race and segregation in education and oversaw the seismic shift to remote learning throughout the coronavirus pandemic, will step down March 15 after a three-year tenure, Mayor de Blasio announced Friday.
He will be replaced by Meisha Porter, who currently serves as executive superintendent for the Bronx. Porter will become the first Black woman chancellor of the nation’s largest public school system.
Carranza’s departure will take effect a year to the day after the hectic Sunday last March when officials shuttered city school buildings in an unprecedented response to the growing threat of COVID-19
A year later, roughly 250,000 of the city’s nearly million public school students are attending in-person classes.
City officials say Carranza is stepping aside by his own accord, and doesn’t have a new position lined up. The schools chief has suffered a brutal personal toll from the coronavirus, losing multiple family members to the illness, he’s said on multiple occasions in recent months. CONTINUE READING: Richard Carranza resigns, Meisha Porter to be new NYC schools head - New York Daily News