Cathie Black Leaves, A Major Embarrassment To Mike Bloomberg

Cathie Black out as city schools chancellor after just three months on the job

By SALLY GOLDENBERG, DAVID SEIFMAN and YOAV GONEN, NY POST
April 7, 2011
LINK

Mayor Bloomberg’s embattled, hand-picked schools chancellor, Cathie Black, is out after just 96 days on the job.

One source said Bloomberg made the decision himself and told Black of it during a meeting this morning.

"He initiated the conversation," the source said.

Having no choice, Black agreed to go, the source added.

At a news conference at City Hall this morning, Bloomberg sugar-coated the decision, saying the two had "mutually agreed" it was time for her to go.

"I take full responsibility for the fact that this did not work out," he said.

Bloomberg said, "The story had really become about her and away from the kids and that's not right."

Despite that, Bloomberg also said he "thinks [Black] has done an admirable job."

"I have nothing but respect ... for the work she has done," he added.

Black will be replaced by Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott, who has served as a cross between a chaperone and mentor to Black since the out-of-left-field announcement of her appointment was made Nov. 11.

The head of the teachers’ union sidestepped questions about his opinions of Black’s departure.

Asked what grade he’d give Black, United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew said, “She wasn’t in the class for a semester so it wouldn’t be correct for me to give her a grade.“

The former publishing executive’s brief tenure had been wracked by public gaffes, abysmal poll numbers and a steadily departing crew of top level cabinet officials.

Black, 66, who officially took over for former Schools Chancellor Joel Klein in January, has been plagued by low approval ratings over the past few months.

Earlier this week, a NY1/Marist College poll showed that just 17 percent of New Yorkers think she was doing a good job, while 61 percent would give her a failing grade.

Black's approval rating in a Quinnipiac University poll three weeks ago was a similarly abysmal 17 percent, with 49 percent wishing she'd leave.

Apparently, the sentiment was echoed by some inside the administration.

"This is very good news," said one mayoral insider. "The fallout from the Black appointment just got so untenable."

Black's brief tenure was marked by controversy from the get-go.

In January, Black, whose lack of education and government work had been controversial since her appointment, joked about using "birth control" to stem school overcrowding during a meeting with concerned Manhattan parents.

She also likened her hard choices to those of a Holocaust victim from the novel and movie "Sophie's Choice."

Black later personally apologized, but some people say she never quite rebounded from the fallout. Mayor Bloomberg defended her on that occasion.

"I think the comment she made to me and my neighborhood was the writing on the wall," said Community Board 1 chair Julie Menin.

At a meeting with students and parents in Brooklyn, Black again put her foot in her mouth.

As a chorus of boos greeted her at Brooklyn Tech HS this past February, Black mocked the crowd.

"I cannot speak if you are shouting," Black had said before mocking the crowd's response by repeating, "Ohhhhh."

Since Black took the helm of the nation's largest school system, four of the eight top deputies in place to support her have jumped ship -- include two just this week.

City Council Education Chairman Robert Jackson called Black’s sudden departure "a surprise," but he said it was "best overall for the city of New York and the children of New York City."

"I have high regards for Dennis Walcott," said Jackson. "I’ve known Dennis for over 20 years. "I know Dennis went to the public school system. I know as the deputy mayor he’s not going to lose his ground."

Black's replacement has plenty of education experience.

Walcott has worked as Deputy Mayor for Education and Community Development and was a former kindergarten teacher in Queens.

After joining the Bloomberg administration in 2002, he was the President and CEO of the New York Urban League. Walcott graduated from the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut with a Bachelor's degree and a Master of Education in 1973 and 1974, respectively, and in 1980, received his Master of Social Work from Fordham University.

Walcott, who served on the now-defunct Board of Education, said he is happy to have the job.

"I am a believer in reform and I am a believer in Mayor Bloomberg," he said.

Black this afternoon said she was happy and relieved, adding that she had gone out and bought a new pair of running shoes.

She also said she was happy to have served and praised Walcott.

Amber Sutherland contributed to this story

Goodbye, Cathie Black
Posted by Amy Davidson, April 7, 2011
LINK

There are many moments New Yorkers might focus on as they contemplate why Cathie Black, our improbable schools chancellor, is, as the Times reported, out already, just a few months after Mayor Bloomberg confused everyone by picking her. You don’t get a seventeen per cent approval rating without real effort.

But here’s my favorite, perhaps because it has to do with the particular zone my child is enrolled in, and also says something about the way the city has responded to the legacy of September 11th. As Black heard at a meeting with downtown parents (video above, via the Tribeca Tribune), the area around Ground Zero is, in many ways, doing inspiringly well: through some combination of resilience, urban stubborness, and construction-tax incentives, the population has doubled downtown. This means that the same schools that were evacuated on September 11th are now badly overcrowded. My child’s school, with many more kindergarteners than fifth graders, resembles one of those developing countries in which half the population is under the age of eighteen. Black’s answer?

Can we just have some birth control for once? It would really help us all out.

After some nervous laughter, a parent repeats that he’s talking about children who are already born. Black says, in effect, that things are tough all around—even on the Upper East side.

It is—and I don’t mean this in any flip way—it is many Sophie’s Choices.

Holocaust metaphors are rarely a good idea. The head of a public-school system using one that involves picking one child for the Nazis to send to the gas chambers—which was Sophie’s choice in the novel—is really not a good idea. I’ll be curious to see what Black does next.

Retrospective: The Cathie Black Gaffe-A-Thon

BY CELESTE KATZ, NY Daily News

From verbal gaffes to losing her temper, Cathie Black added fuel to her critics' fire soon after Mayor Bloomberg appointed her chancellor, reports our Education Team's Meredith Kolodner:

Public outrage accompanied her November appointment to replace outgoing chancellor Joel Klein, taking the form of public protests and a lawsuit to deny her the state waiver she needed to become chancellor.

But barely two weeks after her handlers released her from a month-long seclusion from public questions and interviews, she stepped into controversy.

At a meeting about massive overcrowding in lower Manhattan schools, the new chancellor, whose own children never attended public school, asked parents, "Could we just have some birth control for a while?...It would really help us."

There was more to come.

Hundreds of parents booed her at the next school policy meeting, waving condoms. Black managed to keep her cool through the meeting, but revealed her lack of familiarity with school matters by referring to long-time panel member Patrick Sullivan as "Mr. Cunningham."

At the next public meeting, where she was booed again, she let her annoyance get the best of her. She responded to the hecklers by mocking them, screwing up her face and mimicking them, "Oooooh." The clip played continuously on local television stations.

Her public appearances began to dwindle, and she was flanked wherever she did go by deputy mayor Dennis Walcott, who stepped into taking the substantial questions.

She further alienated principals, who complained she was not as responsive to emails as Klein had been, when she refused to overturn a decision to take half the money principals had saved for next year in anticipation of budget cuts.

By Monday, Cathie Black clocked in with an approval rating of 17%.

Some saw the writing on the wall early. The first deputy chancellor to jump ship - Photeine Anagnostopoulos, deputy chancellor for finance and technology - left the agency the day after Black was appointed.

Eric Nadelstern, who was essentially number two in command under Klein, resigned in January. He was followed by well-regarded veteran Santiago Taveras and wunderkind John White this week.

CATHIE BLACK TIMELINE

Nov. 9, 2010 - Schools Chancellor Joel Klein abruptly steps down, and city officials announce magazine exec Cathie Black as his surprisingly replacement. Since she lacks the proper education background, she'll require a waiver from the state Education Department.

Nov. 23, 2010 - An advisory board created by State Education Commissioner David Steiner gave a thumb's down to Black, unless a chief academic officer is appointed.

Nov. 26, 2010 - Mayor Bloomberg caves and appoints Deputy Chancellor Shael Polakow-Suransky as chief academic officer.

Nov. 29, 2010 - Steiner grants Black the necessary waiver. "I'm ready to roll up my sleeves and get going," she says.

Dec. 8, 2010 - A group of public school parents sued the state for granting Black the waiver, saying Steiner "acted unlawfully." An Albany judge affirmed Steiner's right to to make the call several weeks later.

Jan. 2, 2011 - On her first official day on the job, Black tours a school in each borough. "For me, this is a dream. It's a dream job, a dream opportunity, a chance to make a difference," she said.

Jan. 13, 2011 - Black's joke at a parent meeting about overcrowding bombed. "Could we just have some birth control for a while?" she asked.

Jan. 19, 2011 - Parents at an education policy meeting waved condoms at her in protest.

Feb. 1, 2011 - At another contentious meeting, Black lost her temper and replied "oooh" at parents who booed her.

April 4, 2011 - Deputy chancellor Santiago Taveras steps down, the third to leave during Black's brief tenure. An an NY1/Marist poll shows her approval rating is a dismal 17 %.

April 6, 2011 - Deputy chancellor John White announces he will also leave for a job heading New Orleans public schools.

April 7, 2011 - Black steps down.

State Education Commissioner Steiner next out after Cathie Black

BRENDAN SCOTT and YOAV GONEN, NY POST
Posted: 2:25 PM, April 7, 2011

ALBANY – Next out: State Education Commissioner David Steiner

Steiner, who drew fire for granting a critical waiver to let Cathie Black become city schools chief, will soon be the next education big to hit the road, state education sources told The Post this afternoon.

State Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch confirmed during a radio interview this morning rumors that the former Hunter College dean was mulling an exit less than two years after taking the state's top education job.

Tisch insisted Steiner had not yet made a decision, but sources later told The Post that Steiner's departure was imminent.

"I have heard a lot about that," Tisch told the Syracuse-based public radio station, WCNY. "I believe that the commissioner is exploring other options, but no decision has been made."

The spokesman for the State Education Department said the agency had no immediate comment.

The Regents – in one of their first acts under Tisch's leadership - voted with great fanfare in July 2009 to elect Steiner commissioner, where he oversees the state's some 700 school districts and 240,000 certified educators.

The commissioner drew criticism in November for granting a waiver that allowed Cathie Black to serve as chancellor, even though she lacked formal education experience. A state court later upheld the waiver.

Cathie Black, Shouldn't You Resign?

Comments leave chancellor Black and blue

Crain's NY Business
Schools Chancellor Cathie Black and Mayor Mike Bloomberg's announcement this week that they would devote funding to help students who flunked the recalibrated state tests was not sufficient to repair Black's image, according to experts in political communications and marketing. They said Black is in danger of being identified by two unscripted comments—her joking request for birth control to help reduce school overcrowding and a remark that budget cuts are “Sophie's choices,” a reference to a film where a mother must choose which of her children will die in a Nazi concentration camp.

“She needs a makeover,” said one consultant with experience in crisis management. “It's more than one quip that went flat. It suggests a nervousness and a lack of comfort in dealing with media scrutiny of this kind, and a bit of tone deafness for the electorate.”

The comments seemed to legitimize a criticism of Black that went beyond her lack of education credentials—namely, that she has “such a corporate mentality” and would struggle with public discourse, the expert said.

Another political consultant said, “She needs to positively distinguish herself with something, or she'll wind up on the discount rack very quickly.” Unlike her predecessor, Joel Klein, the lead prosecutor in the Microsoft anti-trust case, Black did not enter the job with her own brand because the general public was unfamiliar with her career in magazine publishing, the consultant said. Rather, she was introduced by the media as someone who is “under the Bloomberg marquee and throws good parties.”

“She was a public relations disaster from day one,” a third consultant said. “The only bright side of the birth control comment is that it distracts from the fact that she has no ties to the school system. However, it reinforces a perception that she is an out-of-touch dilettante.”

In a Crain's online poll this week asking if people had a right to be upset by Black's comments, 70% said yes.

The expected outrage over Cathie Black's comment on taking birth control to curb schools' overcrowding keeps the New York City media busy. This is good, because maybe she will take the high road and resign. Mr. Harvey (Cathie Black's husband), can't you convince her of this?

What bothers me soooo much about her appointment is that in addition to her not being an educator and not having a Masters Degree as the position requires, she seems to not really care that she is so wrong for the position. I dont see a social (and I dont mean "party") conscience.

However, she has Mike Bloomberg at her side, and the "arrogance of immunity" allows them to be as sarcastic as they want. We, the general public cannot allow this and must continue to hold her accountable for her actions.

Betsy Combier

BITTER PILL

Cathie Black and her husband Tom Harvey

Parents, educators and electeds respond to Cathie Black’s ‘birth control’ comment
by NAYABA ARINDE, Amsterdam News Editor,  January 20, 2011 12:05 AM EST
LINK

Parents, educators and elected officials gathered at the Department of Education HQ at the Tweed Building on Tuesday to denounce the birth control gaffe made by controversial Schools Chancellor Cathie Black.

Apparently, Black, a mother of two, objects to fruitful loins in the inner city. Last Thursday night, speaking at a taskforce meeting about overcrowded classes at Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s Downtown Manhattan office, Black quipped, “Could we just have some birth control for a while? It would really help us.”
To what appeared to be nervous laughter, Black compounded the faux pas by adding that concerned parents are faced with “many ‘Sophie’s choices,’” referencing a movie where a mother has to make a choice regarding handing one of her two children over to the Nazis.
“She made a joke,” declared staunch defenders like Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who aggressively ushered in the unqualified, waiver-requiring former chairwoman of Hearst Magazines into the position that heads the city’s 1,700 schools, with their 1.1 million public school students.
Running interference on Tuesday at her first press conference since the comment, Bloomberg answered 13 of 15 questions asked of his schools chancellor, and then butted in again when she was asked about her birth control remark.
“Let me say it for her. Yes, she made a joke,” Bloomberg insisted for the umpteenth time in the wake of this latest controversy. He had made the same defense after he was booed at the Rev. Al Sharpton’s Dr. Martin Luther King Day celebration at the National Action Network on Monday.
As Bloomberg and Black held Tuesday’s news conference at the Department of Education, regarding the city seeking $10 million to fund programs for students in need of additional tutoring, Bloomberg said, “She made a joke. Should she [have] made the joke? In retrospect, probably not.”

Council Member Jumaane Williams called Black’s comment “simply astounding. Given the history of government-sanctioned sterilization programs and medical experimentation on communities of color and the large numbers of students of color in the New York City school system, the statement shows an unacceptable level of insensitivity.”

While the Department of Education did not respond to an AmNews request for comment, they did issue a statement last week saying, “Chancellor Black takes the issue of overcrowding very seriously, which is why she was engaged in a discussion with lower Manhattan parents on the subject. She regrets if she left a different impression by making an off-handed joke in the course of that conversation.”

At a rally at the Tweed Building on Tuesday, Brooklyn Councilman Charles Barron wasn’t buying it, “Once again she has shown that her inexperience and the fact that she is unqualified does not bode well for the public school students of this city. Bloomberg should admit that his choice was the wrong choice, and Cathie Black should resign immediately. Her comments are blatantly ignorant and racist.”

Barron said, “Our children’s future is not to be played with. A child dies in ‘Sophie’s Choice.’ Those comments and references are no laughing matter.”

Council Member Leticia James said in a statement that “within a week of Cathie Black taking over for former Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, she has already shown her lack of experience in the field,” and called her statements “simply irresponsible.” She added, “By stating birth control is a ‘simple solution’ to overcrowding, it implies that the birth rate is the only contributor to the overcrowding in schools; not the lack of funding for public school education and the continual closure of schools, specifically in urban neighborhoods. Mass entry of students into the public school system from private and parochial schools, the extensive unemployment rate and poor economy over the past few years may also play a role in overcrowding. Other reasons could be an increase in population due to relocation from other states or countries, as well as new housing developments being built throughout the city.”

“Wealthy families are not concerned about overcrowding, so Cathy Black was obviously talking about people in the lower income bracket in a city where 85 percent of the students are Black or Latino—so she means us,” said Barron, who hosted two rallies protesting Black’s remarks. “She’s not telling rich white people to have fewer children. Are we about to hear about eugenicist William Shockley or former Education Secretary William Bennett, who said that the crime rate could be reduced by aborting ‘every Black baby in this country’? It is a slippery slope when you start talking about birth control and ‘Sophie’s Choice’ with reference to overcrowded classrooms, but ignore the real factors like funding, the lack of resources and the hijacking of public schools by charter schools, and treating New York City public schools like a for-profit business for Bloomberg and his cronies.”

“Like many New Yorkers, I cringed when I heard that Schools Chancellor Cathie Black offered a smug reply…in response to the genuine concern about the overcrowded classroom situation in our public schools,” said State Sen. Reverend Ruben Diaz. “Given her attitude, can we expect that Cathie Black will be holding parent-teacher meetings where she will advocate for parents to either stop having sex, or to embrace abortion and sterilization as a solution to school overcrowding?”

CATHIE BLACK
link
 
Who

As the president of Hearst Magazines, Cathie Black oversees a long list of titles including Cosmopolitan, Esquire, Good Housekeeping, O, Redbook, and Town & Country.

Backstory

A native of Chicago, Black moved to Manhattan after college, determined to land a job in publishing. When she was offered a sales assistant job with Condé Nast, she turned it down, taking a position at a travel magazine called Holiday instead because it paid $30 more a week. By 1972, Black had moved on to Gloria Steinem's Ms. magazine, where her success selling ads attracted the attention of Rupert Murdoch, who owned New York at the time. Murdoch lured her away from Ms. with the promise that he'd make her New York's publisher if she proved herself as associate publisher first. That she did—and in 1979 Black became the first ever female publisher of a weekly consumer magazine.

In 1983, Black left New York and took the job of president at USA Today, which had been founded a year earlier. She eventually moved up to publisher of the Gannett-owned paper and helped turn it into a household name during her eight-year tenure. Following a stint running industry trade group the Newspaper Association of America, she joined Hearst in 1995.

Of note

Dubbed "The First Lady of American Magazines" during Hearst's impressive growth spurt in the late 1990s, Black hasn't enjoyed quite as much success in recent years. The magazine industry is struggling and the ad market is challenged, and although she's had at least one big successful launch—Oprah's O—she's had more flops, including Lifetime, Shop Etc., and, perhaps most memorably, Tina Brown's Talk, produced in partnership with Harvey Weinstein and Bob Weinstein's Miramax.

Black has been busy bolstering the titles in the Hearst portfolio that are flagging, including the Joanna Coles-helmed Marie Claire and Harper's Bazaar, edited by Glenda Bailey. Black's also tried to curb costs—she cut out the $500,000 a year once spent on flowers, for example. But at least Hearst employees get to toil in nice new digs: At the end of 2006, they moved into a gleaming new office building in Midtown, a 46-story tower designed by Sir Norman Foster.

On the job

Until 2008, Black reported to Victor Ganzi, Hearst's CEO. (Ganzi has since resigned and was replaced by Frank Bennack as interim CEO.) In 2006, she tapped Ellen Levine to serve as Hearst's editorial director and help her oversee the 19 titles. Just a few of the editors who work under Black and Levine: Rosemary Ellis, the editor of Good Housekeeping; Esquire's David Granger; Glenda Bailey of Harper's Bazaar; and Pamela Fiori of Town & Country. One person Black no longer has to deal with is Atoosa Rubenstein, who left Seventeen in 2006 and was replaced by Ann Shoket.

In print

Her book Basic Black, a "memoir masquerading as a guide to career and life," was published in October 2007.

Personal

Black is married to Tom Harvey, a lawyer. They have two adopted children, Duffy and Alison, and live on Park Avenue. (Ex-Merrill Lynch CEO Stan O'Neal is a neighbor.) They have a retreat in Connecticut and also spend weekends at the exclusive Fire Island community Point O'Woods.

Bloomberg Loses His Fight To Keep Emails To Cathie Black Out Of Public View

We cant wait to see these emails!!!

Betsy

Bloomberg Loses Final Appeal to Keep Emails Secret

By Nick Pinto Thu., May 2 2013 at 3:10 PM

1 Comment

Categories: Bloomberg, Courts, Secrets

LINK

All legal avenues exahusted, Bloomberg must make public emails concerning the hiring of Cathie Black.

Mayor Bloomberg's fight to keep emails concerning the hiring Cathie Black, whose catastrophic career as school chancellor lasted all of 100 days, has finally ended, and Bloomberg has lost.

The story stretches back to 2010, when Sergio Hernandez, then a Village Voice intern, filed a Freedom of Information Law request for emails related to Black's hiring. The city first delayed, then refused. Hernandez appealed, and the city refused again. So he sued, represented pro bono by Schlam Stone & Dolan, and he won.

But the Bloomberg administration really didn't want to let those emails see the light of day; it spent upwards of $25,000 in taxpayer funds fighting the case, appealing to succesively higher courts, consistently losing every time.

Finally, today, the state's highest court declined to hear the final appeal. The city will have to abide by the initial ruling, which called the city's arguments "particularly specious" and "wholly devoid of merit," and required it to turn over the emails to Hernandez within 15 days.

A call to the New York City Law Department was not returned by the time this was posted -- we'll update when we receive their comment.

For his part, Hernandez, who now works as senior business editor for The Week and as a freelance contributor for ProPublica, says he welcomes the court's denial of Bloomberg's appeal. "This is their last stop," he said. "It's a relief to finally have it over with. I'll be curious to see what's in the emails."
He told the Voice he intends to write about what he finds, and is talking with news outlets interested in publishing what he writes.

[npinto@villagevoice.com] [@macfathom]

Go to Runnin' Scared for all our latest news coverage.

 Mayor's Office Releases Cathie Black Emails

Thursday, May 2, 2013  |  Updated 10:38 PM EDT

View Comments (

0

)

|

Email

|

Print

AP

Mayor Bloomberg calls Cathie Black "phenomenally competent" a day after she resigns as chancellor of city schools.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg's office has released emails between its staffers and former schools chancellor Cathie Black.

NBC 4 New York obtainted the emails after the state Court of Appeals rejected a motion by Bloomberg's office seeking to keep the emails private. 

The emails shed light in part on Black's campaign to get a waiver from the state education commission due to her lack of background in education.

Black and Bloomberg staffers discuss reaching out to politicians, businesswomen and other prominent figures in an effort to secure signatures for a letter of support. Caroline Kennedy, Carolyn Maloney, Gloria Steinem and Donna Hanover were some of the names compiled in a list of planned phone calls. 

Black also emails Gayle King, a close friend of Oprah Winfrey, in an effort to secure the media mogul's support. 

Read the emails here. 

The emails were requested by a journalist under the Freedom of Information Law. City lawyers contended the emails were exempt from the law.

Sergio Hernandez sued the administration after officials denied his request for emails concerning Black's hiring and brief tenure in 2011.

A judge ordered the city to release the emails. The city appealed, and an Appellate Court upheld the judge's decision.

The city had sought to appeal to the Court of Appeals. The court rejected that motion Thursday.

A spokeswoman for the city Law Department said they would comply with the order.

RELATED: 

• Schools Chief Cathie Black Steps Down
• The Brief, Blunderous Public Sector Life of Cathie Black
• Court to Hear Challenge to New Schools Chancellor

Emergency Protests in Manhattan and at Brooklyn Burough Hall; Criticism Widespread Against Black

Protests against Cathie Black's chancellorship are coming from all boroughs, even the New York State Assembly. Please take note of the fact that the Borough Presidents are 100% behind Black. The Borough Presidents are the people who appoint members to the Panel For Education Policy, and are showing how little respect they and their appointees have for all the parents, children and teachers in NYC public schools.

Betsy Combier

MEDIA ADVISORY
CITIZENS GROUP FORMS TO OPPOSE GRANTING OF WAIVER TO CATHERINE P. BLACK; PRESS CONFERENCE TOMORROW

November 13, 2010, New York, NY. A press conference will be held tomorrow, Sunday, November 14, 2010 at 1 PM, in front of the Tweed Department of Education Building at 52 Chambers Street, Manhattan, where civil rights leaders, concerned citizens, parents of public school students and current and former public school students and teachers of New York City will release their letter sent to New York State Education Commissioner David Steiner, urging him not to grant New York City’s request for a waiver for Cathleen Black to become the next Chancellor of the New York City Public Schools.

The letter, in part, states:

“Because the leader of the New York City public schools is critical to the raising of academic levels of our children, and because we believe in equal opportunity as the best process for recruiting and evaluating competitive candidates for a job that deserves excellence... we
respectfully and strongly urge you to hold the Mayor’s appointee to the standards and qualifications set out in the statute for school superintendents…

“The fact that Mayor Bloomberg did not undertake a public search in accordance with equal employment opportunity principles in itself raises significant public policy issues, as well as the specter of cronyism.”

WHAT: PRESS CONFERENCE
WHEN: Sunday, November 14, 2010----1 PM
TIME: One o’clock in the afternoon
WHERE: Tweed Education Building–52 Chambers Street
CONVENERS: Norman Siegel, Civil Rights Attorney
                          Michael Meyers, Executive Director, NY Civil Rights Coalition
                          Leonie Haimson, Executive Director, Class Size Matters

PARTICIPANTS: Leonie Haimson, Class Size Matters
                               Michael Meyers, New York Civil Rights Coalition
                               Norman Siegel, Civil Rights Attorney
                               Lavinia Forts, Staten Island Parent
                               Philip De Paolo, Brooklyn Parent

And others

For further information, please contact: Michael Meyers at 212-563-5636;
Leonie Haimson at 917-435-9329 or Norman Siegel at 347-907-0867.


EMERGENCY!!!

Join me, Chris Owens, on Monday, November 15th, 10:00 AM, at a Brooklyn Borough Hall press conference to protest the selection of another schools Chancellor with no education experience. We need parents to come out and join us. Contact me regarding the program. If you can't be there in person, please send your remarks to me at chris@owensforchange.com. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

To read my position on this matter, please click here.

Thank you!

Hon. Chris Owens
District Leader, 52nd Assembly District
Member, NY State Democratic Committee
646-450-3552
chris@owensforchange.com
http://www.owensforchange.com/

Assemblywoman Vanessa Gibson agrees:

Friday, November 12, 2010
Assemblywoman Gibson Criticizes Mayor's DOE Pick
LINK

Add Bronx Assemblywoman Vanessa Gibson to the growing list of legislators criticizing Mayor Bloomberg's appointment of Cathleen Black as the city's new Schools Chancellor.
In a letter to David M. Steiner, the commissioner of the New York State Education Department, Gibson said she "remain[s] troubled that Cathie Black would assume the role of Chancellor without neither substantial nor comprehensive educational or professional experience in teaching."

State law requires that school chiefs hold certain qualifications, including a professional certificate in educational leadership. But the law also allows the commissioner to make exceptions. Joel Klein, the outgoing chancellor, was given a waiver when he was offered the job in 2002, and Gibson doesn't want a repeat. Her letter, which was released to the press, is embedded below.

Gibson's letter
 
Tony Avella:
November 10, 2010 2:02 PM 4 Comments
Tony Avella: Deny Cathie Black A Chancellor's Waiver
By Celeste Katz
LINK

He's not yet in state Sen. Frank Padavan's seat, but Senator-elect Tony Avella is already out with a letter asking Education Commissioner David Steiner to deny Cathie Black the waiver she needs to become the next NYC schools chancellor.

Simply put, Avella agrees with those who say a professional educator -- which Black is not -- belongs in the job, not a magazine magnate who sent her own kids to an out-of-state private school.

Read for yourself:
Avella Letter to State Commissioner of Education Re Cathie Black

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2010/11/tony-avella-deny-cathie-black.html
 
Who is Cathie Black ... chairman of Hearst Magazines is Bloomberg's pick to replace Joel Klein

November 10, 2010 11:11 AM
Cathie Black - For Better Or Worse?
By Celeste Katz, Daily Politics
LINK

I got a slew of responses to Mayor Bloomberg's pick of Hearst Magazines exec Cathie Black to come in as NYC schools chancellor after Joel Klein leaves, so here's a selection of excerpts of what I heard. I'd be very interested to hear YOUR thoughts on this too... We will be having a livechat on this in a short while - stay tuned for more info!

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer: "While Cathie Black wasn’t on most people’s draft boards to become the next schools chancellor, she has been an all-star in the publishing world for years. I am glad to hear that her first order of business will be reaching out to parents, teachers, and other members of our school community, and I look forward to working with her to help improve city schools for all of our 1.1 million students."

Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz: "On behalf of Brooklyn and our borough’s more than 300,000 public school students, their parents, guardians and teachers, I wish Chancellor Klein well and look forward to working with Cathie Black as she takes the helm of the Department of Education.”

Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr: "In many ways Bronx parents and parents throughout the city have lost confidence in the Department of Education, and I am hopeful that Ms. Black will usher in a new era of collaboration and community responsiveness at the DOE while we work together to improve our public schools for the 1.1 million children who rely on them."

Brooklyn State Assemblyman Nick Perry: “A quick review of what is known about the background of Mayor Bloomberg’s announced choice, raises a lot of questions as to the direction, and the real agenda for our public education system. It is of concern that the newly appointed chancellor appears to have no significant educational background, as required by NYS Education Law. Furthermore, she was raised in a private school system, and subsequently raised her children in a private school system, it is very difficult to believe that a person who has such a strong history steeped in private education, will be able to appreciate the diverse and difficult challenge of running the NYC Public School System. Under NYS Education Law, Ms. Black, will not be able to officially assume the position without a waiver by the NYS Board of Regents and just a quick glimpse at her profile raises significant questions as to how such a waiver might be justified.”

Eva Moskowitz, Founder and CEO of Success Charter Network: “There are more high-performing public school options for parents in New York City than ever before, largely because of the climate that Chancellor Klein created for new schools that could be designed around excellent teaching and learning. Years from now, when we reach a day when all children in the city are offered the education they deserve, we will have Chancellor Klein to thank for the tough work of getting the reform ball rolling.”

Read on...
NYC Public Advocate Bill de Blasio: “I want to thank outgoing Chancellor Joel Klein for his service to our City. While I have not agreed with every decision he’s made, I sincerely respect his dedication to our children and the improvements he fostered in our schools. I also wish to extend a warm welcome to our new Schools Chancellor Cathie Black. I look forward to working with her to address the challenges still facing our education system, especially parental engagement and improving academic achievement for all students.”

Joe Williams, Democrats for Education Reform: “There is no doubt that New York City’s students have access to better schools and greater education opportunity today, than when Chancellor Klein took office 8 years ago. From his support for public charter schools, to his emphasis on accountability, Chancellor Klein has been a warrior for progressive education reforms and most importantly, an invaluable ally to our city’s children. We’re similarly excited to begin working with Chancellor Black to continue building on these important reforms and ensuring that every child in NYC gets a great education.”

City Councilman David Greenfield: “I welcome Cathie Black as the new chancellor of the Department of Education. As a member of the New York City Council’s Education Committee, I look forward to working closely with Ms. Black and hearing her vision for New York City schools. I believe that Ms. Black deserves a chance to succeed before others declare that she is a failure. I am especially gratified that she has broken the glass-ceiling of the New York City Department of Education.”

City Councilman Charles Barron (via the NYO): "My concern is not with who is stepping down, it is with who is stepping up. C'mon now. She is not an educator. How many times are we going to make this mistake? She should not be in there. This city has some great educators in the Black and Latino community. It's time to consult those educators."

Cathie Black's Emails

E-Mails From 2010 Show Rush to Get Stars to Endorse a Schools Chancellor

By MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM, NYTIMES

LINK

Cathie Black

As a groundswell of criticism threatened to capsize her appointment as New York City’s schools chancellor, Cathleen P. Black, a publishing executive with no background in education policy, was increasingly focused on one question: What would Oprah say?

Eager for Oprah Winfrey to offer a testimonial on her behalf, Ms. Black dispatched a deputy mayor to broker an endorsement through Gayle King, a mutual friend. Later, Ms. Black went as far as to suggest talking points for the television star to keep in mind when describing the would-be chancellor.

“Tremendous leadership, excellent manager, innovator, mother of two and cares about the future of all children,” Ms. Black wrote in an e-mail to Ms. Winfrey on Nov. 17, 2010. “Grace under pressure.” She ended the message: “I owe you big time.”

The exchange was revealed on Thursday after the Bloomberg administration lost a legal battle to withhold a series of e-mail exchanges between Ms. Black and city officials, which the city had fought for two years to keep private.

The messages, written in the days before and after Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg appointed Ms. Black, capture the anxious efforts within the Bloomberg administration to quell the poor public reception to her selection, as education experts and lawmakers alike questioned her readiness for the job.

Even as City Hall aides arranged for Ms. Black to introduce herself to leading public officials, she appeared focused on securing endorsements from celebrities and socialites.

At one point, Ms. Black suggested that the daughter of Donald Trump could offer kind words: “Would we want Ivanka Trump? Think she would do,” she wrote.

The terse reply suggested that Mr. Bloomberg’s team was unimpressed. “I would skip,” wrote Micah Lasher, the mayor’s legislative director at the time.

Requests for comment sent to Ms. Black and Ms. Winfrey were not answered on Thursday evening.

The Bloomberg administration hoped the endorsements could help persuade the state education commissioner to grant Ms. Black a waiver to become chancellor, which she needed because of her lack of education credentials. Ms. Black eventually received the waiver, and the job. But she resigned just 95 days into her tenure, after Mr. Bloomberg concluded that the situation could not be salvaged.

Mr. Bloomberg overruled several of his top advisers in choosing Ms. Black, then the chairwoman of Hearst Magazines, to replace Joel I. Klein as chancellor. An outcry almost immediately ensued, forcing City Hall into a frantic public relations campaign to shore up her reputation with the public.

Aides gathered a list of notable women for Ms. Black or others to call, including the writer Nora Ephron, the designer Diane von Furstenberg, and the television stars Suze Orman and Deborah Norville. Patricia E. Harris, the first deputy mayor, planned to phone the designer Donna Karan and the actress Whoopi Goldberg, according to a list included in one exchange.

“All our focus needs to be on getting allies to come out in support,” Mr. Lasher wrote in one message. “We will be fine.”

Ms. Black was particularly keen to secure the endorsement of Caroline Kennedy, who served on the board of an education group and had been forced to abandon a rocky bid for appointment to the Senate in 2009. “Obviously,” one aide wrote, “she has some sympathy for what you’re going through.”

In a note to Ms. Kennedy, Ms. Black conceded that the two had met only briefly and offered that she would “make it easy” for Ms. Kennedy to show support by simply adding her name to a letter.

But Ms. Black grew impatient: she complained to Ms. Harris after several hours had passed without a reply from Ms. Kennedy, writing, “I sent this at the crack of dawn but no response. Have you heard anything?” One minute later, Ms. Black sent another e-mail, asking Ms. Harris if she had heard from Representative Carolyn B. Maloney. “I have not and called 2x yesterday,” Ms. Black wrote.

Ms. Winfrey eventually agreed to the endorsement, describing Ms. Black as “tough as nails” and “a tremendous champion for the children of New York” in an interview featured on the front page of The Daily News.

The City Hall team could scarcely believe its luck. “I was surprised to learn that we succeeded in have Oprah knock a crime story off the cover,” Stu Loeser, the mayor’s press secretary at the time, wrote to colleagues.

The e-mails had been requested by a Village Voice reporter in 2010 under state freedom of information laws. City Hall denied the request, and the reporter sued; the New York State Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, declined on Thursday to hear the city’s appeal.

The e-mails reveal that Ms. Black was concerned even at the time about her public perception. At one point, she asked City Hall aides whether to “take another course” or “hold steady.” She added, “I am O.K., honestly.”

But in another exchange, she wondered whether she should take added steps for a party she was hosting at her Park Avenue apartment.

“With all of the hullabaloo, should we have security at our apartment?” Ms. Black asked. “Have not in the past ... but someone asked.”

Al Baker, Michael Barbaro and Javier C. Hernández contributed reporting.

Cathie Black's EMAILS

May 3, 2013, 2:32 p.m.

By BETH FERTIG

As Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s choice for Schools Chancellor, Cathie Black, came under attack in late 2010, City Hall engaged in a breathless push to rally celebrities, including Oprah Winfrey, to support the embattled nominee.

The mayor’s former chief of staff, Stu Loeser, wrote a victorious email after Winfrey eventually did speak to the Daily News. “Walking past a newsstand this afternoon, I was surprised to learn that we succeeded in have [sic] Oprah knock a crime story off the cover of the News today … Surprise!”

The details surfaced after the Bloomberg administration was forced by the state’s highest court to release a series of email exchanges that have been requested by a Village Voice intern under New York’s Freedom of Information Law. Black’s nomination was ultimately approved by the state education commissioner but she was forced out fewer than 100 days later, in April of 2011, as the negative publicity surrounding her appointment continued to swirl.

The emails between Black and various City Hall officials show how Black grew anxious when attempts to secure endorsements from Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney and Caroline Kennedy fell through.

“Is our strategy working?” Black asked then-deputy mayor Dennis Walcott and legislative aide Micah Lasher, after reading a New York Times story about her nomination on the morning of Nov. 16. “Do we have to take another course? Or hold steady?”

One email listed a spreadsheet of elected officials, plus an aide to U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan and former New York City teachers union president Randi Weingarten, with notes stating whether or not these individuals would be helpful.

“All our focus needs to be on getting allies to come out in support and on getting you prepared for a tip you as soon as possible,” Lasher said. “We will make a few more base-covering calls, but clearly the political community will do what they will do. We will be fine.”

At one point, Black suggested an endorsement from Ivanka Trump but City Hall declined to pursue it. She did win an endorsement from Gloria Steinem.

The emails were released on Thursday after City Hall lost its last attempt to keep them from going public. Two lower-level courts had ruled against the city, and the state’s highest court declined to hear an appeal.

The original request to release the emails came from Sergio Hernandez, who was an intern at the Village Voice in late 2010. When the city declined his request, he was represented by a legal clinic at Yale University and then by a Manhattan law firm working pro bono.

Hernandez, who is now a business editor at The Week, said he also filed Freedom of Information requests to figure out how much money the city spent fighting the case. He said the total was $25,000 as of the end of 2012 and he is seeking to find out how much the city has spent since then.

“I’m actually more surprised that they spent so much time and effort trying to prevent the release than by anything that’s actually in the emails,” he said.

“It’s interesting to me that not one of the people they reached out to have much to do with education or schools or anything that really would have lended credence to Cathie Black’s qualifications for the job,” he added. “It’s an interesting sort of window into the mayor and his offices thinking during this sort of fiasco.”

He also noted that there was not one direct exchange between Bloomberg and Black. See the emails below.

Michael Bloomberg Sued by Reporter Over Cathie Black Freedom of Information Requests

By Sergio Hernandez Thu., May 26 2011 at 12:34 PM

2 Comments

• LINK

Today, I am suing New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Last year, Bloomberg baffled New Yorkerswhen he appointed publishing executive Cathie Black to be the city's next schools chancellor. Black was an unpopular choice, and for months, responses to her appointment ran the gamut of ridicule, confusion, and outrage.

Black's tenure came to an abrupt end in April, when the mayor asked her to step down from the post after just three months on the job. New Yorkers who opposed her appointment were vindicated, but the question remained: What led the mayor to make such a choice?

When he first appointed Black, Bloomberg insisted he'd cast a wide net to find the right fit. "I did have a public search, and I picked the best person," he said.

But critics responded with skepticism, and the New York Times' City Room blog added a healthy dose of snark when it begged anyone who was considered for the job, or even merely heard about it, to come forward.

No one did.

At the time, I was reporting for Runnin' Scared, and in November, I filed a Freedom of Information Law request with the mayor's office to ferret out more details about the "public search" that resulted in Black's appointment. I figured the modern conveniences of e-mail meant there was a decent chance I would find a digital trail leading to Black's nomination.

So on November 19, I asked City Hall for any e-mails between the mayor's office and Black (who, at the time, was still employed at Hearst Magazines). E-mails by city officials are, after all, presumptively public records under New York's FOIL.

The mayor's office dragged its feet (which is not particularly unusual in the case of public records requests, although a spokesman told me for a separate storythat Bloomberg's office received only 38 FOIL requests last year. I guess New York City doesn't have enough lawyers or something). On January 13, a city lawyer wrote that he was denying my request.

The e-mails, he argued, were privileged, internal documents and releasing them would violate someone's (although nobody said whose) privacy. Bullshit.

I appealed the decision, and was blocked again.

By then, I'd left the Village Voice for a reporting stint with the investigative journalism nonprofit ProPublica and dropped the story until late February, when a friend of mine referred my case to the Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic at Yale Law School. In March, one of the clinic's students wrote me back, and we began working together to draft today's petition.

The case is being handled by Elizabeth Wolstein, a partner at Schlam Stone & Dolan and a former Assistant U.S. Attorney who used to supervise appellate litigation for the United States in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. The petition will be filed in Manhattan Supreme Court later this afternoon, after which the city will have 20 days to respond.

We'll keep you posted.

Sergio Hernandez is a freelance journalist in New York City. He is currently a reporter forProPublica, a Pulitzer-winning nonprofit, investigative newsroom. Previously, he was a reporting intern for the Village Voice's Runnin' Scared blog and a contributing reporter for Gawker.com.

[sergio@cerealcommas.com / @cerealcommas]

City Hall Pushed Noted Women to Sign Letter Supporting Candidate for Chancellor

By JAVIER C. HERNÁNDEZ

The idea was simple: a letter signed by some of the country’s most prominent women endorsing Cathleen P. Black, chairwoman of Hearst Magazines, to lead New York City’s schools.

But to gain the support of dozens of celebrities, authors and feminist leaders, aides to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg privately advanced an argument they had mostly shied away from in public: that some of the opposition to Ms. Black’s candidacy in 2010 was grounded in sexism.

A trove of e-mail messages released on Thursday revealed the deliberations of Mr. Bloomberg’s political maestros as they sought to salvage Ms. Black’s candidacy.

As they prepared to contact dozens of famous women, his aides planned to use several talking points, among them Ms. Black’s managerial and business accomplishments, according to the e-mails. The aides also planned to argue that there was “clearly a difference” between the ways the public treated Ms. Black, “a female publisher without educational experience,” and her predecessor, Joel I. Klein, “a male prosecutor without educational experience.”

In the end, 28 women signed the letter, including Gloria Steinem, Evelyn Lauder and Whoopi Goldberg.

“Ms. Black has played a critical role breaking through the glass ceiling — not once, not twice, but time and again,” said the letter, which was addressed to the state education commissioner at the time, David M. Steiner.

A few boldface names deemed worth calling in the e-mails were absent from the letter.

One such prospect was Caroline Kennedy, who aides to Mr. Bloomberg thought would be sympathetic because of her awkward experience trying to win appointment to a Senate seat.

Others who did not participate included Bette Midler, Diane von Furstenberg, Liz Holtzman, Anna Quindlen and Deborah Norville.

Ms. Norville said she had been approached by a friend of Ms. Black’s, and she admired Ms. Black and was a friend of hers. But she felt her participation would be inappropriate “as a member of the working press.”

Ms. Holtzman said that to the best of her memory, she was not approached. It was not clear if others refused or had not been reached; a spokesman for Ms. Midler said she had not been asked.

Some women who signed the letter said on Friday that they had no regrets, despite Ms. Black’s turbulent, 95-day tenure as chancellor.  

Ms. Steinem, who got to know Ms. Black when they both worked at Ms. magazine, described Ms. Black’s experience as chancellor as “bruising.” Ms. Steinem said she was concerned that the reaction to the e-mails, released after a protracted legal fight over whether they were part of the public record, would unfairly harm Ms. Black’s reputation.

“It seems as if Cathie got beaten up in public for answering a call to civic service after a long and hard-working career,” Ms. Steinem wrote in an e-mail. “Now she may get beaten up again by the rehashing of memos not her own.”

In an interview early in her tenure, Ms. Black dismissed suggestions that the reaction to her candidacy had been sexist. “Joel Klein had a lot of grief when he first started in this job,” she said. “I have not felt it’s been sexist at all.”

But after she resigned, she told Fortune magazine, “If I were a guy, would I have had the pounding that I did? And the worst pictures!”

The archive of messages also shined light on the political operation in City Hall; officials there declined to comment on them on Friday. There were notes on which people to call, and what City Hall thought of them.

One critic of the mayor’s educational policies, Patrick J. Sullivan, was labeled “not a team player.” John C. Liu, the city comptroller, was called an enemy of Mr. Klein. The Manhattan borough president, Scott M. Stringer, was said to be focused “on bedbugs, among other things.”  

Alain Delaquérière and Vivian Yee contributed reporting.