By Adam Kramer
On April 25, School Board 29 and community residents thought the protracted search for a school superintendent to lead the embattled district was about to end. But three months later, the district remains in limbo as it prepares for another school year.
School Board 29 submitted the names of two candidates to head the 27,000-student district to Schools Chancellor Harold Levy at the end of April and expected his decision with 30 days. Now, as the summer months begin to wane, the board is pushing Levy to pick one of the two candidates.
The candidates for the job are District 29 Administrator Michael Johnson, whom Levy has called one of the stars of the New York City school system, and Frances Vasquez of Pelham, N.Y., who has been a high school superintendent in the Bronx and has taught in high school.
“It normally takes 30 days for the chancellor to make a decision,” said Nathaniel Washington, president of School Board 29. “That is supposed to be the law.”
He said Levy has not even given the board a reason as to why he has taken so long to make a decision. Washington said he has called and written letters but has not received an answer on when a decision would be forthcoming.
Washington said he thought there might be two reasons for the delay: Levy was waiting until the U.S. Justice Department rules on school governance or for the end-of-year test scores, which were released July 10.
Justice has to rule on whether or not to eliminate community school boards and what will replace them. In addition, it has to rule on the proposal of giving the chancellor the right to pick a superintendent, thus bypassing the community school boards selection process.
“I think he is waiting to hear from the Justice Department and whether it will give chancellors the right to choose a superintendent,” Washington said. “It does not bode well for the people that we picked.”
People familiar with the situation said the chancellor wanted to review the test scores before making a decision.
Johnson, appointed by Levy as the district administrator in early 2000, has led the district’s 28 schools and 27,000 students in an area covering a large swath of southeast Queens. School District 29 stretches from Queens Village to Fresh Meadows and from Hollis to Rosedale and includes Cambria Heights, Rosedale, Laurelton, parts of Bellerose, Springfield Gardens and parts of Jamaica.
School District 24 in Glendale is in a similar predicament. District 24’s search for a leader has dragged on since 1999, when the newly elected school board voted not to renew Superintendent Joseph Quinn’s contract despite vocal protests from parents.
Levy selected Quinn to serve as interim acting superintendent once his contract expired two years ago. He rejected School Board’s 24 first choice this summer and now has another nomination on his desk.
“It is distressing for the board and the community,” he said. “There have been rumors the chancellor was waiting to see the year-end test scores before he would make a decision.”
Overall, Washington said District 29’s reading and math scores declined by about 2 percent. But he pointed out that the number of children in the lowest-performing Level 1 decreased and there were a large number of students in Level 2 who are only percentage points away from Level 3.
Level 1 and 2 students have not met an exam’s academic standard, while Level 3 students have passed and Level 4 students have excelled on a test. Passage rates are generally determined by combining the number of students who scored in Levels 3 and 4 on the exams.
Washington said even though a superintendent has yet to be appointed, the board has been at work on the District Comprehensive Educational Plan for the upcoming year. He said School Board 29 is planning as if Johnson will be there in September.
If Johnson is picked by Levy, there should not be any problems with the district’s educational plans, he said, as there will not be the “getting to know you” period.
The school district has been in flux since Celestine Miller was fired in February 1999 by then-Chancellor Rudy Crew for not immediately reporting that an 8-year-old boy had brought a loaded gun to a Rosedale school. She was indicted in November 2000 on bid-rigging charges involving computer sales to schools under her control.
After Miller left, District 29 had an acting interim superintendent, but Levy suspended the school board, which was reinstated after Johnson arrived on the scene in early 2000.
Reach reporter Adam Kramer by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 157.
