City Schools Chancellor to Step Down In 2018

After four years as schools chancellor under Mayor Bill de Blasio, Carmen Fariña is expected to announce Thursday that she is stepping down in the new year. Her retirement caps a career spanning at least 50 years as an educator and administrator in the New York City public schools.

According to Politico, she will retire from the city's Department of Education possibly before the school year ends in June.

Fariña often cited her classroom experience and years working as a principal and superintendent when she explained her priorities and programs. Over the past four years, these priorities included expanding dual language programs; a focus on supporting middle school grades; adding Advanced Placement courses in schools with few or none; and revamping school "report cards" by scrapping the A-F letter grades used by the administration of Mayor Michael Bloomberg.  

Under Fariña's watch, the Department of Education began offering full-day pre-kindergarten programs citywide, a priority of City Hall, and just this year began expanding preschool programs for 3-year-olds. 

As a long-time educator, she found an ally in the teacher's union and successfully helped the city negotiate a new contract. She received wide support from parent leaders across the city's Community Education Councils, and convened regular monthly meetings with them at Tweed, the Department of Education headquarters. But many of these parents and other advocates still criticized her handling of long-standing issues, such as school overcrowding, class size and her approach to tackling segregation in the schools. 

Fariña is the daughter of Spanish immigrants and was herself an English language learner in school, a tidbit of her background she often shared. She taught at P.S. 29 in Cobble Hill, and later served as principal of P.S. 6 in Manhattan. She went on to become a superintendent and deputy chancellor.

She was already retired in 2013 when she was pressed into service by de Blasio.