Perdido 03

Perdido 03

Friday, October 4, 2013

BREAKING NEWS: Two More Names On De Blasio's Short List For Chancellor Revealed

Gotham Schools and the Post ran speculation pieces about who Bill de Blasio might pick to be the next NYCDOE schools chancellor.

Both pieces gave proponents of various candidates the opportunity to shill for them and try and promote their "perfect candidate" for the position.

The Gotham Schools piece touted former Baltimore schools chief Andres Alonso, president of New Visions for Public Schools Bob Hughes, current NYCDOE Chief Academic Officer Shael Polakow-Suransky, Montgomery County Maryland superintendent Josh Starr and former deputy chancellor Carmen Farina as five names on de Blasio's short list.

The Post reported Alonso is being heavily considered.

Perdido Street School can reveal that two additional names can be added to the list of the five names Gotham Schools had and you can see them after the jump:


That's right - she's back! 

Everybody's favorite doyenne of Dramamine, Cathie Black, is tanned, rested, almost sober and definitely ready for round two at the NYCDOE.

Black cautiously re-emerged from rehab (for her image, of course!) earlier this year and has, according to CNBC, "joined RRE Ventures, a venture capital firm involved in several start-ups which include the websites Business Insider, Bitly, BuzzFeed and Daily Muse, where she writes a career advice column."

But sources at Harpo Productions tell Perdido Street School that Black wants another chance at running the NYC school system and has been holed up with her old boss, Oprah Winfrey, the past few weeks getting ready to relaunch herself into the education world.

"She wants this like she wants that last scotch right before last call," a source close to Ms. Winfrey told us.  "Cathie has never failed at anything before - not at USA Today, not at Hearst, not even that thing she does with the Council on Foreign Relations.  So she wants to go back and prove she can do this.  And Oprah is willing to help her - she's got a lot of money and a lot of influence in the Democratic Party.  They're banking that will have some sway with de Blasio and give Cathie another shot."

A source at Tweed Courthouse, which still has some blood stains on the floor from Ms. Black's first tenure as chancellor that the cleaning staff hasn't been able to scrub out, tells Perdido Street School that if Black thinks she can make a DOE comeback, she's higher than that night she crashed her car in the Hamptons trying to get out of a driveway.

"Look, de Blasio and the education reform community, we don't agree on much of anything, truth be told," the source said.  "But we agree on this - Cathie Black should be nowhere near children, Tweed courthouse, or a Panel for Education Policy microphone."

Perdido Street School can report that the second name on de Blasio's short list is former Gotham Schools blogger and failed NYC school teacher Ruben Brosbe:

Brosbe quit teaching in NYC after being denied tenure by the NYCDOE multiple times and did what so many other ed deform-supporting young people who can't teach do - he went to grad school in order to get a credential that would allow him to go into administration, then got himself a leadership gig at a school in the Bronx even though he was too incompetent to get tenure as a teacher.

South Bronx School reported that Brosbe's leadership gig at MS 331 did not go so well:

First off was his relationship with the senior member of the team who had been working at citizen schools for over 5 years and at our school specifically for over 2 years. That relationship quickly deteriorated when Ruben was unable to take her ideas and experiences from the past 2 years and incorporate them into his ideas for the program. She is now also leaving mid year to escape the misery that is working for Ruben Brosbe. That makes 3 out of 8 that have quit based on Brosbe's antics.

While Ruben was quite successful at ruining a school program, a source on the L train tells Perdido Street School that Ruben is aiming his sights higher than just ruining a little ol' school program.

"Ruben thinks he can ruin something much bigger and better than a middle school in the Bronx.  He sees himself ruining whole regions with his incompetence, arrogance and stupidity, maybe even whole districts.  And truth be told, the way these 20-something reformers get the big gigs these days, Ruben really thinks he take that Harvard School of Education sheepskin of his and aim really big.  So he's pretty sure he can talk himself into getting on de Blasio's short list for chancellor.  He has the ed credential, so unlike the last group of chancellors, he wouldn't need a state waiver.  Plus he managed to talk himself into a leadership gig at MS 331 even though he couldn't get tenure when he was teaching.  That shows just how good he is at bullshitting people."

The de Blasio campaign had no comment on the Gotham Schools piece or the NY Post article and would not comment on the accuracy of the additional information reported here at Perdido Street School.

De Blasio spokesman Dan Levitan did note one point to Perdido Street, however.

"We're in the middle of a mayoral race, we know the Koch Brothers are going to drop a bunch of money into this race and run ads about Bill being a Fidel-loving commie pinko terrorist, we still have the debates to worry about and don't think 2001 isn't on our minds just a little.

Does anyone really think we've given that much thought to schools chancellor just yet?"

2 comments:

  1. The next school's chancellor will be Bill Thompson, that is the deal made at 52 Bdwy when Thompson agreed to leave the race.

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    1. Sounds about right. You can put nothing past Mike;s minions over there.

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