Starting To Look Like No Chancellor Announcement This Week (UPDATED - 7:28 AM)

At least if you buy what's in this NY Times article about de Blasio's chancellor search.  Carmen Farina is supposed to be the frontrunner for the position now, but she told the Times yesterday that she didn't know if she would be offered the position:

Carmen Fariña, a former deputy chancellor and the candidate who most closely matches Mr. de Blasio’s own thinking on education, was telling friends as recently as November that she was not interested in coming out of retirement and giving up her time spent helping raise her grandchildren.

But the short list of candidates now seems to include her. Recently, Mr. de Blasio called Ms. Fariña, 70, to see if she would reconsider her earlier reluctance, and she said she would, according to a longtime friend of Ms. Fariña. 

Ms. Fariña said in an interview on Tuesday that she did not know if she would be formally offered the job. But it is known, she said, “that Bill is a very persuasive person.” 

“My grandchildren are important to me,” she added. “I spent a lot of years in the system. But I will do whatever the new mayor wants me to do.”

A de Blasio spokeswoman tells the Times de Blasio takes the search seriously and is continuing to look at candidates.

Michael Mulgrew is quoted as defending the slow process and saying he expects an announcement before the end of the year.

De Blasio is making an appearance at City Tech today but people on the Twitter say that de Blasio will not announce his chancellor pick there.

The Times article does give you the sense that Farina is the choice:

In an interview last week, Dorothy E. Siegel, a former Brooklyn school board member and a longtime friend of Ms. Fariña’s, said that Ms. Fariña seemed uninterested in the position. Ms. Fariña, a Cobble Hill resident, is dedicated to helping raise her grandchildren, including the 1-year-old son of her daughter, Mia, who is a police officer. 

But Ms. Fariña still seems squarely in contention.

And on Tuesday, Ms. Siegel said that something changed after “Bill called.” 

She said she did not know what was discussed, but “apparently he changed her mind” because now “she is interested.” 

And so it goes.

I can't imagine he wouldn't announce the chancellor pick this week, but if he's not going announce today, that leaves only Thursday and Friday for the announcement.

Hard to see him announcing on Friday and having the news buried in the Saturday papers nobody reads and the pre-Christmas frenzy.

But de Blasio does have a reputation for being late to everything, so we'll just have to sit tight like it's one of those speeches he's always running late to give.

UPDATE - 7:28 AM: NY Post reports Farina could be named as early as this week:

Former top schools official Carmen Farina is ready to take the chancellor’s job, and could be appointed by Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio as early as this week, sources told The Post.

A former deputy schools chancellor, Farina, 71, had earlier said publicly that she wasn’t interested in running the nation’s largest school system.

Her denials fueled speculation that Farina might be tapped as an interim chancellor to buy de Blasio time to conduct a more thorough search.

But her newfound willingness to stay on past the end of the current school year cleared a path to a permanent appointment.

“She said [privately] she’s open to it,” a source said.