Incoming schools Chancellor Meisha Ross Porter has made it her mission to revamp jobs in a racial way as she moves up the ranks of the Department of Education – often at the expense of white and Jewish educators, critics say.
Porter once boasted about her quotas.
‘If I choose principals, teachers or leaders – after we have made the list, we look at it and count: how many women, how many colored people and why. Who we chose, and why, ”said Porter.
“I look at makeup and I literally count – and it’s OK for us to do that,” Porter told a panel in 2018 at Fordham University.
The educator, who was appointed by Mayor de Blasio to replace Richard Carranza after the chancellor abruptly announced his resignation on Friday, is accused in at least two recent lawsuits of discriminating against older, white and Jewish educators.
She is not mentioned as a plaintiff in either action, but is accused of creating a hostile environment.
Porter, the first black woman to run the country’s largest school system, rose from teacher to superintendent in Bronx District 11. Carranza promoted Porter in August 2018 as one of nine new ‘executive superintendents’, months after arriving in New York. She earned $ 209,479 last year.
“Disrupt and Dismantle” was Porter’s rally.
“I say almost every day that one of my tasks is to disrupt and break down systemic racism,” she said on the Fordham forum. “And every time I say that, I’m scared. I’m afraid it’s going to follow wrong, that people are going to quote wrong, misdirect, what that means. But I keep saying it. ‘
But some call it an excuse to force or “marginalize” certain employees – “especially older Caucasian women in leadership positions”, accuses Karen Ames, a veteran of the Bronx superintendent who was pressured and put under pressure to departure, in a case filed this month.
Ames claims in the lawsuit that her 30-year career, which includes successes such as raising math scores in struggling schools, has been derailed by Carranza’s “fair” agenda.
Porter once “humiliated” Ames during a discussion on rezoning schools in the Throgs Neck area to bring about racial equity. Porter told Ames she could not participate because she was white, the suit said.
According to the case, Porter along with a new superintendent, Erika Tobia, ‘took negative action against Jewish members of the District 8 team’, including Nicky Rosen, who now works as director of continuous improvement in District 7.
“Nicky Rosen transferred to District 7 against her will,” the case claims.
A muted Jewish administrator said Porter was “unprofessional and unsolicited.” He said she did not communicate with him, and that his complaint to the DOE’s office was ignored for equal opportunities.
Porter was known for asking superintendents at the end of the meetings to cross their arms in a “Wakanda Forever” greeting from the movie “Black Panther.”
Rafaela Espinal, head of Community District 12 in the Bronx, said she was fired without explanation after repeatedly refusing to say “Wakanda Forever” greetings, according to a lawsuit. While Espinal and many others see it as a “black power” gesture, DOE officials maintain that the salute means “Bronx Strong”.
Espinal, a Dominican-American who identifies himself as Afro-Latina, said Porter chastised her for not being ‘black enough’.
The two most recent lawsuits follow two other lawsuits in which four female executives accused the Carranza government of downgrading them or largely expressing them because they were white.
Like Carranza, Porter’s focus on race is criticized as divisive and tangible for the central mission to improve the education offered by NYC schools.
‘I challenge you to think about what [diversity] means if you leave work, ”she said on the Fordham forum. ‘Who your children are dealing with. Who comes to eat at your house. With whom you have dinner. Who are you talking to. Because it changes the narrative and experience. If we change what happens in the dynamics of our own family and our own homes, dan we change the world. ”
Wai Wah Chin, founding president of the Chinese American Citizens Alliance of Greater New York, which advocates merit-based policies, retains verdict on Porter.
“Is she really for all the students, or will she paint according to color?” Vra Chin. “We hope that the toxic anti-Asian racism that Carranza brought with him has disappeared and that his replacement is better.”
Chin added: ‘Her primary job is to educate all the children. All the others are secondary. ”
While Porter was a member of de Blasio’s School Diversity Advisory Group, which faced gifted and talented programs and schools selected for the best students, in 2017 she pulled strings around a child she took in from a friend. to get a better school.
Instead of enrolling the child for her zoned elementary school, which was 90 percent Spanish and black and 8 percent white, Porter asked to have a seat at another school that had 67 percent Spanish and black and 15 percent white. was – and offered advanced classes for gifted children.
“Higher press introduced her,” said a spokesman for the DOE. “They knew who she was.”
A $ 45,000 gala celebrating Porter’s birthday and promotion to executive superintendent is still the subject of an open inquiry by the Special Commissioner for Urban Schools.
Employees raised $ 111 per person to attend the lavish event at Villa Barone Manor, a Bronx Catering hall, featuring a buffet, DJ and an open-air bar. With a tiara and glittering white dress, Porter made a beautiful entrance in a glass elevator that ascended to the ballroom – a blossom that cost $ 500 extra.
According to the DOE rules, the celebration of the promotion of an employee must be ‘kept in school’ and ‘it must have a small financial cost’.
SCI is accused of sitting in the case to protect the Blasio and Carranza.
“It’s no surprise that the NY Post is scrambling to find reason to break down the first black woman to become chancellor,” said DOE spokeswoman Danielle Filson. ‘Me. Porter is respected by colleagues across the city and qualified for the job – it’s ridiculous to rush up and she’s not a defendant in the case. ”