GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

school traveler

The chancellor’s itinerary: 84 public school visits in 445 days

Chancellor Joel Klein went outside the walls of Tweed and into public schools 84 times in the last year, according to a list of the chancellor’s school visits released today.

Most of the schools he has visited are in Manhattan and the majority are middle and elementary schools. In the last year, he’s been to six charter schools, ten schools in the Bronx, and 25 in Brooklyn. In under one month, he went to the School of One program four times.

A DOE spokesman said that some of the chancellor’s visits were made for public events such as graduation speeches or policy announcements. Others, such as a visit to Bronx Science to meet with new teachers, were kept private.

The list includes visits to schools the chancellor sometimes went back to two or three times later in the same year. Williamsburg Preparatory and LaGuardia High School hosted him twice and he stopped by I.S. 228, a magnet middle school in Gravesend, Brooklyn four times.

But he hasn’t only gone to the city’s best, most selective schools. Twice, Klein visited Norman Thomas High School, which will either be closed, replaced with a charter school, or lose half its staff next year, and to Boys and Girls High School. Queens Vocational and Technical High School, which is one of the 11 city schools undergoing the federal government’s “transformation” model, had a visit from the chancellor last spring.

The full list of schools Klein visited last year and so far this year is below:

screen-shot-2010-10-05-at-22844-pm

screen-shot-2010-10-05-at-23249-pmscreen-shot-2010-10-05-at-23323-pm

  • http://www.classsizematters.org Leonie Haimson

    I’m really not sure why we should care about this list. Can you explain?

    Clearly he learned nothing from these visits, and they were purely for PR purposes.

  • Mustafa

    Good point Leonie, let me show you the real value here in breaking down the list to show you how infrequently Klein visited schools each month:

    August ’09- visited schools on 6 days
    Sept. ’09- visited schools on 7 days
    Oct. ’09- visited schools on 6 days
    Nov.’09- visited schools on 3 days
    Dec. ’09- No school visits
    Jan. ’10- visited schools on 1 day
    Feb. ’10- visited schools on 1 day
    Mar. ’10- visited schools on 5 days
    Apr. ’10- visited schools on 3 days
    May ’10- visited schools on 3 days
    June ’10- visited schools on 12 days
    July ’10- No school visits
    Aug. ’10- visited schools on 1 day
    Sept. ’10- visited schools on 8 days

    Pretty unacceptable don’t you think?

    Also, as an FYI, Shael Polakow-Suransky was only a teacher for 3 years. Do we know if he’s related to someone?

  • Michael M.

    I’d be more interested in how many times the Chancellor visited a CUNY remedial class, to catch up with some of his graduates.

  • sick of the pr and spin

    How do you launch a charm offensive if you have no charm and your policies are offensive?

  • http://pissedoffteeacher.blogspot.com pissedoffteacher

    He oculd also visit a credit recovery program or a boot camp to see how well he is doing.

  • Ellen

    “A DOE spokesman said all of the chancellor’s visits were made for public events such as graduation speeches or policy announcements.”
    The ultimate irony is that he can’t win for losing. If he goes to a school, it’s not for a look it’s for speeches or announcements. if he doens’t go to a school, he looks isolated from the day to day rigors of teaching, learning and administrating.
    Maybe take a hint from a past Chancellor with spin: Frank Macchiarola. Establish and office in a school and go there for a few days every month. Run the DOE from the school building for a change of view. Alas, I don’t think his security detail would like the idea. Unfortunately so many of our city’s leaders are so protected from those they lead.

  • Ellen

    And PS: PR could try setting us a photo op, policy announcement or graduation speech at a D 75 school any time they like. There are 56 schools, many of them award winners, in the district and it would be nice to see a program or school soon. ..P37 R? P 176X? P 255 Q? P 53@ P 104K. C’mon guys, let him leave NYC for the boroughs

Tips, questions, feedback?

Contact us at .

Word from Our Sponsor

Follow GothamSchools

RSS
Subscribe to the daily email digest:

Chalk It Up

Recent Comments

1 comment so far today

Archives

May 2013
M T W T F S S
« Apr  
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031