When Department of Education officials began considering what the system would look like if mayoral control expired, they envisioned anarchy. (At least when talking to the press.) An internal memo released to reporters described a complete breakdown of the power structure, such that no one would have the legal authority to hire or fire teachers.

That concern appears to have been cast aside. In the days following the law’s expiration, the DOE has tried to make as few changes as possible to the school governance system.

The issue at the heart of the confusion is the legal status of community superintendents.

“Without a community superintendent, schools may be unable to fill teaching and other vacancies or to fire employees who commit crimes and other misconduct,” said the memo circulated last week.

Today, the DOE maintains that superintendents do legally hold their jobs. It is even claiming that new ones can be hired. “We believe that we have the authority to appoint superintendents and we will continue to do so,” chancellor Joel Klein told reporters today.

The first test of this claim arrived today, as Klein vacated one of the superintendent seats by appointing Dov Rokeach, who led District 8 in the Bronx, as the top deputy to a newly appointed Chief Achievement Officer for Special Education and English Language Learners. Rokeach’s promotion means that the chancellor will have to appoint a replacement superintendent.

Klein’s authority to appoint a superintendent is legally ambiguous to say the least. The DOE memo argued that without school boards, the city’s superintendents could not obtain legal contracts. The state education law now in effect also declares that superintendents can only sign a contract with school boards — which do not exist, either.

Another issue is teacher hiring. DOE spokesman Melody Meyer said today that the DOE would follow the same procedures for hiring that it carried out under mayoral control.

The power to hire and fire teachers falls with superintendents. With their contracts now in question, hiring decisions could be vulnerable to a court challenge.

Yet the DOE may be safe from lawsuits, at least for the summer. The likelihood of anyone contesting a hiring is minimal. Firings are a different story, but state law prevents tenured teachers from being fired over the summer. That means the city could be safe — provided the Senate passes new legislation before the fall.

Klein said today that he hopes to see legislation passed in the next few days. Fielding questions about the legality of certain actions, he also told reporters that he doesn’t need to see “daily stories about how to fit a round peg into a square hole.” Sorry.

Garth Harries, a department official who is starting a new job in New Haven, Conn., on Monday, authored the recommendations following a months-long review of the city’s special education offerings conducted by

Actually implementing the plans will be left to a new top-level administrator who will be responsible for nearly a quarter of the system’s students. Laura Rodriguez, a longtime Bronx educator who currently heads one of the support organizations that principals can choose to join, will become the city’s first Chief Achievement Officer for Special Education and English Language Learners.

Rodriguez will be one of only seven people reporting directly to the chancellor, making the needs of nearly 250,000 disabled students and ELLs “visible and transparent at the cabinet level” for the first time, Klein said.

Maria Santos, the current head of the ELLs office, and whoever is appointed to replace Linda Wernikoff, until this week the city’s top special education administrator, will both report to Rodriguez, whose expertise is in supporting ELLs. Rodriguez’s top deputy, Dov Rokeach, started out as a special education teacher in 1972.

A member of the city’s special education parent advisory group said the pair’s different areas of expertise is worrisome. “That means a division of the workload: Rodriguez gets ELLs, Rokeach gets special ed,” said Ellen McHugh. “She has direct access to the chancellor, he does not.”

A department spokesman, David Cantor, said that the department is also planning to replace Wernikoff, rather than letting Rokeach or others absorb her responsibilities.

Advocates roundly decried Harries’s appointment to review special education earlier this year, saying he lacked the experience to evaluate such a complex system. They were kinder today after Harries privately briefed them on his report. A spokeswoman for a special education advocacy coalition, the ARISE Coalition, said that Harries appears to have taken what he heard during his “listening tours” to heart.

“I’m encouraged by them. It’s clear to me that he listened to everybody, including the advocacy community,” Maggie Moroff said about the recommendations. “There’s not everything I would like to see in there, but there’s a ton.”

The most important elements of the report, Moroff said, are its emphasis on parent engagement and its recognition that children should be grouped according to their needs.

Currently, schools rigidly follow recommendations from students’ educational plans, which make requirements such as having a classroom with 12 students for one teacher and one paraprofessional, or giving a student a certain number of hours of extra help with a special education teacher. Under the new framework, which Moroff called “really, really forward-thinking,” a school might group students more creatively. For instance, it could offer a class for students who all need a certain kind of reading program, Moroff suggested.

The department will collect public comment on the recommendations until Aug. 14, at which point Rodriguez will sort through the responses and then begin carrying out a plan. Some of the recommendations, such as improving the department’s special education Web site, will be relatively quick and easy, Harries said. More substantive changes, such as encouraging teachers to include special education students in general education classes, will take longer to put in place.

Moroff warned that other reports about special education have been released without ever appreciably changing the system. “It doesn’t necessarily go anywhere,” she said about Harries’s report. “If it’s taken to the next level, then he did a really good job.”

Here are the complete recommendations Harries delivered to the chancellor today:

The view outside our newsroom window. The rain sounded like hail (plague no. 7).

A screenshot from DFER's web site advertises four new branches. (The Florida branch is yet to be official, according to executive director Joe Williams.)

The lobbying group whose H.R. recommendations virtually staffed President Obama’s Education Department is spreading its “reform” tentacles.

Democrats for Education Reform now has branches in Missouri, Colorado, and Wisconsin, in addition to its hometown, New York, and the organization plans to be in 10 states by 2011, executive director Joe Williams told me earlier this week.

“We have very good conditions at the federal level right now for at least talking about reform, but we’re really talking about what at the end of the day is a local issue,” Williams said. “So the strength of any national organization like ours is really going to come down to how strong its local units are.”

The new branches are mostly self-sustaining, relying on leadership from volunteer boards and local residents already active in education. “It’s a lot of people who were doing a lot of work on reform, but there was no political arm to engage at the political level,” Williams said.

What Williams calls DFER’s “outpost” in Colorado is a case study for its plans elsewhere. Rather than generate policy ideas, the organization focuses on raising money for candidates who support its favored brand of changes to education — policies like charter schools, merit pay, and higher teaching standards. Among the Colorado officials DFER supports is Mike Johnston, who advised candidate Obama’s presidential campaign and replaced the president of Colorado’s state senate, Peter Groff, after he joined President Obama’s education department.

Williams said DFER is also focusing on school board elections in Denver, giving money to members who support its agenda. In Missouri, the goal is to support a new mayor of St. Louis who has welcomed charter school operators to the city, with support from the Walton Foundation. Other regions on the horizon include Florida, Rhode Island, and Newark, New Jersey.

The political work, especially at the school board level, offers a direct challenge to teachers unions, which spent much of the 20th century building up political operations to support friendly school board members and state and federal lawmakers in elections. Unions also act as federations, with independent branches in cities and states across the country under the umbrella of national offices.

Williams didn’t say how much money the organization has spread so far, explaining that numbers are difficult to collect because the organization mostly coordinates individual checks. In New York, the organization has directed “a few million” dollars since late 2006, he estimated.

I wrote about DFER’s work in New York as one of my first assignments for The New York Sun, focusing on the hedge-fund-heavy makeup of the group’s board of directors (which has since been lampooned):

As investors, the group’s leaders spend their days searching for hidden diamonds in the rough: businesses the market has left for dead, but a savvy investor could turn for a profit. A big inner-city school system, Mr. Tilson explained, is kind of like that — the General Motors of the education world. “I see very, very similar dynamics: very large bureaucratic organizations that have become increasingly disconnected from their customers; that are producing an inferior product and losing customers; that are heavily unionized,” he said. A successful charter school, on the other hand, is like “Toyota 20 years ago.”

Tonight’s Working Families Party forum isn’t a debate, per Mayor Bloomberg’s refusal to debate his two challengers, Democrats William Thompson Jr., the comptroller, and City Councilman Tony Avella. Instead, the candidates will each answer the same seven questions, of which one is about the city schools:

The question alludes to the recent Center for New York City Affairs report that showed that some large high schools suffered as the city opened more small schools.

The Working Families Party hasn’t yet endorsed a candidate, which Elizabeth Benjamin at the Daily News says doesn’t bode well for Thompson. (The teachers’ union is a major financial backer of WFP; in a recent gift, the union sent $20,000 to the party in February 2008.) Tonight’s forum could be a deciding factor in whom the party endorses. Watch the forum online here starting at 5:30 p.m.

The new administrator will focus on two groups of students whose performance has barely budged in recent years: students with special needs and those who are just learning English. The city’s most recent top special education official, Linda Wernikoff, retired at the end of June, and her replacement has been the source of considerable anxiety among advocates.

Also today, the education department is releasing the findings of a months-long evaluation of the city’s special education offerings. The big reveal is coming just in time: The person who headed the study, Garth Harries, is set to start a new job in New Haven on Monday.

When I last checked in on the process, just before the school governance madness entered its final surprising weeks, officials were signaling that the department would not dismantle District 75, the school district that serves the city’s most disabled students, as many advocates feared. Instead, the officials suggested, the department would work to encourage teachers from that district to share their expertise with teachers at other schools.

I’ve spoken to enough teachers to realize that change is a part of any young teacher’s career. Switching classrooms, switching grades or switching schools seems to come with the territory. Still, after two years I’ve gotten pretty comfortable teaching in a 4th grade general ed classroom. I’d hoped that whatever changes my new school will bring come September, my teaching position would remain a constant.

When hunting for a job, is this attitude too stubborn? Should I take whatever I can get? If I hadn’t been excessed, I’d likely still be facing some sort of change in teaching position next year anyway.

Every teaching position has its own challenges and benefits. The pros and cons I’m currently weighing are those of a cluster position. Cluster teachers have the benefit of focusing their lesson planning energies on fewer lessons per week. There’s loads less paperwork as well. On the other hand, classroom management can be almost elusive for cluster teachers I’ve seen. It’s hard to enforce accountability for behavior, and also difficult to maintain a classroom-home connection. As far as I can tell, it’s also hard to have the same sense of ownership of a classroom community when you’re shuffling 150 kids a day.

I’ve been given some time to think about this position, as well as a 5th grade CTT position. And while I had hoped to build on my successes as a 4th grade teacher, I have nothing but excitement for these other opportunities. If you don’t have an open mind, the NYC school system probably isn’t the right place for you. Still, while I’m more than ready to  take on new challenges, a slight part of me wonders if there’s any reason to keep trying for the job I really want.

So, there’s the excitement and relief of a new job opportunity, but some nervousness about the details. In the end, I’ll be happy as long as I’m teaching, whatever subject or setting that turns out to be. If you’ve got advice in the meantime, be sure to share it!

Ruben Brosbe just finished his second year teaching in the Bronx. He is writing about his experiences looking for a new position after being excessed this spring. He also blogs at Is Our Children Learning?

Instead, the Department of Education is planning to continue the Community Education Councils — despite the fact that they no longer legally exist. These parent councils replaced school boards in 2003 and, with the law’s expiration, have been legally stripped of their authority and responsibilities.

Chancellor Joel Klein, who was voted back into office unanimously today by the new Board of Education, sent a memo to principals today outlining his plans for the CECs. He said he is urging the CECs to continue meeting “at least until September when we hope to have more clarity.”

“If the Councils decide not to continue their work, we’ve asked them to notify us immediately,” Klein wrote.

The decision to create of a Board of Education and vote in a chancellor while leaving the rest of the power structure as it was under mayoral control has divided the system into old and new. The school system’s top half is in compliance with pre-2002 law, while its lower quarters legally don’t exist.

DOE officials say they cannot bring back school boards because the law does not allow for an election until May of 2010. Sources who have worked under the old system said in interviews that they disagree. They contend that the chancellor could appoint interim trustees to fill school board seats, or he could go to court and ask that CECs be converted into school boards.

According to the DOE’s own internal memo, without school boards, the city’s superintendents cannot obtain legal contracts. Although Klein can select and pay superintendents, under the pre-2002 school governance law, superintendents can only sign a contract with school boards.

From there, the situation only becomes more confusing because the existing superintendents will have no legal authority to hire or fire teachers.

Asked whether superintendents will have any control, DOE spokeswoman Melody Meyer said, “We’re trying to figure that out.”

Administrative assistants to the CECs will continue to be paid.

Leonie Haimson, executive director of the nonprofit group Class Size Matters and a member of the Parent Commission on School Governance, said keeping the CECs in operation was a good idea.

“At this point they’re the only legitimate voice of parents out there,” she said. “Whether they have legal status or not makes no difference to me because whatever legal status they have had in the past has been ignored.”

The CEC for District 1 has already taken matters into its own hands. CEC president Lisa Donlan said the council met this morning and passed a resolution requesting that the DOE appoint its current members to a community school board.

Klein “says he can’t appoint trustees, so that’s why we made the resolution,” Donlan said. “We’re trying to avoid that legal pitfall of inaction. Do I know if it’s illegal? No. We did this completely based on our interpretations of the situation we’re in now.”

Chances are that CECs will not be reincarnated as community school boards. “There’s no provision for that type of thing,” Meyer said.

A screenshot from the Insideschools homepage.

Mayoral control is not the only city education institution that lapsed yesterday. The Web site Insideschools.org, which for years has provided independent information about schools for parents and teachers, has dramatically scaled down its operations beginning today.

The site launched in 2002 with funding that was always set to run out now. Unfortunately, in a year when advertisers, philanthropists, and foundations alike are keeping their pocketbooks close, Insideschools hasn’t been able to raise the capital to keep going. The site’s downsizing comes at a time when both critics and supporters of the Bloomberg administration say parents need more good information about their schools. 

I worked at Insideschools for three years, from 2005 until I helped launch GothamSchools last year. Yesterday was the last day of work for many of my former colleagues and this morning, Helen Zelon, the site’s lead blogger, posted for the last time. Insideschools’ few remaining staff members and volunteers will continue to collect basic information about each school and monitor admissions news, a sometimes-herculean task in itself. But they won’t be able to visit and review schools or provide many of the services that their readers, tens of thousands of city parents, desperately seek.

Here at GothamSchools we eschew editorializing. But when it comes to getting school news to New Yorkers, we don’t mind saying more is better.

The speedy pace and the unnervingly scripted feeling of today’s Board of Education meeting is captured in this video I took, which at four minutes documents almost half of the meeting.

The video starts just as board members are voting for Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott as president. Walcott leads the rest of the meeting. After he takes over, you’ll see the group vote to elect the Department of Education’s chief lawyer, Michael Best, as its secretary and hear the resolution proposed that would make Joel Klein chancellor. We all know how that vote turned out: 7-0 in support of extending to Klein “all powers under law … that may lawfully be delegated to the chancellor.”

The board members, from left to right: Jimmy Yan, Patricia Harris, Carlo Scissura, Walcott, Edward Burke, Edward Skyler, and Fernandez. Sitting just behind the board on their left (our right) was Klein, who looked on but never said a word during the proceedings or the press conference that followed.

The full text of the resolution to rehire Klein is below:

RESOLUTION APPOINTING A CHANCELLOR, APPROVING REGULATIONS OF THE CHANCELLOR THAT REQUIRE BOARD APPROVAL TO REMAIN IN EFFECT, AND ADOPTING REGULATION ON DELEGATION OF POWERS TO THE CHANCELLOR

Resolved, that the Board appoints Joel I. Klein to serve as Chancellor, and directs the President of the Board to enter into a contract with the Chancellor on behalf of the Board on the same terms as those in the contract dated November 14, 2002, except that the Chancellor shall be removable by the Board. 

Resolved, that, in order better to discharge its policy-making and other functions and to provide for the efficient administration of the educational system, the Board hereby approves all current regulations of the Chancellor that require its approval to remain in effect, and adopts the following regulation: 

The Board hereby delegates to the Chancellor all powers under law, including but not limited to its powers under Articles 52 and 52-A of the Education Law,  that may lawfully be delegated to the Chancellor.  This delegation includes, but is not limited to, authority to award and execute contracts, without restriction as to dollar amount or purpose, pursuant to procurement policies adopted by the Chancellor prior to June 30, 2009, without further action by the Board.  

Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott, center with his head bowed, was elected president of the new Board of Education.

This piece was reported by Philissa Cramer and Anna Phillips.

The mayor’s top education aide is the new president of the Board of Education, Joel Klein remains chancellor, and Mayor Bloomberg is vowing to stay the course of his reforms to the public schools — even though mayoral control expired at midnight yesterday.

“We’re trying to continue on as though mayoral control was approved,” Bloomberg said at a City Hall press conference this afternoon.

The actions occurred at a speedy meeting of the new Board of Education, which was hastily put together early this morning during a meeting at Gracie Mansion. (Read our live-blog of the meeting here.) Seven new Board members, appointed by the city’s borough presidents and the mayor, voted unanimously to keep Klein as schools chancellor. They also elected Dennis Walcott, Bloomberg’s deputy mayor for education, as its president.

Despite the meeting’s air-tight pace and agenda (it lasted only nine minutes and allowed no public comment period), there were small signs of dissent. The appointee of the Bronx borough president, Dolores Fernandez, abstained from votes to make Walcott president and to endorse a revised version of mayoral control that passed the Assembly two weeks ago.

In an interview after the meeting, Fernandez said she abstained from voting because she was caught off-guard by the quick, seemingly pre-determined pace of the meeting. Ruben Diaz Jr., the Bronx borough president, said the meeting was scripted, but Fernandez wasn’t looped into the plan. Diaz added that he might request that the Board convene again before September 10, the date members this afternoon set for their next meeting.

The borough president of Queens, Helen Marshall, who appointed Walcott to the boad, said she disagreed with Bloomberg’s third-grade retention policy, which holds students back who don’t pass key tests, when it was first anounced. But she said, “I know how to disagree and I know how to agree.” (The last time school board members opposed the retention policy, Bloomberg voted them off the board as it was known under mayoral control, the Panel for Educational Policy.)

“If we disagree with the mayor, there isn’t a borough president here who wouldn’t stand up and do something,” Scott Stringer, the borough president of Manhattan, said.

A pack of parents and other people were not allowed to enter the Board of Education meeting, which was held at Tweed Courthouse. Officials said the room had reached capacity. One parent activist, Jane Hirschmann, protested the meeting, saying city officials were keeping parents out.

It’s not clear exactly what will happen next. The last in its hasty list of votes was a motion to adjourn the Board of Education until September 10, the start of the next school year.

Asked whether he plans to convene community school boards, as the pre-2002 school governance law requires, Bloomberg said officials have not yet decided on a plan. “How can we convene them?” he said.

One of the groups that served in the place of the community school boards under mayoral control, the Community Education Council for District 1, passed a resolution this morning saying it would make itself available to become a community school board.

2:15 p.m. Meeting adjourned.

2:11 p.m. Bloomberg: “This is so obviously right, that’s why there’s unanimity.” He also just declared that New York City offers a model for how government should work.

2:05 p.m. Ruben Diaz Jr., Bronx borough president, said he might want to convene the Board of Education before September 10. The Board earlier voted not to meet again until that date. “I’ve never had a problem with telling the chancellor what’s on my mind,” Diaz said.

That prompted Queens president Marshall to step in and announce she’s already convened a parent advisory panel. She said she dislikes Bloomberg’s third-grade retention policy. The last time school board members opposed that policy, Bloomberg voted them off the board as it was known under mayoral control, the Panel for Educational Policy.

2:03 p.m. “If we disagree with the mayor, there isn’t a borough president here who wouldn’t stand up and do something,” Scott Stringer, the borough president of Manhattan, said. Stringer’s appointee, Jimmy Yan, is a former attorney for Advocates for Children, the nonprofit that supports students with disabilities. He now serves as Stringer’s legal counsel.

2:01 p.m. Asked what he’ll do about community school boards, which are also supposed to resurrect under the pre-2002 law, Bloomberg punted. “How can we convene them?” he said. He said officials have not considered what to do about school boards yet.

1:59 p.m. “We’re trying to continue on as though mayoral control were approved,” Bloomberg said.

1:52 p.m. Bloomberg earlier thanked Helen Marshall of Queens for appointing Walcott. She smiled and laughed. Now the mayor is warning of a significant risk that the Senate will drag its feet, since the law has expired. He also declared that no chancellor ever lasted more than a year and a half under the old governance structure. That’s not true. Harold Levy, the previous chancellor, served two years; his predecessor, Rudy Crew, served for four.

1:47 p.m. Mayor Bloomberg is now flexing his foreign-language muscles, summarizing the situation en Espanol. Of his riot threats, he said, “It’s a euphemism.” Huh?

1:46 p.m. Randi Weingarten: “So I guess I should have resigned effective June 30.”

Bronx borough president Ruben Diaz Jr. offered the lone voice of (some) dissent at today’s City Hall press conference.

1:42 p.m. Brooklyn borough president Marty Markowitz fumbled, referring to the Department of Education. He then paused and said “Board of Education.” Even the DOE legally was called the Board of Education.

Bronx borough president, speaking at City Hall, was the only person to foreshadow possible disagreements inside the new Board of Education. “It doesn’t mean we’re always going to agree,” he said.

1:40 p.m. Before the mayor spoke, parent activist Jane Hirschmann stole the podium. “We want the voice of the parents to be heard,” she said. She has since been escorted from the room by City Hall staff.

1:35 p.m. Mayor Bloomberg, at a press conference at City Hall, said of the revived Board of Education, “These are Band-aids, not solutions.” He said, “The temporary school board has attempted to sidestep the worst consequences” of mayoral control’s expiration.

1:14 p.m. All board members have waived their salaries, says Brooklyn borough president Marty Markowitz. The law outlines $15,000 a year for board members and $20,000 for the board president.

1:08 p.m. Why Walcott? “He’s from Queens, he knows a lot about education,” Queens borough president Helen Marshall, who appointed Walcott, told Anna. “He’s still obligated to me, and if he crosses that line…” The borough president gave Anna a meaningful look.

Meet the new Board of Education president, Dennis Walcott. (Center)

1:06 p.m. The entire meeting lasted nine minutes, by Philissa’s count.

1:01 p.m. The Board of Education voted to endorse the Assembly’s mayoral control bill, passing a motion, 6 to 0, to support the Assembly’s version of the revised law. (Fernandez abstained.) Then it voted to adjourn until September 10.

12:58 p.m. Chancellor Joel Klein will remain in office, following a 7 to 0 vote of all Board members. Fernandez voting in favor this time.

12:57 p.m. Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott was just voted president of the new Board of Education, and Department of Education counsel Michael Best was voted secretary. The Bronx appointee, Dolores Fernandez, abstained from voting both times.

12:52 p.m. Carlo Scissura, the Brooklyn borough president’s Board of Education appointee, served on a community school board in 1999. Then he “led the district in making the transition to mayoral control” as president of District 20’s Community Education Council in 2004, a press release stated.

12:48 p.m. Meanwhile, James Merriman, executive director of the city’s charter school advocacy center, is in the room.

12:47 p.m. A Community Education Council president, for District 1 in Manhattan, is among those unable to get inside the meeting. Lisa Donlan’s CEC passed a resolution this morning asking that it transform into a community school board. The CEC also requested that its superintendent be appointed the community district superintendent under the pre-2002 rules.

A crowd of people who aren’t being let in to the Board of Education meeting. Police shut the door to the meeting right after Philissa snapped this photo, she reports.

12:44 p.m. A crowd of parents and others are waiting outside the room, unable to get in. See the photo on the right. Police shut the door to the meeting just after Philissa snapped that picture, she reports.

12:36 p.m. The meeting is in the same Tweed Courthouse room as Panel for Educational Policy meetings were held. But this time the audience gets fancy plush chairs with wheels. Used to be folding chairs. Philissa says Department of Education staffers are dressed extra-nice.

12:30 p.m. Weingarten to reporters: “The ironic part here is there were a lot of checks and balances in the Assembly bill that would have gone into effect starting today.” The checks would have specifically given superintendents more power in their districts, she said.

12:19 p.m. I just got a call from two parent activists who aren’t being let in and wanted to see if I could help. I can’t.

12:16 p.m. Famously tardy Randi Weingarten, who’s still president of the United Federation of Teachers for one more month, just walked in smiling. But no more people will be let in; staff say the room is full.

12:14 p.m. The meeting will start late. The Bronx borough president’s appointee, Delores Fernandez, is stuck in traffic. She’s the only appointee who’s indicated, via borough president Ruben Diaz Jr., that she’ll criticize mayoral control and Chancellor Joel Klein.

12:07 p.m. There will be no public comment at the board meeting. Haimson, with a laugh: “This is the real Soviet Union!”

12:02 p.m. Reporters and new Board of Education members have settled in their seats. Leonie Haimson just placed the book she and other mayoral control critics produced at every member’s seat. No one stopped her.

12:00 p.m. The room at Tweed is so packed that Department of Education employees have been asked to listen on loudspeakers outside.

No mention whatsoever of mayoral control’s expiration.

Here’s the weekly newsletter:

The media advisory I received underscores the confusion that is sure to rule today: The event is billed as an emergency meeting of the Board of Education, but the logo in the e-mail is the multi-colored one used by the Department of Education.

We know three of the seven people who will be sitting on the board when it meets: We reported yesterday that Dolores Fernandez, a former college president and critic of the mayor’s policies, is Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr’s pick. Scott Stringer of Manhattan is appointing his counsel, Jimmy Yan, on an interim basis and Brooklyn’s Marty Markowitz picked his chief of staff, Carlo Scissura, according to the New York Times. Queens Borough President Helen Marshall is announcing her pick right now and Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro will name his nominee at noon. Mayor Bloomberg hasn’t yet said who he’ll choose to fill the two seats he controls.

Update: The DOE just sent out the full line up and there are some interesting choices.

• First Deputy Mayor Patricia E. Harris (Mayoral appointee)
• Deputy Mayor for Operations Edward Skyler (Mayoral appointee)
• Dr. Dolores Fernandez (Bronx appointee)
• Carlo Scissura (Brooklyn appointee)
• Jimmy Yan (Manhattan appointee)
• Deputy Borough President Edward Burke (Staten Island appointee)
• Deputy Mayor for Education and Community Development Dennis M. Walcott (Queens appointee)

Here’s the announcement that just came from the communications office at “NYC DOE”:

"New York Skyline at Sunset," by Flickr user Ampshot

• Mayoral control no longer exists under state law. (NY1, WNYC, Daily News, Crains NY, SI Advance)
• Mayor Bloomberg is likely to keep much of his school power even under the new law. (Times)
• Bloomberg told the borough presidents to prepare for an emergency meeting today. (Post)
• Here’s a step-by-step guide of what’s likely to be next for school governance. (GothamSchools)
• And a comprehensive summary of how we got here and where we’re going. (Gotham Gazette)
• Under the mayor’s control, the schools added lots of high-paying jobs. (Times)

IN OTHER NEWS:

• The City Council wants schools to close for two Muslim holidays. (Times, GothamSchools, Daily News)
• A Queens teacher who had sex with a student at her school isn’t getting her job back. (Post)
• Some community groups say the city hasn’t done enough to curb bullying. (WNYC)
• Demand for community colleges is up, but their budgets are down. (Washington Post)
• Louisiana is introducing a less rigorous “career diploma.” (Christian Science Monitor)

We’ve published a guide to the uncharted territory of a post-mayoral control world. Here’s a summary:

1. The borough presidents and the mayor convene a new city Board of Education.
2. The Board of Education members elect a president among themselves and begin receiving salaries.
3. The Board of Education selects a chancellor.
4. The Board figures out how to make money flow.
5. Community school boards form.
6. District superintendents are appointed.

Please note this all ideally occurs before the start of summer school tomorrow morning.

The mayor’s full statement:

“I said this afternoon that today, June 30, 2009, would be a day that will tell us an awful lot about our State Senate.  Sadly, that has turned out to be entirely true.  Like millions of New Yorkers, I had hoped that when push came to shove, our Senators would muster the courage to rise above partisan gridlock and do what’s right on school governance, our sales tax, and so many other issues. Unfortunately, they did not.  The fact is, there is broad, bi-partisan support for the school governance bill, but it’s being held hostage to partisan politics. All we want is all 62 Senators to come together and take a vote.  Because the Senate refused to act like a responsible body today, come tomorrow, sadly, the lawyers take over in New York City schools.  Every decision – from personnel decisions to policy decisions – will be subject to litigation and uncertainty.  But make no mistake about it, we will not allow Albany dysfunction to padlock our school buildings or cancel the summer school sessions our kids need to get ahead.

“The Senate’s failure to act today also cost us at least $60 million in lost revenue.  That’s what it costs the NYPD to support 600 police officers for a month, or what our Department for the Aging spends to keep all 305 Senior Centers open for eight months. The $60 million the State Senate cost us today could potentially mean layoffs that would hurt families when they can least afford it, and will certainly mean cuts to services that every New Yorker needs.”