GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

Cathie Black’s radio silence appears to be ending.

Today the chancellor appointee gave her first formal interview since Mayor Michael Bloomberg named her to the post more than three weeks ago. The appearance comes after criticism that the city has kept Black shielded from the public eye.

WABC 7 reporter Art McFarland accompanied Black on a visit to the Spruce Street School, an elementary school located at the Department of Education’s Tweed Courthouse headquarters. The DOE has already tweeted a photograph from the segment, which will air this evening.

A DOE spokeswoman did not respond to a query about whether other reporters will now have access to Ms. Black.

ABC didn’t get Black’s first sit-down. That honor goes to NBC’s “The Apprentice.” On an episode that aired two weeks ago, one contestant won a meeting with Black, but footage of the meeting wasn’t televised. Now it has been posted as a web exclusive on NBC’s site.

In the clip, Black gives business advice to the contestant, identified as Steuart, a “fledgling entrepreneur” with some failed ventures under his belt. Black shares the lessons she learned from her experience closing magazines at Hearst.

“What we learned was that in this economy, in the world today, in this changing media culture, that we have to do it with a much smaller team,” she said. “Whenever I hear about somebody starting a business, I say, ‘keep your overhead low.’”

Black was scheduled for another meeting today, with UFT President Michael Mulgrew, sources said. That meeting got postponed, though it’s not clear why.