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When approving mayoral control for another two years, Albany lawmakers tweaked New York City’s governance model in an attempt to make its school board more independent from the mayor.
They called for the mayor to select a new chair of the Panel for Educational Policy to be selected from a pool narrowed by Albany officials. But as that process came to a close on Friday, little had been changed by its outcome.
Gregory Faulkner will once again be chair of the 24-member panel for the 2024-25 school year, according to an email from city officials about the pick obtained by Chalkbeat.
Faulkner was chosen by Mayor Eric Adams from among three potential chairs put forward by Albany officials. Senate and Assembly leaders, as well as the chancellor of the state’s Board of Regents, each nominated a candidate to oversee the city board, which votes on major policy proposals and contracts.
“I’ve been given an opportunity to shape things,” Faulkner told Chalkbeat. “Everyone has the same goal: to see the schools be effective.”
Faulkner said he resigned from his position as a mayoral appointee on Thursday to take on this new role, saying he takes its independence “very seriously.” His resignation leaves an opening for another mayoral appointee on the panel.
Faulkner has been calling the members of the panel individually, starting with the non-mayoral appointees, he said.
“I want them to tell me … how would they see this role enhancing what they are trying to do,” Faulkner said. “It’s going to take time. It’s going to take us building up a level of trust with each other.”
One of his top priorities, he said, is improving parent engagement. He created a committee a few months ago that will include parent leaders from across the city to focus on that.
“How do we have parents to feel more connected to the system,” he said, noting the testimony shared during the mayoral control hearings. “One of the things parents felt: They didn’t feel listened to.”
The new rules surrounding the panel’s chair came earlier this year as part of the state’s latest deal on mayoral control — extending Adams’ power over the school system by two years, while tweaking the panel to ostensibly weaken his degree of control. For more than 20 years, the city’s mayoral control system has relied on the mayor’s ability to appoint a majority of members to the panel, as well as to select a schools chancellor. Many feel that the panel is essentially a rubber stamp for the mayor’s policies.
News of the appointment might do little to instill confidence among those who have called for more oversight. Faulkner served as chair of the panel during the prior school year and was among the mayor’s first appointees to the panel in 2022. His initial selection raised some eyebrows because he had worked for a City Council member who in 2014 infamously supported Ugandan anti-gay laws while on a trip there.
“Judge me on me,” Faulkner told Chalkbeat. He cited his support for a resolution opposing a move by a Manhattan Community Education Council calling for a review of the city’s guidelines around transgender students and sports.
Faulkner, who lives in the Bronx and is retired — he worked for the City Council, he was a director of student leadership at LaGuardia Community College, and did a stint out of college as a drug prevention worker with Phoenix House — has never been a public school parent, but said that “requires me to give that extra moment of listening and sharing that experience.”
Spokespeople for the city’s Education Department and City Hall did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Faulkner was nominated by Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie. POLITICO first reported that Faulkner had been selected as chair on Friday.
Heastie’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Kaliris Salas-Ramirez, a former member of the panel who previously served as an appointee of Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, was nominated by Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, confirmed State Sen. John Liu, a Queens Democrat who chairs the Senate’s New York City education committee.
Salas-Ramirez, who served on the panel for more than two years, said that being nominated for the chair position was a “distinct honor.”
“I was excited by the possibility of truly being independent so that we could engage in this governance work with a collective vision of serving our students,” she said, echoing concerns that students, teachers, and parents don’t feel heard. “Because I am an educator, neuroscientist and parent of two children, one in early childhood and the other a teen with an IEP [individualized education program] I am deeply invested in having a system that serves our learners equitably.”
Liu said he was disappointed that the Senate’s nominee was not selected.
“However, the new process will make for better long-term governance of public schools, even if it did not result in an immediate change,” he said in a statement.
Prior to the Friday news, the state’s Education Department had confirmed to Chalkbeat that Board of Regents Chancellor Lester Young nominated a candidate, but did not specify whom Young put forward for the position.
As news of Faulkner’s appointment spread on Friday, some observers remained skeptical the change to the panel would have a notable impact.
“This makes a mockery of the opportunity to bring new perspectives to the PEP,” said David Bloomfield, a professor of education, law, and public policy at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center, in an email. “And reinforces that the legislation installing a state nominated chair was silly in the first place.”
Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org
Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.
