Board of Education meeting today for first time in 7 years

It’s all happening: The newly recreated Board of Education is meeting today at noon, inside Tweed Courthouse, the headquarters of the city schools administration. As we reported last night, convening the board is the first step to getting the new, post-mayoral control governance system up and running.

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”: