By Jill Colvin
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — State Education Commissioner David Steiner has announced the team that will help him decide whether to grant Cathie Black a waiver allowing her to become the city’s next schools chancellor.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s controversial pick, the president of Hearst Magazines, needs the waiver because she has no educational experience — a requirement for the job. The mayor formally requested the waiver in a six-page letter to Steiner Wednesday night.
The advisory eight-member screening panel includes representatives from the State Education Department and several superintendents from across the state.
Dr. Susan Fuhrman, the President of Columbia University’s Teachers College, will serve as chair, the Department said in a release.
The other members of the panel are: Andres Alonso, the CEO of Baltimore’s schools; Jean-Claude Brizard, the Superintendent of the Rochester City School District; Michele Cahill vice-president for national programs and director of urban education at Carnegie Corporation of New York; Ronald F. Ferguson, a Senior Lecturer in Education and Public Policy at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the Harvard Kennedy School; Louise Mirrer, President and CEO of the New York Historical Society; Bernard Pierorazio, Superintendent of the Yonkers Public Schools; and Kenneth Slentz, the Associate Commissioner for the Office of District Services for the New York State Education Department.
Steiner will consider the panel’s recommendations, but is not bound to follow them.
