By Anna Gustafson
City and state officials reached an agreement that allows Cathie Black to replace schools Chancellor Joel Klein to lead the country’s largest school system, published reports said Friday.
Current Deputy Chancellor Shael Polakow-Suransky, an educator who has been a teacher and principal, will be Black’s second in command, the New York Post reported Friday evening. State Education Commissioner David Steiner said last week he would not support Black, who had been picked by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, unless an educator was enlisted to help her run the school system that has more than 1.1 million students.
State law mandates Black must receive a waiver from Steiner in order to become chancellor because she has no background in education. Steiner created an eight-member panel to advise him on Black, and six of those individuals voted against giving Black a waiver last week.
Steiner still had not made an official decision on the waiver as of Friday afternoon.
Bloomberg announced two weeks ago that he picked Black, the chairwoman of Hearst Magazines, to replace Klein, who resigned two weeks ago after eight years as chancellor.
