Chancellor Meisha Ross Porter made it her mission to racially renew job listings as she rose through the Department of Education hierarchy – often at the expense of white and Jewish educators, critics accuse.
Porter once boasted about his quotas.
“When I’m selecting directors, teachers or leaders – after making the list, we look at it and count: how many women, how many people of color and why. Who we choose and why, ”said Porter.
“I look at makeup and literally tell it – and it’s okay for us to do that,” said Porter on a 2018 panel at Fordham University.
The educator, chosen by Blasio’s mayor to replace Richard Carranza after the chancellor abruptly announced his resignation on Friday, is charged with at least two recent cases of discrimination against older, white and Jewish educators.
She is not cited as a plaintiff in any of the lawsuits, but is accused of creating a hostile environment.
Porter, the first black woman to run the country’s largest school system, went from being a teacher to a superintendent in District 11 of the Bronx. Carranza then promoted Porter as one of nine new “executive overseers” in August 2018, months after he arrived in New York. She won $ 209,479 last year.
“Disrupt and Dismantle” was Porter’s rallying cry.
“I say almost every day that one of my jobs is to stop and dismantle systemic racism,” she told the Fordham forum. “And every time I say that, I get scared. I fear that this will be misinterpreted, that people will misquote, make mistakes, deviate from what it means. But I keep saying that. ”
But some called it an excuse to force or “marginalize” certain employees – “especially older white women in leadership positions,” says Karen Ames, a veteran Bronx superintendent who was downgraded and pressured to leave, in an open suit this month .
Ames claims in the process that his 30-year career, which included successes such as raising math scores in schools with difficulties, was hampered by Carranza’s “equity” agenda.
Porter once “humiliated” Ames during a discussion about rezoning schools in the Throgs Neck area to achieve racial equality. Porter told Ames that she couldn’t participate because she is white, says the suit.
The suit also says that Porter, along with a new superintendent, Erika Tobia, “took negative employment action against Jewish members of the District 8 team,” including Nicky Rosen, who now serves as Director of Continuous Improvement in District 7.
“Nicky Rosen was transferred against his will to District 7,” the suit alleges.
A demoted Jewish administrator said his treatment of Porter was “unprofessional and unnecessary”. He said she did not communicate with him and that her complaint to the DOE Equal Opportunities Office was ignored.
Porter was known for asking the superintendents at the end of the meetings to fold their arms in a greeting “Wakanda Forever” from the movie “Black Panther”.
Rafaela Espinal, who headed the Community School District 12 in the Bronx, said she was fired without explanation after repeatedly refusing to salute “Wakanda Forever”, according to a lawsuit. While Espinal and many others saw this as a “black power” gesture, DOE officials insist that the greeting means “Bronx Strong”.
Espinal, a Dominican-American who identifies herself as an Afro-Latin, said that Porter scolded her for not being “black enough”.
The last two lawsuits follow two other lawsuits in which four executive women accused the Carranza administration of demeaning or expelling them largely because they were white.
Like Carranza, Porter’s focus on race was criticized as divisive and tangential to the central mission of improving the education offered by New York schools.
“I challenge you to think about what [diversity] it means when you leave work, ”she told the Fordham forum. “Who your kids get involved with. Who comes to dinner at your house. Who do you dine with. Who you talk to. Because it changes the narrative and the experience. When we change what happens in the dynamics of our own family and our own homes, then we are changing the world. “
Wai Wah Chin, founding president of the Greater New York Sino-American Citizens Alliance, which advocates merit-based policies, is reserving judgment on Porter.
“Is she really for all students or is she going to paint by color?” Chin asked. “We hope that the toxic anti-Asian racism that Carranza brought has disappeared and that his replacement is better.”
Chin added: “Your main job is to educate all children. Everything else is secondary. “
While Porter was a member of de Blasio’s School Diversity Advisory Group, which opposed gifted and talented programs and schools that “select” the best students, she pulled the strings in 2017 to turn a friend’s son into a better school.
Instead of enrolling the child in his divided primary school, which was 90% Hispanic and black and 8% white, Porter applied for a place in another school that was 67% Hispanic and black and 15% white – and offered advanced classes for gifted children .
“It was introduced by superiors,” said a DOE source. “They knew who she was.”
A $ 45,000 gala launched to celebrate Porter’s birthday and promotion to executive superintendent remains the subject of an investigation opened by the Special Commissioner of Investigation for municipal schools.
Employees disbursed more than $ 111 per person to attend the luxurious event at Villa Barone Manor, a Bronx catering hall, with buffet, DJ and open bar. Wearing a tiara and shiny white dress, Porter made a grand entrance to a glass elevator that went up to the ballroom – a flourish that cost an extra $ 500.
According to DOE rules, celebrations for promoting a colleague “must be held at school” and “must have a modest financial cost”.
SCI was accused of sitting on the case to protect from Blasio and Carranza.
“It is no surprise that the NY Post is struggling to find any reason to overthrow the first black woman to be appointed Chancellor,” said DOE spokeswoman Danielle Filson. “Em. Porter is respected by colleagues across the city and qualified for the job – this is a ridiculous racial dispute and she is not a defendant in the lawsuits.”