Rosales named first-ever Senior Deputy Chancellor
BY ALEJANDRA O'CONNELLDOMENECH
Manhattan Executive Superintendent
Marisol Rosales has been
appointed the Department of
Education’s first senior deputy chancellor,
DOE officials announced Tuesday.
Once Rosales steps into the new role on
Aug. 16, she will work with First Deputy
Chancellor Donald Conyers who oversees
executive superintendents and borough
offices and will help with “academics, early
childhood education, enrollment, school
climate and wellness,” according to a DOE
spokesperson.
Schools Chancellor Meisha Ross Porter
created the new post in order to help better
connect the first deputy chancellor and his
office to school communities ahead of this
fall’s full school reopening. Rosales’ appointment
is Porter’s first department shakeup
since she took over as chancellor after her
predecessor Richard Carranza abruptly
resigned in March. According to a DOE
spokesperson, Porter does not have plans to
create any more new executive offices.
“I am thrilled to elevate a leader who has
extensive experience at every level within
the DOE and deeply understands what our
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE NEW YORK CITY DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION.
Current Manhattan Executive Superintendent Marisol Rosales will become
the City’s new senior deputy chancellor later this month.
schools need to be successful and thrive,”
said Porter. “Manhattan has been lucky to
have Marisol Rosales as executive superintendent
for the past three years, and now the
rest of our schools, and all of our students,
will benefit from her leadership.”
Rosales has worked within the DOE for
the past 28 years and had various stints as
a teacher and athletic director early in her
career before becoming an assistant principal
and eventually principal superintendent.
For the last three years, she has overseen
273 3-K through 12th-grade schools, with
a combined 125,000 students, as executive
superintendent of Manhattan. A native of
Chile, Rosales is also the only Latina and
Spanish speaker on the DOE executive
board.
“It has been an honor to serve Manhattan
over the last ten years as superintendent
and executive superintendent, and I thank
the Manhattan school community for their
partnership and collaboration,” Rosales said.
“Nothing is more important than connecting
what is happening at the school level to our
leaders at Central to ensure our students are
getting what they need to succeed. I look
forward to leveraging my extensive experience
within the DOE and working hand in
hand with our talented Deputy Chancellors
during the critical school year ahead.”
Department officials touted Rosales for
her role in improving the graduation rate
among Black and Latino students in Manhattan
during her time as superintendent
and executive superintendent between 2013
and last year. During those seven years, the
graduation rate for Black and Latino students
increased respectively from 61.7% to 74.8%
and 62.3% to 75.1%, according to the DOE.
Porter, in part, appointed Rosales senior
deputy chancellor due to her experience
supporting schools during crises citing her
work with school leadership after Hurricane
Sandy and work to help embattled former
Puerto Rico Education Secretary Julia Keleher
reopen schools during the aftermath
of Hurricane Maria. Rosales spent 10 days
on the island in 2017 offering guidance to
principals and superintendents working to
reopen their districts and schools.
NYC to mandate proof of vax for dining, fitness, entertainment
BY BEN BRACHFELD
New York City will begin requiring
proof of vaccination to access a
wide-ranging set of indoor activities,
such as restaurant dining, drinking at
a bar, exercising at a gym, or seeing a live
performance, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced
on Aug. 3..
“If you want to participate in our society
fully, you’ve got to get vaccinated,” the
mayor said at his daily press briefing on
Tuesday. “It’s time.”
New York is the first major city in the
country to adopt such a move, which the
mayor is calling the “Key to NYC Pass.”
It comes as the Delta variant upends the
progress the city has made in fighting the
coronavirus.
Countries such as France and Italy have
already adopted the measure; on the first
day after French President Emmanuel Macron
announced the mandate, millions of
people booked appointments.
The new policy will launch on Aug. 16,
but won’t be enforced until Sept. 13 so
businesses can get acclimated and the city
can make adjustments based on feedback.
“We know that a mandated vaccine
requirement will pose economic and
People enjoy outdoor dining amid the COVID-19 outbreak in Manhattan
last September.
operational challenges to restaurants,
particularly in communities with lower
vaccination rates and hesitancy, however
it will also alleviate the burden that restaurants
and bars face when implementing
this policy voluntarily,” said Andrew
Rigie, Executive Director of the restaurant
trade group NYC Hospitality Alliance, in
a statement. “While having to require this
PHOTO VIA REUTERS
requirement is far from ideal, now we need
government to support restaurants, bars
and workers with clear and fair guidelines,
and an extensive outreach and education
program, while also implementing more
policies to support the industry’s recovery.”
Those wishing to visit indoor establishments
like restaurants, bars, gyms, or
performance venues will be required to
show either their CDC vaccination card,
the new NYC COVID Safe app, or the
Excelsior Pass app.
“It is very simple, I carry my wallet with
me and I pull out my card,” said Congressman
Adriano Espaillat at the mayor’s briefing.
“It’s as simple as that.”
The mayor has been moving in the direction
of mandates in recent weeks, starting
last week with a mandate for health care
workers and then for all city workers. The
city is still using some incentives though,
such as an offer of $100 for anyone who
gets their first dose at a city-run vaccination
site.
Nonetheless, the mayor has faced criticism
for inaction on implementing a mask
mandate even as Delta, which is far more
contagious than the original coronavirus,
rages throughout the city.
City Council Member Mark Levine, who
has been calling for a new mask mandate
for weeks, said that new policy is what’s
needed to rapidly take action to prevent a
worse outcome over time.
“We have to act to protect this city,”
Levine said. “And we’ve learned over the
past year and a half that our choice is to
act now, or to face more difficult options
down the road.”
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