Dive Brief:
- New York state's Board of Regents voted unanimously to appoint longtime Florida administrator and educator MaryEllen Elia as the Department of Education's new leader.
- Elia honed her leadership skills as the superintendent of Hillsborough County, one of the 10 biggest districts in the nation. In 2015 she was named Florida’s superintendent of the year; however, shortly after the state school board fired her for failing to work with community members and not addressing racial and special needs issues more closely. The removal was criticized locally and nationally.
- The New York Department of Education has been without a leader for five months, since John King resigned from the position to serve as a senior adviser to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.
Dive Insight:
Elia comes to the department at an interesting time. Not only does it have exponentially less cash flow in years past (since 2010 the department has been working with millions in Race to the Top funding), but the "opt out" sentiment is brewing in many districts—a direct reaction to many of the department's policies.
With the current pushback, tensions have been high between the state's teachers union and the DoE, a fact that Elia could potentially help ease. According to Chalkbeat NY in the past she has been praised for smoothing out relationships between unions and districts.