Editorial

Wish Luck To Harold Levy

Harold O. Levy has by default earned the right to remove the word "interim" from his title and assume the mantle of Chancellor of the schools of New York City. We wish him luck.

Levy is the first Chancellor to come to the office with a background in business, rather than education. The difference in approach and philosophy was manifest even as interim chancellor. From his first day at 110 Livingston St., central Board of Education Brooklyn headquarters, Levy made it plain that he intended to do more than keep the chair warm for whoever his successor might be. He had no way of knowing whether or not the procedures and practices he instituted would continue if another hand were to take the schools helm, but whether or not they would ever grow to fruition didn't stop the then interim chancellor. Levy went ahead with his innovations, some radical, some simple common sense, nonetheless.

A businessman--who is taking a leave of absence and a financial loss from his job in banking to serve as Chancellor--Levy understands the importance of delegating authority, getting people to work as a team to accomplish a stated objective and evaluating performance fairly. He understands the necessity of either rewarding that performance or helping those who earn a rating less than satisfactory to improve or find some other use for their particular combination of skills and abilities. And while the ability to delegate is a valuable management tool, Levy also has the knowledge born of a career in a business administration capacity to know when hands on management is called for.

Some people were rattled considerably by his plans; their responses indicated a good deal about their own inner workings. "I'm not a poetry kind of person," central School Board Member Ninfa Segerra declared when Levy left some poems by Wallace Stevens in all board members' mailboxes at board headquarters. Segerra as well as the schoolchildren of New York City may find Levy's term in office educational.

It is also entirely possible that Levy may bring about some changes from the prevailing attitudes of recent years. Mayor Rudolph Giuliani fought long and hard to put greater control of school safely officers in the hands of the New York City Police Department. While not refuting the mayor's position, Levy maintains that school safety officers are duty bound to report incidents to the principals of the schools to which they are assigned. "School safety agents are there as a support for the principals and teachers to protect the students--not the other way around," he has declared. But rather than declaring himself in opposition to close working relationships between school safety officers and police, he has chosen the carrot, rather than the stick, in applauding the cooperation between Police Commissioner Howard Safir and a group of high school students who recently requested and received a meeting with Safir to discuss the school safety situation.

At first Giuliani was not inclined to endorse Levy as Interim Chancellor. He has, however, supported Levy's appointment as Chancellor and has indicated he will work with him. We call on New Yorkers to be equally open-minded and cooperative with the new head of a school system which superintends the education of almost 1 million children. Some of those children, especially in poorer schools, have had their schooling interrupted by having to move so many times in their short lives that they must be taught the alphabet in fifth grade. Some come to school through neighborhoods infested by crime--prostitution, drug deals, larcenies, murders--all of which seem to take place regularly just outside classroom windows. Levy would make the world inside those classroom windows as safe as he possibly can and has said so on many occasions. He knows children cannot learn and dodge bullets at the same time. His objective seems to be truly to attempt to instill education in the full sense of the word--to lead out of ignorance and despair into the light of knowledge and the power that knowledge imbues.

Levy seems to be asking questions that need to be asked in order to initiate true reforms in the New York City school system. We will see what he intends to do with the answers.