New York City Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza announced on Friday that Meisha Ross Porter will take over his position, becoming the first Black woman to lead the country’s largest public school district.
“This is the great privilege of my life at this moment,” Porter said in a press conference Friday, USA Today reported.
Porter has been involved in NYC’s school system since growing up in Queens as the daughter of a teacher and later became a teacher, principal, school founder and Bronx executive superintendent.
“She eats, drinks, sleeps and thinks at all times about New York and the children of New York,” Carranza told USA Today.
Porter is taking over after the district has successfully reopened schools and allowed children in New York City to get back to in-person classes.
New York City was one of the hardest-hit places in the country during the coronavirus pandemic, with the city only recently being able to reopen schools and indoor dining.
While schools were closed, Carranza said they distributed more than half a million electronic devices to students for remote learning.
The chancellor is responsible for 1.1 million students in more than 1,800 schools across the city.
“At the end of the day, it’s about the tireless dedication we have to every student every step of the way. It’s about early mornings and late nights, doing all the work that no one will ever see you do so that we can show up, so that we can create opportunities at schools so students can learn every day,” Porter said.
Carranza has lost 11 family members and friends from the coronavirus and said he needed to step down from his position to have time to grieve.