New York City’s Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza announced Friday he would step down, citing the coronavirus pandemic’s personal toll on his family. He will be replaced by Bronx Executive Superintendent Meisha Ross Porter, who becomes the first Black woman to lead the nation’s largest public school district.
Carranza, who has spent only a year on the job, said at a press conference he has lost 11 family members and friends to the virus and needed time to grieve.
He said that he felt the city’s public school system, with around 1 million students, was stable enough to handle a leadership change.
