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The Eleventh Hour graphic and show opener.

wide shot - audience, high school inauguration ceremony of Chancellor Richard R, Green.

African American woman signing as Chancellor speaks at Board of Education podium. Older people dressed in graduation gowns seated behind Chancellor

New York Mayor Edward I. Koch at podium speaking about deceased Chancellor Richard R. Green at funeral

Host Lipsyte talks about tonight's program - the search to find a new Chancellor for New York City's largest public school system and the search being complicated by racial, mayoral, and educational politics.

Clip of the late Dr. Green on stage with small children, shaking their hands. At mike with the children making speech about the potential for having the best schools in the country. He thanks audience.

INTERVIEW:

Danielle Corbie:
Thank you for coming. And then you know, really given an interest in us. And he said, That's all I'm interested in the kids.

Robert Lipsyte 4:49
Did you make any suggestions? Carla?

Carla Alleyne 4:52
Well, um, we were there he gave us a chance he asked us to give him our vision on what we want public schools to be like in the future. One of the things I came up with is that special education students should be allowed to mainstream with regular students in classes like gym, or music where we get to understand each other's. And we gave him a lot of input on things that we feel that should be fixed in schools. As far as, like they're thinking about bringing handcuffs into schools, we were against it, why? It's we don't want it to be like a jail environment. We want school to be academic, where you go and learn. It's uncomfortable to go to a school and they have handcuffs and the windows are barred, because

Danielle Corbie 5:35
that brings forth an immediate distrust of students, we want to go to a school that has proper learning environment, so that you know that they don't think they were criminals.

Robert Lipsyte 5:46
That sounds nice, except of what we read in the paper. There is a criminal and criminal element in the schools, there are kids who should be handcuffed?

Danielle Corbie 5:53
Well, I think that not every student is a criminal, you know. And of course, not every student is a criminal. But when we read in the papers, and on the TV and news, we only see the negative aspects of kids. We're in a foundation, the city Kids Foundation, and that is a foundation filled with positive kids. positive aspects.

Carla Alleyne 6:16
What about the good side? What about the positive things that kids do? Why don't the media get in contact with that,

Robert Lipsyte 6:21
let's build on some of those good things in terms of I mean, obviously, you're some of the good kids, your Karla is going to Antioch, next fall, and you're going to the University of Texas. So the implication is either that you're a very special or that somehow the system didn't quite fail you building on that foundation. Let's talk about some of the priorities that a new chancellor would have to address right away.

Carla Alleyne 6:51
I think that if we get a new chancellor, he has to be radical,

Robert Lipsyte 6:54
you said he,

Carla Alleyne 6:55
he or she has to be radical willing to make changes. Because right now it's educational crisis on we're not learning as much as we should be. And there's really problems going on in school as far as teaches us concern as far as students are concerned. And we really need changes, drastic changes. Now,

Robert Lipsyte 7:15
would you be specific to either of the changes?

Danielle Corbie 7:18
I think, what we need one of the issues we addressed on May 9, when we had the city could speak on education. For Chancellor green, we address an issue with a multicultural school. Because the schools we go to now, there are the fixed one group of a group, a school contains either black Puerto Rican, another school that contains either white or Hispanic, Asian, we don't want to schools to be fixed, we want to, we want to mix with everybody, because that's what prejudice starts in schools.

Carla Alleyne 7:50
And we also want to teach us to be on educated on people's cultures take like a course. So they can understand students, like a student comes from Haiti, they understand why they act in a certain way, or certain things like that.

INTERVIEW CONTINUES:
Danielle Corbie
you have to study hard, you have to stay in school and, and you know, you can't slack behind because if you only for one step behind, everybody's moving forward, you have to run and sometimes people don't want to worry,

Robert Lipsyte
but not to put you guys too much on the spot. But for guys like you any system is going to work because you're going to get the most out of it. And you're not going to need the handcuffs on the security guards belt, right? Or the bars. But a lot of people out there are kind of in the middle. And they're going to need more help than you got.

Carla Alleyne
Right. And I think that's up to good teachers who know how to deal with people who come from diverse backgrounds, and who would understand and relate to where they're come

Robert Lipsyte
where they're going to come from.

Carla Alleyne
What teachers?

Danielle Corbie
Did their teachers all over the place that are from diverse backgrounds? And have and are educated in in other ethnic

Robert Lipsyte
did you have lousy teachers along the way?

Danielle Corbie
Yeah. A few teachers I can name

Robert Lipsyte
What kept you going? Was it your family?

Danielle Corbie
The knowledge that

Carla Alleyne
it has to do with your family also. if you come from bad family, have bad background, and you're going to come to school really negative? Yeah. And I think I think that a teacher has a lot to do with a person, because there's teachers that I had that really, you know, put instilled, like, a good motivation into, like, I really want to learn, I like this teacher. And if you have a negative teacher that comes into the classroom and act like they don't care, then you're not going to care. If they don't show you respect, then you're not going to show up.

Robert Lipsyte
are there lot of those.

Danielle Corbie
I don't think there's a great number as you know, they the media pops up,

Robert Lipsyte
either are either of you thinking about teaching?

Danielle Corbie
I began to think about teaching like preschoolers and, and elementary, but I'm not so sure now,

Robert Lipsyte
any last year the last question and kind of an unfair one, perhaps, if you had children, would you send them through the public school systems of New York as you went through?

Danielle Corbie
Yes, I would. Because I think when we do get a new chancellor, I think that, um, he's going to have to be great. You know, I think he's going to have to be really good around the students. The teachers administration just won't accept it. And you know, we just won't accept it. And I would send my kids to New York City, public schools, because it hasn't been that bad. You know, even though the media has made out made it out to be Oh, there's a stabbing here and a shooting here. That's only a few incidents, I would send them.

Carla Alleyne
I think a lot will have to be done before I send my children. I think that they really need changes. I'm not too secure right now. With the public schools if to send my children there.

Robert Lipsyte
The system certainly worked for you guys and lot's of luck. Carla Alleyen. Danielle Corbie, thanks so much for being with us

The Eleventh Hour graphic.

In the studio, Host Lipsyte introduces his guests, Stanley Litow, Director Interface; Mary France, Director, Office of Parent Involvement; Ursula Davis, Early Childhood Educator/NYC Public Schools

INTERVIEW CONTINUES:
Robert Lipsyte 19:53
is hard to argue with those four but they do sound a little abstract to me, I must say, uh, some of the things that People have been talking about what turned them on to green so much was the fact that he was a role model for some many students in a system, one that he was black, and two, that he had such enthusiasm. Do you think it's important that the new chancellor be black?

Ursula Davis 20:17
I think it's important that the new chancellor be good. I mean, I think it was a real plus that he was a minority, when you have a system that is 75% minority and the teaching population, which is only about 15%. minority. So there are not a lot of role models for kids. And of course, that is important that in for black children and minority children, or non minority children, it's important for everybody to see minority peoples.

Robert Lipsyte 20:42
What about the fact that the so often, the system seems to go outside the system with the message, that they're not really bringing up their own? Do you think it's important that it'd be somebody who knows New York who came through,

Mary France 20:54
obviously, that does not have to be Chancellor green showed that because he was from outside. But it does have to be I think role models are extremely important. And I go back to that day at when I was introduced as the director of parent involvement and PS10. And the way he interacted with the children, this reaching out that he did, and one little boy had written, he was second grade, when I grow up, I want to be like Chancellor green, and I just keep going over and over this. And I think that

Robert Lipsyte 21:20
we can't wait for him that no, that was Stanley. Where do we stand now? I mean, the meetings have been going on all day, you know, where where is New York, in terms of the search?

Stanley Litow 21:32
Well, the Board of Education has an important decision to make the last time around, they turned to an independent search committee not to make the decision for them. But to essentially narrow down the choices and investigate from the generic options inside or outside or particular kinds of people into some very specific sets of names. I think that that's certainly based upon the past experience, that's one way to go and it might have some merit. I think that the question of how long that would take, and what's done on an interim basis, these are very, very important decisions and and a lot is riding on the board, I think we all have a great deal of sympathy for the difficult position that they were placed in, I think they're going to need an enormous amount of support from all levels of the community so that they can do, like Dr. Greene said, what's best for the children,

Ursula Davis 22:20
you mentioned knowing the system. And that I think is for a teacher even coming from a different system into our system, it's hard, it would be a real plus, as I see a real asset, if someone had a real knowledge of the bureaucratic system that we call the Board of Ed in order to be successful, I think possibly even to a quicker degree,

Robert Lipsyte 22:38
would you vote for Mecklowitz?

Ursula Davis 22:40
I really don't know Mecklowitz. You know, I don't know his track record, I think you mentioned something that is paramount that we need to look at the new chance for a new chancellor, somebody who has a real strong success record, from where they from wherever they come from, because it has to be they have, we have to, we need a dynamic leader to really turn the system around and green was trying to address that, because it needs to be redesigned almost, to make it really work for

Robert Lipsyte 23:05
from head to toe from head to toe. And also getting the parents involved, which which Dr. Green, as much as he spoke about it was not successful, in the sense that the community board election on May 2 has such a poor turnout, if people really did not get involved, and the same old suspects went back on the board.

Mary France 23:23
I think there were two reasons for that there. Two points I'd like to make, I'd like to talk about that. But I'd also like to talk about the panel that's going to be chosen to select the a new chancellor. And I believe for the first time it was an open process, which was wonderful precedent for the city of precedent. However, we didn't have teachers represented on that board, teachers from the system, and we did not have parents on that, quote, Blue Ribbon, Blue Ribbon always seems to say professional, but there are, I consider myself a professional, and I'm a parent, and let's himself as a parent, so it doesn't, we always seem to exclude the ordinary people who are really dealing with the children, the teachers, the parents. And I think when we look at a committee this time, they should be because when you say that you're important enough in what you think is important. That's when you begin to make change. This is why we were seeing change, because green was saying that to people, in terms of the second point about the community to school board elections. I think one reason that the elections were as poorly represented as they were, is that people really don't know didn't know to go to a lot of folks who had been running, we're not running. A lot of folks had machinery behind him. Now we have for the first time more parents running, who had no media to say here I am for people to know who they were there were no there was no mechanism to let people know who these folks were only your clubs that were placed, supported and showed, but the ordinary people

Interview concludes. Lipsyte announces show and introduces himself. Show ends.

Funding for program by announcer and overlay the Eleventh Hour graphic.