This time, she got smiles instead of boos.
Schools Chancellor Cathie Black braved a visit to David A. Boody Intermediate School for Magnet Studies on Saturday to celebrate the implementation of a new family computer program — two days after being pelted with catcalls during her policy address at Brooklyn Tech.
The Department Of Education’s brand new chief arrived at the Gravesend school with an outstretched hand and stayed for several hours, chatting with students and parents — among the city’s first to receive free computers and discounted broadband access as part of a N.Y.C. Connected Learning Initiative program.
“She got a great reception here, she was cheered by the parents and the kids,” glowed English teacher Doug Monroe, who described Black as down to earth and personable.
Black — joined by Deputy Mayor for Education Dennis Walcott, and Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications Commissioner Carole Post — toured classrooms, spoke at an assembly and received a lesson on the program’s goals: to create a home-learning environment by providing students and their families with a robust set of tools, including access to online educational resources, digital literacy training and even access to a bilingual help desk.
It’s already received an A-plus from Christine McKnight of Coney Island, a computer recipient whose son, Laron, attends sixth grade.
“It’s helping him with his spelling, language arts and math — and he’s having fun doing it,” she commented.
The sight of students and parents working together also gave Black a charge.
“She described the atmosphere in our school as ‘electric,’ ” said Monroe
Earlier in the week, Black had rubbed some parents the wrong way when she joked that “birth control” might solve overcrowding in public schools.
At Boody, though, she was education royalty — in sharp contrast to her staid predecessor, according to the teacher.
“She was much more outgoing, friendly and cordial than Chancellor Klein was.”
