Desmond Blackburn, the deputy chancellor whose “senior advisor” was Mayor Adams’ girlfriend, is leaving the city Department of Education after just one year on the job.
Schools Chancellor David Banks appointed Blackburn, an ex-Florida superintendent, as “deputy chancellor for school leadership”– a position Banks created when he took over the Department of Education last year.
Blackburn, 49, is leaving in March to join a Boston-based non-profit, Facing History & Ourselves, a DOE vendor which “uses lessons of history to challenge teachers and their students to stand up to bigotry and hate.”
“I am writing to let you know that I have accepted a new opportunity as chief executive officer” with the group, Blackburn said in a “thank you and farewell” email to staff on Friday.
“It has been the honor of a lifetime to serve New York City students and families alongside all of you. Together, we have reimagined and restructured support for schools. We streamlined our organization and empowered superintendents. We recognized the importance of school leaders, their expertise, commitment, and relentless focus on student outcomes.”
Blackburn was tasked with overseeing the DOE’s 32 community superintendents. His salary was $265,000 a year, as much as First Deputy Chancellor Daniel Weisberg, and second only to Banks’s salary of $363,346.
Schools Chancellor David Banks appointed Blackburn as “deputy chancellor for school leadership.” Michael Brochstein/SOPA Images/SBlackburn apparently maintained his home in Weston, Fla., and spent some weekends and holidays in the Sunshine State, chronicling his bike rides on Twitter.
Months after Blackburn joined the DOE last March, Banks named Tracey Collins — Adams’ longtime partner and NYC’s unofficial First Lady — “senior advisor to the deputy chancellor of school leadership.”
Already a DOE administrator, Collins started her new job in July with a 23% raise to $221,597 a year.
That Blackburn is already jumping ship stunned DOE insiders.
“People are surprised that he’s leaving so soon,” one Brooklyn principal told The Post.
Facing History’s CEO Roger Brooks, whose salary was $411,000, announced his retirement in August, and the group launched a search for his replacement.
The group is the “lead partner” in the The Facing History School in Hell’s Kitchen, a small DOE school founded in 2005, and offers professional development for faculty.
