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A senior Training Division official who helps oversee Mayor Eric Adams’ sweeping literacy curriculum overhaul is stepping down to assist run a brand new Brooklyn faculty centered on college students with studying challenges.
Jason Borges, government director of Literacy and Tutorial Intervention Companies, will depart his put up on the finish of the month in line with an inner message obtained by Chalkbeat.
In his new position, Borges will assist spin up a faculty that metropolis officers are planning to open this fall. He’ll function program director of Faculty Planning on the Central Brooklyn Literacy Academy, which is slated to be the second city-operated public faculty completely dedicated to college students with dyslexia and different studying points.
He’s anticipated to develop into the college’s principal, mentioned Naomi Peña, director of neighborhood and household engagement for the Literacy Academy Collective, a nonprofit group that may assist this system.
“I believe we have been all stunned initially as a result of he was main the [literacy] work” on the Training Division, Peña mentioned. She mentioned his management of the college could be “massively priceless” given his expertise atop the Training Division’s labyrinthine paperwork.
Borges has been accountable for implementing Adams’ signature schooling initiative, which requires elementary colleges throughout town to transition to considered one of three city-mandated studying curriculums. His departure represents the newest management transition for this system, often called NYC Reads. Final 12 months, metropolis officers disbanded the division of instructing and studying, which coincided with the departure of a deputy chancellor concerned in implementing the curriculum adjustments.
Borges’ transition to a person faculty from a senior administration place left some literacy overhaul supporters feeling nervous. Susan Neuman, a New York College literacy knowledgeable who serves on a literacy advisory group for town’s Training Division, mentioned Borges was concerned in a variety of components of NYC Reads, providing the group updates on points together with distributing curriculum supplies to educators and scholar assessments.
“After all I’m apprehensive concerning the continuity,” Neuman mentioned. “That is simply the primary 12 months of enactment for thus a lot of our colleges. Who’s minding the shop?”
Division officers indicated that Meghan Duffy, who serves as director of Tutorial Intervention Companies, will quickly assume a few of Borges’ duties, together with oversight of NYC Reads, along with her present position.
“Whereas his management and steadfast dedication to the success of NYC Reads will likely be vastly missed, we’re assured he’ll make a big influence at CBLA,” Miatheresa Pate, interim government chief for Teachers and Instruction, wrote in an inner letter. “We’re assured that beneath Meghan’s succesful management, the division will proceed to thrive.”
Borges didn’t reply to a request for remark. Though he has classroom expertise, Borges has by no means served as a principal.
The Central Brooklyn Literacy Academy has not been formally accepted to open. The Training Division’s proposal for opening the college hinges on the closure of M.S. 394 in Crown Heights, which has struggled with declining enrollment, so the brand new program can take over its house.
However after households and educators at M.S. 394 voiced considerations concerning the closure plan, town’s Panel for Academic Coverage, which should log out on closures and college openings, postponed a scheduled vote on the plan final month.
Town will take into account various choices to open the Central Brooklyn Literacy Academy if the closure just isn’t accepted, a division spokesperson mentioned, although which will delay the timeline for opening the college.
Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, protecting NYC public colleges. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.