Former top schools official Carmen Farina is ready to take the chancellor’s job, and could be appointed by Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio as early as this week, sources told The Post.
A former deputy schools chancellor, Farina, 71, had earlier said publicly that she wasn’t interested in running the nation’s largest school system.
Her denials fueled speculation that Farina might be tapped as an interim chancellor to buy de Blasio time to conduct a more thorough search.
But her newfound willingness to stay on past the end of the current school year cleared a path to a permanent appointment.
“She said [privately] she’s open to it,” a source said.
Farina has four decades of education experience and has been nearly universally lauded as a serious educator — even by those who are critical of de Blasio’s views on the school system.
Current Chancellor Dennis Walcott said he is stepping down on Dec. 31.
An education subcommittee that has quietly met to discuss potential chancellors as part of de Blasio’s transition has also zeroed in on Farina, according to sources.
The subcommittee of roughly 20 members includes some advisers who have been publicly named — such as Advocates for Children director Kim Sweet — and others who haven’t, such as Robin Hood Foundation director David Saltzman.
“Her name resonated very strongly,” said one source familiar with the subcommittee’s conversations.
De Blasio spokeswoman Lis Smith declined to comment on Farina’s potential appointment.
Several education sources said Farina has emerged as the likely chancellor not only because of her ideological mesh with de Blasio, but also because many of the leading candidates had political or ideological strikes against them.
Some, such as Chicago Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett, have closed dozens of struggling schools — a policy de Blasio opposes.
Others, such as former Baltimore Schools Superintendent Andres Alonso, were too supportive of charter schools to jibe with the mayor-elect’s views.
Farina
was a teacher at PS 29 in Brooklyn before being named principal of PS 6 on Manhattan’s Upper East Side in 1991.
Ten years later she was named superintendent of District 15 in Brooklyn. She became regional superintendent, then deputy chancellor from 2004-2006.
Farina could not be reached for comment.