Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott, center, speaks to Queens Metropolitan High School students on one of his last days leading the country’s largest public school system as the high school’s principal, Greg Dutton, right, looks on. Anna Gustafson/The Forum Newsgroup
Crouched down, his fingers touching the gym floor, city Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott fixed his eyes on the finish line as teenagers brimming with excitement over their impending holiday vacation bounced basketballs around the man in charge of the country’s largest public school system.
Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott praised senior Joseph Roman for achieving perfect attendance since kindergarten.
As “ready, set, go,” was shouted, Walcott leaped to his feet and began sprinting in an impromptu race against his daughter, Dejeanne Walcott, a gym teacher at Queens Metropolitan High School – one of five schools he visited in his waning days as chancellor.
In a scenario that does not always greet the man who took over as chancellor in 2011 to lead a system often dogged by parents irate over school closures, co-locations and overcrowded classrooms, Queens Metropolitan HS pupils and teachers erupted into cheers for Walcott as he collapsed into laughter with his daughter.
“He’s amazing; he can really relate to us,” said freshman Amily Trochtchenkova, a member of the Forest Hills school’s track team who noted that Walcott recently ran the New York City marathon.
Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott gets ready to race his daughter, gym teacher Dejeanne Walcott.
The athletic competition, and the day’s appearances at PS 36 in St. Albans – his grandson’s school, Bard High School in Long Island City – where he spoke about the city’s educational landscape with Mayor Bloomberg, and his alma maters Francis Lewis High School in Flushing and IS 192 in St. Albans, were characterized by everything from goofing around with family members and students to policy talking points – and were emblematic of what Walcott said was a roller-coaster of a week.
“I’ve been emotional all this week,” Walcott said. “It’s a once in a lifetime kind of job.”
Recently praised by Queens Borough President Helen Marshall’s appointee to the Panel for Educational Policy, Dmytro Fedkowskyj, as someone who genuinely attempted to encourage parent participation in the school system, Walcott frequently faced a hostile environment during his tenure as chancellor that many critics have attributed to Mayor Bloomberg and his administration’s educational policies that focused on closing larger community high schools, such as Jamaica High School, and replacing them with smaller, and often more specialized, institutions.
Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott, second from right, joked that Queens Metropolitan HS basketball player Abel Matos, left, head coach Jeffrey Loh, and player Corey Hill made him feel particularly short.
Still, in remarks to reporters at Queens Metropolitan – a school that opened several years ago – Walcott said he is “very proud of our school system.”
“I’ve had a longstanding connection [to the schools] – as a student, a parent, a grandparent, a member of the old Board of Education, as deputy chancellor, and chancellor,” Walcott said.
“What I’ve tried to do is create new choices for our families across the city,” he continued.
The chancellor went on to praise Queens’ schools, including Metropolitan, saying, “we have a great principal here.”
Metropolitan Principal Greg Dutton said he was thrilled to once again show Walcott around the school – which graduates its first class of seniors this year.
“I wanted him to come see how well the school was running,” said Dutton, who is in his second year as principal.
While at the Forest Hills institution, the chancellor also met with Joseph Roman, a senior who has had perfect school attendance since kindergarten. Roman, a Ridgewood resident who has battled dyslexia and ADHD throughout his life, has already been admitted to two colleges and plans to study special education.
“I have disabilities of my own, and a lot of people have helped me,” he said. “I want to be able to give back.”
“I want to tell people they should never give up and always have confidence in themselves,” he continued.
As for Walcott’s plans for the future?
“The next thing for me is to spoil my life,” he laughed.
By Anna Gustafson
