Incoming NYC schools chief a City Hall insider

The deputy mayor who will replace publishing executive Cathie Black as head of New York City’s public schools told cheering Department of Education staff members Thursday that he was a “happy camper” who didn’t plan to revamp his predecessor’s plans.
 
 But Dennis M. Walcott is in many ways the opposite of Black, the publishing executive who was hired without a background as an educator.
 
 While Black attended Catholic schools in Chicago, Walcott is a graduate of New York City’s public schools. The former kindergarten teacher founded the Frederick Douglass Brother-to-Brother program, a mentoring program for boys. He has overseen
education in New York for nearly a decade.
 
 "The passion of my soul is committed to the children of New York City," said Walcott, who has served as Bloomberg’s deputy mayor for education and community development.
 
 Bloomberg announced in November that Black, the former chief executive of Hearst Magazines, would replace Joel Klein as head of the city’s 1.1 million-pupil public school system. He announced on Thursday that she was stepping down after three months, after they agreed her resignation was “in the city’s best interests.” Walcott sidestepped questions about whether Bloomberg erred in appointing Black; he said he "thinks the world of Cathie" and hopes to continue working with her. He did not specify what projects he would he would work with her on.
 
 Asked if he should have been Bloomberg’s first choice to replace Klein, Walcott made it clear that he is a team player.
 
 "You have to remember, I’m a happy camper," he said, adding, "I serve at the pleasure of the mayor." Asked whether he might revisit some Department of Education
decisions that have generated opposition, like placing charter schools and traditional public schools side by side in the same building, Walcott said, "No, not at all." "The policies will be basically the same," he said.
 
 Walcott, 59, graduated from the University of Bridgeport with a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in education in 1973 and 1974. Walcott also has a master’s degree in social work from Fordham University in 1980.
 
 He was president and CEO of the New York City Urban League, a member of the city Board of Education, and worked as a social work professor at the City University of New York. He has been a deputy mayor for Bloomberg since 2002, overseeing education.
 
 "I dedicate everything that I do to the teachers that I had in elementary school," he said. "I can name every teacher that I had." Walcott said he had kept in touch with his kindergarten teacher.
 
 "She passed away recently," he said. "I went to her funeral."