Fernandez to Be New York Schools Chief; Minority Control Continues

Miami school Supt. Joseph A. Fernandez on Wednesday was named to head New York’s public school system, the nation’s largest and one beset by educational and criminal problems.

Fernandez, a 53-year-old native New Yorker, will start as school chancellor in January or February and be paid $195,000 a year, Board of Education chief Robert Wagner Jr. said.

“He will stand as a splendid role model,” Wagner said.

The selection of Fernandez to replace Richard Green, who died in May of an asthma attack, means continued minority leadership of a school system in which 80% of the 940,000 students are of minority groups.

Green, hired away from Minneapolis, was the first black chancellor. His two immediate predecessors were Latinos.

Fernandez, who is of Puerto Rican heritage, was born in East Harlem and attended public schools in New York. He dropped out of high school but earned an equivalency diploma while in the Air Force and went on to study at Columbia University.