First Day For New NYC Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- New York City's new schools chancellor began his first official day on the job Monday.
Richard Carranza will be in charge of 1.1 million students as he takes over for Carmen Farina, who retired last week.
It's a bit of a change from the 56,000 students Carranza oversaw in his district in Houston, where he last worked. Before that, it was San Francisco where he worked both as deputy superintendent and then lead the district.
But San Francisco is made up of just 14 public high schools while New York City has more than 400.
While he was in San Francisco, Carranza did have some success. Graduation rates climbed by about seven percentage points, CBS2's Marc Liverman reported.
Carranza has worked in school systems for 27 years. But while the task ahead is not an easy one, he says he's ready-and open to finding out what he can do to make the system better, right from day one.
In a letter to parents and New York City school staff, Carranza wrote: "I want to hear about your successes, but also about the challenges you are facing. I want to hear about your ideas about how I, as chancellor, can better support you and better support the 1.1 million children of New York City."