With classes set to start Sept. 7 and no plan in place for the influx of migrant children and a potential bus strike, Schools Chancellor David Banks and First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright are . . . vacationing on Martha’s Vineyard.
All good wishes to the loving (and normally hard-working) couple, but this should be an all-hands-on-deck time for top city execs.
Banks may have competent deputies, but his team has regularly gotten blindsided so far. The city Department of Education — long famous for its dysfunctionality — needs its top leader to ride herd on the educrats.
Especially with the threat of a school bus strike hitting 150,000 students just as DOE schools reopen.
News reports say city strike plans include giving students MetroCards, reimbursing families for public transit and taxis, offering “free ride-share” and more — but parents say they have yet to be apprised of those contingencies.
Add the need to brainstorm preparations for schools tasked with educating at least 11,000 migrant kids who lack academic records and proof of childhood vaccinations and likely require bilingual and other special-needs services.
Deputy Mayor Wright is Mayor Eric Adams’ top aide for managing the day-to-day functions of city government (as well as strategic initiatives), so the issues raised by her absence are obvious.
Top executives, including public servants, sometimes need to put duty ahead of personal considerations, even seizing a romantic break.
Banks and Wright should get home and plan their beach vacay for later.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
