Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña Announces Retirement

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña is announced Thursday that she will soon be retiring.

Fariña has been in the post since Mayor Bill de Blasio took office in 2014, and she came out of retirement to take the post.

But as she told a group of reporters Thursday, Fariña is not riding off into the sunset just yet.

On Thursday afternoon, Mayor de Blasio announced that Fariña will begin he "second retirement" in the coming months.

"We have brought back dignity to teaching, joy to learning and trust to the system," Fariña said.

Fariña began her career as a teacher specializing in social studies. She worked for 22 years at P.S. 29 in Brooklyn and went on to be a principal and superintendent.

She went on to be Deputy Chancellor for Teach and Learning from 2004 to 2006.

Her selection as Chancellor was applauded by the teachers union, which had battled with former Mayor Michael Bloomberg for 12 years. She took office promising to change what had been a combative tone from City Hall.

De Blasio and Fariña moved quickly to undo many signature initiatives of the data-driven Bloomberg team, such as ending letter grades for schools, which were heavily influenced by results on standardized tests. They also altered how bad schools would be reformed: Instead of quickly shutting them down, they created the Renewal Schools program, a $500 million effort to turn around 94 low performing schools.

This week, the Department of Education announced plans to close nine schools in the mayor's costly Renewal Program due to a lack of results.

"Chancellor Carmen Fariña has dedicated her career to public service, and no one can question that she has fought tirelessly for what she believes in. However, after four years of Mayor Bill de Blasio's control of public schools, far too many low-income students remain trapped in struggling schools. We hope that the next Chancellor will push the Mayor to embrace evidence-based policies and parental choice," said StudentsFirstNY Executive Director Jenny Sedlis.