HOUSTON – HISD Superintendent Richard Carranza is speaking about his departure for the first time since it was announced earlier this week.
The superintendent called the situation "bittersweet," saying the opportunity in New York was one he could not turn down.
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"To have this opportunity is the pinnacle of any superintendent's career," said Carranza to KPRC. "For someone like me who was an English language learner growing up, being a teacher, never thinking I'd move into administration, never wanting to do that, and to have this opportunity is truly the American Dream."
Carranza was the superintendent leading all 284 Houston Independent School District schools after Hurricane Harvey.
At the State of the Schools address in February, Carranza announced the district's vision to get out of a debt that now totals about $115 million.
At the February address, he also talked about "Achieve 180" -- a plan to get 10 chronically under-performing schools out of IR status so that they would not have to close or surrender leadership to the TEA.
In a seemingly abrupt announcement earlier this week, New York's mayor said Carranza would become the city's Chancellor of Schools. Parents in the district expressed concern, but Carranza told KPRC he was not looking for a job and was not expecting it.
"I'm not out there looking, and in this case, I was not out there looking. I was contacted, and I was contacted several times and New York City is mayoral control, so the board of New York City is the mayor, so once I had contact with the mayor after subsequent invitations, we actually talked about educational philosophies," said Carranza. "We talked about equity; we talked about empowering Dreamers; we talked about issues of early education -- these are things that if anyone's been listening to what I've been saying in Houston -- those are the same things that I've been talking about here."
Carranza acknowledged that there is still lots of work to do at HISD. As far as the district's 10 schools that had struggled to meet state testing standards for five or more years, he said he would urge that the next superintendent push for a "pause" in accountability, or being held to state testing standards for a year -- a strategy discussed by district leaders to help the district catch up after recovering from Harvey.
"We may have a robust intervention that perhaps in the past hadn't been there, but I think it's important for the district to ask the state of Texas commissioner to ask for a 'pause,' so we can have some efficacy or analysis of, 'Is it working or not?'" he said.
Board of trustees President Rhonda Skillern-Jones said she is confident that the current team will be able to carry out the district's vision, saying that unity with local, state and U.S. officials will be key.
Carranza said he is grateful for his time at HISD. He is negotiating his last day with the board, which he said is very cooperative. He is not involved in the search process.
"You would love to be able to stay and see the fruits of your labor and see them come to fruition, and for me that's one of the bittersweet parts is that I'm going to have to cheer on from afar with the work that's going to be done. But I want to reiterate that I have an incredible team not only in the central office but also in the field -- our principals," said Carranza.
His family is set to be in New York in April.