Before Tuesday's glitch that locked New York City public school students out of virtual classrooms, the nation's largest school district had been operating without a permanent chief information officer for months.
The I-Team has learned that the search for a new CIO was recently concluded, but there is still no new technology director in place to serve frustrated parents and students who were temporarily locked out of remote learning during this week's snowstorm. It was not done.
DOE spokesman Nathaniel Steyer said the name of the permanent CIO will be announced soon.
He added that the district relied on interim CIO Scott Strickland after the former technology director resigned in summer 2023.
“We conducted an extensive search and process to hire the ideal candidate to oversee the technology needs of the nation's largest school district, and we are pleased to announce our new CIO shortly,” said Styer. he wrote in a statement to the I-Team. “Scott Strickland serves as Acting CIO and brings decades of experience in technology and more than six years of experience in New York City public schools to this role.”
But critics say the lack of a permanent CIO six months into the school year suggests that information technology has been put on the back burner.
“Yesterday, we had a day in limbo with the positions still unfilled, which shows that the DOE is woefully unprepared,” said City Councilmember Shekhar Krishnan. (D-Jackson Heights) said. “Filling a position in a timely manner reflects the priority and importance we give to the role. What happened yesterday was completely predictable.”
Schools Superintendent David Banks on Tuesday said he was “disappointed, frustrated and angry” after remote learning glitches prevented thousands of students trying to access virtual classrooms. . But Banks placed the blame directly on IBM, one of the private vendors responsible for making the city's distance learning platform work.
IBM apologized for its involvement in the logon issue and said it had been resolved by early afternoon, allowing 900,000 children to safely attend remote classes.
New York City Schools Superintendent David Banks spoke to the media about the problems students faced logging into their remote virtual learning days during Tuesday's snowfall.
