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A prime official who oversaw funds to preschool suppliers amid a crush of delays is returning to turn into deputy chancellor of early childhood training, officers introduced Friday.
Simone Hawkins, who abruptly left her publish as chief govt for operations within the early childhood division in 2022, will now oversee town’s publicly funded preschool applications and backed applications for infants and toddlers that at the moment serve about 140,000 kids.
Her appointment by Chancellor David Banks comes simply weeks after the departure of Kara Ahmed, the earlier deputy chancellor, whose two-and-a-half yr tenure was marked by upheaval.
Hawkins’ “experience in early childhood training and her capacity to implement complicated, large-scale operations make her simply the precise particular person to take the helm at this critically essential time,” Banks mentioned in a press release.
The brand new deputy chancellor will assume an early childhood division that has skilled a bumpy staffing shakeup, fee delays, a controversial curriculum mandate, and a longstanding failure to supply preschool seats to kids with disabilities who’ve a authorized proper to them.
The division has additionally been on the heart of a serious price range struggle between Mayor Eric Adams and the Metropolis Council over how a lot funding town ought to allocate for 3-Okay, town’s free public preschool program for 3-year-olds.
This system has expanded below Adams’ watch, however the mayor has additionally adopted by way of with $150 million in cuts for this system’s price range this yr. He contends that town has been paying for empty seats, although advocates have pushed for extra aggressive outreach efforts. Not all households who utilized on time for a seat this fall have been provided a spot.
Native lawmakers, together with those that have sharply criticized the Schooling Division’s method to early childhood applications lately, praised Hawkins. Rita Joseph, who helms the Metropolis Council’s training committee, mentioned Haskins appointment “presents a big alternative to handle and remedy the challenges dealing with our youngest learners and their households.”
And Lincoln Restler, a Brooklyn council member who has usually sparred with division officers about cuts to preschool applications, wrote in a textual content message that Hawkins “is a great, skilled and succesful chief and I’m hopeful she will be able to proper the ship of our troubled early childhood training system.”
Hawkins’ most up-to-date position was with town’s Division of Well being and Psychological Hygiene as a deputy commissioner and chief fairness officer. For now, it seems she’s going to break up the time between the departments of well being and training.
Her first day as deputy chancellor is slated to be July 29, in response to a press launch, although Chalkbeat obtained an inner message to well being division workers that signifies she’s going to proceed to work half time for that company by way of August. An Schooling Division spokesperson didn’t say how a lot time she would dedicate to her deputy chancellor position throughout the transition. Her wage can be $275,126.
Her stint on the Schooling Division’s early childhood division in 2022 lasted lower than a yr. The division was struggling on the time to pay preschool suppliers on time, which hobbled some applications and compelled others to shut. In her position as govt director for operations, Hawkins oversaw the fee course of.
High officers mentioned they inherited a flawed fee system from the prior administration, although different division workers steered that Ahmed drove out longtime staffers with deep information of how the programs work, exacerbating the difficulty.
Two days after testifying in entrance of the Metropolis Council about fee issues, Hawkins resigned her publish, solely about eight months after taking the position. Division officers mentioned on the time her resignation was for “private causes” and had been within the works for “a number of weeks.”
Hawkins’ early childhood expertise stretches again a minimum of a decade. Starting in 2014, she labored as a deputy price range and operations director within the early childhood division of the Youngsters’s Assist Society, an company that operates preschool seats amongst different school-based providers. Extra not too long ago, she was the chief monetary and administrative officer at Covenant Home, a corporation that serves homeless youth.
She additionally beforehand served in authorities, together with as an assistant commissioner within the metropolis’s Division of Well being and Psychological Hygiene, which oversees baby care suppliers, and as a price range analyst for town’s workplace of administration and price range.
Early childhood advocates largely praised Hawkins’ appointment.
“She is somebody who’s effectively revered and favored by the supplier group,” mentioned Randi Levine, coverage director at Advocates for Youngsters, a nonprofit that works with low-income households. “Deputy Chancellor Hawkins brings a wealth of expertise within the area of early childhood training and an extended historical past of partnering collaboratively and dealing by way of operational challenges.”
Gregory Brender, chief coverage and innovation officer on the Day Care Council, which represents early childhood suppliers, famous that Hawkins will instantly have a full plate. Early childhood organizations are “dealing with vital challenges from understaffing to price range cuts,” he wrote in an electronic mail. “We sit up for working with [Hawkins] in her new position.”
Amy Zimmer contributed reporting.
Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, overlaying NYC public faculties. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.
