By Penelope Day
NYC high school journalists had an opportunity to interview the school’s Chancellor David Banks on November 1st at the Tweed Courthouse in Manhattan, and the chancellor spoke on a wide variety of issues that concerned the students.
Banks, who has spent most of his career working in the DOE, emphasized how he believes in the educators and administrators that make up our city’s schools.
“Most of our school leaders, these are people that deeply care,” Banks said, “It’s not a job for them, they really care. They want the school to be successful and they want you to be successful.”
Banks, himself, was one of those educators. He spent years as a school safety officer, teacher at P.S. 167 in Brooklyn, and a principal at the Bronx School for Law, Government, and Justice. He also founded the Eagle Academy for Young Men, an all boys school primarily catering to adolescents of color. His love for the city public schools stems from his own upbringing, at P.S. 161 in Brooklyn and Hillcrest High School in Queens.
“So when you sit in a seat like this, the system is so massive – the whole world lives in New York City, people of every ethnic background and persuasion, religion and everything,” he said. “I was in a Muslim school in Queens yesterday, I’ve been out to the Jewish Yeshivas, private schools, and independent schools. It’s a wide range, and there’s lots of opinions and lots of perspectives. And I think that’s what makes New York City really exciting.”
Banks, who describes the job of chancellor as being fulfilling, finds it best to delegate while still allowing schools to maintain vestiges of individuality. This is displayed especially in his philosophy about school funding.
“As the chancellor, I don’t always sit here like I have the answer for every single school,” Banks said, “The system is just so broad.”
However, he added that this sometimes means he is forced to make concessions on his key values in order to give schools the freedom to allocate their own budget in ways that they see fit.
“We leave those decisions for the most part in the hands of the school principals: how much they’re going to put into after school programs and the like,” Banks replied to a question about after school funding. “We never have enough money, that’s the main idea. And no matter what amount we give, it never covers everything. I want every school to have a library, and a full time librarian. I want every school to have at least one art teacher and a music program and after school programs. So I’m fighting as hard as I can to ensure that schools get the programs they need.”
Another challenge for Banks since he became chancellor on January 1st has been developing the digital system that many schools are patiently waiting on to replace Skedula and PupilPath, the widely used grading systems that were banned last year following a data breach.
“When you move from one system to another, it’s always fraught with issues and challenges,” he stated. “So it’s going to take a little bit of time until we’re fully comfortable with the new system.”
Image: Banks and student journalists discuss major issues facing NYC high school students.
Banks is certainly a chancellor with strong, core values at the heart of his initiatives. In particular, he has many goals regarding work experiences for students.
“I’m a firm believer that young people like you need as many practical opportunities to do stuff that really matters, to help you really figure out what it is that you’re trying to do,” he said. “Just going to school every day without a deeper context of where you’re ultimately going only works for some kids.”
He then explained how he hopes his Youth Apprenticeship Program can give a better educational experience to some of the students like those he worked with in juvenile detention on Rikers Island.
“I want you to all have more purpose; more relevance,” Banks asserted. “And you know, I went to Rikers Island and I saw these kids who were locked up in jail, and I asked them their story, how they wound up in jail. And each one of them ended up becoming disconnected from school.”
Another key value for Banks is student initiative and free speech for all students.
“School is the place that should be the sharing of ideas,” he said. “If everything is just about one particular frame of mind, then that’s indoctrination, that’s not education. Education should always be about hearing different points of view, whether you agree with it or disagree with it.”
Taking from his work experience, Banks added that he thinks students often have some of the best ideas as stakeholders in their education.
“I was a principal for 11 years, and for me, one of the best things that we ever did in our schools was because young people came up with the idea to do it,” Banks said, “And so you want to be in a school that allows the freedom of ideas.”
Image: Banks poses with student journalists at the roundtable press conference this November.
To the students who attended the press conference, he encouraged us to speak out in our school communities.
“You have to raise your voice,” Banks stated. “You have a voice, express your voice. And you don’t have to be weak and humble in expressing your voice, And you don’t have to be belligerent either.”
Beyond being influential though, Banks was personable. He shared with us his best experience from his high school years – being elected Vice President of his senior class, a feat that he believes influenced his love of leadership today.
“It was the happiest day of my life, I still get excited,” he said. “I never forgot that day, because it was something about being affirmed by your peers, who said ‘we want you to represent us and be a leader for us’, it was just phenomenal for me personally.”
In general, Banks has his heart rooted in New York City. His favorite sports team is the Knicks, his favorite restaurant is a cozy place called Lex’s on Lexington Avenue, and his pride and joy is the school system that has been home for most of his life.
“New York City is the most amazing city on the entire planet,” he confidently proclaimed. “There’s nowhere quite like New York. That’s why New York City should be your classroom. There’s so much for you to learn, so many different foods for you to try, and so many people for you to meet.”
The Murrow Network 