City Schools, October 2009

Maria Schlanger’s son is in eighth grade at Math and Science Exploratory School in Brooklyn. Now, the family is trying to decide where he should attend high school next year. 

“It’s overwhelming how many choices there are—it’s great in some respects, but there is pressure to see a lot of schools. My son is a musician and has a lot of auditions,” Schlanger said.

So Schlanger and her son recently attended the Citywide High School fair to learn more about their options and narrow their choices. More than 34,000 families attended the event at Brooklyn Tech High School this year, and another 26,000 visited fairs in the five boroughs—a 40% increase over last year.

Q. Talk about your job as the Director of School Health. What is an average day like for you?

A. I have a very unusual role. I report both to the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and the Department of Education. I head the Office of School Health, which is jointly funded by Health and Education. On the DOE side, I report to Deputy Chancellor Kathleen Grimm; at DOHMH, I report to Deputy Commissioner Andrew Goodman.

The Office of School Health is responsible for providing a variety of services to New York City schools. The most visible, I suspect, is nursing services. We have more than 1500 nursing positions in our schools. In addition, our office also provides nurses to about 250 non-public schools.

Our nurses do two things: First, they provide for the general health needs of our students. We call these public health needs and they include ensuring the physical exams, immunizations and other screenings students need. Second, we care for students with both physical and educational disabilities, who consequently need more services and attention.

Q. What is your background? How did you come to DOE? What made you become a doctor?

A. Part of the reason I became a doctor is because my father, who is 99, is a physician. I think that being a doctor is intellectually challenging and also offers a way of helping people. I went to medical school and trained as a specialist in internal medicine. I then I embarked on an academic career, first at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, then at Harvard, and then at Mt. Sinai here in New York City. I’ve spent almost 30 years as a physician, administrator and teacher in those three medical school settings.

In 2002, I got a call from former Health Commissioner Tom Frieden, now the Director of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who said, “Do I have a job for you!” We talked awhile about the position. It sounded like a very interesting challenge, an interesting way to take on an entirely new set of issues, and a good way to finish my career in my hometown.

At the Urban Assembly School for Green Careers, students are learning to retrofit buildings to make them more energy efficient.

It's just one of the ways the new high school, on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, is preparing students for green industry jobs.

“Before, I didn’t notice how much sustainability affects us all,” ninth-grader Nailah Guerra said. She enjoys her new school because of the personalized attention she receives and because she has always been an “outdoors person.”

Green Careers opened on the Brandeis High School Campus last month, and has 100 students in its freshman class. It is one of four schools recently designated as demonstration sites for new approaches to Career and Technical Education, modeling innovative approaches to preparing students for 21^st century careers. It is also the first school in the country to train students for green careers.