Senators and Bloomberg administration officials met last night and this morning to resuscitate the mayoral control negotiations that collapsed last week.
Democratic conference leader John Sampson and senators Shirley Huntley and Martin Dilan met with advocacy groups and City Hall officials last night to restart negotiations, according to Senator Eric Adams (D-Brooklyn). And early this morning, members of Sampson’s staff met with deputy schools chancellor Christopher Cerf, according to a source close to the discussions. Cerf did not return requests for comment late this afternoon.
“There was a meeting held today with the mayor’s office that we believe went extremely well,” the source said.
“There was no agreement, but they’re moving forward. We’re hopeful that we’ll have something in the upcoming days.”
Sources said that Bloomberg did not attend either of the meetings. A spokesperson for the mayor’s office declined to comment on the negotiations.
Adams said he had “no idea,” whether the school governance fight would be resolved before the Fall. “We’re not scheduled to go back up to Albany until it’s time to deal with the deficit,” he said. “So I don’t know if we’re going to make a special trip.”
Talks fell apart at the end of last week after the teachers’ union, City Hall officials, and the largest group criticizing mayoral control, the Campaign for Better Schools, crafted a deal. At first, Democratic senators expressed support for the agreement, but later Sampson told a city source, “This is not one-tenth of what I need.”
Over the weekend, the impasse between the senators and City Hall seemed to push the verbal warfare to a new low. At a rally on Sunday, Sen. Bill Perkins accused the mayor of “treating us like we’re some people on his plantation.” Bloomberg shot back with a historical jab, implicitly comparing himself to Neville Chamberlain and New York State senators to Nazis.