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Veteran School Chief to Retire

By HEATHER HADDON

Region 1 Superintendent Irma Zardoya announced that she will retire at the end of next month after more than a decade of overseeing local schools. She will be replaced by Yvonne Torres, a district supervisor and former local principal, on Feb. 1.

The announcement, made on Dec. 14, came as a surprise to many. “It was shocking,” said Maria Quail, principal of PS 8 in Bedford Park. “I’m devastated.”

Zardoya has worked for the city Department of Education (DOE) for the last 33 years, along with Ray Rosemberg, the deputy superintendent and Zardoya’s right-hand-man. Rosemberg also announced his retirement earlier this month.

In 2003, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein appointed Zardoya to one of the 10 regional posts established under the DOE’s reorganization, which consolidated the community school districts. She gave little prior indication that she was considering retirement, and discussed future plans for the Region in an interview with the Norwood News last August. Local principals were officially informed about her decision on the day of the announcement.

Zardoya says she began contemplating retirement last year. “It’s something I have been planning for a while now,” said Zardoya, after a local Community Education Council meeting earlier this month. “It wasn’t sudden.”

Zardoya received citywide praise earlier this year after the Region’s fourth grade test scores jumped by the highest percentage in the city. She has been credited with devising many techniques — like testing interventions, subject coaches, and reading strategies — that are now being used on a citywide basis. Parents and school administrators have largely viewed Zardoya as responsive and approachable.

“It brings sadness to my heart to see you leave,” said Denis King, an MS 143 parent, during the meeting.

Zardoya’s middle years as superintendent were rocky. She contended with a sharply divided Community School Board 10, where a bitter struggle shifted power to the Riverdale-based majority from those members living in the rest of the district.

At one point in 1999, the Riverdale-controlled board seemed poised to oust Zardoya. They weres planning to interview other candidates until parents protested, and then-Assemblyman and Democratic Party chairman Roberto Ramirez weighed in with board chair Oliver Koppell. Zardoya was offered a one-year contract followed by a three-year renewal the following year.

The Riverdale members chafed at Zardoya’s non-traditional pedagogical philosophy. For example, she favored heterogeneous classrooms where kids of varying skills abilities were in the same classroom. She also had less patience for gifted and talented programs favored by the Riverdalians.

Those tensions erupted around the creation of a zoned high school inside MS 141 in Riverdale, a racially charged debate that consumed district business and school board meetings for months. Zardoya and the non-Riverdale members of the board vigorously opposed the plan because it excluded residents outside of Riverdale. It also replaced precious middle school seats with spots for high school students, who at that point were under the purview of the central Board, not the local districts. Zardoya eventually compromised by agreeing to the zoned high school with the caveat that another zoned high school, MS/HS 368, had to be created for students in Kingsbridge.

“To give her credit, she insisted if we did 141, we had to do 368,” Koppell said at a recent press briefing in his district office. “She was right about that and I give her credit.” Despite their differences, Koppell developed a better working relationship with Zardoya later on and said, “I regret her leaving.”

It was smoother sailing for Zardoya as the state legislature gradually drained school boards’ power to hire and fire superintendents and transferred it to the schools chancellor. Zardoya had the confidence of Chancellors Rudy Crew and Harold Levy, and once the Board of Education became a city agency answerable only to the mayor, Klein promoted her to oversee all the schools of Region 1, which includes District 10 and District 9.

Zardoya nominated Torres as her successor, and Klein approved the promotion. “I have the utmost confidence that Yvonne will lead our children to continued success,”he said in a statement.

Torres has served as a local instructional supervisor for the last three years, overseeing schools in District 9. She was a deputy superintendent in Washington Heights prior to the DOE overhaul, but spent 29 years of her career in District 10. Torres also served as principal at PS 291 in University Heights.

Alan Abrams, a teacher at PS 291 who has worked with Torres since 1972, thinks very highly of her work with students, parents and staff. “I have nothing but good things to say about her,” he said. “She’s a real leader, and she’s not afraid to take chances.”

Quail also thinks favorably of Torres. “She’s been in the Region for a long time, and has the same vision as Irma,” she said.

Both leaders said the transition will be a smooth one. “I hope to continue the work of Irma and Ray so schools don’t feel they are in any turmoil,” said Torres at the meeting. “It’s going to be a great journey.”

Still, some school leaders say Zardoya will be a hard act to follow. “Those are legendary shoes to fill,” said Marvin Shelton, the Education Council’s president.

A longtime Norwood resident, Zardoya recently moved to Westchester. She plans on taking a rest for several weeks after her retirement, but is leaving the door open for future work in education.

“I don’t want to close that chapter just yet,” she said with a smile.

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