We Have To Put The Focus Back On The Kids . . . As Backdrops!

This day in irony:

Ms. Black appears to have been among the last to find out. At about 8 a.m. Thursday, an aide to Mr. Walcott called Laura Scott, the principal of Public School 10 in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and asked her to arrange for a group of fifth graders to attend a press conference at City Hall, where they would serve as the backdrop for an announcement. The aide did not tell Ms. Scott the topic of the event — Ms. Black’s resignation.

About an hour later, the mayor met with Ms. Black at City Hall. In his private office, on the first floor, Mr. Bloomberg told her that her position was no longer tenable. She had become the story, not the schools, he said, distracting her staff and the public. “We have to put the focus back on the kids,” he said.