Cross one more name off the list of top candidates for New York City schools chancellor.
With five school days left before Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio takes office, the head of the Washington, D.C. school system, Chancellor Kaya Henderson, sent a letter to her staff on Friday saying she’s staying put.
“I love DC and I’m not about to leave. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I have the best job in the world,” Henderson wrote.
Henderson was a serious enough candidate that de Blasio spoke to her, but she was never embraced by his allies in the city teachers union because of her Bloomberg-style education-reform ideas.
A source on the mayor-elect’s transition team said Friday that de Blasio’s conversation with Henderson was “brief” and that “she was not a good fit for the position and did not advance further in the process.”
Still in the running is former deputy city schools chancellor Carmen Farina.
The Daily News reported last week that Farina, a longtime de Blasio adviser, may be willing to return from retirement to helm the school system at least for an interim period.
Other educators who have been recommended to the mayor-elect include Chicago schools chief Barbara Byrd-Bennett; Montgomery County, Md., Superintendent Joshua Starr; and Kathleen Cashin, a member of the New York State Board of Regents.
Stanford University professor Linda Darling-Hammond ruled out taking the post earlier this week, but denied she was ever offered the job.
A de Blasio aide told the Daily News on Friday that Darling-Hammond was someone the mayor-elect holds in high regard.
“Linda Darling-Hammond is someone de Blasio consulted on the process and seeks advice from on education policy,” the de Blasio aide said. “She’s someone he respects.”
