After backing out of Boston job, NY school official may be looking again for work
(Globe file photo)
By Stephanie Ebbert, Globe Staff
Fourteen months after Manuel J. Rivera reneged on the offer to become Boston schools superintendent for a top education post in New York State, he could lose the job in a shake-up of former Governor Eliot Spitzer's administration.
Rivera is among the top Spitzer administration officials being asked to offer to resign by Monday as new Governor David A. Paterson reassesses Spitzer's year-old team to shape his own administration.
"Did I ever expect that I would be in this position a year later? Absolutely not," Rivera said in a phone interview. "Hindsight is 20-20."
While Paterson may end up keeping Rivera on staff, the shakeup of a sophomore administration has been jarring to the Spitzer believers who flocked to work for the ethics-reform governor, only to watch him fall from grace in a prostitution scandal a year later. Though Rivera said he made the right decision at the time by choosing Albany over Boston, he acknowledged he was personally stung by Spitzer's fall.
"Boston was a huge opportunity, a tremendous opportunity. Eliot twisted my arm, contacted me several times," Rivera said. "I made the decision basically to continue to serve the state of New York and the governor because of my belief in what he wanted to accomplish and get done."
Rivera, who was superintendent in Rochester, N.Y., accepted the job as Boston's new superintendent last year after a lengthy search. But at the time, he was also on Spitzer's transition team, advising the newly elected governor on education, and Spitzer asked him to become his senior education policy adviser in office. In January 2007, Rivera was named a deputy secretary for education in New York, angering school officials and the mayor in Boston. He gave them notice he was bowing out of the job in a letter sent by Federal Express.
"The decision that I made at the time was the right decision for me personally, and I think it's unfortunate what's happened. It has been a very difficult week at the capital," Rivera said.
A spokesman for the New York governor said there may be no wholesale change in the administration but that the resignation letters would give the governor "some flexibility to review his staff on a case-by-case basis."
"This is not any signal that there are going to be mass departures in the administration or wholesale changes. There’s no imminent change in Manny’s status," said Errol Cockfield.
The 2006 National Superintendent of the Year said he is already fielding offers from head-hunters, but he hopes he will be among those officials that Paterson keeps on his team. "I'm hopeful and believe that I'll be continuing on in my role as deputy," Rivera said.
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