NEW YORK (AP) -- A hastily appointed Board of Education gave Schools Chancellor Joel Klein full authority over the city's education system Wednesday after the state Senate failed to act on a bill to renew Mayor Michael Bloomberg's control of the schools.
Gov. David Paterson had ordered lawmakers into a special session Tuesday night to take up time-sensitive bills including mayoral control of the schools, which expired at midnight. But the lawmakers did not address the issue.
The Senate's inaction left governance of the system up to a Board of Education that was dissolved in 2002 when the law granting Bloomberg control of the schools went into effect.
Bloomberg and the city's five borough presidents met Wednesday morning to appoint a board that may only exist briefly until the Senate acts. The Assembly has already passed a renewal of mayoral control.
``It is my hope that the Senate will act quickly and pass a form of mayoral control that will support the children,'' said Carlo Scissura, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz's appointee to the emergency board.
Bloomberg said the new board and his administration will do their best to keep city's 1.1 million public schoolchildren ``from becoming victims of the Albany train wreck.''
The mayor, who has made dire warnings of chaos if he lost control of the schools, added, ``Our responsibility is to make sure that rioting doesn't happen. Hopefully we've taken the appropriate steps.''
An opponent of mayoral control, Jane Hirschmann of the parent advocacy group Time Out From Testing, tried to attend Bloomberg's City Hall news conference but was asked to leave. Before she was escorted out, she said the new Board of Education is ``a total sham.''
``It's still the mayor having total control, the key stakeholders are not at the table,'' Hirschmann said. ``I just wanted the voice of the parents to be heard today because all you're getting is the voice of the mayor.''
The mayor had not yet arrived when she spoke out.
Bloomberg appointed two of his deputy mayors _ First Deputy Mayor Patricia Harris and Deputy Mayor for Operations Edward Skyler _ to the new Board of Education. Queens Borough President Helen Marshall appointed a third, Deputy Mayor for Education and Community Development Dennis Walcott.
The Brooklyn, Manhattan and Staten Island borough presidents also chose appointees who support Bloomberg. Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr.'s appointee, Dolores Fernandez, the former president of Hostos Community College, does not.
The board met for nine minutes at Department of Education headquarters and voted 7-0 to reappoint Klein with full authority over the schools, including signing contracts. It also voted 6-0, with Fernandez abstaining, to urge the state Senate to act on the mayoral control bill. The board then adjourned until Sept. 10.
Fernandez said afterward that she voted to keep Klein because ``stability needs to continue in the New York City public schools.''
Leonie Haimson, executive director of Class Size Matters, a parent group that opposes Bloomberg, criticized the newly constituted board for giving Klein full authority and for not allowing public comment at their meeting.
``They claim to believe in enhanced transparency, accountability, public input,'' she said. ``They have a meeting where they give it all away. ... They don't even have public comment, and they adjourn until September.''
Her group has pushed for changes in the mayoral control law, such as giving the city's 32 Community Education Councils authority over school closings and openings within their boundaries.
In Albany, Sen. John Sampson of Brooklyn said there was time to rework the bill passed by the Assembly to provider greater input from parents.
``We are not about to engage in any sort of chaos,'' said Sampson, chosen Democratic conference leader during a more than three-week standoff over control of the Senate. ``We want to everyone to know we are not irresponsible.''
Meanwhile, summer school opened Wednesday for New York City students who want to avoid repeating a grade.
Lunchroom aide Rita Jones reported to work at Public School 11 in Chelsea and said she was no fan of mayoral control.
``Right now everything is messed up,'' Jones said. ``It seems like he wants to control the parent associations. It's not a business. It's a school.''
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