COVER STORY
CSA President Ernest Logan Celebrated at Grand Retirement Party For 44 Years of Service
By Lydia Liebman
(L-R) Rudolph Franklin “Rudy” Crew, President, Medgar Evers College
& Ernest Logan, Retiring President, CSA
After 44 years of dedicated service to New York city children and families and 10 years at the helm of the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators (CSA), Ernest Logan announced his retirement earlier this year. This October, CSA held an impressive retirement celebration for the larger than life figure. Of the 700 attendees, there were many distinguished and important figure including former CSA Presidents Jill Levy and Donald Singer, former Director of Operations at CSA Anita Gomez-Palacio, President of American Federation of School Administrators Dianne Woodard, New York State Regents Lester Young, Judith Chin, and Kathy Cashin, and New York City Department of Education Chancellor Carmen Fariña along with former NYC DOE chancellors, several superintendents, assembly members, principals, and unions as well as Logan’s friends and family.
The MC was Erminia Claudio who is the Executive Director of Operations at CSA. In her opinion statement, she praised Ernest for his many years of service and spoke of how he is so highly regarded and loved. “You have touched the lives of countless students, educators, community members, politicians and national figures,” she said proudly, and truthfully judging by present company.
Current CSA President Mark Cannizzaro spoke next. He shared some personal background on Logan (he is the 11th of 13th children and lost his father at a young age) and shared how they first came in contact during the 2003-2004 school year. “Ernest, to many your legacy will be that of a charismatic man who led this union to new heights and a man from humble beginnings who became a prominent figure in NYC,” he said. He continued: “To me, your legacy will be of a man who remained humble, who loved others and sacrificed for them… I will remember you as the man who paid at the subway station for a someone in need, the man who provides a scholarship for students in financial need, the man who assists family - a man who pays forward everyday what his mentors did for him.”
Other speakers included Chancellor Fariña, AFSA President Diane Woodard, NYS Regent Lester Young, former CSA President Jill Levy, Mark Brodsky, Gayle Lockett and Gary Goldstein of the Retiree Chapter, poet Lindamichelle Baron, Logan’s son James Logan, Assembly Member and Chair of the Education Committee Catherine Nolan and Assembly Member and Logan’s former student Latrice Walker. #
