When Chancellor Carmen Fariña introduced herself to city principals last week, the loudest applause came when she announced that principals would get more space in their Department of Education email inboxes.
The principals had long labored with a storage cap on their inboxes, requiring them to spend time deleting large messages or risk not being able to receive or send messages.
Late Tuesday, Fariña told principals in the department’s weekly message to them that she was “delighted” to announce that the change had taken effect.
“While most of my conversations with you over the last month have been focused on understanding how you lead the core instructional work of your schools, I heard loud and clear that many of you were spending too much time managing and archiving emails. Email inboxes for principals and assistant principals are no longer capped,” she wrote. “I know that this does not address your broader concerns about demands on your time or the volume of emails you receive, but I hope this provides some measure of relief and allows you to direct more of your time to your staff, students, and families.”
The expanded inboxes are only available to people who are officially designated as “head of school,” “principal,” or “assistant principal,” according to the message.
An earlier version of this piece included an inaccurate size limit for principals’ email inboxes.