Crew Packs Arsenal of New Powers in N.Y.C.

New York

It was nearly 5 p.m. on his first day back from the winter break, and New York City Schools Chancellor Rudy F. Crew had not even had lunch. As his chauffeur-driven Chevrolet Suburban wound through Brooklyn's rush-hour traffic toward a meeting with the mayor, it became clear that dinner would be a long way off.

But Mr. Crew was in no mood for complaining, even if he had found the time. On this first business day of the new year, the head of the nation's largest school system was right where he wanted to be.

Just days before the holiday break, the 46-year-old administrator had emerged as the big winner in the most significant shake-up in a generation of the way the city runs its schools. After months of political maneuvering, Mr. Crew had seized an arsenal of new powers he believed would finally put him in charge of the system he had ostensibly been running for...