newly created position of deputy chancellor at an annual salary of $48,000, to give Scribner a senior aide and second-in-command with experience in the New York City system. Scribner's post in Vermont did not expire until September 1, 1970, and Anker remained as Acting Chancellor until that date. Citing what he called a "confidence gap" with the Board of Education, Scribner announced in December 1972 that he would leave his post as Chancellor when his three-year contract ended on June 30, 1973. Before going on a vacation (that would prove permanent) starting on April 1, 1973, Chancellor Scribner named Anker to serve as Acting Chancellor until Scribner's contract expired on June 30. While the New York City Board of Education had not decided on a replacement, Anker was seen as the most likely person to fill the spot on a permanent basis if the board's choice was an "insider". Chancellor As had been widely expected, Anker was named as School Chancellor in June 1973, with Samuel Polatnick as executive director of the Office of High Schools, Dr. Edythe J. Gaines atop the Office of Educational Planning and Support and Alfredo Mathew, Jr., as chief of the Office of School District Affairs. As School Chancellor, Anker oversaw the decentralization program that began in 1969 in which staffing choices in elementary and middle schools were made by a network of 32 community school boards. Often viewed as a steppingstone to political office or as an opportunity for patronage, Anker was often at odds with the local boards, ultimately investigating charges of corruption or mismanagement in seven of the 32 local boards and using his powers to suspend board members or to override their actions. In one of his first confrontations, after dismissing the school board of District 9 in the Bronx and replacing it with a trustee he appointed, Anker faced a sit-in by parents who viewed Anker's actions as a racially motivated effort to undermine local control. In December 1974, Anker submitted a proposed $2.78 billion budget for the 1975-76 school year that would add more than $500 million in spending over the previous budget, which would be used to expand services for handicapped and non-English-speaking students. Anker resisted efforts by Mayor of New York Abe Beame to cut services during the depths of New York City's fiscal crisis, saying that he was only requesting "enough money to make the schools