Bio
Danielle Keane leads with the belief that a school must be the safest and most supportive place in its neighborhood. Raised in Throggs Neck, Bronx, as the youngest of three daughters, she learned the value of hard work from her father, a police officer, and her mother, a house cleaner. Long before she became a principal, Ms. Keane showed the same initiative and resolve that now define her leadership at PS5 Port Morris . While pregnant with her first daughter, she searched for childcare that met her standards and, finding none nearby, worked with her husband to remodel their basement and open a childcare center. She operated it for 15 years, caring for roughly 25 young children while continuing part-time medical billing work and later beginning her career as a fifth-grade special education teacher in the Bronx. Since becoming Principal in 2016, Ms. Keane has applied that same problem-solving spirit to a school facing 44 percent chronic absenteeism and some of the city’s lowest academic results. She launched the “Walking School Bus” program to help students travel safely through high-crime corridors and created the “Caring Adult” initiative, which pairs staff mentors with every student living in temporary housing. Under her leadership, chronic absenteeism has dropped to 23.7 percent, and the number of students meeting state standards in English and Math has doubled. Through persistence and a clear commitment to the children of Mott Haven, Ms. Keane has transformed PS 5 into a place of stability, academic growth, and possibility.
