Throughout her 22 years there, "she was beginning to make a name for herself across the city, pioneering a curriculum that blended social studies and literacy.

"[5] One of her students there was future novelist and professor Jonathan Lethem, who called her the "perfect" teacher and dedicated his first novel, Gun, with Occasional Music, to her.

[10] From 2004 to 2006, Fariña served as Deputy Chancellor for Teaching and Learning at the New York City Department of Education, where she invested $40 million to expand programs for middle school students, including Saturday classes, organizational and study skills workshops, and parent counseling.

[9] In the summer of 2014, she announced her support of "balanced literacy", an English curriculum that emphasizes free reading and writing at the expense of teacher-led instruction.

[12][13] The New York Post condemned Farina in 2017 for restoring levels of bureaucracy that her predecessor, Joel Klein, under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, had eliminated, and for presiding over "diploma mills", referring to her "proudest achievement, boosting city high-school graduation rates to 72 percent" as "hollow" as "only 37 percent of those [high school] 'graduates' are ready for college.

Total snowfall for the storm was 13 inches in Manhattan; local schools remained open during the snow event.