Lorraine Grillo has been appointed by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg as president of the New York City School Construction Authority.

The agency manages new school construction and renovation of the city’s existing school buildings for the Dept. of Education. Grillo had been interim president since April 2010. She filled the slot vacated by Sharon Greenberger, appointed by the mayor and then-Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein to chief operating officer for the Dept. of Education. Klein has been succeeded by Cathie Black. Black’s critics note that she is a close friend of Bloomberg and former Hearst Corp. CEO, but has no experience in public education.

Grillo has been with the SCA for 17 years. She started as a community affairs specialist in Queens, then became the director of community affairs and eventually assumed the position of senior director of community and intergovernmental affairs.

In 2008, Greenberger named her SCA executive director/chief of staff to the president. In this position she was responsible for an agency-wide reorganization and helped implement the 2005-2009 Five-Year Capital Plan, New York City’s multimillion-dollar investment in school construction.

“We’ve succeeded in creating more than one hundred new school seats over the past eight years, in large part because of the reforms the SCA has adopted to bring down the cost of construction,” said Bloomberg. “Creating new, modern school facilities is a cornerstone of our education reforms, and Lorraine’s strong leadership will allow us to continue building on the progress we’ve made.”