As he named a new schools chancellor Wednesday, Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani reversed course on a key but controversial campaign promise: ending mayoral control of New York City’s public schools.
“I will be asking the Legislature for a continuation of the mayor’s control,” Mamdani said during a news conference in North Central Park to formally appoint Kamar Samuels, a local Manhattan superintendent, as chancellor of schools.
But he said it could look different under his watch.
“I will also be engaged with my Chancellor of incoming schools to ensure that the control of the mayor I preside over is not the same one we oversee today,” added the elected mayor, hours before he was due to take the oath on Thursday.
During the campaign, Mamdani expressed interest in sharing more authority with students, parents and the adults who run schools every day — principals, teachers and other school staff members. But he stopped short of sharing his plans to reshape the school’s current system of governance, including whether that might involve giving up his power to unilaterally appoint a chancellor or otherwise weakening that individual’s influence.
Currently, the mayor selects his chancellor and appoints a majority of the members to the Educational Policy Panel, a citywide body that most closely resembles school boards in districts across the country.
The mayor’s role in determining the makeup of the panel means he usually votes according to City Hall directives. But at the end of the Adams administration, that practice began to break down, with the board most recently pushing to shorten an extension of expired school bus contracts. The state Legislature also made a number of changes in recent years to add more perspectives to the panel, including parent members elected by local community districts.
David Bloomfield, professor of law and education policy at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center, called the appointment of Samuels by Mamdani a good choice, while “a strong display of mayoral control that is not expected.”
Mamdani acknowledged the discrepancy: “With the appointment of Kamar, I must admit that in the past I was skeptical about the control of the mayor, even at times it came to the point where I want to end the system altogether.”
“So although I have concerns about the mayor’s control, I also recognize that New Yorkers need to know where the buck stops: with me,” said the mayor-elect.
He went on to promise more involvement with families, including empowering parent coordinators at every school and restructuring how meetings are run so that working parents “can actually attend them.”
Previous chancellors have lobbied – hard – to retain control of the city’s schools, with former head of schools David Banks going so far as to announce he had no interest in remaining in office without that structure in place.
The outgoing Chancellor, Melissa Aviles-Ramos, who after Mamdani’s victory sat down for an interview with the Daily News to make her case to remain in the position, said that she “accomplished a lot under the control of the mayor,” and could do “much more” if the system remains in place. Some lawyers had asked for Aviles-Ramos to be kept temporarily for stability, while involving more people in the selection process or planning for bigger changes in the governance of the school.
There appears to be little appetite in Albany for significant changes. That said, supporters of Samuels, a veteran education official with more than two decades of experience in the city school system, say he is in a unique position to lead the school system through a time of transition.
Samuels began his career as an elementary school teacher, then as a middle school principal, both in the Bronx. He later led District 13 in Brooklyn — where he was best known for overseeing a district-wide middle school integration plan — before moving to District 3 in Manhattan for the past few years. He is also the parent of two public school children.
In his current position, he has overseen an increase in literacy rates and access to rigorous International baccalaureate programs. He also secured more than $10 million across the two districts to promote racial integration through admissions policies and school mergers.
“I’ve had every role, and in every role, my focus has been the same: delivering results grounded in care, clarity and high expectations for our students,” Samuels said.
Wednesday’s news conference took place after the mayor-elect had to make an appointment on Tuesday at the same place in Central Park. But that news conference was canceled on short notice, and Mamdani instead went to Elmhurst Hospital Center in Queens to announce a few other picks, including Helen Arteaga as his deputy mayor for health and human services.
Tuesday’s change led many sources in Mamdani’s transition team to speculate that the Chancellor’s announcement had for whatever reason been postponed at the last minute.
But Arteaga told The News on Wednesday that this was not the case, saying that her appointment is expected to be announced at the Central Park site, but she asked to be brought forward.
“I asked the team of the elected mayor at the last minute if we could organize the press conference at my beloved hospital, Elmhurst Hospital, for all the meaning it has for me and for my professional journey,” said Arteaga, who has been the CEO of the hospital since 2021.
Samuels was set to step into his role as chancellor Thursday, just days before classes resume after winter break next week. Aviles-Ramos has agreed to continue advising the school system for a month to help with the transition, Mamdani said.