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A growing chorus of New York City families are pushing Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani to keep schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos in place when he takes office in January to avoid a leadership shakeup in the middle of the school year.
“Families across this city deserve stability, experienced leadership and continuity during this critical transition,” members of the Chancellor’s Parent Advisory Council, which includes dozens of parent leaders across the city, wrote in a recent letter to Mamdani. “Removing [Aviles-Ramos] would create unnecessary disruption and weaken the progress underway.”
A separate group of local parent leaders are planning to send a similar letter this week.
Ever since New York City’s mayor won control of the school system more than two decades ago, each incoming mayor has appointed a new schools chief when taking office. But Mamdani has said he’s open to breaking that pattern by keeping Aviles-Ramos, who was chosen by Mayor Eric Adams. The mayor-elect has already tapped Adams’ police commissioner to stay in her role.
The latest push from parent leaders may create additional pressure on Mamdani to stick with Aviles-Ramos, especially as he has vowed to include families and educators in decisions about how the school system is managed. The city’s teachers union, which endorsed Mamdani in the general election, also supports keeping Aviles-Ramos.
Aviles-Ramos took over more than a year ago after former Chancellor David Banks abruptly resigned amid a federal investigation of Adams’ inner circle (Banks has not been accused of wrongdoing). She joined the school system in 2007 and worked her way up as a teacher, principal, superintendent, and Banks’ chief of staff. She helped lead the Education Department’s response to a massive influx of migrant students. And she has largely continued Adams’ existing agenda.
For months, advocacy groups including New Yorkers for Racially Just Public Schools have encouraged Mamdani to conduct a thorough process that includes a search committee and public forums. Keeping Aviles-Ramos in her role on a temporary basis would create time to collect feedback from educators and families, they argue. (That group is hosting a meeting on Dec. 8 to discuss the chancellor search process.)
If Mamdani taps Aviles-Ramos, two of the city’s highest-profile agencies would be managed by people selected by Adams, who faced multiple corruption scandals and is deeply unpopular.
“I’ve said time and again that I will consider anyone on the basis of the work that they have done — not hold it against them as to who appointed them,” Mamdani said in October.
Still, Mamdani has not yet released a detailed education agenda, and he has embraced some of Adams’ signature initiatives, including a sweeping reading curriculum overhaul. Aviles-Ramos is well-positioned to keep those efforts on track, the chancellor’s parent advisory group noted in their letter.
The schools chancellor is a major appointment. The post is among the nation’s most visible jobs in public education, and the Education Department is the largest city agency, with roughly 150,000 employees and a nearly $43 billion budget. The mayor-elect’s signature campaign promise — universal child care — will require close coordination with the department.
Mamdani’s transition team did not immediately respond to questions about when he plans to name a chancellor and whether he will collect public input before making a decision.
NeQuan McLean, a parent leader in Brooklyn, said the Education Council Consortium — which is made up of local education council leaders — plans to send a similar letter this week encouraging Mamdani to keep Aviles-Ramos in place.
She “has done some great work around parent empowerment,” said McLean, who helps lead the consortium and is the president of the local parent council in Bedford-Stuyvesant. He cited an initiative that helps connect families to housing support, food benefits, and other services.
But McLean said the group will also push for a more open-ended search process, which he noted could still result in Aviles-Ramos staying on the job. “This is a public-facing position and the public should weigh in on the decision,” he said.
A spokesperson for Aviles-Ramos did not respond to a request for comment, though she has signaled an interest in some of Mamdani’s education priorities. In September, she announced plans to expand a pilot program to support homeless students. Mamdani repeatedly touted the initiative on the campaign trail and plans to scale it up.
Mamdani has said little about who he is considering for the role or whether he will conduct a national search. At least one potential candidate for the role, Meisha Porter, is in the running to oversee Chicago’s public school system, though that process has slowed to a crawl. She is a veteran of New York City’s Education Department who briefly served as chancellor under Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.
