NYC’s next schools chancellor says it’s business as usual despite Eric Adams’ indictment

Mayor Eric Adams faces bribery and fraud charges and a growing number of calls for his resignation, but he has not lost the support of his incoming schools chancellor.

Melissa Aviles-Ramos was announced Wednesday as David Banks’ successor and is expected to officially assume the role after he retires on Dec. 31.

She reiterated her support for Adams during a Thursday interview with Chalkbeat, and she emphasized her commitment to continuing his education agenda, including an overhaul of literacy teaching in elementary schools.

“I share their vision … That’s why I agreed to be chancellor,” she said of Adams and Banks. “My North Star is their North Star, but I have to make sure that I keep the train moving.”

The past few days have been a whirlwind for the nation’s largest school system. Banks, whose phones were seized by federal agents nearly three weeks ago along with those of other top officials, abruptly announced his retirement Tuesday. The next day, at a celebratory press conference, Adams and Banks announced that Aviles-Ramos would become the city’s next schools chancellor.

Hours later, news broke of Adams’ indictment. Adams strenuously denied the charges Thursday at a press conference in front of Gracie Mansion where he was flanked by supporters and heckled by protesters chanting, “resign.”

In a letter to city employees on Thursday, Adams wrote, “Let me be very clear, I know I’ve done nothing wrong. … Our focus must remain the same: continuing to deliver for our fellow New Yorkers.”

It’s unclear how long Aviles-Ramos could stay in her role, especially if Adams is forced to step down and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams takes over. But Aviles-Ramos said the uncertainty isn’t changing her approach.

Beyond reiterating her support for Adams on Thursday, Aviles-Ramos – who has worked as a principal, superintendent, and Banks’ chief of staff, and led the city’s efforts to incorporate migrant students – laid out her alignment with Banks on a number of policy issues ranging from lowering class sizes to a citywide policy to integrate schools.

She also clarified that during the next three months, she and Banks will jointly make policy decisions.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

I wanted to start with something that came up at the press conference. When you got to the school that you were the principal of, the graduation rate was 23% and it went up to 68% the first year, which is pretty staggering. Can you talk about how you accomplished that, and if there are any lessons you would draw as chancellor in terms of helping low-performing schools?

The projected graduation rate was only 23% and a lot of that was due to poor programming. So we had to sprint and figure out how to get those students those classes [they needed]. And so we got it up to 68%.

What I learned from that is no one person has all the answers. In a small school, when you are the principal, you are part programmer and school aide, and you do all the things. And so I spent a lot of time with my programmer. I spent a lot of time with my families, I spent a lot of time with my students and with my teachers, and together, we had to really think about how do we design a program that doesn’t punish kids who thought that they were on track, and also embraces the things that they like to do. So it was a real lesson in leadership and how you have to listen to your community.

You left the DOE in February after a long time for an administrative role at Monroe College. Why was that?

I actually was supposed to work with Monroe College back in 2022. I wanted to try something new.

And then [First Deputy Chancellor] Dan Weisberg said, “I’d just like to have a talk with you, because I hear that you’d be really good to have on my team.” Dan and I just hit it off. And he offered me the job [as senior executive director of his office] … which was how I inherited Project Open Arms [the city Education Department’s effort to incorporate migrant students].

When you came back to the DOE in July after Monroe, was that already with the explicit understanding that you were going to be named chancellor?

There was definitely a transparent conversation about a succession plan that occurred amongst the chancellor and the mayor and myself.

We heard a lot from advocates and families about how disruptive the 60-day shelter limit for many migrant families was. I’m curious what you saw? And is that type of policy something you would feel comfortable potentially pushing back on the mayor on?

We definitely saw challenges. But students in temporary housing, unfortunately, is not new to New York City. We have a lot of experience with this, though definitely not the way that we do now. Working closely with enrollment was how we were able to accommodate a lot of the families, and with busing. Was it perfect? No, nothing is.

In terms of pushing back on City Hall, what I will say is that this was the last resort. This is not something that anyone wants to do. The numbers are huge. We had 45,000 students … My job is to operationalize it in a way that is going to make sense for families as best as possible, and to make sure that there’s as little disruption to learning.

There’s a lot of factors driving declining enrollment: lower birth rates, the affordability crisis. To what extent do you think the Education Department can have an impact on enrollment? And what can you actually do?

I think there’s a lot that can be done. I think we’ve started that work. First of all, schools are very important to communities, and what we have been working on is really empowering our superintendents and principals to build that ecosystem within their community. Making sure that you’re not just a principal who is in your building and taking care of the programming and the curriculum, but how are you interacting with the community? Do you know the business owners? Do you know the churches? And when you get to know your community, people start entrusting you with their kids.

People move to neighborhoods because they want really good schools. But in order for them to know what a school is like, especially if there are four or five of them in one neighborhood, they need to know the principal, and they need to know the school community.

As you look ahead, is there a top priority for you? What’s your North Star, your one thing you hope to accomplish as chancellor?

The priorities that we have already set forth in this administration. Who doesn’t want to teach kids to read, do math, and have access to amazing careers after they graduate?

I see my role as making sure we get all of those things over the finish line.

So specifically, would that be continuing literacy work and some of the Future Ready work?

New York City Reads, our Pathways work, Future Ready. My background is in high school education, so it’s incredibly important to me the work that’s happening in Future Ready. But I also have a background in adolescent literacy. I also know what it feels like when a 14-year-old young person doesn’t want to engage with their peers because they don’t want people to know that they are reading on a first- or second-grade reading level.

So again, I don’t have to worry about competing priorities, because I share the same ones with them.

You were pretty clear yesterday in your praise for the mayor. Given the news [of Adams’ federal indictment], do you continue to feel that way? Do you continue to feel he can be an effective mayor?

I’m committed to New York City. I’m a career educator. I believe in the role that I have currently, and the one that I’m about to step into. I’m an English teacher, not an attorney, and I’m going to stick to the task in front of me, which is making sure that our kids and our families have everything they need.

Given that you need sign-off from City Hall to advance significant policy initiatives, do you feel confident that that’s going to continue to happen?

I do feel confident.

This year is the first real big test for class size reduction. You have to hit 60% of classes underneath the designated caps by next fall or risk hundreds of millions of dollars potentially in state aid. The city even went backwards by a percentage point or two last year. What’s your plan to get there?

Our plan is to continue working with the unions and with our internal folks to look at this on a case by case basis. It’s a complex situation, as you well know, so I can’t sit here and say anything other than we have an amazing group of people and a strong partnership with the union. We can look at things as they come up, and see where there are issues and how we can solve for them.

Do you anticipate a big teacher hiring increase this year?

Well, we would need to, that’s part of class size. We are going to need a lot more teachers.

Banks was clear about not wanting to kind of impose a citywide policy in terms of integrating schools, or changing the entrance requirements to the specialized high schools. Do you agree with that?

I think that entering into this seat, and also the current seat that I have, which is family and community engagement, I do what is needed in communities and what the families are asking for.

Are there any changes that you anticipate, anything you want to bring to this that would be new?

Something that I want to drive is bilingual education. I want to make sure that we prioritize support for those young people, and that we do provide the support for the teachers. We know that New York City Reads has been successful in bilingual classes. I’ve spoken to a couple of teachers in schools who have said that this has been very helpful.

In terms of New York City Reads, you’re still at the beginning of this, and as the chancellor has said many times, it’s a long horizon to see impact. How do you think about the long term fate of that initiative if it’s unclear whether this administration is going to stay?

I am confident that any person who is involved in education would want to see children learning to read. We’ve also been very transparent that this is a long road. But we have done so much important foundational work with professional development. This wasn’t just unboxing a curriculum and giving it to teachers. There was a very strategic partnership with the [United Federation of Teachers] and with other organizations to provide that shoulder to shoulder, job-embedded support for the teachers. So I think because of that, it’s going to continue.

Who is the final decision maker in the DOE for the next three months?

That will be [Banks] and me together. We’ve worked really closely together in the last couple of years. And one thing about the chancellor is that he makes decisions with his cabinet. So this isn’t new to them. It’s certainly not new to me, and I’m actually looking forward to the next three months.

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org.