{"id":137988,"date":"2026-02-18T22:12:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T22:12:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/137988\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T22:12:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T22:12:07","slug":"family-engagement-deputy-chancellor-resigns-nyc-schools-first-top-exit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/137988\/","title":{"rendered":"Family engagement deputy chancellor resigns, NYC schools\u2019 first top exit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York\u2019s free daily newsletter<\/a> to get essential news about NYC\u2019s public schools delivered to your inbox.<\/p>\n

As New York City school insiders eagerly await to see how the new chancellor reshuffles top brass, the Education Department has its first high-profile departure. <\/p>\n

Cristina Mel\u00e9ndez, the deputy chancellor of family, community, and student empowerment, is leaving her post on Feb. 27, she wrote in an email to parent leaders on Wednesday, thanking them for their work. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe most important thing you can do is stay engaged in your schools and keep building your child\u2019s confidence day by day, conversation by conversation, and moment by moment,\u201d she wrote. \u201cThat steady belief you offer your child becomes their strength.\u201d<\/p>\n

She did not say where she planned to head next. Education Department officials did not respond to questions about her replacement or whether the departure is related to a broader cabinet shakeup. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe look forward to sharing more soon,\u201d Education Department spokesperson Nicole Brownstein said in a statement commending Mel\u00e9ndez for her service.<\/p>\n

Mel\u00e9ndez assumed her role as deputy chancellor more than a year ago, after serving as the executive director of the Education Department\u2019s Office of Family and Community Empowerment, known as FACE, which among other things, oversees the Community Education Council elections. <\/p>\n

The elections have had notoriously low turnout, with roughly 18,000 households, or just 2% of eligible families, casting ballots in 2025. A 2023 Chalkbeat investigation<\/a> highlighted numerous concerns in how FACE conducted the election process, uncovering how the office was gripped internally by turmoil and factions, potentially affecting the election process. A New York City comptroller report<\/a> called on the Education Department to implement a series of changes in the voting process, but the participation rate remained unchanged. <\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s indefensible what happened with the election,\u201d said Robert Murtfeld, a former Community Education Council member in Manhattan\u2019s District 1, who runs an advocacy committee at The Neighborhood School. <\/p>\n

Inspiration, advice, and best practices for the classroom \u2014 learn from teachers like you.<\/p>\n

Across all of our bureaus, Chalkbeat reporters interview educators with interesting, effective approaches to teaching students and leading their schools. Get the best of How I Teach sent to your inbox for free every month.<\/p>\n

Given Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s pledge to include families in governance of the nation\u2019s largest school system, Murtfeld suggested there\u2019s an opportunity to find someone who can engage not only the estimated 1.6 million current families in the system but also include millions more alumni. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt needs to be someone who is inspiring,\u201d he said. \u201cIt can\u2019t be a bureaucratic robot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mel\u00e9ndez took over at FACE in January 2022 after serving as a lead on the education transition team for former Mayor Eric Adams<\/a>. <\/p>\n

A former bilingual education teacher in the Bronx and assistant principal, Mel\u00e9ndez earned a doctorate in education from the University of Pennsylvania in educational leadership. While there, she wrote a thesis entitled \u201cDominican parenting across generations\u201d <\/a>and examined difficulties the city had engaging Black and Latino parents. <\/p>\n

Before that, Mel\u00e9ndez served as a district supervisor for the city\u2019s controversial renewal initiative aimed to turn around failing schools<\/a>, according to her LinkedIn profile. <\/p>\n

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy atazimmer@chalkbeat.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sign up for Chalkbeat New York\u2019s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC\u2019s public schools delivered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":137989,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[4146,58519,58518,9,24,55,54,3059,56,27174],"class_list":{"0":"post-137988","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-chalkbeat","9":"tag-community-and-student-empowerment-cristina-melendez-at-the-ccec-election-voting-party","10":"tag-deputy-chancellor-of-family","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","14":"tag-new-york-city-news","15":"tag-new-york-city-public-schools","16":"tag-ny","17":"tag-nycps"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}