{"id":153564,"date":"2026-03-05T07:11:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T07:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/153564\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T07:11:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T07:11:09","slug":"top-nyc-school-officials-step-down-paving-the-way-for-chancellor-samuels-to-pick-a-team-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/153564\/","title":{"rendered":"Top NYC school officials step down, paving the way for Chancellor Samuels to pick a team"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two high-ranking New York City education officials stepped down in quick succession Wednesday night, paving the way for Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels<\/a> to name his top deputy and make other cabinet-level appointments.<\/p>\n

A news conference was scheduled for Thursday morning. In an email to principals, Samuels wrote that he would be making an announcement related to the school system\u2019s \u201corganizational structure.\u201d<\/p>\n

The chancellor invited administrators to an optional webinar after the event to \u201celaborate on what this announcement means for our system and for your leadership,\u201d read the memo obtained by the Daily News.<\/p>\n

Samuels was selected as chancellor<\/a> in the final days before Mayor Mamdani\u2019s inauguration, leaving him little runway to appoint his own team before he took the reins of the nation\u2019s largest schools system.<\/p>\n

The new hires will be key to shaping Mamdani\u2019s vision for the public schools, as the mayor has focused his attention on early childhood education<\/a> as part of his broader affordability agenda. Samuels has offered up his own priorities for the system, including safe, academically rigorous, and truly integrated schools.<\/p>\n

Isabel DiMola, who had been the acting first deputy chancellor since the start of this school year, announced her retirement Wednesday night, effective April 1, according to a goodbye email obtained by The News.<\/p>\n

DiMola spent more than three decades in public education, starting as a Brooklyn social studies teacher and earning the respect of education professionals citywide as a beloved superintendent in School District 21<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I enter the next chapter of my life, I do so with immense gratitude for the experiences I have had as a New York City educator and leader,\u201d DiMola wrote. \u201cI remain hopeful and excited for what lies ahead for our children and for our city.\u201d<\/p>\n

Danika Rux, the deputy chancellor and direct supervisor of the city\u2019s 45 district superintendents, said she was transitioning to a senior advisor role in the general counsel\u2019s office, according to a separate email from Rux.<\/p>\n

Both memos, sent within an hour of each other, were first reported<\/a> by independent journalist Susan Edelman.<\/p>\n

Cristina Mel\u00e9ndez, the deputy chancellor for parent engagement, had stepped down at the end of last month<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two high-ranking New York City education officials stepped down in quick succession Wednesday night, paving the way for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":153565,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[63760,63759,41579,9,24,56,63,65,64],"class_list":{"0":"post-153564","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-deputy-chancellor","9":"tag-education-officials","10":"tag-kamar-samuels","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-ny","14":"tag-nyc","15":"tag-nyc-headlines","16":"tag-nyc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153564","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=153564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}