{"id":85183,"date":"2025-12-31T02:15:06","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T02:15:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/85183\/"},"modified":"2025-12-31T02:15:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T02:15:06","slug":"mamdani-to-tap-kamar-samuels-as-nyc-schools-chancellor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/85183\/","title":{"rendered":"Mamdani to tap Kamar Samuels as NYC schools chancellor"},"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

Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani is expected to tap Kamar Samuels, a Manhattan superintendent, to run New York City\u2019s public school system, according to a transition committee member briefed by administration officials.<\/p>\n

As the superintendent of Manhattan\u2019s District 3, Samuels supervises schools with widely varying demographic profiles across the Upper West Side, Morningside Heights, and parts of Harlem. Samuels has led school integration plans and played a role in a previous effort to scale back gifted programs, initiatives that Mamdani has vowed to revive.<\/p>\n

Samuels also has experience executing school mergers \u2014 a task that is often complex and controversial \u2014 which could be valuable as the city grapples with a growing number of tiny campuses. Those mergers, however, have tended to have an explicit integration focus in what is one of the nation\u2019s most segregated school systems. <\/p>\n

Before his tenure in District 3, where he oversaw several mergers, Samuels was the superintendent in Brooklyn\u2019s District 13, which spans from Brooklyn Heights to Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, and parts of Bedford-Stuyvesant. While there, he oversaw the move of Arts & Letters<\/a>, a coveted pre-K-8 school, from its home in Clinton Hill to an underenrolled school building in Bedford-Stuyvesant. <\/p>\n

He also spearheaded that district\u2019s move away from gifted and talented programs \u2014 amid growing concerns from parents about racial disparities \u2014 and laid the groundwork to move toward implementing International Baccalaureate programs districtwide<\/a>. The International Baccalaureate is recognized globally as a rigorous program, and District 13 aimed to use it to create a more inclusive schoolwide approach to enrichment as an alternative to gifted education, serving only a select group of students. <\/p>\n

Samuels started out as a teacher in the Bronx nearly two decades ago before becoming a principal at the Bronx Writing Academy, or P.S. 323,<\/a> where he took advantage of a teachers union program allowing schools to experiment beyond the confines of the contract: he staggered start times for teachers, adjusted class lengths, and incorporated online learning through a city program known as iZone, which paid for the school\u2019s new computers.<\/p>\n

He will face a series of challenges as New York City\u2019s schools chief. As enrollment in public schools has plunged<\/a>, the incoming administration will have to answer difficult questions about whether to close or merge more schools<\/a>. Rates of chronic absenteeism, which skyrocketed during the pandemic, remain elevated<\/a>. A state class size mandate<\/a> will require finding thousands of new teachers and billions of dollars. Though reading and math scores have ticked up on state assessments, the city\u2019s performance is widely considered middling<\/a> given the agency\u2019s nearly $43 billion budget \u2014 and there are wide gaps that cleave along lines of race and class<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the trickiest task for the incoming chancellor will be managing one of Mamdani\u2019s most significant education promises: to end mayoral control of the nation\u2019s largest school system and give families and educators more of a say. <\/p>\n

Mamdani has yet to outline how he would give up some of his own power over the school system, but it\u2019s possible those moves would dilute the schools chief\u2019s authority.<\/p>\n

Some education observers were quick to praise Mamdani\u2019s decision to elevate Samuels.<\/p>\n

Nikole Hannah-Jones, a journalist who has written extensively<\/a> about inequity in New York City schools, praised the move on social media<\/a> as \u201coutstanding news for those who still care about school integration and equality.\u201d She added: \u201cIn the face of the national attacks on civil rights and dismantling of enforcement at the U.S. DOE this pick by Mamdani sends a powerful message.\u201d<\/p>\n

Others who have worked directly with Samuels said he is known for navigating thorny debates about inequity in the system and incorporating feedback from parents and other community members. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe is savvy and respected,\u201d said David Adams, the CEO of Urban Assembly, which supports a network of New York City public schools. The decision \u201creflects a mayor who is looking for a chancellor who knows how to operate within the system.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@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":85184,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[98,22553,22721,19659,9,24,56,63,65,64,22720],"class_list":["post-85183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-brooklyn","tag-classroom","tag-friends-of-crown-heights-child-care-center","tag-mayor-elect-zohran-mamdani","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-prekindergarten"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85183","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=85183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}