New York City Public Schools Chancellor, Melissa Aviles-Ramos, made her case on Friday to remain as the leader of the nation’s largest school district. This comes just days after the mayor-elect indicated that she is still being considered for the position.
“If given the chance, I would be thrilled to continue,” Aviles-Ramos expressed in an exclusive interview with the Daily News.
“There’s still much work to be done. My perspective is unique, having held almost every role within this extensive system, and as a mother of a sixth grader, I experience its impact firsthand.”
Zohran Mamdani is also evaluating other candidates, such as Meisha Porter, who previously served as chancellor under Bill de Blasio and is keen on securing the role. Other potential candidates reportedly include Kamar Samuels, a superintendent from Harlem, and Alex Marrero, a superintendent from Denver, among several others still in consideration.
“The Mayor-elect is conducting a thorough and broad search for all appointments, and announcements will be made when ready,” stated Mamdani’s spokeswoman, Monica Klein.
During her discussion with the News, Aviles-Ramos highlighted several areas of mutual interest with Mamdani, such as safeguarding the rights of migrant students, boosting parental involvement, and tackling homelessness among students in NYC’s public schools.
“We’re aligned on those issues, and if given the opportunity, I look forward to executing a plan — both the enhancement of ones that exist and perhaps creating new ones that further our shared agenda,” she said.
Were he to select Aviles-Ramos, Mamdani would be the first New York City mayor with authority over the school system to at least temporarily keep his predecessor’s chancellor in place — a move that could be befitting of an incoming mayor who campaigned on ending mayoral control of public schools. Some advocates have pushed for Mamdani to retain Aviles-Ramos for the start of the term, before transitioning to a model that involves more community input.
“Keeping New York City Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos in place is one of the best decisions he can make as a mayor,” said NeQuan McClean, who’s part of a parent-led effort to keep her. “It shows he’s really serious about doing this differently with mayoral control — because it’s never been done before.”
The mayor-elect confirmed earlier this week he’s been in touch with Aviles-Ramos, who was thrust into the role last year amid a federal probe into members of Mayor Adams’ inner circle.
“I’ve met with Chancellor Ramos,” Mamdani said Tuesday on NY1’s Inside City Hall. “I appreciate the work that she’s done and, like everyone within the Adams administration, I’ll assess her and everyone else on the basis of the work they’ve done, not on that fact of who appointed them.”
Mamdani’s schools transition committee held its first meeting on Tuesday, he said during the interview.
In many ways, Mamdani and Aviles-Ramos would make a more likely pairing than he is expected to with other Adams officials he has appointed or considered, including NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, with whom he’s had disagreements on approaches to public safety.
Before she was chancellor, Aviles-Ramos made her name in education circles as the district’s point person during the migrant crisis; Mamdani has indicated that protecting immigrant families from President Trump’s deportation agenda will be a priority of his administration.
More recently, the schools chief expanded an initiative this year to address student homelessness, which Mamdani plans to invest in even further. She’s also well-liked by many volunteer parents who sit on local school boards and citywide panels, who Mamdani has indicated he would give more of a voice in any changes to school governance.
Mamdani’s selection of a chancellor is further complicated by his promise to end mayoral control. The mayor-elect has not shared plans or a timeline for that policy goal, raising questions of if he will cede his authority to select a chancellor in the near or long-term.
Aviles-Ramos’s predecessor, David Banks, made headlines when he said he had “no interest” in the gig if mayoral control lapsed. Asked if that’s a change she would be comfortable with, the chancellor voiced support for the current system — but left the door open to changes.
“We’ve done a lot of really great things under mayoral control. In fact, the support for asylum-seeking families was successful because we are one large district,” Aviles-Ramos said.
“If the existing infrastructure needs to be better, then how do we make that happen? But we have accomplished a lot under mayoral control, and should he decide to keep that, we would be able to continue much more.”
Porter, the former de Blasio chancellor, was reportedly a finalist to be chief executive of Chicago’s public schools as the system transitions away from mayoral control, though the status of that search process is currently unclear. De Blasio is known to have been a sounding board for Mamdani throughout the 2025 mayoral race and many top officials from his administration are now in line to join the mayor-elect’s City Hall, including soon-to-be First Deputy Mayor Dean Fuleihan.
Aviles-Ramos has benefitted from a powerful surrogate of her own in United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew, who sits on Mamdani’s education transition committee and endorsed the mayor-elect in the general election. Mulgrew and Aviles-Ramos worked closely on changes to citywide curricular requirements and class size reduction plans.
