14 Educrats Get Promotions Inside The NYC Department of Education

 

Dr. Miatheresa Pate, named the DOE’s Chief Academic Officer, will oversee reading and math programs.

Here we go again. A new Chancellor - appointed, not elected - uses our taxpayer money as if it were her own. There is no accountability for anything the old Chancellor did, and now there will be no accountability for what the new Chancellor will do. They can give money to any individual or group they want. They say it's all to "help the children", but no one believes that anymore. 

Why are the 14 educ-rats getting their raises? No one knows. I still do not see the special needs children getting their services, healthy lunches, or bussing. These kids are not learning, and no money is coming their way.

New York State has no law that recalls elected officials. Unelected? Well, they are just in their positions forever, until the Mayor makes a decision they have to go, or the Mayor "suggests" they go." (read "go" as involuntarily retire/resign). 

NYC schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos’ reshuffling comes four months after she took the DOE’s helm.Matthew McDermott

New NYC schools chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos ‘elevates’ 14 educrats in DOE reshuffling

By 

Susan Edelman and

 

Deirdre Bardolf

Published Jan. 18, 2025, 11:23 a.m. ET

Schools chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos has promoted 14 educrats to new positions in the city Department of Education, The Post has learned. 

Aviles-Ramos announced the changes Thursday in a memo to DOE colleagues, four months after replacing David Banks, who left under a cloud after the FBI seized his phones in a corruption probe.

In a major move, Aviles-Ramos named Miatheresa Pate the DOE’s chief academic officer, making her role permanent since she replaced Carolyne Quintana, who was ousted in a major shakeup last year.

Pate will oversee the DOE’s “instructional priorities,” including major reading and math curriculum changes launched by Banks, Aviles-Ramos said.

Formerly the interim head of teaching and learning, Pate has come under scrutiny for running a lucrative side gig, in which she charges fees up to $289.95 per person to attend her workshops for aspiring executives.

It’s unclear what salary increases come with the promotions. Many of the appointees already make top salaries: Pate got $278,040 in 2023-24.

Also part of the DOE shuffle, Aviles-Ramos said the communications, intergovernmental affairs, policy and advocacy teams will report directly to her.

Former DOE press secretary under David Banks, Nathaniel Styer, is now Executive Director of Policy Communications.[LinkedIn/Nathaniel Styer]

Former press secretary under Banks, Nathaniel Styer, who once defended a class map that erased Israel, will become executive director of policy communications to “manage key policy messaging,” the memo said. He made $185,436 last fiscal year.

“It’s the propaganda office,” quipped David Bloomfield, a Brooklyn College and CUNY grad center education professor.

“New chancellors are entitled to reorganize according to their management style,” he said, but called some new executive positions duplicative: “Playing games with titles is only a way of inflating salaries.”

Aviles-Ramos wrote that the staffing changes “elevate colleagues” already working for the DOE.

Among her promotions, the chancellor named Katherine Jedrlinic the senior executive director for policy and advocacy, and David Mantell as executive director under her.

Xavier Edwards was tapped as senior executive director of strategy, “conducting strategic planning and tracking progress on agency-wide initiatives.”

In the Division of Operations and Finance, Michael Cheatham is now the senior advisor to Chief Financial Officer Seritta Scott. 

In Early Childhood Education, Sonya Hooks will serve as chief of capacity building and family engagement.

Mayor Eric Adams' Administration Falls Apart Under Federal Corruption Charges

 

VIDEO of Resignation of Philip Banks

Embattled Eric Adams deputy mayor resigns amid growing federal investigation

4 AIDES OF NYC MAYOR ERIC ADAMS OUT IN DRAMATIC DAY OF DEPARTURES

Story by Chris Sommerfeldt and Josephine Stratman, New York Daily News, October 7, 2024

Story by Chris Sommerfeldt and Josephine Stratman, New York Daily News

NEW YORK — Four more aides to Mayor Adams have left his administration in the past week — a dramatic set of City Hall departures that comes on the heels of multiple other high-level resignations and the mayor’s indictment on federal corruption charges, sources told the Daily News on Monday.

Among those leaving are two longtime aides ensnared in federal probes: Rana Abbasova, the director of protocol in Adams’ International Affairs Office, was fired Monday, and Winnie Greco, the mayor’s liaison to local Chinese communities, has resigned, the sources said.

Greco was called in on Friday and told to resign, sources familiar with the matter said. Greco, who has worked for Adams in both governmental and political capacities since his tenure as Brooklyn borough president, was spotted at City Hall that day, at one point appearing comforted by Ingrid Lewis-Martin, Adams’ embattled chief adviser. Their heads were lowered and Lewis-Martin rested a hand on Greco’s shoulder as they left the building.

Like Greco, Mohamed Bahi, senior Muslim liaison to the mayor, resigned from his post effective Monday, a source close to the matter said. And Ahsan Chughtai, a senior mayoral adviser for South Asian and Muslim affairs, was fired on Sept. 30, multiple sources said.

“Both Winnie Greco and Mohamed Bahi today tendered their resignations. We thank them for their service to the city,” Fabien Levy, a spokesman for Adams, said late Monday.

Levy would not divulge a reason for the firings of Abbasova and Chughtai, who has also worked on political efforts for the mayor. Levy didn’t elaborate on why Bahi and Greco resigned, either.

Abbasova was placed on unpaid leave after the feds raided her home last year in connection with the probe scrutinizing whether Adams accepted and solicited bribes and illegal campaign contributions from Turkish government operatives in exchange for political favors.

Prosecutors say Abbasova, who is not named in the mayor’s five-count criminal indictment, coordinated with Turkish officials to set up straw donations and travel upgrades for Adams. She is cooperating with federal authorities and is considered a key witness against Adams, The News previously reported.

Abbasova’s firing comes after prosecutors turned over evidence Adams’ lawyers said could be used to discredit her. Alex Spiro, Adams’ lawyer, had said previously that a staffer was “lying,” referring to Abbasova.

“These prosecutors, finally, after much delay and misdirection, have admitted they were hiding Brady material about the key witness in the case that proves Mayor Adams is innocent,” Spiro said in a statement.

Adams, who was indicted in the case late last month, has pleaded not guilty to charges of bribery, fraud, conspiracy and soliciting political contributions from foreigners.

Rachel Maimin, Abbasova’s attorney, declined to comment.

Greco’s Pelham Bay homes were raided in February. On the same day, the feds also raided the New World Mall in Queens — where Greco helped host lucrative fundraisers for Adams’ 2021 campaign that generated some illegal straw donations, as reported by the news outlet The City.

The full scope of the Greco probe remains unclear, though investigators are known to also be looking at trips she has taken to China with the mayor funded in part by the country’s Communist government.

Greco returned to her post as Asian affairs director in May after being placed on paid leave following the FBI raids on her properties.

Chughtai has been an influential Adams campaign surrogate in the city’s Pakistani communities, and he also donated $1,000 to the mayor’s reelection campaign in June 2023, records show. He didn’t return a request for comment late Monday, and neither did Bahi.

Word of the latest City Hall shakeup came just hours after news broke early Monday that Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Phil Banks resigned over the weekend.

He is one of five top Adams advisers who had their homes raided and electronics seized on Sept. 4 as part of several federal corruption investigations.

Schools Chancellor David Banks, senior Adams adviser Tim Pearson and NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban, who were all raided that day, too, had already announced their resignations prior to Deputy Mayor Banks’ exit. First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright, the fifth adviser raided on Sept. 4, was initially expected to resign this past Friday, but has yet to formally step down.

Betsy Combier

betsy@advocatz.com

Editor, ADVOCATZ.com

Editor, ADVOCATZ Blog

Editor, NYC Rubber Room Reporter
Editor, Parentadvocates.org
Editor, New York Court Corruption
Editor, National Public Voice
Editor, NYC Public Voice

Editor, Inside 3020-a Teacher Trials