The incumbent David Banks is the latest city official to step down as federal corruption inquiries continue.
NEW YORK—New York City Mayor Eric Adams named Melissa Aviles-Ramos, deputy chancellor of the city’s public schools, to replace Schools Chancellor David Banks, the latest city official to step down as federal authorities tighten their scrutiny.
Banks’s resignation was announced on Tuesday and will take effect Dec. 31.
Aviles-Ramos has served as deputy chancellor since July, having previously held various roles within the Department of Education, including chief of staff of the office of the chancellor, senior executive director of program implementation, and acting superintendent. Earlier this year, she served for six months as vice president of Monroe College, a private institution.
Aviles-Ramos’s new role was announced just three weeks after federal agents raided Banks’s home on Sept. 4 and confiscated his phone along with that of his partner, First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright, as part of a corruption probe that has widened steadily and cast doubts on Adams’s political future.
Banks’s tenure began on Jan. 1, 2022, when Adams tapped him to be the 31st New York City schools chancellor, replacing the outgoing Meisha Ross Porter.
In a
statement on Tuesday in response to Bank’s retirement announcement, the mayor praised what he described as Banks’s central role in a wide variety of educational programs and initiatives.
“In less than three years, our city’s public schools have transformed—from ensuring schools were safe and open coming out of the pandemic to a space that has increased our students’ reading scores, math scores, and graduation rates. We’ve instituted critical initiatives like ‘NYC Reads,’ ‘NYC Solves,’ and universal dyslexia screenings,” Adams stated.
For his part, Banks thanked Adams for the chance to serve and said he was “immensely proud of the progress we’ve made together.”
Banks’s comments reiterated much of what he said in his Sept. 17 “State of Our Schools”
address, where he highlighted his record as chancellor and the investment of $1.5 billion in New York schools as COVID-19 stimulus funding ran out.
The snowballing investigation into the affairs of top Adams administration officials shows no sign of abating. Banks is the latest in a series of high-profile figures to resign.
Lisa Zornberg, the mayor’s chief legal adviser, resigned without notice on Sept. 14, saying in a brief resignation letter that she could no longer do her job effectively.
On Sept. 12, New York Police Department Commissioner Edward Caban
resigned, days after federal agents seized his phone as part of an investigation into his twin brother James’s business dealings with area nightclubs, bars, and restaurants.
Adams quickly appointed as interim commissioner Tom Donlon, an experienced anti-terrorism official who last Friday himself became the subject of a law enforcement inquiry. Federal agents carried out search warrants at Donlon’s residences and took what Donlon, in a statement, said were documents unrelated to his work for the NYPD.
Donlon previously served as the city’s director of the Office of Homeland Security, led the FBI’s national threat center, and played a role in investigating the 1993 World Trade Center attack. He started his own security firm in 2020.
Last week, two officials in the New York Fire Department were
arrested on charges they had colluded with a retired firefighter in an elaborate bribery scheme based on the provision of expedited fire safety inspections.
The Department of Education did not respond by publication time to a request for comment.
NYC Mayor Appoints New City Schools Chancellor Amid Federal Investigations
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NEW YORK—New York City Mayor Eric Adams named Melissa Aviles-Ramos, deputy chancellor of the city’s public schools, to replace Schools Chancellor David Banks, the latest city official to step down as federal authorities tighten their scrutiny.
Banks’s resignation was announced on Tuesday and will take effect Dec. 31.
Aviles-Ramos has served as deputy chancellor since July, having previously held various roles within the Department of Education, including chief of staff of the office of the chancellor, senior executive director of program implementation, and acting superintendent. Earlier this year, she served for six months as vice president of Monroe College, a private institution.
Aviles-Ramos’s new role was announced just three weeks after federal agents raided Banks’s home on Sept. 4 and confiscated his phone along with that of his partner, First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright, as part of a corruption probe that has widened steadily and cast doubts on Adams’s political future.
Banks’s tenure began on Jan. 1, 2022, when Adams tapped him to be the 31st New York City schools chancellor, replacing the outgoing Meisha Ross Porter.
“In less than three years, our city’s public schools have transformed—from ensuring schools were safe and open coming out of the pandemic to a space that has increased our students’ reading scores, math scores, and graduation rates. We’ve instituted critical initiatives like ‘NYC Reads,’ ‘NYC Solves,’ and universal dyslexia screenings,” Adams stated.
For his part, Banks thanked Adams for the chance to serve and said he was “immensely proud of the progress we’ve made together.”
The snowballing investigation into the affairs of top Adams administration officials shows no sign of abating. Banks is the latest in a series of high-profile figures to resign.
Lisa Zornberg, the mayor’s chief legal adviser, resigned without notice on Sept. 14, saying in a brief resignation letter that she could no longer do her job effectively.
Adams quickly appointed as interim commissioner Tom Donlon, an experienced anti-terrorism official who last Friday himself became the subject of a law enforcement inquiry. Federal agents carried out search warrants at Donlon’s residences and took what Donlon, in a statement, said were documents unrelated to his work for the NYPD.
Donlon previously served as the city’s director of the Office of Homeland Security, led the FBI’s national threat center, and played a role in investigating the 1993 World Trade Center attack. He started his own security firm in 2020.
The Department of Education did not respond by publication time to a request for comment.
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