New York City Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels picked his cabinet Thursday, with a seasoned education official as his top deputy and an organizational shakeup of the nation’s largest school system’s upper ranks.
Danielle Giunta, who was first promoted by former Chancellor David Banks to help develop school leadership, was appointed by Samuels as first deputy chancellor. Samuels also created two new positions: supervising superintendents for K-8 and high schools.
“I spent two decades of my career in roles across NYC public schools, from math teacher to principal to superintendent, and I’ve seen many iterations of our organizational chart, iterations that often lacked cohesion, efficiency and clarity,” Samuels said during a news conference at the school system’s lower Manhattan headquarters.
“I knew I needed to make some structural changes.”
Under Giunta, Maribel Torres-Hulla, one of the two new supervising superintendents, will oversee all local superintendents directing elementary and middle schools. Torres-Hulla, a former Bronx superintendent, moved to the public schools’ central offices a couple of years ago as the chief of school support, according to her LinkedIn.
Alan Cheng, who most recently was the superintendent for consortium and international high schools, was promoted into the supervising role for all high school district superintendents.
Superintendents were previously overseen by a singular deputy chancellor. The change to two supervising superintendents, Samuels said, was intended to provide more support to those top school district officials as they implement new reading and math curricula, career programs, and graduation requirements.
“We wanted to go closer to superintendents as we think about their support and their evaluation,” said the chancellor, who himself served as the local superintendent of Harlem schools until last year.
Samuels also taped Flavia Puello-Perdomo as his deputy chancellor of family engagement. Puello-Perdomo is a long-time education official who became known for her work with students in homeless shelters during the migrant crisis. Most recently, she served as the chief executive for Community Supports and Wellness.
Simone Hawkins, the deputy chancellor for early childhood education, will continue in her position as the Mamdani administration launches free child care for 2-year-olds and expands access to free preschool for 3-year-olds.
Lindsey Oates, a former chief financial officer at the public schools, starting under Mayor Bill de Blasio, was set to return in June as deputy chancellor of finance administration and human resources.
Kevin Moran, the acting head of school operations, was made permanent in the role. Liz Vladeck, the public schools’ top lawyer, will remain. So will Christina Foti, the deputy chancellor for students with disabilities or learning English, Kenita Lloyd, the chancellor’s chief of staff, and Mark Rampersant, who oversees school safety.
Samuels was selected as chancellor in the final days before Mayor Mamdani’s inauguration, leaving him little runway to appoint his own team before he took the reins of the nation’s largest schools system.
The new hires will be key to shaping Mamdani’s vision for the K-12 public schools, while the mayor has focused most of his attention so far on early childhood education. Samuels has offered up his own priorities for the system, including safe, academically rigorous and truly integrated schools.
