Mamdani Appoints More Than a Dozen People to School Oversight Panel

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Mayor Zohran Mamdani appointed 13 people to the city’s school board Tuesday, cementing his control over the panel that votes on major policy changes, contracts and decisions to merge or close schools.

The appointees to the Panel for Educational Policy bring a range of professional experience, including an environmental justice advocate and a budget official at the MTA. Others have more traditional education policy backgrounds, including a former early childhood policy official who worked under former Mayor Bill de Blasio. Several are current or former public school parents.

Mamdani also reappointed three members who served under former Mayor Eric Adams. The terms of Adams’ appointees ended last month. (See a full list of Mamdani’s appointees below.)

“Public schools belong to New Yorkers, and the families, students and educators who make them what they are deserve a real voice in the decisions that shape them,” Mamdani said in a statement. “The Panel for Educational Policy has a vital responsibility to help guide our school system with transparency and accountability.”

Under state law, the mayor has the power to appoint 13 of the board’s 24 members and pick the chair from a list provided by state lawmakers. The current chair’s term does not expire until September. Parent leaders select five members, and each of the five borough presidents appoints one.

That structure gives Mamdani direct authority over the school system, a power he campaigned on giving up to make the system more democratic, though he never sketched out a clear alternative. He abandoned that position shortly before taking office and successfully lobbied state lawmakers for a two-year extension of mayoral control in the most recent state budget.

Under Mamdani, the panel will likely consider a range of hot-button issues, and advocates are already gearing up to influence the new board.

A group pushing for a moratorium on artificial intelligence in the city’s public schools plans to rally outside Wednesday’s panel meeting, the first that will feature Mamdani’s new appointees. The board has previously been skeptical of AI, and the city is developing new guidance on how the technology can be used in classrooms. The city delayed releasing the guidance due to overwhelming pushback, but officials said they planned to release it before this fall.

The panel will also have to grapple with how to approach declining enrollment in the nation’s largest school system. Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels has indicated the city may need to ramp up school mergers and closures, but such proposals often spark fierce backlash, with parents, students and educators packing board meetings in protest.

Historically, mayoral appointees tend to vote in line with the mayor and his schools chancellor. Mamdani, however, has vowed to listen to community input. It remains to be seen if that posture will give his appointees more room to vote independently of City Hall’s wishes. The mayor can no longer remove his own board members simply for voting against his proposals under a 2022 tweak in state law.

Adams sometimes struggled to control the board, which more frequently bucked City Hall’s proposals than panels under previous mayors. Toward the end of his term, Adams allowed three mayoral appointees on the board to sit vacant, effectively giving up his majority.

Under recent changes to the board’s structure, mayoral appointees serve one-year terms that expire at the end of June. That makes Mamdani the first mayor required to work with board members appointed under his predecessor for his first six months in office. Although Mamdani could have filled two mayoral vacancies that Adams left open, he mostly allowed them to sit empty in recent months. He appointed one member, Brooklyn College professor Maddy Fox, in time for the June board meeting.

Greg Faulkner, the panel’s current chair who was appointed by Adams, said he was impressed with the new slate of board members.

“I’m excited by this new group — the diversity and experience is really great,” he said.

Here are the members Mamdani appointed, according to a press release issued Tuesday afternoon. The three members Mamdani reappointed are Alan Ong, Marjorie Dienstag and Amy Fair.

Karla Cordero

Cordero is chief of staff at WE ACT for Environmental Justice, which fights for climate justice in low-income areas of West Harlem and Upper Manhattan. She previously worked in government and helped launch an emergency food program during the COVID pandemic that delivered more than 18 million meals to New Yorkers.

Tariq Khan

Khan has spent nearly three decades at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, where he now works in budget and finance. The Queens resident has also been active as a parent leader in his local school communities.

Mehrain Mahdi

Mahdi, a parent in Manhattan’s District 2, served on her school’s leadership team, where she launched an after-school Spanish program. She also founded Little Leaping Leaders, a mentorship program for young girls.

Alan Ong

Ong, a longtime civic leader in Queens, has served as a parent-teacher association president and as president of District 26’s Community Education Council. He previously was an Adams’ appointee on the PEP.

Amy Fair

Fair has worked in higher education administration for more than 25 years and is the director of strategic initiatives and special projects at NYU Steinhardt. She has also served on the community education council in Bronx District 11 “and in several community leadership roles supporting students, families and schools,” according to her official bio.

Courtney Rajwani

Rajwani, the parent of two public school children, is a managing consultant at the Lewin Group, a healthcare consulting firm. Under former Mayor Bill de Blasio, she was an executive director for policy development and support in the city Education Department’s early childhood division.

Crystal Vera-Montalvo

Vera-Montalvo is the director of community educational engagement at the College of Staten Island. She oversees a slew of programs, including English as a second language, continuing education, GED, as well as other initiatives geared toward older adults and people with disabilities. She is the parent of a current New York City public school student.

Marjorie Dienstag

Dienstag’s three children have attended both public and private schools, including one who currently attends a District 75 school, which serves children with more complex disabilities. She led a grassroots push to build a West Village middle school that includes a program for District 75 students.

Lucas Koehler

Koehler previously worked as a seventh-grade math teacher in the Bronx and is now the chief financial officer at the Foundation for City College. His bio credits him with playing a “key role in expanding New York City’s early childhood education system.” He also previously worked in the Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget.

Primo Lasana

Before becoming chief impact officer at the Forum for Youth Investment, a nonprofit focused on youth development, Lasana was the executive director of Reading Partners and director of new site development at iMentor. He’s also been active on his Brooklyn community board.

Kristin Jefferson

Jefferson is a senior education consultant at Teaching Matters, a nonprofit that works with schools to improve reading and math instruction through training and coaching. She also founded KJ-Ed Solutions LLC, an education consulting firm. She previously was the academic director and network multilingual learner coordinator at Explore Charter Schools and director of recruitment for the Education Department’s Office of New Schools. 

Maddy Fox

Fox is a Brooklyn College professor who studies children and youth as well as sociology and is a faculty member at the CUNY Graduate Center. She is a “union member and participatory action researcher whose work focuses on partnering with young people and communities to shape public policy,” according to her official bio. Fox has two children in the city’s public schools.

Raysa Rodriguez

Rodriguez is the executive director of the Citizens’ Committee for Children, an advocacy and research organization. She previously worked at other nonprofits, including the United Way of New York City. During the administration of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, she was a senior adviser on children’s issues for the deputy mayor for health and human services. She was born and raised in the Bronx and is a former kindergarten teacher.

Alex Zimmerman is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

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