Brooklyn families and educators are demanding the reinstatement of a popular school superintendent after Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos inexplicably yanked him in a move critics slam as cronyism.
Aviles-Ramos ousted Brendan Mims, the District 16 superintendent appointed by her predecessor David Banks, on Monday, relegating him to the city Department of Education office that holds student suspension hearings, insiders say.
It was the first major personnel change by Aviles-Ramos since she started as chancellor Jan. 1.
“We were all blindsided,” Shalonda Vasquez, a Bedford-Stuyvesant business owner and mom of twins, told The Post. “It’s unfair and it doesn’t make sense.”
Fabayo McIntosh, tapped to replace Mims as acting superintendent, is a well-connected educrat and longtime friend of NeQuan McLean, sources said.
McLean is the president of the Community Education Council for District 16, a member of the city’s School Diversity Advisory Group and head of the Education Council Consortium, an anti-racist advocacy group.
Sources say McLean has “clear personal interests in the outcome,” and helped orchestrate the move.
He did not return a request for comment.
The DOE refused to explain Mims’ removal, saying only that he serves “at will.”
Spokespersons also would not say whether Mims will keep his $234,029 city salary.
Mims, an educator for over two decades, was appointed by Banks in 2022 in a bureaucratic shakeup he claimed would make the superintendent offices more accountable.
“The man had unequivocal support,” said advocate Marlon Rice, citing Mims’ extensive involvement in the community.
“Not only is he adamant about the children’s education, but also about equipping the parents with what they need so that they can do what they need to do for their children,” said parent Kelli Cooper.
A petition calling for Mims’ reinstatement garnered over 760 signatures as of Friday afternoon.
Last year, District 16’s Community Education Council began calling for meetings to address “concerns” with Mims, according to a message shared with The Post, and brought Assemblywoman Stefani Zinerman into its conversations with the city.
Zinerman said the DOE has given no explanation for Mims’ exile, calling it a “personnel issue.”
“We thought everything was going well,” Zinerman said at a rally Thursday of some 50 parents, community members, principals and other school administrators outside PS 25. “The children are happy, people are partnering in our schools, schools are robust.”
“We know that he didn’t do anything that was against the law or against policy,” the assemblywoman said.
Zinerman is now demanding that the city bring in a mediator, hold a meeting of community stakeholders, and conduct a public review of Mims’ record, she said in a letter to the DOE.
“This is not the first time a superintendent in District 16 has faced premature removal amid political or interpersonal conflict,” she noted.
McIntosh abruptly left her role as an assistant superintendent in Valley Stream, L.I., in December 2023 to work for the DOE’s Deputy Chancellor of School Leadership Danika Rux, who was promoted by Banks after her husband agreed to step aside from his consulting firm to take a high-paying DOE job.
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