The Mamdani administration is eyeing potential replacements for scandal-plagued New York City Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels, multiple sources told The Post.
City Hall officials began vetting internal candidates, a high-ranking DOE source revealed, after The Post’s bombshell report two weeks ago on Samuels signing a $180,000 no-bid contract with an unapproved vendor and evading Department of Education procurement rules.
“The DOE was very busy this weekend; they’re under a lot of stress to come up with a solution for this,” the source said.
“The Knicks glow is leaving so now they actually have to deal with this s–t,” another source, a City Hall insider, stated.
Former DOE Chancellor Meisha Ross Porter, who had a brief one-year stint as chancellor in 2021-2022, is believed to be back in the mix for the role.
Porter, 51, has been angling for her old job for months and upped her efforts after The Post expose, the City Hall insider said.
“Porter’s in Tweed all the time as a lobbyist, she’s always talking s–t about Samuels and he’s completely oblivious,” the insider claimed.
The former chancellor once threw herself a lavish $45,000 bash to celebrate her ascension to Bronx superintendent in 2019. She recently posted on LinkedIn about attending a state college-savings account event with Samuels and NYC Council Speaker Julie Menin.
She was nearly picked for the chancellor role back in January, but the Mamdani camp got spooked by baggage surrounding a financial scandal at a nonprofit she ran, multiple sources claimed.
In the summer of 2024, Porter was axed from The Bronx Community Foundation — a nonprofit dedicated to fighting inequity in The Bronx — where she was earning $300,000 a year after the group was hit with serious financial mismanagement and corruption allegations.
The nonprofit distributed less than 25% of the $12.6 million it raised from 2019 to 2023, and a slew of executives were fired once the numbers came to light in 2024, The New York Focus reported.
If Samuels is axed, DOE Deputy Chancellor Lindsay Oates, who runs the Division of Finance, Administration and Human Resources, is also on the successor short list, the City Hall insider said.
She previously served as NYC Schools chief financial officer during the de Blasio administration, where she developed a close relationship with First Deputy Mayor Dean Fuleihan, who is serving in the same role under Mamdani, the source claimed.
Fuleihan has taken a more hands-on role in handling the DOE for Mamdani in light of the Samuels’ scandal, the insider said.
“Whoever gets picked would likely have to have his blessing,” they added.
The DOE source told The Post that Mamdani’s frustration with Samuels has been building as the embattled schools chancellor has struggled to lead the city’s largest agency.
“Mamdani passed on several qualified candidates because they didn’t tell him exactly what he wanted to hear — Samuels got the role by lying to his boss, and that’s what he’s still doing,” the DOE source said.
When a Post reporter spotted Samuels in the hallway of a Panel for Education Policy meeting Wednesday, the embattled chancellor rushed to the bathroom instead of answering questions about the shady contract he inked. He is now being probed by the Special Commissioner for Investigation.
“This is absolutely, unequivocally false,” a City Hall representative said when asked if they are vetting replacements for Samuels.