Despite a vow by city schools Chancellor David Banks to trim the bloated Department of Education bureaucracy, spending on educrats and their offices has ballooned, an analysis by The Post found.
DOE central and district offices have racked up $725 million in expenses for the fiscal year 2022, which ended on June 30 — $101 million over what was budgeted for them, preliminary data compiled by the Independent Budget Office show.
Most of that excess spending went to personnel.
Fatter salaries mean at least 80 DOE executives now make more than $200,000 a year, up from 63 or so in the prior fiscal year, according to officials and the Empire Center for Public Policy
Since Banks started the job on Jan. 1, he’s hired a string of new deputies and chiefs, while shuffling those he replaced – if they didn’t leave or retire – into other six-figure jobs.
“It’s like a game of musical chairs but without removing chairs,” said David Bloomfield, a Brooklyn College and CUNY Grad Center education professor. “Whether it’s making any positive impact on either the budget or the lives of students is unclear.”
Banks’ largesse comes amid nose-diving test scores, declining enrollment, and slashed school budgets. A $469 million cut in allocations to principals has caused a devastating loss of teachers and programs, including art and music. A lawsuit by parents and educators fighting to reverse the cuts is underway.
“If they have exceeded their planned budget by so much while cutting schools by a tremendous amount, it shows their priorities. Either their priorities or their management skills are severely flawed,” said Leonie Haimson, executive director of the advocacy group Class Size Matters.
Banks’ four cabinet chiefs and five top deputies oversee at least 43 divisions, each led by their own executives. The educrats include multiple appointees holding the titles chief strategy officer, chief of staff, and special advisor.
One of them is Mayor Adams’ girlfriend –and NYC’s unofficial First Lady — Tracey Collins, who was quietly promoted in July to “special advisor to the deputy chancellor of leadership,” The Post learned.
Banks created the deputy chancellor post and appointed Desmond Blackburn, an ex-Florida superintendent new to NYC. Collins, formerly a DOE “senior youth development director,” made $175,313 in FY 21.
In her new gig, she makes $221,597, a 23 percent increase.
After Banks, who makes $363,346, Blackburn and First Deputy Chancellor Daniel Weisberg have the highest salaries, $265,000. Two other deputy chancellors, Carolyne Quintana, and Kenita Lloyd make $241,000.
“Given today’s tight labor market, our salaries, from the classroom to citywide leadership, help us stay competitive and hire the best talent,” said DOE spokesman Nathaniel Styer.
Among his moves, Banks abolished ex-Chancellor Richard Carranza’s “executive superintendent” posts, blasting them as a needless layer of bureaucracy.
Five of the executive superintendents have new jobs at central: Barbara Freeman is a ”special advisor for planning,” Mauricière de Govia is “working with emergency management,” and Karen Watts is a “senior advisor” to the chief of curriculum and instruction, the DOE said. All kept their salaries, $209,576,
Banks also created his own new bureaucratic titles, including “chief of school support” — two of them for elementary and middle schools, and one for high schools. The three make $222,972 each. Two of the chiefs, Danika Rux and Lawrence Pendergast, were Carranza’s executive superintendents. The third, Elaine Lindsey, was a superintendent of Queens high schools.
“Dr. Blackburn can’t be a one-man band,” first deputy chancellor Weisberg explained in a phone interview. “He’s got to have direct reports. … some people as advisors and content experts.
“As part of this reorganization, the superintendents are directly responsible for student outcomes, such as whether students are learning to read, and for community engagement, whether the parents are satisfied with the level of service they’re getting,” Weisberg said.
Banks recently announced a move of 1,000 employees from central DOE to district offices.
“We’re moving lots of staff to the superintendents, but if they’re not using those staff wisely and effectively, and they’re not able to show that things are improving and they are on track to meet their goals for students and families, measurable goals, then those superintendents are not going to be in the job,” Weisberg said.
The superintendents should serve families as a “one-stop shop” to get information and solve problems, he added: “No more runaround.”
But Bloomfield, among others, is waiting to see whether the moves improve the lives of teachers and kids.
“It’s a mirage that they’re closer to the schools when they’re still in bureaucratic offices,” the professor said.
Several other Carranza holdovers have stayed on with $200,000-plus salaries but in diminished posts. And six district superintendents who re-applied for the jobs but failed to make the cut landed other executive gigs in district offices or desks at DOE headquarters, Tweed Courthouse, with the same pay.
“Mayor Adams and Chancellor Banks had a number of new hires to make, and obviously folks from the last administration were totally free to compete for those jobs. Some of them got them, and some of them retired,” Weisberg said.
No one was canned, although superintendents, who are not unionized, serve at the chancellor’s discretion. If fired, however, they might sue for allegedly wrongful termination.
“It’s often deemed expedient to keep them on rather than deal with a lawsuit or the superintendent’s political connections,” said Eric Nadelstern, a deputy chancellor under ex-Mayor Bloomberg.
Overall, the DOE had a $31.9 billion operating budget last fiscal year, plus $5 billion in pension costs. The city comptroller’s office is set to report the total expenditures this month.
While expenses for central and district offices went over their separate budgets, the DOE did not exceed its overall budget, officials said.
“A budget is a plan and agencies over- or under-spend as a normal process. The DOE takes all possible efforts to spend within its limits,” the department declared.
Meanwhile, Mayor Adams has cited a looming recession.
On Sept. 12, Adams ordered all departments to start slashing expenses by 3% percent in FY 2023 and 4.75% in FY 2024. He also imposed a hiring freeze, exempting only workers with an “immediate and direct impact on public health and safety,” until departments submit cost-savings plans.