Mayor Adams Names New Schools Chancellor, as Chaos and Inquiries Swirl

The quick selection of Melissa Aviles-Ramos to lead the New York City school system seemed intended to quell a deepening crisis that has seen several top officials resign.

Mayor Eric Adams, facing a major crisis that is worsening by the day, quickly appointed a new schools chancellor on Wednesday, less than 24 hours after the abrupt resignation of David C. Banks, his longtime friend.

The incoming chancellor, Melissa Aviles-Ramos, will take over in January, after Mr. Banks’s resignation takes effect. Ms. Aviles-Ramos, who is currently a deputy chancellor and previously served as Mr. Banks’s chief of staff, is relatively unknown outside the Education Department.

The immediacy of the appointment seemed intended to project stability amid the chaos engulfing Mr. Adams’s administration, as it confronts at least four federal corruption inquiries and a flurry of resignations among senior officials.

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But even in Mr. Banks’s departing speech, the turmoil seemed apparent. Throughout his lengthy opening remarks, he did not mention Mr. Adams by name, referring to him only as the “mayor.”

The outgoing chancellor, whose phone was seized by federal agents earlier this month, was at turns defiant and defensive on Wednesday.

“Everybody is going to think I’m leaving because of this stuff, and it had nothing to do with that,” Mr. Banks said, when asked why he announced his resignation just three weeks into a new school year. He called the idea of serving until the school year ended in June “a romantic notion.”

Mr. Adams praised his outgoing schools chancellor at the news conference.

“David is my brother,” Mr. Adams said, “and the Banks family is my family.” Mr. Banks’s younger brothers, Philip B. Banks III, the deputy mayor overseeing public safety, and Terence Banks, also had their phones seized by federal agents this month, as part of a bribery investigation.

Running the city’s school system, the nation’s largest, is considered one of the most prestigious education jobs in America, and previous mayors have conducted national searches to find the right candidate. Mr. Adams has eschewed that practice twice, first with Mr. Banks and now with Ms. Aviles-Ramos, in perhaps an illustration of how urgently he needed to find a replacement for the outgoing chancellor.

Ms. Aviles-Ramos grew up in the Bronx and was raised by a single mother, and she said Wednesday that she attended a parochial school after her older siblings struggled at their local public school.

She began her career as an English teacher, before becoming one of Mr. Banks’s senior deputies, overseeing the complex task of integrating thousands of migrant children into public schools. She is a public school parent.

The setting of Wednesday’s news conference also seemed intended to show continuity: It was held at the Bronx high school that Mr. Banks founded several decades ago, and school superintendents and other senior education officials were summoned to attend as a demonstration of support and strength.

“I want you to see me as a symbol of stability, of commitment,” Ms. Aviles-Ramos, 42, said on Wednesday.

But it is anything but business as usual at City Hall.

Mr. Adams, a Democrat who is running for re-election next year, has faced growing calls to resign, most recently from Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who said on Wednesday that the mayor should quit “for the good of the city.” He has insisted that he is staying put.

“I’m stepping up, not stepping down,” the mayor said at a news conference on Tuesday. “I have a city to run that I will continue to run.”

Over the last 13 days, Mr. Adams has accepted one resignation after another. His police commissioner Edward A. Caban, stepped down, as did the city’s top lawyer, Lisa Zornberg, and the city’s health commissioner, Ashwin Vasan.

The mayor’s prospects of winning re-election next year — and even possibly serving out the remainder of his term — appear to be narrowing every day.

His critics have taken notice.

“This sudden and unexpected announcement raises questions about the continued viability of this mayoralty,” State Senator John C. Liu said in a statement after Mr. Banks’s resignation, adding ominously: “Heaven help our city.”

Already, a number of state and city lawmakers have called on Mr. Adams to resign. Other leaders, including some of the candidates challenging him in next year’s Democratic primary, have said they have lost confidence in his ability to manage the city.

While the mayor and Mr. Banks were careful to use the word “retire” rather than “resign” in their public statements, in private conversations with reporters, representatives for both men are not bothering to claim that the move was part of some preordained plan.

On Sept. 4, as Mr. Banks was preparing for another school year, federal agents showed up around dawn at the home he shares with his fiancée, Sheena Wright, the first deputy mayor, to seize their phones.

The chancellor has grown increasingly alarmed about what he perceives as the chaos at City Hall, according to people with direct knowledge of his thinking, and the phone seizures have made him question the value of remaining in his post.

Mr. Banks is particularly concerned about how the crisis will affect Ms. Wright, according to those people.

“Folks can write whatever the hell they want to write, but I know, I know, and that is my beloved, my Sheena,” Mr. Banks said on Wednesday.

Tension between Mr. Banks and Mr. Adams has been growing for months over divergent messaging on hot-button issues, including the city’s ability to integrate migrant students into schools and the availability of prekindergarten seats.

Mr. Banks’s sudden announcement caught even senior leadership at the Education Department off guard on Tuesday, according to multiple employees.

For Mr. Banks — who has spent much of the last 30 years publicly and privately saying that the chancellorship was his dream job — to abruptly announce his resignation so early in the school year highlights the depth of the instability at City Hall.

Mr. Adams has relied on a small circle of advisers to keep things running as the investigations have swirled around his administration. His weekly news conference on Tuesday featured a shrinking dais of top officials who are staying put, at least for now — and who are not under investigation.

The mayor commended two deputy mayors, Maria Torres-Springer and Anne Williams-Isom, for continuing to focus on housing and the migrant crisis. He insisted that he was optimistic about the future despite the gathering storm clouds.

“I love every day being the mayor of the city of New York, changing the lives of New Yorkers and everything that comes with it,” he said. “I am more excited now being mayor than I was when I took my oath of office in the beginning.”

Claire Fahy contributed reporting.