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Less than three years after taking the helm of New York City’s school system, Chancellor David Banks is planning to retire at the end of the year amid widening probes of City Hall.
Banks’ stunning Tuesday announcement comes nearly three weeks after federal agents visited his home the day before school started and seized his phones as part of a broader investigation into members of Mayor Eric Adams’ inner circle. Investigators also confiscated phones from Banks’ partner, First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright, and his two brothers, Phil Banks, deputy mayor for public safety, and Terence Banks, a consultant and former MTA staffer.
Investigators are reportedly looking into whether Terence Banks improperly leveraged his relationship with his brothers to try to secure city contracts for clients of his consulting firm.
The announcement from the 62-year-old schools chief concludes a 40-year career in the city’s public schools that stretched from being a school safety agent to helping launch a network of public schools geared toward young men of color. Tapped by Adams, who said he never seriously considered other candidates to helm the nation’s largest school district, Banks promised sweeping change to a system he described as “fundamentally flawed.”
In his time in office, Banks focused more narrowly on two goals: overhauling reading instruction and exposing students to career options before graduating high school.
“On behalf of all New Yorkers, we thank Chancellor Banks for his service, and wish him well in his retirement at the end of the calendar year,” Adams said in a statement Tuesday.
In a Tuesday letter informing Adams of his plan to retire, Banks said he would do “everything possible to ensure a smooth transition.”
“Serving as Chancellor has been a profound honor and a deeply fulfilling experience,” he said. “I am confident that NYC Public Schools will continue to grow, innovate and excel under the next Chancellor.”
Banks did not acknowledge the federal investigations in his letter, and he said his intent to retire by Dec. 31 predated the start of the school year.
The announcement comes on the heels of a series of resignations of high-profile figures in the Adams administration, including former Police Commissioner Edward Caban, who stepped down earlier this month, and Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan, who plans to resign at the end of the year.
As members of his administration have left City Hall, Adams has faced pressure from some local and state officials to step down. Critics were quick to use the school chancellor’s announcement as further fuel for those calls.
Banks’ tenure has been filled with a host of challenges: prioritizing what programs to save amid fiscal pressures of evaporating federal COVID stimulus funding, figuring out how to meet the needs of thousands of migrant children, and responding to the ways in which ChatGPT and other AI technology are remaking the learning experience.
For much of last school year, the Israel-Hamas war has fueled tensions between students, teachers, and parents, thrusting Banks into the spotlight when he testified before Congress in May, defending the city’s record on responding to antisemitism.
“This is a chancellor … who is authentic, who lives his life with integrity,” Banks said during a Sept. 13 press conference in response to questions about the federal investigations. “That’s the only way that I know how to be.”
