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The abrupt dismissal of a Brooklyn superintendent is spurring fierce backlash in Bedford-Stuyvesant, where dozens of community members showed up to a town hall meeting Monday night to express their outrage.
Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos removed District 16 Superintendent Brendan Mims on Monday, according to state Assembly member Stefani Zinerman, who spoke with Aviles-Ramos and organized Monday’s town hall. The exact reasons for the removal are unclear. But in a Monday letter to Aviles-Ramos recapping their recent discussions about Mims, Zinerman attributed the problems to a “breakdown in the relationship” between Mims and the local Community Education Council, an elected parent advisory board, according to a copy of the letter shared with Chalkbeat.
Mims’ interim replacement, former Deputy Superintendent Fabayo McIntosh, took over Tuesday, according to an email to principals obtained by Chalkbeat.
The removal of Mims is one of the first major personnel moves for Aviles-Ramos, who assumed her role in October and has largely emphasized her desire to maintain the policies of her predecessor, David Banks. The move could now embroil Aviles-Ramos in a public battle at a delicate moment in her tenure, as she rolls out her own first policy efforts and as her future remains uncertain with Mayor Eric Adams facing a steep climb to win reelection in this year’s mayoral race.
The chancellor’s decision — and its timing over spring break — came as a shock to Zinerman and the dozens of educators, parents, and community leaders who showed up to the hastily arranged Monday meeting in the basement of the Restoration Plaza community center. Speakers heaped praise onto Mims, a 22-year veteran of the city Education Department, for his community engagement and strong academic track record.
“I’ve been a principal for over 26 years, long enough to see the changes that have happened in District 16,” said Lena Gates, the veteran leader of P.S. 5, an elementary school in the district, and one of several principals who showed up at the town hall to support Mims. “When Brendan Mims came to District 16, I said, ‘We finally got it right…’ I’m really so upset to hear what’s happening.”
Attendees said the timing of the move also seemed like an effort to sneak it through without notice.
“That is an absolute disgrace, and it’s disrespectful,” said Zinerman, whose assembly district largely overlaps with District 16. “I’ve been elected since 2010, and I have not had the opportunity to chain myself to a door yet. This is the door that I’m going to chain myself to.”
Zinerman added that making the decision toward the end of the school year as students prepare to take state exams and at a moment of profound uncertainty for city schools because of federal threats to education could destabilize the district.
Education Department spokesperson Nicole Brownstein said the “superintendency is an appointed position and an at-will hire” who serves at the pleasure of the chancellor. She said the agency will follow the chancellor’s regulations governing the appointment of a new permanent superintendent, which include consulting with the CEC and educators unions.
In the email to principals announcing the change, Deputy Chancellor of School Leadership Danika Rux praised McIntosh as a “seasoned educator” and “proud product of District 16.”
“We extend thanks to Brendan for his service to District 16,” Rux added.
Mims couldn’t be reached for comment. NeQuan McLean, the long-time president of CEC 16, who recently appeared on stage with Aviles-Ramos to announce a new program for parent volunteers, declined to comment, and other members of the CEC didn’t respond to emails.
Banks hired Mims in 2022 as part of a sweeping shakeup of the city’s 45 superintendent positions. The effort was intended to vest the role of superintendent with additional responsibility, especially in carrying out Banks’s literacy curriculum overhaul, and to give communities more input in the selection of their district leaders.
That community input is especially important in District 16 — the neighborhood that helped birth the community control movement in the 1960s where Black and Puerto Rican community members established the Ocean Hill-Brownsville district that eventually sparked the 1968 teacher strike.
That history echoed through Monday night’s meeting.
“This is our community, and we make the decisions with regards to who is leading, specifically with our children,” said Marlon Rice, the events director at Restoration Plaza.
Mims took over a district confronting challenges
Despite its storied history, District 16 has faced steep challenges in recent decades, including enrollment losses stemming from population declines, particularly among Black families, in central Brooklyn and the proliferation of charter schools.
Earlier this year, Mims, a Brooklyn native, successfully shepherded a plan to shutter P.S. 25, the city’s smallest elementary school with just 53 students — an idea district officials first tried seven years ago but did not get approved.
People who attended Monday’s meeting pointed to Mims’ leadership as a bright spot amid those challenges, pushing the district forward academically while bringing the community on board.
The district’s proficiency rates on state English exams for grades 3-8 rose from 37% in 2022 to 44% last year, and from 25% to 44% in math for the same grades — larger than the city’s overall growth in both cases.
Mims also played a big role in bringing a new Black Studies curriculum to the district, where roughly 64% of students are Black, educators said.
Leaders of nonprofits and local businesses said Mims was unusually active in getting them involved, and one district father spoke glowingly about an informal group of dads Mims led.
“I never met a superintendent before, never had no one come out and say let’s meet and greet, we’re doing something special for the dads,” said Jason Smith, a parent in the district. “He was always concerned with how can we improve… this is something that’s hitting hard.”
Tensions emerge with local parent council
Zinerman said she started getting wind last year of tension between Mims and the local CEC — and said there has been a pattern over more than a decade of superintendents only lasting a few years in the district because of “political or interpersonal conflict.”
“What began as enthusiastic support — heralding Mr. Mims as ‘exactly the man we need’ — has devolved into mistrust,” Zinerman wrote in her Monday letter to Aviles-Ramos.
Zinerman said she met with Aviles-Ramos and several of her top deputies last Wednesday to discuss the situation and urged the city to appoint an independent mediator to resolve the dispute between Mims and the CEC.
Zinerman said she thought department officials were on the same page and was shocked to get a call around noon on Monday from Aviles-Ramos telling her that Mims was out and his replacement would start the next day.
Zinerman told attendees at Monday’s meeting that Mims was reassigned to the Education Department’s suspension hearing office, drawing jeers from the crowd. (An Education Department spokesperson did not confirm Mims’ new assignment). Research has shown that Black male educators are more likely to be shunted into disciplinary roles, and Black students in the five boroughs are disproportionately suspended.
“What they want to do is send this Black man to the suspension center, where all the Black boys go,” said Barry Cooper, a community leader who runs a program supporting boys of color. “This is educational negligence.”
Cooper pledged to continue organizing protests throughout this week, with town hall attendees committing to calling Mayor Adams, showing up at the local district office, and rallying at the Education Department headquarters in Manhattan.
“This is a precipice for us to take control of our community and be a beacon like Bed-Stuy has always been,” Cooper said.
Alex Zimmerman contributed.
Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.or
