CARRANZA BONANZA
DOE paychecks swell as schools chancellor doles out promotions to aides
City school honchos might need to reach for their calculators to tally up their ever-growing paychecks.
Raises on top of promotions for Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza’s top educrats have led to massive pay hikes as high as 35 percent, with at least 36 executives now slated to rake in more than $200,000 per year — up from 21 last fiscal year, according to public records and an analysis by The Post.
“It’s a picture of finances gone wild,” said Eric Nadelstern, who was a deputy chancellor under Mayor Mike Bloomberg. “If you look at the cumulative increases and think about what those dollars could do in schools for the benefit of children, it’s scandalous.”
Carranza’s hand-plucked deputies will pocket the big bucks thanks to his generous promotions and a series of citywide managerial raises ordered by Mayor de Blasio.
Among the mega-earners is Cheryl Watson-Harris, Carranza’s first deputy chancellor, whose salary will balloon to $241,102 this fall, The Post found.
That’s a 23 percent spike since Carranza promoted her from a senior field support director in June 2018 — and some $6,000 more than the $234,569 that former Chancellor Carmen Fariña was earning when she quit last year and Carranza took over.
Watson-Harris oversees nine new “executive superintendents,” Carranza’s new layer of bureaucracy. They, in turn, oversee 31 district superintendents.
The nine new execs started a year ago with salaries of $190,000. But that figure jumps this fall to $209,476, up 10 percent.
Each executive at that level also receives about $100,500 a year in fringe benefits.
Many city schools are struggling with poor performance and a lack of resources.
“Adding all these top-level educrats and giving them salary raises is not going to substantially improve the opportunities for New York City kids to learn,” said Leonie Haimson of the advocacy group Class Size Matters.
“In contrast, they’ve done nothing to improve the conditions in overcrowded classrooms, especially in the early grades.”
Carranza’s chief operating officer, Ursulina Ramirez, will get nearly as much as Watson-Harris: $232,702 a year, an 18 percent increase since July 1, 2017.
Ramirez, who helped lead de Blasio’s transition team in 2014, held two titles under Fariña — chief of staff as well as COO.
Hydra Mendoza, whom Carranza recruited from California to fill the newly created role of deputy chancellor for community empowerment, partnerships and communications, will take home $231,699, a 35 percent raise from her last reported salary as the San Francisco mayor’s deputy chief of staff.
Other administrators have gotten increases ranging from 24 percent to 35 percent. One isn’t even a college grad.
Mark Rampersant, senior executive director of the Office of Safety and Youth Development, is earning $188,505 but has no college degree, said a city Department of Education representative.
He replaced Lois Herrera, who has 33 years of experience in city schools and a master’s degree. She is one of three white female execs who have sued Carranza over alleged racial bias, claiming they were pushed aside for less qualified people of color.
Rampersant got a 35 percent salary increase since Carranza promoted him last year.
Under a little-known DOE policy, the granting of any salary of $165,000 or more requires the chancellor’s approval, officials told The Post.
Last school year, 970 DOE employees had salaries exceeding that threshold, payroll data compiled by the Empire Center for Public Policy show. The number this year was unavailable.
An “Exception to the Freeze” committee of three Carranza execs, including COO Ramirez, approves the salaries on his behalf, said DOE spokesman Will Mantell.
Nadelstern said: “The chancellor can give anything he wants to anybody he likes. There’s no accountability.”
In one case, Carranza named a Californian he once worked with, Abram Jimenez, to the newly created post of “senior executive director for continuous school im
provement” without advertising the opening or announcing the appointment.
Jimenez, who had a $205,416 salary and a staff of 40, quit last month after The Post revealed his rocky history in San Diego. He also held stock in a company doing millions of dollars in business with New York City schools. He has not yet been replaced.
The bias lawsuit filed in June by three veteran female administrators claims Carranza stripped them of duties and promoted lessqualified people of color. Their replacements got salaries close to $200,000.
The salaries awarded by Carranza have risen under a series of three citywide managerial raises totaling 7.42 percent, which de Blasio ordered last November to match those given to unionized workers. The last such raise, 3 percent, takes effect on Oct. 24.
Carranza’s own salary, which started at $345,000, will bump up by 5 percent to $363,345 this fall.
Others in the $200,000-plus club include Linda Chen, chief academic officer ($236,332); Joshua Wallack, deputy chancellor for early childhood education and student enrollment ($225,385); Karin Goldmark, deputy chancellor of school planning and design ($222,368); Tomas Hanna, chief human capital officer ($220,691); Howard Friedman, general counsel ($215,761); Lindsey Oates, chief financial officer (214,848); Mira Sanchez Medina, deputy chief academic officer for multilingual learners ($209,197); and Sarah Kleinhandler, chief enrollment officer ($204,106).
Nadelstern said de Blasio has done little to justify huge DOE promotions and raises beyond the launching of universal pre-K in his first term.
The mayor ended his Renewal program to fix failing schools, which cost nearly $800 million over four years, because it yielded meager results.
“I don’t know how you continue to reward people who individually and collectively have not been successful,” Nadelstern said. “That, to my mind, smacks of the worst kind of cronyism.”
City Hall could cite no oversight of DOE salary increases to ensure they are justified. But spokeswoman Laura Feyer said, “This administration believes in investing in our schools, and we’ve gotten a record-high graduation rate, record-high college enrollment, and a pre-K seat for every 4-year old to show for it.
“We offer competitive salaries for DOE staff, including those who take on new jobs with more responsibility.”