Probers looking at shady contracts signed by NYC Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels: DOE at DEFCON 1
Investigators are looking into shady contracts signed by New York City Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels when he was a district superintendent, The Post has learned. The Post revealed last week that Samuels inked a contract with non-DOE-approved vendor Sean Kreyling while serving as head of District 3 on the Upper West Side — then split the payments into $25,000 checks in an apparent attempt to evade city financial oversight.Kreyling’s companies provided temporary foreign-language teachers to city schools.
He signed two $180,000 contracts with District 3, one signed by Samuels in 2023 and another with Samuels’ former Deputy Superintendent Mariela Graham in 2024.After Kreyling inked the 2024 deal, his staffing company Language Learning Network inadvertently sent a Spanish teacher into two city schools who had been banned from working for the DOE for sexual misconduct.The incident triggered an SCI investigation, which ultimately found the school’s principals liable for not having properly vetted the teacher.But a June 2025 SCI report failed to mention Samuels’ involvement, and pinned the blame on Graham, recommending she be fired.Kreyling charged SCI was covering up for Samuels to protect the key Mamdani appointee.Instead of terminating Graham, Samuels promoted her to a $225,571-per-year post as the DOE’s senior executive director of strategy.Samuels earns $363,000 a year, raking in more than even Mayor Mamdani.
Kreyling told The Post he informed SCI of the Samuels’ signed contract during their initial investigation and offered to share all materials then, but they never followed up.Kreyling said he has spent the last week trying to sound the alarm to City Hall officials — including emailing First Deputy Mayor Dean Fuleihan and messaging Mayor Mamdani on social media — but has gotten no response.
“I had a lot of hope in Mamdani, and I’m very disappointed,” Kreyling said, “I was hoping we could at least come together on protecting kids.”H...