NYC Faculties Chancellor Kamar Samuels signed after which coated up an improper, $180,000 no-bid contract with an unapproved Division of Schooling vendor when he was superintendent of an Higher West Facet faculty district, The Submit has discovered.
A report issued by the Particular Commissioner of Investigation for metropolis colleges left Mayor Mamdani’s hand-picked chancellor fully unscathed — whereas his former District 3 deputy, Mariela Graham, took the autumn.
The DOE’s impartial watchdog discovered she and vendor Sean Kreyling, whose firms supplied momentary foreign-language lecturers to metropolis colleges, “conspired” to evade DOE procurement guidelines.
The 11-page report issued by SCI in June and made public this week by no means mentions Samuels — apparently by design.
The Submit obtained the unique emails between Samuels, Graham and the seller, and a Samuels-signed contract, that reveals the present metropolis colleges chief signed off on the deal within the 2023-2024 educational 12 months, and break up up funds to Kreyling’s two firms to flee metropolis monetary oversight.
“It’s my understanding that you simply wouldn’t have an MTAC and can’t present providers past $25,000 every for 2 vendor IDS listed beneath. So the whole quantity for the work is $50,000,” Samuels wrote to Kreyling in a Sept. 5, 2023 smoking-gun electronic mail, referencing the town’s contract system (MTAC) and Kreyling’s two schooling firms.
Contracts over $25,000 would have required three contractor bids and a metropolis comptroller scrutiny. By paying lower than that, the Kreyling contracts signed by Samuels and Graham slipped below the town radar.
In January 2025, SCI obtained a grievance a couple of temp trainer positioned at two Higher West Facet colleges by Kreyling. The trainer had been compelled to stop the DOE in 2014 after SCI substantiated costs of sexual misconduct with a 15-year-old pupil.
As they probed why the disgraced trainer was again within the classroom, investigators unearthed a 2024-2025 contract that Kreying signed with Graham, Samuels’ proper hand.
SCI blamed Graham for greenlighting the unique pact and likewise for a close to similar $180,000 contract renewal she signed off on on Aug. 22, 2024, and demanded she be fired, the report confirmed.
The report stated that Graham and Kreyling “conspired to separate DOE billings” to “disguise the very fact” that Kreyling’s two firms weren’t DOE-approve distributors and that the contracts have been improperly no-bid offers.
“It’s inconceivable that Graham ought to proceed to be employed by the DOE in any capability,” the report acknowledged.
As an alternative, DOE let her off with a slap on the wrist — two weeks suspension with out pay.
Shockingly, in April, Samuels, who was appointed colleges boss by Mayor Mamdani in January, rewarded his disgraced underling with a comfortable $225,571-a-year gig as senior govt director for technique at Tweed, in line with a DOE supply.
“She took the autumn and now’s being rewarded,” a high-ranking DOE supply instructed The Submit.
SCI additionally really helpful that Kreyling’s companies be prohibited from doing future DOE enterprise.
Kreyling, in an unique interview with The Submit, defended his acitons, saying that as a result of he had by no means finished enterprise with the DOE earlier than, he was unaware of procurement guidelines, and let Samuels and Graham information him the method.
He was additionally surprised that SCI by no means talked about Samuels in its investigative report — since he had instructed SCI probers, he claims, that Samuels sgined the primary contract and that he supplied them the smoking-gun contracts and emails. He supplied thos paperwork to The Submit.
“I undoubtedly suppose it was a cover-up,” Kreyling stated. Samuels “had designs on the chancellorship.”
SCI First Deputy Commissioner Daniel Schlachet insisted the Samuels ommission was to not shield the long run chancellor. He stated probers have been centered solely on the 2024-2025 contract signed by Graham and tied to the disgraced trainer. He by no means noticed or knew in regards to the contract signed a 12 months earlier by Samuels.
When requested why Samuels contract wasn’t talked about within the report or if it doctored paperwork, investigators denied partaking in a coverup.
“It’s absurd to indicate that SCI might need been trying to ‘cowl up for Samuels,’” Schlachet instructed The Submit.
Each contracts with Kreyling’s Language Studying Community known as for an preliminary down fee of $90,000, adopted by eight month-to-month funds of $11,250. They have been drawn up on LLN letterhead drafted by the New Jersey-based firm — additionally a violation of DOE procurement guidelines, in line with sources.
Checks have been break up between Kreyco, LLN’s father or mother firm, and Kreyling-owned Reimagine Schooling Group, which gives teaching {and professional} improvement providers to lecturers, in line with the report and Kreyling, in order that the contracts would keep beneath the $25,000 threshold.
Kreyling stated Samuels not solely signed the unique contract, he was additionally concerned within the negotiation course of with Kreyling and conscious of the test splitting, emails present.
Kreyling despatched emails the place Samuels was cc’d on the check-splitting scheme, paperwork present. However within the ultimate SCI report, the emails have been selectively edited — with no point out of Samuels nor the breakdown of check-splitting he oversaw in 2023-2024.
“A vendor must undergo a complete gauntlet of issues. Not one of the safeguards have been in place. The procurement workplace ought to have drawn up the contract,” in line with a second DOE insider.
“There ought to have been dozens of individuals concerned on this contract. The superintendent doesn’t have the authority to signal it on his personal,” he added.
Kreyling claimed that Graham and Samuels sought his providers as a result of they wanted overseas language lecturers that may allow them to get grant cash.
He stated that competent language lecturers are troublesome to seek out.
“They wanted a vendor and the grant was tied to world language; in the event you didn’t have a strategy to supply it, you weren’t eligible for the grant,” Kreyling stated.
Samuels unilaterally terminated the Graham-signed second contract in March 2025 earlier than the complete quantity had been paid, and Kreyling stated he plans to sue District 3 for the remaining $95,000 he’s owed.
“What did they do with the remaining grant cash? As a result of they didn’t pay us?” Kreyling stated.
Kreyling’s firms obtained 17 buy orders totaling $365,000 — with $220,000 going to Kreyco and $145,000 going to Reimagine Schooling Group — starting in September 23, 2023, in line with the SCI.
A assessment of metropolis Comptroller’s Workplace information present the businesses have solely obtained $250,000 — unfold over 12 separate funds of $25,000.
When requested if SCI would open an investigation into Samuels now that the brand new contract has come to mild, Schlachet stated the company “will take it below advisement.”
A Metropolis Corridor spokesperson instructed The Submit, “The administration was unaware of this, and we’re trying into it.”
The SCI’s report on Dec. 30 — two days earlier than Mamdani was sworn in as mayor — notes metropolis colleges are systemically suffering from vendor check-splitting and different procurement issues that helped drive up the price of DOE items and providers final 12 months to $386 million.
“Violations of procurement guidelines usually resulted in monetary losses to the DOE, led to state and federal prosecutions, and/or prevented the DOE from working with probably the most certified distributors at truthful market costs,” the report acknowledged.
Mamdani campaigned to “overhaul procurement infrastructure throughout the DOE,” throughout the mayoral race, and vowed to focus on waste fraud and abuse within the system.
Samuels was appointed superintendent at District 3 in July 2022. Graham started working at District 3 in September 2022, in line with her LinkedIn web page.
Graham instructed CSI investigators that the district was already in enterprise with Kreyling when she turned deputy superintendent — however that she had no concept who signed the primary contract, though it was her personal boss.
She stated that she was effectively conscious that what she was doing was towards DOE guidelines — and claimed it was all her and Kreyling’s concept.
Metropolis Councilman Phil Wong known as The Submit’s findings “deeply regarding” — notably concerning Samuels — and demanded an instantaneous probe.
“These revelations warrant additional investigation, and if the SCI failed to totally disclose or pursue related data, that raises much more critical questions on oversight and accountability,” stated the Queens Democrat, who sits on the Council’s schooling and finance committees.
“We want a really impartial audit of DOE contracting practices to revive public belief and guarantee taxpayer {dollars} are spent appropriately.”
