The Leadership Pipeline NYC Schools Actually Needs
Senior Director of AI Innovation and Professional Development at CITE Former New York City Bronx Public High School Principal
The Leadership Pipeline NYC Schools Actually Needs
I became a principal in the Bronx at 33 years old, this was the picture very early on the morning of my first day in January 2017.
There was no onboarding manual. No playbook. No transition team. One day I was an assistant principal in Queens and the next day I was responsible for a building, a staff, and hundreds of students in one of the most complex educational environments in the country.
The people who helped me survive that first year were not consultants who flew in from out of state. They were the principals, APs, and district leaders who had been through it themselves — people who understood superintendent expectations, PPO realities, APPR pressures, and the weight of leading a school community in New York City.
That is the difference between a leadership pipeline that works and one that does not.
New York City has a leadership development challenge that most people in education understand but few talk about openly. The sheer complexity of NYCPS — the largest school system in the country — demands leaders who do not just understand instructional theory. They need to understand the system. The politics. The procurement. The culture of a building. The expectations that shift depending on which superintendent’s lens they are operating under.
External recruitment models bring in talented people. But talent without context is not enough. The leaders who sustain in this system, who stay and build and grow — the vast majority of them came up through it.
That is where CITE sits.
CITE has produced over 10,000 alumni across New York City and New York State. Nearly 1 in 4 current NYC principals are CITE graduates. New York City’s two most recent previous Chancellors went through CITE programs.
These are not isolated success stories. This is a pipeline.
On March 26th, the CITE Spring Gala — Night of Impact — will honor 21 students and alumni who represent the full breadth of that pipeline. From a Community Superintendent leading NYCDOE District 21, to a bilingual special education teacher closing gaps in a Westchester classroom. From a Senior Executive Director shaping new school development for NYCPS, to a graduate student in counseling who has not yet finished his program but is already making a difference.
Amanda Mercado. Shawn Rux. Crystal Joye. Rachel McCaulsky. Shirley Wheeler. Alexis Hernandez. Jenessa Kornaker. Teresa Eboras. Josephine Rodriguez. Justine Astacio.
These are not people who were recruited from outside the system. They are the system. They were developed inside of it, supported through CITE’s programs, and now they are leading it.
There is a version of leadership development in education that focuses on theoretical frameworks and research-based models delivered by people who have never had to explain to a parent why their child’s teacher left mid-year.
And there is a version that is built by practitioners, grounded in lived experience, and designed to develop leaders who stay.
CITE represents the latter. And the 21 honorees being recognized on March 26th are proof that it works.
The leadership pipeline NYC schools actually need is not a new idea. It is the one that already exists. It just needs to keep being invested in, supported, and recognized.
That is what the CITE Spring Gala — Night of Impact — is about.
