Kamar Samuels repeatedly dismissed parents’ calls to remove the principal of a troubled Brooklyn public school attended by the daughter of New York Times writer Nikole Hannah-Jones, according to former education officials and school-community leaders.
A longtime former Department of Education official told The Post that Samuels, who was then superintendent of Brooklyn’s District 13, knew parents at PS 307 were furious over Principal Stephanie Carroll’s leadership but failed to intervene.
“For the three or four years he was superintendent there he did nothing with her,” the former DOE official said, referring to Samuels’ handling of Carroll.
Another DOE source described Samuels’ approach as one of inaction. “This is what Samuels does: he just doesn’t take action and lets problems fester until they explode,” the source said.
When Samuels took charge of District 13 in 2019, just 28% of PS 307 students were proficient in reading. By the time he left in 2022, that figure had fallen to 13.6%.
“People felt like it was a ship without a rudder,” said David Goldsmith, a former president of District 13’s Community Education Council, describing Carroll’s leadership.
“She wasn’t up to the task,” Goldsmith added.
In a New York Times Magazine article published last weekend, Hannah-Jones, 50, portrayed PS 307 as a chaotic school where teachers allegedly invented grades, assigned little or no homework and allowed students to run unchecked during lunch.
The author of The 1619 Project also said Carroll was difficult to reach and often absent. After years of what parents described as being ignored by Samuels, frustrated families filed a Change.org petition in 2023 demanding that the DOE fire the principal.
Carroll was not removed. Instead, she was “fired upwards” in 2024 and appointed the DOE’s citywide director of literacy.
“How are you promoted to run literacy for the entire city when you can’t even get your own students to read?” the longtime former DOE official said.
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Hannah-Jones did not identify Carroll or Samuels by name in the magazine article. She instead attributed the school’s problems to racism, an explanation critics said deflected attention from what they characterized as longstanding DOE failures.
“Blaming the PS 307 teachers while not even naming the trash principal is disingenuous. If you can’t call out the person in charge frankly you’re part of the problem,” the DOE source said.
Despite her account of conditions at PS 307, Hannah-Jones and Samuels appeared to maintain a friendly relationship while her daughter attended the school and later Unison Urban Assembly School, another District 13 campus.
In April 2021, Samuels announced on X that he would make Hannah-Jones’ books “The 1619 Project” and “Born on the Water” available for reading across District 13.
“My baby is a seventh grader. How?? (And yes, still in an unscreened, neighborhood public school and thriving),” Hannah-Jones wrote on X in September 2022, appearing unconcerned about her daughter’s academic difficulties.
“Warms my heart to see this,” Samuels replied. He was appointed New York City schools chancellor in January.
“Kamar Samuels to be superintendent of New York City public schools is outstanding news for those who still care about school integration and equality,” Hannah-Jones wrote on Bluesky in December 2025.
Hannah-Jones’ husband, Faraji Hannah-Jones, 50, chairs the contracts committee of the Panel for Education Policy, the body that oversees the DOE.
According to his LinkedIn profile, he worked as a web design specialist at PS 307 from September 2015 through May 2016.
He insists on his LinkedIn page that the role was unpaid, and said he helped design a website and social media page for the school.
Nikole and Faraji Hannah-Jones, Carroll, and the DOE did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.