Top NYC Department of Education official on reading Carolyne Quintana leaving amid shakeup

Carolyne Quintana, the city Department of Education’s top official on literacy and dyslexia, is calling it quits amid a shakeup of her division, the Daily News has learned.

Quintana, the deputy chancellor of teaching and learning and a two-year veteran of Schools Chancellor David Banks’ cabinet, will leave the DOE at the end of this school year, according to an internal memo on Monday.

Her division will also be dissolved — a plan that Banks said will move teaching and learning resources closer to schools.

“I am deeply thankful to Deputy Chancellor Quintana for her deep knowledge and service to our city’s students and teachers,” the chancellor wrote in the email.

“Her tireless work as a pedagogue contributed to the launch of NYC Reads, and the nation’s largest dyslexia screening program, and our work around Artificial Intelligence, and she led the Special Education Advisory Council, and launch countless other initiatives.”

“Her leadership is a critical component of the success of the first two years of this administration, and I appreciate her leadership, her thought partnership, and her friendship.”

A spokesman for the public schools declined to share Quintana’s next steps. About 2,000 current DOE staff are in the teaching and learning division and will be impacted by its dissolution, though none are expected to be laid off, according to the memo.

“I believe that putting the tremendous central Teaching & Learning resources closer to our schools — led by local superintendents — will accelerate the work of NYC Reads, improve math education, and set up our students for bright starts and bold futures,” Banks said in the memo.

Quintana’s leave comes amid a series of high-profile departures, including the deputy chancellor of school leadership Desmond Blackburn, the head of technology Anuraag Sharma before a technical meltdown during last month’s snow day, and the chancellor’s chief of staff Melissa Aviles-Ramos who led the schools’ work on migrant students.

“As a lifelong educator, I know that the work that our team did over the past two years will reverberate into the future and benefit generations of students,” Quintana said in a statement.