{"id":1030244,"date":"2026-08-28T21:27:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T21:27:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1030244\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T21:27:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T21:27:15","slug":"nyc-school-board-rejects-1-65m-oracle-contract-backed-by-mamdani-administration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1030244\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC school board rejects $1.65M Oracle contract backed by Mamdani administration"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York\u2019s free daily newsletter<\/a> to get essential news about NYC\u2019s public schools delivered to your inbox.<\/p>\n

New York City\u2019s school board failed to approve a technology contract advanced by Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s administration this week, a month after Mamdani\u2019s slate of board members began their terms<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The $1.65 million contract would allow the Education Department to continue using Oracle software that supports \u201cmission critical\u201d functions<\/a> including an HR help center serving more than 150,000 employees and an enrollment support center fielding roughly 1,000 calls a day about issues ranging from student transportation to special education, officials said. Losing access to the software could result in the loss of data and prevent families from accessing enrollment information online, a department spokesperson added.<\/p>\n

But after fierce pushback against Oracle and its co-founder Larry Ellison during the board\u2019s public comment period, including over the company\u2019s investment in artificial intelligence<\/a>, city officials could not muster the votes to approve the contract.<\/p>\n

Two mayoral appointees to the Panel for Educational Policy, as the board is known, abstained from the vote. Three other mayoral appointees did not attend the meeting. The contract failed with nine votes in favor, six opposed, and two abstentions, falling four votes short of the 13 needed to pass.<\/p>\n

Shortly before the vote, Deputy Chancellor Lindsay Oates, who oversees human resources, urged the board to approve the contract. She argued that the Education Department relies on Oracle for HR systems that are essential as the city welcomes thousands of new hires to the nation\u2019s largest school system. <\/p>\n

\u201cMany of them are coming in and calling the call center with questions about their benefits,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are worried about the disruption of service if this contract is tabled.\u201d<\/p>\n

Education Department officials said the service would run through September. They did not elaborate on whether they have backup plans to avoid disruptions. <\/p>\n

The contract represents a small part of the roughly $13 billion the Education Department spends on outside vendors<\/a>. But the administration\u2019s inability to secure enough votes for the deal suggests the board may not be a rubber stamp for the Mamdani administration\u2019s agenda. Under previous administrations, the board has generally voted in line with the administration\u2019s proposals, with some notable exceptions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The vote also suggests that growing pressure on the panel to scrutinize AI and technology contracts<\/a> could complicate efforts to continue using existing education technology or adopt new tools. Education Department officials have promised to release new guidelines for artificial intelligence and technology<\/a> before the first day of school on Sept. 10.<\/a><\/p>\n

We’re on a need-to-know basis.<\/p>\n

Every weekday morning, Chalkbeat New York is bringing thousands of subscribers the news on public schools and education policy that they need to start their day. Sign up for our free newsletter to join them.<\/p>\n

In the run-up to the vote, several educators and other tech skeptics criticized the Oracle contract and Ellison, who has embraced AI and supported Donald Trump\u2019s 2024 election bid<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Liat Olenick, a parent, educator, and climate activist, said she worried about the company\u2019s environmental footprint connected to growing AI use<\/a>. Though the city\u2019s contract with Oracle indicates it would not include student- or teacher-facing AI products, Olenick wondered if there might be other AI applications embedded in it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWill Oracle services include AI use by administrators?\u201d she asked before the vote. \u201cIs it necessary to contract with a company that\u2019s fueling the climate crisis and putting New York City students\u2019 health and futures at risk?\u201d<\/p>\n

An Education Department spokesperson said there is \u201cno AI use associated with this contract.\u201d Reps for Oracle did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Others raised concerns about how Oracle would protect sensitive data, including names, addresses, and Social Security numbers. Education Department officials implemented Oracle\u2019s cloud software service \u201cas a proactive measure to safeguard this information,\u201d rather than relying on email, according to contract documents.<\/p>\n

One board member said she was reluctant to vote against the contract in part because Education Department contract documents say Oracle would be required to delete the department\u2019s data from its systems within 90 days of the contract\u2019s expiration. <\/p>\n

Raysa Rodriguez, whom Mamdani appointed last month, said she took concerns about Oracle \u201cvery seriously\u201d but felt it would be riskier to let the contract lapse. She said a new agreement would \u201cfurther protect the data that we have.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two mayoral appointees<\/a> who abstained, Crystal Vera-Montalvo and Karla Cordero, did not respond to requests for comment. Primo Lasana, another mayoral appointee, said he wished the contract had been tabled until a future meeting so the board could consider it more carefully. He ultimately voted in favor.<\/p>\n

Some panel members elected by parent leaders said they voted against the contract because they believed the city should control its sensitive technology systems. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe staff that manages it should be public servants,\u201d said panel member Naveed Hasan.<\/p>\n

Panel chair Greg Faulkner, whose term ends in September, said in an interview that he was frustrated by the vote and worried the Education Department would be forced to scramble to fix its HR systems. But he acknowledged that panel members are feeling pressure to be cautious around tech contracts. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnything we do with technology gets scrutinized,\u201d Faulkner said.<\/p>\n

Alex Zimmerman is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sign up for Chalkbeat New York\u2019s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC\u2019s public schools delivered…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1030245,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,40980,718,405,403,59409,5226,5225,5228,5227,270508,389020,9475,66171,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-1030244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-chalkbeat","tag-community","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-public-schools","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nycps","tag-panel-for-educational-policy","tag-parents","tag-pep","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117175258014231466","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1030244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1030244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1030244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1030245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1030244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1030244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1030244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}