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Q&A

Councilmember Maloney presses on Manhattan Youth scoring and principal input

New York City Council · May 28, 2026 · starts 3:15:30 · 1 min 19 sec

Maloney asks for details on how Manhattan Youth scored against criteria and whether principals who ranked them first were overruled. Officials say specifics can't be shared during the protest period but note over 80% of principals got their first or second choice.

Linda Lee

I have one more question.

Virginia Maloney

You shared what the technical factors are that you were looking at.

Virginia Maloney

One of them was around budget.

Virginia Maloney

Can you share more details on how Manhattan Youth scored against those criteria?

Dana

At this time, we can't give specifics because we are in the protest period.

Sandra Escamilla-Davies

And also, they will be awarded a briefing, so they will get not only their scores and how they fared in relationship to other people, but they will get also specific feedback on their RFP of areas that were highlighted by the evaluator.

Virginia Maloney

And are there instances where a school and a principal did rank Manhattan Youth as excellent and it was still not awarded again?

Virginia Maloney

And if that's the case, there's a process where the principals on the ground are being overruled in a closed-door process, if you could speak to that.

Sandra Escamilla-Davies

It wasn't a closed-door process.

Sandra Escamilla-Davies

It was actually a transparent process that was guided by a contribution that was made by the principal.

Sandra Escamilla-Davies

So principals'selections was weighed, but the primary selections, as Dana mentioned, were the RFP.

Sandra Escamilla-Davies

And so I'm proud to say that over 80% of principals got their first or second award.