A Queens superintendent who owns a company that did $1.5 million in contracts with the DOE received just a slap on the wrist after she got caught doing business in her own district.
Queens South High School Superintendent Josephine Van Ess’s husband Edward owns 50% of Excellence in Every Thread, which did $1,533,221 in business with New York City schools via its subsidiary The Modern Day Man since 2023, according to public records.
Since her husband is an owner of the company, ownership is also imputed to Van Ess, according to city guidelines.
Edward would charge schools $16,000 a pop for mentoring services for young boys — which included the purchase of flashy, brightly colored $650 suits made by his business partner, fashion designer Ilbert Sanchez.
In June 2023, at the behest of then-Schools Chancellor David Banks, the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board (COIB) allowed Van Ess to keep her stake in the company on the condition that she not do any business in Queens school districts 27, 28 and 29, which she oversees.
However, Van Ess, who made $241,635 in 2024, blew straight through that rule and did over $30,000 worth of business in those districts, Susan Edelman reported.
“In 2024, Excellence in Every Thread obtained purchase orders totaling $32,525.16 from three DOE schools in Districts 27 and 28,” COIB concluded.
Van Ess was ordered to pay a $5,000 fine, but no other actions were taken.
The NYC Department of Education declined to say which schools in her district had done business with Excellence in Every Thread, or if the company would work with the DOE in the coming school year.
“We have reviewed the Board’s findings and are taking appropriate steps to ensure continued compliance with applicable ethics requirements,” a DOE spokesperson said in a statement.
Critics charged that Van Ess was given a slap on the wrist and that she should be removed from her post for self-dealing.
“There are more and more administrators engaging in self-dealing, self-promotion, and various types of waste, fraud and abuse… the penalty here is disproportionately low,” a DOE official said.
“We need to review the entire contracting process with a full audit to see how the city is spending billions of taxpayer dollars,” he added.
The controversy comes as NYC schools are grappling with the aftermath of Chancellor Kamar Samuels contracting scandal.
Samuels signed a $180,000 contract with non-DOE-approved vendor Sean Kreyling in 2023, when he was superintendent of District 3, and conspired to split payments between his two companies to cover it up.
The scheme blew up when Kreyling unknowingly sent a teacher who had been banned from working for the DOE to teach in two city schools over a period of months.
After he was exposed, a probe by the Special Commissioner of Inquiry (SCI) was launched — but the final report pinned all the blame on Samuels’ then-deputy, Mariela Graham.
SCI recommended that Graham be axed for her role in the affair — but Samuels gave her a cushy promotion instead.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani has fought calls for accountability in DOE procurement and stonewalled the City Council’s attempt to audit $13 billion in DOE contracts.
Van Ess declined to comment.
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