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Happy Monday! This is Alex with Chalkbeat New York — and we’ve got a big scoop to start your week.

The Education Department is withdrawing plans to open the city’s first AI-focused high school, a proposal that had drawn intense reactions as how or whether schools should use artificial intelligence has been hotly contested.

And officials are also nixing proposals to shutter two middle school programs in Manhattan’s District 3 — P.S. 191 and the Manhattan School for Children — as well as a plan to relocate The Center School. All of those moves generated significant backlash from families.

Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels’ decision to backtrack represents one of his biggest decisions since taking office four months ago. It comes at a politically delicate moment as he and Mayor Zohran Mamdani fight to retain control of the school system and uphold the mayor’s pledge to govern the system more democratically.

“These proposals were always ambitious,” Samuels told Chalkbeat in an exclusive interview Sunday. “I think when you have a transition and you're hearing simultaneously that families want more time, I want to be a chancellor who listens and engages and understands the complexity of all of the issues.”

Local News

NYC pulls contentious proposals to open AI-themed high school, close Upper West Side middle schools

Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels is withdrawing proposals to open “Next Gen” high school, close middle schools at P.S. 191 and the Manhattan School for Children, and relocate The Center School.

Mamdani to veto school protest ‘buffer zone’ bill

A separate protest bill affecting houses of worship has a veto-proof majority in the City Council.

NYC moves to ease health department background checks for child care expansion

Concerned by a history of backlogs, the City Council this week held an oversight hearing and heard two proposals seeking to streamline the process.

Around Chalkbeat

Trump administration push to change program’s focus from college to workforce meets bipartisan resistance

Changes to TRIO’s Talent Search program could hurt students from low-income backgrounds, a group of U.S. senators has told Education Secretary Linda McMahon.

Federal judge orders immediate release of Memphis high school student detained by ICE

Yasser Jose Lopez Soza, a junior at Memphis Business Academy, has been held without bond at the West Tennessee Detention Center since his Feb. 20 arrest by immigration officials.