In what the New York Post calls a “secret deal,” educational consultant Shawn Rux was reportedly asked by New York City’s Department of Education to ditch his business but not after he was given a plum gig at the DOE so his wife, Danika Rux, could be promoted to deputy chancellor of leadership.
According to RUXway, Inc.‘s site, Shawn Rux’s firm is an “educational consulting service for leadership development and professional learning opportunities for school, district, and central based leaders.” He
started RUXway in 2020 when his wife was a superintendent for the DOE.The Post reports that firm brought in $253,450 from the DOE.
In ditching his firm, Shawn Rux was allegedly promised a position with the DOE as executive director of School Design and Charter Partnerships, which is set to begin Sept. 5.
“It’s the foul stench of nepotism,” a source told the New York Post.
In 2022, NYC schools Chancellor David Banks made headlines after he promoted DOE administrator and Mayor Eric Adams’ longtime girlfriend, Tracey Collins, to “senior advisor to the deputy chancellor of school leadership.” According to The Daily Mail, this promotion followed a previous gesture from Adams, who appointed Banks’ girlfriend, Sheena Wright, as deputy mayor in December 2021.
The Post noted that Shawn Rux was featured in the news several times while he was a principal at MS 53 between 2011 and 2016, for his creation of “Rux Bux,” vouchers for students who did well in school. He was promoted to deputy superintendent in 2017 before leaving the DOE in 2021 to unsuccessfully run for City Council.
In Danika Rux’s new position, she will be paid $265,000 annually. Among her duties, she will supervise 45 superintendents. Her husband’s position is an “extremely low-profile gig,” an anonymous DOE staffer told the Post, though a DOE spokesperson said last week that the department was “in the process of hiring for this role.”