On his final day as schools chancellor, David Banks said he did “the best that I could” to prepare Melissa Aviles-Ramos to step into the top role in the nation’s largest school system after his retirement date was unexpectedly pushed up by Mayor Adams. “Melissa, you got work to do,” Banks said during a private farewell gathering at the Department of Education’s Lower Manhattan headquarters on Tuesday, according to audiotapes obtained by the Daily News. “But I did the best that I could in terms of giving you as many supports as I could. “Our schools are moving in the right direction because of you, and I just want you to know how much I appreciate you,” he added. Banks, whose family is ensnared in a federal corruption investigation, confirmed during a Bronx press conference last month he would hand over the school system to Aviles-Ramos. But he promised a deliberate leadership transition, with Aviles-Ramos joining him for “all of the chancellor’s meetings” — with elected officials, volunteer parents and community leaders — until she took over on Jan. 1. “I thought a responsible leadership transition would have taken me to the end of the year,” Banks reiterated during an interview Tuesday night with CBS New York. “That’s what I had said. That’s what the mayor and I had agreed to. And he had a change of heart.” The city’s Department of Education did not say if they agreed with the former chancellor about the benefit of more time. Despite the accelerated transition, Aviles-Ramos has assured parents “everything is going to be fine,” and there will be no major changes to Banks’ cabinet or signature initiatives, such as on reading and career readiness. “I’m committed to stability and making sure that their children have everything that they need to have a quality education,” Aviles-Ramos said Wednesday at University Neighborhood Middle School on the Lower East Side, where she did an interview with NY1. “I definitely have the people I expect to have around me moving forward.” Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos (Shawn Inglima for New York Daily News) During the goodbye party, Aviles-Ramos referred to Banks as the “Batman” to her “Robin.” Before her previous role as deputy chancellor of family and community engagement and external affairs, she served as Banks’ chief of staff until February. “I know you say you’re not going to be in touch, but that doesn’t mean that we’re not going to be in touch with you,” she quipped in another recording. “And this time, you can’t tell me to stop talking — because I’m the chancellor.” Banks, for his part, praised Aviles-Ramos’ sense of humor and told her she’d need it as the chancellorship thrusts her into the public eye. Last month, Banks’ phones were seized and Harlem townhouse raided in connection with one of several federal corruption probes swirling around the Adams administration. The former chancellor has not been accused of wrongdoing; Adams was indicted on five counts of bribery, fraud and soliciting illegal foreign campaign donations as part of a separate matter involving Turkey. The mayor has been directed by Gov. Hochul to clean house of aides tied up in the investigations, The News previously reported. “I look at my chancellorship as having led through a storm — say amen, somebody!” Banks told his supporters, including top education officials, district superintendents and citywide education panel members, as first reported by POLITICO. “I started here in the pandemic … We had this war in the Middle East,” he said of challenges with ripple effects in the classroom. “We’re in this latest iteration, all these investigations that are flying around all over the place, all representations of a storm. But at the end of the day, what I want you to know about me is, I’m an eagle,” a reference to the Eagle Academy network of schools he started. “Eagles know how to soar above the storm.” The feds are investigating a possible bribery scheme involving the consulting firm run by the former chancellor’s sibling Terence Banks, whose clients had business with city agencies including the public school system and under a third brother, then-Deputy Mayor of Public Safety Phil Banks. The Department of Eduction was recently served with a subpoena related to contracts, sources said. On a personal note, David Banks said attacks on his character and that of his family have been “troubling.” “I have been very, very, very blessed to come from a wonderful, beautiful family,” he said, “and it is troubling to see the name of your family, aspersions that are cast — a storm. But I know who I am, and I walk in that every day.” Despite growing tensions between the longtime family friends, including before his appointment nearly three years ago, Banks thanked Adams, who was not in attendance, for the opportunity to lead the school system. During that time, he overhauled reading instruction and career programs, opened 21 new schools and added gifted and talented classes, and saved pandemic-era programs losing federal emergency aid — some of the top accomplishments he touted of his tenure.