May 25, 2017Cesar Mendoza : Good afternoon and welcome to Bedford Park Elementary School. My name is Cesar Mendoza. I’m a second grader in Miss Lina’s class. I absolutely love to read books. My favorite books are from the Goosebumps series by R.L. Stine. I enjoy these books because it feels emotional, very emotional. I’m excited to get new books for the summer, and I want to welcome our special guest, Mayor de Blasio and Carmen Fariña.[Applause][Mayor high fives Cesar]Mayor Bill de Blasio: Wow! You did great. Wow, Cesar, great job. Give him another round of applause, everyone.[Applause]Wow, Cesar’s going to be Mayor one day. I’m impressed. Now everyone that was, as you heard, Cesar Mendoza, second grader – incredibly poised, intelligent second grader who loves reading. You love reading don’t you?Mendoza: Yes.Mayor: Yes, you see that? He’s evidence of what reading means, and this is such an important thing that so many young people as a result of today’s announcement are going to get to focus on reading including over the summer, and that is so important. We need our kids to keep focus on reading, not just during the school year but during the summer months when unfortunately a lot of kids trail off in their reading, but we’ve got to keep them focused just like Cesar is. I want to thank folks who are here who believe so deeply in helping our young children to continue to develop their reading skills.[Baby cries]Oh, there’s an unhappy customer.[Laughter]You’ll be reading soon, too.I first want to thank the Director for Early Literacy for the DOE Andrew Fletcher. Thank you, Andrew for all you do.[Applause]And great folks from this school, from the Bedford Park Elementary School who do so much great work to make this school all it is. The principal, Carolyn Heredia, we thank you for your great work. I want to thank the second grade teacher who – where’s Jasmine? Jasmine, she’s way back there? Jasmine, you’re there. Are you Cesar’s teacher?Jasmine Lina: Yes.Mayor: You did good. Jasmine Lina, thank you. Whatever you’re doing, keep doing it. And the reading coach for this school, Kathleen Neer. Thank you Kathleen.[Applause]I also want to thank the man who represents this district in the City Council, who’s been so supportive of our Equity and Excellence agenda, Councilman Andy Cohen. Thank you very, very much.[Applause]I just want to say very quickly before you hear from the chancellor, so Equity and Excellence is the governing concept for our schools. It is the core strategy, and I think it’s fair to say the single most important element of Equity and Excellence is getting our children reading on grade level by the end of second grade. This is – to me – the core of what we are devoting ourselves to going forward. Now, I am blessed to have a real educator as chancellor, and when we talked about this vision we asked the simple question what would have the biggest impact on the most kids for the long run. And I asked the chancellor to think about this with no regard to what had been the limitation of the past. The sad fact is, even though this is the greatest city in the world, we tolerated as a society – we tolerated the reality where so few kids were on grade level reading by the end of second grade. When we came into office here it was under 30 percent of our kids. It doesn’t make sense. We’re the greatest city in the world. We are one of the richest cities in the world. We have so much talent. How on earth were fewer than 30 percent of our kids reading on grade level? And I talked to the chancellor and her team as we were developing the Equity Excellence vision, and I said again let go of the past. Let go of any of the boundaries we used to think were holding us back. What would you do if you could do anything? What would you do to change our schools? And the chancellor immediately keyed in on the importance of getting our kids on grade level by the end of second grade, and then we developed the tools to do it. And we knew it would not be easy. This would be a very, very difficult mission, but it’s the right mission. And we have been putting in the investments and the tools to make it work, and part of what I’ll say – because I listen very carefully. When you have an expert, it’s good to listen to your expert. The chancellor is – I think I use the word appropriately – slightly obsessed about summer, and what happens in summers and the need to keep continuity in education. And that leads us to today because we know we will be able to advance this vision around literacy if we focus on summer as well. So I say we came into summer with under 30 percent of our kids reading on grade level. It’s now 41 percent. That’s real progress but we have to go faster and farther, and summer is a crucial piece in the equation. So, we are setting a clear vision for what we’re going to do during the school year and what we’re going to do during the summers. I will note, in the school year – and this is because it’s Bronx week it’s so important to focus on the investments in the Bronx and the Bronx needs some extra investment when it comes to literacy and we’re making that extra investment – already there are reading coaches in 72 Bronx elementary schools. They will be in every Bronx elementary school by this September.So, the reading coaches who go into the school and help every teacher to focus on literacy and to work with every child, they will be in every school in the Bronx by this fall. That’s the piece of – that’s the core of the strategy.But the summer piece is what we’re announcing today. Free books for summer reading. We need our kids to read. Some families have a lot of books around, some don’t. We want to even up the score. We want every child to have that opportunity regardless of their family’s economic situation or how much education previous generations have had. We want to make sure books are available in the home.So, for kindergarten children, first grade children, second grade children, we will be providing 29,000 kids with free books for this summer and that means 10 to 12 books each. So, that’s enough for each child to read about a book a week and stay focused on the development of their literacy skills.This makes all the difference in the world. It means that these young people will come back in September and they wouldn’t have skipped a beat. And I know parents are going to be really enthusiastic to have this wonderful resource for their children. And once again, it is absolutely for free for all 29,000 kids who are going to benefit.And now, it’s my great pleasure to introduce the captain of the ship who has been leading the way on this strategy, our Chancellor Carmen Farina. Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña, Department of Education: I don’t mean to point it out but Cesar actually did a better job pronouncing my name.[Laughter]I want to say clearly that we’re almost beyond where we need to be because Caesar is not only on grade-level reading Goosebumps, he’s beyond grade-level. He’s actually on a third grade level with reading that book. So, congratulations.[Applause]Chancellor Farina: You know, we’ve been – certainly are encouraging parents to use the public libraries but by having your own book in your home, it means that if you’re travelling, if you’re going someplace, you can take the books with you.By having the same books for all children, it means when the teachers come back in September, they can have book talks about what the kids read and also do rewards for the kids who have read all the books and how they share it.My other big hope for the summer reading – it’s not homework. It’s not something you’re being forced to do. It’s not schoolwork. It’s about learning to read for pleasure. We’re emphasizing with the literacy coaches, reading as a skill. We want summer reading to be reading as a pleasure and something that you will do for the rest of your life.So, I am really enthusiastic about seeing these kids leave school with all these books. We’ll be having some parent workshops also to get parents to know how to talk to their kids about the books in the packages.So, this will be a family endeavor. And I know in this particular family, the mother is very excited as is Caesar. And you’re probably going to read to Andres, right? [Chancellor Fariña speaks in Spanish]So, this is literacy for the whole family. It’s about portable literacy. It’s about reading for joy and most importantly it’s about coming back in September having something in common to discuss with all the kids in your own class.Mayor: Thank you so much, Chancellor. And I also want everyone to hear from the Councilman who’s been very, very supportive again of the agenda. He’s helped us achieve a lot of what we’re doing to change and improve our schools. Councilman Andy Cohen.[...]Mayor: Thank you. And now – [Applause]Thank you, Councilman. We’re going to do some actual reading to the children. This way, come on over.