Transcript: Mayor Adams Visits Summer Rising Site

Deputy Mayor Ana Almanzar, Strategic Initiatives: We are so excited to have our mayor with us today. I just met Helen and Darlene who's crying behind me, it's the first time they met a New York City mayor and he always says, No other mayor in the City of New York has traveled all the five boroughs as often as Mayor Adams. I am very happy to be here in Harlem today and good morning, I am Ana Almanzar, the deputy mayor for Strategic Initiatives. I am thrilled to be here today and to see our students in Harlem active, engaged, and continue learning even in the summer. Today's press conference is to highlight one of the crown jewels of this administration's focus on young children: our Summer Rising program. Oh, thank you.

This is only the third year of Summer Rising and yet it has already become such a key part of students' and families' summer experience. We're giving students extra time to learn, grow and explore, and we're giving working families the peace of mind of knowing that their kids are safe, active in the summer months. I want to thank Children's Aid and I see Phoebe Boyer with us today for the ongoing partnership with Central Park East second or two. This is a true partnership between these two great organizations and we can see how that translates into quality program. Because of Summer Rising, these students are getting extra academics, sports, arts, field trips, and free healthy meals. Our middle school students are also starting to think about their careers and college options as part of our new Exploring Futures Program. Summer is a perfect time to dream, and I encourage all of my new friends here today to dream big. Now, I would like to introduce to you a man who definitely dreams big, our city's mayor, Mayor Eric Adams.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thanks so much, Deputy Mayor Almanzar, and to our scholars that are behind us, and really thank the Chancellor for just really actualizing the vision of what education should be and he often states over and over again, our children are in the school system K through 12 and when they finished they ask what was that all about? And how do we really just redefine and bring purpose to education? And Summer Rising is part of it. It just blows my mind when I started to look into education and to listen to him over the last few years and just see that we knew some of the things we were doing they were not producing the outcomes that we expected. We knew that dyslexia screening was important to stop the prison to pipeline on feeding that we were doing.

We knew how the food we were serving our children, we need to re-examine them and make sure that they start eating a healthy diet so that they won't have negative impacts later in life. We knew that it was more than just making our children academically smart and not also ensuring that we were developing their full personhoods and allowed them to be socially intelligent and social emotional intelligence was important and just taking these bold steps of having our children in an upcoming year doing breathing exercises inside the school and teaching them self-care. These young people are going to deal with change at a magnitude that is unimaginable than what we have experienced social media is inundating them with ideas and thoughts, and if they can't control this, we're going to be dealing with some severe mental health issues in the future.

We're seeing it now. We're seeing what's happening with suicides. We're seeing what's happening and depression. We're seeing our young people duplicating antisocial behavior from subway surfing to using and experiencing drugs. We used to do things as young people that stayed on the block. Now these young people are watching 35 million views of things that they do and it's impacting them and we have to be honest about that and that is what Summer Rising is about. We know that almost 40 percent of what children learn throughout the school year is lost during the summer months. Yet we were not doing anything, we were not putting structure into their lives, and it doesn't mean that the summer must be boring, but it means that part of the continuation of learning should continue throughout the summer months. Those summer months of just doing nothing, just hanging out at the park or just going to the local corners to stand by, that does not happen in affluent communities.
In affluent communities, there's a well-structured environment from museums to plays to experience, to constantly developing their mind. And our children their minds are developing during these years on what we give them, and that's what Summer Rising is doing and kudos to the entire DOE team and the chancellor for expanding, I think our numbers now are 110,000 who are going through the system, but we are also adding not only the 110,000 of full day learning, given stability to parents as they move throughout their employment or other activities they must do, but we also are feeding breakfast and lunch and snacks and then a thousand additional sites around the city where young people can come and get meals, 18 or younger. This is the fullness of how we use our educational system, not just through seven to 2:00 p.m. and then the doors closed, the buildings closed, and we act like the problems don't exist.

If all we had to do was worry about how to teach our young people one and one equal two, they'll all be scholars, but by the time they walk inside a classroom building, they're dealing with so much trauma, so much uncertainty, so many challenges, and we must turn these school buildings into sanctuaries of full development of the personhoods of our children and that's what we're doing. And we're saying to corporate America, you have a role also, the new aspect of exploring the future, I'm really excited about it: Microsoft, Google, Pfizer, Brooklyn Navy Yard, all of these places are going to start engaging in how we develop our children.

Many of our children, they are born in one square mile, they go to school in one square mile, they go to the local store in one square mile, everything is in one square mile. They're not exposed to this entire universe of the most diverse city on the globe. We're saying no to that, we are going to allow them to know that there's so much more that they can be explored to, particularly in black and brown communities. We have to be honest about that. In black and brown communities, they are part of one square mile of this city and that can't continue to exist and we want them to explore and to develop, to grow, to learn, to understand the arts that are available for them and continue to expand what this public school system is doing and will continue to do so.

Thank you deputy mayor, DYCD commissioners here, Kate for our food and healthy foods and just a chancellor with a vision and ability to execute on that vision is going to allow us to rethink what we do with our young scholars as we prepare them for the future. So kudos to everyone and how we were able to accomplish this in a very real way, thank you very much.

Deputy Mayor Almanzar: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And I have to testify that as we were preparing to welcome you into the room Cordalene and Helen were holding hand and practicing the breathing exercise because they were so excited to see you and they were telling me how nervous they were and I said, You don't have to get on the microphone. So I am very excited that we have with us today a very important member of our administration. He believes in the connection between public schools and community and building that is part of his life mission, with us, our Chancellor Banks.

Chancellor David Banks, Department of Education: Good morning everyone. Thank you so much, Deputy Mayor, it just fills my heart anytime I have an opportunity to go into a school and to see these beautiful faces, they picked the best looking kids in the whole school, didn't they? Yeah, she said thank you. You have to love this. I mean, really, the Mayor has the most important job in the city, I have the best job in the city because I get to interact with kids all the time. And I came in here this morning and as soon as I walked in, I saw a young man, Jason, and he said, It's a real honor to meet you, Mayor Adams. 

So you got to love it, you have to love it. I am so proud of our team, and not just at New York City Public Schools, but DYCD, our partners over at City Hall, we have been working and planning for this Summer Rising since this time last year, and it's a perfect example of how you have the prior proper planning coordination, when you do that... This is what the mayor had said to us for so long, so many of our city agencies operate in silos and everybody's working hard, they're doing their best, but you can never be as successful if you just operate in a silo, but when you coordinate and everybody connects, it makes all the difference in the world. Our commissioner, Keith Howard, our teams have been doing this for over a year, getting ready for this. 

There's a reason why the Summer Rising has been almost seamless, and I was a principal for many years. I remember when we would have summer programs and the websites would crash and buses didn't show up and it was a mess before it would settle down, but this has been one where it's almost not even newsworthy because it has been nice and smooth. If it was a mess, it would've been all in the news, we know that's the way that it works. So I'm very, very proud of the folks who've been leading that, Emma, Angela on our team at New York City Public School. Stand up. Emma, this is the woman that has been… Stand up, Angela, this is the woman that's been leading the work for us and ensuring that success and making sure that this has been successful, thank you so much. You can see the fruits of your labor and just how well things are going and I appreciate you and appreciate your leadership in this work.

Let me just finally say 110,000 students as the mayor said, we prioritized students with challenge. We prioritized students in temporary housing. We prioritized students in foster care. We prioritized students with disabilities to make sure that they were not left on the sidelines and that we got them into the game. In fact, the biggest criticism of the Summer Rising program, you know what it is? They want even more spots. We have a waiting list of almost 50,000 more families who want to get in. This is one of the biggest successes for this administration and why? Because kids are in school and they're engaged, they're having fun, they're academically a challenge, they're catching up. It connects very much to our NYC Reads work where we're ensuring that our kids are focused, they're learning. The mayor set the big vision, kids should be learning all year round and it's a huge part of responding to that vision. And so we're going to continue to work hard. Let me just ask the kids, are you guys having a good summer so far?

Audience: Yes.

Chancellor Banks: All right, y'all answered it just the way I told you, okay. But besides the experiences that they're having, they're also... What we do with food is amazing, you're going to hear about that as well. Do you know that during the months of July and August, we serve over seven million meals? Think about that. Over seven million meals we serve at parks and pools and schools, wherever the people are, our office of school food nutrition is there responding to the need. In a minute, we're going to get ready to go over to the cafeteria as well. You're going to hear from Kate in a moment, but Chris, I want to thank you. He has our office, Chris, please stand up. I know you got some folks here from your office as well, thank you.

That is not an easy thing, 7 million meals in two months, they don't write articles about that. That's not front page news. But you are responding to the needs of the people and the communities and ensuring that our kids are not going to go hungry. And so it's the academics, it's the food, but it's also the fun. And Commissioner Howard is going to talk about that and some of the partners that we work with here and all the great work that they do. And so my final word is I want to just say a word of thanks to the principal of this great school, Principal Smith, thank you so much.

[Crosstalk.]

Chancellor Banks: They do? But that's the kind of school that you have, right? And so it's a family and you can feel it from the moment that you walk in through these doors. That's where we want every single one of our schools to be where our kids can't wait to get up in the morning to get to school. And we have so many places, I invite the press to visit many of our sites around the city and go and see what's happening in our Summer Rising programs. The kids have energy that is bouncing off the walls and that's what we want to see, that's what it's supposed to be. It's supposed to be fun and exciting, and they're supposed to get outside the four walls of the school, as the mayor said. If we want our kids to be... You can't be a citizen of the world with a neighborhood mentality. You've got to recognize the whole world lives here. Make New York City your Summer Rising and your playground, and there's just so many great opportunities for our young people.

We're going to continue to support them, give them everything they need. They are the best of who we are and how we show up for them tells everybody what our values are and who we are. And I believe that we will continue to keep on rising. Thank you so much everybody.

Deputy Mayor Almanzar: Thank you, chancellor. I promise the next time I'm going to wear higher heels giving how... It's not that I'm short, it's just perspective, actually. We have today our commissioner from the Department of Youth and Community Development, Keith Howard, a truly dedicated public servant, Keith.

Commissioner Keith Howard, Department of Youth and Community Development: Thank you, deputy mayor. Thank you Mr. Mayor. Thank you, chancellor. I want to first our acknowledge community-based organizations that are doing amazing work around Summer Rising. First of course, Children Aid with Phoebe and her amazing staff. So do we have staff from Global Kids here? Who's there? Stand up. And how about Stanley Isaacs? Is Stanley Isaacs also here? Oh, we didn't see Stanley? Okay. So three of our more senior partner community-based organizations with over 400 kids and Chancellor you mentioned about temporary housing, 21 percent of the kids that go to Summer Rising this year is from temporary housing. That's significant. 

So the chancellor mentioned how the staff have been working together closely, and one of the things that was important to us is to get the feedback from the parents, to get the feedback from the community-based organizations about what happened last year. And the Chancellor and I, we met, our team met and we were able to make sure that the process, because it's important if you don't get the process right. That's the stress in the system and that stress shows up not only in what the work that you're doing, but the work that we're trying to accomplish. So we made sure that we had the community-based organizations working with the principal. We had my senior staff with Susan and Daniel, could you please stand up from DYCD working with the Chancellor's leadership team to make sure that we listened to the parents and we got it right.

These young people are amazing and they deserve quality programming. This is what the mayor has charged, not only me, but also the chancellor with, working together, working out of silos. But the mayor mentioned something also interesting he mentioned about getting young people outside of their neighborhood. So one of the things that he charged DYCD with is working with the Mayor's Office of International Affairs to create programs that take young people out of the country. So one of the organizations, Global Kids in this building, actually it's taking four kids to Ghana, remember that conversation we had? And they actually leave from the airport tomorrow.

So it's all about the experience. The mayor is very forward-thinking and he gives us direction and he gives us instructions on exactly what the experiences that he wants the young people to have. So I say this to say one of the most important things that I always say when I'm talking and we're talking about kids and programming, yes, it's good to have STEM, they have STEM here. Yes, it's good to have career exploration, they have this here. Yes, it's good to have homework help. They have this here. But most important, it's always good to make sure that the kids are having fun. All right, and we turn it around here and these kids are having fun, trust me. So I want to thank you and just thank you for coming out. I appreciate you, thank you so much.

Deputy Mayor Almanzar: Thank you Commissioner Howard. And before we announce our next speaker, I just want to acknowledge the presence of our council member, Julie Menin. Hi Julie. And our local assembly member, Eddie Gibbs.

I've read about this young woman and about her dedication to education and her dedication to building schools where people, as the Chancellor mentioned, and students felt like they were part of a family. And she did this here and she done it through her entire career because she knows how it feels to feel like you don't belong. And she built the school to make sure that all the students, everyone behind us feel like they have a place in the school and that they belong. I leave you with our principal. I want to call you Principal Smith, but Naomi.

Smith: Thank you, Deputy Mayor Almanzar. And thank you Mayor Adams and Chancellor Banks, Commissioner Howard and all these other people for joining us at Central Park East II. I see every day the joy of the students in our school, those who go to Central Park East II, and those who we've welcomed into our school because we know how it feels to be an outsider and we've made sure that nobody feels that way. So we have academic and enrichment activities, we're making this summer fun and exciting, and it's proving that we can provide the same services during the summer that we provide all school year.

Summer meals are another example. Actually, our kids are part of that seven million meals that are served and we're very happy to be provided with that, not only the meals, but the snacks. A recognition that kids can't just survive on breakfast and lunch, believe me, they can't. So the same way that our kids get breakfast and lunch and snacks during the year, they're getting it here. Summer Rising also means caring and nurturing adults, that is key. Relationships, relationships, relationships. If there are no relationships, there is no learning, that is the key. We as a community school with the Children's Aid Society are glad that we can continue our work, but also welcome Global Kids and Beacon, and it's taken more than a little effort on all our parts to forge that partnership. But I think we've done a great job, we meet regularly, Children's Aid, Global Kids, and Beacon even had a special event to bring all the staff together. So we're working in many different ways because you can't only support the children... If you really want to support the children, you have to support the staff, that's the key.

So it's a few weeks into the summer and it's amazing to see how the students from Central Park East II and schools all over, I don't think we have anyone from Staten Island, but they're coming from Queens, from Brooklyn, from the Bronx. Some are coming by bus, graciously the Department of Ed is providing Metro cards not only for the students but the parents in temporary housing, which is key for them to participate, as well as some students getting busing. I do want to make sure that we not only celebrate ourselves, our kids, everyone here, but the administrators, the teachers, the paraprofessionals, the school aides, the parent coordinators, the social workers, the nurses, the secretaries, the custodial staff, the cafeteria staff, and the entire CBO staff of all three CBOs because it takes a village and it's really true, without them, this would not be a quality program.

Deputy Mayor Almanzar: Thank you Principal Smith, and thanks everyone for joining us today. Thanks for our students who behaved as they were told, and yes, a very, very good-looking crowd both in front and behind us. Thanks everybody, have a great day.

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