Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani today accepted a donation of 30,000 new children's books from Simon & Schuster, the world's largest educational publisher, on behalf of the New York City's Partners in Reading program, a joint pilot program between the Board of Education and the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA). The program was developed in March 1997 as part of a strategy to help improve reading skills among New York City school children.

The Mayor was joined by Deputy Mayor Ninfa Segarra, NYCHA Chairman Rub‚n Franco, Simon & Schuster President and CEO Jonathan Newcomb, and Simon & Schuster Vice President of Corporate Communications Andrew Giangola.

"I want to thank Simon & Schuster for its generous contribution to our Partners in Reading program," Mayor Giuliani said. "With the addition of these 30,000 new books, the Board of Education and NYCHA will be able to provide more children in New York City with the tools they need to improve their reading, and, consequently, their performance in every area of the learning process.

"I also want to commend Chancellor Rudy Crew and Chairman Rub‚n Franco for the tremendous success of the Partners in Reading program," the Mayor added. "Last March, we launched this public-private collaboration as a pilot program in 20 NYCHA developments. Today, the program has successfully expanded to 95 sites in 250 developments, with a registration of more than 6,000 children. These children now have easy access to books they need to improve their reading skills."

Partners in Reading is an after-school literacy pilot program developed collaboratively between the City, the Board of Education, and NYCHA to provide literacy instruction to public school children residing in public housing and attending first, second and third grades. It is the first such collaboration on reading programs between the Housing Authority and the Board of Education, and supplements the Board of Education's focus on continuing to improve the reading level of the City's students.

Chairman Rub#&232n Franco said, "Simon & Schuster's corporate generosity is an example of the private-public sector partnership that the Mayor has long advocated. On behalf of NYCHA, I gratefully accept these books. It will give a tremendous boost to our Partners in Reading program."

Simon and Schuster President and CEO Jonathan Newcomb said, "Simon & Schuster and Invest Learning have a long-standing commitment to family literacy, and we are thrilled to be part of this wonderful initiative to assist residents of public housing in New York City."

Invest Learning, Computer Curriculum Corporation, and Educational Management Group comprise the Education Technology Division of Simon & Schuster.

Invest Learning specializes in adult and adolescent learners, Computer Curriculum Corporation is the leading developer of K-12 educational software, and Educational Management Group delivers interactive instructional programming to 4,000 K-12 schools nationwide.