Transcript: Mayor Eric Adams Kicks Off End of the First Week of Summer Rising

July 8, 2022

Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright, Strategic Initiatives: Good morning, everyone. Good morning. Another beautiful day and another reason to celebrate our Summer Rising initiative. Summer Rising is the result of really a true partnership across city government and on the ground with community-based organizations. So another historic milestone we're setting with 110,000 young people and their families having access to this amazing summer opportunity and experience. So we're very excited about that. The Department of Education, New York City Public Schools, the Division for Youth and Community Development and hundreds of community-based organizations have made this possible. The program has been expanded. It's bigger and better in all respects. Now five days a week, more hours for families to give families peace of mind, but also opportunities for our young people. I would like to introduce our chancellor, David Banks, to share some remarks.

Chancellor David Banks, Department of Education: Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Thank you. Good morning, everyone.

Chancellor Banks: I'm a principal, I'm used to going into classrooms and I say good morning and I usually get some kind of a response. This is a great morning. We are here to announce the launch of Summer Rising, but it is a great day. The sun is out. It's a beautiful day. We're all blessed to be here. And I think we ought to take a moment at this time and really just recognize the great work that has gone into preparing all of us to be here today. There are Summer Rising sites that are happening all over this city and it doesn't happen by accident. It happens when it's done well because of the level of preparation that has been put in. And so from the moment that I became chancellor, one of the things that the mayor and the deputy mayor directed us to do was to ensure that we have a great summer program.

Chancellor Banks: We'd heard about Summer Rising last year and we're thrilled at the work that was done, and we wanted to continue to build on that work and to make it even better. And so this year we are really proud that it is the largest Summer Rising program that the city has ever had. And that's a big deal and we ought to recognize that. But it's also a program that I feel great about in the work that's been done and how efficient it is running.

Chancellor Banks: I was at a school yesterday not far from here, and the program is just running so well and so smoothly. We're going to have snags along the way. We have 110,000 students that are part of this. This is a very large program all over New York, but we've got a great team. And so before I go any further, I want to first of all, recognize the great principle of this school, Principle Ramos who's leading this work. Not just because she's the principal of this school, but the time and effort that she puts in to ensuring that this school runs well all year long has to be recognized. And I want you to know that this chancellor and this mayor, we see you, we recognize you, we salute you, and we thank you. We appreciate you.

Chancellor Banks: And I also want to recognize our superintendent who manages all of the schools in this district. We were together yesterday as we received the Minister of Education from Finland was here with her team and we were together to receive them as well. Superintendent Chan, please wave. Thank you for your leadership as well.

Chancellor Banks: And finally, I want to really acknowledge all of our hard work the teachers, the school safety officers, all of our folks who are cooking in the kitchen. We're getting ready to go in there and have a meal with some of the kids in just a moment. But everyone who plays a part in making any good school work well, whether it's during the year or it's during the summer, I thank you. We appreciate you very, very much, and this is going to be a great summer, not a good summer, but a great summer. And thank you everybody.

Deputy Mayor Wright: Thank you, Chancellor Banks. And next up, we have Mayor Eric Adams.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you. Thank you so much. This is one of the things we talked about on the campaign trail after speaking with David and just really becoming knowledgeable about the loss opportunities. We were aware of the decline over the summer loss, that lost over the summertime for students in education. We were aware of it. All the studies showed that, but we never took any opportunity. On the campaign trail we talked about it and I was happy. The former mayor made the first round of the Summer Rising program. We are now taking that and extending it, and we are going to continue to get it better. We saw far too long, we saw summer decline. Now we say summer rising. We saw a decline in opportunity, a decline in socialization, a decline in healthy nutritional meals, a decline in parents having stability of knowing where their children were going to be.

Mayor Adams: That was the decline that led to so many problems that played out during the school year. We're saying no to that decline and we are seeing a summer rising. We're going to rise in socialization, rise into academic achievement, rise in nutritional meals, rise suitability up to 6:00 PM where the children could have a place to be and to socialize. This is how we are moving forward. We're peeling back layers, after layers, after layers of decline and betrayal and we're laying on that positive energy for our children. This is a great program. And then when you match a good idea with good educators and good leaders that really believe in our children, we are going to move in the right direction.

Mayor Adams: We are doing so much as an administration. I say this over again. The noise of violence has really taken the oxygen out of the room of what this administration is doing foundationally to improve the lives of children and families in this city. And trust me, we're going to deal with the violence issue. But while we're doing that, we're going to build a real foundation to raise healthy children and family.

Mayor Adams: So the first week of this program was supercharging Summer Rising. We're supercharging the opportunities for our children. Every young person deserve an opportunity. And education and learning does not end at the school year. It's all year round and it's more than just academic. We're going to expose these children to the beauty of this city. And sitting here right across the street from any form of nature residents or public housing, these children need the exposure and opportunity as any other community. And we need to be clear on that. And that is what we're saying as an administration. It's about opening the doors of the opportunities and not allowing our children to fall by the wayside during the summer month.

Mayor Adams: That summer gap was just really disheartening to know that when the child starts the school year, two years of non-structured learning, non-structured opportunities of where they're going and what they're doing and of visiting sites and location, the continuation of learning. This is what this is about, not having an interruption, letting them enjoy the summer months, but also that enjoyment of learning that comes with it. And we're going to give our children a full year of education, full year of education.

Mayor Adams: And during COVID, our children dealt with remote learning. They dealt with isolation. They dealt with a serious learning loss. They dealt with not interacting with their friends. When you think about it, imagine having two years that you are not experiencing what it is to be a child for two years. If it impacted adults, it traumatized children. And we are going to give them an overdrive of having that interaction and love that they deserve in a structured environment.

Mayor Adams: It's about having a positive impact on our young people and our families, and our families. When you know your child is in a safe place, you are able to go out and do the things you need to do. But also I'm happy with what we're doing with this initiative. In this Summer Rising program, we are zeroing in on those children in need: temporary housing, foster care children, students with disability and other student population.

Mayor Adams: So we are being intentional with our resources to go after the children who are often ignored and denied. That is what our mission is because the child that's ignored today is the child that is going to be harmful to himself or others in the future and we are going to catch them upstream. A model of our organization with over 104,000 children who are enrolled, this exceeded our expectation and how fast they enrolled parents were saying, "Yes, I love this. Let's do this, let's get it done." And we are able to get it done.

Mayor Adams: So PS 188, 68 of the students, approximately 15% in this Summer Rising are from temporary housing and we are providing healthy meals for these children. So thank you for what you're doing. And all the CBOs and partnerships that are part of this initiative. And these incredible CBOs, some of the organizations I've known and as I was walking through inside, we were able to speak with them. They've been doing good work for so long. That was a missed partnership between our educational institutions and our local CBOs. That's the community partnership that we need as we move forward.

Mayor Adams: So it's going to be a great summer, including with… I'm going to say hello to the food workers inside. Sometimes we just don't even acknowledge their presence and existence as they're preparing food for our children, something that my mother did. And when you prepare food, you want to prepare it with love and these food service workers, they were here even during COVID handing out meals to children and families, dedicated civil servants playing their roles as we help our children.

Mayor Adams: So with over 300 public schools, community pools, centers, parks, and food trucks receiving these meals, this is a real success for us. I thank everyone that's involved in the Summer Rising. We're going to continue to rise as a city. We're going to continue to rise as a Department of Education. We're going to continue to rise as our community during the summer, and we're going to have summer, winter, spring, and fall rising as well. We're going to continue to rise as New Yorkers. Thank you.

Deputy Mayor Wright: Thank you so much Mayor Adams. Next up is Commissioner Keith Howard, our commissioner of the Division of Youth and Community Development.

Commissioner Keith Howard, Department of Youth and Community Development: Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. I am so excited about being here and I'm looking at the faces of our young people and it just gives me the energy to just say we have to continue to make sure that these programs are running out successfully. One of the things that the mayor was very, very clear about is he wanted an excellent relationship to remove the silos between the agency. And I can honestly say to you, Mr. Mayor, that Chancellor Banks and DYCD have a strong relationship and will continue to have that strong relationship, especially to the deputy mayor for making sure that the collaboration between the teams had actually gone well. But the mayor shouted out our CBOs and I want to give a significant and great shout out to the Educational Alliance. Come on, come on. Let's hear it.

Commissioner Howard: Grand Street Settlement, are we in the house? Okay. And University Settlement, are we in the house? I want one of the t-shirts. I think I told somebody that. Throughout the five boroughs, we have approximately 139 providers that will serve a record number, 110,000 young people this summer. And I believe the mayor mentioned that. During a meeting with providers yesterday, one of the CBOs that served 1,000 of our Summer Rising student reported the best summer kickoff ever, which is extremely important.

Commissioner Howard: Don't listen to what the press is writing. I'm sorry. I want to also thank our DYCD team. I see them behind the fence. Just give us a wave. Our DOE team. Okay. And also the deputy mayor's team as well. We are off to a great start and DYCD looks forward to working with DOE and the providers on the six remaining weeks. Mostly important to the young people, learn, engage in new adventures and have fun. God bless you. Thank you.

Deputy Mayor Wright: Thanks so much Commissioner Howard. And you see the mayor put on his shades so the fun has to begin. The summer fun is beginning. This is such an important community and has a tremendous leader and Council member Carlina Rivera, so would like to bring you up. Thank you so much.

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Deputy Mayor Wright: Thank you so much. And I'd like to introduce our last speaker who really is the core of what we are here for and what it's all about, our families. Maria Arce is one of the parents of a student in Summer Rising and we are all here to support our families and our parents and are certainly grateful for the choices that you make every day for your family. Maria.

[...]

Mayor Adams: Okay. We'll take one or two questions. Great. That means we did a good job.

Question: [Inaudible].

Mayor Adams: I'm sorry, I can't...

Question: [Inaudible].

Mayor Adams: During the Summer Rising program? You want to respond to that? I didn't hear that at all.

Chancellor Banks: Yeah, no. I haven't heard anything around class sizes for the summer. There have been no concerns that have been raised around class sizes for the summer. Of course, there's a larger issue that the union has brought, but we're engaged in conversations with them and the governor's office, mayor's office around the larger class size bill that has been proposed and trying to work that through. But certainly there's been no issues that have been brought to us, certainly to our attention around class size issues in the summer. I think for the summer, we're certainly looking really, really good.

Mayor Adams: Okay. Thank you.