Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Speaks at SASF Professional Development Training for SONYC Program Staff Members

August 25, 2014

Mayor de Blasio: I want to thank you for all that you are doing for our children, for all you’re doing in Albany. [inaudible] I’d like to remind the people of NYC, beautiful summer day. And all of you are here, parents support our kids, working under [inaudible]

There are a lot of people at the beach, but you are here preparing for one of the most precious types of work in our city which is the enrichment, the strengthening and educating of our children. So give yourselves a round of applause.

[Applause]

I want to thank Ross Sandler for all the work he does as chair. He has an incredibly distinguished career as the transportation commissioner of this city, he has worked in the city government with great distinction, he is one of the people who really understands the city and we are so thrilled that he does the work he does here as chair of the board – let’s thank him for all he does.

[Applause]

I want to thank Jim O’Neil. Jim is only, only warming up now in terms of service of young people. It has only been about 50 years, so he is just getting started. He started as a social studies teacher at Monsignor McClancy Memorial High School in Queens – which was his alma mater. So, he went to school, decided he was going to help young people, started and never stopped – now running one of the biggest non-profits, working in our city schools. Generations of kids have benefited from Jim work. Let’s thank him for all that he has done.

[Applause]

Now, you all may know the well-known African proverb – it takes a village to raise a child. Well, it took a village to get us to the point of having the resources for this great expansion of afterschool and for the expansion we are doing with pre-k. Those resources took a real long fight. A lot of people joined together – some of them had the courage to go to a difficult, dangerous place known as Albany, New York. James, come over here.

Albany, New York – this man is so brave, he went to that mysterious place known as Albany and he fought every day and that’s the reason that we have the funding for what you are about to embark on. It’s because of people like Senator James Sanders Jr. went to Albany and fought for us. Let’s thank him for all he did.

[Applause]

Finally we said – once we got that funding – we said we’re going to do something that would take some moving of mountains. We are not going to wait to reach our children. We can’t wait. We can’t do this in small steps – our children need help right now. Everyone in this room understands it. You know the urgency I feel. I’m a public school parent – starting my last year as a public school parent – Dante starts senior year in high school on September 4th. We know what afterschool means for children. We know how urgent it is to get that support, that safety, that enrichment for our children.

So, I turn to Deputy Mayor Richard Buery, I turn to our Chancellor Carmen Fariña and I turn to our Department of Youth and Community Development Commissioner Bill Chong – who’s with us today – and I said this has to happen now. We’ve only got months to put together something. The fact is this is the largest expansion of afterschool programs at the middle school level in the history of New York City.

[Applause]

And that was not an easy thing to ask the leaders of the administration to achieve, but they’ve been doing it, day in and day out, with extraordinary success. I want to thank Commissioner Chong and all of his colleagues for all they have done – let’s give them a round of applause.

[Applause]

Now, boot camp – boot camp is a place for people who are focused – eye of the tiger – about the mission ahead. Now, all of you – to the sight directors, to the teachers, to the staff, everyone who is getting ready for what starts on Monday, September  8th of afterschool programs – expanding as never seen before for our middle school kids. All of you are the difference makers, all of you are the history makers. You are going to take us someplace we haven’t been before.

It’s my job to get you the support, but then you go in, you are the boots on the ground, you are the people that actually reach our children and make them better. That is precious work, and as I said, that is sacred work and I honor you. I thank you, for this being the choice you made in your life and I thank you for being here strengthening yourselves right now.  And we know the end of the summer is a little bit of sweet time – people in education feel it, teachers feel it, staff feel it, students feel it. But I also know it’s a time for us to get ready to embark on something amazing. We are going to something amazing, we are going to do something historic, we are going to do something transcendent that’s going to change our school system forever and for the better.

Because when our middle school kids, get more support, get more time for learning, get more time in a safe and secure setting, it makes all the difference. 

We are embarking on a two year plan, and at the end of this next school year and the one after- any child, anywhere  in this city who wants to be in afterschool – middle school students grades  6,7 and 8 – where ever they are, they want afterschool they're going to get afterschool, no questions asked, it's theirs. 

That's why it is going to be truly universal. 

[Applause]

And it begins Monday, September 8th. It's a date we are going to look back on as a historical moment. You know, a lot of us know middle school didn't always get the investment it deserved - that level of education sometimes felt like the step child. It didn't get the investment it deserved. This year we are making $145 million investment in these afterschool programs. And next year we will go up to $190 million and then every year after at that level. 

[Applause]

So one of the exciting realities here is, when you start something new, you get to help people think about what it means. We want everyone to understand that our middle school kids are filled with potential – every middle school child has so much they can achieve, but not if we don’t support them. I don’t like the hypocrisy of saying we want our young people to make the right choices and go on the right path but then we don’t give them –

[Inaudible]

More kids who are learning, more kids who are doing their homework on time, more kids who are staying on grade level, more kids ready to go on to high school and flourish. So we have a great new name for it and a lot of our young people helped us in the definition of this name. We’re calling it “School’s Out New York City”. Now, “School’s Out New York City” makes sense. It has the acronym SONYC – that makes sense. The good news is you can say that “sonic”. Sounds cool doesn’t it? Sonic – you like that right?

[Applause]

SONYC means, all our new afterschool programs. SONYC means, we will now have afterschool programs in 562 schools in this city – all over every borough. It means that we’re almost doubling the number of afterschool seats for our middle school children. Last year, we had about 44,000 seats – by the end of this coming school year we’ll have 78,000 seats. And we all know a seat can be used as some kids come in the whole week – some kids come in one day, two days. So a seat can be used by more than one kid, ultimately. We believe that we’re going to from just over 50,000 kids taking advantage of afterschool, to almost 100,000 kids going to afterschool and getting the benefits of it. That’s what SONYC means – nearly doubling the number of children served. And you all know what the human impact of that will be and you know that there’s a multiplier effect. That’s what I love about educators – everyone who works and supports our kids. You do things that so many people don’t get to do in their lives – you have a chance for a kind of fulfillment that’s so profound because you plant the seed, you start a child in the right path, you get a child learning and getting excited. And then they take it on to the next year and the next year and the next year and throughout their lives. That’s the multiplier effect you can have. And now with this effort – the ability to reach twice as many kids – think what that’s going to mean for the ability of our schools to teach those kids better. And what it’s going to mean for the futures of those young people.

So, when we say SONYC, it means more, for sure, but it also means better because we keep learning what works. We keep learning what works and what works – and I think the young people surrounding us today – we’re so proud they’re here giving us their good advice – let’s give all the young people a round of applause to thank them.

[Applause]

The team of experts – I know what the team of experts is telling you. I think they’re telling you “make sure the young people have choices” – am I right? They’re going to say “make sure the young people have choices.” Why do I know that? Because, as I say, I am a recovering middle school parent myself. I went through that phase just a few years ago. And I know they’re look for their independence, they’re looking for their identity – they want choices. Our job is to give them good choices – powerful choices –things that will really work for them.

So what are you going to see? You’re going to see the tutoring, the homework help, the enrichment – you’re going to see ways of teaching kids leadership because a lot of kids will take leadership if you give them a chance. You’re going to see a focus on arts and physical fitness – the things that engage our young people and make them stronger but also turn their attentions more effectively to their studies. When they’re physically fit, they study better. When arts and culture excites them, they study better. We’re also going to see programs in many places focused on the jobs of the future – science, technology, engineering and math – the STEM areas. Because when you see these afterschool programs with a STEM component, kids gravitate towards them – they’re excited by them – they’re fascinated by them. And they know – young people today are very sophisticated – they know that it could be a pathway to a great future.

So our SONYC programs are very rich, powerful, filled with choice and that’s going to engage our young people. And it’s going to be a lot of fun because having that fun in afterschool is also part of what generates that commitment to learning. We’re going to make sure that our young people benefit, for the very simple point that every child who walks in the door of one of these afterschool programs is a safe child. They’re not in harm’s way – they’re not being exposed to some of the wrong influences that exist in our city – they’re safe.  They’re with nurturing adults – role models like yourselves. They’re learning more. You know there’s a raging debate around the country – how do we extend the school day? Afterschool is one of the ways to extend the school day. It’s a positive way to do it. It’s a way that the taxpayers appreciate – it’s a cost efficient way to do it. It’s an engaging way to do it – but kids in afterschool learn more. Those extra hours give them more – make them stronger. So we’re going to have a way of extending the school day – extending learning – in a compelling, energizing, manner and it’s going to make all the difference for so many young people.

And, dare I say for their parents – let me tell you, anyone in this room, who has brought up a child in New York City, it is not easy. It’s not easy to be a parent here. When you know you can depend on something – when you know there’s an afterschool seat for your child – when you know it happens to be free – when you know your child will be safe even though you have to be at work – your child is in a safe secure place and they’re learning. Every parent, you’ll find, no matter where they come from no matter what they’re income, they yearn for their children to be better than them. They yearn for their children to get that chance – and they know you are the providers of that chance. You know that kids are safe when they are with you. You know that kids are progressing when they’re with you. That’s what we offer through the SONYC program.

Now, you deserve our support, as I’ve said, and you’ll have our support every step of the way. The resources, the focus – we want to cut through the red tape and help you get your jobs done because SONYC matters. And we want to help you to continue to develop your skills, because another thing I learned, a long time ago, about people who work with young people is that they want to get better all the time also. This session is an example of it – committing yourself to always getting better. Be all you can be. That’s what we want to do, so we’ve devoted $1.3 million to support professional development for those who are going to be working in these afterschool programs because you deserve that. You deserve the chance to keep building your skills, to help our young people and to build your career ahead. We’re going to make that possible. So we’re excited. We’re excited about what we see here. We’re excited by the young people who are the future of this city and who we serve. We always remember it comes back to them, we’re here to serve them. We’re here to serve them, and to serve them we have to support you. It’s that simple.

And this is one piece – the SONYC effort, the afterschool effort, is one of a series of pieces that we believe will be transformative. Full-day pre-k for all will be transformative. It will send your children over the years who are more and more ready to learn. Community schools – where we bring the neighborhood into the school, where we bring healthcare services into the school and a variety of other supports for families into the school – will be transformative. And many other pieces that we’ll talk about in the coming weeks are going to create a new kind of school system, and a new kind of way of approaching our young people.

So, I’ll finish with this, it’s very simple – we need only one last thing to complete the equation. We’ve got great teachers and staff members and site directors, we’ve got people learning already, we’ve got professional development ready, we’ve got money, we’ve got sites. We need the parents to finish the equation – sign-up their kids. Now, typically parents wait ‘til the beginning of the school year and that’s cool. We want to encourage parents, though, to get moving now, start signing up their kids for this incredible opportunity. That’ll continue into September, but I want everyone to send the message, it’s time to start signing up because this is an extraordinary way to improve your child’s life. So you say, okay Bill, how do you sign up? Well, I’m glad you asked. It’s really simple. Just visit www.nyc.gov/afterschool. You can sign up online, apply online. You say, well, wait a minute Bill, what if I don’t like the internet so much? What can I do? You call 311. You call 311 and you say I want to sign up my child for afterschool programs at their middle school. It’s as simple as that. So please, the one thing I ask you today – I told you all the things we want to do to support you and your good work, the one thing I ask is spread the word. Spread the word to parents about how easy it is to sign up, and how it’s time to sign up now.

So I’ll finish by saying, my appreciation to you is great. I’m impressed and appreciative that you’re here learning today, and preparing. I want to close, first with a quote, and then I’m just going to say a brief phrase in Spanish as well. The quote is, this is actually a very appropriate quote for today, it’s from Arthur Ashe, the great tennis star – and of course, the U.S. Open starts tonight and he is synonymous with the U.S. Open. He’s also the man who founded the New York Junior Tennis League which was the parent organization to the Sports and Arts foundation, so it all comes together here. See? It’s all working out.
[Applause]

So, Mr. Ashe said this. He said, “True heroism is remarkably sober - very un-dramatic. It’s not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost.” I think that’s the right definition, and I think by that definition you’re all heroes. I thank you for what you’re doing for this city. Now, just a moment in Español [Speaks Spanish]. With that, I say muchas gracias a todos, and thank you for all you do for our children.

Mayor: I just want to say, before taking questions – first I'll take on topic, and then off – that, you know, it's such a privilege to be around people who have done this work for a long time, and I want to thank you guys again for all you're doing to support our after-school programs, but especially to be around the teachers, the staff, the site directors. You know, one thing we should reflect on, as New Yorkers, is there is a reason we do such a good job of reaching young people in this city, because we've committed over decades a lot of resources to what we used to call youth workers – to people who really figure out how best to reach our young people, give them a positive message, positive options. For a long time, those youth workers didn't have what they really needed, which was more and more places for young people to go that were positive. We're trying to change that rapidly. Obviously, a doubling of middle school seats – of afterschool seats for middle school kids – a doubling of afterschool seats for middle school kids, and we all know middle school is a very sensitive time in a child's development.

We're also doing it with what we've done this summer in the Housing Authority – 105 locations where there are programs for young people – recreation programs – open later than they've been open in 30 years. It's been an incredible success, great response from kids and their families – also, a lot of facts have already come in proving it's keeping kids safer, and communities safer.

So, this is the start of something much bigger, where we want to keep providing positive options for our young people. But these teachers and other professionals who have devoted themselves, they're really a privilege to be around, and again, the fact that they're focused right now, at the end of the summer, on preparing for opening day on September 8th for afterschool is a credit to their professionalism, and part of why I believe this will succeed.

With that, let's take on topic first. Anything on topic? On topic. Yes.

Question: [inaudible]

Mayor: Well, Commissioner Chong and Deputy Mayor Buery, and others, have been very adamant about insisting on the quality levels – been constant inspections going on. Additional staff were added at DYCD, so we could not only do inspections in terms of health and safety, but also in terms of quality control measures. Now, these – this expansion is overwhelmingly happening in our public school buildings, so we're already doing a lot to guarantee health and safety in those buildings. But we take the quality issue very, very seriously. These will work in proportion to how well we maintain the quality, and when it comes to the tutoring, and the homework help, in addition to the other things – the STEM programs, and all the things that we think will engage kids and get them more deeply into learning. So, we've set a high quality standard – just as we have for pre-k – but we're going to constantly be checking it to make sure it's being reached.

On topic. Anything on topic. On topic.

Question: [inaudible]

Mayor: Sure. I'll start and then turn it to Ross, and Jim, Bill, whoever wants to jump in. You know, these are site directors, these are teachers, these are staff, who will literally be the agents of this expansion. So, these are the folks who are going to go out there and make these programs come to life. And as you heard, we're investing in them, because we believe that not only do they need this kind of preparation, that they need professional development, and deserve professional development help throughout the year – just as we're doing with our teachers in public schools. So, they're professionals who deserve to be treated like professionals, and constantly supported in this work. Who wants to fill in any of the blanks?

Commissioner Chong: All site directors have to have a certain number of years of experience in youth programming – at least several years – and they have to all have college degrees, at least, as a minimum. We've been working closely with CUNY to recruit a lot of graduate students who have completed graduate school in education, social work. We did a job fair back in June. We worked with the Actor's Fund. There are a lot of talented actors out there who, quite frankly, would rather work in an after-school program than wait on tables. So, we're attracting a broad range of creative, talented people to this program, and part of what's made it possible is that the mayor's committed to doubling the investment – I mean, increasing the amount we pay per student. We're paying $3,000 per student, which allows us to attract more high-quality people. So, that's – you want to add? It was in there.

Ross Sandler: The site directors are full-time employees. We are in the school all day long. The program is afterschool, or weekends, or summer, but we're in the school all day long. These are professionals who are running a program in conjunction with the principals and the school, and they are highly trained. What's going on upstairs is a – what we call a boot camp. We do this every year. We've done it now for probably 15 years, where we bring in new site directors, and new people involved, and they go through a week's training, intensive training, with very skilled people in the after-school programs. So, Sports and Arts in Schools has been doing this now for a long time, led by Jim O'Neill, and I want him to say a few words about their recruitment.

Jim O'Neill: This is a very interesting fact, here – there are 33 new SONYC schools that Sports and Arts is opening up. We had over 1,200 applications for those positions. All of this was done online, with all of the – there are afterschool websites. The profile of the people that were hired, the majority have masters degrees. Many of them are people that are graduates of some of the finest colleges in New York City. They're people with experience. These are people who are going to be running an after-school program with budgets that are approximately $300,000 dollars. There are – they have a staff that they're working with – art instructors, sport instructors – New York City has a rich group of artists and part-time people that are interested in working. So, the quality is very, very high, and this is because of the additional resources that the mayor and the city has put into this.

Mayor: On topic. On topic. Yes.

Question: [inaudible]

Mayor: No pressure. [laughs]

Question: [inaudible]

Mayor: Sure. I think success takes on a variety of forms. I appreciate the question. First of all, we want to make sure we have quality teachers and staff in place. We want to make sure the seats are filled. We want to make sure the locations are clean and safe. That's everything we're focused on now, and we feel like we're coming in strong to the start of these efforts – September 4th, pre-k begins; September 8th, afterschool begins. And we know, by the way, in the first weeks – this is true of any school anywhere – there'll be some adjustments in terms of kids moving from one program to another, or late signups and things like that. That's fine. By the end of September, though, everything will be locked down. And then the qualitative issue – constantly monitoring to make sure we like what we see. If we think there's a need for any additional training or support, we'll provide it. Going forward, I think your question begs the bigger point, of tracing the results of this investment. So, we're certainly going to find some objective measures, and objective entities, to help us judge what the effect of the first year of pre-k and afterschool was. By definition, some of that takes a little time to show itself, but I think one thing we expect for sure – with the pre-k program, we expect to see a lot more kids going into kindergarten ready; with the middle school afterschool, we expect to see a lot more kids getting their homework done on time, a lot more kids attending school. We think it's going to have a lot of positive impacts.
Yes.

Question: [inaudible]

Mayor: Yep.

Question: [inaudible]

Mayor: You know, I've said – and we haven't said, here's the magic, perfect number. What we've said throughout, and I've certainly said is, you know, I want to see us make serious progress on addressing inequality. That takes a lot of different forms by definition. In terms of schools, the access to pre-k, the access to afterschool, across the city – including in places where a lot of kids have struggled, and haven't had some of the programs they deserve – that will be a measure unto itself, just the literal physical access and the numbers there – again, over time, showing the results of these efforts, and what it means in terms of a kid's education.

But I think there’s many other things we’ll be able to measure. We’ll be able to measure, as I said, attendance and other factors in the schools. We’ll be able to measure, when it comes to our affordable housing program, how many people got units and where they got them, what kind of income levels they were at. We’ll be able to measure, in other ways – and this comes to, you know, some of the issues we discussed between police and community – you know, how we’re doing in terms of deepening the relationship between the police and community and making for more consistent and equitable policing. That certainly is already showing in the changes in stop and frisk. It’ll show in other ways as well. So, I think the best way to think about this is, there’s going to be a series of measures, and will we see progress on each one. My job is to show progress across the board.
Yes.

Question: [inaudible]

Mayor: That is a great question. I do have confidence, because the leadership of this effort is thinking that way, and I think it’s going to, you know, saturate everything we do. But I think it’s a very fair question, that’s part of why the point about – I welcome my colleagues jumping in after I start up – this is why the arts and culture component is crucial. You know, some of you were with us when we announced the additional funding for arts education in our schools – this is a parallel piece. The arts and culture component of afterschool is going to be very compelling to a lot of kids. The athletic components are going to be very compelling. The trick of afterschool is to unlock each child’s interests and energy, and then also make sure some of that gets applied back to their studies. So sometimes, a kid gets very into music, or art, or sports and that gets them more motivated to do other things, like homework. And, on top of that, you of course have the homework help and the academic enrichment available. It has to be compelling. Kids vote with their feet. If they find the program compelling, they’ll show up. If they don’t, they won’t. And so our job is to watch the enrollment patterns and where we see someplace where it’s not as strong, that often can indicate we have to energize the program a little more. You want to speak too?

Commissioner Chong: One of the important things about the SONYC program is that there’s a strong youth voice. In fact, even the name – we did a social media contest – we sent it out to 130,000 young people who had applied for the Summer Youth Employment Program, and asked for names and the person who won it got an iPad Air. And then we did focus groups with middle school kids, because the name is very important. And everyone agrees that SONYC is a name that attracted young people – but the youth voice is important. That’s why I think the panel discussion was very important because I think it’s important to understand what attracts young people. And so, I spoke to the principal recently at a school, actually, we visited in Brooklyn – largest middle school in the city – 1,600 middle school kids. And he said to me, what he does, and why his programs are very good, is that he listens to young people. What a novel idea! That he asks them, what interests you? And there is a critical mass of young people who say, I want to do this – robotics, or arts, or music. Then he creates a program. And that's what will make this program successful, is having a strong youth voice.

Ross Sandler: Sports and Arts served 20,000 children last year. And we attracted them, and we held them. A couple reasons – first, we're in the public schools all day long, so we're not just showing up afterschool and trying to attract children. Secondly, we work with the principals. It's exceedingly important that the principals and the faculty of the schools support what we do, because they help us to attract and retain the children. So, and lastly I would say this – I invite you to come and visit one of our schools, and you'll see why the children come. And I issue that invitation to all of you. Come and see how the site director works with the principals and the children, and the children come afterschool, and how well they do, and how they want to come every day. 

Unknown: As a former youth coordinator at what is the DYCD, I also was looking at the content and the quality, and I can attest, sir, that you've picked a great organization to work with. They have stood up under scrutiny. As a Marine Corps veteran, I can say that your boot camp was most pleasurable. If I had similar, I would still be in the Marine Corps. 

Mayor: No push-ups. [Laughs] Two other points on this, and then we'll continue. The example this nation got, these last few days – the Little League World Series, incredible moment, and it touches a lot of different things, but here were inner-city kids playing baseball in the highest possible level, making the entire nation proud. You know, there had been this – I'm a very intense baseball fan. There had been this question of was baseball still relevant to kids, and one of the folks who put together the league in Philadelphia said, any activity is relevant to kids, if you make it fun and interesting and exciting for them. So, here's a sport, and everyone said, well, a lot of kids in the community were not going to get involved, and these kids got involved with everything they had, and went to the national championships. And it's really been a lesson, I think, to the nation, that you've got to give kids compelling options. You give them something that they can believe in, they will go the rest of the distance. They'll devote themselves to it, they'll put the time and energy in, they'll bring their other friends along – which reminds me of a trip that Carmen Fariña and I took to a middle school in the Bronx a few months back. I don't know if some of you were there – there was a dance program there. It was really compelling, because these were young girls – middle school girls – who were deeply involved in what they were doing, and they took a break, and I went over to them, and I said, what has this meant to you? And one by one, they talked about how they recruited each other, how one of them got into it, liked it, went and got a friend who got a friend who got a friend, and now this is what they do afterschool, is they want to be at the dance program, because it's exciting and interesting. And then I said, well what has it led to for you? And they talked about, some of them, they were more confident, some of them that they felt better speaking up in class, some of them that they felt they could do more teamwork. This was, you know, unedited. This was just these kids, unplugged, unedited, just talking about their experience. It's very much, if you build it, they will come. You give them a good option. It becomes interesting and exciting. I think these experts will also attest – when it becomes the cool thing to do, when it becomes the place to socialize, the kids flock to it. And then they're getting the homework help. And then they're getting the enrichment. And then they're getting the STEM education. And then they're getting the athletics, and they're more physically fit. And it really has a huge multiplier effect. 
On topic. Yes.

Question: [inaudible]

Mayor: Right.

Question: [inaudible]

Mayor: Yeah, I am. It will take time, but I am, because we've made a huge capital commitment. If you look at the capital budget passed in June, you'll see a lot of new resources explicitly to address overcrowding. We obviously need to reduce overcrowding in places like central Queens. We need to, as much as possible, get kids out of trailers. But at the same time, you're exactly right – well, is that consistent with pre-k expansion and afterschool expansion? Well, afterschool, first of all, is easier, because it's afterschool, and, you know, we use school buildings to great effect when they're empty afterschool. We also use, in some cases, community spaces. Pre-k is a great question. If you're taking a classroom space for pre-k, what does that do to the overall equation. Well, that's part of why we have found so many community spaces for pre-k. And what we intend to do, between now and the following school year, is build some pre-k centers in places where there just isn't enough capacity in the schools, or in the community organizations. We're going to literally renovate buildings, or build new buildings, where it takes that – or annexes – to schools to accommodate more pre-k. And sometimes when you do that, it will actually allow some surrounding schools to just send their pre-k’s to that one building, and it actually frees up some space in the schools. So, we take that challenge seriously, but we've put a lot of money behind it. 
On topic. Last call. On topic. Going once. Going twice. Off topic.

Question: [inaudible]

Mayor: This is a real tragedy and as a parent, it’s very painful to me to think about the loss of this child, and what the family is going through right now. And we’re going to do a very full investigation and we’re going to look for anything we can learn from it. My understanding, very preliminarily, is this was a center with both state and city oversight, and so we want to get down to the bottom of what happened here. You know, it’s important that we offer to individuals who are in the particular program the father was in – we offer them multiple sites to choose from. If they don’t like the site they’re in, we give them a chance to change sites. So we want to respect that each parent has to make their choices, but our obligation is to make sure each and every site is safe, so we want to find out what happened here, and see if we have to make any changes as a result.

Question: [inaudible]

Mayor: You can hold me accountable, and Commissioner Bratton accountable. We are in the process of making changes in the way we approach the bridges that are our responsibility. This individual should have known better. It was quite obvious it wasn’t the place for an individual – a citizen – to go. He was arrested very promptly, but we obviously want to keep doing better. We are in the process of looking at the bridges in terms of all the different security elements we want to add to them going forward, and we’ll be doing that in short order.

Question: [inaudible]

Mayor: First of all, this legislation passed overwhelmingly in the Council. I think there was broad agreement on it. Second, it’s first and foremost about the safety of our children. We want experienced drivers and matrons. We had a very experienced workforce. Because of the actions of the previous administration, we were trending towards a much less experienced workforce. We found that unacceptable. We think only those who have worked with kids, have the experience, know the routes, know the families, know the neighborhoods, can best protect our children. So this was about safety, and also it was about fairness. The reason I don’t think it is precedent-setting is because the action taken on the school bus drivers and the other school bus workers was so exceptional. In the middle of a school year, the contracting process was changed in a way that would inevitably lead to a great reduction in their wages and benefits. These are not high-paid workers. We expect them to protect our children and yet, the modest pay and benefits they were getting were going to be greatly undermined. And as we saw that unfold coming into this year, we realized it was unacceptable and action had to be taken. But I think this is a very particular situation because of the extraordinary actions taken by the previous administration.

Question: [inaudible]

Mayor: Oh, there may be lawsuits, but I’m not worried, because we believe we’re on very sound legal ground. We believe the policy objective of ensuring safety for our children is paramount. We believe the fact that the action that was advertised last year, as part of an efficiency move, really added up to a reduction of wages and benefits of, again, workers who were not paid that much to begin with. That’s not consistent with our values, or the values of this city. And so we think that legally, this will withstand any challenge.

Question: [inaudible]

Mayor: I plan on campaigning for him, for sure, and I am enthusiastically supporting the governor. You know that we got an immense amount done together—pre-k, afterschool, speed limits, speed cameras, affordable housing for people with HIV and AIDS, homelessness prevention programs – I couldn’t be happier with what we achieved in Albany. And he’s obviously a friend of almost 20 years, so of course I’ll be energetically campaigning for him. I don’t editorialize on what other candidates should do in a given situation, so I think it’s up to him to decide what he thinks makes sense in debates.

Question: [inaudible]

Mayor: Talk about hypothetical! Last time I looked at the calendar this morning, it was 2014. We’re in our eighth month in office. We’re focused on things like pre-k, afterschool, affordable housing. We’ll worry about 2017 at a date somewhat closer to 2017, Marcia.

Question: [inaudible]

Mayor: Couple different responses that I think are consistent – the first is, look, this individual, from everything I understand, was walking where all New Yorkers can walk – on the walkway across the Brooklyn Bridge. That’s public space – it’s accessible, it’s obviously patrolled. And there’s nothing wrong with someone walking across the walkway. When he decided to go into a restricted area, that’s when something went wrong. He was very quickly apprehended by the NYPD. So, I’d like people to remember that – yes, it raises a concern, for sure, but it’s also clear that a lot of eyes are on the situation, the response was very, very quick, and he is now under arrest. The second point I’ll make is we’re doing a full-scale review. And anyone who knows Commissioner Bratton knows when he does a full-scale review, it’s a very serious endeavor and changes will be made. And as soon as that review is complete, and the changes are ready to be announced, we’ll announce them.

Question: [inaudible]

Mayor: The ones that are under our responsibility in terms of security. The larger reality is that we have almost 1,000 anti-terrorism officers. What the NYPD devotes to anti-terrorism is absolutely extraordinary. I now have, of course, a vantage point over these last eight months of regular security briefings, and I can tell all New Yorkers, you are being kept safe by an extraordinary group of professionals, extraordinary technology, an international reach in terms of intelligence gathering. So, I understand why anyone would say, does this cause a concern? By definition, it does. But we believe that this will be handled very quickly, and we believe the overall response to the terrorist threat is absolutely extraordinary. The NYPD has made us—yes, we are the number one terror target in the world, I’ve said it frequently, but we’re also the most prepared of any city in the world to fight terrorism and stop terrorism.

Question: [inaudible]

Mayor: Preparing to give you a quality press conference with the information you need.

Question: [inaudible]

Mayor: The Conflict of Interest board – I won’t speak for them, I urge you to read their opinion, and again, their opinion is what governs here. I think it’s based on the simple concept that the security is being provided by the city of New York, without question, that all of the apparatus is in place. I’m a humble guy. I happen to be now in a prominent position and the NYPD has determined the kind of security necessary to go along with that, and then the Conflict of Interest Board has determined the rules appropriate to handling that, and that’s what governs our actions. Thanks.