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QUEENS WEEKLY, JULY 5, 2020
Schools Chancellor joins NYC First Lady on visit
First Lady Chirlane McCray and Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza visited P.S. 128 in Middle Village, which is a designated Regional Enrichment Center, in the last day of school on June 26.
BY ANGÉLICA ACEVEDO
Schools Chancellor Richard
Carranza and First Lady
Chirlane McCray paid a visit
to P.S./I.S. 128 in Middle Village,
a designated Regional
Enrichment Center (REC),
for a social emotional learning
talk with elementary
students on Friday, June 26
— which happened to be the
last day of the 2019-20 school
year.
“These children are in a
safe place. They are learning
about their emotions and
how to identify them, how to
channel them, and it’s a wonderful
foundation for them
to have during this difficult
time, especially,” McCray
said. “We launched social
emotional learning and restorative
justice practices a
year ago, and I’m so grateful
that we were able to do that
because it is needed now
more than ever…because
these children are going
through so many different
emotions with their families
and with their friends
during this pandemic.”
The event offered a look
inside an REC, which the
city launched back in March
to provide a safe place for
children of emergency and
essential workers to stay
during the COVID-19 health
crisis.
The Department of Education
opened about 100
centers across the five boroughs,
run by volunteer
teachers and administrators,
but have not listed
where all the RECs are
located — they’ve encouraged
parents who are first
responders to enroll online,
instead.
QNS previously reported
educators said the centers
got off to a rocky start in
March, but P.S. 128’s Site Supervisor
Josephine Ramage
praised Mayor Bill de Blasio
and Carranza for their
leadership.
Carranza and McCray,
both wearing colorful
masks, arrived at the REC
around 9:30 a.m., and were
greeted by Ramage and
eighth grader Marjona Mamatkulova.
Mamatkulova, who just
graduated from P.S./I.S. 49,
said she was excited to meet
McCray and Carranza.
They then made their
way into the building,
where they were met with
two nurses conducting temperature
checks with a nocontact
thermometer. The
table also had hand sanitizer
available.
As they walked toward
the classroom they were visiting
on the first floor, they
were greeted with welcome
and “We Love Our REC”
signs held by elementary
students, all of whom wore
masks.
They briefly stopped to
take in a colorful bulletin
with “Self-Esteem,” “Beautiful
Me Reflections” and other
positive messages. About
three other classrooms in
the first floor had students
and teachers, who waved to
Carranza and McCray.
McCray and Carranza
joined a classroom of 11
first and second grade students,
who all sat in a circle
with two teachers. They had
a social emotional learning
session in which students
talked about what they’re
grateful for, sharing, how
they cope with bad feelings
and what makes them happy.
At one point, they wanted
to see how they expressed
happiness, so everyone
jumped up and down while
clapping.
The teachers then asked
Carranza and McCray to
also share what makes them
happy.
McCray said that she
feels happy when her husband,
Mayor Bill de Blasio,
offers to clean the dishes after
a long day. “That makes
me really happy,” she said
while laughing.
Carranza decided to talk
about what he was grateful
for, which he said was when
the mayor appointed him to
Schools Chancellor of New
York City.
One of the teachers
talked about words and
how much they matter, and
pointed to an exercise based
on Japanese author and scientist
Masaru Emoto’s “The
Hidden Messages in Water.”
When she asked what the
experiment was supposed
to teach them about words,
David, one of the students,
said, “Words have energy,
they carry it.”
“How powerful,” Carranza
said.
After a few more minutes
of chatting with and
listening to students, Carranza
thanked the teachers
Photos by Angélica Acevedo
and administration of the
REC for their hard work. He
also thanked students for
wearing masks, told them
to have fun this summer
and remember to wash their
hands.
As Carranza and McCray
made their way to their next
stop — they’re touring the
five boroughs for in-person
and virtual activities during
the last day of school — they
took photos with teachers,
students, and school safety
agents.
Before leaving the center,
McCray and Carranza
spoke to reporters about
their visit.
“As our First Lady said,
social emotional and
trauma informed practices
are just as important as
academic practices now
more than ever, and New
York City has been ahead of
the curve,” Carranza said.
“We’re celebrating a year
where this has been ubiqui-