6 JULY 2, 2020 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Schools Chancellor, NYC First Lady visit
First Lady Chirlane McCray and Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza visited P.S. 128 in Middle Village, which is a designated Regional Enrichment
Center, on the last day of school on June 26. Photos by Angélica Acevedo
BY ANGÉLICA ACEVEDO
AACEVEDO@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@QNS
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 no-contact 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.
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