WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES JULY 2, 2020 7
Regional Enrichment Center in Midville
McCray said that she feels happy
when her husband, Mayor Bill de
Blasio, off ers to clean the dishes aft er
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.
Aft er a few more minutes of chatting
with and listening to students,
Carranza thanked the teachers 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 fi ve 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 ubiquitous throughout all of our
elementary schools, and we are going
to reap the benefi ts of that as we come
back to in person learning and work
our way through this pandemic.”
There are many questions still
unanswered about what the fall will
look like for schools across the city.
When asked what they’ve learned
from RECs that may transition into
the fall, Carranza said there have been
many lessons.
“I’m very proud to say we haven’t
had one student that’s become ill or
adult become ill. So as you see, there’s
a lot of lessons learned around social
distancing, continuous cleaning, face
masks, all of the recommendations
and guidance that we have from our
medical professionals,” he said. “Our
principals and school site leadership
teams are at this moment walking
their buildings, making sure that
they have the appropriate distancing
and identifying public spaces that
can be converted to classroom spaces
as well, because we have to take into
account the social distancing requirements.
So there’s a lot of very detailed
and complex work that is happening
now.”
Carranza said they hope to have
defi nitive plans by the end of July.
RECs, in the meantime, will remain
open throughout the summer.
Ramage, who is an assistant principal
at East River Academy on Rikers
Island, said she volunteered to assist
with RECs since she had more free
time due to remote learning.
She told QNS P.S./I.S. 128’s REC
has an average of 72 student per day,
with a high of 89, who range from
pre-school to 10th graders. She said
the number of students signing up for
the RECs continue to grow, with more
than 108 students who have already
signed up.
“As the school year is winding down,
more and more students are coming
in,” Ramage said. “As each phase is
opening up, more and more people
are bringing their children.”
Ramage said the RECs are running
on three sessions over the summer.
Madelene Chan, the superintendent
for School District 24, attended the
event. She said parents have emailed
her thanking them for giving their
children a safe and educational
environment.
“We’re honored that the Chancellor
and the First Lady came out to
support our REC center today, the
centers have been supporting first
responders since the first days of
COVID,” Chan said. “We’re honored
that they were able to visit and see
the remarkable work that the staff
and teachers have been doing even
under such challenging situations.
We’re confident that we can continue
to support the children of first responders
until we see an end to the
virus.”
/WWW.QNS.COM
