Schools Chancellor, NYC First Lady visit
Regional Enrichment Center in Midville
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 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
TIMESLEDGER | 2 QNS.COM | JULY 3-9, 2020
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 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 ubiquitous
throughout all of our elementary
schools, and we are going to reap the
benefits 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
definitive 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.”
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. Photo by Angélica Acevedo
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