 celebrate our summer rising initiative. Summer rising is the result of really a true partnership across city government and on the ground with community-based organizations. So another historic milestone we're setting with 110,000 young people and their families having access to this amazing summer opportunity and experience. So we're very excited about that. The Department of Education, New York City Public Schools, the Division for Youth and Community Development, and hundreds of community-based organizations have made this possible. The program has been expanded. It's bigger and better in all respects, now five days a week, more hours for families to give families peace of mind, but also opportunities for our young people. I would like to introduce our chancellor, David Banks, to share some remarks. Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Good morning. You know, I'm a principal. I'm used to going into classrooms and I say good morning, and I usually get some kind of a response. This is a great morning. We're here to announce the launch of Summer Rising, but it is a great day. The sun is out. It's a beautiful day. We're all blessed to be here. And I think we ought to take a moment at this time and really just recognize the great work that has gone into preparing all of us to be here today. There are Summer Rising sites that are happening all over this city. And it doesn't happen by accident. It happens when it's done well because of the level of preparation that has been put in. And so from the moment that I became chancellor, one of the things that the mayor and the deputy mayor directed us to do was to ensure that we have a great summer program. We'd heard about Summer Rising last year and were thrilled at the work that was done, and we wanted to continue to build on that work and to make it even better. And so this year, we're really proud that it is the largest Summer Rising program that the city has ever had. And that's a big deal, and we ought to recognize that. But it's also a program that I feel great about in the work that's been done and how efficient it is running. I was at a school yesterday not far from here, and the program is just running so well and so smoothly. You know, we're gonna have snags along the way. We have 110,000 students that are part of this. It's a very large program all over New York, and but we've got a great team. And so before I go any further, I wanna first of all recognize the great principal of this school, Principal Ramos, who's leading this work. Not just because she's the principal of this school, but the time and effort that she puts in to ensuring that this school runs well all year long has to be recognized. And I want you to know that this chancellor and this mayor, we see you, we recognize you, we salute you, and we thank you, we appreciate you. And I also wanna recognize our superintendent who manages all of the schools in this district. We were together yesterday as we received the minister of education from Finland was here with her team, and we were together to receive them as well. Superintendent Chan, please wave. Thank you for your leadership as well. And finally, I wanna really acknowledge all of our hard work, the teachers, the school safety officers, all of our folks who are cooking in the kitchen. We're getting ready to go in there and have a meal with some of the kids in just a moment. But everyone who plays a part in making any good school work well whether it's during the year or it's during the summer. I thank you, we appreciate you very, very much. And this is going to be a great summer, not a good summer, but a great summer. And thank you everybody. Thank you Chancellor Banks. And next up we have Mayor Eric Adams. Thank you, thank you so much. This is one of the things we talked about on a campaign trail after speaking with David and just really becoming knowledgeable about the loss opportunities. We were aware of the decline over the summer loss, the loss over the summertime for students in education. We were aware of it, all the studies showed that, but we never took any opportunity. On a campaign trail, we talked about it and I was happy the former mayor made the first round of the summarizing program. We are now taking that and extending it and we're gonna continue to get it better. We saw far too long, we saw summer decline. Now we say summer rising. We saw a decline in opportunity, a decline in socialization, a decline in healthy nutritional meals, a decline in parents having stability of knowing where their children were going to be. That was the decline that led to so many problems that played out during the school year. We're saying no to that decline and we're saying a summer rising. We're going to rise in socialization, rise into academic achievement, rise in nutritional meals, rise to stability up to 6 p.m. where the children could have a place to be and to socialize. This is how we are moving forward. We're peeling back layers after layers after layers of decline and betrayal and we're laying on that positive energy for our children. This is a great program. And then when you match a good idea, we're good educators and good leaders that really believe in our children, we're going to move in the right direction. We are doing so much as an administration, I say this over again, the noise of violence has really taken oxygen out of the room of what this administration is doing foundationally to improve the lives of children and families in this city. And trust me, we're going to deal with the violence issue. But while we're doing that, we're going to build a real foundation to raise healthy children, children and family. So the first week of this program was super charging summer rising with super charging the opportunities for our children. Every young person deserve an opportunity and education and learning does not end at the school year. It's all year round. And it's more than just academic. We're going to expose these children to the beauty of this city and sitting here right across the street from any form of NYCHA residents or public housing. These children need the exposure and opportunity as any other community. And we need to be clear on that. And that is what we're saying as an administration. It's about opening the doors of the opportunities and not allowing our children to fall by the wayside during the summer month. That summer gap was just really disheartening to know that when the child starts the school year, two years of non-structured learning, non-structured opportunities of where they're going and what they're doing and visiting sites and location, the continuation of learning. This is what this is about. Not having an interruption, letting them enjoy the summer months but also that enjoyment of learning that comes with it. And we're going to give our children a full year of education, a full year of education. And during COVID, our children dealt with remote learning. They dealt with isolation. They dealt with a serious learning laws. They dealt with not interacting with their friends. This is when you think about it, imagine having two years that you are not experiencing what it is to be a child for two years. If it impacted adults, it traumatized children. And we're going to give them an overdrive of having that interaction and love that they deserve in a structured environment. It's about having a positive impact on our young people and our families. And our families. When you know your child is in a safe place, you're able to go out and do the things you need to do. But also, I'm happy with what we're doing with this initiative. In this summarizing program, we're zeroing in on those children in need. Temporary housing, forced care to children, students with disability and other student population. So we are being intentional with our resources to go after the children who are often ignored and denied. That is what our mission is because the child that's ignored today is the child that is going to be harmful to himself or others in the future. And we are going to catch them upstream a model of our organization. With over 104,000 children who are enrolled, they succeeded our expectation and how fast they enroll, parents were saying, yes, I love this, let's do this, let's get it done, and we are able to get it done. So PS 188, 68 of the students, approximately 15% in this summarizing are from temporary housing and we're providing healthy meals for these children. So thank you for what you're doing and all the CBOs and partnerships that are part of this initiative. And these incredible CBOs, so many organizations I've known and as I was walking through inside, we were able to speak with them. They've been doing good work for so long. That was a missed partnership between education, educational institutions and our local CBOs. That's the community partnership that we need as we move forward. So this is going to be a great summer, including with, I'm gonna say hello to the food workers inside. Sometimes we just don't even acknowledge their presence and existence as they're preparing food for our children, something that my mother did. And when you prepare food, you wanna prepare it with love and these food service workers, they were here even during COVID. Handing out meals to children and families, dedicated civil servants, playing their roles as we help our children. So with over 300 public schools, community pools, centers, parks and food trucks receiving these meals, this is a real success for us. So I think everyone that's involved of the summer rising, we're gonna continue to rise as a city. We're going to continue to rise as a Department of Education. We're going to continue to rise as our community during the summer. And we're gonna have summer, winter, spring and fall rising as well. We're gonna continue to rise as New Yorkers, thank you. Thank you so much, Mayor Adams. Next up is Commissioner Keith Howard, our Commissioner of the Division of Youth and Community Development. Good morning, good morning, good morning. I am so excited about being here and I'm looking at the faces of our young people and it just gives me the energy to just say we have to continue to make sure that these programs are running out successfully. One of the things that the mayor was very, very clear about is he wanted an excellent relationship to remove the silos between the agency. And I can honestly say to you, Mr. Mayor, that Chancellor Banks and DYCD have a strong relationship and will continue to have that strong relationship, okay? Especially to the deputy mayor for making sure that the collaboration between the teams had actually gone well. But the mayor shouted out our CBOs and I wanna give a significant and great shout out to the Educational Alliance. Come on, come on, let's hear it. Grand Street Settlement, are we in the house? Okay. And University Settlement, are we in the house? One of the T-shirts, I think I told somebody that. Throughout the five boroughs, we have approximately 139 providers that will serve a record number of 110,000 young people this summer, okay? And I believe the mayor mentioned that. During a meeting with providers yesterday, one of the CBOs that served 1,000 of our summer rising student reported the best summer kickoff ever, okay? Which is extremely important. Don't listen to what the press is writing, I'm sorry. Okay. I wanna also thank our DYCD team. I see them behind the fence, okay? Just give us a wave, okay? Our DOE team, okay? And also the deputy mayor's team as well, okay? We are off to a great start and DYCD looks forward to working with DOE and the providers on the six remaining weeks. Mostly important to the young people, learn, okay? Engage in new adventures, okay? And have fun. God bless you, okay? Thank you. Thanks so much, Commissioner Howard. And you see the mayor put on his shades so the fun has to begin. The summer is fun is beginning. This is such an important community and has a tremendous leader and council member, Carlina Rivera, so would like to bring you up. Thank you so much. Good morning, everyone. How do we feel? Can we say good morning? Good morning. All right, well, I am so happy to be here. My name is Carlina Rivera. I'm your local councilwoman and I just want you to know that I am from this community. I grew up just a couple of blocks away. And all of the people here, the amazing principals from our schools in the area, the school leadership team who knows that I look up to them, and the three CBOs, the non-profits and community-based organizations that were mentioned, each one of you have had a profound impact on my life growing up here. I spent many summers going to the library, taking advantage of the programs and services, going to university settlement summer camp. And so that partnership is so incredible and why I'm here today because I believe in access to education all year around. And I believe that the schools in this neighborhood in particular deserve every bit of investment because they have earned it. I will tell you that this school in particular, PS188, and I know we have PS34 in the house, has really looked at how they support the entire family. Food, healthcare, taking care of housing asks, and of course, quality to a great education. The New York City Department of Education and the over one million children that it serves, we have the potential to be the greatest in the world. And summarizing is a step in that direction, and I wanna thank the leadership here for believing in the children of New York City. And just know, you could be the mayor too. All right, he's from one of the five boroughs, and I am so, so proud to be here today because kicking off summarizing and being here with you is such an incredible program and we're celebrating you today. Happy summer everyone. Thank you so much. And I'd like to introduce our last speaker who really is the core of what we're here for and what it's all about, our families. Maria Arcee is one of the parents of a student in summarizing and we are all here to support our families and our parents and are certainly grateful for the choices that you make every day for your family. Maria? He's a little nervous. Okay, I'm nervous too. Good morning everyone. Good morning. Thank you, Eric Adams. Thank you, the Island School for inviting me to celebrate summarizing. With you here today, I have one child and four foster children enrolled in summarizing. My kids are safe this summer and will have fun. It's important to me that my kids and have every opportunity to explore the city and make up any learning time that they may have lost during the pandemic. That's where summarizing come in. Summarizing has been extraordinary. Accessible smooth, my kids have loved their first full week. I'm so relieved to know my kids are learning and they are safe. And growing into their school community this summer so I can continue to take care of my family and look forward to have a great summer. Ahead of us and thank you, everyone. Okay, we'll take one or two, we'll take one or two questions. Very great. I mean, we did a good job. I'm sorry, I can't. You said during the summarizing program, you want to, I couldn't hear that at all. Yeah, no, I haven't heard anything around class sizes for the summer. There have been no concerns that have been raised around class sizes for the summer. Of course, there's a larger issue you know that the union has brought but we're engaging conversations with them in the governor's office, mayor's office around the larger class size bill that has been proposed and trying to work that through. But certainly there have been no issues that have been brought to us, certainly there are our attention around class size issues in the summers. I think for the summer, we're certainly looking really, really good.