 I see you. I see you. I see you. I don't see you. And then she was the winner. Oh my gosh. She got the idea. I get to see you. I'm Francesco Gardner. Welcome to Bethesda Academy. Every school year, we get together as a community to create a new theme, a theme that would guide us, ground us, and get us through the good times and the bad times. This school year our theme is it's grow time. It symbolizes that our children are seeds and that it's on all of us teachers, parents, principals, super intendants, elected officials, mayor, to water and nurture these seeds. Today with the Safe for College program that's what we're doing. We are watering the seeds. We are giving parents peace of mind, lifting the burden and leveling the playing field for all. This program is about equity, ensuring that our students have a fear shot to grow. I'm so proud to be making this announcement here at our school today, Baychester Academy and to have our mayor lead this initiative for us. Help us to guide us there to where we need to go. And now Mr. Mayor, it's your turn to speak. You could tell your principal, you don't even have to say it. And you could walk in the school and see the energy that you bring to the school. You know it's not just about academics, it's about you know just the emotional intelligence of being educated. Children can tell if you authentically care for them. You know when I sat down at that table to speak with those scholars, if they didn't feel that I cared for them they would not have communicated back to me. And as we walked in the school, watching the children interact with their principal, she has clearly created an environment of wellness in this school. And she's concerned about these scholars who take them to the next level. And this is an amazing assembly of people here that really believe in this program and the coming together of New York is to support our principals, support our teachers, support our students. And the creativity of this program really personifies what we want to do in this city. The hub of our future, it lies in our schools. And we have traditionally turned it over just to the principals and the faculty. But we're saying now the entire community must wrap ourselves around our schools and give the support that's needed. So when you have a the great family who's here you know donating and being thoughtful on this program starting to seed it, Julie Menon with her amazing idea that thought about this entire concept. And Bishop Taylor out in Queens, he shared this with me when I was out in Queens on the campaign trail. And just the energy Queens out in Queens Bridge and Ravenwood community that historically is not known for producing young people who are going to college on a regular. This is just how we all come together. And then look at this lineup of electives that we have here. Assemblyman Benedetto, who is the chair of education. Dedicated, committed to get this done. Senator Bailey, who's here as well, you know, one of the leading voices in the Senate. You can't get Vanessa Gibson, the bar president to stop talking about education. You know, when you think about it, as I stated, Councilwoman Menon. And just to really steal all of our light, Councilman Riley brought his beautiful daughter. It was her birthday, you know, right on the right, right, you know, right on the daddy. I was like this and the mommy all the time, you know. But this is what it's about. This is community coming together. All of us coming together and laser focus on our children. And why is this important? Research shows that children with a college savings account are three time more likely to go to college and four time more likely to graduate. Just to save this account. And this creative way of not only will the parent open the account, we saw how easy it is. But now when you around your family and friends, you can, as you meet them, just give them a coat. We're going to make this first seed investment. Then we're going to water it every birthday. We're going to water it every time a child gets a new teeth. You know, we're going to water it every time a child gets a good grade in school or try hard. We're going to bring our churches together like Bishop Teller did and say that, listen, this month we're going to pick each child and we're going to donate into their savings account. And then you just keep adding, adding, adding. And it's unbelievable what the dollar amount is. I knew nothing about a college savings account as a child. And no one helped mommy in saying, you know, we can save for college. And to be honest with you, we never even thought about college. College was so far off our radar. But now we are telling these young scholars that you are expected to go to college or a trade school of vocational school, go it into a place that you will continue to expand your learning. This is a great moment for our city as we expand this amazing program with this amazing team that has been assembled here, here together. And so I say, I say thank you. And I want to just thank everyone is here, particularly Principal Gardner for her energy. And you know, you know, just a symbol of the great educators we have throughout the city. And, you know, I was going to bring a vegan cake for Brooke, you know, for her birthday. And it's really great to be here to celebrate this citywide expansion of the New York City Kids Rise Save for College program and the first ever New York City Scholarship Month. Focusing on college, focusing on that laser focus. And you know, when you're in kindergarten, you believe college is never going to come is a long way off. That's the joy of long term savings. You don't have to do it all at once. You can continue to lay it out. So today, this year and every year, going forward, the city is putting $100 into our college savings account for every New York City public school, kindergarten and partnership with New York City Kids Rise. That's a total of $6.5 million in 65,300 scholarship accounts this year. Unbelievable when you really think about it. And we're going to keep doing this for our kindergarten students year after year in the same way that we are helping our kids save for college. The city is also saving for its future. All this turmoil that's going on is overshadowing how well we are doing as a city. We are doing so well as a city as we grapple with some real issues, COVID and crime. Yes. But don't lose sight of what we are doing successfully with our partnership in Albany, the city council and all of our borough presidents. Thanks to this administration and our partners, our strong financial management, Fitch Radins just upgrade our city's outlook from stable to positive for the first time and more than a decade. More than a decade. Now, what this means is that the index that indicates how well we're doing financially as a city just stated this administration and administration of these electives who are here, we are doing so well that those who determine if we are risk or not and investing, they're saying this city is moving in the right directions, taking the right action, and we're going from just being stable to positive. Think about that. Five months in and we got away. So it's about long-term smart decisions that we're doing today. We want to invest in a future of New York and New Yorkers and we especially want to help those families that are in need. The pandemic showed us how large the wealth gap is and how equity needs to be front and center, something that these electives say over and over again. This college saving program is a practical way to improve and narrow the gap in wealth and as at the same time, we're helping children understand the power of investing, the power of saving. Now, all of these special occasions should start with a donation for your children. They stop your baby on the street and say how cute they may be, say yes they are. Now, I want you to make a donation. I use this cleanest every month. I need you to donate to my college fund. I get my hair done, my pedicure, my manicure. Every month I'm here with you, I need you to donate into my fund. Everyone needs to donate into your child's fund. Walk around with the cold, constantly tell everyone I need you to donate into my fund. Hey, boss, you like me? I've been a great worker. Donate into my child's fund. That's how we do it. That's how we grow. And it doesn't matter how small, you know, John, when you tell them it doesn't matter how small it is, it continues to compound and add up. You are going to be amazed how it grows. You know, just a dollar or two is going to continue to grow. And so in 10 years time, you will have a pot to help fund your child's dreams of education after high school. This is how we uplift our children. This is how we save for college. And this is a milestone program. It's the results of collaboration between parents, local leaders, schools, and businesses, and District 30 and Queens, Bishop Taylor and this entire crew of people like, as I stated, Julie Menon and the team at New York City Kids Rise, and I think you are on the board. You know that? Well, you got so much going on. And, you know, John and Mindy, you know, I just cannot say enough about the two of you. You know, just they are so committed to this city and children. And for them to just see this program in the beginning. You know, when I first sat down and we had dinner together and just hearing about this, I'm just blown away. When people, sometimes we give affluent New Yorkers this negative rap. But do you know 52% of our taxes are paid by 2% of New Yorkers? If we didn't have the John and Mindy grades in this city, we're not going to have the teachers in our schools. The firefighters putting out fires. The police officers protecting our streets. Our high income earners like them that understand they have a social obligation to give back is what is part of the financial ecosystem of our city. And so John, you know, you and your lovely wife, you know, is what makes New York is great. And I thank you for your contribution. We're going to do this. Where we are is not who we are. Where we are is not who we are. We may be in dark places right now. But those dark places that Mommy used to say, they're not burials. They're plantants. And today's contribution is going to produce the harvest that we expect for our children. It's a great day for New York. Thank you very much. Now, let's welcome Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright to the podium. Thank you so much, Principal Gardner. And this is an incredibly joyous day. I want to give a shout out to the orchestra that serenade us as we came in and all of the beautiful greeters with all of their energy and enthusiasm and the coloring table that took the mayor to task about his choice of colors. It was very interesting watching you color. I think mostly you color outside the line, but you were being good today. But this is a great day. I am Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright and I was introduced to New York City Kids Rise by Julie Menon, who recruited me to join the board several years ago. And I'm so excited that this is a perfect example of public-private partnerships. The Gray Foundation, John and Mindy, mostly Mindy John, to tell you, Mindy doesn't get enough credit for putting our heart and soul in this. With Dana Zucker, they invested in a concept, an idea. They innovated with Bishop Taylor in the community with the brilliance of Deborah Ellen and really created a model and said, this works. This can have tremendous impact. Then took it to the City of New York to scale. That's exactly what we want in need with our philanthropic partners. You all have set the bar high and you've shown us how it can be done. So thank you. Thank you so much for that. Thank you. And I also want to just acknowledge the team at the City of New York who worked so hard to make this happen. Mariano Guzman, who also is on the board for many years. Commissioner Sudea Sherman, who is our Mayor's Office of Equity Commissioner. And all of the people who have made this possible, as well as all of the staff at New York City Kids Rise that worked so hard. So acknowledging you. I do just want to say one more thing about this program. I needed the 529 program to send my children to college. College, we know the expenses are just astronomical. And to be able to do this for every single New York City public school child is tremendous. It is a revelation. It is extremely important. And this is what Mayor Adams talked about when he says, invest upstream. This is one of the best investments, most significant investments, and almost as far upstream as you can get. And it will reap tremendous, tremendous, tremendous benefits for generations. This is a generational blessing. And so I am very grateful for that. I'm grateful to be a part of that. I'm grateful to be a part of an administration that sees that we have to scale what works and really to get the city for the long term where we need it to be. So thank you very, very much, everyone, for your hard work. And I'm so proud and pleased to be a part of it. Thank you. Next up, we have New York City Rise Director Deborah Ellen Glickstein. Thank you, Principal Garner. Thank you, Mayor Adams. Deputy Mayor Wright. And really all the family school staff, community leaders, government and elected officials that have gathered here today to celebrate the first ever New York City Scholarship Month. You know, this is truly a historic moment as the Mayor and the Deputy Mayor have shared. And I also am so proud to be a part of it. It is a moment really that honors just so much. Not only, you know, it's the first time that kindergarteners across this entire city have an opportunity to plug into what we like to call a universal, community-driven wealth-building platform. So this platform was built, as you've heard, over the course of many years, the greater part of a decade, across communities of School District 30 and Queens, which include Long Island City, Sunnyside, Woodside, East Elmhurst, Corona and Jackson Heights. And let me be clear, as others before me have as well, this was created by so many people, schools and organizations across these neighborhoods and across each of our sectors. Underlying this work has been this question. What would it look like if we each took responsibility for all of our children? So, to answer that question, this platform was designed as a tool. A tool that schools can use and integrate as a core component of their day-to-day operations and customized to meet the needs and desires of their school communities in preparing their students for higher education. A tool that parents and guardians can use to save in the ways that make sense for them and their financial circumstances, starting with these building blocks and or to support other families and students in their community or across the city. A tool that communities, community-based organizations, civic and cultural organizations, businesses, individuals, can use in the ways that also are aligned with their goals. A tool that is adaptable and honors the work that is already happening in a community. Because we know that the work that Principal Gardner, not on my watch, Council Member Riley, are doing in Baychester, is going to look different than the work that Principal Jagin, Urban Upbound and Jacob Rees have been doing in Long Island City. But each is part of an ecosystem that impacts a child's chance of success and each is working towards our broader collective objective of making sure that all of our children have the opportunity to reach their dreams and highest potential. So, our goals are to build significant financial assets with and for participating families and communities and to ensure that the students are getting reinforced expectations of success from every part of their lives and neighborhoods that impacts their life chances. So, this moment when over 65,000 kindergarten families can activate their New York City Scholarship accounts for the very first time, it is truly just the beginning. We can't wait to see how everyone in this room and beyond is going to plug in, participate and contribute. So, thank you again Mayor Adams and Chancellor Banks for your continued support and your vision of this platform. Thank you again Deputy Mayor Wright for being such a champion and for New York City children and families and across all of our neighborhoods. Thank you Commissioner Sedia Sherman for your leadership and now from the new Mayor's Office of Equity. We would not be here without you. Thank you Superintendent Vaughn, Principal Garner to your staff, the Baychester Academy Community for helping kick off this amazing Scholarship Month event and really for all that comes next to Council Member Julie Mennon who tenaciously helped launch this platform and served as our founding board chair. Thank you to everyone who's been a part of this story from the very beginning, especially the leaders across school district 30 communities a few who are here today. Claudia Koger the former president of the Story Houses Resident Association, Bishop Mitchell Taylor. We would not be here without you guys. And then to the incredible team at NYC Kids Rise and especially shout out to my partners Maria Bellas and Leila Bozarg. This takes a lot and we have really the best. All of the collaborators that work with us day to day including from the Department of Education, Office of Economic Opportunity, the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications and the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection. And finally a huge thank you to John and Mindy Gray of the Gray Foundation as well as the Gray Foundation's executive director and our board chair Dana Zucker for supporting this idea from the earliest days and sticking with it and continuing to stick with it and stick with it. None of this would have been possible without any of you and again we're so excited about what comes next. Thank you. We'll now welcome John and Mindy Gray. Wow thank you Principal Gardner. We are very excited to be here for the first ever Citywide New York City Scholarship Month here at Pachester Academy. The expansion as you've heard of this program is really the realization of a dream that started eight years ago in 2014. It started with a simple meeting with Julie Menon. She came to my office as the Commissioner of Consumer Affairs and had a number of ideas for public-private partnerships and I really latched on to this idea of children's savings accounts. I love the thought of financial literacy that came with it, the savings component, the 529 piece as an investor thinking about families investing in the markets and getting the benefit of compounding was very compelling but the most compelling fact was the one the mayor pointed to which was this idea that kids who had savings accounts were three times more likely to go to college four times more likely to graduate and I remember going home that night talking with Mindy and we had this enormous enthusiasm it was like a light bulb went out like we should do this and we talked with Dana Zucker who runs our foundation and does a miraculous job and we worked with Julie and the city and the Department of Education. The only thing we underestimated was how long and hard this would be and those of you who work in the public sector understand that these things are complicated but we were very fortunate to find Deborah Ellen who is a force of nature for everybody who knows. She just would not say no. We started at District 30. We launched in 2017. Ultimately virtually now all the kids there have children's savings account. The community joined in thank you so much and this really became a community partnership inclusive very much in line with what the mayor was describing and so the idea that we've been able to bring this forward is so promising to us. We have four daughters ourselves. They've had many opportunities and to us it's a shame that not every kid in New York City has those same kind of opportunities so being able to share some of that's really important. We're proud to say one of our daughters today is a New York City public school teacher. I'm very happy to say that but now the real work begins rolling this out to 60 continues. 65,000 kids as you've heard will get the benefit of this. You know we couldn't feel better about it having invested at this point more than 17 million dollars in this project to get to this point. I would say I'm not sure there's anything we've done that's had a higher return on investment and so yeah so we are we are truly excited about this and to partner with this extraordinary mayor who has just been such a force of nature so unifying wanting to bring us all together to try to work together to help our most important asset which is the children of New York City and so he started in actually in his campaign he embraced this. He's been an incredible partner in so many ways obviously Sheena incredible having been part of this since really early days. Chancellor Banks, Commissioner Sherman, Commissioner Verduga we can't thank everybody enough who's pushed on this. We think about this as a very special program for New York City and its families and a very special day for us. We are so excited we want to just say thank you to everyone here it's so exciting thank you so much. Now let's watch those seeds bloom. Yeah exactly. Thank you. Oh you go ahead. I'm so proud to now introduce you to Precious Owusu one of our parents. Good morning everyone. Good morning. My name is Precious Obengaday also known as Jacob and Nathaniel's Mommy. I'm originally from Ghana in West Africa but I've lived in the Bronx for over 20 years and I've been part of Precious for about six years now. Today just like many families here I opened my son's account and saw his name and it was such an amazing feeling and I'm so glad that I was able to do this with my Precious of Families who were here this morning. I think the best part about this that we're doing this together for our children and that's the amazing part about this. So this morning I definitely want to encourage my families here and across the city we have to do this. This is a wonderful opportunity especially for our Black and Brown families. This gives us a chance to have our kids be there and level the playing field for our kids and most important I think you've all heard it takes a village and this program speaks to that. We have the support of the city and the community to put our kids out there. So I encourage everyone today this is the right step. Take that chance, open your account, see your child's name there and start to work towards it. As a parent you want the best for your child and I think this is right on top of the list. So again all our families I'm urging that we take this opportunity and again we're doing it together as families, community and it's a great opportunity. So thank you to the mayor, to the city, our very own principal Gardner, NYC Kids Rise for sending out this message about planning for our kids future. So thank you for this wonderful opportunity and let's do it together. Let's welcome council member Julie Menning. Thank you so much. I cannot tell you Mr. Mayor how excited I am. You can probably tell from my reaction. I'm the mother of four and I always joke that this project was like my fifth child because birthing it was quite a process. I'm so thrilled to be here today. This project is truly transformative. Back in 2014 when I was commissioner of the Department of Consumer Affairs as you heard I met with John Gray and I really want to thank Mindy and John for their incredible leadership in funding this. The idea really was transformative. I had met with the controller of San Francisco at the time. San Francisco had launched a project to seed every kindergartner with $50. We're in New York City. We want to do it bigger and better and we did. Instead of just giving government money we were able through the private sector to really fund these 529 so that the money would grow over time. We also were able to do what no one else really had been able to do which was also make sure that undocumented children had a 529. This literally took us years to figure out and it is it is revolutionary. So I'm so excited about this. I really want to thank Deborah Ellen Glickstein. I had hired Deborah Ellen to run the Office of Financial Empowerment. She was a star then and she's been a rock star with this project. And I really want to thank Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright. As you heard I asked her to join the Board of Kids Rise four years ago and right away she got it and was committed to it. And lastly I want to thank the Mayor of course and I want to thank my colleagues in government. Particularly Senator Jamal Bailey who we talked about a year ago about this project. He's deeply committed to it. Thank you Assembly Member. Thank you Borough President Gibson. And I want to thank my colleague Council Member Kevin Riley who totally gets this and I know together we're going to be able to take this to the next phase. Thank you so much. And now our Borough President Vanessa Gibson. Thank you. Good morning everyone. What an honor to be here at Baychester Academy to Principal Gardner to our Superintendent and to each and every one of you. What a great day. What a great day for the children of New York City and all of our families. I am so grateful and deeply appreciative of this incredible partnership that is truly groundbreaking and transformative because we realize that the pathway to prosperity is through education. We realize that the gateway to the future is through education and everything we do is about elevating the next generation of leaders creating the access and opportunities that our young scholars need for a better tomorrow. I often say if we stay ready we don't have to get ready and this program allows college preparations for our young scholars and our families. Many of us are first generation college grads in our own families because we realize that our future must be better than our parents. But as we continue to create footprints our children's future need to be better than ours and that's what this program is all about. I'm so grateful because I actually am familiar with NYC Kids Rise while I was in the city council and I do want to give credit to the community school district 30 in Queens that really started this process and really created the blueprint and the vision and said our children need a college savings account how can we help our families many of our families are working class they're immigrant families they could be undocumented they don't have the access they don't have the financial literacy the financial empowerment and the education to understand and get them to a place where they can start and begin saving for their children and so in comes this program with the vision with the great foundation with John and Mindy and with each and every one of you with councilmember Julie Menon and so many that said you know what let's take this program to the next level and that is what today is all about so I know that our children will have a brighter future as we realize what our purpose is in life it is to make a difference it is to give back it is to create a legacy it is to set footprints in history for others to follow as many of us climb we have to lift young people with us in the five months that I've served as your Bronx borough president I've been so incredibly proud to encounter so many young people that are on the pathway to college but that's only because of the critical partners in our school at the department of ed that have really encouraged our young people initiatives like my brother's keeper and my sister's keeper that give our young people that access and opportunity and as it has been said level the playing field from an equity lens every child is gifted and talented and destined for success all we have to do is open those doors of opportunity and that's what new york city kids rise does it opens the doors of opportunity for the next generation of leaders and so I am proud as borough president to say thank you every time I talk to young people and they tell me they're going to college and careers CUNY SUNY HBCUs I am so proud because they are the beacon of hope for a better tomorrow we cannot lose sight we cannot get distracted by what is important education is the game changer it is the equalizer of prosperity and so this collective partnership recognizes that and every dollar as the mayor said yes we need parents to buy into this program talk to your co-workers your congregate to church folks that you know in the neighborhood and get everyone to buy in to this program and I also emphasize the importance of financial literacy and education that goes along with this because if you know better you do better and we have to make sure that the education is a critical part of this so my gratitude to our mayor Eric Adams our school's chancellor David Banks our deputy mayor Sheena Wright commissioner Sherman so many Deborah Ellen Deborah Ellen hounded me in the New York City council about this program but she did it because she had a vision and no matter what the hurdles and struggles that we encountered have made us better public servants to see this program to see this collaboration through so now let's take it to the next level let's create the access and opportunity across every school district in the city of New York congratulations to everyone on this incredible partnership and I look forward to our continued work together for the future generation of leaders in our great city of New York thank you so much everyone state senator Jamal Bailey thank you very much um Mr. Mayor thank you for not just investing in our children but for doing it here in the Bronx uh you know often when you see things on the news about this borough um they are not necessarily reflected in the most positive manner but we have the heart of a champion here in the borough in our mayor and our deputy mayor understand that investment is necessary um so for those of us who are from the neighborhood we know what this place was this used to be the baychester diner and this used to be a place where we used to be nourished we used to eat and we used to have our bellies nourished but principal gardener and superintendent Vaughn you are nourishing the minds of our young people and that is way better than what that could have done and and and I see Reverend Dr. Kendrick see and he knows that we don't we don't have coincidences these things are what they're supposed to be and um to have a principal named gardener to have a principal named gardener when we're supposed to be sowing the seeds of the next generation is not coincidental but like any good gardener knows every seed is not treated differently the germination process of certain seeds are different right some seeds require full sun some require a little bit of shade some require more water than others but each and every day our educators understand that our seeds need to be taken care of and that does take a gardener to do but let's let's let's let's let's keep it going with the metaphor right any good gardener needs to make sure that the tools are given to them so to the gray family to Council member Julie Benin to New York City kids rise you are these tools that will continue to germinate these seeds and make them grow beyond our wildest dreams they often say they didn't know they were seeds because they tried to bury us they tried to bury us but they didn't know we would grow to what we grew to they didn't know that a kid from six blocks away would be the first attorney in his family they didn't know that he would marry another attorney so now our daughters that's normalized it is now normalized my daughters have parents that are attorneys and that's normal to them that's normal to them you know how amazing that is that's normal that's not something that we had growing up that's why programs like this are so critically important to invest in our city and we talk about how much does it cost you know it's we we count money and we have budgets in the city in the state but how much does it cost if we don't invest in our kids how much does it cost if we don't invest in the future of our kids educational system or our trade schools mr. may as you said because there is no one true path to success but the most important thing is to make sure that we understand that our kids are in fact our future and I was almost late here because as size spelling once and I'm not just the president I'm a client I'm a public school parent I was dropping my kids off at ps 153 I'm a district 11 kid myself ps 83 ms 181 onto Bronx science onto Sunni Albany onto CUNY law I'm a public school kid K through JD so K through JD so when you invest when you invest it makes a difference and I'm going to leave you with this with a world court only you know you know you talked about it's only this and five pennies is only a nickel right but um five nickels is only a quarter four quarters only a dollar five dollars only a five dollar bill four five dollar bills only a twenty dollar bill we're not talking only anymore and five of those is only a hundred dollars we're not talking only anymore every cent matters so I just want to say thank you to our mayor for continuing to invest to to our community members our partners the most importantly our children I'm looking forward to seeing the reaps of our investment grow bountifully thank you I have assembly member Michael Benedetto wow how do I follow well I guess I don't I'm not I'm not going to try but this is a happy day it really is um I came a year ago over a year ago I went to um Senator Bailey and I said you know we have this idea I thought it was an original idea how stupid am I and we've sent a bill in in Albany called the baby bonds bill and it basically says every baby born in the state of New York will be given $1,000 seed money to start a savings account that the same idea you guys are doing Mr. Mayor this is wonderful this is great every year in Albany I'm chairman of the education committee and I get thousands um maybe I exaggerate um but I get an awful lot of curriculum bills and one of the curriculum bills they always seem to get is financial literacy is not taught this is the best kind of curriculum bill that you're doing here today okay I'm so happy about this may it continue may it blossom may it grow with the money we have showered on New York more money than we ever had in the state this year and and let it blossom in our children have a good day everybody that was good our very own council member Kevin principal garden I just want to say uh Senator Bailey stole my reference of using you as a garden my metaphor that's my brother though so I'll give it to him uh but being the last speaker I hope I am I think everyone said pretty much what I would have stated I'm just going to talk as a parent you guys saw my oldest daughter up here at Brooke uh my youngest daughter Kate who's in daycare and I'm expecting my baby boy in two months so my my first job is being a parent and being a parent you want to make sure that you're investing in your child but sometimes you need help uh sometimes you don't know which direction to go as being a parent that's why I started the organization the dad game because us being fathers we needed that guidance this is a program that's really going to help our parents out within our community I'm truly happy to be a part of this because financial literacy was something I spoke about during my campaign that our school schools need to be educating our students on financial literacy because we need to learn how to manage money within our communities so this is a step and I'm so happy to celebrate the first NYC scholarship month this month in baychester academy where my daughter goes to school this is a beautiful administration and just want to show our sister principal glenn uh miss Arnold miss johnson uh who have been amazing amazing partners um and the rest of the administration that's here excuse me if I didn't announce you today um but you guys have been amazing and we really really look forward to what you bring to our community thank you mr. mayor for coming here today uh to my colleague councilmember many you're amazing this idea was really really amazing and thank you for sharing this with the community uh thank you oh we're at the end of our program I'm so happy to invite our students our kindergarten students our staff up so that we can take a photo together see if there's any off topic i think we've asked you about it the past week or so can you talk about what you've been hearing from your health officials our cases still going up are you moving any closer towards maybe reinstating any kind of okay mandate restrictions uh the normally i'm going to call 8 30 this morning uh with the my health officials but as you see i'm here instead uh when i get back in the car i'm going to get updated on what the numbers look like which we continue to see a slow uptick but the real indicator is that number one our testing is in place take home testing and our hospitals uh and deaths those numbers are really at a solid place so there's no uh we're going to be prepared and not panicked and so i'll be better able to brief you on if there's any major shift from what i had yesterday we did not have a major shift there's just a slow uptake but new yorkers are doing the right thing they're testing themselves if they find that they have covet they're staying home and that is what the reason we have the most expansive home testing system then anywhere in the country and as long as we keep doing the right thing i'm pretty sure all of you know someone that has covet but they're staying home they're not going into the subway system they're not going to their office spaces that is where our success is that's what's normalizing this here i know that the city allocated a certain amount to this do would you foresee if things continue to go well financially for the city would you increase the amount of money that go in to new york city kids rides program or understanding the the funding mechanism other opportunities for for the bonus uh yes and and uh yes we're not leaving anything off the table and seeding a program like this this is you know as uh john gray stated this this is the best return on our investment and whatever way we could continue to expand we're open to discussing and we're also open to looking at other ways to get the communities engage the more that we have communities engage the more they're going to feel invested in our children and so that's the real win here the win here is having everyday people you know donate that dollar donate that 50 cents donate that three dollars and seeing how this money grows for these children so it's not only the city's involvement we really want to get the community engaged in the children of the community i'm going to do the the young lady a mother was here today signing up registering i'm going to um i'm gonna make my own donation and uh i am going to encourage everyone i know the beauty here is that you don't need rich friends that's the joy here you don't need you just need everyday people to say you know what instead of uh doing that night out at the movies um go to another place and stay home together but take that ten dollars and go and donate it to a friend they created this easy community engagement that's the win here that we don't have to go to just an affluent new yorker you could go to an everyday person if you are an uber driver one dollar of your tip today can you donate it to one of these children this is going to be an on the ground level and then what happens people are going to start different thinking differently about the children of the city because they're going to feel i invested in that child in that school there i think this is just an amazing concept in program yes yes so um there was a little bit about in district 30 in queens um the superintendent dr composto he was allegedly fired by chancellor david banks and the elected officials in the area had a letter asking for him to be returned parents people are very upset about this i wanted to talk to you i know david banks isn't here but if you have any comment or response you have someone who appears to be a beloved leader within a school district i know that there's a lot of turnover and it's a new person running the department of education but would you consider reinstating him or have you spoke to chancellor banks about this removal of the superintendents across the city well first of all i'm a big fan of chancellor banks you know everyone knows that and uh he is reforming a school system that has been dysfunctional and that has been broken for so long and one of the things he's he must do is he must put in place his generals that are going to be in charge of school districts to support principals like the principal here in this district he has put in place a system that would do it in tears that is going to have involvement from parents and communities and allow the superintendents to go in front of the communities to interview for a position of the system he put in place he's taking the best two applicants and he's allowing now the community stakeholders to sit down and interview them i think the system he put in place is exactly what we call for for parental involvement for community engagement and i think i'm in support of his system that he put in place i put him there to do a job he has an obligation to turn around our school system and support our teachers and parents and principals and i'm in support whatever mechanism he put in place uh that that's my chancellor and i support him in this instance parents said they were not involved the elected officials said they were not involved it came as a real shock that dr. composter was fired he said he wasn't a finalist after the interview process so i know it's a very specific case but i don't know do you know how chancellor banks has been engaging parents community people when it comes to the superintendent collection i've blown away at how many cc's he attends how many times he speaks with parents how he looks at numbers of the districts how well are they doing um how he gets the best product in front of the in front of the parents now let's be clear that that district the number of students in that district is in as a large number so if a if the number of parents who say they were not involved of how many are saying they are going to be involved and will be involved in this next leg of the process uh i think uh chancellor banks can do an excellent job of articulating what the process was and i know the process is very much engaging for parents i just did one more um yes you talked yesterday about the supreme court ruling that might come down on gun rights i wonder if what you would say you know people on the other side who are pro gun rights who say you have a lot of criminals on the street who have illegal guns and having people legally carrying guns uh you know for self-protection could actually make for a safer environment what's the response to that argument from the other side dumb dumb i mean i mean this is not uh jesse james and the sundance kids who can draw the fastest you know for those who are stating that if all the bad guys have guns let's equal it out by having all the good guys have guns that that that is just so dumb you know uh you and a city was densely populated in a city where we're dealing with some real emotional illnesses and some of these shootings that we're seeing people are in dispute because someone cut them off on the streets people are in dispute because someone got them upset on the subway system people are in dispute because of the silliest things so now if everyone is packing because now we're going to offset the bad guys that are carrying or i hear people saying well you know uh young people are carrying because they feel afraid we had an 11 year old child yesterday caught with a gun in school 11 how did he get that gun and so i i i am saying and i said it i'm going to continue to say we better be very afraid of that supreme court ruling this passed out if if you are allowing people to carry guns the good guys the good guys are no longer able to be distinguished from the bad guys because if you have a bad day and you have a gun that bad day can elevate to an argument you know there's a tendency that people believe if they got a gun why have it if i'm not using it that's just a mindset of carrying a gun we have to rid our streets of guns from good guys and bad guys so we don't have this violence thank you