Transcript: Mayor de Blasio, Chancellor Carranza Announce Record High Graduation Rate

January 30, 2019

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Karen, that was wonderful. We are so proud of you.

[Applause]

We are so proud of you. Now, I'm, like, listening to you speak in front of all these adults, all these cameras and all, and to know that you only learned English in the last few years is unbelievable. And that's a credit to you and your hard work, and your parents, and your teachers and everyone in the school community. And I know everyone in the school community supports each other in learning. And this is a beautiful picture of New York City its finest right here.

[Applause]

So there is good news in this world, my friends, and we are here to celebrate. First, we’ve got to talk about New World. This high school, not only does it exemplify the values of the city, it's a place for everyone, it's a place where everyone is respected. Everyone can reach their potential. That is what New York City is all about, right? That's what we believe in. Let me tell you, in 2017 – so not last year, but the year before – this amazing high school already had an 87 percent graduation rate.

[Applause]

In 2018, New World took their graduation rate up to 90 percent. Isn't that amazing?

[Applause]

The sky is the limit here. And to everyone in this school – everyone, the school leadership – and I want to thank the leadership of the school, the teachers, everyone who works at school, the parents who support their children, and the students who support each other. You have a lot to proud of, congratulations.

[Applause]

But now I have some congratulations that go to all five boroughs, to every neighborhood, to all of our school system and everyone who works in it. Chancellor, you should be very proud today – your team, your leaders, all the principals, the educators all over the school system, the parents all over New York City – because for the fifth straight year, the graduation rate has gone up in New York City.

[Applause]

And we are now at our all-time highest graduation rate in the history of New York City. Congratulations, everyone.

[Applause]

For the first time in our history, more than three-quarters of our kids are graduating and going on to greater things – more than three-quarters, and we're going higher every single year. This is an amazing, amazing thing. This is kind of thing that would not have been imaginable just a few years ago. I want people to understand how much hard work has been put into this effort. We came here with the idea that we were going to shake the foundations of our school system five years ago. We said the status quo was not acceptable and things had to change. The Equity and Excellence vision was the way to do it. And what Karen talked about, those AP courses, are great example. Every high school we'll have them now.

[Applause]

It used to be a lot of high schools didn't have any advanced placement courses, which sent a message to students like Karen, and all of her friends, that you're not destined for the greatest heights, we're not even going to offer you advanced placement. What a horrible, misguided message that was. And on a very practical level, young people were ready to go farther, ready to meet their potential in the here and now – didn't have a chance to do it. Now, listen to what Karen said – 12 credits that she's gotten, she said some kids have gotten over 20 credits. That's extraordinary. But they only get to get those credits if the AP courses or in their school. That's what Equity and Excellence is all about.

[Applause]

So we don't believe that the stereotypes of the past should govern us. There used to be the “good schools” and the “bad schools.” We want to weed out that language by making it obsolete. We want every school to reach its greatness. Now, Karen said something else – your remarks we'll filled with many powerful passages.

[Laughter]

Very impressive. When people said, oh my God, you know, you learn to speak English so well, you have all the advanced placement courses, did you go to a specialized school? And you said, no, I went to New World. Because there are a lot of new worlds out there, there are a lot of great high schools in this city and they are getting greater.

[Applause]

So, what does it mean that almost 76 percent of our kids are graduating? Let's make this a very human reality first. Think what it means for a young person, that they go through that last year and they graduate and they are off to opportunity, whether it is a college education or some other type of training program or right into the workforce, whatever it may be, that they have succeeded on that first and most important opportunity to get that high school degree. And think what it means for families – so many families in this town are struggling to make ends-meet, but, you know, the one thing they will always do is support children no matter what. The children's education comes first, because they want to see the next generation to do better. And that dream is still alive in this city. It's a dream that's challenged all over this country, but here we believe the next generation can actually do better. But that's only possible through our public schools, and it's only possible if our kids graduate and can keep moving forward. So, for families all over this city, it's not a statistic to them, it's their own lives, it's their own child that met with the kind of success that might not have been possible just a few years ago.

In the years since mayoral control of education was instituted – it's about 15 years now – the graduation rate in the city has increased by 50 percent because there was leadership and accountability. Just in the years that this administration has been in – just five years now – when we came in, the graduation rate was just over 68 percent, it is now 76 percent. We're moving forward.

[Applause]

And it's not just an achievement unto itself. I know you're going to hear from the Chancellor. A few years ago when Chancellor Farina was in office, we said – what was the goal we could shoot for that would be a game-changer for New York City. We said, well, the national standard at that time, a few years ago is 80 percent. So we said, we're going to shoot for 80 percent. We're going to be as good as the whole country, even though New York City public schools had struggled for decades and decades, we're going to catch up with the rest of the United States of America. And we said it's going to take some time, and we put out a plan publicly. With this progress we’re reporting to you today, we are now well ahead of schedule to reach that 80 percent goal and then surpass it. This city is proving that public education can surpass all expectations and it's happening very, very rapidly. And it's not just about graduation from high school. Here's the other fact that so important, we reported this a few weeks back. The young people that graduated this last summer, 2018 – 59 percent of them – 59 percent went directly to college or another type of training program. 59 percent – also, all-time record for the City of New York, and that number is going to keep growing as well. It's going to make a huge difference in people's lives.

So, I want you to know we are very proud today of everyone's efforts and we're proud because the City's moving forward and our schools are moving forward. But there's one more piece, and I know the Chancellor will speak to it. It's not good enough if the overall numbers are increasing, but the disparities that were so typical in the past continued. We are now seeing some real progress on closing the achievement gap. We're now seeing that all the initiatives that we put into play, including those AP courses, and College Access for All, and Computer Science for All, they're all starting to have a real impact. And that achievement gap is starting to move and we're starting to see more and more equity. Everything you're seeing here is proof that it can be done.

So if you meet anyone out there who says that New York City public schools can't reach the highest heights, tell them to come to New World High School and see for themselves.

[Applause]

Just a few words in Spanish – and I want to say, you know, I just have to tell everyone this, that, you know, it's City Hall in Your Borough this week. We're in the Bronx and we did not know what day these results would come out, but I am especially happy that the State these released his results during Bronx week so we could come right here and celebrate because the Bronx led the way.

[Applause]

The Bronx led the way. A few words in Spanish –

Unknown: [Inaudible]

There you go. Okay, I’ll remember that. There you go. I forgot, that's supposed to be the official beginning of the press conference.

[Laughter]

A few words in Spanish –

[Mayor de Blasio speaks in Spanish]

The road to being the fairest big city in the nation begins in our classrooms with our educators, with our parents, with our students, and you all should be very, very proud today. Thank you, everyone.

[Applause]

And now – no pressure, Richard –

[Laughter]

But the man who's going to beat the record again, our chancellor Richard Carranza –

[Applause]

Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And I want to also echo your remarks about us being here at New World High School. What an incredible school. And what you may or may not know is that the students at New World High School, the majority of the students in New World High School are what we would consider be newcomers. They're new to our country. Many of them don't speak the language, and yet they're graduating at 90 percent. So, there is no excuse why we're not going to just surpass that record, Mr. Mayor, we're going to shatter that record.

[Applause]

And because it is City Hall in Your Borough and we are in the Bronx, I just want to start by saying, here you go.

[Laughter]

So needless to say, sir, I'm very excited to be here today. And I want to give another shout out to all the students and teachers here at New World High School, and their incredible principle. I want to thank you for opening your doors here to us – and our especially wonderful speaker who one day we will be voting for, for higher office, Karen.

[Applause]

You should be very proud of her because, you know, she's got it under control over here. So I want to thank you for being here. I typically save my remarks in Spanish to the end, but I'm going to start with my remarks in Spanish, especially because we're here at New World High School.

[Chancellor Carranza speaks in Spanish]

Now for those of you who don't speak Spanish, I just said we're really happy to be here.

[Laughter]

Mayor: It takes a lot more words in Spanish.

[Laughter]

Chancellor Carranza: It's a beautiful, circular language. One of the reasons I came to New York City, was that I shared the infectious commitment that Mayor de Blasio has for equity and excellence. And he and I share that passion. When I arrived last April, I came to understand that there was a culture of equity and excellence in the New York City public schools. This is a shared mission, not just of the Mayor and the Chancellor, but of our community, of our principals, our teachers, our parents. That's what you heard from Karen. She expressed it more beautifully than I could've ever expressed it. You heard about the best of New York City here at New World High School – so much diversity, so much talent, the highest expectations, the hardest drive on the part of our students. And I want to take this moment also to give a shout out to my predecessor Chancellor Carmen Farina, who worked very hard to put building blocks in place that we can now take any move even farther. So I want to thank her for her selfless work when she was here.

[Applause]

Now, Karen also talked about AP for All and the difference it's making at this school. I'm proud to say that this school has tripled the number of students enrolled in AP classes. And think about how their shattering expectations, the notion that a student that's learning English cannot take advanced placement classes. They're shattering that – triple the number of students taking AP courses this year compared to just two years ago. In fact, I was just at a celebration where we celebrated that AP for All has resulted in over 220,000 additional students taking AP courses. Now when you think about that, those are just six digits, but if you think about 220,000 students and those are high school students, if they were their own school district, they'd be the largest school district in – sixth largest school district in America. That's the impact that Equity and Excellence has having in our city.

So it's no surprise that at this school that represents New York City and its beautiful diversity so well, we are seeing results that represent New York City so well. The Mayor talked about our record-high four-year graduation rate – 2,600 more students earning their high school diploma. He talked about our record-low dropout rate and the fact that we're making some real progress on our opportunity – some people call achievement – opportunity gap between our black and white students, our Hispanic and white students. Each gap has decreased by about five points over the course of this administration. I think it's important to point out also that these improvements aren't happening in a vacuum. You see, there's incredible work happening in our schools every day, whether it's more AP courses, the SAT school day, more college visits, counseling that raises the bar as part of our Equity and Excellence agenda for all. All of these things are part of Equity and Excellence. Whether it's those things that the schools are able to afford to provide with the 800 – think about this – $800 million that this administration has invested in the Fair Student Funding formula. Or it's just the good roll-up-your-sleeves hard work of teaching that Mayor de Blasio cares so much about and has invested so much and so deeply.

It's no surprise that it's not just our graduation rate and our dropout rate. It's our record-high college enrollment rate. It's our record-high college readiness rate. It's our record number of students taking and passing AP courses and taking the SAT exam. Our schools are stronger than ever and getting stronger by the day.

I want to step back for a moment and talk about something you may not expect me to talk about, but, as someone that's new to the system, I can appreciate this with a new set of eyes. And I want to talk about mayoral control for our schools. For before mayoral control, graduation rates hovered at around 50 percent – they actually hovered. But since New York City got mayoral control, those graduation rates started rising and they have not stopped rising. It's because with mayoral control comes accountability, innovation, and results. The ability to think big and put policies in place to turn those ideas into action and the accountability that the Mayor of the City feels for those results, along with the Chancellor in leading that charge is something that puts the very square peg of accountability on us, where it belongs. The ability to think big and put the policies in place is something that is quintessentially part of mayoral control. It better serves our students and our families. And I want to say that I'm proud to have come here to be hired by a mayor to lead the incredible work that's happening here in New York City.

So I'll end on this note, mayoral control, our Equity and Excellence agenda, and all of the components of our agenda are twin engines that have gotten us to this point, but it's time to kick it into a higher gear.
Even as graduations rise and dropout rates fall across the board, we must do more to close the opportunity gap that exists. Let me say it again, we must do more to close the opportunity achievement gap. We cannot achieve excellence. We cannot achieve equity without that. It's why we will continue to deepen our Equity and Excellence agenda, programs like our 3-K for All, our Universal Literacy, so our children get off to a running start, AP for all and College Access for All, all so they graduate on a path to success. It's why we're investing in school climate initiatives and culturally responsive education so that all of our students know that they are welcomed, they are accepted, and they are respected every single school day. It's why we're launching – and I'm proud to save this here in my favorite borough, the Bronx –

[Applause]

We're partnering with our educators, our teachers, those people in the classroom every day around the Bronx Plan, a plan that says we are going to invest in creating those conditions and moving those conditions for students to excel, to recruit and to retain great teachers right here in the Bronx. These are the investments and initiatives that will get us to where we need to be and empower all of our students, our schools in our communities.

So, today is not a good day, it is a great day. Congratulations and thank you to all of our students, our teachers, our administrators, our school communities for all you do. Let's celebrate today. Let's say, woo-hoo, let's do whatever we do to celebrate, and then let's roll up our sleeves and get back to work.

I want to say thank you for all that you do.

[Applause]

And I want to say to Karen, I'd be happy to walk some neighborhoods for you when you're ready to run for your office.

[Applause]

Thank you.

Mayor: As usual, the Chancellor is extraordinarily passionate and eloquent. I don't know about that woo-hoo thing, but –

[Laughter]

Otherwise I was right there with them. I want to thank some of the folks who do so much here in the Bronx, because all of these changes happen through leadership. First of all, just formally want to thank and acknowledge the Executive Superintendent Meisha Ross Porter.

[Applause]

Mayor: Brought her fan club with her, there you go. And the principal here at New World, Mithat Gashi, thank you so much.

[Applause]

And a thank you to all our teachers, and a special acknowledgement for the UFT Special Representative for high schools here in the Bronx, John Monteforte – thank you so much.

[Applause]

So, it's Bronx week, and there's something else to celebrate in the Bronx, which is the Assembly – the New York State Assembly education committee, which is absolutely crucial in terms of the decisions it makes and how it affects our 1.1 million students. Well, the dream we all have is when someone becomes the chair of the Education Committee that they actually have lived the life of an educator. And so, not only do we have a former public school teacher now as the Chair of the Assembly Education Committee, we have a former public school teacher who taught in the Bronx, and who lives in the Bronx –

Unknown: That’s my Assemblyman!

Mayor: And your Assemblyman, and represents the Bronx – the Bronx keeps moving up – my honor to introduce Chair Mike Benedetto.

[…]

Mayor: Andy King had a very good breakfast this morning. He’s very energized and probably six cups of coffee.

Okay, so, we’re going to take questions on this announcement. We’re going to take a brief break then. Then we’re going to do an update on the weather situation, take questions on that. And –

[Laughter]

We were testing your physical endurance.

[Laughter]

And then we’ll take questions on other topics as well. So, first on the announcement today and then obviously anything education related. Please.

Question: Okay. Chancellor Carranza. We met in May of last year and I said to you about the Bronx being the lowest performing borough and you agreed with me and said that the Mayor and I know that the Bronx children are not performing up to where they are. This makes me so happy because this is what I want as a former parent leader all the way up to the Chancellor’s Parent Advisory Council, as I said to you. However, we need to do this in every school and in looking at the results that just came out, Staten Island has achieved over your 80 percent figure. Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan have come closure to that 80 percent figure but the Bronx is still 67.4 percent. How can we change that and achieve higher gradings from the Bronx?

Chancellor Carranza: So, thank you, I think – we in this administration do not refer to schools or boroughs as underperforming. We consider them to be historically underserved because the community doesn’t decide that they’re not going to perform. It’s about the investment and the targeted investment. As I mentioned, the over $800 million that this administration has invested in the Fair Student Funding formula is a game changer.

It allows schools to do different kinds of activities, different kinds of programs. It allows them to target resources to helping students move to graduation. We’re really excited that the Bronx Plan that we announced as part of our contract settlement with UFT – you know, most people think about contracts and contract settlements as wages and working conditions. We transcended that paradigm and we said, let’s take a borough that has historically been underserved and let’s invest in the right things in that borough. Let’s invest in the ability to recruit teachers and retain teachers by paying a differential. Let’s invest in helping groups come together and be able to do root-cause analysis and then implement their plan and there be funding for the plan.

Let’s take historic communities that have been at the middle or the bottom of the list and let’s move them to the top of the list so that we’re actually investing in a real way. That’s what we’re doing in the Bronx. So, all I can say about what’s happening in the Bronx is that you’re just getting a peek of what’s going to start happening. But get ready because the Bronx is a phoenix rising in the City of New York and we have passionate people ready to go.

[Applause]

Mayor: Let me add because I think there is a very important distinction to make in terms of our focus on moving each part of the city quickly. The Fair Student Funding is a crucial piece of the equation and I want to thank the Council because – and obviously thank the Assembly which has always believed in increasing the resources for New York City – with help from Albany at times and then the resources we put in directly, there’s been a very big change on Fair Student Funding.

But that is only one piece of the equation. That piece gets augmented with the Bronx Plan because now you’re saying to schools that historically could not bring in the talent they needed that we are adding additional resources. It goes beyond Fair Student Funding. We’re saying if you need additional resources to bring in those science teachers, those math teachers, those foreign language teachers that historically a lot of schools in the Bronx literally could not recruit, we will pay extra to those people so they can come here, and incentivize teachers to come here and stay here, and support the teachers in those subject matters who are already here.

It is a very targeted focus on how we get each and every one of those schools to the 100 percent staffing level they need. If they don’t have teachers – literally don’t have those lines filled let alone the highest quality teachers which we will be able to recruit with this additional incentive, how on Earth can the school reach its potential and the students reach their potential if you literally don’t even have the full complement of teachers.

So, we’re fixing that historic problem. But that is still one side of the equation. That’s the school by school approach. The other side of the equation is the big central thrust of Equity and Excellence. Because I’ve said it many times, I have not seen it noted that often. But I want to make clear to people – when you look at what happened with pre-K, when you look at what happened with 3-K now which is going to be 20,000 in September, when you look at AP for All, Computer Science for All – take all of these initiatives, they have disproportionately helped schools that were less advantaged. There’s no question about it.

A lot of these – obviously for every single part of the city and they are helping a whole host of different kinds of schools, but the disproportionate positive impact has been in communities that suffered that disinvestment. I don’t think we’ve done a good enough job explaining how those two pieces come together. Because if it was just Fair Student Funding, you could have that analysis but all these other things are being layered on top of it, and Bronx schools are disproportionately benefitting from all these waves upon waves of additional support.

So, we think it is going to be a time of renaissance here in the education of the Bronx. Please.

Question: So, statewide the charter school graduation rate declined this year by like two-and-a-half percentage points. So, what do you make of that? Why do you think that is?

Mayor: Look, I think – look, I’m going to give my layman’s answer, I think Richard and his team can give a more expert answer. But I do think something bigger is happening here. First of all, I think more and more families are seeing opportunity in traditional public schools. So, let’s be real about the fact that there was a time not long ago where there was a certain amount of hopelessness in many families and they felt they could not find a solution in traditional public schools or at least not where they lived. That’s what Equity and Excellence in one way to its core is trying to address that that historical sense of whole neighborhoods where people wondered if there was any good option for them – that was an unacceptable state of affairs.

So, I think for a period of time a lot of parents were looking away from the traditional public schools. They were seeing the kind of progress that they wanted. A lot has changed because of the hard work of our educators and our parents and I think more and more parents in this city now think traditional parents are the go-to options. So, I think that’s one piece of it. I think that’s true probably in other parts of the state as well.

I think the other piece of this is there has finally been a debate on the fact that there are charter schools and there are charter schools. Charter schools that support all kids regardless of their abilities, regardless of whether they speak English or not, regardless of whether they have a disability or not, regardless of whether they take a standardized test well or not – those charter schools I always respect and consider them natural partners in our work.

But charter schools that focus on test prep, charter schools that try to push away the kids who don’t take tests well and literally encourage them out of the school, charter schools that don’t want English language learners or kids with disabilities – they have been increasingly discredited. And I think the reporting – and I want to credit the media on this – the reporting looking at the specifics of those schools and what it means to parents and kids in those schools, I think it’s made a lot of people think twice about them.

So, I think those two things are coming together. And again, I’m the layman. You all can come up and correct any nuance I may have missed. But I think it’s those two things coming together and I think for the first time in a long time, traditional public schools are now poised to fully compete with the charter movement. We will always work with the charter movement. As I said, pre-K is done with charter schools, 3-K is done with charter schools, but now it’s game-on because our traditional public schools are getting better and better all the time.

Chancellor Carranza: Well said.

Mayor: Thank you, Chancellor.

[Laughter]

Yes?

Question: Okay, so, this isn’t on grad-rates but it’s on education. So, I’ve been hearing from some physical therapists and occupational therapists at schools about their concerns about a union agreement. They’re going to vote tomorrow, and they feel that they are not getting paid fairly compared to their colleagues – speech pathologists and others, and don’t have the same benefits when it comes when they have advanced degrees and stuff like that. So, I wanted to hear your response to that.

Mayor: I’m going to be very topline because all I can say is in the briefings I’ve received, yes, there have been real concerns. I believe we addressed those concerns. You know, any labor negotiation you don’t have both sides saying we have perfection and singing Kumbaya. But I believe the real concerns were addressed in the final agreement and we think it’s a step forward. I don’t know if there’s anything else to add.

Chancellor Carranza: [Inaudible]

Mayor: Okay.

Question: So, when the State released test scores, you are [inaudible] because of changes [inaudible] over time. In terms of graduation rates, the State has changed graduation standards several times over the past few years including you no longer have to pass a regents exam in social studies, you can substitute other [inaudible] the cutoff score that you can use to appeal a low regents score has shifted and students with disabilities now no longer have to pass any regents exams at all. So, I’m wondering, kind of, whether you think this year’s graduation rate is truly apples-to-apples compared to last year.

Mayor: Again, I’ll be the layman and this one probably more than the others even requires the experts to step up. But I’ll give you my own personal view of that. I – you know, because I have a critique of high-stakes testing. I am always careful when – even when we’re announcing good news to qualify it because I understand the limitations of high-stakes testing. But graduation rate to me is a much more tangible thing.

It’s clear to me this kind of progress and I’m talking about the progress in the last five years we’ve been here but also the progress in the previous administration – it’s so clear and consistent that I think it transcends the various adjustments that have been made at the state level. I think it indicates something much bigger that’s happening. I hear the point loud and clear that there are variations and I’m sure they have meaning but I don’t doubt that this is organic information that we are continuing to move when it comes to the real ability to graduate kids. And also, there’s another measure and my panel of judges will agree with this I think – if it was just an isolation and we didn’t have another verification on the college acceptance and the training programs and the other things that young people are going through that 59 percent number is very important as well because we see more and more of our young people getting accepted.

This is not the New York City public schools accepting them, this is a whole range of colleges of all different kinds and other training institutes and all sort of things. To see that number keep going up, I think is an objective verification of the progress we’re making. Do you want to add?

Chancellor Carranza: Yes, thank you, Mr. Mayor. I also want to introduce our Chief Academic Officer Dr. Linda Chen who is here and also Michelle Paladino who is with our Office of Policy and Evaluation. So, I’m going to ask Michelle to come up and talk a little bit about the technical question that you asked, Alex. But Mr. Mayor, you’re absolutely right.

If it was just the graduation rate, it would be just the graduation rate. But compound that with college readiness, college acceptance, college persistence – all of the indicators triangulate to tell us that students are legitimately graduating and they are legitimately getting admitted and they’re being successful.

Couple that with – there is a notion, you know in my career I’ve literally interviewed hundreds if not thousands of individuals for positions and never once have I had somebody come in, sit, take a test, and the highest scorer gets the job. So, we know it’s much more than just test taking. It’s much more than just graduation rates. So, the multiple measures, the multiple pathways for students to graduate, I think, are completely legitimate because no one is getting a pass.

There are certain requirements that students have to, and parents have to take to be able to pursue those pathways. But the goal at the end of the day is that they have an opportunity to move on and I would say that as part of our Equity and Excellence agenda, one of the things that the Mayor has also touched upon is empowering with knowledge our communities so that they understand those multiple pathways and how those help students move not only to graduation but to get admitted into college.

The truth of the matter is that those of us that are parents that have knowledge – that’s the privilege we have because we know how the system works. We’re actually working to make sure that everyone knows what those levers are as well. So, I’m going to ask Michelle to talk a little about why we think it’s apples to apples.

Senior Director Michelle Paladino, Research and Policy Support, Department of Education: So, well, first of all there weren’t any changes this year compared to last year. So, it is apples to apples in that sense. Second of all, the overall numbers for particularly the appeals I think that you’re referring to are very small. So, it remains at five percent which is a pretty small population. And lastly, and sort of mixed up in there was a mention of the alternative pathways that some students are taking. And just to be clear about that, it’s essentially providing them an opportunity to show proficiency in another subject such as the arts or in math or science, and in fact most students do it through math or science and that too also remains a pretty small percentage of the population. But it is a way for students to demonstrate their proficiency in an alternative way.

Question: So you have specific numbers [inaudible]?

Director Paladino: Yeah, so it’s – the overall or the – so it’s five percent for the appeals and four percent –

It’s 2,500 for the appeals and – 2,500 for the four-plus-one, and 2,600 for the appeals.

Question: [Inaudible] students?

Director Paladino: Yeah, 75,000 [inaudible] so small.

Mayor: Okay, other questions on this announcement of on education. Let’s see if there’s anything else. Rich?

Question: So, Mr. Mayor, the original goal as I understand it was trying to get to 80 percent. Have you set a new number?

Mayor: We’re going to now. We’re going to. Look this is – I have to tell you, Rich, when we’re waiting for these results we never presume. This is now the fifth time I’ve been through this and we don’t assume that things move in a linear direction. We have to prove it, right. And I think seeing this kind of progress – it’s time for us to reassess that goal and aim higher.

The original was developed with Chancellor Farina and it was literally looking at our progress and then looking at the national dynamic and at the time – I’m trying to remember the year, I don’t know if any of my colleagues know off hand, I’m assuming it was 2015 – but at the time the notion of catching up with the United States of America seemed like a stretch goal because the history of New York City Public Schools was that we could not reach that national standard. So the idea that we would get ourselves to that level was something that was a very powerful goal but one that we thought would take a lot of work. Everyone knows New York City Public Schools have a series of realities that in many ways make it much tougher to provide the kind of education we want to toward our kids. But the goal we set was 80 percent, and the end point at that point – I need a refresher – the end point for that 80 percent goal was, what year?

Senior Director Paladino: 2026.

Mayor: 2026. So you can see already that we’re on a trajectory where we absolutely will reset that goal aimed to get to 80 percent quicker and then surpass it. Any other questions on this announcement or anything else education, yes sir?

Question: You mentioned at a press conference now I think a week and a half or so ago that an update was coming about school turn around and renewal schools, where does that stand and do you have anything say about it –

Mayor: Getting hotter every minute. So hot you can almost feel – no, it’s – we intend to do that in February and we’ll give you the exact date as soon as we nail it down. Yes?

Question: I also just wanted ask, you guys both brought us the Bronx Plan and the sort of  paid differentials for teachers who may have been tract in – high quality teachers at hard to staff schools – Chancellor, I know that, you know, in Houston you tried a very similar program. The Houston Chronicle did an investigation of that and found that there was not a huge change in the percentage of teachers who were more highly rated. I’m just wondering, you know, why you think this is likely to make a huge difference?

Mayor: I want to start and then pass to the Chancellor. I mean, I want to say you want some bipartisanship this is something the Bloomberg administration desperately wanted and they could not achieve it in negotiations with the UFT and I would say, with all due respect to them, I’m not sure they approached those negotiations – meaning the Bloomberg administration - I’m not sure they approached those negotiations in the most constructive manner. But over the last five years there has been a very different relationship with all of our educators, UFT, CSEA, everybody and – I mean, sorry, CSA – and everybody and the door was open to a different kind of dialogue.

And so to the question to why do we think it will work, I present you the fact that probably for about 20 years, maybe more, the leadership of our school system has wanted that because it was the logical way to address what was a really unmovable problem otherwise. You know you couldn’t fill those jobs. I mean we could get you all the chapter and verse on how many schools did not have their full complimented teachers, could not fill those specialty roles, and that obviously adversely affected the students. What else was going to work? You know, from our point of view direct incentive was going to be the single most productive approach but we could not get there unless we got to cooperation with the union representing the teachers and now we have that in the framework of a bigger vision of how we make our schools more cooperative and effective in general. So I think it’s the only thing that’s going to achieve the goal, but you speak to it.

Chancellor Carranza: Yeah, so Alex, different circumstances in Houston and in that particular situation there was an attempt to recruit teachers from some schools and move them into other schools and using the differential as an incentive. That was mixed, I’d disagree with the characterization that it didn’t show any results, but it’s not the silver bullet. And I’m going to be really clear that it’s another tool that our principals now have their toolbox to allow them to not only recruit teachers to hard-to-staff positions but also to retain teachers in hard-to-staff positions.

There is a churn because I was a principal in schools – like many of the schools in the Bronx, it’s why I feel comfortable in the Bronx – because there is a paradigm that happens that you go out as a principal, you recruit teachers, you interview the teachers, you get a great teacher and after one year or a year-in-half or two years, that teacher then transfers somewhere else. And often times it’s not because they don’t like the students, it’s because they are commuting, they are paying tolls, they can’t get parking, they have to be closer because they have sick parent or child, so the ability to be able to give this differential will help to solidify those teaching positions, keep people in place, but it will also help to be able to recruit and compete for talent as it comes in.

It’s not the only tool. You couple that with a good leader at the school site. You couple that with a place at the table so that teachers have a professional voice in developing what the accountability plan and the professional development plan is for this school. You couple that with the ability to be on the fair student funding formula to also then be able to apply for funding to be able to enact the plan that is collaboratively developed, and then you bring in the committee, now you’ve got a recipe of lots of different things that can help turn the corner in that particular area. So we’re very excited about it. I know that our partners with the UFT are also very excited about it. But again, I want to just disavow any one of the notion that it is the silver bullet. There are no silver bullets. It is but one of many tools that now give us flexibility to change that paradigm. 

Mayor: Amen. Last call, yes?

Question: So we’ve asked this question before but I think it continues to be relevant when we see these kind of incremental improvements over years that really add up. Those improvements started as you mentioned under Mayor Bloomberg, and it continued under your administration, two very different philosophies toward education and improving schools –

Mayor: Yeah.

Question: Why do you think that the results have been fairly steady under those two different philosophies, have they complimented each other in some ways or why?

Mayor: Thank you for asking a vast, existential question. I would say -

[Laughter]

I would borrow the historic notion of synthesis. I do think that’s some of what’s happening here. I – look, I often disagreed with Michael Bloomberg on education. I agreed with him on Mayoral control of education, and I was a school board member, and the reason I agreed with him was I was a school board member, and I was in a schoolboard that, bluntly, had fewer of the problems historically associated with schoolboards. But, unfortunately there were many problems and the system had to be unified, it had to be professionalized, it had to be depoliticized, and I do think, to the credit of Mayor Bloomberg, that the only way we were going to break out of sort of the gravitational pull of the past has to go to mayoral control. I think that inevitably and immediately started to unleash a lot of very good energy at the school level and helped to get a lot of things done. I think, however, a number of the specific policies limited the progress that could be made. I think there was obviously a very bad relationship between City Hall and the DOE leadership and teachers – I think there was not enough respect for the role of parents. There were misguided policies like “grading of schools” which served to just confuse everyone. There was an obsession with high-stakes testing. There was an over-focus on charters versus traditional public schools. There was a small schools philosophy which proved to be narrow-minded. I think what they did, some pieces of what they did, moved us forward to a point, but would not have continued to move us forward. We had to heal the system, and then we had to address the equity gap, and we had to invest. If we were not investing in schools that needed more help, we weren’t going to move forward. And when we do talk to you about the renewal schools, and the history, you will see the impact of those investments and why some of these schools very particularly, powerfully, illustrate the power of investment. The other thing is, with all due respect to the previous administration,  and I do want to say, I think Mayor Bloomberg cared a lot about education, but the failure to focus on early childhood, and I was involved in these fights – could not get that administration to prioritize early childhood education, and we were not going to make this school system all it could be and we were not going to reach our children’s potential if we didn’t reach them at the age of four and ultimately age of three. And that was never going to happen back then, and it’s obviously the number one priority now.

So all of those things define the differences and I say synthesis because I don’t think we’d be here today if they hadn’t done some of what they did, but I think it would never had continued to advance this way if we didn’t add a whole host of other measures and create a different balance and a different focus on equity.

Yes?

Question: Question for the Chancellor, now when you have that graduation rates here, like schools like this in the world, how are you getting this early to children? Are you providing more Gifted and Talented programs for students, in the lower grades?

Chancellor Carranza: Well I think part of what you’ll see here is that these students, many of whom are recent arrivals, didn’t have Gifted and Talented and they’re doing great. So Gifted and Talented is, again, we’re talking about silver bullets, isn’t the silver bullet, but it is something that we are actually looking at – how do we make it more robust, how do we make sure that it’s representative, how do we make sure that we’re actually putting kids on a pathway. I think what you are seeing, and because we’re in the Bronx, I’m going to focus on the Bronx, what you are seeing with our executive superintendent, Ms Ross Porter and her superintendents is that there is cascading system now of goals, so that perhaps in the past where the Mayor talks about early education, he talks about AP for All, the Equity and Excellence agenda, and we have goals that the Mayor has set – those goals now become cascaded into the chancellor’s goals. My goals cascade to the executive superintendents, which cascade to superintendents, which cascade to principals, which cascade to the school. Now why is that important? Because, we’ve gone from a laissez-faire system of a confederation of independent schools kind of doing their own thing, now to a much more unified approach around certain goals. I think that’s why you’re seeing the graduation rate that is increasing, that’s why you’re seeing the college going rate which is increasing, because we’re all rowing in the same direction now and from a just purely fiscal accountability perspective, it allows us to actually use or resources in a much more targeted, efficient, effective way, which is the goal of all government, right? Use the money for what is intended to be used for. So this is a really exciting time for us and I think that all of that has to do with how we’re empowering students to do better.

Question: You were on a schoolboard. I was a parent-leader all the way up to the Transparent Advisory Council. I had more power than a schoolboard member, and I got my information, that’s why you see me sitting here –

Mayor: Yes.

Question: Because of how I got it.

Mayor: I appreciate it but I, again, I standby – I think it was the right move to change to a different structure, and I think we’ve been able to build on it since then. Alright, I want to give the last word, before we give our students and educators a chance to go back to their important work, I want to give the last word to a man – now he can arrive at any point in the proceedings from my point of view because he is now in the majority in Albany –

[Cheers]

And I have to say this – this is the big x-factor in 2019, is having a Democratic majority in the State Senate – it’s going to change a lot of things for the city and in a lot of ways going to help us make greater improvements in our schools, so to close up this section, I’d like to welcome State Senator Jamal Bailey.

[Applause]

[…]

[Applause]

Mayor: Okay, so we’re going to take a very quick break, let these good young people go back and learn and give your neighbor a round of applause, everybody come on.

[Applause]

[…]

Mayor: Alright. Okay, so, good? Alright. We’re going to do an update on the weather situation. My colleagues are here to address it with me. We’ll take any questions on that then we’ll go on to other topics.

So, I want all New Yorkers to know that we have some challenging weather today and tomorrow, and people should be aware. They should get ready for it. You can feel already today how cold it’s gotten. It’s going to get colder as the day goes on. It’s going to get really cold tomorrow morning. So, I want everyone to be on alert, take precautions, think especially about children and making sure that they are safe, our seniors, disabled folks. This is going to be a trying time and we want to make sure that everyone is prepared.

So, the cold is one of part of the problem. We also have a very specific problem coming up later this afternoon, tonight. It’s very limited. It is a winter squall. It’s a very brief, very concentrated outburst of snow. Literally could be as little as 15 minutes if you’re in a particular part of the city. You might only experience it for 15 minutes or a half-hour, but it will be very intense in that period of time. So, it won’t be a lot of snow accumulation but while you’re in the middle of that brief period of time, it could even feel like whiteout conditions, it could be that intense.

So, everyone has to be ready for that. The word of the day here is for the rest of this day if you can use mass transit, please do. Obviously, if you don’t need to go out that’s ideal. But if you do need to go out, you do need to move around, use mass transit. If you have to drive either go soon or if you do end up running into these conditions, the best advice we can give is pull over if you can, take a break. Again, it could be as little as 15 minutes but it would be better for everyone to be very cautious. Don’t try and drive through it unless you absolutely have to.

In terms of the school system – I’ll give the overview and obviously the Chancellor can speak to other details but because this is a very brief period of snow that we expect, otherwise the central problem is just the cold temperatures, we will have after school activities today. It’s important for our kids, obviously, important for our parents who depend on that as part of their children’s schedule. But we certainly encourage parents who are in a position to pick up their kids earlier to do so but after school will go on as scheduled.

And you’ll hear from Commissioner Garcia in a moment – but 700 salt spreaders are deployed now to keep the streets clear and to help us avoid icing conditions.

Now, as I mentioned – cold now, getting colder. So, tonight we’re going to feel colder temperatures and definitely the wind chill is going to make it feel like you’re down around zero. Going into tomorrow morning we could have wind chill even below that – negative ten or even worse.

So, tonight and tomorrow – Thursday – are the particularly intense cold times. We want people to be on alert. We want people to be ready. Do not assume it’s business as usual. Take special precautions. Some other quick notes.

A Code Blue is in effect. If you see anybody out in the cold you think needs help if it’s a problem but not an absolutely urgent problem call 3-1-1. If you think it’s a life threatening problem call 9-1-1 of course and the NYPD and Department of Homeless Services will respond immediately. Anybody who does not have heat, please call 3-1-1. It’s very important. The best chance we have of getting your heat back on is if we get that call and we want to address it right away. Anything we can fix today before the even colder temperatures tomorrow we want to do.

And then in terms of public housing – we have a Heat Command Center open. It is being staffed now 24/7 to respond to any outages. As of about 9:00 am this morning there was one development with an outage in New York City and that was being addressed – I believe it has been resolved or is about to be.

NYCHA is also opening heating centers and activating heat teams in every borough to get us through this particular cold snap. At this point also, stating the obvious, the question I get, and Chancellor you would appreciate this, anybody under the age of 18, if they see me on the street they ask this question – will school be open tomorrow? Yes, school will be open tomorrow.

Based on all reports we have now we intend to have school open. If anything changes, of course, we will update everyone. Let me just say a quick few words in Spanish –

[Mayor de Blasio speaks in Spanish]

So, again, anybody with a heat problem – really want to get those calls into 3-1-1. So, Commissioner Garcia is here, Commissioner Esposito is here, the Chancellor and his team are here. I want to see if there’s any questions on the weather situation. Yes?

Question: Can the Chancellor address any issues at schools in terms of pipe issues, freezing pipes. Kids often wait in the yards at some the schools. Will you encourage schools to open the doors instead?

Chancellor Carranza: So, we are unaware of any issues currently in terms of the physical [inaudible]. So, everything is up and running. Let’s just keep our fingers crossed and make sure that stays that way. All of the schools have emergency inclement weather protocols which they are implementing so kids will be inside. After school programs, as the Mayor mentioned, will be in effect. However, you will not see them outside. They’ll be indoors. If – when the squall happens to hit, if students are still at school, we will keep students sheltered in place until the squall passes, and then we’ll be on the roads so there may be just slight delays in some of the bus routes for students getting home. But aside from that we are open. We’re ready for business and we’re ready to keep kids warm and safe.

Mayor: Any other questions on the weather situations? Yes.

Question: We’ve gotten a report from at least homeless shelter that they’re struggling with heat issues. It was from somebody whose mother is living there and they called 3-1-1, they’ve said. They’ve called as many people as they can think and they’ve sent photos of ice on the inside of the window and that she’s just very cold.

Mayor: Tell us where and we’ll go deal with it right away. What do you got?

Question: [Inaudible] systematic issues?

Mayor: No, as I said I’ve heard of only one development as of this morning in NYCHA. I have not heard anything specific about shelter. But if you can tell us the location, we will – will you share it with the team?

Question: Of course.

Mayor: We will dispatch – Jaclyn, you’ll follow up and make sure Homeless Services is aware and we’ll get someone right on it. Thank you. Anything else on the – yes?

Question: I have a follow-up just like her – I’ll share my address with –

Mayor: Good, we appreciate it.

Question: [Inaudible] Carranza would share those words he talked in Spanish as far as the kids being in school and the buses might being delayed.

[Speaks in Spanish]

Chancellor Carranza: [Speaks in Spanish]

Mayor: Any other questions on the snow situation? Yes?

Question: Just in terms of the temperature. Any words of wisdom about the use of gas stoves or ovens for heating and space heaters [inaudible] –

Mayor: Look, everyone, if there is a heat problem report it immediately so we can actually get the heat fixed. That’s the way to best address it obviously. But I understand why people are tempted to use those temporary measures like opening up the oven or a space heater. But there’s a lot of dangers associated with that and you know the most important thing is to make sure people are safe. Too often when people come up with that kind of temporary there have been tragedies.

So, it’s much, much better to call in the complaint. We’ll get help to you. You know, do everything you can to stay warm but be very, very careful about anything like a space heater. Okay, anything else, people, on the storm or it’s really just the squall and the cold temperature. Going once, twice, okay.

So, I think you guys are good. Thank you very much. And you guys stick around. Okay. Alright. We are now going to go to other topics. Yes?

Question: Okay, now that you’re in the Bronx, the Kingsbridge Armory, there was a deal made, it’s delayed, it’s in limbo – what’s happening with the Kingsbridge Armory? 

Mayor: I need to get the latest update. You know, there was a point – it feels now like a couple of years ago where I thought we had resolved the outstanding issues and we were ready to move forward, and I have not heard an update recently. 

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: There were obviously issues with the private entities involved, but I’m saying from a government point of view, my impression was, the City and State, everyone was on the same page and we were ready to go and that the problems were all on the private side. But we will get you an update today. I would like to know that myself, so, we’ll get you an update today. 

Question: On Fair Fares, according to numbers we’ve gotten – 107 people have signed up this month so far –

Mayor: We don’t believe that’s accurate. We will get you an update, but, look, this just started. There’s no question in my mind there’s going to be a huge amount of take-up on this. We expect tremendous participation. We’re going to be doing substantial advertising campaigns about it. But again, the other thing right now is that we literally know the names of everyone who qualifies in the first set of applicants and in the second set. So, we’re going to be reaching out to them. We’ll do bigger advertising as it grows. But we know the exact people, we’re going to be calling them, we’re going to be making it really easy for them to sign up. I think you’re going to see a lot of activity quickly on this. 

Yes?

Question: Did Kevin O’Brien falsify his DOI form by leaving off information about why he left the Democratic Governors Association and have you spoken with the Association about why they didn’t tell the City about his being fired over these sexual harassment –

Mayor: Yes, he falsified the form based on everything we know. I have not spoken to the DGA. I am disappointed because clearly they had information and when DOI reached out my strong impression is they did not share the information they had based on the very specific questions that DOI asks. 

Question: What’s the status of the negotiations with HUD and the Southern District on NYCHA? And do they plan on coming up with a real resolution or are you asking for another extension?

Mayor: We are, right now, in what I would describe as round-the-clock negotiations. I’ve talked to Secretary Carson a number of times, I’ve talked to the U.S. Attorney a number of times, this is very, very intense, it’s been this way for days. There’s still a lot of very big issues and we remain adamant about the point that we have to make sure we can protect the 400,000 people who live in public housing and that we can ensure that there’s accountability and local control of the situation so we can solve their problems. But I will say, the negotiations continue to be productive in the sense that we’re working through item after item and our goal is to meet the deadline. 

Question: Apparently, Mr. Mayor, there’s some residents in Manhattan who have taken to hiring private security in the face of what they say is a deterioration of quality of life because they’ve absorbed some homeless residents in their buildings [inaudible] general areas. I’m curious what you would tell those residents?

Mayor: I would tell them that the precinct, which is one of the safest precincts in New York City, is devoting resources to addressing any quality of life concerns that they have and Department of Homeless Services is focused on that as well. We’re going back and double checking, but the data we’ve seen so far does not suggest that there’s been an uptick in any kind of incidence. Look, if neighborhood residents choose to do that, that’s their right, but I would argue that this is the kind of situation that the NYPD can handle very effectively. 

Rich?

Question: Mr. Mayor, at the City Council hearing today, and under questioning by the Speaker, Amazon executive Brian Huseman said they would not allow workers to unionize – it was in regard to the Long Island City facility. Johnson asked if he would be okay with letting the workers unionize, he said he would not agree to that – twice, he said it. What’s your reaction to that?

Mayor: My reaction is that – this is my message to Amazon, welcome to New York City. This is a union town and there’s going to be tremendous pressure on Amazon to allow unionization, and I will be one of the people bringing that pressure. Let’s talk about the different pieces of Amazon. In the plan we agreed to for Long Island City, which is not their distribution centers, it’s obviously their second headquarters, we got an agreement that would be union labor in construction, and we got an agreement there would be union labor in the building services provided to the new facilities. The distribution warehouse is a different facility. It’s a few thousand people, it’s certainly a substantial facility – much smaller than the total number of jobs we’re talking about in the headquarters, which is between 25,000 and 40,000 – but it’s a major facility. I want to see it unionized. We’re going to bring a lot of pressure to bear, and I have seen Amazon – as big as Amazon is, there was a very substantial effort around the country to push them to agree to a $15 minimum wage nationwide. They resisted, they resisted, and then they caved. And I think there’s a very good likelihood that’s what’s going to happen here. 

Question: Apparently this was in reference to the Long Island City facility, the unionization, so –

Mayor: I want to caution, I believe – I can’t speak to all of the people who were addressing the issue and I didn’t see the back and forth, but I do know from a labor perspective – I know the central focus I’ve heard from labor – I’ve certainly talked to a number of unions in solidarity with their desire to see unionization – I think the first concern has been about the distribution facility. The headquarters is going to have a lot of white collar jobs, obviously, including a lot that wouldn’t traditionally be unionized. The distribution center is the, kind of, classic location for unionization as far as I can tell. 

Question: Does it make you in any way question the welcome mat that was put out for them here?

Mayor: The goal we had was to bring 25,000-to-40,000 jobs to New York City, the single-biggest jobs deal in the history of New York City. I don’t have a doubt in my mind that it was right to bring the jobs, because for so many every-day New Yorkers – I’ve said it, it’s kids like you saw here, graduating from our public schools, it’s CUNY students, it’s folks who live in public housing – they’re going to have job opportunities through Amazon. We’re going to get a huge amount of revenue from Amazon to help pay for things like affordable housing and what we’re going in our schools, etcetera. It’s also very important to the future of our technology community, which is about the future of our whole New York City economy. So, there’s no question it was right to get them here. But I have been conscious from the beginning that once you’re on our turf, you’re dealing with our values and our special culture, and we’re going to be very aggressive – everyone’s going to be very aggressive. I think they’re going to go through a whole lot of pressure and I believe that ultimately that pressure will win the day. 

Question: A couple of questions about Kevin O’Brien, I’ll [inaudible] one at a time. [Inaudible] asked DOI to make a determination [inaudible] falsified his answers to – on the background check –

Mayor: [Inaudible] the answer is yes, from everything we can tell it’s a falsification. 

Question: [Inaudible] asking them to consider criminal prosecution –

Mayor: I have not, but I would ask the Law Department to consider what it means. I’m not familiar with the rules, but I’m certainly happy to ask the Law Department what the ramification should be. 

Question: Again, on O’Brien, Governor Bullock knew at the time about what happened about his exit from the organization, he knew that he came to work at City Hall, he met with you at Gracie Mansion, should Governor Bullock have told you [inaudible] let the city know, what’s your message to the governor?

Mayor: Look it’s a frustrating situation obviously. I have to start by saying I don’t know the specifics of what happened and I don’t know if there were any extenuating circumstances that the Governor was addressing, like confidentiality issues from the complainants, that kind of thing. But it’s personally frustrating. If I had known we clearly would not have hired him. It’s as simple as that. So, you know, that’s all I can tell you.
                   
Question: What was your reaction, personally, when you learned that he had done the same thing in a different organization? He quietly was let go, he came to your organization, the same thing was quietly let go –

Mayor: Very different situations and look the whole thing’s disgusting and it makes me tremendously angry that someone lied to us, because clearly he did, and broke the trust of, you know, their colleagues and the people of New York City. It’s not acceptable. And I think it’s fair to say, you know, he’s paying very serious consequences for what he did. In our case we - and you heard from Georgia Pestana who governed over the whole process - we did everything quickly, with serious consequences, but with a real respect for the confidentiality of the complainants and our bottom line was anybody, any potential future employer who called was going to be given a very clear message.

I don’t know why the DGA didn’t do that. As a Democrat, that’s very troubling to me. The Department of Investigation called, you can see exactly the question they asked, it’s an unmistakable question, the – and I’m saying this as a Democrat, I’m very frustrated with the Democratic Governors Association, they should have said to us, yes there was a problem. We asked point blank, they should have said, yes there was a problem, and then that would have caused us not to hire him. So it’s very, very frustrating, but look this is part of a bigger reality where, what all these instances are telling people is that there will be consequences for these perpetrators and we need folks who have been harassed to come forward and we can act on it if they come forward. That’s the bottom line in all of this.

Question: Mr. Mayor, [inaudible] you said you can see the question they were asked, that hasn’t actually been made public, can you make that public?

Mayor: Within the boundaries with whatever the law says, happily, but I will let Eric work that through with DOI. Yes?

Question: I have an off-topic question which I think is now going to be an on-topic question –

Mayor: You can – it’s all mushed together at this point.

[Laughter]

Question: So I just wanted to – so the Chancellor talked a little bit recently about like taking a broader look at curriculum in terms of nuts and bolts of what students are actually learning, and I’m just sort of curious if you could sort of be more specific about kind of what kind of review you are looking at? Are you looking at changing the actual curriculum that the schools can get, or like what their standards [inaudible] –

Chancellor Carranza: Yeah so, I think it’s important to start at the beginning so, the State of New York determines what the standards are for all students. So what you should learn at the first, second, third, all the way up to the twelfth grade. They take regents exams at the twelfth grade. So the state determines what should be learned at every grade level. In order to have students master those standards, there is what you teach in every grade level, that’s called a curriculum. So what is the curriculum that you are using? The textbook is not the curriculum, so how and what and what do you include in that kind of teaching is really, really important.

In New York City there’s been a history and a tradition of having wide autonomy in terms of the - what curricular items there are and what is taught. We have been working with our administrators and our teachers to understand that there are certain things that we want to make sure is embedded within the curriculum. We want to make sure the curriculum is tightly aligned to the standards and we want to make sure that the curriculum is also reflective of who we are in New York City, so that it’s multicultural, that we have African-American experiences reflected in that curriculum, we have Asian experiences in that curriculum, etcetera, in every subject area.

So as we are doing that kind of work, what we are doing, and Doctor Chen is leading this work through her division, is to ensure that there is a framework that says your curriculum must be able to address these certain requirements to make sure it speaks to rigor, to make sure it speaks to alignment to the standards. It’s not about saying you will use this particular curriculum, but it’s rather saying if your curriculum, whatever your using, meets these – this criteria, you’re fine, if it doesn’t, then there is other work that we’re going to do to make sure it’s meeting those standards. So that’s the work we’re engaged in. It’s not sexy. It’s not really high profile work, but it’s the nuts and bolts work of aligning your system to the standards.

Question: Thank you, can you talk about what criteria you’re considering?

Chancellor Carranza: Sure, I’ll ask Doctor Chen to talk about that.

Chief Academic Officer Dr. Linda Chen, Department of Education: So the Chancellor absolutely addressed that but specifically it is talking – oh sorry –

Mayor: You want it to be taller, there you go.

Chief Academic Officer Chen: Specifically it is aligned to the State standards and looking at making sure that all students, when we talk about equity and access, all students have a right to a full curriculum aligned to the standards. So that’s – the standards and the framework will align with the State standards. The other piece is around culturally responsive education. That is incredibly important to us and that is that we review our curriculum with the lens of does it reflect the diversity of our students across the city as well as providing enough supports for teachers to be able to meet the diverse needs of students as well. So those are the types of criteria that we will be looking at and engaging our teachers across the city in this.

Question: Do you have a sense though broadly –

Mayor: This is last call. I want to see if there is anyone else. But go ahead, finish.

Question: If any schools aren’t providing curriculum that are like [inaudible] or that are culturally responsive under that framework?

Chief Academic Officer Chen: At this point, we are working with – closely – with our executive superintendents and superintendents to look at that school by school.

Mayor: Yes?

 

Question: Got a question for the Chancellor on choosing the school principals, okay. When the Mayor was on the school board and when I was a parent leader, 25 or more people applied for a principal’s job and almost the same for assistant principal. Now you’re lucky if you can three or four applying. And the person is already chosen because they did interim-acting – that’s in a school. I’m going to talk about a certain principal without mentioning a name who was an assistant principal at a public school in the Bronx. He and the principal were taken out because of poor performance and something else that happened in the school which I can’t get the answer to.

Mayor: Help us out, we’re [inaudible] punch line.

Question: His mother got him out of District 12 and into District 10 where she was a principal and now a consultant for DOE. This is a man who was written up in a newspaper for gambling online during school hours.

Mayor: [Inaudible]

Question: There was a settlement. The superintendent beforehand had to retire because –

Mayor: [Inaudible] this is filibustering via question.

Question: I’m wondering how a person like this who is taken out of a school as an assistant principal because of poor performance and something else –

Mayor: We’re not going to – I’m going to veto the question respectfully because it is about an individual case. The Chancellor can talk to you about it separately. Go ahead. Anybody else, let call, yes?

Question: Mayor, several months back there were a group of nonprofits that were concerned about not receiving payment and apparently they filed a [inaudible] if this persists. I’m just curious what’s [inaudible].

Mayor: Yeah, we – you know with the nonprofits, first of all, tremendous appreciation for the role they play in this city. This is probably a city in America with the highest concentration of nonprofits. We depend on them. We support them. And it’s very important to recognize a lot of them get a huge amount of money from the City government. We’ve been increasing that steadily. So, the irony is as we have been providing more and more money to our nonprofits, there’s a lot more contracts that have to be agreed to, a lot more paperwork, a lot more checklists that have to be run, and that has taken some time. Some of it is literally because we gave them cost-of-living increases and we gave them new funding streams.

We believe that the backlog created by the new funding streams and some of the other issues will be resolved by the end of May. So, I want to see them get their money. I want to see them have enough cash flow, and their work is very important. So, we do believe that will be resolved soon. We’re going to also try and make other reforms to make the process simpler because the last thing I want to see is especially smaller nonprofits that really need that cash flow – I don’t want to see them struggle.

Okay. Thanks, everyone.