Transcript: Mayor Adams and Chancellor Aviles-Ramos Announce Hiring Over 3,700 New Teachers at Nearly 750 Schools as Part of Upcoming Mayoral Executive Budget

April 9, 2025

Linda O'Shaughnessy, Principal, P.S. 88: Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the P.S. 88. Thank you for being here on this very important and exciting day, and a warm welcome to our mayor, our chancellor, cabinet members, deputy chancellors, elected officials, administrators, principals, teachers, families, and students. 

My name is Linda O'Shaughnessy, and I am the proud principal of P.S.88. And right here in Ridgewood, Queens, I am honored to stand alongside Mayor Eric Adams and Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos as they share a very important announcement on class-size funding and the continued investment in our public schools. And I'd like to introduce to you our mayor, Eric Adams.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thanks so, so much. Whatever you children had for breakfast this morning, I want to have it also. Just real energy and real reflection on what a great principal who brings her A-game here. You always remember your principal, particularly at this level. 

Principal Pasternak was my third grade principal, and she was always there. I had a reading disability. I'm dyslexic. And she always encouraged me, always was there. And still till today, she calls and checks in on me to make sure that I'm fine. So the relationship these educators are developing with these young people, they will never forget it. They will always remember what you share with them and how you make them feel. Walking in here, you are making them feel as though everything is possible. 

And the possibility lies on being able to have that close interaction and relationship. And nothing really personifies that more than smaller class sizes. It's something that our presidents, both President Rubio and President Mulgrew, both pushed for. They utilized their power in Albany to get this through. It is our job now to take that law and execute it. And that is what this announcement is today. 

And so as we stand here at this beautiful school here in Queens, and as a child that grew up here in Queens, I know how important reducing the class size is. And it's the best way to help our students learn and to identify when our students are going through some form of emotional issue as well. Because part of learning is not only to be academically smart, but to develop their full personhood and for them to be emotionally intelligent. And you can do it better in a smaller environment. 

It is clearly the best way for our children to thrive. And today we’re taking yet another step toward making New York City the best place to raise children and families by hiring– Yes, I am the mayor. 

He's reading it here. Remember that television show? Children say the darndest things. Well, one thing for sure, he can sure enough read. 

So by hiring today, 3,700 additional teachers at 750 public schools across the five boroughs for the ‘25, ‘26 school year. And we have made this investment in our upcoming executive budget so we'll be locked in. And these 3,700 new teachers will give our schools the ability to create smaller classes, more nurturing classrooms where all our students can excel and be provided more individualized care. 

And if you do the math it’s clear. 705 schools, 3,700 additional teachers. This is an incredible benefit. It's a game changer for the educational landscape of our entire city. And it's going to ensure that we prepare our children for the future that they must embrace, that's ahead of them. 

We've already have been hiring this school year to support students and families as well as reduce class sizes. We hired 1,000 new teachers. And so we're going to add the 1,000 on top of this new 3,700 that we're looking for. 

And it's and it's a team approach. It's a team approach. New York City Public Schools through the chancellor, the United Federation of Teachers and the Council of School Supervisors and administrators, they have been carefully reviewing hundreds of schools to see exactly where the class sizes will matter and would have a greater impact. Cannot thank them enough. They chose the 750 schools that will receive these additional teachers. 

Our new class sizes are capped at 20 students per grade for grades K through three. Every class I had to fit in and sit in the front seat in the front row because I was that child you had to keep an eye on all the time. I was always in some mischief, you know.

Our new classes, as I said, are capped. So that's 23 students per grade from fourth through eighth. 25 students for grades nine to twelve and 40 students for performing groups and physical education classes. We're committed to this and we're going to ensure that is done. We're committed to at least 60 percent of our classes will meet the new size requirements. And we will continue to take steps towards the compliance of the law. We will comply with the law. 

We are announcing the extra funding early so that principals have enough time, I hear it all the time from our principals. They don't want it last minute. They must get prepared before the school year. So we want you to know now so you're ready for this year that's coming up. You hear it all the time, right, Dan? You know, we've got to get it right. 

Last year, we invested $600 million to protect programs that were previously only temporarily funded with federal stimulus dollars because those programs were crucial, including $10 million for teacher recruitment efforts. And in October 2023, we invested nearly $1 billion for major five year teacher, principal and staff pay increases. You have to pay teachers what they deserve so they don't have to worry about their mortgages while they're developing the minds of their children. 

Many people talk about it, but we did it. We cannot continue to say how important teachers are. But when it comes down to cutting that paycheck, we all of a sudden don't realize their level of importance. We promised it. The union fought for it and you got it. One of the best contracts the city has ever given our teachers. Our students, teachers– 

You’re like me, you know. I'm telling you, my teacher had to– Ms. Pasternak has to show me all this love. You know that. So we’re going to have you right next to me. You’re mayor in 2035. 

And so this is important because it's going to help our teachers more effectively move forward the development of these children. Small class sizes, there is no science that needs to be looked into. There's no intellectual conversations we need to have. It works and it has to be done. And we have to move away from doing things that don't work to things that do work. And that is how you get stuff done. Congratulations. We look forward to a great school year. Thank you very much.

O'Shaughnessy: Thank you, Mayor Adams. Now, I'd like to introduce our school's chancellor, Melissa Aviles Ramos, to say a few words.

Chancellor Melissa Aviles Ramos: Come on, District 24, show me how happy you are to be here. I love this district. This district truly represents what New York City is all about. Different backgrounds, different languages. This district represents our superpower. So happy to be here. 

I want to thank our mayor for listening to us and making sure we get stuff done. Our interim acting superintendent, Anthony Rivera, and Principal O'Shaughnessy for making this happen today. And we know District 24 is a special place because it's also consistently one of the most overcrowded districts in the city. And so I am especially pleased to be here with the mayor to make this announcement about this important investment in our students. 

And as we work to continue to comply with the class size law, it's clear there is no one size fits all solution. And you all know I was a teacher and I was a principal. And what we know is that smaller class size is an investment in our teachers and an investment in our children. 

And so that's why last fall, schools had the opportunity to submit their own individual class size reduction plans for the ‘25-’26 school years. Why? Because when we do things top down and tell principals and teachers how to do it, we know that they have better answers than we do. And so we said, submit your plans to us and we are going to work collaboratively. And I couldn't ask for better partners than Michael Mulgrew and Henry Rubio. 

And so 750 schools are getting funding to enact their own class size plans, amounting to 3,700 teachers and approximately 100 APs to support those teachers. Now, what's important to note is that today's announcement is a continuation of this work. And I want to give a special thanks to Deputy Chancellor Emma Vadehra and her team for being our class size team from day 1. 

We are already at 46 percent compliance, above and beyond the 40 percent requirement for this school year. And this is due to the work of schools and superintendents across our system to reduce class sizes this year and additional funding we put into school budgets for this purpose for the current school year. 

And guided by our schools, we will continue to make progress, enabling our teachers to work with smaller groups of students, providing more individualized attention and fostering a deeper level of engagement in the classroom. And that was what the mayor was talking about. We know that teachers wear many hats, and to be able to build those relationships, those class sizes are key to that. 

Hi, Papa. You want to come stand with me? You want to come hold my hand? I got you, baby. Okay, you staying with me? Because I'm nervous. You'll keep me calm? Okay. 

And so this is a significant win for our students, for our teachers and for the future of educators in New York City. 

Y también voy a hablar un momento en español. Nos complace nuevamente estar aquí para anunciar–

Translation: And I'm also going to speak in Spanish for a moment. We are very pleased to be here to announce–

[Crosstalk.]

Chancellor Melissa Aviles Ramos: I do. You know what's funny? They taught me like five minutes before I got here. No, I'm just kidding with you.

Y estar aquí para anunciar esta inversión histórica en nuestros estudiantes y maestros. Clases más pequeñas significan un futuro más brillante para nuestros niños. Mil gracias por estar aquí con nosotros en este día.

Translation: We are very pleased to be here to announce this historic investment in our students and teachers. Smaller classes mean a brighter future for our children. Thank you so much for being here with us today.

O'Shaughnessy: Ready? He has the job. Now, I'd like to introduce President Michael Mulgrew of the United Federation of Teachers to say a few words.

Michael Mulgrew, President, United Federation of Teachers: Welcome, everyone. It's Class Size Day. That's my buddy. You can be Mr. President if you want. That's okay. I go home. I'm not Mr. President. Believe me. 

I can't thank everyone enough because this is the adults, the elected officials, the parents, the teachers, everyone saying New York City's children deserve to have smaller class sizes and we're going to make it work. And today is part of the celebration because there were a lot of doubters out there for years. 

I remember quite a few editorials being written about myself and my union about how this couldn't be done. It was impossible in New York City. But you know what? We're here. And next September, when school opens, over 60 percent of the classes, our children will be in the smaller class sizes they deserve. And that's what we got right finally.

And I want to quickly thank the teams who did this work. Going through 800 applications is not a simple thing to do. But I also want to bring up this little piece for everyone to understand. The first two years, we knew it was going to be easy. We knew year three, we said it over and over again. And they said, that's where the rubber hits the road. And I want to thank [Tracy Ivana], a teacher, who at a meeting said, “Why do you just let the schools make the plan?” She goes, “if you do it from above, it's not going to work.” And we absolutely believe it is. 

She said, “Let the schools make the plans and we will get it right because we want this. We know our buildings. We know our students and we want to do it.” And then here we are today. 3,700 new teachers coming in in September and all of our children– look at all the children over there. They're all going to be able to be in smaller class sizes. 

This school will be at 100 percent compliance. This entire school will be in 100 percent compliance. So we still have more to go. We still have more to go. We have to keep the pressure on Albany for the funding. We have to make sure that as we're doing this, we're not making mistakes. We know there'll be bumps in the road, but not to make mistakes. 

However, what we're doing, we need to ensure that every child gets that opportunity they deserve. Because after COVID, we fought for this for over thirty five years, but after COVID, this became an imperative for us. We knew what we were facing. Right? You knew what you were facing after COVID. It was going to be rough out there. 

And we also knew it wasn't fair because the rest of the state has these class sizes and our students deserve it, just like any other student anywhere in this state. So I just want to thank everyone again for getting this work done. Thank the parents. Thank the teachers. Thank all the applications. And we are making the impossible possible, everybody. So thank you and thanks for rolling up your sleeves.

O'Shaughnessy: Thank you, President Mulgrew. Now, I'd like to introduce the president of CSA, President Henry Rubio, to say a few words.

Henry Rubio, President, Council of School Supervisors and Administrators: Let's hear it for the students and the staff and the administrators of P.S. 88. And let me introduce myself to a mayor 2035 or ‘45. But I want to get to know you now. Thank you, Mayor Adams. This goes to show, ladies and gentlemen, what we can get done with you, Mr. Mayor, and for you. 

When school leaders are allowed to lead in collaboration with their assistant principals, teachers, parents, school aides, community based organizations, students at the high school level, other constituents. When we work together, we can solve very, very complex problems. 

School leaders know, as well as anyone else, that class size impacts students in a very profound way. That's why our principals and our assistant principals and our school leadership teams have taken this work so, so seriously. 

School communities rolled up their sleeves to design thoughtful, responsible class size reduction plans rooted in the real needs of their individual students and their schools. And today we're seeing what's possible when school driven strategy is backed with the full and unfettered support of critical resources like our mayor. Let's hear it for our mayor one more time. 

Now, I cannot stress enough, I cannot stress enough that none of these schools that have been approved will need to either cut or divert resources from any of their critical programs, after school, enrichment, advanced, or in music opportunities. Instead, this administration, this mayor and chancellor have maintained the commitment to those critical opportunities for each and every one of our children you see here and across the entire city. And at the same time, reduce class size. 

Michael, we proved that it could be done. Mayor Adams, you and your team have been consistent in your commitment to our city's school since day one. When federal COVID relief funds dried up, you stepped in and preserved programs for these students you see here today. You invested in critical programs like summer rising and career connected learning, and you held schools harmless for enrollment losses that were out of their control and negotiated a contract that respected the professionals and the complex leaders of this school system. 

So on behalf of our 17,000 members and almost a million students, thank you. And now, with the state mandate to reduce class sizes, you didn't point the finger back and forth with Albany. You and your team simply asked a question. What can your partners at CSA and UFT do, and what is the best way for us to get the schools what they need? And we work collaboratively to answer that question. 

Thank you for choosing a path that honors the expertise of those on the ground and a chancellor that has walked a mile in our shoes. As both a teacher and an administrator, our union insisted from the beginning that principals needed to work with their school leadership teams by allowing school teams to craft their own plans. You've shown Mr. Mayor that you believe in the wisdom of our educators, and by funding those plans, you help turn belief into action. And we also hope that this becomes a model for how New York City Public Schools continues to get stuff done for each and every one of our students. 

Our school leaders are fully committed to implementing these plans with care, with integrity, and in continued collaboration with all our partners. We know that this is just the beginning, like Michael suggested, and the work ahead is even more difficult. 

So we look forward to working closely together in the years ahead to ensure that this investment and those coming later continue to deliver for each and every one of our students. And I'd be remiss if I didn't recognize the fact that it is National Assistant Principal Week. 

So please give our assistant principals a round of applause. And thank you, mayor and chancellor, for supporting APs in these plans to better support our teachers and our children. It is also the Week of the Young Child, which honors the incredible work being done in early childhood education. So please, our assistant principals in the room, our early childhood folks, please stand. Let's honor them. They should be honored every day. Our APs, our early childhood folks. I know you're in the audience. Thank you. 

Our assistant principals are the backbone of our system. There is so much to celebrate in our New York City public school system, and I want to thank you, our school leaders, for being here to show our commitment to this work, to show our chancellor and our mayor that we are going to continue to roll up our sleeves and work with our partners, our constituents, our teachers, our staff members, to continue to deliver and get stuff done. And most of all, thank you to you, the families of New York City, for trusting us to protect, educate and take care of your children. God bless you and thank you so much.

O'Shaughnessy: And now I'd like to introduce Melissa Agostino, a teacher here at PS88, to say a few words.

Melissa Agostino, Teacher, P.S. 88: Thank you, Mrs. O'Shaughnessy. I am incredibly grateful to be standing here today to celebrate such a meaningful investment in our schools, and most importantly, our children. Thank you to our mayor and chancellor and Mr. Mulgrew for making this possible. Your commitment to our students is not just seen in policy, but felt in classrooms like mine every day. 

In my 25 years as a New York City teacher, I've been fortunate to teach students across all grade levels and in a variety of educational settings. My experience as a special education teacher in an integrated co-teaching classroom, and more importantly, my experience as a parent, has shown me firsthand how vital small class sizes are to student success. 

With fewer students, I've been able to tailor my instruction to meet individual needs, build stronger personal relationships, and maintain open, consistent communication with families. These connections create a learning environment where students feel seen, supported, and empowered to thrive. Every child deserves that kind of attention and opportunity. My job as a teacher is to make sure every student has their best shot at success. Initiatives like this make being an educator more impactful. Thank you for believing in our schools, our students, and in what's possible when we work together.

O'Shaughnessy: Thank you all once again for joining us here today. I'm excited to see how this funding will improve the learning experiences for all of our students in the upcoming school year. Thank you again, Mayor Adams, Chancellor Aviles-Ramos, and leadership for your dedication to young people. 

Mayor Adams: So we're going to take a few on topics, but I hope it was not lost on everyone that what President Mulgrew stated. This has been a 30-year fight, 30-year fight. When you have a mayor that went through public school, he understands the importance of public school. 

It should not have taken 110 mayors before you got a smaller class size and the things you need to educate our children. I am mayor because of the Ms. Pasternaks in my life. And these children are going to become who they should become because you are in their lives. And these smaller class sizes will make it happen. So why don't we open to questions? Hello. How are you? 

Question: Can you speak to how much you're allocating in your executive budget to hire these teachers and how you decided which schools would receive this?

Mayor Adams: And I think that's what the chancellor will go into the whole process they used to do the hiring. But when the law was passed, we wanted to get ahead of that. We're already superseding the number. I think we have 48 percent, chancellor, 46 percent of what we needed to do to bring down the class sizes. 

This was a well-thrown out law and it was about executing, paying for this. And so the money will be allocated in the 25-26 budget. It will be in the budget. You want to go into how they're picking the class or you want to go into that?

Emma Vadehra, Chief Operating Officer, Deputy Chancellor for Operations and Finance, Department of Education: Thanks for the question. So I would say we got about 800 schools that applied across the city, elementary, middle and high schools. All of our schools could apply as long as they had space. We then had a process with our union partners and their teams of reviewing all 800 of those applications. 750 were funded and 700 actually received all of the teachers they requested. 

Mostly in order for schools to get funding, it needed to be something they requested it for that was largely teachers. It did include some assistant principals, as President Rubio said. It also included in some places additional needs the schools had. So funding to convert a room into an instructional room because what they needed was more space at the school level. So when we looked at school applications, we put out a rubric, but really we were looking forward to the school asked for it. And did it clearly contribute to class size reduction at that school in their context? If the answer to those two was yes, we said yes.

Question: Maybe for Michael and chancellor as much as for you. Tell me I'm not oversimplifying this. I hear you say that this has been a 30-year battle, but the success that you're highlighting today is largely the result of a teacher who came up with an idea that said, let the schools decide. That's not the discovery of plutonium. That doesn't sound revolutionary. Why did it take 30 years for someone to say or to realize that it's as simple as, okay, let the schools decide?

Mulgrew: The 30-year battle was to first set the policy that we have to have these class sizes. That's what the 30-year battle was about. There was you can go look at news clips and you'll get a good history on all of this. But in terms of we were discussing different ways to go about it. 

We knew the first two years we could meet without doing much. We just had schools to start reducing. We knew getting to 60 percent was going to be the first real challenge and test of this law. So there was already talk going on back and forth about different ways to do it. 

There was definitely an understanding that this cannot be done from top down. So we just started talking about Tracy, who one night just said, why don't we just let the schools decide? We were headed towards that probably anyway. But it was very good that, you know, other people outside of it had heard that from someone from the classroom. So it's not. And believe me. 

Lowering the class sizes of all of New York City schools is not a simple endeavor. It is a very complicated endeavor. It's something that you have to look at all angles as you're doing it. We know we're going to need additional space in different places. We also have to make sure we this was the promise we made the parents. 

We're not we're not eliminating any programs. No programs will be eliminated. We're not telling a school, make space, shut things down. We're not going to tell a parent who lives across the street from a school, you can't go to that school. We're not going to do those things. So it's the adults being very responsible and very thoughtful as we're doing it. 

So we try to oversimplify it for you so people can understand it. But it is a very complex thing. And the people who work on this, these teams are amazing. These teams who did this work are amazing. And the 50 schools for this year, we've already told them we will work with them and help them do things in their applications for next year. Just for you to know.

Question: [Inaudible.]

Chancellor Aviles-Ramos: Thank you. So the recruitment piece is really important, which is why we are announcing today. Because as most educators know, the school year doesn't start in September. It starts now. This is when we start thinking about programming. Open market is starting. And we need to make sure that our schools are equipped with the resources they need to be able to start the recruitment process. 3,700 teachers is not easy to recruit. 

We have our teacher recruitment department at New York City Public Schools that will continue to work with districts and with schools on targeted support. A big part of this is also making sure that we're diversifying the pool of teachers. So that way they are working in communities that need them the most. 

But I think what's important to note is that we're announcing this today because we know that, yes, it's amazing that they're getting the funding to implement the plans that they need. But they need time to be able to do that. And administrators have to be a key part in this. Right? 

If you're adding 10, 11 teachers to a school, you need administrators who are going to support their professional learning and make sure that they are taken care of. And so this collaboration amongst the CSA, New York City Public Schools and the UFT and announcing now with the mayor's support is allowing us to really do the targeted recruitment for teachers that we need to do now.

Mayor Adams: And it's a holistic approach. You know, you all of this must fit together. Schools must be safe, must pay the right salary, must create the atmospheres where we allow a healthy environment for learning. You know, so to get those 3,700, we need to make sure that they can ride the subway safe to get to school. 

We need to make sure when they're in the school building that they are not they're going to be free from violence. We need to make sure all of those other things that we built into this. So this is just not a one method approach. We need a holistic approach to make it an exciting place to have an exciting experience for these children. How are you? 

Question: Good to see you again. I feel like I've known this story so many times throughout the years. Coming to the, you know, containers where the kids were placed, you know, due to the overpopulation. People have such an impact on kids who are learning English as a second language. And eventually you'll see it in their grades in a positive way. I'm wondering on the criteria that was used to choose the schools. Was that part of the criteria when choosing the schools and the districts?

Chancellor Aviles-Ramos: Thank you for that important question. And I just want you to know that this administration, we honor multilingualism and support for our linguistically diverse students. And so absolutely, when thinking about the number of teachers, we're also factoring in the services that those students are going to need. 

So if you need more special education teachers, if you need more E&L teachers or more bilingual teachers, all of that is factored into this. And so as we as we roll this out and we make sure that we are lowering class sizes. I want to echo what President Mulgrew said. We are not sacrificing programs. We are not sacrificing support for any any student, but particularly our most marginalized. We're going to follow up with you after.

Mayor Adams: Before we depart, I want to just take a real minute, just have a moment of silence for the Dominican Republic. It was a terrible, terrible accident that happened there. You know, when communicating with authorities there, many bodies are still missing. And it's just, you know, we must reflect on. We have one of the largest Dominican populations that's here in the City of New York. And so our hearts go out to the family members. And if we could just say a special prayer for them, I'm sure the people of the Dominican Republic would appreciate it. Thanks. Thanks, everyone.