Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña tipped her cap to city graduates Friday and gave her office high marks at the close of its first full academic year.
In an interview with the Daily News, the ruler of the nation’s largest public school system said one of the biggest accomplishments of the past year was overseeing 1.1 million city students was the rollout of universal pre-Kindergarten.
“The results are there. It’s the first time they’ve ever had full-day pre-K, and the kids are going out with a lot more vocabulary,” she said.
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More than 53,000 city kids attended pre-K for the first time this year, Fariña said.
The veteran educator also touted the implementation of a new teachers’ contract, with more training and longer parent conferences and the creation of dozens of community school programs with expanded social services.
“It becomes a 24-7 job. There have been no vacations, I’ve canceled everything,” said Fariña (pictured) of her hectic new life. “Time has been a challenge. But the good thing about the job is every day you accomplish something good for kids.”
She was optimistic the changes in her $27 billion department will bring results that stand the test of time.
“We’re building the foundation,” Fariña told The News. “I think we’ve done a lot of work in just a year.”
The stakes are high. Just 29% of students in the city’s 1,800 public schools scored at grade level on recent state reading tests.
Fariña said she expects to see dividends from a new reading and writing curriculum the city unveiled in June.
She also said the city will roll out new services for kids with special needs and English language learners next year.
“I am here today because I am you and you are me,” Fariña told graduates at Manhattan Comprehensive Night and Day High School as she delivered her first commencement speech Friday.
“I started school where teachers told me I wasn’t as good as other children who were American. That was a long time ago in New York City. No one would get away with (that) today. Not on my watch,” the daughter of immigrants from Spain said.
“I feel very grateful,” 23-year-old graduate Hermes Espinosa, originally from Mexico, said Friday in the flag-draped auditorium across from Stuyvesant Square.
