Unlike many of his predecessors, Mayor Bill de Blasio seemed to relish the chance to play with play-doh and get schooled by a student on Wednesday.
It was, after all, a chance to tout his administration's signature achievement: free full-day pre-k for all eligible New York City children. There are currently 65,504 children registered, more than three times the 20,000 who were enrolled in pre-k before the expansion.
“Today represents the fulfillment of a promise we made to the people of this city: that every child, regardless of their family’s means or the zip code they call home, will have access to a life-changing early education,” he said on the first day of school for the city's 1.1 million public school students.
His first stop on a five-borough tour was at the Harbor View School P.S. 59 in Staten Island. It was followed by Get Set Kindergarten in Flatbush, Brooklyn where he was tapped on the nose by one student, and another reminded him to say please when he asked for (pretend) maple syrup to pour over a play-doh airplane pancake.
"Airplane pancakes — a lot of innovation here," the mayor said. "A lot of things happening at this table."
At a YMCA pre-k program in Long Island City, Queens, de Blasio, with the help of teachers who translated into Bengali and Spanish, told a group of parents they were doing well by their children.
“It is a very exciting day for your children and a day that I think is going to change their lives for the better,” he said, encouraging them to spread the word to anyone who might not be aware that there are still available pre-k seats for this school year.
One of the few exceptions to the pre-k focus was a visit to the John F. Kennedy campus, which suffered extensive damage in an August gas explosion during the renovation of a science lab. De Blasio saw blue tarp covering the blown-out windows of the sixth floor space. Deputy Chancellor Elizabeth Rose said the School Construction Authority worked hard to get the affected rooms stabilized, so the rest of the building could open, and the mayor showered her with praise: "Really amazing. Well done."
The JFK campus houses seven schools. Principal Kara Sperling of Bronx Engineering and Technology Academy said the school leaders worked well together after the explosion.
"We ended up sharing rooms and my teachers, I have to give them a lot of credit, my teachers moved from room to room to room to room all day," she said. "This is the best case scenario you could ask for in such a really horrible circumstance."
De Blasio's tour ended at Manhattan's P.S. 9 where he was mobbed by parents. They weren't seeking answers to tough questions. Rather, most of them wanted selfies with the mayor.
