Emerging Leaders Program opens first brick and mortar location in Mott Haven

2 Bronx students fight for accessibility in movie theaters across the state

Cardinal Hayes HS principal to retire after 53 years

Mott Haven principal builds student leaders amid hardships in their home life

Exclusive: Fourth grade teacher allegedly abusing one of her students

News 12 visits Mother Hale Academy for Bronx Week

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News 12 Staff

93uniondalerichinterview_2024-09-03-07-31-32

Time now to go check your forecast on this Tuesday. We're in Uniondale this morning showing off what makes that community so special. And our Rich Hoffman is a California Avenue School. It's the first day of school there and of course, they're arriving to the weatherman telling them what it's like outside. Hey, Rich. Yeah, I don't know who's more excited myself or the students or the principal and the superintendent are showing up and the teachers are already here as well. So we're excited. We're in Uniondale with the California Elementary School here this morning. It's the first day of school and who else better to start our morning with Principal Bruno to talk about some of the things that over the summer, we had some great things going on and in the future, you have a lot of things coming up as well, but we're super excited. The weather is beautiful outside. It's crisp. It's cool. We're ready to receive our students. Uh Summer was great. We did a lot of great work. We had a summer passport program here at school, about 400 students. Uh I have to thank our facilities, our custodial staff for getting the building ready. Um So we're ready to receive students and we're excited about today. What about some of the other programs like the Talk about Apple? Yeah, we're an Apple Distinguished School. This is the second year. We, second time we've received the honor. Um It's a four year program. We're a 1 to 1 district. Uh We do a lot of great work with the device. Uh um And that's a district initiative that we're excited about. And what about some, I, I was reading about some of the explore programs where they're gonna be programming, working with little robotics a little bit. Yeah, we're gonna do a coding program. Uh which is great. Uh It's about the digital citizenship students learn a lot about coding. That's a new program and it really lends itself to our apple work as well. So, what are some of the things that kids can expect on their first day? Oh, boy, they're gonna be excited. Uh We get them in um they're gonna meet their teachers, get involved in the routines. Um And we're really looking for a great fun day for them. Do you think you're more excited or the kids are? Well, listen rich. This is my 11th year here and I'm excited. I'm excited on every first day and uh we're ready to go. Sounds great. We'll talk more with you this morning. Teachers there on the side. Custodial gr uh staff. Great. They did a great job. The building looks great from the outside inside. I was inside before. Everything looks great.

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93superintendinterview_2024-09-03-08-20-07

Yeah, real excited about the first day of school at the California Avenue School in the Uniondale School district. We spoke to the principal earlier this morning. Now we're gonna talk more about the district wide with the superintendent, Doctor Akil. And first day of school excited. There's been so many new programs, so many things that are going on in the district. Tell me a little bit about those. So we're really excited to welcome everyone back for the first day of school. And um some of the programs we're excited about is the expansion of our advanced placement program. So in Uniondale, we offer 23 A P courses and our goal is to make sure that every young person takes at least one before they graduate from high school. So we're excited about that. Additionally, we have expanded our dual language program in our elementary schools. So we want all of our elementary students to become bilingual. And so we're offering dual language for our youngest learners and we have a new coding course. So we're really leaning into stem and jobs of the 21st century. So we're offering a new digital explorers course where our students gonna learn um a little bit of keyboarding, coding and vex robotics. So that is really excited. And lastly, we are a district that is really committed to equity and being very inclusive. And so we are expanding our autism program. So we're so excited, we have the most dynamic teachers and teachers assistants in that program. And so we are so excited to welcome our young autistic learners back into the district. That is great, so many different things going on. What is some of the advice for new parents, new students coming in for the first week? So one, I would say nutrition is so important, get a good breakfast and if you don't eat at home, we have a wonderful school breakfast program and lunch program right here. So make sure your child eats a great healthy nutritious breakfast and get some sleep. Ok, starting those routines coming back after the summer break can be hard because, you know, we might have been up late at night playing fortnight, but it's time to go to bed um at a decent hour, get a full night's rest, wake up, get those clothes ready the night before. So you can start the school day ready. No stress, meet new friends. Welcome your teachers and have a great, great school year. I think they're gonna have a great school year here as well. Thank you for joining me. I know you're gonna be going throughout the buildings throughout the school district, you have an exciting school year coming up.

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93richdrfacilitiesinterview_2024-09-03-08-22-51

Yeah, everyone out here talking about how chilly it is out here for this morning, temperatures have started out in the fifties and it's back to school here. We're in Uniondale, like you said at the California Avenue School and this is great. We spoke to the principal, the superintendent. Now, the director of facilities, uh we're looking at Martin Dante and you know, it starts with you in a way where getting the schools ready. You had a big over the summer, tell me all the things that you're getting done. Uh We have, uh we had a lot of construction work. Um You know, a lot of, uh, you know, in-house work. I have a great staff right here, uh worked tirelessly over the summer to get the buildings ready. Uh We opened up four new editions this summer. So exciting things in Uniondale. Uh One of our school here in California, a very old school. Uh 1928 was when it was original, they built. So a lot of restoration work we did this summer um making it ready for the students to come back. So excited and part of it is your crew over here these guys combined, almost 60 years plus 60 years plus experience. How many years? 38 did you say? 38 years and six months? And what do you have? 26 years? Six. Wow, this is great. This is part of your crew that makes unel great as well. What do we have maybe coming up in the future? Uh Right now we have a lot of construction work at the high school. So we're wrapping out our $160 million bond uh new, new gym, um you know, new additions classrooms, so very, very exciting things happening. And I love when you guys working in the classrooms, getting that technology in there as well, any uh other technology things that we can look forward to. Uh Yeah, every, every uh area that we build is outfitted with, with Wi Fi um you know, um trying to get the updated uh technology for all our kids uh to succeed, for sure. That's fantastic. It starts with you guys this way the teachers and everybody else can do their job and it works as a team here in the nadal. That is awesome. What amazing experience here.

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News 12’s Rich Hoffman spoke to Principal Bryan Bruno to learn more about the year ahead.

First day begins at California Avenue School in Uniondale

News 12’s Rich Hoffman spoke to Principal Bryan Bruno to learn more about the year ahead.

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