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News 12's Amanda Bossard sat down with Keith Howard,&nbsp;the New York City Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD) Commissioner, to discuss the opening of the youth summer employment program.

News 12's Amanda Bossard sat down with Kevin Howard, Commissioner of Counseling in Schools, to discuss the opening of the youth summer employment program.

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State of Our Schools: New York City Department of Youth and Community Development Commissioner Keith Howard

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We start this week on a somber note, another act of incomprehensible violence this time in Nashville, Tennessee, a mass shooting at an elementary school Monday morning that claimed the lives of 39 year old students alongside three staff members. Now here at home, impassioned pleas from a school community here in our city to stop the shootings after two of their classmates and a teacher got caught in crossfire. Last thanks for being with us here tonight on state of our schools, I'm Amanda Bossard and we begin here in the boroughs where students are saying enough with the senseless gun violence in their communities. They came together with staff at Williamsburg Charter School today flooding the streets after dismissal just over a month after three people were shot right outside of that school news. Marylyn Buckley was there this afternoon for more on their message. I got school dismissal looked and sounded differently today as students and staff rallied for change as they left Williamsburg Charter, they marched to Gilbert Ramirez Park down the street and gathered together as they took turns sharing stories about the day their whole lives changed as shots rang out just outside of the doors leading to their school back in February, police say a 17 year old, a 15 year old and a 37 year old were all in the hospital with gunshot wounds. Some who witnessed the shooting spoke up today. It's still in the back of my mind. I'm thinking about what if it could happen again and how the school and how I'm going to react when, if that was to happen again because I still think about it to this day. Enough is enough. We are tired and it is time for a real change. The principal here at Williamsburg Charter School emphasized this isn't just happening here. Gun violence is happening across the nation which is why he is calling on legislators to take action by strengthening gun control laws in Williamsburg, Mary Lynn Buckley News 12. That call for action coming just days after yet another deadly school shooting, three Children, three staff members shot and killed in Nashville on Monday. The shooter identified as 28 year old Audrey Hale gunned down the front door of that private Christian school before entering and opening fire during a rampage. Guns were the leading cause of death for Children and adolescents for the second year in a row. According to new data just released from the CDC as the sensitive topic hits close to home for many families. News poll's Phil Tate spoke with a counselor about how to have these tough talks with your kids. I'm feeling concerned. Um I'm feeling, um you know, really sort of in my thoughts, you know about what, what's happening, what can be done? Where are we, what's next questions loom tonight for Kevin De Hill FLL while this follows the Nashville school shooting Monday claiming the lives of three Children and three school staff members sending shock waves throughout our country. The healing process requires us to communicate and express what we're feeling. As many parents may tussle to have tough conversations. The Executive Director of Counseling in schools says you can't pour from an empty cup. We need to sort of, you know, take stock ourselves as adults as parents to think about. What do we need to sort of, you know, sort of work with this emotionally. What kind of supports do we need to better serve Children? Use these companies conversation starters to spark answers. When you start with the question, you know, what are you thinking about what's happening today? That gives you the clue of where that child is and what the next thing you need to do is tailoring conversations to those responses will allow parents to bridge the gap for where their child may be. As adolescents and teens look for guidance. You have to just connect. Children need to feel that they're not alone and be able to share what they're feeling and that their feelings are valid. As young people may hear how tragedies impact schools across our country from the playground to social media. It is important to guard their minds of what they see. Imagery is not helpful does not serve a purpose of, of value to Children. While many parents tonight hope history will not repeat itself to be able to heal that we need to be able to express and feel validated in what it is that we're feeling. That's really, it's just step one. Communication is a powerful start to a brighter future. Phil Tate M 12. A lot of helpful advice bill. Thank you. We switch gears now as the spree of burglaries at schools across the Bronx continues with the latest target getting broken into twice in just over a week. Police continue their search for the people they say are responsible tonight and while it's unclear if both incidents at Riverdale Kingsbridge Academy are related, police say the common theme includes stealing a math room tool calculators since February. Police say there have been 11 burglaries at seven different schools in the Bronx. While all of the break ins happened after school hours, we are told that more than $50,000 worth of damage and property has been lost. It leads me to think that maybe they're there because some kids don't have access to the kind of money that's required and that is a just an infuriating um tragedy. Police say the suspects at the center of these crimes are believed to be between 15 and 18 years old. Of course, anyone with any information is urged to reach out to crime stoppers. Meanwhile, some education advocates are taking a stance against the co location of schools. They argue that having charter and public schools share a building creates unfair challenges for public schools. They gathered last week at CS 55 in the Claremont section of the Bronx. This school shares a building with Success Academy. A charter school. CS 55 Principal Luis Torres says 23 $3 million has been invested into school projects that are shared by both schools. However, those in attendance at this meeting last week, say the millions that success academy receives goes to just Success Academy with Governor Kay Hoke's proposal to lift the cap on charter schools here in New York City. These advocates fear that resources could be diverted away from public schools. I'm just gonna say that I'm here for all Children and that's the stance I I stand by, I'm here for all Children. I don't view schools based on titles or, or, or that's my stance with it. That's what I believe in the Department of Education sent us this statement. Whenever a charter school is co located with a public school, we provide matching funding for facilities upgrades. PS 55 has received over $2.6 million in matching funds which are being used to provide significant to the school's auditorium and other improvements in the building. In addition to over $100,000 recently spent on upgrading field facilities. School leadership has additional asks of the facility's team which would require additional funding beyond the matching funds. Local unions in Brooklyn, I say Sunni Downstate Health Sciences University is in desperate need of financial help. They gathered Friday to urge the governor to include $133 million in funding for Sunni. In this year's state budget staff says it's needed because the hospital at this college is facing a multi million dollar deficit in part because it became a COVID only facility for nine months. During the height of the pandemic, we need hospitals here in the neighborhood where are some people that don't have access to cars and stuff? They can come right here, they can walk to the hospital, they can take the bus to the hospital and the governor's office responded to the rally with the same statement they've given for all budget related questions that Governor Kay Hoke's executive budget makes transformative investments to make New York more affordable, more livable and safer. And she looks forward to working with the legislature on a final budget that meets the needs of all New Yorkers. The deadline for that this week. Well, turning to health news teams considered low risk might no longer need to get a COVID shot. That's according to the World World Health Organization after it revised its global COVID-19 vaccination recommendations. The new rules reflect the Aron stage of the pandemic and immunity levels due to vaccine and infection rates. The guidance considers healthy kids ages 6 to 17, low risk. It also prioritizes those at greatest risk of death or severe illness like seniors and front line health workers. The group says the guidance could change as the pandemic evolves. Stay with us here on state of our schools coming up summer right around the corner is your kid looking for a job. The summer Youth employment program is hiring but time to apply. It's running out our conversation with the commissioner leading the initiative up next news. 12 in celebrating women's history month. Our month long tribute to the women that have had an impact in business politics, entertainment sports and more will highlight the achievements of women from around the tri state area and the world. So join us in celebrating the contributions of women to our history and culture all this month on news 12. Welcome back to state of our schools and our guest tonight is the commissioner of the city's Department of Youth and Community Development. Keith Howard is with us now, commissioner, grateful to have you here on state of our schools. Perfect timing as well because I know one of the big initiatives your office spearheads is the Summer Youth Employment Program applications. They're being accepted right now. The deadline it's coming up Friday, I believe Friday is the deadline. Uh Yes, you know, we're just eager to just get the program running. Can you walk us through some of the opportunities available through the program who can get involved in how that process, the application process works. So I just want to take this time out to say this is our 60th anniversary year and that the program has been in existence, you know, so we're, we're, we, we would love to hear stories, you know, of young people and uh uh older people as well, just their participation and their um you know, in the program. Um I actually was an S Y E P participant, you know, born and raised in the Bronx. And uh my first experience was at River Park Towers in the daycare center. Uh So uh Amanda, you know, love to hear about your experience and would love to have, you know, uh people share their experience with us as well. What a lovely introduction to education in that role, right? And can you talk to me a little bit about some of those opportunities that you have on the table for our kids this summer? What can they get involved in? So, again, the level of investment from the mayor, Mayor Eric Adams, 100,000 young people paid opportunities from anywhere from culinary to our programs uh to working with Microsoft and, and some some 4500 companies. Wow. So a very varied list of opportunities on the table for our kids. You talked about those stories, Commissioner. What are some of the impacts that you've heard from former Summer Youth Employment program participation, uh participate, uh participants rather about how they've gotten involved and the impact it had in the years since they participated. That's, that's a good question. You know, it's very enriching, right. Uh First of all, young people, like, you know, I i it's starting their, some of them, their first opportunity to work, you know, getting, getting a paycheck is always good, you know, having that opportunity to spend and, and save money is good as well. You know, we do offer financial literacy. That was one of the things that they may have made sure that the program had included with financial literacy workshops for all our young people that are in the summer Youth employment program. We talk about that here in the newsroom all the time, about how crucial and important it is to incorporate financial literacy into the education of today. And here it is at play. So we love to hear that talk to me. We're in the final days of getting those applications in. How many have you seen so far for those who haven't done it yet? How do they get it done? So to date, uh we have 100 and 28,000 applications, you know, so the interest is there, the excitement is there. But I'm just urging young people, especially young people that are part of us, our special initiative that are living in *** or just as involved or homelessness or in foster care. Those uh those young people do not have to be part of our lottery system. They, they go directly into having an offer for employment. So I just urge the young people and their parents, you know, go to our website, fill out the application and be part of this amazing experience for the summer and commissioner to get those stories and applications to you and your team head on over to the department's website. Again, the deadline this Friday March 31st. So everyone get those applications going and in if you haven't already commissioner, thank you so much for joining us and for the time and the insight. Hope to talk again soon. Thank you. Likewise, we do continue now to follow the fallout from last week's announcement that ST Francis Brooklyn's division one college athletic program will end with the current school year news. Dan met with former terrier student athletes on Monday to get a check of how they received that news. It was late fall of 2017, Larry Moreno, then the star of Brooklyn law and tech high school city championship winning high school basketball team signed to stay in Brooklyn, moving to Brooklyn Heights to play at Saint Francis College. I could be around people who I love. So I was like, I'll just stay home. This is great. I honestly look at it as a perfect opportunity throughout Marino's College. Career. There were ups and downs injuries also enthusiasm. The situation that we had to deal with was pretty tough and a lot of people may not know, but we were over into the practice, we were playing at a different school. So it was tough. Now it's over the school's athletic program in its final days. Me going to Saint Francis. I always looked at everything like it happens for a reason. Moreno will graduate. This May from ST Francis Brooklyn and he looks to get into content creation. See, he's already somewhat of a viral superstar, these videos he's posted on Instagram over the past few years of him doing crazy trick shots on basketball courts all over the borough already seen by millions. And it's something that Moreno says he wants to delve deeper into in his future. Wagner Elon Sear was on the track and field team at ST Francis, graduated from the Brooklyn Heights School in 2018. Elon Seer says it was that team camaraderie that he still harkens back to currently at ST Francis literally gave me a family. It's literally who I am now. Like, I'm still wearing a sweater even like 56 years later. So when he found out last week that the athletics program would soon be no more, man. Uh It was sad, it was sad because it's like, that's the kind of things you like look back and like, I don't know, you kind of want to still be a part of that. Those memories will soon be all that's left. I'm Dan Sarafin News 12. Still being felt there, Dan, thank you. Meanwhile, the linchpin of the Kingsbridge community is a finalist for the junior Knicks coach of the year award. Shakir Seeger is known as Coach Chips to his players. He is a philanthropist, community leader and a, a U basketball coach of the rising kids are Kings rather it's a team made up of kids from the Kingsbridge community. He also hosts monthly food distributions and educational programs for kids. He does it all and he even returned home to his community to make an impact when COVID hit the junior Knicks coach of the year award will be announced the first week of April. That's next week. And Coach Chip says if he wins, he'll put that prize money right back into the community. Stay with us. We'll be right back. You can help me. State of our schools. E sports have been on the rise for quite some time now and a new league is calling Brooklyn home. The N Y P D has launched a drone soccer team for kids from local communities. If you have no idea what that is. Don't worry, you're about to find out because they decided to showcase their talents for the public with hopes of gaining support for the program news from Faith Graham joining us now from East New York where the community got a first hand look for a niche and his teammates, this is how they've spent the last few months playing soccer with drones at the community center on Pennsylvania Avenue. Jones. Soccer is kind of a game that kind of plays like quid for Harry Potter. There's two teams, one drone is the striker and that's the only drone that can score. The other drones are blockers. Johnny Hines is a sergeant with the nypd's Community Affairs division. He's also the person who got this program off the ground. We just want them to walk away with having fun and be interested in aviation and hopefully take it to the next level. The goal to combine stem education with NYPD Community Affairs, the first police department in the United States to have this program. So it's getting a different demographic of kids involved with the police. These students now armed with new skills for the future and nothing but positive things to say about their experience. For me, it is getting to get a closer connection with the NYPD. If you're considering Dr soccer, you should do it because it's really fun. And now that the NYPD has the program here in Brooklyn, they say their next goal is to extend it to every single borough and eventually have these kids compete against teams from around the country in East New York. Faith Graham News, 12 sports of the future. So cool. Thank you. An 808 $880,000 gift presented to a Bronx school yesterday to help students improve their literacy. Now, that gift provided by none other than Knicks star Julius Randall, the Knicks all star at the Earl Monroe New Renaissance basketball school to deliver that check in person. He pledged $500 for every three pointer he made in a uniform and the money it's already provided the school with eight literacy teachers who are currently on staff. This is something I'm passionate about. Uh you know, as a dad who has two boys of my own, um you know, being able to see, uh you know, I can inspire these kids or give back or help them in any kind of way is important to me. We love to see it. Randall told students at the event he'll be back at the school next year. I'm sure they're already looking forward to it. Some middle school students here in the city are getting air time on an original podcast. They helped create, it's called New York Edge formative and it's streaming online right now with more episodes already in the works. They are on Spotify, interviewing professionals working in all different fields to learn more about their life stories. And it's all made possible by an after school program called New York Edge. We spoke one on one with a student podcaster who is sharing why she got involved. I definitely learned how to have like a more flowy like conversation and I definitely learned how to listen a lot more already. Three seasons of the New York edge formative podcast are up on Spotify and online. The students are already working on season four. Can't wait. Thank you so much for joining us tonight here on state of our schools, we will be back next Wednesday with even more of the school's news impacting your communities at seven PM until then be safe and be well.

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