David C. Banks, Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education was on the hot seat this Wednesday evening as he was addressing concerns from those affiliated with school district 8 in the Bronx.

The school district is well below average in both reading and math proficiency compared to the statewide average. It also has a high minority enrollment of 94 percent, which the majority is Hispanic.

He was introduced by Farah Despeignes, President of Committee Education Council of the school district 8. He followed up by answering questions of all sorts from those affiliated with the district. One main concern was how New York City (NYC) schools handled the pandemic and how it affected staff, students, and parents.

Though Banks did admit that there were faults to how the Department of Education (DOE) dealt with pandemic he said, “There were a lot of problems to be told before the pandemic. The pandemic just exposed and exacerbated a lot of issues and challenges that we already knew existed.”

He also addressed the concern of helping minority children to get a more efficient education. Despite the budget of $38 billion for NYC schools, 65 percent of minorities do not reach proficient reading levels.

“It’s because we’re not teaching our kids how to read from a very fundamental approach…and it has failed miserably for most kids, and that particularly for children of color,” Banks said.

Another issue that has come up was school safety. There were over 5,000 school safety officers and now they’re down to roughly 3,400. Banks does not want to just add more officers in the school because he feels that is not truly going to make the schools safer.

“We have to be the ones that make our school safer,” Banks continued “I’m going to be looking to engage a host of organizations, people from the community who know what’s really going on in the streets.”

He feels that more students are bringing guns to school not to fight one another, but for their journey to and from school.

Banks also touched on wanting to have students ready for life after graduation. He wants them to be able to know how to get a bank account and become more engaged with the business community. He admits that they must do better on this front.

It has only been a little over a month into his new Chancellor role, but he is looking forward to the challenges that lie ahead. As a fellow New Yorker he is adamant to bringing the nations largest school system to another level.

“I love the children and families of New York City and it is my job and my goal to do everything that I can to try and give the best educational experience that I can to all of our children.”

A Queens Middle School English teacher accused of numerous counts of rape of a now 14-year-old girl, was arraigned today at the Queens Courthouse and set free after his family posted $30,000 bail.

Daniel Reilly, 36, a married, sixth-grade teacher at I.S. 237 in Flushing Estates, Queens, allegedly had sexual intercourse over 10 times with his former student, beginning when she was 13, at this apartment, according to prosecutors.

Prosecutors said the girl’s sister discovered sexually explicit text messages between Reilly and the minor. This sexting apparently began in August and the sexual acts began in November, according to authorities.

Press reports say that Reilly had an alias for the girl saved into his phone, so that the girl could not be identified.

Judge Gia Morris ordered Riley not to have any contact with the girl. air jordan 4 femmes He faces up to seven years in prison if found guilty of numerous counts of second-degree rape, criminal sexual acts, endangering the welfare of a child and third-degree sexual assault.

Reilly’s Defense Attorney, Eric Franz, described his client as  “a decorated Marine sergeant. Franz has represented celebrity clients such as Ice-T and Christian Slater whose sexual assault charges were dismissed when Franz represented him, according to his website.

Reilly has been pulled from the classroom by the DOE and has been reassigned to an administrative position.

“These charges are obviously alleged, it’s not a proven fact,” said Department of Education Chancellor, Dennis Walcott. But he went on to add that this kind of relationship between student and teacher was totally unacceptable. “We have no tolerance for this in our system,” he said.

Reilly’s wife, with whom he has an 11-month-old baby, was present in court today, but sat towards the back of the room and declined to comment on her way out of court.

Reilly is due to reappear in court on May 6.