NEW YORK -- Pupils at a brand new school in Lower Manhattan were greeted on their first day back to school today by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott -- and Frank Gehry. The famous architect was on hand at the brick Spruce Street School because it occupies the bottom floors of a glass- and titanium-skinned residential tower that...
Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott is greeting students returning for a new school year today.The famous architect was on hand at the brick Spruce Street School because it occupies the bottom floors of a glass- and titanium-skinned residential tower that he designed. Gehry, Bloomberg, Walcott and other elected officials greeted arriving parents and children. Walcott also planned to make a stop at Susan E. Wagner High School in Sea View today.
When Rudy Matheson, a first-grader, heard that Gehry was in the building, he said, "I want to see Frank Gehry."
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The 293 students in pre-K through second grade currently enrolled in the school were among the 1.1 million pupils returning to the city's classrooms today.
"It's an exciting day. My job is to maintain that excitement through the school year," Walcott told reporters. Earlier, he made the rounds of students sitting in school's cafeteria waiting to go to their classrooms.
"My name is Dennis Walcott," he told one group. "You may see me popping around here now and then."
Walcott is beginning his first full year as head of the public school system. He was appointed in April after the brief and rocky tenure of former publishing executive Cathie Black.
Bloomberg and Walcott planned to visit one school in each of the five boroughs on Thursday. Their second scheduled stop was the Bronx Academy of Letters.
Asked about a New York Times poll found that most New Yorkers believe the public school system has stagnated or declined since he took control of it nine years ago, the mayor said, "In the end polls don't really matter."