The Brooklyn Daily Eagle reports: Praising P.S. 8/The Robert Fulton School as a model of what’s going right in New York City public school education, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein officially opened the school year at this transformed elementary school in Brooklyn Heights. As reporters clustered around the tree-lined Middagh Street entrance ofthe school and spectators gawked, Mayor Bloomberg highlighted the accomplishments of Principal Seth Phillips and his staff over the last several years of education reform. “He took a school with lots of problems, and with the same teachers and the same cohort, turned it into the best performing school … for all groups. He’s made an enormous difference, along with the staff and custodians. It shows we’re on the right track. It’s a great day.”
New York Times: On his first day of kindergarten this morning, Zeke Merlis stood on the steps of Public School 8 in Brooklyn Heights trying to make sense of a tangled crowd of television camera crews. He wondered aloud if they were headed for his class. Assured that the cameras would be there only as long as the mayor, Zeke had another question. “Daddy,” he asked, “What’s the mayor?”
Seconds later, Zeke, just days shy of his fifth birthday, was hoisted up by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, his first day of school instantly immortalized. The mayor acknowledged that a more picture-perfect moment could hardly have been scripted. “Straight from central casting,” he declared, balancing Zeke on his hip.
