Metro

Bloomberg welcomes NYC kids back to school and announces new text-messaging system to keep parents informed

Mayor Michael Bloomberg welcomed students back to school Thursday and announced a new text-messaging system to help parents keep on top of their children’s education.

“We’re helping our kids succeed in giving their parents more tools and support,” Bloomberg said, “and that includes using technology to help keep parents informed even when they’re on the go.”

Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott, who has a grandson in a Queens elementary school, demonstrated how to sign up for texts about upcoming school events by texting “nycschools” to 877-877.

“Nycschools, right?” Walcott said. “And push send. I’m signed up, and as a grandparent I will get information.”

On the first day of classes for most of the city’s 1.1 million public school students, Bloomberg joined Walcott at a newly opened Bronx complex that houses a new elementary school, a middle school that will expand to 12th grade and a special-needs school.

“Our schools are heading in the right direction and this year we’re going to have the opportunity to do even better,” Bloomberg said.

Visiting a ninth-grade math class, he told students he always liked math “’cause there’s a right and a wrong answer.” He added, “Does anyone know what a slide rule is? I still have a slide rule on my desk.”

Walcott went on to visit a school in each of the city’s other four boroughs.

Bloomberg’s education agenda suffered a defeat over the summer when an arbitrator blocked his plan to close 24 low-performing schools, replace half their teachers and reopen them with new names.

Asked about the ruling Thursday, Bloomberg called it “a disgrace.”

“We are making it infinitely more difficult for those kids to get the kind of education they’re going to need to join and share in the great American dream,” he said.