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Nearly Two Weeks After Schools In COVID-19 Hotspots Closed, Uncertainty About When They'll Reopen
By
Jessica Gould
Published Oct 20, 2020
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Jessica Gould
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Jessica Gould
Published Oct 20, 2020
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Parents and principals living or working in New York City’s red and orange zones said they’re waiting in suspense over whether their schools can reopen after being forced to close two weeks ago. Governor Andrew Cuomo — who ordered schools in those zones to close — said he’d make an announcement about them on Wednesday.
“We’ve literally gotten nothing,” said Michael Perlberg, principal at M.S. 839 just south of Prospect Park.
“Parents are getting really frustrated,” said Heather Dailey, who sends her son to P.S. 219 in Flushing.
For some principals, reopening would be a return to the new normal during the pandemic, but there are worries the city and state will order school buildings to open their doors with very little time to alert parents. One Brooklyn principal, who declined to be identified because she wasn’t authorized to speak to the press, said she’s “bracing” to be told on Wednesday to reopen her school the next day. She said these last-minute directives mean “constantly reacting instead of forward thinking.”
“We’ve had to keep redesigning our logistics with every new announcement,” she said. “Just when we feel like things are settled and we can examine how exactly to adjust our curriculum and support students in these platforms, [there’s] another announcement.”
“I used to love my job,” she added. “Now I want to do something more rewarding, like scraping barnacles off of container ships.”
The confusion stems from mixed messages from Gov. Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio two weeks ago about which schools would close in response to higher COVID-19 positivity rates in parts of Brooklyn and Queens. Now, they say, the problem is no information at all.
That’s in part because de Blasio said he would defer to the governor on school reopening in order to avoid the dueling maps debacle. At his news conference on Tuesday, de Blasio said he’s “hopeful” some schools in central Queens would be cleared to reopen.
But the governor dismissed even that much of a hint. “The mayor of New York City has opinions [of what] we should do with the zones,” Cuomo said on a press call on Tuesday. “Various mayors have opinions... We’re consulting with them.”
The city has also stopped releasing positivity rates for the hotspot neighborhoods ever since the state activated the zones, making it impossible for principals to predict when schools might reopen. De Blasio said he hopes that ZIP code data will become the “coin of the realm” again once Cuomo dissolves the zone map strategy.
Dailey said she disagreed with the decision to close her son’s school in the orange zone in Flushing in the first place, noting there haven’t been any outbreaks there or the broader public school system so far. “It makes no sense,” she said.
According to new numbers released by the city Department of Education this week, 16,298 students and staff have been tested in the city’s public schools since October 9th, and only 28 were positive.
Dailey said she’s contacted the ACLU about a breach of her son’s civil rights under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Her eight-year-old son has autism. She said he’s been more distracted since he’s been home, meltdowns are more frequent, and his sensory-seeking behavior has intensified. Dailey blames the state.
“They’re wilfully denying the right to education,” she said.
Rocky Bonanno, a parent of a fourth grader at P.S. 196 in the red zone in Forest Hills, said the two-week school closure was punitive and misplaced.
Vaidel Poon’s son is in kindergarten at P.S. 315 in Midwood; she teaches in the Bronx. She said she hasn’t heard when the closure might end, so she decided to switch from in-person teaching to remote so she could help her son with school. “We’re going on two weeks,” she said. “They haven’t said anything.”
New York City Councilmember Brad Lander, who represents orange zones in Windsor Terrace and Kensington as well as a small slice of the red zone in Borough Park, said closing schools in areas with the highest infection rate was reasonable but the others seemed arbitrary.
Lander said he hoped the mayor and governor would use this time to iron out a plan for future clusters.
“You have some decisions to make: how much to base things on school-based testing as you ramp up the testing, and how much you base it on cases arising in the area around the schools,” he said. “Everyone knew this wouldn’t be a one time event. But as far as we can tell we’re no closer to a clear policy. And that’s the responsibility of government.”
Tagged
COVID-19
Governor Andrew Cuomo
mayor bill de blasio
schools reopening
Jessica Gould
Jessica is the education reporter for WNYC and Gothamist. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Jessica reported on the shutdown and reopening of the nation’s largest school system, highlighting the unprecedented impacts on learning, health and mental health for students, staff and families. Got a tip? Email [email protected]
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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