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NYC Will Announce Middle School Reopening Plans Next Month
By
Jessica Gould
Published Jan 27, 2021
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NYC Mayor's Office
By
Jessica Gould
Published Jan 27, 2021
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Mayor Bill de Blasio said he plans to release reopening “guidelines” to middle school administrators in February.
“I want to see middle schools coming back as soon as possible,” he said at a press conference Wednesday, though he did not offer any clear timeline for high schools.
“We need to make more progress with vaccines,” he added. “We need to make more progress just beating back the sheer number of cases and the question of the new variants. We obviously need to expand testing capacity.”
He said the city would “work our way up” to high schools—and reiterated his expectation that all public schools will be open again by fall.
Despite the fanfare of reopening the nation’s largest school system last fall, students in 6th grade and up have been all remote for months now. Studies have shown that incidence of COVID-19 cases increases as children get older; in December, National Geographic reported, “The takeaway [from studies] is that a critical shift appears somewhere between the ages of 10 and 12. Around the time of puberty, the risk of teenagers both getting and transmitting the virus increases.”
The mayor shuttered public school buildings in November when the citywide average case positivity rate reached 3%, then reopened pre-K through fifth grade and District 75 schools in December, with mandatory weekly testing for at least 20% of the school population.
However, many of those elementary and District 75 schools continue to close for days or weeks at a time as the system engages in an ongoing whack-a-mole of positive cases. The citywide seven-day positivity rate is now around 9%.
The head of the teachers’ union said the city isn’t ready to reopen schools for older students safely.
“The city is barely managing all the aspects of the current random testing program and tracing requirements,” said Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers. “They are not prepared to handle any additional schools."
While some middle school principals said they’re eager to bring students back, they expressed concerns about safety and stability.
“I miss the kids so much, and I would love to have my middle school daughter back at school too, but I also call in a kid or staff positive case every week, and those are only the ones I know of while we’re remote,” said Arin Rusch, principal of Middle School 447 in Brooklyn. Our elementary school colleagues report the yo-yo-ing of opening and closing to be incredibly disruptive in all ways.”
The majority of families have chosen to attend school virtually, but for some students, in-person school has been a lifeline.
“My son is miserable with online school,” said Megan Cossey, parent of a 7th grader in Hamilton Heights and a member of the group Keep NYC Schools Open. “Every day he becomes more and more disengaged and depressed, and it is only a matter of time before we pull him out of the New York City public school system.”
On Wednesday, the school system also released new enrollment numbers, showing a decline of 43,000 students this year, particularly in the early grades.
Some parents continue to oppose reopening, particularly given that resources are already stretched. “The needs of our remote students, which make up the bulk of our city, have yet to be met in a meaningful way,” said Tajh Sutton, president of Community Education Council District 14 and a member of PRESS NYC, Parents for Responsible Equitable Safe Schools.
Tagged
Middle School
COVID-19
high school
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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