New York schools postponed the start of training: what is the reason

1,1 million children will not return to school until September 21. It was previously planned that classes will resume from September 10. The newspaper writes about the reasons for the postponement and why it is important to return schoolchildren to their desks as soon as possible. The New York Times.

Reasons for the postponement

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has faced many challenges in reopening city schools. The biggest obstacle in the way of the mayor was the teachers' union, which threatens to go on strike this week.

It took the mayor a while to negotiate with the unions representing teachers and principals. So New York will be the only state in America where children will sit at their desks this fall.

However, classes will resume only on September 21 - 10 days later than originally planned. 1,1 million students are enrolled in both distance and face-to-face classes.

The new schedule gives educators more time to prepare to resume classes. The mayor will also have more time to pursue one of the most ambitious and risky urban initiatives of the decade.

Bill de Blasio, commenting on this, stressed that "it is important to do everything right." “It will not always be easy, and there will be difficult moments along the way, but we are going to do it,” the mayor said of plans to open schools.

While the mayor was making a statement, the president of the United Federation of Teachers, Michael Mulgrew, sat next to him. Just a few hours earlier, he had publicly warned of the strike. With the deal, Mulgrew changed his tone significantly, stating that "New York's public school system has the most aggressive policies and safeguards of any school system in America."

But the September 1 announcement did not lessen the difficulties Bill de Blasio and the unions still face.

While the city has made progress in distributing personal protective equipment in schools, hiring nurses for each school building, and upgrading ventilation systems in classrooms, the work is far from complete. And even with the extra time, directors will have to make every effort to resolve the staffing issues necessary to organize distance and face-to-face training.

What's next?

Now that the city has accepted a number of union demands, the responsibility for fulfilling the reopening plan rests with city educators. Many principals have spent the past few weeks in school buildings preparing for the opening of schools.

The announcement follows weeks of escalating pressure from union leaders, elected officials, teachers and principals who said they would not be ready to resume work on September 10 as previously planned. The city's teachers' union, which hasn't gone on strike for nearly half a century, was willing to allow 75 of its members to leave their jobs.

Agreeing with a core union demand, Bill de Blasio said the city would need monthly randomized testing of 10% to 20% of students and staff across all city school buildings. Testing is scheduled to begin in October. Test results will be ready within 48 hours. Students and staff who refuse to take the test will not be allowed into school buildings.

Teachers will report to schools as scheduled next week and begin holding virtual meetings with children to review health and safety regulations and ensure all students have distance learning devices.

The deal was announced about a week before the school's scheduled opening. This left all the clarity of working parents who did not have time to change their schedules.

Opening schools in other states

If the mayor of New York manages to return schoolchildren to their desks, this will set him apart from the mayors of other large cities in America, who decided to start the school year exclusively remotely.

Earlier this summer, major urban school districts in Los Angeles and Chicago canceled plans to resume full-time education. They promised to reconsider their decisions when the pandemic subsides.

By some estimates, half of American children will be taught remotely for most of the fall. If New York succeeds in its plans, other cities may follow; if it fails, it can also become a pattern that should be avoided.

Night negotiations and crazy weeks of preparation

Bets on reopening schools in New York pushed the mayor and union leaders into serious talks over the weekend. At the same time, the date of the resumption of work of schools and the test protocol for student employees are left as two main unresolved issues.

The mayor's office continued to discuss issues related to the opening of schools from 4:30 to 7:00 on September 1. At about 8 am Bill de Blasio called the union leaders and asked them to come to the mayor's office for the closing meeting.

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Night negotiations at City Hall followed frantic weeks of preparations for the opening of schools. And this is understandable: Opening schools is critical to New York's economic recovery.

New York City Schools' Chancellor Richard Carranza said the administration was under tremendous pressure. “There are many things that keep me awake at night,” he wrote. The night before at 18:00 pm, Carranza began a virtual meeting with his parents, which ended closer to 4:XNUMX am.

The mayor expressed concern about education for low-income black and Hispanic schoolchildren. He stated that they especially need face-to-face training. This claim has found widespread support among educational experts.

New York is home to a huge number of schoolchildren who do not have access to distance learning: about 750 thousand schoolchildren in New York are poor, about 200 thousand have disabilities and 114 thousand are homeless.

But the mayor's insistence on reopening schools from September 10 has sparked mistrust among many teachers and school principals. Many said that the mayor did not understand the depth of the problems they face on the ground.

Officials have pledged to distribute four million face masks, 3,5 million bottles of hand sanitizer and 80 containers of sanitizing wipes.

But getting personal protective equipment, soap and hand sanitizer into city school buildings is just the first step.

Teachers expressed concern about ventilation in aging school buildings and said they did not understand how often they or their students should be tested.

Aside from safety concerns, educators said they did not know how many children would actually be at school. They also do not know how many staff will be required to teach in schools and online.

How will be trained

According to the mayor's plan, most children will go to school one to three days a week and attend online classes on other days.

They will return to classes that have been reformed since their abrupt departure in March. Desks will be spaced two meters apart, so most classrooms will have only nine or ten children at a time - about a third of the normal capacity.

Pupils, teachers and other staff will be required to wear masks throughout the day, except for a short lunch break in class.

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School buildings will have markings to indicate where students should line up to maintain a distance in hallways and restrooms. Windows will be open even on cold and rainy days to provide more fresh air.

Research into reopening schools in areas with similarly low transmission rates strongly bolsters the decision to reopen schools. Studies in Europe have shown that schools can successfully open as long as the virus is present in their region.

Second wave: what is the forecast?

At the moment, New York refutes forecasts of a second wave of the pandemic. In recent days, the percentage of positive virus test results has been approximately 0,6%, which is much lower than the national average.

Bill de Blasio said schools will not reopen or close immediately if the city's average positive score reaches 3%.

Public health experts generally agree that the city's schools can reopen, subject to proper testing and strict security measures.

Reopening schools could also help stabilize the economy. According to a recent survey by the Partnership for New York City business group, nearly 70% of employers cited office opening as one of the three most important determinants of their employees returning to the office.

Nonetheless, a broad coalition of elected officials and parent groups called on the mayor to delay school start for at least a week, joining teachers and principals and more than two dozen city councilors. Council Speaker Corey Johnson and Jumaane Williams, the city's public defender, have also sought an adjournment.

State Governor Andrew Cuomo also questioned the mayor's decision. He stated that he was not sure if he would send his daughters to school if they were of school age. Cuomo noted that all schools in the state could reopen, but was clearly not involved in efforts to reopen schools in New York.

Cuomo said on August 31 that many schools are expecting the same as many colleges that have closed due to the virus outbreak. Recall that recently outbreak of coronavirus was recorded at New York College SUNY Oneonta after the party. Classes there were suspended for at least two weeks.

But there are those who have expressed support for the mayor of New York. Wilbur C. Rich, a Wellesley college professor who has written two books on mayoral politics, said, "I hope he can handle it, but I really think it will be very difficult."

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According to a recent poll by the Education Trust research group, white parents are more likely to send their children to class than colored ones. About 34% of urban parents have already decided to leave their children homeschooled full-time, and this number is likely to increase over the next few weeks.

However, more than 600 families are tentatively planning to send their children back to school later this month.

“It is very important that all major parties come to the negotiating table and come up with an agreement that will help New York's children and families,” said Rebecca Kirszner Katz, a mother of two and a former mayor's advisor who has often criticized the mayor in this regard. year. “De Blasio turned into a punching bag for several months. But this is perhaps one of his best moments, and now we just have to hope it works, ”she said.