Mayor Bill de Blasio with Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza. City Hall. Credit: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office.
Sept. 1, 2020 By Allie Griffin
New York City schools will reopen more than 10 days later than originally planned, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced today.
Public school buildings were set to reopen next week on Thursday, Sept. 10, but de Blasio pushed back the reopening date to Monday, Sept. 21 in a last-minute change to avert a teachers’ strike.
The unions representing teachers and principals said they needed more time to prepare for the unprecedented school year amid COVID-19 regulations and a new teaching model. The United Federation of Teachers (UFT) had threatened to strike if the city didn’t meet their requirements — among them, mandatory COVID-19 testing.
The union representing school principals, the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators (CSA), penned a letter to de Blasio last month demanding that he delay the reopening of schools, noting that more time is needed to properly implement a safety plan.
De Blasio was joined by the union leaders this morning to announce that the unions and city have reached an agreement.
“A lot was on the line here to work through, but I’m pleased to report that we’ve come to an agreement to move forward, to address real concerns that have been raised about how to do things the right way,” he said at the press briefing.
Schools will use the extra time to prepare for the new year.
“The school instructional days were slated to begin Sept. 10, we’re going to hold that for a few days,” de Blasio said. “We’re going to allow preparation days for our educators and staff to get ready under these unprecedented circumstances.”
Classrooms will open their doors on the 21st for blended learning, in which most students will attend classes in person either two or three days a week and will spend the remainder of school days learning online.
“What would have happened on Sept. 10 will now happen on Sept. 21,” de Blasio said.
All students will be required to do remote learning from Wednesday, Sept. 16 through Friday, Sept. 18 before classes switch to the blending learning model.
De Blasio also promised to have monthly COVID-19 testing at schools, in which a random sample of 10 to 20 percent of students and staff members would be tested for the virus.
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3 Comments
we need to know the school we are taking people to cause there are a different can of schools in the world but some schools are better then some in some case that why you really need to know the school you are taking your child to very good before you taking any of your relative cause school really matter it can really cause bad if you take so that why it good to know the school we are going to or taking people to thanks.
The mayor simply caved to the teachers union!
That famous Common Sense guy in the street realized that a heck of a lot of students were not going to show up (in person or on line) and a heck of a lot of teachers were simply not going to show up (due to their own fears and union leadership pressure)….simple solution..let the teachers go on strike (in paid vacation?) and save a bunch of million dollar bundles.
Did you notice that no elected politician has taken even a tiny voluntary , example giving pay cut to help ease the City’s pain. Trump donates his salary to charity. Great example.
Oh good, two more weeks paid vacation for teachers who do nothing but fail at their jobs. What a joke. If they won’t work, don’t pay them.