Mayor Bill de Blasio on Thursday once again delayed the start of most in-person classes in the New York City public schools, acknowledging that the system had still not fully surmounted the many obstacles that it faced in bringing children back during the pandemic.
The abrupt announcement was a blow to the mayor’s effort to make New York one of the few major cities in the nation to hold in-person classes. And it threatened to deepen concerns and confusion over whether the mayor and his administration had mishandled the reopening by announcing deadlines and then pushing them back.
Instead of a triumphant return to schools for all students who wanted in-person learning beginning on Monday, the city will phase students back into classrooms on a rolling basis, starting with the youngest children, who will report to schools next week. Students in pre-K classes and students with advanced special needs will return on Monday.
On Sept. 29, elementary schools will open, and middle and high schools will open on Oct. 1.
All other students will begin the school year remotely on Monday, meaning New York now joins a long list of other big cities that will begin the school year online for most students.
The mayor said at a news conference on Thursday morning that he decided to delay the start of the school year and opt instead for a phased-in reopening after having an hourslong conversation on Wednesday with the leaders of the unions representing the city’s principals and teachers.
Those union leaders have been explicitly warning for weeks that schools were not ready to reopen for myriad reasons, from poor ventilation in some aging buildings to a severe staffing crunch that the principals’ union estimated could leave the city needing as many as 10,000 educators. Some principals have said in recent days that they lacked dozens of teachers for their schools.
Mr. de Blasio said that the teacher shortage was his main reason for again delaying in-person classes.
More than 1 million parents in New York City have been desperate for clarity on school reopening since June.
Over 40 percent of parents have already opted out of in-person classes, and that number is likely to grow, reflecting families’ deep frustration about the city’s reopening effort and skepticism about schools’ readiness.
The city’s high-stakes reopening effort has been plagued by intense political opposition and serious logistical hurdles throughout the summer. Scores of educators have raised pressing safety concerns about ventilation and personal protective equipment, and have said for weeks they were not ready to reopen. Hundreds of city principals, many of whom have spent their careers avoiding political fights, for weeks publicly pleaded with the city to delay the start of in-person classes.
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And teachers said the city’s early attempt to trace the relatively small number of teachers who tested positive for the virus — just about 60 people out of 17,000 — was botched, and that educators working in buildings with positive cases were not contacted by disease detectives for hours or days.
Regular coronavirus testing of students and staff was only scheduled to begin in October.
Asked what his message was to city parents — the vast majority of whom are low-income and Black or Latino — who are just learning about the delay, Mr. de Blasio responded, “I feel for any parent that has to make new arrangements,” he said, adding, “I know that people will do what they have to do.”
He also said that he believed city parents, particularly working parents who live in the city’s boroughs outside of Manhattan, are “a lot more pragmatic than you might imagine,” and “understand the realities of life.”
Mark Cannizzaro, president of the city’s principals’ union, summed up what parents, educators and 1.1 million students are likely feeling on Thursday morning, when he said, “We would rather not be here today, having this announcement.”
There is no guarantee that schools will physically reopen as planned. If the city’s average test positivity reaches 3 percent, schools will automatically shut down or will not reopen. The average positivity rate has hovered around 1 percent in the city for the last few weeks.
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N.Y.C. Will Again Delay Start of In-Person Classes for Most Students - The New York Times
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