Cuomo: Schools to stay closed

Capital Region districts plan to continue distance learning, meal programs

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on Friday announced that schools, colleges and universities will remain closed through the end of the academic calendar year.

He said the challenge of making schools “safe” for students, teachers and employees would have been too difficult to have them reopen this year.

School districts and colleges have scrambled to set up distance-learning programs and “that actually has worked out well, not perfectly,” Cuomo said. “We had to do it in a rush ... but it did work. It basically functioned well and teachers did a phenomenal job stepping up to do this.”

In an earlier executive order, the governor had waived a requirement that

schools have at least 180 days of in-school learning. New York has 700 public school districts with 4,800 schools and 2.59 million students. There are also 1,800 private schools with 400,000 students.

Cuomo also has said that regional reopenings of the state would require schools, businesses and transportation to be restarted in a coordinated basis, because otherwise people who work while their children are in school may not have childcare alternatives. In his remarks Friday, the governor implied that issue may be overcome if the academic school year is scheduled to end in “a few weeks.”

But many schools operate through the third week of June.

“It’s one thing to say you can figure out how to socially distance in construction ... to say we’re going to figure out that plan and put it in place in the next few weeks is virtually impossible,” he said, noting that classroom sizes would need to be reduced and serving children lunches in cafeterias, while adhering to social distancing guidelines, would be impossible to organize in a short time frame.

It’s unclear whether Cuomo’s administration consulted with school district leaders on his decision.

“You’re at the end of the school year anyway here in a few weeks,” Cuomo said. “The big question is going to be (in) September, are you ready to reopen the schools in September ... and if you don’t then you can argue you’re not going to be ready for a full business reopening.”

Late Friday afternoon, Cuomo’s office also announced that school elections — which normally take place in mid-may — will now be held by mail-in ballot June 6. Village elections were also rescheduled for Sept. 15 statewide.

There has not been a decision yet on if summer school programs can open.

“We must protect our children ... our educators,” Cuomo said. “With all those new protocols how you would operate a school? ... How does a school socially distance? ... For summer school, you would need to see a drop ... or stabilization in the infection rate.”

New York State United Teachers President Andy Pallotta said keeping schools closed is “the smart choice.”

“We have said all along that the health and safety of students and educators must be the primary concern during this crisis,” he said. “We will work with Regents Chancellor Betty Rosa and state education and health officials on planning a safe and gradual re-opening. We also will continue advocating that summer school programming should be voluntary, with decisions on what is right for students made at the local level.”

Many school districts across the Capital Region followed up the state closure news with their own statements, saying they will continue the distance learning, meal distribution and child care for essential workers that is already in place.

Albany City Schools Superintendent Kaweeda Adams said a committee will meet next week to study models from around the country on how to safely reopen schools in the fall.

“One thing we have been looking at is delivering continuity of instruction,” Adams said. “We will continue those efforts through the end of the school year and also begin next week to break apart all of the details of what school will look like when we come back in the fall. Will it be smaller classrooms? How do we feed our students in terms of our cafeteria? It all has an impact; all of it is intertwined. We are going to have to look very strategically on how to schedule students when they come back to school.”