DOUBLE STANDARD
Education staffers are working
As the city orders teachers back to work at their schools, hundreds of Education Department staffers who work on policy and support have been allowed to keep working from home.
Teachers and other school employees have been voicing concern for weeks over Mayor de Blasio’s plan to reopen schools this fall, a move originally scheduled for Sept. 10, with some questioning coronavirus safety measures.
Faced with a threat of a rare teachers strike, Hizzoner pushed the start date for inperson learning to Sept. 21.
Meanwhile, some 2,200 staffers based at DOE headquarters and other administrative offices have been working from home, with no plan released for when they’ll be back in the office.
“There’s no plan because of the fact our buildings are so old and we’re so over-packed in them,” an education staffer told the Daily News this week. “It is not lost on us that there’s some hypocrisy here in none of us being back in the office” while teachers are returning to schools.
Most staffers have been working from home since around March 15, when schools officially closed.
Since then, central staffers who want to come back to the office have to fill out a questionnaire about possible COVID exposure and ask supervisors for permission before coming in. They’ve only done so on rare occasions, such as having to use an office printer, sources said.
“Certain central employees” have been reporting to work in-person, according to the DOE, though it declined to state a number. Payroll, food service and other employees have been reporting to buildings.
But education headquarters at the cavernous Tweed Courthouse and other administrative offices throughout the city have been largely empty, sources said. In staff meetings and many press conferences, Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza has mostly used Zoom while working from home. The DOE declined to state how many days he has worked out of Tweed since mid-March, but said he’s come in on an “as-needed basis.”
In the meantime, central staffers have been left in the dark as to DOE’s plans for the fall.
“We don’t see anyone, we don’t hear from anyone. We get news at the same time as [reporters], often. It’s been pretty bad,” said the central staffer, who requested anonymity to avoid retaliation.
“There’s nothing that we
have heard or discussed or focused on” in terms of plans to return to the office, a second central staffer told The News. “Everyone’s trying to keep their heads down and get everything done while we can.”
Having different standards for central staffers and employees who work at schools sends the wrong message, said Councilman Justin Brannan (DBrooklyn).
“If it’s safe enough for the teachers to go back, why isn’t it safe enough for the educrats to go back?” he said. “It certainly doesn’t send a message of solidarity.”
Councilwoman Helen Rosenthal (D-Manhattan) has tied the reopening of her district office to school reopening.
“If the schools open, we feel an obligation to open, as well,” she said. “I would hope that DOE’s central office would do the same thing.”
DOE spokeswoman Miranda Barbot said the department is “finalizing a plan to bring back central and borough staff.
“Central staff have been reporting to offices throughout the summer, and just like we’re doing with school buildings, we need to make sure that before we further increase the number of people in the building, the ventilation is operating, there’s enough room for social distancing, and proper cleaning protocols are in place,” she added.
“Our priority for the next couple weeks is school buildings in order to deliver on our critical function: educating students,” Barbot concluded.
The DOE recently informed central staffers they may be reassigned to work at schools to help with challenges of this unprecedented school year, in which students will do a mix of online and in-person learning.
“We are anticipating that some additional Central and Field staff will need to transition to directly serve our students in schools,” DOE’s Chief Operating Officer Ursulina Ramirez said in a Tuesday email to staff. “Staff who transition into school-based roles would assist in administration and/or oversight of students, and to provide instruction (by those with proper credentials and qualifications).”
Earlier this week, de Blasio put the brakes on plans to potentially lay off up to 22,000 municipal employees. He said cuts would be evaluated on a “day-to-day” basis as he pleads for Albany to authorize the city to borrow funds to cover operating expenses.
For now, DOE central staffers are in limbo.
“The central office staff is really frustrated,” the first staffer said. “There are rumors of layoffs right now and people are really vexed.”