IT’S BACK TO SCHOOL AND NEW CHALLENGES
Omicron leads to rise in staff out sick and absent students
As city schools reopened Monday after winter break, many started the day with a basic math problem: How to keep classes running with scores of staffers out sick because of surging COVID-19 cases.
The principal of one Brooklyn elementary school unilaterally shut her building down Sunday night because of staff shortages, while administrators across the city reshuffled schedules and combined classes to manage the coverage gaps.
“We are concerned today about staffing,” said United Federation of
Teachers President Michael Mulgrew at a news conference outside Public School 347 in Manhattan, where roughly 30% of teachers were absent.
Student attendance took a big hit, too, with only 67% of students marked present citywide — a sharp decline from the nearly 90% average for much of the fall.
Despite the challenges, Mayor Adams and city Schools Chancellor David Banks spoke forcefully about their commitment to keep classrooms open for in-person learning.
“I know there’s questions about staffing, I know there’s questions about testing — there’s a lot of questions,” Adams said outside Concourse Village Elementary School in the Bronx during his first school visit as mayor. “But we are going to turn those question marks into an exclamation point: We are staying open!”
That promise came as a relief to some city parents wary of even a temporary switch back to remote classes.
Such a move would “affect a lot of parents,” said Arianne Allan, the parent of a fifth-grader at PS 328 in Brownsville, Brooklyn. “I have to work,” she said, adding that “it is very difficult to have them at home if you’re not having proper internet access.”
Other parents said the risks of in-person learning were too great.
Victoria Zunitch, the mother of a high school student in Manhattan, decided to keep her daughter home because she disapproved of the city’s plan to stem the spread of the highly contagious omicron variant.
“They could’ve continued with diligent test and trace, done baseline testing to return, and then testing twice a week,” she said. “I’m not saying they would’ve had to do all these things, but they would’ve had to do some of them. “Assertion and confidence and swagger … is not a safety plan,” she added, criticizing Adams’ relentless optimism.
Banks argued the Education Department has a handle on the staffing issues and promised a new “Command Center” to address staffing concerns and the deployment of substitutes to schools with the greatest needs.
Mulgrew revealed in an email to UFT members that the union asked the Adams administration to “go remote temporarily until we could get a handle on the staffing challenges,” but said Hizzoner rebuffed the request.
At PS 58 in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, Principal Katie Dello Stritto notified families Sunday night that she was closing the
building because too many staffers were out with COVID cases or staying home with infected family members, according to an email obtained by the Daily News. She added that “the remainder of our staff is not reporting to the school building” Monday, but didn’t explain why.
Dello Stritto wrote in the email that she’d asked the Education Department for permission to call an “operational closure” but never heard back, so she decided to act unilaterally.
An Education Department spokeswoman said PS 58 was the only school shuttered for staffing reasons Monday and that it would reopen Tuesday.
“When you’re dealing with over a million schoolchildren, and you’re dealing with such a large number of plans ... you have things that will slip through the cracks and we’re gonna find out what happened there,” Adams said of the closure.
But even for schools that were open, staffing shortages were causing logistical headaches.
At PS 347 in Manhattan, roughly 30% of classroom teachers were out, according to Dean of Students John Marro, forcing the school to switch lunch from the cafeteria to individual classrooms and to ask teachers to fill in for missing colleagues. “It affects us a lot,” Marro said. “Teachers are going to be working a little harder, no question about that.”
Many schools reported widespread student absences as well, with one Manhattan principal recording just 55% attendance Monday. Citywide attendance figures weren’t immediately available.
One dad dropping his 3-year-old daughter off at PS 347 s preschool program, who spoke on condition of anonymity to protect his family’s privacy, said he appreciated the huge logistical challenges the school is confronting — but also felt deeply grateful the school was open for in-person class. “[I’m] so relieved,” he said after dropping off his daughter.
“Not because it relieves me but because there is a notable difference between … when she is in school and when she is out of school. She’s a different kid.”