No Plan for Safe Schools: Blas’ Outdoor-Class Flop
THE ISSUE: The de Blasio administration’s plan to hold outdoor classes when school begins in September.
I am a retired New York City principal. The idea of schools reopening now is impossible (“No way ‘out,’ Blas,” Aug. 26).
As for outdoor schools: Who is pulling chairs and desks inside and out, as weather permits?
What if a child needs to go to the bathroom? What does the teacher do with the smart boards, which won’t get WiFi outside? I’m not even discussing the homeless, the violence and the noise outside.
No school has the space capacity to function even under 50 percent, even with a hybrid model. Let teachers return on time and work with the administration to develop safe protocols and a real plan.
Mayor de Blasio and schools Chancellor Richard Carranza don’t have a clue as to what a disaster is awaiting them if they insist on a return to school on Sept. 10. Helaine Kobrin Manhattan
Instead of having our children attend school in the playgrounds, parks and (best of all) the streets, did anyone in the administration look into using the approximately 24 parochial schools that were forced to close?
There are actual classrooms with electricity, water, bathrooms, heat and building personnel already in place. They’d have the ability to teach in a safe environment.
Rent the school buildings from the archdiocese, and we could have a win-win situation. Ronald Alois, Brooklyn
Re: “The principals’ union blasts NYC’s ‘too little too late’ outdoor learning plan” (Aug. 25), I believe it’s not too late if the Department of Education reconceptualizes what and where school is.
Yes, the DOE waited too long and failed to come up with a viable and safe plan responsive to the COVID situation, but schools cannot start the year without a coherent model that delivers an education to all students and supports their families.
Involve the whole community — cultural institutions such as the Bronx Zoo, botanical gardens, Wave Hill, the public libraries and museums, which are educational environments. The community should have always been more involved in schooling. Mark Alter, Manhattan
With school starting in a couple of weeks, the mayor and schools chancellor decided on outdoor learning classes, even utilizing city parks if needed.
The teachers have their hands full with all the new rules for COVID inside of schools, and now they must keep an eye on students outside.
Imagine the ones in grade school, who will be running around like crazy once outside. How is one teacher supposed to keep up with a class of 30 students or more?
I am wondering what will happen on rainy days or once colder weather sets in.
This is another bad decision by our incompetent mayor, and meanwhile, Gov. Cuomo sits by quietly. Joseph Comperchio Brooklyn
With just three weeks to go before schools are set to open, de Blasio and Carranza have suggested outdoor classes and are only now going to have school ventilation systems checked.
School buildings have been largely vacant for months and could have been inspected in orderly fashion during all that time.
As for outdoor classes, using parks or schoolyards presents both logistical and safety problems too numerous to list. Perhaps de Blasio can issue a no-rain edict as well.
It is incomprehensible that the education of kids of this city is in the hands of these two morons. Robert DiNardo Farmingdale
It appears that useless de Blasio and his bobblehead puppet, Chancellor Carranza, believe that visiting empty school buildings for the purpose of photo-ops conveys the message that it will be safe for students and staff to engage in in-person instruction.
Perhaps this “dynamic duo” should try answering the many crucial, insightful questions posed by both the supervisors’ and teachers’ unions and parents who have opted for distance learning.
Their non-response is indicative of a clueless, withering lack of leadership in a crucial time. Jerry Longarzo Yonkers