TAKING DeB TO SCHOOL

Mom, teach rip reopen

A Brooklyn public-school parent and a Queens teacher blasted Mayor de Blasio during a radio interview on Friday over his bungling the reopening of city schools.

The parent, who called in to WNYC’s “The Brian Lehrer Show” during the mayor’s weekly appearance there, pressed de Blasio on the timing of his decision to again delay inperson learning.

“Why has the mayor waited this long to make this decision? How are we supposed to manage like this?” asked the parent, who identified herself as Ellen.

On Thursday, just four days before students were set to return to classes, de Blasio announced that the city had pushed back in-person learning — for a second time — for those in all grades above pre-K.

He cited teacher shortages caused by the city’s blended-instruction approach as a major reason for the delay.

Ellen challenged that explanation on Friday.

“That staffing shortfall,” she correctly noted, “has been well known, and the principals have been talking about this for some time. This just seems very late to make this decision.”

In response, de Blasio said, “This has been a real challenging situation, so I want to be clear, I do feel for any parent who is trying to make sense of this under, particularly, these horrible conditions that we’re dealing with generally.”

He said that trying to safely reopen the city’s schools had been “a greater challenge than anyone foresaw.”

The Queens teacher, who also called in to the show, said the shifting of educators and students’ schedules between remote and blended learning was “really impeding our ability to be ready.”

“If you had listened to us, if you had listened to what schools really needed, we could be doing a better job to serve our students,” she railed.

“We should have been spending the summer improving our remote-learning plans, and now we’re short on teachers.”

De Blasio said he “fundamentally” disagreed with her claim that teachers and principals were not being listened to.

Earlier Friday, de Blasio said he was “very confident” that the city would stick to its latest back-to-school schedule.

“I want to tell you,” the mayor said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” “based on everything I’ve seen, based on how well New Yorkers have worn those masks and done the social distancing and fought back the disease really in a heroic way, I feel very confident about that date.”