City parents & pols slam school closure planning
NYC angry parents and elected officials railed Thursday morning against the city’s decision to shut down the public school system because COVID positivity rates hit 3%.
Dozens of parents with kids in tow (inset) chanting “schools are safe!” gathered outside City Hall to deliver a petition to Mayor de Blasio demanding that city officials reconsider the shutdown threshold. The group planned to shuttle over to Gov. Cuomo’s Manhattan office later Thursday morning to deliver the same document.
“The 3% positivity threshold was decided over the summer with no input from parents or students and with no awareness of the role schools play in COVID transmission,” parents wrote in the Change. org petition that now has nearly 13,000 signatures.
“The evidence from school districts around the globe and from right here within NYC shows that schools play little, if any, role in spread,” the petition continues.
Councilman Mark Treyger and Public Advocate Jumaane
Williams took to social media to express their concerns about the number of students still without tech devices as the city transitions to all remote learning. Treyger said the city should’ve already come up with a plan for how to reopen the schools after the city hit the closure threshold, and done more to prepare families for the possibility of a shutdown.
“It has been abundantly clear that we were on a trajectory to meet the 3% threshold, but, because the city once again failed to adequately plan for a smooth transition to remote learning, school communities and families are now scrambling to try to distribute and collect learning materials, figure out what school looks like tomorrow, and arrange child care,” he said in a statement.
Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza said Wednesday the city instructed principals to prepare materials for kids learning from home.
De Blasio added Thursday that the city is still working through a plan for how to reopen, but said it will involve lots of additional COVID testing in schools.