Dear John,

Like so many of you, I am beyond frustrated by the Governor and Mayor’s dueling egos over decisions about our schools during this pandemic.

Today really takes the cake for insensitive decision-making and communication. Making super-anxious parents already on tenterhooks about everything wait indeterminately to find out just whether they will have school for their kids tomorrow was cruel without necessity.

The Mayor announced today that the City reached the threshold of a 7-day average of 3% test positivity and public schools will be closed for in-person learning beginning tomorrow.

I’m angry and anxious. It is a massive failure of leadership on the part of both the Mayor and the Governor to have allowed our schools to close before we got a handle on the virus spreading in indoor restaurants, bars, and gyms, worship and other gatherings. Schools should be the last things to close, not the first.

We know how essential schools are as spaces of learning, care, friendship, and support. And we know how insufficient remote learning is, especially for our most vulnerable students. From the start, we needed city, state, and federal leaders to prioritize schools like the essential institutions they are, surging resources to protect teachers, make sure all children had access to learning devices, and provide the support and supplies our educators need to keep everyone learning and safe.

Instead we had an erratic approach to closing guided not by school-based public health data, but by a relatively arbitrary citywide threshold that threw families and educators into chaos each day as we inched closer to it. We had dueling press conferences from the Mayor and the Governor with conflicting announcements, metrics, zones, and decisions. And we had teachers and students packing up their belongings each day for weeks, not knowing if they would be coming back.

We should be using the public health data we have from school-based testing to inform decisions about schools. We shouldn't be doing indoor dining with cases spreading so rapidly. And we need to be supporting our restaurants and small businesses so they can stay afloat as we get the virus under control. Especially now that learning is remote full time again, we must accelerate the distribution of devices and ensure that all students have internet access.

The Mayor and Governor have indicated that there are likely to be closures in other industries soon, and that there will be an announcement later this week about what the reopening standards will be for schools, including far more testing. How hard would it have been to get on the same page about staying open tomorrow and Friday, closing next week for Thanksgiving, and making a good, coordinated plan for how to move forward?

There’s not much leadership to be thankful for at the city or state level this Thanksgiving, but I am beyond grateful for the work of our principals, educators, and school staff who are working incredibly hard with little support or information to keep kids learning and engaged from home and in the classroom.

Yesterday I was humbled (also saddened, outraged and inspired) to listen to D15 principals talk about their overwhelming concerns -- a lack of coordination and effective communication between principals and the COVID Situation Room, and a fear that they will go bankrupt trying to cover costs like substitute teachers, and the untenable lack of access to internet for their families in shelters and those living in basement apartments in neighborhoods like Sunset Park and Red Hook. During this pause in blended learning, I will be doing what I can to help these school leaders get some resolution to these issues. Without adequate funding, staffing, devices or clarity, they are still providing the kind of public sector leadership our families need in this crisis.

Brad

Updates and Resources

Latest Virus Data: As we were reminded today, the city and state have slightly different data. The Mayor reported today’s 7-day positivity rate was 3.0%. In NYC, there were 1,940 new cases yesterday. We have lost 24,146 people in NYC from the virus, including sadly 10 in the last day, and 290,018 total cases have been identified in the city since the start of the pandemic.
Get A COVID-19 Test: We’ve been hearing about long lines at City MD sites, but lines are shorter at walk-in NYC Health and Hospitals sites and if you can get an appointment online it's really in and out in 15 or 20 minutes (though you might have to check the website frequently to find an available appointment).
Share Voting Feedback: The Voter Assistance Advisory Committee (VAAC) of the NYC Campaign Finance Board is holding a virtual hearing on December 9 at 5:30 PM to get feedback on early voting absentee voting and election day voting processes. Learn more and register here.
More Closures Imminent: The Governor said today that New York City will become an "orange zone" when it reaches the 3% positivity threshold (according to the state’s numbers). This would trigger closures for indoor dining and high-risk non-essential businesses like gyms and personal care. Houses of worship would be limited to 25 people, mass gatherings indoors and outdoors to 10 people, and all schools would be closed.
Grab-and-Go Meals Continue: Families and students can continue to go to any school building between 9:00 a.m. and noon on weekdays to pick up three free grab-and-go meals. From 3-5 p.m., New Yorkers of all ages can pick up free meals at 260 Community Meals sites across the city. For a list of sites, please visit schools.nyc.gov/freemeals.
Early Childhood Education: 3-K and Pre-K classrooms in district schools and DOE Pre-K Centers will be closed. If your child attends a program in a community-based center that is not located in a public school, or attends a family childcare program that is part of a DOE network, it will remain open.

Upcoming Events

Tonight, November 18 at 6:30 PM: Community Board 6 is hosting their monthly meeting. Register here.

Thursday, November 19 at 6 PM: Department of City Planning Gowanus Pre-Certification meeting about Gowanus Green. Register here. If you want to sign up to comment or ask a question, fill out this form.