Updates and Resources from the office of Councilmember Brad Lander

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Dear John,

I hope everyone had a restful holiday weekend and found ways to connect with loved ones even from afar. We’ve got a lot to be grateful for -- and hopefully that will include not having any more all-remote Thanksgivings.

If you did travel over the long weekend, please take care to stay home and get tested. The current state guidelines require a 4-day quarantine and a negative test before heading back to regular, socially distanced activities.

Amid the holiday weekend, yesterday the Mayor announced that elementary schools will be reopening for in person learning on December 7. I’m glad some students will be able to return to their classroom. But the plan, as far as I can tell, is neither fully-baked nor grounded in public health data nor rooted in principles of equity.

Here’s what we do know:
* Pre-K and K-5 classes will reopen on Dec. 7th.
* District 75 special education programs will reopen on Dec. 10th.
* Students will be required to return testing consent forms, and 20% of the school community will be tested on a weekly basis.
* The thresholds for closing classrooms and schools will stay the same: one case will close a classroom, two unrelated cases will cause the building to close for two weeks.
* The citywide 3% positivity rate threshold will no longer apply (although schools could still be closed if the governor declares the whole city an orange zone).
* In schools with low in-person attendance, half-filled cohorts will be combined and students will return to class 5 days a week where possible (NOTE: this is very unlikely at any of the schools in our district, where a majority of students are already in-person).

Unfortunately, like so much of the planning for our schools during this crisis, there are as many gaps and questions as answers.

There is no timeline yet for middle and high schools -- they remain all-remote for now (not met with happiness in our house), and the Mayor said today he does not see them returning until after winter break.

There are no additional space or staffing resources for overstretched schools, and no new plans to make remote learning work better.

There is no ability to opt in to in person classes if families have not already. The next window for families to opt back to in-person learning would not be until a vaccine is “widely available.” So at least 74% of kids won’t get any in-person learning likely for months still (more like 85% while middle & high-schools remain closed).

The City has failed to provide attendance data on in-person learning vs. remote by school. And tens of thousands of students still lack remote learning devices. Sadly, it’s pretty clear that the results are inequitable across both in-person and remote.

If we are going to ration full-time, in-person learning to just 10% to 15% of students -- which is essentially what the Mayor’s plan amounts to -- we should target seats to homeless students and those with special needs.

Where we’re sticking with hybrid learning (which will be in many schools, despite what the mayor said yesterday, including nearly all of the schools in our district), we should give families an opportunity to opt back in as the City promised initially -- at the very least, on a case-by-case basis, where space in the school allows.

And we should be using the in-school testing, in coordination with neighborhood rates, to drive more thoughtful decision-making. Two unconnected Covid-19 cases in a large school wouldn’t necessarily mean it would need to shut down; but a rising case rate in the building could. Better coordinated use of in-school and neighborhood testing rates could allow us to build confidence that Covid-19 is not spreading in the schools, but also to drive faster decisions to close the schools in an area where it is.

I’m eager for in-person learning consistent with public health guidelines. But our priorities are backward when in-person dining, bars, gyms still open, and infection rates are rising. It would be so much better to have a solid and coordinated City/State plan that prioritizes the students who are being most harmed by this disrupted year.

We’ll let you know as we learn more, and keep pushing for answers, and for something better. Feel free to ask questions here, and we’ll try to get what information we can. Believe me, I share your frustration.

Brad

Updates and Resources
* Latest Virus Data: In NYC, there were 1,620 new cases reported today with 96 people admitted to hospitals. We have lost 24,268 people in NYC from the virus, including sadly 8 in the last day, and 314,223 total cases have been identified in the city since the start of the pandemic. The citywide 7-day rolling average of positive test rates is 4.69%, with a daily rate of 4.03% today.
* Preparing for Rising Cases: Statewide we are seeing the highest infection rate since May: 4.57% test positivity. With the holidays and holiday travel, there is a lot of concern that infections will rise and hospitals will become more crowded. The Governor announced today that 65% of cases are coming from small gatherings, which are limited to 10 people now by state order. The State will add new hospitalization metrics to the color-coded zones and is preparing to address hospital capacity concerns by shifting resources between regions.
* Testing Wait Times: The Mayor announced today that the City will post wait times at Health and Hospitals COVID-19 testing sites so New Yorkers can see which sites have shorter lines. The online tool will be live this afternoon at testandtrace.nyc.
* Vaccine Progress: Two companies have applied for emergency authorization from the FDA, and their vaccines will be evaluated starting December 8 and could be approved for distribution beginning next month. In NYC, first responders will be among the first to get the vaccine.
* Giving Tuesday: If you are thinking about your giving this week, keep local emergency food providers in mind this Giving Tuesday. They are doing essential work serving record-high numbers of New Yorkers who are struggling this year. Find a list of local providers on our website here ([link removed]) .
* New Small Business Loans: The NYC Department of Small Business Services (SBS) announced three financial assistance programs available for small businesses in low-to-moderate income (LMI) neighborhoods. The NYC LMI Storefront Loan, Interest Rate Reduction Grant, and Strategic Impact COVID-19 Commercial District Support Grant. More details here. ([link removed]-)

Upcoming Meetings

Wednesday, December 2 at 6:30 PM: Department of City Planning Gowanus Pre-Certification Meeting. Register here ([link removed]) .

DCP will present to Community Board 6 about infrastructure issues as part of the public engagement process ahead of the public review process for the proposed Gowanus Neighborhood Rezoning.

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Contact us:
District 39
456 5th Ave Ste 3
Brooklyn, NY 11215-4076
USA
[email protected]
718-499-1090

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