Monday, September 07, 2020

10 NYC SCHOOL BUILDINGS STARTING ALL REMOTE BUT HOW DO WE KNOW THE REST OF THEM ARE SAFE? (Updated)

 From Jillian Jorgensen's twitter. Some DOE buildings are going all remote for Professional Development.



What about the rest of the buildings? What criteria are the DOE and and probably their partners at the UFT using to close buildings? Does anybody know? The information is certainly not fully addressed in the safety reports. Some we have seen are full of gaping holes on air quality.

I wouldn't trust the DOE. Not much benefit of the doubt left toward the UFT either.

There is also the randomness factor. I have already seen reports on social media of principals outside of these ten buildings going all remote for the upcoming Professional Development days. Is this just another issue where the principal gets final say or are these reports mistaken?

Is this going to be a repeat of March 17-19 when UFTers were sent into school buildings at the height of the pandemic in NYC when the UFT knew some school buildings had cases of COVID-19?

In all fairness, we know a great deal more about COVID-19 now compared to March and there are social distancing, PPE, including mask requirements, today.

Nevertheless, is there anything the DOE wants done in these six days of PD that can't be done from home? If UFTers are going to have to social distance in rooms to do remote meetings, then wouldn't it be safer and keep tens of thousands of UFTers out of the public transport system if work could all be done from home? Why not at least ask for volunteers who want to come in first? 

In addition, the UFT email to chapter leaders from Friday (see below) was yet another head-scratcher. There is a six point checklist on what buildings have to have to open for staff that doesn't include anything on air quality when experts say COVID-19 is an airborne disease that can spread rapidly indoors. I am in no way an epidemiologist but this seems like a very strange omission. Ventilation is crucial according to this expert. However, the air quality only has to be fixed by September 21 when the students arrive, not when staff arrive on September 8.  

I will tell you now what I stated in March. If you don't feel it's safe, then don't enter a building. If it doesn't feel right to you, your health is much more important than the Taylor Law, or losing a CAR day or any possible discipline your principal could give you. It is much better to do this as a whole chapter as there is safety in numbers. Have your chapter leader call the UFT hotline at (212)701-9677 right away if you do not believe it is safe. If he/she won't call, call yourself but by no means walk in if you don't feel it is safe to do so. If you feel nauseous, follow DOE regulations and stay home or go home.  

What schools need for tomorrow according to the UFT:

Surgical masks for adults

Surgical masks for children

N95 respirators

Face shields for adults

Electrostatic sprayer

Cleaning supplies for daily and nightly cleaning

Supplies of gloves, disinfecting spray (or wipes), towels, hand sanitizer in each room

No-contact thermometers for temperature screening

Call the UFT hotline immediately at (212)701-9677 if your school is missing anything on this list. 

Mulgrew's Email to Chapter Leaders:

Dear _______,

Now that we have a safety agreement with the strongest COVID-19 protocols in the nation for schools, we must make those protocols real. It's time to put the plan into action to keep you, our members, and our students safe.

Working with medical experts, the UFT created a comprehensive school safety plan, including the presence of a school nurse, a six-foot separation between student desks, sufficient personal protective equipment, adequate ventilation and an isolation room.  More than 100 union safety investigators have visited most of the city’s more than 1,400 school buildings to see what has been accomplished and what work still needs to be done. 

Below, you'll find the results of the UFT COVID-19 safety inspection for your school. Please review it as soon as you can.  

Your school must have personal protective equipment  in place when staff return on Tuesday, Sept. 8. If PPE is not available, immediately discuss the situation with your principal, the custodian or the leader of your school’s COVID-19 building response team. If the issue cannot be resolved immediately, call the union’s hotline at 212-701-9677. The hotline operator will triage your call to a UFT staff member, who will promptly come to your building to confirm your report and take further action. UFT members should leave the building and wait outside. No one may be in a building without wearing a mask and following the social distancing rules.

Between Sept. 8 and Friday, Sept. 18, you, your principal and your school’s COVID-19 building response team will work to address the issues flagged in the UFT school safety inspection. Schools must pass all items itemized in the school safety plan by Monday, Sept. 21, the day students return for in-person instruction. If the school buildings do not pass, staff at that school building must remain remote.  

When you or your designee returns to the school building on Sept. 8, please do a follow-up inspection of outstanding school safety plan items. On or before Sept. 8, we will send you another email with a short survey we’ll ask you to return before or on Friday, Sept. 11. We'll ask you to update us on the conditions in your school.  

These are extraordinary times and I thank you for all your hard work in keeping your school safe.

Sincerely, 

Michael Mulgrew 

UFT President


Update: For those who think having adults only in a building preparing for the kids to come back makes it safe from COVID-19, this is from Newsday. These are Long Island districts:

Two employees in the Southold School District tested positive for the virus, Superintendent Anthony Mauro wrote in a letter to community members Sunday night. The staffers had been in a school building together preparing for the students’ return Tuesday, he wrote. Workers were disinfecting the building.

In another letter Monday, Mauro said the first day of in-person instruction will be pushed back to Sept. 18 so the "majority" of employees can quarantine.

On Sunday, Sewanhaka Central High School District Superintendent James Grossane announced a staffer at New Hyde Park Memorial High School tested positive for the virus, and had been in "close contact" — within six feet for 10 minutes or more — with nine other employees.

The infected staffer "will not be allowed to return to school for ten days and after a negative test result has been provided to the district," Grossane wrote in a statement posted on the district website. Those who had been in close contact with the staff member will quarantine for two weeks, the statement read.

71 comments:

Anonymous said...


Those 10 cant open...Yet probably every single school has not completed the checklist. If any of you show up tomorrow, you are idiots. Show them when students report there will be no teachers. Call in sick.

Anonymous said...

carranza said if you dont feel well you must stay home for 10 days.

Anonymous said...

NYC teachers ask judge to let them work from home due to COVID-19 concerns

https://nypost.com/2020/09/07/nyc-teachers-ask-judge-to-allow-them-to-work-from-home/

Remember when there were 15 cases in the US. Now over 6 million.

Remember when we reached 100 dead. Now almost 200,000.

Anonymous said...

I'm nauseous, I'm not going in for 2 weeks.

Unknown said...

I was told that all we will given at our building tommorow are sugical masks and hand sanitizer. When I insisted it says we are also supposed to have face shields (per the UFt website), my CL reached out to our district rep. He came back saying masks and sanitizers are fine, the masks will be for later. Who is correct? Do I go in tomorrow if there are not, in fact, shields for teachers?

Anonymous said...

Next time the uft bashes trump...Remember mulgrew is forcing us into these buildings, not trump. And this is supposed to be our union. Keep listening to uft. Vote unity, vote dem, vote de blasio

Anonymous said...

Yep, the glaring omission has always been the regular mandatory testing and the ventilation...

Anonymous said...

Safe? Where is the uft?

Principal just emailed the staff that we will be meeting in the cafeteria tomorrow morning. Won't that be violating the UFT directive that states, "In-school meetings must adhere to social distancing guidelines and large meetings should not occur"? I am quoting from the UFT's post: Questions about Sept. 8-21 period

Anonymous said...


District 75 still has no health and safety plan for staff or students which address unique needs of our student body and specific exposure protections for staff up front and close, masks off.
District 75 schools CL's have not yet received building ventilation reports or UFT Checklist results.
Seems there is over reach in configuring room capacity limits.

We thought our union had our backs.
We return tomorrow to the unknown as per our union directives. If ventilation reports are not transparent and available for District 75, then why are we being required to return when we have not been informed of a plan for us and reports verifying suitable air quality?

Anonymous said...


This is my building. 18 Rooms have been condemned. And UFT and Mulgrew do nothing. They have been emailed, called and texted and as of this moment they are going to let the DOE force us into an unsafe building.

Anonymous said...

PLEASE DO NOT GO INTO BUILDINGS TOMORROW. SEND A MESSAGE.

Mulgrew 2 months ago: There is no way we can open safely without the HEROES ACT. Impossible.

(No HEROES Act. No funding AT ALL. Trump removes funding for cleaning schools.)

Mulgrew today: Good luck!

Anonymous said...

No joke, the last 3 days I've felt sick to my stomach, like i need to vomit.

Anonymous said...

Feel safe? DO NOT GO IN TOMORROW.

Nassau County school district with a rising number of COVID cases this weekend makes decision not to reopen tomorrow.

Anonymous said...

Remember, de blasio let everyone out of jail because of covid, but you will be locked in small rooms, with covid.

Anonymous said...

I just spoke to someone from the doe...he said we negotiated with the uft and they accepted all these rules. Blame them. We are going by the negotiated agreement which they have no problem with. They have not said a word in a week.

Anonymous said...

I just called in sick, not feeling well. Chancellor's rules...

Anonymous said...

DeBozo and Moldgrew can’t open schools if no teachers show up.

Anonymous said...

I'm glad I'm fat with high blood pressure.....

Anonymous said...

I really do sympathize with all those who don't want to go in. But those of us who didnt want to strike said repeatedly that the UFT would let us down and that we should handle this a different way. Now the UFT who many were banking on striking and using that as leverage have given us this deal, and still some won't go in any way. You can't have it both ways. You trusted Mulgree. You messed up and now you go.

Anonymous said...

We look like suckers here. Union sold us out. Lot of teachers fearful. We should be full remote for now. This is NOT going to work.

Anonymous said...

Fuck mulgrew. Fuck carranza. I'm gonna be out a lot this year. This is what they want. Fine.

Anonymous said...

Yes, I'm just fat nothing else but good enough to keep me out of my shithole death trap builidng.

Anonymous said...

This will truly be an experiment especially as fall and flu season approaches.

Ask for all PPE DAILY: mask, gloves, shield, lab coat. Protect yourselves.
Make sure there is hand sanitizers, wipes, ventilation, windows open and there is airflow, bath tissue, hand tissue in the restrooms, etc.

Speak to the custodians and ask their opinion/concerns about the cleaning regimen.

If any (and any other requirements) are missing contact the UFT immediately.

Anonymous said...

Anyone else completely disgusted & insulted by Mulgrew’s email TODAY. ⁦

⁩ Struggling w childcare...2 weeks? What about the other 38? Reduced pay? What family or single parent teacher living in NYC could afford to live on less than their full pay? ⁦

steve said...

I never trusted the uft, I opted out a 2 years ago. I'm not going in tomorrow. I have no accommodation. That is my stand. No dues. No entrance into building.

Anonymous said...

Fellow teachers

I urge you to take pics tomorrow of what you see in your building and take note of any nonsense said by admin

Anon2323 said...

hahahahaa there should be 20 schools on that list from the Bronx, this whole thing is a charade and an absolute disgrace.

We all have 1-2 masters and we cant do this shit tmmrw virtually?

Anonymous said...

Why is there no class action lawsuit against the DOE, UFT and NYC for their negligence against us! Any lawyers willing to take this up?

Anonymous said...

Contact the media if anything is missing.

Anonymous said...

Take pics in the restrooms if bathroom essentials are missing, take pics of everything.

Anonymous said...

trust mulgrew?

Complaints of mold, rodents and cockroach infestation in the dropped ceilings at MLK schools should be checked out.

Ray said...

How do you opt out of the UFT? Enough already.

Anonymous said...

Sooooo 1,800 schools , most built in the Jurassic period but only 10-20 have ventilation problems? Come on, does anyone believe this bs?

Anonymous said...

Call in sick. DO NOT GO TOMORROW. Email the chancellor-nycchancellor@schools.nyc.gov

Tell him you will start getting sick on 9/21.

Anonymous said...

Is this a joke? It says “the right to a safe work environment” the
@UFT is gaslighting me

Anonymous said...

First-timer post. I'm a teacher in a transfer high school. I received a text from our in-house union representative, stating that since our building was used as a community Rec. center (was supposed to be closed this past Friday but won't close until THIS Friday) we have the option of working from home until next Monday. Like so many of us, we have no clue on how our building fared on the UFT checklist of preparedness.

Anonymous said...

57% of bathrooms have poor ventilation. That means MOST bathrooms by the numbers should not be used.

What if a school has 100% unusable bathrooms.

Anonymous said...

uft?

Something must have gotten cut off of the school ventilation reports.

THEY DO NOT TELL US THE AIR EXCHANGE RATES!

Anonymous said...

Stay home! They are playing with our lives.

From Memorial Day weekend through the unofficial end of the season Monday, the number of Americans who died of covid-19 shot up from just under 100,000 to more than 186,000, according to data tracked by The Washington Post, as infections nearly quadrupled to upward of 6.2 million

Anonymous said...

Off to a good start.. Does anyone else have a principal/admins that is not coming in and instead has chosen remote? Cuz my admins are not even in the building nor is any PPE Police cars revolving lightFace with symbols over mouth

Anonymous said...

TODAY: Having deja vu from March when teachers had to work in unsafe buildings for no reason to do remote PD? Us too.

Anonymous said...

Thus far, city wide, has a single teacher or safety-conscious CL gotten help from
@UFT
in holding so much as one DOE *toe* “to the fire”?

The Mulgrew/
@UFTUnity
machine is so arrogant in their power that they now *openly* talk just like management— like their mission is serving capital (aka the “economy”) and “the city.” Bullshit. Their one and only function is to serve MEMBERS— so you can serve children. Period.

They did not keep us safe in March. Do not trust them today.

Teachers, Staff in
@NYCSchools
- who is watching out for us on Day 1?

Anonymous said...

Not one adult bathroom in my entire school building has a window or any ventilation.

Just an endangered CL said...

I still have not received ventilation reports - "assume it is safe".

So we're to now trust the DOE when before the secret agreement we were not to trust the DOE?

Trust no one :)

Such a joke. This was all a face-saving tactic by the Mayor and Mulgrew.
Can't wait to try and vote him/unity out!

Retirees shouldn't be voting (sorry - but they've either got them misinformed, bought, or are filling out their votes for them)

Good luck everyone.

waitingforsupport said...

@750 am

Your admins are smart. Save yourself

Anonymous said...

I just walked out of my building. Had a dept, 13 people, in 1 room.

Anonymous said...

Y’all get it’s not safe yet?!

Anonymous said...

This is how ift protects us. Principal sent an email saying we should each go into our own room, then log in to watch him talk to us...But i couldn't stay home and avoid all the dangerous travel and poorly ventilated building?

Anonymous said...

11:17 P.M Poster:
Currently in a Zoom meeting where the principal admitted most of the vents in the hallways, bathrooms and classes are not working. She was told since we have windows that open, our ventilation is sufficient. She also said the our superintendent initially said despite the fact that a section of our building was used as a Rec Center space for first responders, they wanted us to report to the building. She had to fight for our option to work remotely until next week. Where is Mulgrew!?!?

Anonymous said...

Good start?

We’re working in front of our building bec even though we’re missing items from UFT’s supposedly mandatory safety checklist, teachers were asked to return to our building today. NYC has deemed school buildings unsafe for students,so why is it safe for teachers?
@MOREcaucusUFT

Anonymous said...

Can someone explain why I rode an hour and a half on public transport to sit on Zoom meetings all day?
@UFT

@MOREcaucusUFT
9:48 AM · Sep 8, 2020·Twitter f

Anonymous said...

I just called the school and told them who I was and they said that noone is there today and I should call back next Monday. I told them I'm working remote and gave them my cell and the person I spoke with will give my cell # to the principal. Getting nervous. I know every school is different but have any of you been told that noone is at your school today? Going to send an email to the principal again now. Any other suggestions? Having a major pit in my stomach now and I had srambled eggs this morning. What a mess. Where is the uft?

Anonymous said...

They Did Not Protect Us in March - Do Not Trust Them to Keep Us Safe Today
Andy Cuomo took way too long in March to start shutting things down. Remember him overruling de Blasio’s “shelter in place”?
But the Mayor wasn’t better. In March Bill de Blasio kept the schools open when they needed to be closed.
Chancellor Carranza heard reports of COVID-19 in buildings, and he and his cronies hushed them up, and didn’t close the buildings.
Someone, maybe everyone on the 14th floor of 52 Broadway knew we had confirmed cases in schools, and went to court to force the closures…ok… But in the meantime allowed UFT members to walk back into those buildings.

Anonymous said...

No PPE supplies, no temperature check, no checking our survey to enter building, no clean classrooms. So far it’s going great

Anonymous said...

I didn't have to do a temperature check or questionaire when I entered my building this morning.

James Eterno said...

Everybody, I will be shadow chapter leader for all of you but please email pictures and the name of school to ICEUFT@gmail.com.

I never give out names of members if you don't want me to however we need more than anonymous comments. Step up.

Pictures and name of school would be fine.

James Eterno said...

Be not afraid of the DOE. It is a pandemic. Oh and has anyone called that UFT hotline yet?

Anonymous said...

Why couldn’t all the meetings take place outdoors on this beautiful day—DeBlaz and Caraz would have okayed it.

Anonymous said...

Hi, Ho! Hi, Ho! It’s off to work we go! Get those wills ready folks. UFT membership has its perks. Discounted legal services, including wills, are your’s for a veritable pittance! Tell em the esteemed Michael Mulgrew sent you!

Anonymous said...

Receiving reports from multiple schools that the thermometers they’ve received are broken. Unclear of the extent of this problem. However, don’t count on FEMA to reimburse the city for the cost of broken thermometers

James Eterno said...

Need names of schools.

Anonymous said...

My school's "core" team are all self quarantining due to one of them having covid-19. They were all in the building last week. Today our superintendent is our acting principal.

Um.... so all of our admin is working from home for the next two weeks and we are expected to be in a building which may or may not be safe? What the hell is going on?!!

Thanks Mulgrew!

James Eterno said...

Tell us the school. We will alert press if you want.

Anonymous said...

11:05 what school?

Anonymous said...

Not sure what’s it’s like in other buildings but the DOE guidelines listed 14 symptoms that require someone to stay home for 10 days. The entry survey all teachers had to fill out to be able to enter only asked about four symptoms.

Anonymous said...

1105, media wants info, what school?

Anonymous said...

Email Susan Edelman: sedelman@nypost.com

Flood the media with information and pictures.

The life you could be saving is yours and your families, the lives of your students and families.

Has anyone contacted the UFT hotline?

Do what needs to be done.


waitingforsupport said...

@JAMES:
We don't need specifics but are you getting the name of schools and/or pics of the infractions from these people?

James Eterno said...

A few have given names of schools. Thanks. We have gotten valuable information from you.

waitingforsupport said...

Excellent

Anonymous said...

Everyday it's been the same thing. Go in and watch admin talk to you from their homes. Why go in?!?