FOREST HILLS HIGH SCHOOL CHAPTER LEADER ADAM BERGSTEIN GUEST BLOGS

Adam wrote to UFT President Michael Mulgrew and then Chancellor Meisha Porter before the break and we printed it here. It was very well received by our audience. Adam strikes again. Enjoy.

Great (Un)Expectations!

What should the nearly 1.3 million staff and students anticipate, when classes resume in NYC, on January 3rd? Very few parents, students and staff truly feel safe or comfortable going back to their school. The reason, simply put, is that the DoE has consistently mismanaged the handling of Covid cases. They opened the schools in September with massively overcrowded buildings, and a crackerjack plan that consisted of opening windows, using some air filters and wearing masks. Now, the DoE has provided limited assurances that our schools will be safe when it comes to accurately reporting the true number of Covid cases. The track record for this bureaucracy’s handling of Covid is paltry. Essentially, the DoE has basically been embarrassed and pressured into enacting a questionable safety plan, moving forward.

I know that the DoE put out a plan, but I can’t help to wonder how effective is their seemingly reactive engagement to Covid. Why do they feign shock that a viral pandemic has overwhelmed an already fragile and poorly run school system? And how dare they tout a plan that is already a fortnight too late? Ask anybody who has ever worked for the NYC Department of Education, how reliable is the quality level of craftsmanship of anything the DoE purchases. They find three bidders and pick the cheapest. Implementing that same logic with a home Covid test kit is the textbook definition of negligence. Is there any parent or staff member who actually believes that the DoE is suddenly going to procure over two million high quality test kits, in less than a week? With that said, since schools are not closing, wouldn’t it be easier and smarter to just test everyone while they are in the building? Then, everything will get reported under one streamlined agency. The logistics will initially prove challenging to set up, but once it is fully implemented the system will be much more manageable and organized. However, yet again, this would entail a pro-active approach to problem-solving.

It is also quite deplorable that the DoE and UFT now agree that the Situation Room has to be adequately staffed. Where was the rage that this central hub to report and monitor Covid was understaffed. I heard whispers from the union, but no outrage; no frustration, just an acknowledgment that the Situation Room lacked staff. How many DoE employees will actually be manning the Situation Room, because if you double or triple a trickle, you still only have a weak stream. At my school, when nearly 50 people a day were calling out (not all positive, thankfully) and hundreds of students were being kept home, the Situation Room only had us with single-digit Covid confirmations. Add to that, they didn’t answer the phones nor would they call back administrators trying to report active, confirmed Covid cases. Such gross mismanagement, by a joint city agency, should warrant a federal investigation of Bill de Blasio. And now we should just trust the DoE, because they are saying we really fixed it this time. Here’s an example of how the DoE fixes things, look at their new slogan, Stay Open, Stay Safe! Really? Shouldn’t this have been the mantra since before September, not mid-debacle December?

Let’s consider what else they are going to do to keep the students and staff safe. Doubling the testing in all schools sounds great, but now we go from 1.5% to a whopping 3%. School staff are on the front lines and their personal safety, up until a few days ago, did not seem to matter. As for the students, who are very vulnerable to Omicron, they seem to matter even less. Countless schools finished December, running on fumes. The sheer number of staff out, was overwhelming. Classes were collapsed and staff were offered massive overtime to cover all of the absent teachers. In the end, the kids got cheated out of instruction, and again the DoE was completely clueless. Where was the UFT, even in mid-November? They were certainly not screaming from every school building, calling for universal testing. If anything, they were complicit with the 10% staff testing threshold set by the DoE, back in early December.

My angst with UFT and DoE leadership is predicated upon their hubris directed towards the rank and file; a disregard for the students, and a consistently flawed decision-making process when it comes to safety and educational policies. My umbrage with the UFT, should not be misconstrued as misguided union animus. If anything, I think that a teachers union is the most important form of organized labor in this country. I just refuse to accept dysfunctional leadership in times of true crisis.

If you have never worked in a NYC public school, then please think twice before you attack school staff who are simply asking for all precautions and plans to be in place. That type of basic safety has not happened yet, not even close. If anything, we should want the highest level of safety measures in place so kids can learn and everyone can go home without the fear of spreading Covid like some Haight-Ashbury viral free-for-all.

Sincerely,

Adam C Bergstein