BRYAN MCGEEVER IN DAILY NEWS

Former Jamaica HS colleague J Bryan McGeever has an op-ed on reopening schools in the NY Daily News. I copy it in full below. He makes some great points. I also learned from the piece that Bryan's wife Tiffany, who was a strong member of the UFT Chapter Committee for years at Jamaica HS, is now at Midwood HS. I digress. The op-ed:

How can schools be safe? Partial reopening for all students creates breeding ground for coronavirus

I’ve been a teacher in New York City schools for 16 years. In late June, my principal gave us permission to enter our building to remove personal items and secure our classrooms for the summer. It was the first time we’d been back since schools were closed due to coronavirus in March. The last theme I’d covered was still waiting for me on the whiteboard when I entered the room: “The Consequences of Change.”

My English class is a former shop room. The floor has rust marks from the heavy equipment that was once here. It’s also located in a basement, the tiniest sliver of natural light visible from a sewer grate, and has a tendency to grow dank and moldy. How can the mayor possibly ensure clean air for this room in the fall?

As it stands right now, city schools are scheduled for a partial reopening in September, a hybrid of remote learning on some days, with thousands of students entering 1,800 different schools in shifts on others. An endeavor that would demand such remarkable levels of timing, precision and effort, it’s no longer plausible to entertain.

If this is truly our plan, then where was the tractor-trailer filled with Plexiglass to install for social distancing when I visited my school? Why aren’t there materials arriving at schools throughout the five boroughs? My daughter’s school in Brooklyn is a veritable ghost town — all five stories.It’s now late July. When exactly does the preparation begin? If the mayor and his chancellor go ahead with this proposal, it’s going to be a debacle.

Under normal conditions, every September through June, each member of my household wakes up and reports to a public school. I teach at August Martin in South Jamaica. My wife is at Midwood, and my daughter attends PS 139 in Brooklyn. These buildings are old, beautiful, and built to last. They’re also roiling cauldrons of sickness the moment they become filled with thousands of people.

Since my daughter started pre-K years ago, the three of us have never been so sick in our lives. Each member of my family catches something at school and then brings it back to the nest. The illness bounces from person to person until it eventually grows bored with us and moves on.

But when the pandemic hit New York everything changed. We were ordered to vacate our schools, and guess what? My family’s been cured. Our constant colds, cases of flu and pesky critters have disappeared — five straight months of perfect health that we haven’t seen in years.

I haven’t had the vile taste of cold medicine on my lips since March. We no longer order tissues in bulk, and no one cares that the thermometer has been missing for weeks.

If coronavirus is still slithering its way through New York in September, it will find its way inside our schools immediately. The only solution is to stay out of them. Remote learning is far from perfect, but at least it’s safe.

There are layers to this problem, of course. Special needs students must receive their services. There are also children who need to eat and thousands who don’t have access to the internet. So far the most intelligent suggestion comes from a parent whose Op-Ed in The New York Times suggests that we keep key buildings open solely for these kids.

In this scenario, every child receives their services and everyone keeps their dignity. Students and teachers who feel unsafe are at home doing remote learning. I would gladly teach at one of these buildings in the fall.

During the first few months of the pandemic, my neighborhood in Brooklyn would applaud, whistle, and whoop every night in tribute to our essential workers. It was a wonderful way to express grief, give thanks, and burn some energy, but I never want to do it again.

McGeever teaches English in Queens and lives with his family in Brooklyn