Dear CSA Member,
As we near the end of July, it is abundantly clear that the DOE has not provided you with the guidance and relevant information necessary for you to effectively plan for the opening of school buildings and offices in the fall. You have done everything the DOE has asked of you from the onset of this pandemic, and your frustration with this alarming lack of direction is beyond understandable.. CSA knows that without clear guidance and support on protocols and issues of safety, staffing, and programming, your tasks are unrealistic and insurmountable. We know that for the benefit of those you lead, you will continue to forge paths forward, to be creative and to search for solutions to seemingly intractable problems. Yet, through no fault of your own, as each day passes without clear guidance and safety assurances, it becomes less likely that we will be ready to reopen in September.
At this moment, many members are also dealing with the fallout of a poorly implemented summer school program, CEP completion, an ill-advised mandated three-day professional development program, and selection of a hybrid model of instruction for the fall. Our suggestion that the professional development be postponed fell on deaf ears as the DOE felt that it was too valuable to miss. Your feedback suggests otherwise. I find it hard to believe and extremely misguided that you are being asked to concern yourself with anything other than reopening plans for the remainder of the summer. To that end, we have advised the DOE that you do not have the necessary information to submit a proposed model for hybrid instruction by the end of the day tomorrow and argued they push the date back. As a result, they have agreed to do so, and plans now do not have to be submitted until August 14. It is our hope and expectation that DOE uses this time efficiently and appropriately guides, directs, and answers you in a manner it has not done to this point.
Recently, the DOE released a set of FAQs around reopening. Unfortunately, the DOE’s FAQs do not address the real and practical concerns our team has surfaced centrally, nor many questions you have raised in the field. Therefore, CSA compiled relevant FAQs for school leaders and administrators and will now forward them to the DOE. These are questions that are imperative for the DOE to answer if it expects you to plan a September opening. You can find the FAQs here (link is for members only). We will insist the DOE provide answers and we will share with you as they do.
Ultimately it is the responsibility of the DOE to set policy and provide resources required to implement their plans. Although this should not have to be said, no less repeated, it is also the responsibility of the DOE to clearly communicate those plans to you directly. Unless and until the Chancellor’s team has done so, no plans are final or definite despite what you may have heard.
We recognize the need for frequent communication during this time and will continue to keep you informed of accurate and up-to-date information in a number of ways. We have held virtual meetings in every district, been in regular communication with our district/borough chairs as well as our executive board members who represent you, and we have taken great care to provide verified and timely information via regular Member Updates. Additionally, I will lead a citywide virtual CSA meeting in the coming days, the details of which will be shared imminently.
In the meantime, please know we are advocating relentlessly on your behalf for strong safety protocols as prerequisite to opening, clear guidance around programming and scheduling, and sufficient staffing to implement both in-person and remote instruction. You deserve nothing less, and we will not stop fighting to support you.
I look forward to speaking with you directly very soon,
In Unity,
Mark Cannizzaro
40 comments:
Nice work James. Another anti uft, anti mulgrew article. You keep proving the point for me. I could just copy and paste all the comments from the previous thread about how the uft is failing, you could then rewrite how the dues are being earned. Notice a trend? Uft continues to not earn the dues.
The CDC says that it is critical that all administrators (According to the CDC):
Engage and encourage everyone in the school and the community to practice preventive behaviors. These are the most important actions that will support schools’ safe reopening and will help them stay open.
Implement multiple SARS-CoV-2 mitigation strategies (e.g., social distancing, cloth face coverings, hand hygiene, and use of cohorting).
Communicate, educate, and reinforce appropriate hygiene and social distancing practices in ways that are developmentally appropriate for students, teachers, and staff.
Integrate SARS-CoV-2 mitigation strategies into co-curricular and extracurricular activities (e.g., limiting or canceling participation in activities where social distancing is not feasible).
Maintain healthy environments (e.g., cleaning and disinfecting frequently touched surfaces).
Make decisions that take into account the level of community transmission.
Repurpose unused or underutilized school (or community) spaces to increase classroom space and facilitate social distancing, including outside spaces, where feasible;
Develop a proactive plan for when a student or staff member tests positive for COVID-19.
Develop a plan with state and local health department to conduct case tracing in the event of a positive case.
Educate parents and caregivers on the importance of monitoring for and responding to the symptoms of COVID-19 at home.
Develop ongoing channels of communication with state and local health departments to stay updated on COVID-19 transmission and response in your local area.
The guidance described in this document is based on the best available evidence at this time. This guidance is meant to supplement—not replace—any state, local, territorial, or tribal health and safety laws, rules, and regulations with which schools must comply.
Key considerations for school administrators: (According to the CDC)
COVID-19 transmission rates in the immediate community and in the communities in which students, teachers, and staff live
Approaches to cohorting that fit the needs of your school/district and community (e.g., keeping students in class pods, staggering when students return to school facility, having the same teacher stay with the same group of students)
Can unused or underutilized school spaces, including outdoor spaces, be repurposed to increase classroom space and facilitate social distancing?
Concurrently implementing multiple strategies in school to prevent the spread of COVID-19 (e.g., social distancing, cloth face coverings, hand hygiene, and use of cohorting)
Best practices for your school and community to communicate, educate, and reinforce personal protective behaviors to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in school and in the community
Integrating strategies to reduce COVID-19 transmission into co-curricular and extracurricular activities (e.g., limiting participation in activities where social distancing is not feasible)
Planning and preparing for when someone gets sick
Working with state and local health authorities to develop a plan to conduct contact tracing in the event of a positive case
Communicating appropriately to families about home-based symptom screening
How can K-12 schools prepare for going back to in-person instruction? (According to the CDC)
Expect cases of COVID-19 in communities. International experiences have demonstrated that even when a school carefully coordinates, plans, and prepares, cases may still occur within the community and schools. Expecting and planning for the occurrence of cases of COVID-19 in communities can help everyone be prepared for when a case or multiple cases are identified.
Coordinate, plan, and prepare. Administrators should coordinate with local public health officials to stay informed about the status of COVID-19 transmission in their community. Additionally, planning and preparing are essential steps administrators can take to safely reopen schools:
CDC’s Considerations for Schools provides detailed recommendations for schools to plan and prepare to reduce the spread of COVID-19, establish healthy environments and maintain healthy operations. This guidance includes information about implementation of mitigation strategies, such as physical distancing within buses, classrooms and other areas of the school, healthy hygiene habits, cleaning and disinfection, use of cloth face coverings, staggering student schedules, and planning for staff and teacher absences (e.g., back-up staffing plans).
One important strategy that administrators can consider is cohorting (or “pods”), where a group of students (and sometimes teachers) stay together throughout the school day to minimize exposure for students, teachers, and staff across the school environment. At the elementary school level, it may be easier to keep the same class together for most of the school day. In middle and high school settings, cohorting of students and teachers may be more challenging. However, strategies such as creating block schedules or keeping students separated by grade can help to keep smaller groups of students together and limit mixing. Strategies that keep smaller groups of students together can also help limit the impact of COVID-19 cases when they do occur in a school.If a student, teacher, or staff member tests positive for SARS-CoV-2, those in the same cohort/group should also be tested and remain at home until receiving a negative test result or quarantine. This helps prevent a disruption to the rest of the school and community by limiting the exposure. Schools should have systems in place to support continuity or learning for students who need to stay home for either isolation or quarantine. This includes access to online learning, school meals, and other services. The same holds for students with additional needs, including children with a disability, that makes it difficult to adhere to mitigation strategies.
Do you want to have the same argument every post? I am opposed to many of the policies of the UFT leadership but I am a strong union supporter. The opt out ship sailed for this year but I guess you will be reminding us of it each time you think Mulgrew comes up short which will probably be often enough although maybe this year it will be different.
james, dont you think at some point you are pushing on a string? How many years of this will make you realize that mulgrew wont change? Where is your red line? Almost everything you post is an indictment of the uft.
Either covid is dangerous or it isnt. Either we all stay home or none. All this accommodation does is instill division.
LOL. James writes this, saying he knows the uft will continue to fail while saying pay dues, pro union. It is ok to be pro union but opt out of this one, at least temporarily.
"but I guess you will be reminding us of it each time you think Mulgrew comes up short which will probably be often enough although maybe this year it will be different."
The CSA president is clearly a stronger leader than Mulgrew. He is standing up for his members and Mulgrew will ride his coat tails and claim he took a stand for his members. It's better than nothing but we do pay enough and should be entitled to strong leadership. I respectfully disagree with you James. Yes, we can stand up and say we will not enter school buildings and only want to teach remotely. But this should not be left to the members to organize this. We pay for leadership and we are not getting that.
So now the whole responsibility and execution of reopening schools is expected to be fulfilled by principals, and school staff in general?
What an easy way to transfer all the work and effort to those who are expected to risk their lives.
If we could only trust that all the expected measures will be in place for September, and kept on a daily basis..., but we know they won't...
For those who work inside a school building it is well known how they lack the necessary conditions on any given day (we are used to lack human and material resources but we have developed skills to cope with that, and always problem solve).
This time is a matter of life and death, we do want to work, we do want to teach in person to all students as we now it is best, but there are many unknowns about how this virus behaves. The spectrum of possibilities is so wide that one person's body can be oblivious to it while another can end up dead. We don't know how children transmit, get sick, or react to it... Every single study out there is a suggestion, a possibility but not a proven fact.
Is in person education essential? No, not really; not when lives are health come first. Lives are essential, staying alive is essential.
Sounds to me like we have a strong ally in the head of the CSA. Now let's hope that the UFT bands with him. I'm certain there is a lot going on behind the scenes that we are not privy to.
In a survey of teachers at NYC's elite Stuyvesant HS, 40% say they qualify as heath risks, and 40% do not feel safe traveling on public transportation,
80 percent will seek exemptions from returning.
https://nypost.com/2020/07/24/80-of-teachers-at-stuyvesant-will-seek-exemptions-from-returning/?utm_source=twitter_sitebuttons&utm_medium=site%20buttons&utm_campaign=site%20buttons via
@nypmetro
Jeff and 3:18, You can choose to give up and opt out. You have convinced perhaps a few hundred to follow you out. That is meaningless although I hope you put your saved dues money to a worthy cause.
I choose to stay and expose the UFT's shortcomings. The power resides in all of you collectively. That is what will force Mulgrew to change. An informed membership, chapter by chapter is the answer.
It has been a slog for a long time but the rank and file standing up for themselves in March saved lives. What happened would have been worse had members not rebelled. I played a small part by showing members in writing how to stay out legally and by supporting people who chose not to go to work.
Even the worst Principal does not want their students and staff to die.
For the anti-union people, can you imagine what NYC schools would be like without them?
It would be worse.
And, instead of whining, run for a position in the union and improve your school and then all the schools.
(I bet most of you aren’t even teachers.)
If I get really fat, really quickly, i can file for an accommodation. Is that what the uft wants us doing?
5:30, It is the same 2 or 3 people who write the same opt-out comments on so many posts. The opt-out period ended in June. They stopped for a few weeks but are now getting an early start on 2021.
Look at the Stuyvesant story. That is a strong chapter fighting back. Not very possible if they all opted out.
Maybe they are writing it again because they are being failed again. Look at 5:31 pm, is that what we should be thinking? If we were obese or had diabetes or had kidney problems we wouldnt have to go to work and catch covid? Where is the uft on this. The complaints are fair.
This reminds me of uft logic. Some can stay safe, some have to go to die, and kill their family when they bring it home.
Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday that the Black Lives Matter movement “transcends any notion of politics,” as he defended allowing the words to be painted on streets across the city while not approving similar mural requests from groups like the pro-cop Blue Lives Matter.
“This is about something much bigger than any one group,” de Blasio said during his daily City Hall press briefing in response to a reporter’s question about whether he would green-light mural requests from groups like Blue Lives Matter and Women for America First.
How can there be accommodations and then say that the uft will say something if it is unsafe. If there are accommodations, IT MUST BE UNSAFE.
Maybe this is why some complain. How many have to get sick or die? In Israel, the reopened the school buildings. A 64-year-old teacher died of Coronavirus after having reported that parents failed to quarantine students with the virus. Could that happen in a country where a President generally pretends the virus doesn't exist? Could someone be unfamiliar with the symptoms and assume it's something else?
NYC teachers are there to serve the children of the city. And since we now know the virus does not affect children,except to the tiniest degree, teachers must return to work as the essential workers they are.
If you're too gaslit to go back then resign your position and make room for a younger teacher who isn't such a coward.
Several administrators have been leaving NYC DOE. They must have known something was brewing. They did not want to be around Carranza and the disorganized DOE. Fed up.
For those contemplating not applying for the accommodations because their doctors aren’t concerned or their sickness is controlled, please remember that we’re just a number. So were our 70+ members that passed. Please do what’s best for your family. I'm sorry to those of you who are healthy enough not to get the accommodation. It is unfair and discriminatory and dangerous. I am a dues paying member but the but is a disgrace. If one can stay home, all can stay home.
Or is it an indictment of
A. Mulgrew
B. Educators
C. Both
UFT 2020: Safety for me, not for thee.
Thanks uft, but keep paying dues.
We are in good hands, dont worry.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1286406849659432962
Randi doesnt trust Trump. She neglects to make mention of uft impotence, teachers not trusting Mulgrew or March 17-19.
Randi Weingarten
@rweingarten
Florida is a perfect example of why educators and school staff don't trust Trump. At the same time he demands schools reopen, he cancels part of his convention because of COVID.
And another, nice to have a union...Cleveland schools to start remotely. #1 priority of
@CTU279
was to maintain the health, safety and well-being of students and educators. Glad that Cleveland Teachers Union &
@ShariOB
developed a solid partnership with the Sup't.
Cleveland rocks.
I am a 40 year old coward. Please buy me out/Offer severance.
Great plan-Educat 7:11 Brillant Plan-have the younger teacher bring it home to kill there parents and spread it around the 20-30 set. WE are not servants we are educators. We are not childcare workers we are educators. We were hired to educate children not risk our lives for them. We are not the same as doctors, nurses etc who are trained and educated to deal with sickness and disease. You are just as ignorant as Trump.
Cuomo said his plan is simple. If COVID-19 is controlled (due to statistics), schools will open. That was his short statement.
Well, it is not that simple. He will soon find that out.
@ 10:13 PM - Those same doctors and nurses you mentioned don't want to see you in their offices unless it's by appointment and if it can be done remotely, even better. I cannot call my doctor directly. I have to call another number for an appointment in which I am sure I will be screened. They know the dangers.
Funny how the left thinks comparing one to Trump is an insult. Conservatives don't care about Trump being "ignorant." We support his policies. Conservatives are making a comeback thanks to the rioters. But it really makes no difference to ny teachers because they have already been screwed by democrats obama, Cuomo and Deblasio.
Fascinating...
https://www.nbcboston.com/news/coronavirus/ashland-public-schools-provide-sneek-peek-at-socially-distanced-return-to-classes/2164657/?fbclid=IwAR0xg5QvaHXC8T1dGVHWsYk1hTx-lWyY_0_6DAJQi-xIeTEPV6sB1vwREcw
@6:38: Obama is the go to punching bag for trumpies. History will tell the story and people will see for themselves. "Conservatives don't care about trump being ignorant". This is hilarious.I don't know what trump is but many conservatives have no use for him. He is certainly smart enough to know what makes his base tick. If he wants to make America save lives: Do something about covid 19. Right now America is on par with brazil. I guess he's the best and brightest for his base.
@10:49 AM - Another reason why the overcrowded NYC public schools would not be able to implement all safety guidelines and this piece was just a touch of what the guidelines expect.
School is opening. We are way below the 5% threshold the governor speaks of.
Yes, but we want to remain below that threshold. If that were true he would let us have indoor dining and open museums, etc. He still knows it's dangerous below threshold or not.
6:38,
Don't forget the Republican Giuliani who wanted to blow up the Board of Ed headquarters (pre-9/11) and Bloomberg, whatever party he's in, gave us leadership academy admins and gotcha evaluations.
Trump is no hero to public school teachers. Through his Sec of Ed he supports school choice, charter schools and vouchers. All of these undercut public schools.
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