Dear UFT Member,
We faced extraordinary challenges during the 2019–20 school year. UFT members were the driving force in ensuring that our school buildings closed in March to protect our school communities. And together, educators and families kept learning alive for students despite the fear and heartache the pandemic caused.
Now we must come together again for the next challenge: planning for the 2020-21 school year.
School buildings should only reopen in the fall — even on a limited basis — if the safety of students, staff and families is assured.
As much as we want to be back in our classrooms, we can reopen school buildings only if robust health and safety protocols and procedures are in place that protect all of us. We must not repeat the mistakes of last March. Our city has been through too much — we have been through too much — to go backward. Decisions about reopening school buildings must be based on medical evidence.
Educators in the Department of Education, the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators and the UFT will work closely together throughout the summer on plans for the new school year.
If we move ahead with a blended learning model, the DOE, the CSA and the UFT have agreed to adopt a citywide package of protocols relying on medical guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Every school would be required to adopt these protocols, and the DOE would supply the necessary materials, training and building upgrades necessary to meet these standards.
Personal protective equipment (PPE)
Staff and students will wear face coverings inside school buildings at all times.
The DOE will provide disposable masks for staff and students who do not have personal masks.
The DOE will provide additional PPE for staff whose interaction with students requires additional protection. For example, school nurses will be fit-tested for N95 masks, gloves, gowns and face shields.
Exceptions will be developmentally appropriate and will be paired with heightened PPE for staff and decreases in class size.
Medical accommodations for staff
The DOE is creating an online application for members to apply for medical accommodations to allow them to work from home.
The DOE will send school staff an email to their DOE email address by July 15 with instructions to complete the application and submit the required supporting documentation from a medical provider.
Social distancing
All schools will be mandated to follow CDC and state guidelines for social distancing.
Next week the DOE will share models for how schools can schedule students and staff for blended instruction — in-person and remote learning — consistent with the current guidelines.
Cleaning and disinfecting protocols
School custodial staff will be responsible for nightly deep cleanings.
School custodial staff will be required to clean touchpoints, such as door knobs and student desks, throughout the day and replenish supplies.
Every instructional and common space will be equipped with hand sanitizers and disinfectant spray.
Each school building will be equipped with upgraded cleaning equipment, including electrostatic sprayers found to be more effective in distributing disinfectant sprays.
School ventilation systems have been inspected and, if necessary, will be repaired.
Upgraded air filters are being installed.
Tracking and tracing COVID-19 cases
The city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene will dedicate a team to respond to any suspected cases of COVID-19 in public schools.
This team will be responsible for notification, tracking, tracing and quarantining.
Parents may choose full-time remote learning
Families may register their children for 100% remote instruction. The mayor reported that about a quarter of parents who responded to the DOE family survey said they prefer that their children continue to learn from home every day.
Families do not need to meet any medical thresholds to choose full-time remote learning.
This afternoon, Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza briefed principals across the city on the results of the family and student survey, health and safety, the budget and the DOE’s guiding principles. That briefing was the first in a series of ongoing discussions.
Many questions still need to be answered, but we will work on possible solutions together.
Our final decision about moving ahead in September depends upon medical and scientific assessments concerning the virus and its containment. The changing nature of these assessments means we must wait to make that decision closer to the first day of school even though we know that delay creates difficulties for parents and educators alike.
The planning process has not been easy, and there are no easy solutions for the challenges still ahead of us. As we prepare for the fall, the lessons from March are clear: educators and parents, not politicians, must drive these decisions.
Stay healthy and safe.
Sincerely,
Michael Mulgrew
UFT President
24 comments:
Have they put out an official calendar yet?
Calendar?
Open market?
Spring break comp?
If there must be social distancing, it is not safe.
How come it is not safe for certain staff members? Are they admitting that people can indeed get sick? That sounds unsafe for anyone.
just keep thinking of my friends student whose father, grandparent and uncle all died if covid.
.@DOEChancellor just sent this out about “reopening” in September. This is the last slide.
What about “Preparing for when teachers or students family members die”? What do we do then?
Now I have a kidney stone.
Any accommodation means it isn't safe for us. What is the question?
Putting out a calendar is not difficult.
Reopening the schools is difficult.
Logic suggests that the DOE can not do simple tasks like putting out the calendar,
and therefore the DOE can not do complex administrative tasks like reopening the schools safely.
The DOE and De Blasio look at teachers as sacrificial employees that are necessary to reopen the economy. For some reason, De Blasio always looks like he gas been drinking alcohol on the job.
Sep?
NY, NJ No Longer on Track to Contain COVID, Group Says, as US Breaks Daily Case Record Again
"I see storm clouds on the horizon," Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday as he announced indoor dining New York City was postponed indefinitely. Meanwhile, New Jersey announced Thursday the state will extend public health emergency an additional 30 days as it continues to fight COVID.
Randi Weingarten
@rweingarten
Thanks
@marthamaccallum
for having me on. We want to open in the fall. Our students need us. For their sake, the Senate must pass the funds needed to reopen safely.
The 75% of parents that responded they want their children to attend school in person are out of their minds. All these enclosed places are not allowed to open and they want their children to walk into the death chamber of schools where the DOE is incompetent and schools have absolutely poor ventilation and not air filtration system. What is wrong with these parents?
@6:48PM - Kidney stone???? Medical note. Work remote.
The schools have to open in the Fall. The Remote "learning" fiasco has hurt too many kids. It will be a rough year consisting of infections with teacher and student absenteeism, but the schools HAVE TO OPEN! Online learning does NOT work for the vast majority of students. Students need the structure of a regulated school day in a school building! This virus will last the year regardless. People will get infected one way or another. We can't continue to wait for a "vaccine" that at best will have limited effectiveness. In the meantime, you destroy the entire economy and social structure of the United States...How many will lose their lives as a result of that??? "crickets" Nobody wants to provide an estimate. I'm sorry, I usually agree with most of the points on this blog, but not with this issue.
If someone truly has an underlying medical condition that provides a much greater risk of death from Coronavirus infection, (teacher or student) then make online accommodations for them. Everyone else should be told to prepare for a regular school opening with some modifications to classroom practices. (ex. align all desks in rows as opposed to groups, limited discussion, face mask requirements, reduction in team teaching classes, staggered schedules, reduced after school activities, hand sanitizers in every classroom, nightly cleaning with disinfectant. This would only be for ONE school year. By the 2021-22 school year, things should be back to normal.
We flattened the curve by staying home. If there is a safe and effective vaccine by January, we can save a whole lot of lives by staying home for another term until this virus is under control. Had we listened to 9:13, that UFT honors page would have thousands on it.
Trump should have called a national lockdown and still should until this is under control. Instead, covidiots go out and infect everyone.
Why stay home, what could happen in a school building?
Fauci warns of new coronavirus mutation that causes illness to spread faster
The country’s top infectious disease expert said Thursday that a more infectious strain of the coronavirus may be emerging.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, made the claim Thursday in an interview with the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Fauci said research suggests Italy was devastated by a different strain of the coronavirus than the one that originated in Wuhan, China.
The main difference between the two, Fauci said, is that Italy’s version passes from person to person more effectively, making it even more difficult to contain.
“It just seems that the virus replicates better and may be more transmissible,” said Fauci.
The study he referenced, which was released by researchers affiliated with the Sheffield COVID-19 Genomics Group, states that the new strain “has become the most prevalent form in the global pandemic.”
Mike Trout: “Honestly, I still don’t feel comfortable.”
But lets pack them in by the thousands, staff and students and travel...
Dr. David Samadi
@drdavidsamadi
I cannot believe that they lied to us about Hydrochloroquine just to prove the President wrong.
How many lives were lost because of it?
Feel safe yet?
Ready to go to work?
At least 3 killed in 10 shootings over 24-hour period in NYC
Coronavirus cases take big jump in Texas day care centers
The state reinstituted emergency rules June 25, nearly two weeks after it repealed special requirements.
Of all the school scenarios, it seems high school is the easiest to strategize as student attendance can be staggered. Elementary school/early childhood are an impossible scenario
Teacher lives matter
Staggered schedules are going to be a disaster even in high school. The kids won't want to come in on Fridays and they won't want to stay late. They'll be going to guidance to get their schedules changed to early schedules.
They did it by grades in the asbestos crisis in 1993. 12th grade and 11th early and 9th and 10th late. It lasted a very short time as rooms were quickly abated.
Thank you Michael Mulgrew for closing the schools until September 29th this is a good start but PS78 need to be closed its not safe to be in this 99 year old building we have workers from outside painting with drop cloths and dry paint on the floors and they are scraping paint from the walls Close the school Mr President of UFT we know we are not ready curriculum wise or health wise we do not want to die because taking a child temperature will not determine if they have Covid-19 we are scare frighten mad as hell nervous we are all in a bad situation we need you to close the schools and work remotely so our student do not suffer from not being taught the skills they need to grow Thank you Annette White
Post a Comment