Please carefully read this information from the Deparment of Education's revised Reopening Plan . The DOE is very clear in saying staff and students "must" do a health check each morning before going to school. There will be no school for anyone experiencing any COVID-19 symptoms or being close to someone who experiences symptoms.
From page 26 of this latest DOE document:
Monitoring
Screening
Daily health screenings for students and school-based staff, including temperature checks, must be completed at home by families and by school-based staff. NYCDOE will launch a robust education campaign that makes clear to parents and school-based staff how important these daily health checks are to keeping school communities healthy and safe. NYCDOE is committed to the purchasing of thermometers for at home use for families who may need them.
School-based staff and students cannot report to school if they have:
• Experienced any symptoms of COVID-19 (chills, cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, fatigue, muscle or body aches, headache, loss of taste or smell, sore throat, congestion or runny nose, nausea or vomiting, or diarrhea), including a temperature of greater than 100.0°F, in the past 14 days;
• Been knowingly in close or proximate contact in the past 14 days with anyone who has tested positive through a diagnostic test for COVID-19 or who has or had symptoms of COVID-19 (fever or chills, cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, fatigue, muscle or body aches, headache, loss of taste or smell, sore throat, congestion or runny nose, nausea or vomiting, or diarrhea);
• Tested positive through a diagnostic test for COVID-19 in the past 10 days; AND/OR
• Traveled internationally or from a state with widespread community transmission of COVID-19 per the New York State Travel Advisory in the past 14 days.
If you have ANY symptoms or have been close to someone who has symptoms, you cannot come to school. I don't know how they can charge your sick bank when they mandate that you stay home.
Please adhere to these rules closely. It is not a strike or a sickout if you experience symptoms or someone in your household experiences COVID-19 symptoms and you stay home. You are following a DOE directive.
On a prior post, a commenter reported that their assistant principal gives them nausea each day. That could be COVID-19. Stay home.
Are you having headaches? Stay home; DOE orders.
Are you experiencing some fatigue? Don't go to school.
Are your kids having some symptoms? Stay home.
I hope you get the idea. We can help stop the spread if we all work by the DOE rules.
does that come from sick bank?
ReplyDeleteAre these days going to be charged to your CAR? If so who is going to stay home all of these days if they are taken out. In the spring you had to have a positive COVID test or days would be taken out of your bank
ReplyDeleteYou know the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome. When will you learn? keep talking, no change. I dont blame you, james. Just get real.
ReplyDeleteSo, pretty much we have to stay home when we get a cold, which many of us would power through and go to work for anyway since we can't afford to use all 10 sick days any time we have any minor feeling of illness. Gotcha. Schools are gonna be closed by October. Also, we're that dependent on the government that we can't buy our own thermometers?
ReplyDeleteWell they took our teacher’s choice money away .
Delete"When people say that teachers are essential workers and that schools should reopen, I think we have to unpack that idea a bit..."
ReplyDeleteEducation is essential.
In-person education during a pandemic is not.
#OnlyWhenItsSafe
#RefuseToReturn
#14DaysNoNewCases
#DemandSafeSchools
My head is spinning. The Mayor has set the bar to stay open at 3%. What happens to schools that are in neighborhoods that are above 3%. My school in the Bronx is in a neighborhood that is above 5%. Will the schools in that neighborhood close? This is a question that needs to be addressed.
ReplyDeleteSooo if one kid catches it basically the whole grade team and grade are quarantined for two weeks? 🤣
ReplyDeleteThink about it, (middle school) I teach four classes so if a kid in one of my classes is exposed I just exposed all the rest of my students, and if that kid had the other subject teachers... then exactly who is in this school
“Schools and offices may consider the needs of individuals who may not feel comfortable returning to an in-person educational environment when making assignments and modifying work settings and/or schedules where possible”
ReplyDeleteThis is included in the DOE’s reopening plan. Seems that schools (administrators?) can allow a staff member to work at home remotely if they don’t feel comfortable coming into the buildings.
You or your significant other has a headache.
ReplyDeleteExperiencing nausea?
Whose certifying that the DOE-purchased thermometer is even being used by families. Sounds to me like the DOE wants staff to stay home.
703 new cases yesterday with everything closed. Now imagine everyone...You get it.
ReplyDeleteWhy no comment from pelosi, schumer, msnbc, cnn...About how cuomo is sending children to die to improve the economy?
ReplyDeleteThis is 1 day.
ReplyDelete8,502 new reported Florida COVID-19 cases overnight, 182 new deaths
I live in Staten Island, work in Manhattan. The open market, as usual, was a waste of time. I'm supposed to take a bus, ferry and train, both ways, everyday? And expect not to get infected? And of course that ignores the 7 hours in the building.
ReplyDeleteWhere's the 2020-21 NYCDOE School Calendar. It's August, and we're still in the dark about that.
ReplyDeleteLunch indoors is unacceptable...But ok for schools.
ReplyDeleteWow, James, sounds like everyone is unhappy. Next step?
ReplyDeleteExclusive: NYC Teachers Union Launches Its Own Investigation of School Building Air Quality Amid COVID Threat, UFT President Says
ReplyDeleteUpdated Aug. 7
Looking to spur the New York City Department of Education to take preventative action on airborne COVID transmission in schools, the United Federation of Teachers is taking the long-standing issue of poor ventilation into its own hands, UFT President Michael Mulgrew told The 74 in an exclusive interview.
Starting Wednesday, the UFT began dispatching health and safety workers to school buildings, prioritizing 30 “red flag” offenders that have had dysfunctional ventilation systems for years, he said. The workers will check air intake systems on roofs as well as exhaust systems and air diffusers inside.
Yes you will have to use days in your bank - as you would if you had the flu. (Or FMLA). Grow a pair and don't give into the hysteria over a disease with a survival rate of 99.6% (CDC) And as for the "But, but, granny," then don't go near them. If you're going out shopping, cut the crap about being scared of the schools.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with this is many are spreaders without showing any symptoms. Parents give their kids medicine so they show no fever when they first come into school and are we using our own sick days to follow their guidelines of staying home?
ReplyDeleteSubs will bring in more germs to the school.
#Open restaurants for indoor dining, museums, indoor zoo exhibits, gyms in NYC first and see what happens. I am not a guinea pig!
It’s very sad that educators have to find loop holes and creative methods to keep themselves safe. You have a union. It should take a consensus and determine what the rank and file wants - not what Mulgrew and deBlasio want. And if the rank and file want 100% remote learning then that’s what Mulgrew should demand - not grovel, not equivocate and hide from. Call the UFT, use you name and make a stink.
ReplyDeleteSo we’re to count on families on keeping their children home if they show symptoms? Unacceptable. Mulgrew is letting Carranza and De Blasio bury themselves. Buildings are not opening come September.
ReplyDeletePeter, How much time and effort and money is being wasted trying to let the stupidity fall under its own weight? Not good for any of us. We are the only big city school district holdout left that has not gone full remote yet. UFT weakness, not strategy, is a big cause. In March that Union weakness cost lives. At least right now it is only dollars and work hours.
DeleteIf you are wrong and school buildings open, it will probably be more lives lost in the fall. We must prepare as if school buildings will be open and adjust if they are not.
James, how much time and effort can the UFT put in to the DOE and City? Minimal. Carranza and DeBlasio are burying themselves. Let them keep doing it. We are not opening in September.
DeleteOne more thing. We are not LA. We are not Chicago. We are NYC. I’m not going compare a 1981 Dodge Aries to a 2020 Ford Fusion.
Our rank and file has the potential to be LA and Chicago but we are led misled by Unity. It is up to us to change that. I am still trying.
DeleteWhere is Shelly?
ReplyDeleteAnyone know if Shelly is okay?
Haven't heard from Shelly in a while. Hope she is okay.Please check in.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn’t matter! We’re going back because the UFT is in cahoots with the Mayor! Rally, march, do whatever we want because we will be back, people will get sick and die, and the UFT will fake outrage and sorrow and give in to the mayors next want! #UFTdisgrace
ReplyDelete@3:03 We’re not going back. Chill out.
DeleteI would rather go remote and risk long term change to less teachers than die...
ReplyDeleteMore than 200,000 NYC parents want to keep their kids home: data
ReplyDeleteMore than 200,000 New York City parents have chosen to keep their kids home when school starts in September, shunning a combination of in-person and remote learning, according to preliminary data.
ReplyDeleteOf 322,572 families who filed an online preference form with the Department of Education by Thursday, 212,940 requested 100 percent remote learning — nearly twice the 109,362 who chose blended learning, according to a tally obtained by The Post.
The DOE gave parents through Friday to chose between the two options and said anyone who did not pick would be in the blended model by default. There are 1.1 million children enrolled in the school system.
Kimberly Watkins, president of the parent advisory Community Education Council in District 3, which covers the Upper West Side and South Harlem, said the number of forms filed at the 11th hour raises questions about whether the DOE has a firm handle on parent preferences.
“The low response rate 24 hours before the deadline speaks volumes about the legitimacy of having parents make the decision with so little information about health and safety in the building, or the standards for remote learning,” Watkins said.
“It means there are a ton of people responding right up to the deadline, or they’re not going to respond at all.”
Besides fear of contracting COVID-19 in school, Watkins said, high school parents are concerned about their children’s commutes on mass transit, while elementary school parents worry about a “highly constrained” environment where kids cannot interact or even show emotion through their masks. On the other hand, many parents have also complained about the lack of live instruction in video classrooms.
to 11:07 if I am reading everything correctly what you say is correct. Although the word "close" I believe is in some descriptions. What is considered a close contact? In the room? Is passing by them in the hallway close? Or when entering the building?
ReplyDeleteHow about this. I am a PE teacher. I see everyone normally. Once I come in contact with anyone based on this logic it's over.
About 25,000 accommodation requests. I guess everyone else can drop dead. Thanks doe and uft.
ReplyDeleteOne researcher warned of a potential “epidemic” of brain damage linked to COVID-19.
ReplyDeletePresident Donald Trump gives a payroll tax, extends unemployment and a hold on evictions.
ReplyDeleteGonna be fantastic to watch Democrats argue against this.
"Nearly 100,000 children tested positive for coronavirus in the last 2 weeks of July, a new report from the American Academy of Pediatrics finds. Just over 97,000 children tested positive for the coronavirus from July 16 to July 30."
ReplyDeleteCovid caused 338,000 diagnosed infections in kids. 86 tragically died, thousands more hospitalized. To compare burden to flu, an estimated 11.3 million kids got symptomatic flu in 2018-19, 477 died. If Covid became as widespread in kids as flu, outcomes could be grim.
ReplyDeleteAgree with Pete Zucker.
ReplyDeleteThere will be remote 100%.
There is talk now with Cuomo and De Blasio which are coming to the realization that teachers need to feel safe. Cuomo even mentioned does not want to get into legal issues over it.
It's just unsafe. That's the landscape.
If Lydia Howrilka is still searching for an attorney- could someone please pass on the firm Nesenoff and Miltenberg to her? I know of a civil rights case against the DOE they are already handling. Can't risk being associated with even suggesting a name.
ReplyDeleteAnd why does
ReplyDelete@NYCSchools
continue to manipulate the results of this dubious survey (yes we all WANT to go back to school, but this does not mean it’s safe)? This 75% includes families that indicated they were “somewhat” or even only “a little bit” comfortable returning in-person.
322k families fill out form, 212k families want 100% remote. Assume of those 212k families more than one child so let's low ball and give 2 kids per family. 424k students staying home.
ReplyDeleteWhere is DiBlasio's 75% want their kids back in school? This is 33% at best.
Break it down further. Families going in most likely from covid hardest hit low income areas with single parent or both parent working.
Pete is correct about the schools going 100% remote. Pete is however rationalizing terrible strategy (IMHO) from Mulgrew and giving the UFT a pass for playing along with the DOE. That isn’t being cagey. That is profoundly unethical (to the rank and file), shows true cowardice and is a move from an assumed position of weakness. (Someone teach Mulgrew the game of chess.) We know the schools are going to be closed, so why wouldn’t Mulgrew state outright and demand that the schools close? Put on a big show and be prepared to follow through. The schools wouldn’t close because of that demand (it will be because of Cuomo’s vendetta with deBlasio and his efforts to hurt Trump’s re-election ) but, it would sure look like it and he would make the union ( the rank and file -not Mulgrew’s toadies) look and feel much stronger than it is now. (Cheers, Pete - I enjoy your blog.)
ReplyDeleteThe DOE proposal is incomplete, mainly optics, raises more questions, and reads more like a liability compliance checklist rather than something designed to instill confidence and build trust. Schools already paid a heavy price for poor decisions. I don’t support the DOE proposal
ReplyDelete"Pete is however rationalizing terrible strategy (IMHO) from Mulgrew and giving the UFT a pass for playing along with the DOE. That isn’t being cagey. That is profoundly unethical (to the rank and file), shows true cowardice and is a move from an assumed position of weakness."
ReplyDeleteI agree 9:44. I also enjoy Peter's blog but disagree on this.
I'm in the ATR and I won't even find out what school I'm assigned to until 5 days before classes begin, so I won't know the school's protocols or anything. Also, I'm surprised nobody is speaking up about the dangers of kids eating in the classrooms with their masks off. If Cuomo and Deblassio are so sure about the infection rate then why is he still not allowing indoor dining. If it won't spread in a school, it won't spread in a restaurant.
ReplyDeleteMORE-UFT Retweeted
ReplyDeleteAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez
@AOC
US House candidate, NY-14
If it’s not safe enough for indoor dining, what makes it safe enough for indoor schooling?
(...and restaurants actually have soap in the bathrooms)
@4:43 sure .. That's an easy one
ReplyDeletePayroll tax stoppage does nothing but take money away from social security and Medicare.. Exactly what they been trying to do for entitlement programs forever. You don't fund it, then you can say it's struggling and risk the future of the program. Cutting unemployment by 200 when it should stay at 600 anddddd on top of that, he wants the states to now pay a portion of it.. �� Evictions? Another band aid on a big wound. Where is the money relief for landlords? Where is the money for states? Where is the money to help pay you? All a ploy, but if you're intelligent enough to see what they are doing , then you will realize they don't want a deal, they want the optics that the dems don't want a deal. The last thing they want to do is help states and local governments and public workers as it does not benefit them. Oh well tho, hope it all works out !
My doctor mentioned to me that when he eats his lunch he makes sure that he is all alone due to covid-19.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.silive.com/coronavirus/2020/08/nyc-teachers-push-for-schools-to-stay-closed-come-fall.html
ReplyDelete