HS OF ECONOMICS AND FINANCE BUILDING REOPENS WITH LOTS OF UNANSWERED QUESTIONS

 This came to us from the Chapter Leader at The High School of Economics and Finance, one of the 22 school buildings that even the DOE and UFT declared unsafe last week. The building was reopened today. This is a building with ten floors, no windows in classrooms and no filters installed.

Letter our chapter sent to admin last nignoht:

We appreciate your efforts in getting this school year off to a productive start. The staff at the High School of Economics and Finance realize the challenges involved in trying to run a school when there are so many moving parts and uncertainties. Whatever concerns we have about the viability of opening our building to professional development or instruction at this point are not aimed at you or anyone in the administration. In fact, we come to you in search of support and invite you to join us in addressing these concerns. You are our colleagues as well. We care for your well-being and that of your families. 

As you know, the Department of Education deemed our building too unsafe to reopen this past Labor Day. Since then, we have spent the past week carrying out our professional duties remotely. The Department of Education led us to believe that they had fixed the problems in our building. 

Needless to say, after the city dithered on closing schools this past March and after dozens of our educator colleagues around the city succumbed to Covid-19, we are skeptical of claims made by the Department of Education as to the safety of our facilities. Many of the problems in our building are long-standing. Could they have all been remedied in the span of four days? 

As you also know, the United Federation of Teachers conducted an inspection of the building before the repairs were made. It now falls upon us, as per the agreement reached between the UFT and DOE, to update this inspection. The questions below are all based on the parts of the UFT inspection that have yet to be resolved: 

1) What social distancing signage do we have?

2) Do we have a full-time nurse?

3) Does the nurse have an office?

4) Does the nurse's office have the proper partitions and PPE?

5) How will morning entry be handled?

6) How will afternoon dismissal be handled?

7) How will lunch service be handled?

8) How will the use of elevators be handled?

9) Do we have a dedicated isolation room?

10) What is the protocol for a student who claims to feel sick? 

11) What is the protocol for when a student attends school on a day they are not scheduled to be in person?

12) What PPE do we have for staff and students?

13) Are Merv-13 filters installed?

14) Which classrooms/staff spaces do not have proper airflow?

15) When/how often does the Building Response Team meet? 

16) Specifically, what work was carried out over the past week to make the building ready for professional development and instruction? 

While these questions do not cover everything, they serve as a starting point to ensure we have the minimum protection for staff and students. 

We feel the best course of action for all stakeholders is for us to work remotely from outside of the building until these concerns have been thoroughly addressed. We invite you to join us as well. We will be in contact with the UFT for guidance throughout the day. We do this to ensure the safety of our students, our colleagues and our families.  

Thank you for your time 

Letter I sent to Mulgrew today:

Dear Mr. Mulgrew,

I am writing you in all urgency as the Chapter Leader at the HS of Economics and Finance. As you know, we were one of the 22 schools closed last week due to ventilation issues.

Principal directed us to come in today since the DOE has cleared the space for reopening. Our staff was worried because we have many unresolved issues in UFT report. 

I emailed the administration with a list of 16 unresolved questions based upon the UFT's report. They still have not answered a single question. 

They cannot tell us if there are MERV13 filters and they do not have PPE for the staff.

The principal and superintendent threatened that if they don't enter the building by 1pm, they will be docked pay. 

I have copy and pasted the questions we asked of our administration below. 

Our teachers are taking a stand but I fear most will be compelled to go back inside by one. 

1) What social distancing signage do we have?

2) Do we have a full-time nurse?

3) Does the nurse have an office?

4) Does the nurse's office have the proper partitions and PPE?

5) How will morning entry be handled?

6) How will afternoon dismissal be handled?

7) How will lunch service be handled?

8) How will the use of elevators be handled?

9) Do we have a dedicated isolation room?

10) What is the protocol for a student who claims to feel sick? 

11) What is the protocol for when a student attends school on a day they are not scheduled to be in person?

12) What PPE do we have for staff and students?

13) Are Merv-13 filters installed?

14) Which classrooms/staff spaces do not have proper airflow?

15) When/how often does the Building Response Team meet? 

16) Specifically, what work was carried out over the past week to make the building ready for professional development and instruction?  

The superintendent is Vivian Orlens. She screamed at [UFT Special Rep] Anthong Klug today.