City Not Making Grade On NYC Schools Reopening, Says Union Prez

NEW YORK CITY — The head of New York City’s teachers union unleashed a blistering assessment of how ready the city is to reopen schools next week.

Schools don’t have enough protective equipment, troubling lags in coronavirus tests persist and they have major staffing challenges juggling in-person and remote instruction, said Michael Mulgrew, the president of the United Federation of Teachers.

The city has responded to these problems not with resources or solutions, but often with directions to “be creative,” he said.

“At this moment, they are not making the grade in terms of getting all this work done,” Mulgrew said Monday.

Later in the 40 minute Zoom conference, Mulgrew was stark about the readiness of schools to reopen Sept. 21: “If you ask me if we are ready to open today, I would say we are not.”

Mulgrew’s blunt talk contrasted with the rosy assessment offered by Mayor Bill de Blasio earlier that morning. De Blasio, while he reported 55 school staff have so far tested positive for the coronavirus, pledged action and an influx of 2,000 educators to help in the reopening.

But Mulgrew — who previously threatened a strike over the city’s lack of preparedness before hashing out an agreement delaying the start of school to give teachers more time to prepare — argued actions are more important than words.

He said the city has not been forthcoming on how many students at each school will be full-time remote, among other breakdowns.

Two teachers on the call laid out staffing problems that are stymying instruction plans.

Chelsea Career and Technical Education High School is currently on track to have at least 10 classes without an adult, leaving 100 or more students in the lurch, said teacher Jan Scott.

Likewise, Michael Vlahovic at New York Harbor School, said roughly a quarter of his colleagues will be teaching remotely. Educators are scrambling to figure out how to get enough teachers to cover classes that, because of the building’s size, can only be eight students at the most, he said.

As a solution, he said city’s Department of Education told the school to be “creative with programming.”

“This is the frustration we’re getting from every school community across the city,” Mulgrew said.

Mulgrew said if the problems aren’t addressed that the union will push for another delay to reopening schools.