‘We Did It’: De Blasio Declares Victory On NYC School Reopening

NEW YORK CITY — A jubilant Mayor Bill de Blasio marked the city’s third and final “first day” with a declaration of victory.

“We did it, New York City,” he said Thursday.

De Blasio’s proclamation occurred as thousands of middle and high school students returned to classrooms that morning. They were the last group of pupils going back to school in the city’s rocky, phased reopening.

Many questions and tough times lie ahead, de Blasio acknowledged, but he and other officials emphasized the unprecedented step the city took.

“We are the only major school district in the entire country to safely reopen our schools for in-person learning,” said Chancellor Richard Carranza.

Officials twice delayed the city’s planned reopening in favor of a three-part, phased-in approach that brought batches of grade levels back into schools.

Up to 500,000 students are expected to begin in-person learning starting this week, officials said.

But the rosy picture painted by de Blasio and Carranza appears to have a touch of stormy gray on the horizon.

For one, parents and students who opted for fully remote learning have only increased — a potential sign they’re spooked by the rough reopening process. Just shy of half of all students now will learn completely from home, up from 30 percent.

The trepidation likely won’t be eased by growing coronavirus cases in now 10 ZIP codes in Brooklyn and Queens. Leaders with the United Federation of Teachers have called for potential localized school closures affecting about 80 buildings in those areas.

De Blasio, when asked about the call and a potential lawsuit, said the school district’s “situation room” is tracking all positive cases in the system.

“We’re seeing no indication of any up surge in those 10 ZIP codes inside the public schools,” he said. “I keep saying there appears to be a real separation between what’s happening in the neighborhoods versus what’s happening in the public schools that really do have a different constituency.”

The areas where coronavirus cases are spiking have large Orthodox Jewish populations. Health officials are conducting outreach on mask wearing and social distancing in those neighborhoods, and have started increased enforcement on private or religious schools.

Staffing became a sticking point between educator unions and school officials as they coordinated, negotiated and sparred over reopening. De Blasio on Thursday didn’t provide concrete figures on whether schools have enough staff.

It’s a balancing act to coordinate in-person and various flavors of remote learning, de Blasio said.

“It takes weeks in a normal school year for all the staffing realities to sort out,” he said. “It will take weeks here but we are up and running. When everything is said and done and everyone is in their final assignments at that point we’ll give an update on exactly how many additional staff were needed for this extraordinary situation.”