Brooklyn Uptick Is Latest Reason To Delay Reopening, School Says

SUNSET PARK, BROOKLYN — School officials in Sunset Park are adding a recent uptick in coronavirus cases in the neighborhood to the reasons New York City should hold off on reopening its schools for in-person classes.

An Equity Team at P.S. 169, known as the Sunset Park School, wrote a letter to city and state officials Wednesday arguing that a spike in coronavirus cases in the last few weeks has put their neighborhood above the city's 3 percent infection rate threshold for allowing in-person learning.

New York City schools shouldn't be allowed to reopen at all if some communities are above the bar deemed safe for all five boroughs, the educators say.

"Until all communities fall below the 3 percent threshold, the only equitable solution is for all school buildings to remain closed in New York City," said the educators, who also started a petition. "Any other course of action would jeopardize the health and safety of already disenfranchised communities."

The citywide threshold depends on New York City's coronavirus infection rate staying at or below 3 percent on a seven-day rolling average. The city's rate has hovered around 1 or 2 percent and reached a new low point on Wednesday, when only .24 percent of New Yorkers tested came back positive for COVID-19.

But in Sunset Park — where a spike of hundreds of cases last week prompted a city-led testing blitz — the infection rate has been as high as 7 percent.

Of 5,200 people tested since July 29 in Sunset Park, a total of 328 tests came back positive, though only 112 of the positive cases were people who live in the neighborhood (New Yorkers do not have to live in the neighborhood where they get tested).

Test and Trace Corps officials have put the infection rate for Sunset Park's 11220 ZIP code at 4.2 percent earlier this week. The health department's four-week average puts the neighborhood at a 3.12 percent infection rate.

Health officials have said the uptick has been traced back to certain households, rather than a "cluster situation" in the neighborhood.

Educators also point to Sunset Park's households — as another reason to avoid sending the neighborhood's kids back to school until the infection rate decreases.

"Many of our students are in overcrowded housing where multiple families share living spaces in multigenerational households," the school wrote. "...A student may bring the virus home to their grandparents, who are their main caregivers while students’ parents are at work. If grandparents are exposed to COVID-19, families may lose food and home security as well as child care assistance."

This — and the fact that Sunset Park is home to 10,000 to 15,000 frontline workers — is among the reasons 70 percent of families at P.S. 169 chose remote rather than in-person learning, much higher than the city average, the educators said.

Sunset Park School's letter comes as principals, teachers and parents speak out against reopening New York City's schools. The calls include more than 30 principals from District 15, which Sunset Park is part of, who wrote a similar letter last week.

"Within School District 15, we have some areas that are close to a 0 percent Corvid-19 positive test rate while in Sunset Park, the rate has regularly been as high as 7 percent," said Michael Racioppo, the district manager for Community Board 6, which extends over part of District 15. "None of the city's communities's can, nor should they, be treated as islands."

When asked about the Sunset Park School's concerns, a spokesperson for the Mayor's Office pointed Patch to questions de Blasio has answered about whether the 3-percent threshold will be based on certain areas, or citywide.

"...It's a very fair question to say, what if we have major variations geographically, we have not been seeing that," the mayor said last week. "I think it's either going to be pretty much the city as a whole is doing well, or God forbid we're going in the wrong direction."

The spokesperson said the city will "continue to prioritize our hardest hit areas for COVID-19 testing and resources" when asked specifically about Sunset Park's concerns about equity.

The city's health department echoed City Halls comments, saying that the threshold will be citywide, but that local rates will be "aggressively monitored."

"Where neighborhood fluctuations occur, the City is launching interventions – with equity at the forefront -- to ensure that people get the services they need, be it housing or medical assistance," a spokesperson said.

The city's Department of Education did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Sunset Park educators agree that the decision on reopening should be made citywide, given that closing school buildings in Sunset Park only would create a division among different neighborhoods, particularly white areas and communities of color.

But, they argue that sending all kids back to school when certain communities have a higher infection rate is also inequitable.

"...Sending teachers and students back to our classrooms while there is such a high rate of infection is putting an already vulnerable community further at risk," they wrote. "By reopening school buildings without proper precautions and measures, it is inevitable that communities like ours will, once again, suffer the most."