Hudson Valley Schools Not Ready To Reopen: Teachers Union Heads

HUDSON VALLEY, NY —In "An Open Letter to the School Communities" the heads of 45 local teachers' associations have laid out a complex argument that they find the reopening plans in their districts wanting.

"To create truly safe re-entry plans, districts would require more time, direction, and resources," the letter says.

In particular, the writers focus on the hybrid model combining in-class and remote teaching and learning.

"The hybrid model is the most popular one for re-entry this September, but it poses significant risks. The hybrid model requirement gained traction in the state early on, but unfortunately, most of what we have recently learned about COVID-19 and children calls the safety of this model into question," they said.

As they pointed out, plans to meet government requirements for safety are not necessarily plans to make the schools as safe as they can be.

"The limits of these plans hit close to home this summer when the Greenburgh-North Castle school experienced an outbreak of COVID-19, despite meeting or exceeding all Department of Health guidelines and having a very small student population," they said.

The open letter was initiated by Michael Lillis, president of the Lakeland Federation of Teachers. Signees included teachers from Westchester, Putnam, Orange and Rockland counties.

The signees offered a long list of essentials for reopening.

To ensure that in-person instruction begins safely, every school district should be putting into place the following measures that create the highest health and safety standards for our students, teachers, and staff:

1. All building-wide HVAC systems must be upgraded to a minimum of MERV-13 filtration, and if existing systems cannot be upgraded, portable units with HEPA filtration must be available for all indoor spaces.

2. There must be uniform standards for COVID testing that help monitor asymptomatic spread. COVID testing must provide accurate and reliable results within 24 hours in order to monitor asymptomatic spread. The current wait time can be as high as 12 days, which is not adequate to help prevent the spread of COVID by asymptomatic individuals infected with COVID in our schools.

3. Supply lines for PPE must be prioritized to deliver all necessary PPE to schools in a timely fashion. All schools must have an adequate supply of PPE at all times, including enhanced PPE for students and employees who require it.

4. School districts must be able to guarantee that there is sufficient staff to supervise students and provide instruction, even as individual staff members are absent for illness or quarantine, child-care, or personal leaves.

5. There must be a 100% virtual option for teachers and students who are medically compromised.

And, they said, while everything about teaching virtually is more complicated, "Educators and students need to not only feel safe but must actually be safe in their working and learning environments."

Read the full letter here.

In a news briefing Monday, Cuomo seemed to side with the teachers.

"I have spoken to hundreds of parents and teachers. There are many questions that they have," he said. "These are good questions because if you look around opening schools has proven problematic - by sophisticated governments, it's been problematic. Israel had an issue, Hong Kong had an issue, in this country, we've had issues. So the parents are right to be concerned.

"It's only natural for the parents and teachers to have questions - they're not being obstructionist. And I want the local school districts to understand that," he said. "If a school district does open and there's a COVID spread, the state will close the school. But we don't want to get to that point. That's exactly what we want to avoid and that's why the how and the plan is so important."