By Spiros Arion
The re-opening of NYC public schools continues to hit snags along the way
Teachers, principals, and other school staff are returned to classes on Tuesday to prepare for the upcoming school year. Initially, classes were set to begin on Sept. 10 but Mayor Bill de Blasio delayed the start of school until Sept. 21 due to various issues.
They will be reopening with a hybrid curriculum of online and in-person classes slated to begin respectively on Sept. 16 and 21. As part of the plan to reopen classrooms, random monthly COVID-19 tests will be given to 20 percent of students and teachers, The NY Post reported
New York City’s Department of Education is instructing the staff at about 20 schools to not return to their buildings on Tuesday, Sept. 8, due to airflow issues found during recent ventilation system inspections.
Proper ventilation is vital in preventing the spread of COVID-1-19. WSJ reported: aerosol scientists and building engineers say, through strategies that introduce outdoor air and filter indoor contaminants. Those include opening windows and doors, installing window fans, using portable air purifiers with high-efficiency particulate air, or HEPA, filters and upgrading heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning systems to meet certain standards.
In addition to the ventilation issues the NY Post reported that 5 teachers are suing to work 100% from home, because of corona concerns.
“Absent the requested relief, Petitioners and those educators similarly situated will face the Hobson’s choice of choosing between their own and their families’ safety, health, and possibly their lives, versus their own livelihoods and economic survival,” a Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit from Friday alleges.
NY Post reported: our teachers and one substitute — Shannon Corwin, Umang Desai, Eric Severson, Tamdeka Hughes-Carroll and Wanda Caine — claim in the lawsuit that there are too many risks and challenges facing Department of Education staff if they are forced to teach at school facilities, rather than online, the court papers show.
“Without a rational basis, respondents are requiring millions of public school employees and students in New York City to return to brick and mortar school buildings on September 8, 2020 amid an unacceptably high level of COVID-19 inflections across the country and smaller clusters of coronavirus popping up on college campuses in the Tri State area,” the suit charges.
