By now many of you have probably heard that the president of the United Federation of Teachers, Michael Mulgrew, has publicly expressed that if safety concerns are not met by the time the mayor wants to open schools, "the union is prepared to go to court and/or strike if we need to."

​So this brings up an interesting issue: it is technically illegal in New York state for public sector unions to strike. This comes from the Public Employee's Fair Employment Act, commonly known as the Taylor Law. Among other positive things (like codifying the right of public sector employees to unionize) it also disallows strikes. Some interesting history here, it specifically punishes the union in the case of a strike by: a) fining the union, b) suspension of automatic dues payments, c) jailing the union leadership, and d) costing two days pay for workers for each day on strike. 

That being said, there are some things worth the risks associated with a strike. If you recall the 2018 wave of 'wildcat' strikes in states like West Virginia, Colorado, Arizona, and more - there was a risk of losing ones job completely and those districts still won out in the end. I am hopeful that it will not come to a strike (because all supportive unions are against current reopening plans) but know that I will do my duty if need be.

Hopefully, most of us know at this point that ventilation and some distance is probably the best way to avoid contracting or spreading COVID-19. With that in mind the DOE has been saying for weeks now that windows and HVAC systems are going to be in some form of working condition - but they have not defined what that means. So, some folks are advocating for using the best ventilation fo all: outdoor teaching! It has happened before and, at least for the Fall, could be a good solution when it's not raining. Unfortunately, the city seems to be stopping efforts. Even my local city councilperson, Brad Lander, has advocated for doing this. 

I know there are hurdles and logistical challenges but this is another tool in our toolkit - why not use it while we can?

Last week the DOE released the results of the reopening survey for parents. What they found is both understandable and upsetting. 

First, the understandable part: of the 322,572 families who filed an online preference form, 212,940 requests 100% remote learning. That is 66% of families opting into remote learning. 

Next, the upsetting part: the vast majority of the 1.1 million students within NYC did not complete the form. With that in mind, the de Blasio administration can claim that only 26% of children opted into remote learning which, while technically true, does not fully reveal that the vast majority of families simply didn't respond.

So, if we take that ratio of the respondents and apply it to the entire system, that would mean 66% of 1.1 million students would want to be remote only. That would yield 726,000 students staying home. This is obviously a calculation and not necessarily true-to-life, but I will be interested to see in my school how this plays out on day one. Many schools are discussing or beginning internal surveys to determine which parents are actually going to send their kids to school. If we don't have accurate data we can't plan for who will teach remotely and who will be in the building. Yet another reason why we shouldn't reopen buildings at this point.

Oh, and another union (DC37) said we should not reopen buildings yet.

Yesterday there was a UFT Town Hall in which President Mulgrew gave a short report and then took questions for over an hour. A few folks have provided summaries - here is one on the NYC Educator blog. In the report (and during questions) Mulgrew emphasized that the HEROES Act (stimulus package supported by Democrats and passed in the House) has not passed the Senate and - since Congress is now on break until September - won't do so in time for states to get the funding they need. New York State and new York City put a provision in their budgets including that money, so now the State and the City will have to reduce their budgets commensurately by law, meaning the DOE will also have to reduce its budget.

In summary, during a global pandemic and at a time when we have a teacher shortage there will likely be layoffs. And, since we don't know who or how many right now, it would seem to me that we shouldn't try to reopen school buildings with the probability that we won't have enough people staffing them.

I happen to think that Movement of Rank-and-File Educators (MORE) caucus is the best progressive part of the United Federation of Teachers. For those of you who don't know, the UFT (my union), is made up of smaller caucuses that try to push for their various agendas. MORE has compatriots across the country (CORE in Chicago, Caucus of WE in Philadelphia) and all of them seem to want more transparency within their respective unions as well as more power put in the hands of individual staff members.

That being said, I received an email on a MORE list about a Phased Reopening Plan crafted by staff at the Urban Assembly Maker Academy. This was published before the principal's letter came out so it is a bit different. But it is very detailed and has provisions for things like providing personal protective equipment (PPE) for staff and students before they have to take public transit to get to school, requiring knowledge of how testing and tracing will work, and that discipline policies for infractions like not wearing a mask do not contribute to the school-to-prison pipeline. I think it's very well thought out and includes steps to slowly get staff and students back into buildings when it is safe. Take a read and if you can, sign on in support. 

A group of principals from District 15 wrote and signed a letter in support of keeping school buildings closed and only opening them through a phased reopening plan. Luckily, I am in a school with a principal who signed this letter. As we learn of more and more groups that believe we shouldn't be opening buildings just yet, it is important to identify what are the major criticisms they have and how they mesh together. The subtext (and sometimes real text) that I read in this letter is a lack of trust in the ability of the DOE to make good on its promises. They have been saying they are going to make sure ventilation is taken care of in buildings, yet many of them don't have the fixes yet to building-related issues going back years. Check out these building reports!

​I hope that more groups do things like this and the DOE and the city finally relents so we can actually focus on learning how to make the best remote curriculum possible. 

Here is a petition that you should sign also.

Yesterday, a union representing over 42,000 registered nurses in New York State, made a statement in support of keeping school buildings closed in the Fall. Since they are the frontline workers who would be treating COVID-19 patients, I would recommend trusting in what they have to say. Their main gripe is that we are still unprepared for a spike in cases, even though we are below various thresholds set by Governor Cuomo's health task force:

As a union of frontline nurses, we must also speak up because New York remains unprepared for a resurgence of COVID-19. Our testing and tracing infrastructure is overstretched, with many results delayed by days or even weeks. Our hospitals are still rationing rapid testing reagents, PPE, hand sanitizer, and sanitizing wipes because of federal shortages and persistent supply chain constraints. Frontline nurses, along with other essential workers, suffered the consequences of New York’s lack of preparation for the first COVID-19 surge. We cannot let that happen again.

After five months of battling this disease in hospitals you would think we would have more supplies. But, apparently, we don't. So, even though the health care workers of the US do have more knowledge about how to fight back against COVID-19, they don't have the supplies to do it correctly, especially if we have a spike in cases.

Some of you know that I am a master teacher with Math For America, an organization whose sole purpose is to keep high-quality math and science teachers in the classroom. They recognize that many of us do not get the resources we need to be more effective at our jobs and so we often leave for other Districts or other career paths. Two teachers from Bronx Science recently crafted a letter to Governor Cuomo urging him to keep NYC schools closed until certain criteria are met. Here is the letter and here is the link to sign onto it.

​One of the important citations in the letter is this research study on COVID-19 viral load among young children. Spoiler alert: it's higher than you think.

I strongly recommend that you sign onto the letter (like I did). 

According to an NYC DOE document entitled "Preparing for School Year 2020-2021: Instructions Principles & Programming Guidance," students will be eating lunch in their classrooms while instruction is taking place. I find a few particular problems with this:

1. At the moment NYC is not allowing indoor dining to take place. One of the key factors of this is a lack of ventilation, which would allow the aerosols produced by individuals with COVID-19 to spread it. The WHO recently agreed with this somewhat after mounting pressure from outside physicians. So, in a classroom with poor ventilation (read: most classrooms in the DOE) how can we allow students to eat, necessitating masks come off?
2. If instruction is taking place then students need to be talking. If that's happening while they are eating, I can't imagine there won't be spitting, something that would seem to spread COVID-19 even more. 
3. What happens to the food trash after students are finished eating? Are they going to individually bring it to a trash can? Will a trash can be shared around? That sounds like an awful lot of touching things that have been spit on to me.

Basically, it sounds like another risk to keep in mind.