Ok both @JumaaneWilliams & @MarkTreyger718’s proposals for schools are substantially better than what the Mayor/ DOE has put forward, which is awful. Delaying opening so there is more time to plan & focusing on elementary makes sense. However— some thoughts from pre-k- 4 teacher:

1. Schools need more funding to open safely & responsibly. Period. We don’t have enough staff to spread kids out, we don’t have counselors & social workers, we don’t have a nurse in every building, our sinks don’t work, our windows don’t open.

2. Much has been made of the study finding ‘kids under 10 are less likely to spread’ COVID. But: there are lots of 10 & 11 year olds in elementary schools. Also, does that mean 9 year olds are only slightly less likely to transmit covid etc? What about cases at daycare centers?

3. How do you dismissal/ arrival/ fire drills with hundreds or thousands of kids every day w/ social distancing? We would be spending all day on entering and exiting the building.

4. It is far less developmentally appropriate to keep 4, 5,6,7, year olds 6 feet apart, masked and unable to share/ touch/ play than with older kids. Young kids also need help with eating/ clothes/ everything so there will be more contact in early childhood settings.

5. How do kids eat lunch & snack? I cannot imagine a scenario where we don’t have indoor, unmasked eating with one or more adults inside together. Doesn’t everything we know about how covid spreads suggest this is unsafe?

6. Testing: right now it is taking 2 weeks for people to get test results. When a teacher or parent gets sick and has to wait 2 weeks for a test, how do we contain potential spread?

7. Subs: when a teacher is sick or has to quarantine, who takes over their class? Are subs going from room to room/ building to building? Does school go remote?

8. What about ICT classes and para professionals? Treyger’s plan includes hiring more paras. But two adults in a room increases the risk. How do health paras help kids from 6 feet away?

I’m glad lawmakers are pushing the city to consider delaying opening and understand that screen based learning particularly fails our younger students. But I think we need to think even further outside the box— and outside the school building— to really keep our city safe.

again: both plans are WAY better than what the DOE has put out & delaying reopening seems inevitable .it’s really sad that @NYCMayor @NYCSchools spent $ on consultants when lawmakers/ teachers/ parents are coming up with better ideas left & right & we could have done this in June

And I really appreciate people calling for cancelling tests. Not only are tests inappropriate for this moment, not only do they entrench segregation, but if we cancel then that’s MILLIONS of dollars that could be used to hire teachers/ nurses/ social workers

Oh and when we talk about remote learning, we should stop focusing exclusively on tech. I would rather give my kids books, art materials, paper, legos, puppets and set up outdoor park meet ups & set up daily check ins than make them sit on a computer all day.