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NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – The vacation break has come to an finish for space faculties.
Some are delaying the return to in-person studying to permit households to quarantine, if wanted.
But New York City public faculties are again within the classroom.
As CBS2’s Hazel Sanchez reviews, each the mayor and governor say it’s safer.
After a two week trip, college students at PS 452 had been again in school, however many public faculty lecturers are apprehensive it’s too quickly.
“This morning during morning meeting, kids shared highlights from their break. There was a lot of traveling,” mentioned Jia Lee.
Schools: The New Normal
Lee teaches on the Earth School on the Lower East Side. On Sunday, the town ordered the college to remain closed for twenty-four hours as a result of two folks within the faculty neighborhood examined optimistic for COVID-19.
“The cases are just going to continue to snowball in the next couple of weeks, and the only way to prevent that from happening is to quarantine for at least two weeks so that everyone has the chance to keep the spread from happening,” Lee mentioned.
But Mayor Bill de Blasio says he didn’t hesitate to ship college students again Monday, with the security and testing protocols in place. He recalled 100,000 folks within the faculties had been examined in December.
“The positivity rate was 0.68 percent – much, much lower than anything we’re seeing anywhere else in New York City. So the safest place to be in New York City, of course, is our public schools,” de Blasio mentioned.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo agrees.
“If the children are safer in the school than they are in the streets of the community, than children should be in school.” Cuomo mentioned.
Some faculties are taking part in it secure.
Great Oak constitution faculty on the Lower East Side began hybrid within the fall, however proactively went full distant after Thanksgiving, with plans to return Jan. twentieth. Now, Executive Director Brett Gallini says he’ll maintain everybody dwelling till the numbers enhance.
“I have staff members that have brand new babies at home, and students that live with elderly grandparents, and we just don’t know enough to take the risk at this time,” Gallini mentioned.
Thirty 5 thousand extra New York City public faculty college students opted into blended studying throughout open enrollment in November. With the an infection fee rising, we’ll have to attend to see if some college students will resolve to remain dwelling.
In a press release, United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew mentioned:
It’s an actual downside when the state and metropolis use completely different measures to find out the speed of coronavirus an infection. Given the truth that all the opposite communities within the state use the state methodology, New York City ought to undertake it additionally.
Using that state measure, if the neighborhood an infection fee within the metropolis hits 9 p.c, the secure factor to do is to shut the faculties, even when the in-school fee is decrease. Safety comes first — as proven by the truth that tons of of our elementary faculties and school rooms are closed quickly day-after-day as a result of the virus has been detected. That is how we’ve stopped the unfold of the virus inside our faculties.
The actual reply for New York is making the vaccine instantly obtainable to all faculty personnel. We can’t let bureaucratic snarls and procedural delays endanger the security of scholars, faculty employees and their households.
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