Important news update; schools will close tomorrow in 9 NYC zip codes and more

October 5, 2020

Dear Friends,

Yesterday the Mayor announced that all school buildings will be closed on Wed. in 9 neighborhoods in Queens and Brooklyn where the infection positivity rates have been over 3% for at least seven days; today the Governor moved that date forward, saying these schools will be closed starting tomorrow Tuesday. The zip codes and neighborhoods are the following:

It’s uncertain how long these schools will stay closed, but probably for at least two weeks. The Mayor added that a longer list of communities are on a “watch list” in which schools may close if the rates don’t decline soon in the following zip codes: 11205, 11211, 11249, 11235, 11234, 11213, 11218, 11374, 11366, 11432, and 11365.

2. Last week, the Panel for Education Policy approved DOE contracts with bus companies that would obligate the city to pay more than half a billion dollars a year through 2025 whether the the buses are running or not. They also approved a contract for more than $800,000 with Questar, the state testing vendor, for scoring guides whether these exams are ever given or not. More on my blog about this here and in an article in the NY Post.

My view is that any unnecessary spending by the DOE is especially irresponsible now, when many schools are suffering from staffing shortages, and the city is experiencing a huge revenue shortfall that may lead to further damaging education cuts.

3. Many parents have expressed concerns about the excessively large online classes that your kids are assigned to. More on this issue in the NY Post, WSJ and Gothamist. We don’t know much about how to make remote learning successful, except for one thing: to keep students engaged and excited about learning, these classes need to be as small as possible. When things settle down, I will be posting a survey to ask about your child’s class sizes.

Hope you and your family are doing okay during these difficult times, Leonie