Dear friends,
Apparently, it’s not too soon to begin worrying about the coming school year. About 200,000 students are participating in the city’s expanded summer program, Summer Rising, but already 81 classrooms have been closed for quarantine. The current school protocol is to close any classroom to in-person instruction for ten days if there is even a single case; classes go remote when this happens.
The protocol is confusing, however. It appears that just twelve cases of COVID — seven students and five staff members — have resulted in the 81 closed classrooms.
According to the education department, classroom closures actually refer to more than physical classrooms. The agency said the term includes any group of students or staff who are close contacts to a confirmed case and are quarantining, including a member of the facilities team.
There is debate about whether the protocol is unnecessary or appropriately cautious. School reopens on September 13 this fall because of the timing of the Jewish holidays, and the mayor remarked last week that
we’re two months away from the opening of school so we certainly have time to make adjustments.
School employees and families may already be bracing for last-minute changes and confusion. I will keep an eye on this, so continue to enjoy your summer (while avoiding sinkholes, forest fires, flooding, and Staten Island).
If you missed my Friday post, please take some action to address the climate crisis.
The National Domestic Workers Alliance are campaigning to convince Congress to make bold investments in the home care workforce with a $400 billion investment in home and community-based services (HCBS) to create over one million jobs. Care work makes all other work possible.
Call 1-855-674-8044 to get your Senators to increase wages for care workers, expand access to home care, create jobs and a pathway to citizenship for workers.
As ultra-rich people have profited from the pandemic, labor exploitation has worsened at the other end of the economic spectrum.
Sign this petition to demand a $15 minimum wage and an end to unpaid internships.
Have a good day!
with love,
L