November 30th
Beautiful people,
I hope you had a great weekend.
Yesterday, the mayor delivered another surprise to NYC families and public school staff: he is abandoning the 3% positivity rate as a trigger for system-wide shut-down. This part seems to be solid, both because of the science (schools are not primary vectors of infection, more targeted closures seem to contain community spread) and because of the legitimate outcry over a shut-down with inadequate notice.
The plan is to reopen elementary schools (except for those in the NYS-designated orange zones) next Monday, December 7. The new plan also includes increased school-based testing: 20% of students and staff to be tested weekly. Families will be required to complete consent forms for COVID-19 testing in order to return to in-person, except if the student has a medical exemption. The goal is to offer 5-day in-person instruction, but this will depend on staffing levels, available space, and the percentage of students who have opted for hybrid-instruction as of the recent transfer period. The mayor does appear to be sticking with his recent decision to eliminate future opt-in periods for this school year. Thursday, December 10 is the reopening date for “all grades of District 75, which serves students with the most significant disabilities,” but middle schools and high schools will remain fully remote.
This is a whole lot of change. The mayor is offering no date (not even a tentative hint) for the reopening of hybrid instruction for middle and high schools. The 5-day option will be determined by school leaders, depending of the staffing/space/#-of-students variables. I expect the real noise to come from families who might have opted back into in-person schooling if they knew there might be a manageable 5-day in-person option. Even more important is the equity issue. Brad Lander tweeted yesterday:
If we're going to ration full-time, in-person learning to 10-15% of kids (which is what it seems like this means), we should target that opportunity to homeless students, kids with special needs.
This is rationing, and the concerns about equity are real. I’m sure this week will bring additional noise, and hopefully, some additional planning and communication to families. One friend pointed out recently that some teachers and parents went seamlessly from protesting the reopening of schools to protesting the closing of schools. This is a fair point. I am making no action recommendations at this time. Let’s take a beat.
Last week, the NYS Working Families Party launched a set of endorsements for NYC Council candidates. This is an exciting initiative, as the state WFP repositions itself, and takes a bolder approach to supporting challengers on the left. The party is supporting two candidates for the Council, Marjorie Velázquez and Juan Ardila, who are challenging Democratic incumbents. Ardila, who works for Legal Aid and is a former member of Brad Lander’s staff, is going after Robert Holden’s seat in Queens; Holden opposed cuts to NYPD funding and sponsored a bill to lift the ban on the use of chokeholds.
Velázquez, a community advocate who narrowly lost her primary challenge against Mark Gjonaj last time, believes that the Bronx realtor is not sufficiently interested in the needs of his constituents. There are additional reasons for opposing Gjonaj: 1) “voluminous” allegations of misuse of funds, 2) his zealous opposition to a ‘road diet’ to create a bike lane in his district, and 3) his unseemly behavior toward Sen. Alessandra Biagi.
Please contribute to NY Working Families Party to help elect progressive candidates, including Ardila and Velázquez to City Council.
In case you took Friday off: Please help save the Queensbridge composting site. This is a two-minute action that will support community efforts to compost and honor the values of the people on whose land we live.
Please contact Mayor De Blasio and Parks Commissioner Mitchell Silver; here are ready-made letters!
Finally, here’s something for this evening: From 5:00 p.m.–6:30 p.m. EST, NYU’s Global Scholars & Innovators Series is presenting a Conversation with Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, renowned Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg scholar, artist, and author. The discussion will focus on her latest novel Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies. Goodreads published this review of Simpson’s book:
Simpson’s work is an act of decolonization, degentrification, and willful resistance to the perpetuation and dissemination of centuries-old colonial myth-making. It is a lived experience. It is a breaking open of the self to a world alive with people, animals, ancestors, and spirits, who are all busy with the daily labours of healing — healing not only themselves, but their individual pieces of the network, of the web that connects them all together. Enter and be changed.
Register here to attend this webinar.
with love,
L