Did anyone see what happened in yard this morning?  The cops were there and a ambulance was leaving.

I think our union should get involved so we would be in one of the first groups to get vaccinated for COVID.

At 2:48 list is out

They delayed again to Oct 1.

Great news

https://nypost.com/2020/09/14/scientists-discover-antibody-that-neutralizes-virus-that-causes-coronavirus/amp/

https://nypost.com/2020/09/10/uft-threatens-to-delay-reopening-amid-lack-of-covid-testing/amp/

Anyone else see this ?? 

We will NOT be going back anytime soon ,  I just read this on another page and I for the life of me cannot see them fixing everything in 10 days.....Statement and Petition for a Safe and Smart Reopening Plan for NYCDOE Schools

"Dear Sirs,

As the School Leaders and Administrators of Community School District 31, we serve the students and parents of Staten Island.  We are a community of school administrators who truly appreciate the leadership of our Executive Superintendent Anthony Lodico, our Superintendent Vincenza Gallassio, her entire team, as well as our BCO's Executive Director Chris Anzalone, and his entire team.  Everyone has done their absolute best as they support us as we prepare to safely re-open our school communities.

We are committed to our goal of opening our schools so that our communities can take the next step of returning to normal.  We know meeting this goal is of vital importance, however, there are ever present personnel issues, and a multitude of challenges for which our questions remain unanswered.  Without this critical information, we cannot properly prepare a safe and thoughtfully planned reopening of schools, which will uphold the highest quality of in person and remote instruction, health and safety protocols, community-based supports, and resources that our communities so desperately need.

Collectively, we feel that we will be unable to safely and effectively open school buildings on September 10th. We continue to hope that answers to our questions will come, however all we are told is "Guidance will be forthcoming."  In addition to the multitude of items we typically address at opening, we have a litany of new mandates to contend with and only two days to train all staff members on how to establish a socially-distanced environment, review all health and safety protocols from arrival to dismissal with everything in between.  We have not even scratched the instructional surface yet.

At this moment, we do not have essential guidance and insight for the necessary Operational and Instructional protocols and procedures to safely open a school. Specifically items such as those mentioned below have not been addressed in a timely manner:

Programming is not complete, at every school level:

Students opting out of the blended model and choosing the remote model causes program changes daily, affects spacing allocations and creates instructional challenges in general education and special populations settings.

Students are affecting registers by leaving NYC public schools to attend private schools and are moving out of state, again affecting spacing allocations and creating programming and instructional challenges.

Labor Relations:

Hiring restrictions impede staffing. Deaths, retirements, and transfers have left school leaders not being able to hire the very people they need to lead our communities through this safely.

Substitute teacher nominations opening on Monday August 31st, leaves 7 business days between the start of the first day with students.  This short window of time does not allow us to effectively and safely train new staff.

Staff accommodations are ongoing and completed determinations have not been made yet or have not been completely related to school leaders.

No clear guidance on teaching/instructional expectations from the Office of Labor Relations.

Health and Safety

Building Response Teams:

Many members of the BRT have medical accommodations and will not be in the building.

BRT members do not want to volunteer for staffing Isolation Rooms.  Many have expressed they are not first responders and do not want to be exposed to a potentially dangerous medical situation.

After participating in the BRT training, we have been asked to increase the size of the team to potentially be activated throughout the entire school day.  This is not feasible due to:

Lack of available out of classroom staff due to teacher accommodations

Lack of volunteers for the BRT due to associated risks

DOE directive to have multiple points of entry for safety

Staffing multiple entry points is challenging in all schools and has not been addressed.

Traffic flow of students on entry and exit does not necessitate social distancing due to the layouts of some buildings.

Food services protocol for distribution of food to our students

The need to supplement with school staff to assist and distribute in a safe manner

PPE has not been delivered in full to all schools

Items have been inoperable

Many items are in shortage

Office of Pupil Transportation has not issued any guidance at all resulting in:

No planned protocols for safe arrivals and dismissals

Uncertainty of the arrival and pick up times for all students -

Unclear staffing issues across elementary, junior high school and the high school level. Staff needs to be assigned to one bus coming in while other school staff are assisting students into the building.

Unable to anticipate staffing needs of numerous bus drop offs based on busing capacity with social distancing

Training of Staff

UFT members return two days before the students, while DC37 return on the same date and all are expected to:

Be trained in all safety protocols revolving around social distancing and Covid related issues

Create instructional plans based on a completely new model that provides meaningful instruction.

A School Calendar has not been issued to date, causing more confusion

We are urgently appealing to you – we are not prepared to reopen in a safe and conducive manner.  We are simply asking for the necessary time to work as school leaders with our school teams, teacher teams, stakeholders and community to plan and prepare.

Just recently, it was articulated by DOE Leadership to school leaders and administrators, that "We are the Department of Education".  With this said, please trust us to get our schools in order to ensure a safe and  conducive environment by providing us with the necessary time to address all pending criteria as mentioned above. Our communities in which we serve are expecting a healthy social/emotional opening and without the proper time, this becomes questionable. Our children, parents, faculty and staff deserve it.

In unity,

Brian P. Sharkey, PS 42 (31R042)

John Grassadonio

Cliff Bloom, Tottenville HS

Agron Velija, McKee HS

Razzore Dean, PS 53

Joseph Scarmato, Tottenville HS

Beth Albano PS53R

Alan Ihne, PS 30

Gregory Pagliarulo, Tottenville HS

Luke J Timmins, South Richmond HS, P25R

Barbara Bellafatto, PS 36

Dianna DeRose, PS56

John Boyle Totten Intermediate School 34

Erick Varga, Port Richmond High School

Susan Tronolone IS61

Kasandra Lopez-Garcia, 31R044

Angela Chiappone, 31R061

Joseph Bonomi, PS 56

Lenny Santamaria, I.S. 24

Susan Barone, 31R460

Lauren Diez, Susan E. Wagner High School

Lauren Torres, CSIHS

Joseph Napolitano PS30

Cynthia Leonard, PS 44

Matthew Barone, IS 27

Suzanne DiMitri, PS 4

Anthony Cosentino, Public School 21

Lynette Cartagena, PS 19

Cliff Bloom, Tottenville HS

Sharon Fishman, PS 55

Elizabeth Waters

Christine Chavez, PS45

Jennifer Miller, PS 30

Joanne Aguirre, IS 49

Dennis Whitford, Willam A Morris, I. S. 061

Kristine Nuzzela, 31R048

Nicole Vega PS45R

Agron Velija, Ralph McKee H.S.

Allison O'Donnell, PS/IS 48

Deanna Marco, PS 9

Tina Pryce, 312R445

Paul Helfman Central DOE

Adam Goldner, FDR, 20K505

John Grassadonio, Education Administrator

Doreen E. Murphy 31R069

Joe Luisi, PS 58

Adele Rombley Curtis HS

Andrew Cataneo IS51

SIBO

Jo Ann Hotaling, PS8

Philip Ponterio, PS 39

Jodi Personette, IS 24

Paul Martuccio, THE Public School 13

Jose Garcia 40M000

Valerie Panzella, THE PS 13

Danielle Nola, PS 13

Thomas Cork, Susan E. Wagner High School

Michele Ramos, PS16

Nora De Rosa 31R007

Danielle Martinson, IS 75

Erica Padin, PS 20

Elmer Myers, PS 3

Lorena Romero, PS 10

Anning S Prall IS 27

Nicholas Mele, IS 51

Paul Proscia, PS 23

Adrienne Stallone Egbert IS 2

Jennifer Gonzalez-Funes, PS 10

Matthe Genovese, IS 27

Joseph Mennella IS 7

Eric Ritzer Curtis High School R450

Gilleyan Hargrove SI-BCO

Stephanie Bianco, CPSE D 31 715 Ocean Terrace SI NY

Paul Giordano, PS 55

Shelley Greene District 31 Superintendent Officer

Ken Zapata,  IS 75

Mark Reinhold

Riana DiPalma, Port Richmond High School

Laura Kump, PS 26R

Stacie Watkins Tottenville high school

Joseph Napolitano PS30

Mark Herrmann,  IS 75

Chrissy Vigliotti

Michelle Soldini Castelli, Tottenville HS

Mark Erlenwein, SI Tech

Julianna Tramontana, I.S. 24

Riana DiPalma, Port Richmond High School

Cara DeAngelo, IS63

Joseph Napolitano PS30

Andrew Greenfield, Port Richmond High School

Salvatore Manuele, PS 69

Maria Simpson PS 22

Beth Albano PS53R

Lisa Bonello, PS 9

Joseph Canale, CSI High School

Angela Chiappone, 31R061

Teuta Ulaj D31

Maria Cavallo-Best I.S. 2

Christopher Restivo, Office of Related Svc

Shirlee Solomon 31R008

Ammirato Michael, PS 8

Lauren Fisher, IS 7

Johanna Longardino PS 29

Roseann Harris, D31 EA

Patrick Emery, IS 61

Frank Morano, PS 861

Rose Garcia, PS42

TinaMarie Marra, MAELS IS 63

Aileen Dulski, PS 42

Melissa Garofalo

Jessica Jackson 31R072

Karyn Lind, PS 57

Gary Tames, IS34

Donna Bonanno, PS 60

TinaMarie Marra, MAELS IS 63

Mala Ruzi, I.S. 49

Stacey Rappaport PS 22

Richard Tudda, Staten Island Borough Office

Daniel Singleton, PS 31

Christopher Restivo, Office of Related Svc

Rose Garcia, PS42

Melissa Donath PS 22

Danielle, Balestrino PS69

Jackie Patanio" 

And this is D31 not even D75 and I am wondering if anyone has seen D75's list of demands

An interesting read from the New York Times

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/31/us/coronvairus-school-bus.html

https://www.fox5ny.com/news/nyc-delays-start-of-in-person-classes-to-sept-21

I heard only 75 special ed runs came from OPT ...no reg Ed. Is this true ...anyone else hear this?

https://www.npr.org/2020/08/25/905446306/new-york-city-educators-warn-school-reopening-plan-is-missing-pieces



The United Federation of Teachers, which represents most of New York City's educators, went one step further. The union set unilateral conditions for a safe reopening, including testing every teacher and every student within 10 days before school starts, and ensuring contact tracing is in place to notify every member of a school community within 24 hours of a case. If those conditions are not met, President Michael Mulgrew said, "The union is prepared to go to court and/or go on strike if we need to." A strike — or any kind of job action, including a sickout — by public employees would be in violation of New York state's Taylor Law, and could bring fines and even jail time for Mulgrew.

School schedule but no mention about busing.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/18/nyregion/schools-reopen-nyc.html

I didn't think the Mayor would do it.