2020 YEAR IN REVIEW
The ups and downs of education during the pandemic
BY ANGÉLICA ACEVEDO
This unprecedented year
brought unprecedented change
to the largest school system in
the country — from an initial
shutdown some said took too
long to call, a delayed reopening
in the fall, and new challenges
for students, parents and school
staff alike to grapple with.
In early March, after the
first COVID-19 case in New
York City was reported at the
end of February and the first
in Queens at the beginning of
March, some private schools began
to close out of precaution of
the outbreak.
Educators, parents and elected
officials then began to call for
all public schools to close, in order
to get a better handle of the
novel coronavirus. However,
childcare and meals became a
big concern, as working families
depended on the school system
to ensure their children not
only have two steady meals per
day, but also have a safe place to
be while they’re at work.
Queens City Councilmen
Francisco Moya and Robert
Holden joined Speaker Corey
Johnson and Brooklyn Councilman
Mark Treyger in urging
the city to instead just have
schools provide families with
free meals.
Shortly after, in an emergency
address, Mayor Bill de Blasio
announced the “painful decision”
to close the city’s public
school system, which serves 1.1
million students. Attempts to reopen
schools during the spring
semester were in vain, though,
as the city and state struggled to
keep up with the virus inundating
the hospital system.
Schools Chancellor Richard
Carranza noted families could
pick up daily free meals at designated
schools and the city’s
75,000 teachers would undergo
intensive training to begin instructing
students remotely.
But with the new structure
came new challenges, namely
internet and tech access.
The Department of Education
(DOE) initially set out to
deliver 25,000 iPads, with an
ultimate goal of 300,000, with internet
capabilities to students in
need. Some internet providers,
like Spectrum, offered free WiFi
for a few months — but they
were soon met with criticism as
some families with unpaid bills
couldn’t access it, according to
Chalkbeat. They later provided
the service for low-income families
for a certain period of time.
All throughout, school-aged
children tried to adjust to the
abrupt shift.
“I feel sad I cannot see my
friends,” Jordan Turkoglu, a
first-grader at P.S. 290Q, said at
the time. “I have some school
work but it’s not a lot and I feel
sad I cannot see my teacher. I’m
happy because I saw some of my
friends on video yesterday. I do
want to play with my friends but
now I cannot.”
Parents, most of whom found
themselves working from home
for the first time, also had to
adjust to having their children
home all day, every day. Some
felt they had to become their
children’s teachers.
One Astoria mother and entrepreneur,
Tamykah Anthony,
who homeschooled her two children
long before COVID-19, gave
QNS a breakdown of what a day
in her life teaching her children
and running her own businesses
looked like, with the hopes
of encouraging parents to be
patient with themselves as they
navigate the switch to remote
learning.
For students with special
needs, teletherapy became the
default. But that meant parents
who normally relied on educators
and therapists for their
children became overwhelmed
and concerned of regression in
their development, as a Forest
Hills mother with a daughter
with autism told QNS.
The height of the pandemic
caused many New Yorkers to
feel hopeless as cases and deaths
surged, while people’s everyday
life underwent abrupt changes
in order to fend off even more
heartache.
TIMESLEDGER | QNS.14 COM | DEC. 25-DEC. 31, 2020
But there were bright moments
sprinkled along the
darkness, and acts of kindness
became more of the norm.
Teachers stepped up to the challenges
ahead, with some recognized
for their efforts to bring
joy and lighthearted fun to
their students, such as Andrea
Feldman, teacher at I.S. 145Q
in Jackson Heights, and Tom
Carty, principal of P.S./I.S. 49
in Middle Village, who sang to
their students to keep them motivated.
“Our kids are probably going
through a mix of emotions from
being worried, curious, scared
and nervous about what lies
ahead,” said Feldman. “If my
silly songs and jokes can help
put a smile on their faces and
get through this, that’s the most
important thing to me.”
To respond to childcare
needs, the DOE established
more than 100 Regional Enrichment
Centers (REC) where children
of emergency and essential
workers could stay during the
COVID-19 health crisis.
In Queens, one of those RECs
was located at P.S./I.S. 128 in
Middle Village. Chancellor Carranza
and first lady Chirlane
McCray paid a visit to the facility
in June, which gave a first
look at what schools may look
like once buildings reopened —
children and staff wore masks
all day, they had to get their temperature
checked at the door,
and indicators were placed on
the floor and desks to maintain
six feet distance.
As COVID cases decreased
and Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s reopening
plan ensued — bringing
back temporarily dormant
jobs and businesses — parents
and educators anxiously waited
to hear a plan for the city’s new
public school.
De Blasio and Carranza
introduced their plan, which
included random COVID tests
for students and school staff as
well as two different learning
models: blended learning, a mix
of in-person and fully remote
school days, or fully remote
learning.
The city promised 100,000
childcare seats for students
in blended learning, with less
than 30,000 of those seats slated
to open by the beginning of the
school year. Meanwhile, Catholic
schools in Brooklyn and
Queens mostly prepared for inperson
learning.
But in the weeks before the
original start to the school year
in September, teachers and
school staff across the city and
Queens — some protests took
place in Jackson Heights and
Bayside — called for a delay in
reopening school buildings,
with safety and staff shortages
as their main concerns.
After negotiations with the
United Federation of Teachers
(UFT), the mayor announced
that schools would open in
phases and provide more safety
measures for each school
community.
Students were still getting
into the groove of the new way
of learning, many missing inperson
learning and activities.
But some found creative ways
to get kids out into their communities,
such as Maspeth High
School’s “Maspeth Making a
Difference” club in which students
helped clean up their surrounding
neighborhood.
But blended learning came
with some confusion for some
Queens parents. In October,
parents at P.S.128 protested over
what they said was a lack of live
instruction and clear communication
from the school.
“Why didn’t they organize
this better? Be truthful to the
parents,” one parent, who is an
essential worker and asked to
remain anonymous, told QNS at
the time. “If you decided blended,
the rest of the week your
child would not have a live instruction.
Explain it first, then
we could have organized this
differently.”
A DOE spokesperson said
the school was working on getting
the needed staff to ramp up
live instruction.
More than 335,000 families
have opted into blended learning
after the city’s second opt-in
period in November. Opt-in periods
were originally meant to
take place in a quarterly basis,
but that plan was scratched after
the city reported lower than
expected in-person class enrollment
and attendance.
But as a second wave threatened
to fully shut down schools
once again, de Blasio announced
schools would close for
two weeks prior to the Thanksgiving
holiday. While many
parents argued the closure, the
decision was based on the city
reaching a 3 percent infection
rate, a threshold previously negotiated
with the UFT to ensure
school safety.
More than 800 schools returned
to in-person learning in
the second week of December,
with the DOE establishing more
weekly COVID testing and a
map of schools that is updated
on a weekly basis, showcasing
the buildings and classrooms
that have closed due to COVID
cases. Just a few days after
schools reopened, nine schools
in Queens were closed again
due to COVID cases.
The city later announced a
new plan to address the “COVID
achievement gap” for public
school students, and rolled out
plans to overhaul the admissions
process for the upcoming
school year.
With two COVID-19 vaccines
now approved by the FDA and
their distribution currently
underway as COVID infection
rates and hospitalizations see
a resurgence, there is no telling
what other transformations
New York City’s school system
will undergo in 2021.
First lady Chirlane McCray, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza welcome
students back to school on Monday, Sept. 21, 2020. Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Offi ce