18 THE QUEENS COURIER • 2020 YEAR IN REVIEW • DECEMBER 24, 2020 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
2020 year in review
The ups and downs of education
BY ANGÉLICA ACEVEDO
aacevedo@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
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, aft er the fi rst COVID-
19 case in New York City was reported
at the end of February and the fi rst in
Queens at the beginning of March, some
private schools began to close out of precaution
of the outbreak.
Educators, parents and elected offi cials
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.
“Kids absorb everything. Th ey see the
stores around them closing, sports events
getting canceled, their families scrambling
to make last-minute arrangements,”
Moya said. “Despite this, we expect them
to set everything aside when they arrive at
school as if it exists in a vacuum, separate
from what’s beyond the classroom window.
Th at’s not an environment for academic
success and it’s not an environment
that will keep them safe from the COVID-
19 pandemic.”
Shortly aft er, 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.
Th e 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,
off ered 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. Th ey 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 fi rst-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 fi rst
time, also had to adjust to having their
Photo by Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Offi ce
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
Photo by Dean Moses Photo by By Angélica Acevedo
/WWW.QNS.COM
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