FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM MAY 27, 2021 • THE QUEENS COURIER 31
No remote option for public school students in Sept.
BY ALEJANDRA O’CONNELLDOMENECH
adomenech@schnepsmedia.com
@AODNewz
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on
May 24 that New York City public schools
will reopen on Sept. 13 without a remote
option — backtracking on earlier commitments
to off er families worried about
sending their children back into classrooms
with fully online classes.
“I am very pleased to announce that
New York City public schools will fully
reopen in September. Every single child
will be back in classrooms,” de Blasio said.
“We are going to have so many protections
in place as we proved even during
the toughest months of COVID that we
could keep kids and staff safe with a gold
standard of health and safety measures.”
In March, de Blasio said he planned on
scrapping hybrid learning this fall and
would instead work to bring back all public
school students into schools for fi veday
a-week live instruction while also
off ering a fully remote option for families
that might still be afraid to send their
children back into school buildings in
September.
On May 24, when asked by reporters
why he chose to reimagine his previous
vision on how classes would look this
fall, the mayor cited the effi cacy of the
COVID-19 vaccines and the CDC relaxing
of some health and safety guidelines
as reasons for the change.
“We got to understand, we are leaving
COVID behind. We can’t live in the grip
of COVID forever,” de Blasio said. Some
health and safety guidelines rolled out
during the pandemic will be lift ed once
students return to classrooms this fall.
Schools will return to pre-pandemic rules
in terms of student illness.
In a letter sent to families, Schools
Chancellor Meisha Ross Porter assured
parents that masks will still be required
in all school buildings and those with
COVID-19 symptoms will continue to be
asked to stay home. In addition, this fall,
students, teachers and staff will continue
to take daily health screeners at home
and COVID-19 testing will still take place
in school buildings as long as the CDC
sees fi t.
Th e city’s teacher union, the United
Federation of Teachers, which has
increasingly supported expanding in-person
learning, expressed concerns over
how a full return to school would impact
the city’s small number of students with
severe medical challenges.
“For that small group of students, a
remote option may still be necessary,”
said UFT President Michael Mulgrew in
a statement.
Th e issue of whether schools can accommodate
all students while still abiding by
the CDC’s social distancing requirements
came under question again on May 24.
Currently, the CDC recommends students
in K-12 schools sit or stand three
feet apart regardless of the virus’s transmission
rate in the school’s surrounding
community.
According to de Blasio, city public
schools “have a lot of classrooms” that
could allow for students to maintain three
feet of social distance, and for those that
can’t, the Department of Education plans
on using alternative space to accommodate
students or make other adjustments.
“But I don’t see that,” de Blasio added.
“So we’ll have a plan A, plan B as always,
but I have no doubt we’ll be able to
accommodate our kids.”
Th e majority of the city’s 1 million public
students — about 65 percent — are
enrolled in fully remote learning, which
raises questions as to how comfortable
families will feel sending their children
back into schools this fall. A recent survey
showed about 65 percent of families with
students enrolled in fully remote learning
would most likely send their children
back into schools while the remaining 35
percent are unsure.
kids & education
Success Academy Queens students get a permanent middle school
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED
cmohamed@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
Aft er four years of advocacy and rallying,
Success Academy Queens families
have fi nally got what they have been
asking for: A suitable permanent middle
school so that their children can continue
their education.
Eva Moskowitz, founder and CEO of
Success Academy, said they’re grateful to
Mayor Bill de Blasio for “doing the right
thing” by kids and their families.
“Success Academy families were tenacious
in their advocacy, and we appreciate
the support of Congressman
Gregory Meeks and the Queens delegation
in securing this new educational
home,” Moskowitz said.
In August, Success Academy Ozone
Park Middle School located at 109-55
128th St., will open its doors to 250 fi ft h-
and sixth-graders, who had previously
been temporarily co-located with I.S. 238
Susan B. Anthony Academy in Hollis.
Th e school opened in 2020 as Success
Academy Hollis Middle School, but due
to the COVID-19 pandemic, students
were learning remotely and never entered
the building, according to Moskowitz.
Th e new space will be in a private, standalone
building with a gymnasium/auditorium
and cafeteria, and is large enough
to accommodate all middle school students
from SA Rosedale and SA South
Jamaica when fully enrolled.
Success Academy operates 47 schools
in Brooklyn, the Bronx, Manhattan and
Queens and enrolls about 20,000 students
— primarily children of color from
low-income households in disadvantaged
neighborhoods.
In Queens, parents of 2,200 Success
Academy students have been pleading
with the city for years for an additional
permanent middle school site. Since
2017, parents have sent thousands of
emails, secured thousands of signatures
on petitions, and met with many Queens
elected offi cials — all in an attempt to
get the mayor to be accountable to their
children.
In March, Moskowitz joined parents
and students from SA Hollis Middle
School in a Zoom conference call
demanding that the mayor fi nd a permanent
home for the students whom
they said would be evicted from the oneyear
temporary co-location at I.S. 238.
Parents had voiced their frustrations and
concerns during the conference, questioning
why they couldn’t get the space
they need for their children to learn.
In 2020, 100 percent of Success
Academy’s third and largest class of 99
graduating seniors were accepted to college,
with 69 percent accepted to selective
institutions with robust fi nancial aid
packages; 82 percent of the class will be
the fi rst in their families to attend college.
Photo via Getty Images
File photo by Carlotta Mohamed
Success Academy scholars, parents and teachers march in 2019.
/WWW.QNS.COM
link
link
link
link
