How does the
UFT endorse and support and back these half-baked policies of the DoE?
Is accountability vestigial? It’s almost like those in charge of the UFT
and the DoE simply couldn’t be bothered because Covid, whilst rampant
in the schools, does not directly impact any of you. How many of you
work in sparsely populated offices, with ideal ventilation. When was the
last time any of you spent seven hours in an over-crowded
school-building (196% capacity) for five days in a row, since September? .. .. Please be safe and always maintain a safe social distance from others. We cannot, where I work, so we'll fake it for now.
......
Adam C Bergstein, Chapter Leader Forest Hills HS, Longtime Unity Caucus member.
We are in a health emergency, and tests should be widely available.
Running out of capacity at one site and supplies at another represent
small breakdowns – but repeated breakdowns make a pattern – a scary one.... The City, de Blasio, doesn’t like testing because it hurts the stats
on sick people. But testing is needed to limit (not stop, unfortunately)
the spread. Lots of testing is needed. The City needs to make widely available testing a priority. And it has clearly not done so so far.
Breaking - January regents, Adams inauguration event cancelled but schools remain open with no remote option-
Here is just one of many examples of the anguished issues people in schools are facing.
Eduwonkette - the extraordinary Jennifer Jennings - put out this tweet this morning:
Look at that rising chart. I commented that UFT leadership is among the complicit and she replied with "Can we have an amen?"
Tuesday, December 21, Winter Solstice - the winter of our discontent
Winter is officially
here and while today is the longest day of darkness of the year,
tomorrow the daylight starts getting longer - but not for the UFT
leadership's constant mishandling and mismessageing of the growing
crisis. Mulgrew sent out a letter Friday. He's already given up on his
buddy de Blasio and aiming at Adams while acting like this week of hell
for educators and students is over.
Have we reached a Nero fiddles while Rome burns moment for UFT president Michael Mulgrew?
It's one thing when the opposition slams the leadership over the growing healthcare crisis -- UFT retirees of the virus/testing chaos in the schools - but when a long-time Unity Caucus stalwart chapter leader who has done battle with the opposition in the past writes a letter like the one below as posted by James on the ICE blog, the signs of disarray inside the mother ship are growing as the disconnect between those who are safe at 52 and the borough offices and the Unity rank and file in the schools seem to be growing.
Below the Bergstein letter is a petition organized by a still current member of Unity and a 2019 voter for Unity. These three are the most dangerous signs for the UFT leadership.
Here is the full Forest Hills HS letter on the ICEUFT blog:
FOREST HILLS HS CHAPTER LEADER EMAILS CHANCELLOR AND UFT PRESIDENT ON LACK OF COVID SAFETY
This came our way late last
night. We are printing it with the permission of Adam Bergstein, the
Chapter Leader of Forest Hills High School.
To: M Porter, Chancellor NYC DOE & M Mulgrew, UFT President
From Adam C Bergstein, Q440 Chapter Chair
Date: Sunday, December 19th 2021
Re: Covid Mismanagement
Attn: M Porter & M Mulgrew,
I
have but one question to ask. Does the DOE and/or UFT actually have a
plan in place to deal with all of the Covid outbreaks happening
throughout the NYC school system? Is the prevailing ideological
philosophy for all NYC schools to channel their inner-ostrich and
basically wait until 3 PM, December 23rd? And if so, what then will be
the plan come mid-January, when Covid has another spike and numbers are
exponentially greater? Should we prepare now for the spin, and just
expect an apathetic, doppelgänger of a response? And what will the
administrative guidance be in three to five weeks, invariably to sit
back and wait until the February recess arrives? I would like to say I’m
awestruck or dumbfounded by the ineptitude, but having spent two
decades working for this bureaucracy, sadly I am just inured to the
distribution of the bovine fecal accumulation.
And how does the
UFT endorse and support and back these half-baked policies of the DoE?
Is accountability vestigial? It’s almost like those in charge of the UFT
and the DoE simply couldn’t be bothered because Covid, whilst rampant
in the schools, does not directly impact any of you. How many of you
work in sparsely populated offices, with ideal ventilation. When was the
last time any of you spent seven hours in an over-crowded
school-building (196% capacity) for five days in a row, since September?
I’m no psychic, just a huge fan of the redundantly rhetorical.
And
this quasi-scientific theory that schools are still the safest places
to be, care to peruse any security footage of a Q440 hallway during
passing? This DUOFET propaganda is just another manifestation of an
autocratic Big Lie to dupe the rubes! Empirically, sending thousands of
human beings into a poorly ventilated petri dish is reprehensible. The
fact that you’re all completely aware of that and instead game the
system to make it look like everything is safe, is malfeasance
extraordinaire. Please do not feign umbrage with my accusation. I’m in a
school with 4,000 humans and only 1.5% of all people are being tested
weekly, that includes only 30 staff in total! Care to debate my
intentional and deliberate syllogism? What is the situation with the
Situation Room? How do you have a central reporting system that does not
allow anything to be reported? Please See Criminal Negligence.
The
fact is that the Department of Education and the UFT could work in
concert to remove all staff and students, in order to give this virus
some time to run its current course. However, you choose not to out of
political allegiance and a saccharine sense of propriety, that’s
mendaciously feckless. Unless something changes, the actions of DUOFET
are all but assuring and guaranteeing that children and adults will
unnecessarily contract and spread an opportunistic and ever-mutable
virus. And please, please, don’t send some Deputy Superintendent or
Deputy Chancellor or Safety liaison to pram the halls in an attempt to
project concern, it’s demeaning and reeks of a dysfunctionally bloated
bureaucracy.
Please be safe and always maintain a safe social distance from others. We cannot, where I work, so we'll fake it for now.
Sincerely,
Adam C Bergstein
Petitions: MORE has one going and this one initiated by another Unity defector, Nick Bacon and Daniel Alicea, who voted for Unity in 2019 ------- Bergstein, Bacon and Alicea are the real signs of danger to the UFT leadership. This one is focused on chapter leaders and delegats, though anyone is welcome to sign.
Are
you a UFT chapter leader, delegate, educator activist, or parent/family
advocate and want to add your name? Fill out the form here and your
name will be added:
https://forms.gle/RKvnU5UgUmmJYysf7
December 21, 2021
Dear
Mayor Bill de Blasio, Mayor-Elect Eric Adams, The NYC Department of
Education, NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and UFT
President Michael Mulgrew:
The
undersigned New York City public school UFT chapter leaders, delegates,
educator activists, and parent/family advocates have joined together to
support the petition initiated by MORE UFT, and in collaboration with the calls for action and demands of United For Change, are seeking an immediate response to the current COVID surge emergency.
We echo and support these words and demands:
https://forms.gle/RKvnU5UgUmmJYysf7
The
number of COVID cases in NYC is the highest it has been since the
beginning of this pandemic. The NBA, NHL, and other professional sports
have postponed games, colleges and Broadway shows in NYC have shut down
in-person events due to the rise in cases, and nations across Europe and
the rest of the world are re-engaging in lockdown protective measures.
Despite this, there have been no additional safety measures implemented
in NYC schools as students and staff now make up hundreds of NYC
positive cases daily. From 12/13-12/19 alone, 4,584 staff and student
cases were confirmed by the Situation Room, comprising 23% of all school
cases reported so far this school year, and this number of cases is
likely an undercount due to little COVID testing and data transparency.
Early
data suggests that the Omicron COVID variant is much more infectious
than other COVID variants and may evade vaccine and antibody
protections, contributing to the current surge in known school cases.
Early data show that those with two vaccine doses may not be as
protected against Omicron; as of Dec. 19th, only 40% of children ages
5-17 have been vaccinated with two doses, and as of Dec. 9th only 8% of
children 5-11 were. Those with booster doses may have more protection
against the Omicron variant, but there is no available data for how many
NYC adults have gotten boosters, and children 15 and under are
currently not eligible for boosters. Children under 5 cannot be
vaccinated or tested at all.
Due
to this alarming spike of cases in NYC, rank and file members of the
UFT are calling for immediate policy action to stop the spread of
COVID-19 in New York City Public Schools, including:
Short-term transition to remote learning for schools with COVID cases
An immediate remote option for students and families
Universal Weekly and Baseline COVID testing
Increased citywide testing resources and schools used as vaccination sites
Data Transparency
Those exposed to COVID quarantineVentilation Fixes
Remote Learning Options
We
demand a short-term transition to remote learning for all schools with
current COVID cases. While in-person learning is best for our students
in healthy conditions, the spike in COVID cases has made it impossible
for many schools to staff classrooms and for students to stay safe due
to staff and substitute shortages. Furthermore, lack of COVID testing
and ambiguous school closure guidelines have led to a lack of trust in
the DOE’s ability to identify and abate school spread. Transitioning to
remote learning temporarily will stop COVID from spreading in schools,
allow students and staff time to test and quarantine, and keep students
and staff safer in-person in the long term. Students and families need
to be prepared with devices and WiFi to access remote learning. The
threshold for the amount of cases leading to a transition to remote
learning needs to be clear and known to the public; schools that meet
said criteria should transition immediately to remote learning.
We
demand an immediate remote option for students and families with
concerns about COVID, without punitive measures taken against students,
staff, or their families. While the DOE has not publicly shared
attendance data, frontline staff know attendance numbers in NYC are
dropping as families grow more concerned about COVID cases and large
groups of staff/students are in quarantine with no remote option.
Students, staff, and families are rightfully worried about the rapid
increase in cases, especially right before winter break and gatherings
to come. This school year, families who have chosen to keep their
children remote due to COVID concerns have not only been denied a remote
learning option, but have had ACS called on them, despite legitimate
concerns about COVID.
Universal Weekly and Baseline COVID Testing
We
demand universal weekly PCR testing of all students and staff, whether
vaccinated or unvaccinated, including for 3K, Pre-K, and Kindergarten
students. The current policy of testing a random 10% of consenting
non-vaccinated 1st-12th grade students is woefully insufficient. PRESS
NYC reports that last week only 4.5% of students were tested in-school
and about 87% of all positive NYC schools cases were found from outside
testing. Weekly PCR testing is done at NYC private schools like Poly
Prep and throughout the Los Angeles school district, the second-largest
U.S. school district after New York. In addition, all people entering
school buildings with symptoms of COVID should, in addition to passing
the health screener, be required to take a rapid test to stay in school
buildings, and schools must be supplied with rapid tests for this
purpose.
We
also demand baseline PCR testing results for all students and staff
prior to returning to schools in January and prior to returning from
other breaks such as Mid-Winter Recess and Spring Break. Prior to school
reopening this fall, Los Angeles had baseline testing of all students
and staff in its schools and found 3,654 cases that did not get into
school sites. New York should implement the same policy for our safety.
Schools should be used as testing sites during breaks towards this goal.
If it is not possible for students and staff to receive results of PCR
testing by January 3rd, school reopening should pivot to remote and
resources be allocated so that students and staff can get PCR tested
prior to returning to school in-person.
We
demand that students and staff have increased and ready access to COVID
tests towards this goal. All students and staff should have ready
access to antigen at-home testing in addition to weekly PCR tests. Mayor
de Blasio closed 20 city-run COVID sites prior to the onset of Omicron
and winter COVID surges; these and other sites should be restored, and
people who are immunocompromised, disabled people, and essential workers
at high-risk of COVID such as educators should be prioritized for
testing.
Schools as Vaccination Sites
Many
schools this fall served as city-run first-dose vaccination sites for
our students; this program should continue and with second doses offered
to students. Schools should be trained as sites of vaccine education.
Those Exposed to COVID Quarantine
We
demand that all staff, including but not limited to out-of-classroom
educators, aides, and providers be informed of possible exposures and be
able to give information of other possible close contacts, students and
families be informed about classroom cases, and that those who are
considered close contacts quarantine. Current DOE policy directs only
those who have tested positive and those who are unvaccinated within six
feet for 15 minutes to quarantine for ten days; however, based on what
we know about COVID know this may not be enough to stop COVID spread at
schools. Due to the collapse of the Situation Room, close contacts are
often not notified. Close contacts must also include those who share
space with others while eating and drinking unmasked. Staff and students
whose household members test positive should also quarantine. If
test-and-trace responsibilities fall to school staff, time spent should
be compensated.
Data Transparency
We
demand data on school attendance and COVID cases that is current,
accurate, accessible and user-friendly to the public. The NYC Department
of Education has not been transparent about attendance rates, number of
staff and students testing positive in schools, or about cases in
schools. The NYC Situation Room has not kept up data on schools,
including on its Daily COVID Case Map, as it is completely overwhelmed
with cases. Situation Room data has also recently been inaccurate:
according to Professor Jen Jennings of Princeton University, between
12/13-12/19 the Situation Room dashboard undercounted daily cases by
1,470 when compared to cumulative positive cases reported on the same
dashboard. The Situation Room should remain adequately staffed and open
evenings and weekends to provide logistical support to students, staff,
and schools.
Ventilation Fixes
We
demand actual HEPA filters be provided to classrooms, including
possible provisions of supplies for Corsi-Rosenthal boxes, especially
for classrooms and schools that do not have mechanical ventilation. Gothamist found
that classrooms without mechanical ventilation had higher rates of
COVID. All schools have CO2 monitors to measure air changes per hour
(ACH), which should be utilized regularly to test classrooms occupied
with students and staff and results posted publicly for the public to
see. Classrooms found not to have adequate ACH should immediately be
provided HEPA filters or not be used. Meals should be scheduled outside
when possible. All non-essential meetings and events should not be held
in person until COVID rates are curbed.
We
demand the United Federation of Teachers, our teachers union, advocate
for its members rather than wait for the next Mayoral administration to
fight for school safety and protections for students, staff, and our
community.
In solidarity,
Daniel Alicea - Delegate, MS 53, Far Rockaway
Nick Bacon - Chapter Leader, High School for Law and Public Service, Washington Heights
