NYC Schools Close Until April 20 - Possibly Longer - And NYC Isn't Alone

Published Date: Monday, March 16, 2020

Photo Credit: Beacon Moms Facebook Group (amazing group!)

On Sunday evening, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio declared that New York City would shut down schools until April 20, 2020, possibly longer. The mayor and Governor Cuomo have both been resistant to closing schools because so many depend on the structure of school as childcare. “I am distraught at having to take this action, but I became convinced over the course of the day there was no other choice,” DeBlasio said.

In Ohio, where only a few cases have been reported, their governor, Mike DeWine, is listening to experts who are telling him that 100,000 cases probably exist. “We can’t stop it, but we can slow it down,” he told a local FOX station. New York’s Governor Cuomo has consistently said during press conferences that as testing increases, confirmed cases will be found and numbers will continue to go up. Kansas also has a handful of confirmed cases at the moment, and has shut down districts for two weeks. DC, Michigan and Oregon have also closed schools to slow the spread.

Schools in NYC will be open for grab-and-go meals for breakfasts and lunches, which is also happening for Beacon kids. However, Beacon kids are picking up meals in the parking lots of South Avenue Elementary and Beacon High School. NYC will try to keep on bus drivers and cafeteria workers to try to distribute food.

New York City will have remote learning in a way that has never been done before. According to the Gothamist article where this has been reported, they highlighted a message on the website for the new materials: “These materials do not replace what your child has been learning at school, but during this unusual time it is important that students continue to read, write, do social studies and science activities, and work on math problems."

Beacon City School kids have received robocalls from their principals this evening (Sunday) with instructions on how to pick up learning materials. Those instructions did include to be mindful of keeping a social distance of 6 feet between each other, which is hard for adults to do, and really hard for little ones to do. But it will be a welcome opportunity to see each other.

Depending on the teacher, parents may already communicate with their teacher via app, and some may use Google Classroom in a way to connect remotely to the plan and get guidance from the teacher. Perhaps we will eventually meet in a field with enough social distance, for teaching by megaphone so that we can see our teachers? Or YouTube or Vimeo?

The prediction of this blogger is that new ideas will develop (if not already in the works) on how to connect with and teach our kids. The first note we’ve received from our teacher said that she misses the students.

As for how long this two-week break for Beacon will turn out to be, if NYC just went to April 20? Ohio has already projected till the end of the school year. Said Governor DeWine: “Look, the projections - and I’m just going by what medical experts are telling us - is that this may not peak until the latter part of April or May. We’ve just informed superintendents, while we’ve closed schools for three weeks, that the odds are that this is going to go on a lot longer. and it would not surprise me if all the schools did not open again this year.”

As for Mayor de Blasio: He also said that there is a real possibility that the schools may remain closed for the rest of the year.

Meanwhile, Governor Cuomo today shared in a press conference that he wrote an open letter to President Trump, asking him to assign the Army Corps of Engineers to retrofit buildings to be hospitals, as he anticipates more ICU beds are needed for ventilators for the critically ill patients with coronavirus. Listening to the governor ask for this during the press conference is actually a lot more reassuring than reading about it here in words. He is doing prep work, but is convinced they will be needed. That the wave of care will hit the healthcare system in New York. People - off the record in texts - who work in hospitals outside of New York have indicated that their lives caring for patients have become already quite busy.

Time to get that schedule together.