UFT President Michael Mulgrew % PM
Thank you for coming on. Thank you for all you are doing. I want to use today to explain what we are dealing with. We have a lot to cover.
I really wanted to do this Town Hall this week because it's Thanksgiving. Be safe, follow advice of the medical professionals. You all heard about instances of family gatherings and it spreads.
When we first put our plan together, we also needed a plan in place to reopen. We fought for the cleaning, procedures, small class sizes, ple, we had guidance in place what would happen if the rates go up.
There was no state plan until Oct. There are 2 different plans and its confusing. The difference is the city doesn't have the legal authority to shut businesses down. The state does. The city threshold was 3%. . The state is always recalculating. There are always two sets of numbers. They calculated things differently. The state us right now a little lower in the city. A couple of weeks ago they were higher.
3 is the mayor's number. The epidemiologist said that was fine, though certain districts can shut the whole city down.
We should have only plan. The state was closing schools at a very rapid pace in their system. We like it with the colors. Testing ramps up in yellow. Orange is when they start shutting things down and red nothing is working.
The two plans look ridiculous to the public. Think of where we started. We came up with the plan and we have to follow the plan. The mayor did the right thing to follow this plan. But the state has a better plan. The city didn't want to do it this way. We knew it would be much better that if there was an area that's a problem,that area would close the schools of that area. The people in the schools, they are all doing their jobs keeping the schools safe. But we can't s control the community. We need to all work together. Schools won't stay safe if the rates go up. It is important we have a plan in place, having 2 plans do not make sense. The state did not have a plan before but the state is much more aggressive with testing. As we move thru this, there will be more challenges. Six or seven districts caused the whole system to shut down. The city plan was approved by the state. The state will continue to kove forward with testing and remote if necessary.
Decisions need to be made to keep a of us safe and our families. These constantly changes, everything gets politicized. Vaccine info is looking good. We are going to see when this goes. When will we open? Everyone is getting very concerned and with traveling for Thanksgiving. City expects the state to put the whole city in orange. We need to get the CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: UFT Town Hall November 23, 2020