NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – The head of the city’s largest teachers union told 1010 WINS on Wednesday that he was hopeful schools would be ready to open for in-person learning on Sept. 21 as Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city and unions were in “a place of unity.”
De Blasio and unions announced Tuesday a plan to delay the start of in-person learning from Sept. 10 to Sept. 21 to give schools more time to prepare amid the pandemic.
In an interview with 1010 WINS on Wednesday morning, United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew said a set of safety standards had been agreed upon, including PPE, cleaning and mandatory medical monitoring.
“We’re hoping that the schools will be ready to go on the 21st,” Mulgrew said. “But also now in this agreement, it says these things have to be in place in order for students to come into the school. And if they’re not in place, the school will have to stay in a remote situation.”
Mulgrew said trained staff members are visiting school buildings to see what still needs to be done. “We’ll continue that process, and hopefully the Department of Education and the city lives up to its part of the agreement and gets all those things in place,” he said.
“If the schools would have opened on Sept. 10, it would not have been a good experience for students, for parents and/or for teachers,” Mulgrew added. He said that’s “why we had to fight so hard to get to a place where we knew things would be in a better situation and safer.”
He said a potential strike was about ensuring the safety of the school community.
“This was not about our wages and benefits. This was really personal to us,” he said. “What we went through in March was horrible. We literally had to have a street fight with the mayor to close the schools. And then every week at my executive board, virtual executive boards, I had to do the sad task of reading the names of our members who had died.”
Mulgrew said everyone on the executive board made “a pact” that certain conditions would have to be met before members would return.
“We felt it was really important, and that’s why we were prepared to walk out,” he said. “I’m glad we were able to do it, because … it actually gives us the best shot of any school system in the United States to be safe.”
At his briefing Wednesday, Mayor de Blasio said the city and the unions were in “a place of unity” following the agreement.
“I want us to move forward,” de Blasio said. “I’ll just state the obvious. We sat here yesterday in unity. The chancellor and I and the heads of three crucial unions representing the folks who work in schools, and there are other unions as well.”
“And I want to thank all of them for the work they do their members do on behalf of our kids,” the mayor said. “We are in a place of unity. I’ll only say what I’ve said before. The laws of this state are clear that pubic employees cannot strike. The more important point is we all came together and addressed valid concerns and issues and got to something that made sense and allowed us to be unified.”