NEW YORK (WCBS 880) -- With a mandate for New York City school staff to get vaccinated by next week on the horizon, the city’s teacher and principal unions don’t like where things are going.
Council of School Supervisors and Administrators President Mark Cannizzaro cast doubt on whether New York City had enough substitutes for next week when the mandate goes into place.
Cannizzaro also voiced concerns over the lower vaccination rates of those who don’t teach, like cafeteria workers.
“It is dangerous and irresponsible for the city to move forward with its plan to allow schools and centers to operate so severely understaffed,” said Cannizzaro to the New York Post.
Numbers from earlier this week showed about 28,000 New York City Department of Education employees were still unvaccinated.
The vaccination rate for teachers was at about 87%, but for all DOE workers it was 80% as of Wednesday.
DOE employees who aren’t vaccinated or don’t have an exemption next week will either be able to take a year of unpaid leave of receive severance and leave the department.
Schools Chancellor Meisha Ross Porter felt confident the department would be in a good place in terms of the number of employees in their schools.
“We hired 5,200 new teachers, larger than we've hired in past years. And so, we feel confident we will be staffed,” said Porter at a news briefing Monday.
But the United Federations of Teachers is siding with Cannizzaro.
“The principals’ union is right – our schools are not ready for the implementation of the vaccine mandate. City Hall should listen to its own school leaders and finally put together a reasonable plan to face the challenge of keeping our children safe,” the union tweeted Thursday.