BUFFALO (WBEN) - On just her first day as governor of New York, Kathy Hochul has already announced several school-related safety policies, and she's also receiving positive feedback from teachers both locally and statewide.
According to the governor, universal masking will be required, and she made the following announcement Tuesday afternoon regarding a vaccination mandate among all school personnel:
"Priority number-one: we get children back to school and protect the environment so they can learn and everyone is safe," she said. "For months, I've been consulting with parents, elected officials, teachers, school boards, and superintendents. As a result, we need to require vaccinations for all school personnel with an option to test out weekly, at least for now."
Joe Cantafio serves as president of the West Seneca Teachers Association, and said they're excited to have a governor that will take input from various stakeholders and bring teachers to the table.
"We're all in agreement that students need to be back in school five days a week," said Cantafio. "Giving teachers the option of being vaccinated, which we know is the safest and best bet, or the option of testing out each week to make sure that our classrooms are safe, I think is a great first step."
Buffalo Teachers Federation President Phil Rumore shared similar sentiments as Cantafio, but he also added that he'd like to see more details on certain aspects of the plan.
"Our teachers overwhelmingly support having staff vaccinated, but they also support having staff vaccinated," said Rumore. "The devil's in the details - what would be acceptable for reasons not getting (vaccinated), and then whether the testing will be made available, which I'm sure it will be, at the school districts. We're waiting to see, and also, how it's implemented will have to be negotiated with us.
"I think the most important thing that people will understand is that we all want our kids back in school," Rumore continued. "Teachers want nothing more than to be able to be back for their kids, but we have to make sure that it's safe not only for the kids, but for the staff, and the parents in the community."
Cantafio didn't hold back in his criticism of former Governor Andrew Cuomo's decision-making process, contrasting it with the way Hochul arrived to these actions.
"Over 90% of all teachers have been vaccinated, so we have been at the forefront of efforts to get students back to school safely," said Cantafio. "This allows all of us to really focus on the 10% who are not vaccinated, and those that are hesitant, we have to find out why they're hesitant, and those that have needs for exemptions, we have a chance to sit down at the table and to work through those things instead of coming up with something that is, sadly what we used to get from the former governor, of a top-down decision without any input from the people that are affected."
New York State United Teachers President Andy Pallotta issued the following statement Tuesday regarding Hochul's announcements:
"Governor Kathy Hochul brings a breath of fresh air to Albany, and she already is taking decisive action to bolster health and safety in our schools. We support universal mask wearing as part of a layered mitigation strategy that also includes robust COVID testing, contract tracing, proper ventilation and other strategies recommended by public health experts. We also support the governor's move to require regular COVID testing for school staff who are not yet vaccinated. It's critical that educators continue to have a voice in the implementation of vaccine requirements and other COVID policies at the local level."
Hochul added she'll be announcing a number of school-related policies later this week.
