Schools

Image courtesy of Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office

December 28, 2021

NYC schools will reopen in January with increased Covid testing

Despite a surge in new coronavirus cases, New York City officials said classrooms will reopen after winter break and stay open. Mayor Bill de Blasio and Mayor-elect Eric Adams announced on Tuesday public schools will reopen as scheduled on January 3 with new health and safety measures in place, moving away from the remote learning model which many schools across the country have shifted to due to the recent surge in cases. Put together by the de Blasio administration and incoming Adams administration, the “Stay Safe and Stay Open" plan utilizes a massive increase in testing that will allow classrooms to stay open even if students test positive.
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Policy

New York City mandates Covid vaccinations for all public school teachers, staff

Photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office

August 23, 2021

New York City mandates Covid vaccinations for all public school teachers, staff

By Devin Gannon

New York City is requiring Department of Education employees to receive their first dose of the coronavirus vaccine by September 27, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Monday. The new mandate applies to the agency's 148,000 employees, including teachers, custodians, and central office workers and comes three weeks before the first day of school for the city's one million public school students. The policy takes away the option for DOE staff to submit for weekly testing instead of being vaccinated, which was part of a previous order announced last month.
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Policy

NYC to launch vaccination pilot at public schools for students 12+

Photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office

June 3, 2021

NYC to launch vaccination pilot at public schools for students 12+

By Devin Gannon

New York City will open coronavirus vaccination sites at certain public schools as part of a pilot program aimed at increasing the number of young people who are vaccinated. The program will start at four schools in the Bronx on Friday with one school added each in Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn on Monday, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced this week. In the next few weeks, the city expects to expand the program.
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Policy

NYC public schools will fully reopen this fall without a remote option

Photo courtesy of Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office on Flickr

May 24, 2021

NYC public schools will fully reopen this fall without a remote option

By Devin Gannon

New York City public schools will not offer a remote option for students next school year, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Monday. Starting on the first day of school on September 13, all students and school staff will return to the buildings full-time. "This is going to be crucial for families," de Blasio said during a press briefing. "So many parents are relieved, I know."
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Policy

NYC will reopen some schools for in-person learning next week

Photo courtesy of Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office on Flickr

November 30, 2020

NYC will reopen some schools for in-person learning next week

By Devin Gannon

New York City pre-kindergarten and elementary public school students can return to in-person instruction starting December 7, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Sunday. The news comes just two weeks after the mayor shuttered public school buildings, citing the citywide coronavirus positivity rate of 3 percent on a seven-day average, a metric established as part of the administration's reopening plan. But after criticism over allowing indoor dining and gyms to remain open but not schools, de Blasio said Sunday he would ditch the 3 percent threshold and look at the number of cases at each school instead.
Details here

Policy

NYC schools will close tomorrow as Cuomo warns of a partial lockdown

Photo by Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office.

November 18, 2020

NYC schools will close tomorrow as Cuomo warns of a partial lockdown

By Dana Schulz

In his press conference this afternoon, Governor Cuomo announced that all of New York City would become an orange zone if its city-wide positivity rate hits 3 percent. Under this micro-cluster strategy, indoor dining and high-risk non-essential businesses like gyms and personal care services would close. Schools would also close, but during the governor's press conference, New York City Chancellor Richard A. Carranza sent an email to principals that schools would close and go to virtual learning as of tomorrow, as the New York Times first reported.
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Policy

NYC delays in-person learning at public schools again

Mayor de Blasio and Chancellor Carranza tour New Bridges Elementary in Brooklyn to observe the school’s PPE delivery and reopening preparations; Photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office on Flickr

September 17, 2020

NYC delays in-person learning at public schools again

By Devin Gannon

New York City schools will no longer open in-person instruction for most students on Monday, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Thursday. Just four days before city school buildings were set to physically reopen for students, the mayor delayed in-person learning for the second time after complaints from school staff over safety and staffing. In-person instruction will now start in phases, with preschool students starting on Monday, K-8th grade students on September 29, and high school and some middle-school students on October 1.
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Policy

FEMA pulls funding for sanitizing schools and subways, according to officials

Photo: Patrick Cashin / MTA New York City Transit

September 4, 2020

FEMA pulls funding for sanitizing schools and subways, according to officials

By Devin Gannon

A recent rule change by the Federal Emergency Management Agency could take away funding for disinfecting subway cars and city schools, Sen. Chuck Schumer said on Thursday. New guidance from the agency says states need to cover the costs of disinfectants, personal protective equipment, temperature scanners, and other cleaning-related items that have been reimbursed by FEMA since March, the start of the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S. Schumer called the change a "downright dirty decision" made during a time when New York and the rest of the country continues to fight against the spread of the virus.
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NYC unveils outdoor learning option for schools

Mayor de Blasio and Chancellor Carranza tour New Bridges Elementary in Brooklyn to observe the school’s PPE delivery and reopening preparations; Photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office on Flickr

August 24, 2020

NYC unveils outdoor learning option for schools

By Devin Gannon

New York City schools can use backyards, streets closed to cars, and certain parks for outdoor learning, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Monday. Unveiled just weeks before school is expected to open next month, the new option takes the "best ideas from around the world" to make school safe for students, teachers, and school staff, according to the mayor. "We know the disease doesn't spread the same outdoors," de Blasio said. "We want to give schools the chance to do as much outdoors as they can."
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Policy

Schools cleared to open in all New York regions

Via Pixabay

August 7, 2020

Schools cleared to open in all New York regions

By Devin Gannon

Every school district in New York can open in September for-in person instruction, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced on Friday. Last month, the governor said schools can open in a region if it is in phase four of reopening and if the daily infection rate remains at or below 5 percent over a 14-day average. If the infection rate spikes above 9 percent over a 7-day average, schools will close, Cuomo said.
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Policy

Out of 7,000 potential NYC school sites, special task force says only 2 are viable

By Alexandra Alexa

New York City has assembled a task force to find sites for new public schools, but the search is proving to be exceedingly difficult, as the Wall Street Journal reports. The School Siting Task Force said at a meeting on Monday that out of 7,000 city-owned properties they looked at, they found only two to be viable possibilities. Citing an urgent need, city officials said they would be putting out a Request for Proposals for private properties in the next few weeks as the School Construction Authority anticipates a need for 45,000 seats within the next five years and is looking to find 70 sites for new schools.
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City Living

July 20, 2018

Development dispute over P.S. 64 in the East Village continues, two decades later

By Andrew Berman of Village Preservation

P.S. 64 in 2013, courtesy of GVSHP Twenty years ago, on July 20, 1998, Mayor Rudy Giuliani sold former Public School 64 on the Lower East Side, then home to the Charas-El Bohio Community and Cultural Center, to a developer, despite opposition from the building’s occupants and the surrounding community. The decision and the building remain mired in controversy to this day. Community groups and elected officials will hold a rally in front of the building at 605 East 9th Street on Friday at 6 pm to mark the 20th anniversary of the sale and to call on Mayor Bill de Blasio to return the building to a community use.
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History

‘Private school bump’ sends parents hunting for second homes on the Upper East Side

Photo via Ed Yourdon/Flickr

April 9, 2018

‘Private school bump’ sends parents hunting for second homes on the Upper East Side

By Michelle Sinclair Colman

‘Tis the time of year for private school acceptance letters to arrive. Nervous teens and parents race to their inboxes and find out if they are given the honor of spending upwards of 50k a year on their children’s education, often at one of the Upper East Side's highly prestigious institutions. At the same time, the starting gun sounds on the race to find an Upper East Side home to move to near school. amNY reported that with the “private school bump,” not only do buildings see a jump in families moving their primary residences to the area but many see NYC residents buying “little studios for them and their kids for Monday through Friday just to be closer to the school so they don’t have to commute from Tribeca, the Lower East Side, or Chelsea.”
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Real Estate Trends

June 14, 2017

New private school brings top global academic program to NYC’s Upper West Side

By BASIS Independent Manhattan

BASIS Independent Manhattan, a K-8 private school teaching the acclaimed BASIS Curriculum, is opening this fall in a 45,000-square-foot school at 795 Columbus Avenue. Although new to NYC, BASIS Curriculum Schools is no strangers to praise. Steadily since 1998, they've grown their network to 28 campuses around the world while gathering many accolades, including that of U.S News and World Report. This year, BASIS Curriculum Schools was ranked #5 on the publication's list of the "Top 10 Best High Schools in the Country." Designed with the modern child in mind, BASIS Independent's upcoming Manhattan campus will feature state-of-the-art facilities that support everything from daily physical education in the elementary grades, multiple recess breaks, weekly engineering sessions, and, for middle school students, the study of chemistry, physics, and biology in a laboratory setting. Indeed, thoughtful spaces designed to elevate performance are at BASIS Independent's heart, and they work in tandem with the school's curriculum developed to provide students with the strongest academic foundation—and for a fraction of the tuition expected in NYC, at that. Ahead, Head of School Jesse Rizzo shares how the upcoming New York City schoolhouse has been designed to help create and fortify Manhattan’s next school community.
find out more about BASIS' Manhattan school here

City Living

September 23, 2014

City Kids: Why Parents Pick City Living Over the Suburbs

By Michelle Cohen

The 'American Dream' may have dominated the last few decades, causing a mass exodus to the suburbs, but today's families are reversing the trend and turning their attention back to the city. The reasons are many: An appreciation for cultural offerings, the camaraderie and creative cross-pollination of networks of colleagues, friends and family, the convenience of being able to walk or bike to school, work or child care without a long commute—just to name a few. New York City has always been a haven for the forward-thinking, albeit a challenging one. And its newly-”discovered” outer boroughs as well as an unprecedentedly low crime rate have made the city a prime choice for family living. But what is it about those city kids—the ones with parents who planned from the start to raise their kids in a non-stop urban environment? We interrupted the busy schedules of five families currently raising school-age (or soon-to-be) children in New York City's many diverse and multifaceted neighborhoods to get some insight about why they wouldn’t have it any other way.
Hear what five parents of city kids have to say

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