Mayor Bill de Blasio fell over himself last month to crow that city schools would reopen in the fall, even though it wasn’t up to him — then turned in a plan to the state at the 11th hour Friday that lacked major details.
The administration’s handling of exactly what the Big Apple’s more than 1 million students and their parents can expect in the fall infuriated everyone from the teachers’ unions to parents and Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
“New York City is late,’’ Cuomo said Friday afternoon, referring to the fact that the state Education Department had yet to receive the city’s overall plan for reopening even though the end of the week was the deadline — and de Blasio had said two days ago it would be ready.
The plan suddenly popped up on the city Department of Education’s Web site Friday — yet wasn’t officially submitted to the state till 5:30 p.m. and with no press release to announce it.
“That is unfortunate, because parents want to see the plans so parents can respond,’’ Cuomo said.
The apparent bungling came less than a month after de Blasio announced that the city’s schools would reopen amid the coronavirus — when it was Cuomo’s call.
As it stands, the city also is already late submitting its individual plans for each school on how to reopen amid the pandemic.
The de Blasio administration has given city principals till mid-August to turn in their proposals to local education officials, and the plans must then be handed over to the state.
But the state deadline for such individual plans was Friday, too.
While the city applied for and got an extension, it’s only good for a week, meaning that the Big Apple’s 1,800 individual school plans will be late to the state by at least a week, even with the special consideration.
Then there’s the issue of what the city did unveil Friday, a vague outline of a weekly “blended approach’’ of in-class and online learning for “a vast majority of kids.”
Most students will physically be in class two to three days a week, the mayor said.
“You can certainly say, ‘Yeah, it’s gonna be tough, it’s gonna take a lot of work,’ ’’ Hizzoner told reporters Friday morning.
He said the city’s daily positive-test rate for the coronavirus must remain below 3 percent for the plan to work. He said Friday’s figures show it remains steady at 1 percent.
The discovery of a vaccine would help bring schools “back to full strength,’’ de Blasio said, and it is “conceivable’’ that schools could fully reopen for on-site instruction without a vaccine if the number of virus cases in the city becomes virtually nonexistent.
Each school’s plan will typically vary between one to three days of in-class learning, with the rest of the week remote, depending on such things as enrollment and layout, city officials said.
But with many schools struggling with capacity, the DOE said individual principals also can apply for full remote-learning alternatives.
Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza, who appeared with the mayor at the press conference, said, “We want students to have as much in-person experience as possible,’’ while keeping in mind the health constraints.
Meanwhile, the city’s 32-page report called for a range of daunting policies.
For example, students, teachers and other staffers must wear masks at all times in the building. There also will be single-direction hallway movement and the breaking-up of groups of kids outside school.
The DOE also acknowledged a looming transportation crisis and said buses will only be able to carry 25 percent of normal capacity to satisfy social distancing. The department encouraged parents to seek out other options.
To track virus cases, the DOE said it will conduct random temperature checks on students and encouraged teachers to get tested for COVID-19 once a month.
The report also presented protocols for confirmed cases, which will include classroom and building closures along with mandatory quarantine periods.
“The standards the city proposed — for protection, testing, and closing of schools and classrooms — are not enough,” said United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew said in a statement.
“We need randomized testing of school communities throughout the year and a vigorous contact tracing system that gives schools test results and a course of action with a 24-hour turnaround.”
“What’s more, even if there are stronger safety standards in place, we still have grave concerns about the city’s ability to enforce them effectively in every school,” he said “Right now, this is not enough to protect students and staff.”
The Council of School Supervisors and Administrators also expressed doubt about the existing format Friday.
“We have serious concerns about what has been communicated to school leaders so far regarding safety protocols and instructional designs as well the city’s ability to provide schools with the necessary resources to implement their plan,” said CSA President Mark Cannizzaro, whose union represents school principals.
City Department of Education spokeswoman Danielle Filson said in a statement Friday, “The health and safety of all New York City students, teachers and staff is the priority when it comes to reopening.
“To ensure the safety of all New Yorkers, we’re planning to open all buildings at the same time in September, with equitable space sharing arrangements among co-located schools, including charters.”