Cuomo to Tell Schools in Early August When and How to Re-Open

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July 8, 2020

By Barrett Seaman–

On the same day President Trump pushed states across the country to reopen their schools in the fall, Governor Andrew Cuomo set a timetable and process whereby New York State will determine whether its schools open or not—and how.

“We will open schools if it is safe to open the schools.” He told a press conference in New York City. “That’s the law and that’s how we’re going to proceed. I am not going to ask anyone to put their child in a situation that I would not put my child in. That’s how I make all these decisions.”

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According to the schedule Cuomo laid out, the state will issue preliminary guidelines on Monday, July 13. School districts will then develop plans within those guidelines and submit them to the State Department of Education by the end of July. By the end of the first week in August, Friday the 7^th, the state will tell districts in each of the ten COVID regions ow to proceed.

Most districts have been at work for some time planning for some sort of reopening. “We have been deep in our planning for reopening for weeks now,” says Irvington District Superintendent Kristopher Harrison. He finds the governor’s timetable “frankly troubling.”

“Logic would tell me that these dates are not in the proper order,” says Harrison, who would rather be told if and when a reopening will take place under what conditions and then plan around that. “We could all use more time for planning and professional learning; however, that is a luxury we won’t be able to enjoy simple due to the reality of the crisis.”