No snow day Monday for NYC public schools, Mamdani says
New York City public schools will not have a snow day on Monday despite a massive winter storm that's forecast to wallop the region over the weekend, Mayor Zohran Mamdani says.
The mayor said Friday that students and parents will find out whether classes will be in-person or virtual by noon on Sunday.
"I have to apologize to the students that were hoping for a different answer, for a traditional snow day. That will not be the case," Mamdani said.
"In either case, learning will continue in an environment that the city deems safe," Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels said.
PSAL events will be canceled Sunday.
High schoolers already have the day off for a pre-scheduled professional development day.
Last time NYC went all-remote turned into a debacle
The last time the city went fully remote resulted in a debacle due to the surge of students signing on at the same time, which overloaded the system. Samuels said "that day that will live in infamy," and said the city is prepared should they need to do it again this coming Monday.
"I want to say very clearly we have prepared in numerous ways for what might be a pivot to remote for next week, and we've stress tested the system both in person with students logging in and, as well, we've had simulations," Samuels said. "We now have the capacity of having a million logging in at the same time within 60 seconds. We now have that."
Samuels said he's "very, very confident" the program will be successful, if needed.
Snow day "one of life's rare joys," but...
Mamdani was whimsical about the absence of a snow day.
"I'm not going to contend that a snow day is not one of life's rare joys. I will tell you that growing up in the city, it was one of my favorite memories," Mamdani said. "To be very clear and direct with New Yorkers, we are also bound by state law that requires 180 days of instruction. And as previous administrations have added additional holidays into the school calendar, it leaves our school calendar without any flexibility for the potential of a lack of an educational day."
So if Mamdani had the flexibility to give the kids a snow day, would he?
"I will not stand here and say that it's the end of anything. I will tell you that for Monday, however, these are the two options," Mamdani said.
Decision is not sitting well with everyone
The decision to not have a snow day on Monday isn't sitting well with everyone, however. Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella said if the city can't declare a snow day, the city should make Staten Island schools go fully remote.
"It would seem that a traditional snow day is the best option, but the city has declared that is not an option, in part due to the need to comply with the state law on the number of days kids must be in school. In the interest of keeping parents, children and staff safe, and for keeping the roads clear for sanitation to clean the snow, we believe schools should be closed to in-person instruction on Monday, if a traditional snow day is not an option," Fossella said.
He pointed out that Staten Islanders don't have access to the subways, as other communities around the city do, and students there either have to drive or take a bus.
He called on city officials to make their decision on the matter as soon as possible.
"Reimagining what the snow day looks like"
Samuels said "there are benefits to remote learning."
"I might offer that folks might begin to think about this as reimagining what the snow day looks like. No one is asking kids to be on a device for six hours and 20 minutes. So we have to be flexible in our approach. Some learning will be synchronous. Some will be asynchronous. You can still have your hot chocolate, you can still go out and enjoy the snow, but we really want to make sure that, especially since the pandemic, our children have missed more school than they did before. And we want to make sure that instruction continues, even when it's disrupted, or attempted to be disrupted, by weather patterns," Samuels said.
