Photo by David Greene
A full week after New York City public schools opened for class for the first time in six months, on Tuesday, Sept. 29, “the new normal” included temperature checks before entering a building, smaller classrooms, and teachers rather than students moving from classroom to classroom.
After the first week of her children’s school reopening, Norwood resident and mother, Heather Guerino, said, “Now the schools are taking more precautionary measures within [them], but they should have done that before the coronavirus.” She added, “The coronavirus has forced a lot of people to have a new way of life, a new way of living.”
Photo by David Greene
Meanwhile, after a week of classes, Morrisania mom, Iris Rivera-Smith, said, “The good thing about it is the classrooms are smaller; there’s only nine to 12 children in each class.”
Smith agreed with Guerino when she said, “This idea should have been implemented years ago, so the conronavirus is having a good and bad effect. The bad effect is that people have been getting sick and dying from the virus, but now more precautionary measures are being taken within everyone’s everyday life.”
Smith added that because of the smaller class sizes, students can “get that individualized attention with a smaller group of children.”
Photo by David Greene
Reflecting on the week to date, Rosa Velasquez of Belmont said, “My son went back. His first day was Friday and he’s 16. He’s a junior. He was fine.” She added, “He said there were six students per class, and they do not move from the classroom, and the teachers change each period.”
On Monday, October 5, Gov. Andrew Cuomo appeared to undercut Mayor Bill de Blasio’s authority, ordering the closure of an estimated 100 schools in various zip codes across Brooklyn and Queens where clusters of the coronavirus were reported.
On the same date, the Department of Education reported that nine schools across the Bronx had shut one or more classes due to COVID-19 cases or suspected COVID-19 cases. However, no entire schools in the Bronx have, so far, been ordered to close.
Image courtesy of the New York City Department of Education
The impacted Bronx schools are:
1) P.S. 25, 811 East 149 Street, where one or more classes stopped in-class learning from 10/5/20 through 10/14/20.
2) P.S. 25, 450 St. Paul’s Place, where one or more classes stopped in-class learning from 10/6/20 through 10/14/20.
3) Bronx Center for Science and Mathematics, 1363 Fulton Avenue, where one or more classes stopped in-class learning from 10/5/20 through 10/6/20.
4) Urban Assembly Charter School for Computer Science, 1300 Boynton Avenue, (at the James M. Monroe Educational Campus) where one or more classes stopped in-class learning from 9/30/20 through 10/7/20.
5) P.S. 186-X / P.S. 306, 40 West Tremont Avenue, where one or more classes stopped in-class learning from 10/4/20 through 10/12/20.
6) Herbert H. Lehman High School, 3000 East Tremont Avenue, where one or more classes stopped in-class learning from 9/30/20 through 10/8/20.
7) J.H.S. 144, 2545 Gunther Avenue, where one or more classes stopped in-class learning from 10/5/20 through 10/16/20.
8) J.H.S. 80, 149 East Mosholu Parkway North, where one or more classrooms stopped in-class learning from 10/2/20 through 10/13/20.
9) International Leadership Charter High School, 3030 Riverdale Avenue, where one or more classes stopped in-class learning from 9/30/20 through 10/6/20.
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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.
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