If I had to describe the transition into this year’s 2020-2021 school year in one word, it would be horrendous. As we all know, our Mayor, Bill de Blasio, had a huge imspact on the plans for reopening.

For one thing, when New York City schools finally came up with some semblance of a reopening plan, it kept changing. It got to a point where I was afraid to turn on the news, for fear that there would be yet another thing to adjust to. 

First, we were meant to go back on September 10th, just under a month ago. Suddenly, the date was changed to September 16th, with confusion about going on the 21st. 

Then, once again, mere hours after WJPS had finished orientation for the new year, de Blasio announced that while younger children would be permitted to go in, high schoolers would have to wait another week. 

Thankfully, we were able to start online learning on the 21st, so at least students could begin learning for the new year. Then of course there was the cohort confusion where cohort D suddenly had to stand for “Distance Learning” as told by the DOE. 

While the plan may be effective for protection, it was horribly executed. The way things were going, I almost thought, “Why bother?”

“NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio” by @KevinCase is licensed under CC BY 2.0