The head of New York City’s Council of School Supervisors and Administrators, the union that represents the city’s school principals, is demanding that Mayor Michael de Blasio and Chancellor Richard Carranza remove themselves from control of the city’s 5,001 schools after a vote of no confidence over the handling of the COVID crisis.
The demand by the principals’ union, which reportedly has over 6,400 members, is the latest sign of city-wide institutionalized chaos coming just two days before the scheduled start of in-classroom learning for Kindergarten through 8th Grade students.
“CSA calls on Mayor de Blasio to cede mayoral control of the Department of Education for the remainder of this health crisis and for Mayor de Blasio and Chancellor Carranza to seek the immediate intervention of the New York State Education Department,” the statement from the union read.
In a letter to the Mayor and Chancellor, the group wrote, “[The Council] declared a unanimous vote of ‘No Confidence’ in Mayor de Blasio and Chancellor Carranza due to their failure to lead New York City through the safe and successful reopening of schools.”
This is the first time in the city’s history that the union has called for such sweeping state intervention in city schools.
“All summer long, we’ve been running into roadblock after roadblock, with changing guidance, confusing guidance – often no guidance,” union chief Mark Cannizzaro told reporters in a conference call Sunday.
On-line instruction was riddled with technical glitches and uncoordinated execution as well.
The majority of families attempting to engage online classes for their children faced problems including trouble logging in and uncommunicative and unresponsive teachers.
One parent tweeted that her daughter’s online class was “hijacked” by hackers who inundated the channel with hardcore pornography, an alleged security breach the DOE said they are probing.
