UNITY/UFT has been a bedrock of our union for more than 60 years. We have successfully navigated our membership through many political, economic and financial crises. And, now we find ourselves in uncharted territory as we battle a pandemic that has left more than 300,000 dead across the nation and more than 35,000 in our state.
Under the leadership of UNITY/UFT President Michael Mulgrew, we are fighting every day to keep our members, students and school communities safe and healthy. And we have succeeded beyond anyone’s expectations. Our schools remain among the safest institutions in the city.
Because of UNITY/UFT’s diligence, we have had the strongest protections of any school system in the country since we opened in the fall. And in the last weeks, we’ve worked with the city and state to make those protections even better:
- Schools in the City’s high-impact red and orange coronavirus zones will continue to follow the state’s 3 percent rules
- Schools will reopen in phases
- More frequent testing and more stringent guidelines for closing
- 20 percent of all staff and students must be tested every week in every school
- The presence of a COVID-19 case or cases in a classroom results in that class moving to remote instruction
- Two or more positive cases in a school that are not linked will result in the entire school going fully remote
As President Mulgrew recently said, “Each of these strategies, properly implemented, will keep us even safer until we beat the pandemic ravaging our nation. With approved vaccines arriving in our city, we are nearing the finish line for what has been a year none of us will forget.”