NYC BLIZZARD: Public schools will open for in-person classes on Tuesday

NYC public schools will reopen on Tuesday for in-person classes, Mayor Zohran Mamdani confirmed during a press conference about the ongoing blizzard conditions in NYC.

Schools will open at the regular start time, according to the mayor. Normal programs and extracurricular activities will resume.

“I hope our students enjoyed their snow day today and stay warm and safe throughout, because I have some tough news to share. School will be in person tomorrow,” Mamdani said.

School buses will run on a normal schedule, city operations staff said. Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels said maintenance crews have been clearing snow and ice outside schools throughout the city and getting classrooms ready for in-person instruction.

“I want to recognize facilities, custodial and school teams who have been working around the clock to move snow and ice to make clear paths and prepare classrooms for students’ return,” Samuels said. “The team efforts have been nothing short of extraordinary.”

The return to in-person classes follows Monday’s traditional school closure, which affected both in-person and online instruction during the storm.

The decision to close the schools on Monday, on the heels of the annual mid-winter recess last week, was made for various reasons, including safety.

The blizzard hit the Big Apple just as public school students returned from a week-long midwinter recess. The break in classes prevented teachers from providing students with the materials needed for remote learning, officials said.

The New York State requirement mandates 180 days of instruction per academic year. However, an exemption was granted on Monday due to the storm’s severity and other extenuating circumstances.

Meanwhile, Samuels said city officials will continue to monitor weather conditions throughout the storm.

Both Mamdani and Samuels jokingly invited the city’s students to pelt them with snowballs for their decision.

Outer borough pols call decision “reckless”

Elected officials in the outer boroughs, including Staten Island and Queens, criticized the mayor’s decision to re-open the schools tomorrow, some even calling it “irresponsible” and “reckless.”

“The city failed to properly prepare and respond to the storm—and now it is compounding that failure by forcing schools to reopen before Staten Island is fully safe and accessible,” NYS Assembly Member Michael Tannousis, representing Staten Island and Brooklyn, said. “Many neighborhood streets remain uncleared, transportation routes are unreliable and parents are being forced to make last-minute decisions about how to safely get their children to school.”

Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella said bluntly that the schools “should absolutely remain closed” on Tuesday.

“How could the city, on one hand, urge people to stay indoors, and on the other, expect families to get their kids to school in these unsafe conditions? In what world does that make sense?,” Fossella facetiously asked. “Keep schools closed, keep families and kids safely at home and give the hardworking men and women at Sanitation the time and resources they need to get us back to normal.”

The beep also said city officials “dropped the ball” preparing for the blizzard, which covered swaths of the borough in two feet of snow by Monday morning.

“Numerous roads are impassable, and people have to walk in the middle of the street because the sidewalks are completely blocked by at least two feet of snow,” he said. “The city was already underprepared for this storm. Let’s not make this mistake worse.”

City Council Member Phil Wong of Queens said residential streets in his district, which includes Maspeth, Elmhurst, Ridgewood and nearby areas, remain difficult to navigate with piles of snow building up.

“With streets still tough to navigate, limited parking for school staff, and buses facing real obstacles, shifting to remote learning tomorrow is a practical and responsible approach,” he said.

Meanwhile, a petition began circulating online calling for NYC public schools to hold remote classes on Tuesday. It garnered nearly 70,000 signatures as of Monday afternoon.

The United Federation of Teachers (UFT), the union representing nearly 200,000 educators in the city, posted a notice on social media, advising members to be cautious during the commute and to check their emails for updates.

“The mayor announced this afternoon that schools will be in person tomorrow. The snow is forecasted to stop, and the city says that snow removal will continue throughout the night to clear the roads by morning,” the UFT said. “We know tomorrow’s commute may pose a real challenge for some of our members. No one should jeopardize their safety trying to report to work.”