#Eric Adams promises to keep schools open in Omicron surge

Mayor Eric Adams vowed Monday that New York City public schools will continue with in-person instruction as Omicron infections continue to surge, declaring, “I am keeping my schools open.”

The new mayor, who made the rounds on TV as students and teachers returned to classrooms following the winter break, promised an “all hands on deck” approach to ensuring schools are sufficiently staffed.

“Our schools will open,” he said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” as he detailed the shortcomings of remote education, including missed meals and mental health struggles.

“I’ve been very clear on this: my children are going to be in school. I am keeping my schools open, and we want to make sure they are going to be in a safe place.”

Department of Education central staff who normally work at borough offices and headquarters will be deployed to school buildings, and the more than 1 million at-home rapid tests distributed in recent days to schools will keep pupils who test negative for coronavirus returning to class, according to Adams.

Asked on MSNBC about staffing shortages due to COVID-19 cases, Adams said the DOE will modify personnel assignments to plug potential holes — and keep a close eye on the data.

“We’re going to adjust and pivot based on the numbers. We’re going to have real-time updates, creating our own command center, [if] we see a drop in staffing, we’re going to draw from our pool of employees who are waiting, and we’re going to go all out,” he explained. “Everyone in Tweed and all over the city that are doing non-classroom assignments? No, all hands on deck.”

“If you’re a superintendent, if you’re an administrator, you have a teaching license, we want you in that school building,” Adams added. “We’re going to shift and adjust in real time.”

Adams, who was sworn in as mayor at midnight on New Year’s Day, doubled down on his message at an appearance at school in the Bronx Monday morning.

“We have been so focused on keeping our schools open, and sending that message. We’re not sending an unclear message of what is going to happen day to day. I am going to tell you what’s going to happen day to day: we are staying open,” he told the crowd at Concourse Village Elementary School, where he was flanked by new schools Chancellor David Banks.

“We’re going to do everything that we have to do to keep our schools open.”

Adams’ confident posture came after the principal of PS 58 in Brooklyn told families Sunday evening that it will hold remote learning Monday due to COVID-19 cases without authorization from the DOE, Chalkbeat reported.

Under a plan announced by former Mayor Bill de Blasio and backed by his successor, Big Apple public school students who learn alongside COVID-19-positive classmates can stay in school if they test negative using scaled-up at-home testing. The plan went into effect Monday.

Adams said City Hall has given more than 1.5 million rapid tests to schools in the five boroughs.

“We distributed to every school in this city, over 1.5 million test kits, where our teachers and principals will be ready to receive them,” he said on NY1 Monday. “If a child is identified as having COVID, we’re going to test that classroom, bring those tests home to families.”

Due to increased testing and other coronavirus-related measures, “school is the safest place for children,” he said on the channel. 

Still, Big Apple pupils who test positive may miss more than a week of classes. 

While the Center for Disease Control’s new guidance cut its recommended isolation period for people who have COVID-19 from 10 days to five, Gov. Kathy Hochul’s shortened quarantine guidance for fully vaccinated New Yorkers employed in the “critical workforce” such as teachers, but not students.

Additional reporting by Kevin Sheehan