#Senior Cuomo aide slams de Blasio’s schools reopening plan as ‘an outline’

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Senior Gov. Cuomo aide and president of SUNY Empire State College Jim Malatras
Hans Pennink

The Cuomo administration is giving Mayor Bill de Blasio a lousy grade for his schools reopening plan.

The tardy 32-page plan Hizzoner submitted to state officials on Friday looks more like “an outline” than a comprehensive vision and is tiny compared to those of other school districts, a senior Cuomo official said Sunday.

“It’s about 30 pages,” said Jim Malatras, senior Cuomo aide and current president of SUNY Empire State College, told reporters.

“Other plans that have been submitted are much more detailed from first glance,” he added, noting the Big Apple has over one million students.

“Yonkers school district has 39 schools, 27,000 students and [its plan is] about 80 pages long. The Albany city school district has 10,000 students; that [plan] has about 60 pages, 70 pages worth of details.”

The controversial reopening plan de Blasio submitted at 5:30 p.m. Friday would provide students a “blended approach” of in-class and online learning, with most attending two or three days a week, where they would be required to wear masks and limit interactions with other pupils.

But Malatras said state health officials had yet to review the plan. The city has also yet to submitted school-by-school reopening plans, which are due this coming Friday.

United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew has bashed the plan as “not enough to protect students and staff” — but Cuomo on Sunday downplayed the possibility of a strike.

“If the union isn’t comfortable with a plan, I don’t know that it would have to come down to a strike, but if the union and the teachers aren’t comfortable, then they’re not going to show up,” the governor said.

“You don’t have to get to a strike,” he said. “No one wants to force teachers against their will to work and make it a legal fight. This is about common sense and public either, either it’s a safe plan or it’s not a safe plan.”

Meanwhile, New York state hit its lowest number of daily hospitalizations since March, at 556, Cuomo said. Just three New Yorkers died from the virus on Saturday.

“It’s all very good news. The numbers are just about where we want them to be, but we have to stay diligent,” Cuomo said, adding that state liquor authorities issued 36 coronavirus-related violations to restaurants and bars on Saturday.

“No part of America is safe [from the virus],” he added. “New York is in America, last time I checked.”