The local paper for the Upper East Side THE FUTURE OF EDUCATION
◄ SPECIAL REPORT INSIDE
POWERS PUSHES TO HELP SMALL BUSINESSES ECONOMY
Council member wants permanent outdoor dining and temporary repeal of commercial rent tax BY JASON COHEN
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo created a poster to depict the “mountain” of New York’s COVID experience. Photo: Don Pollard / Office of Andrew M. Cuomo
NEW YORK’S STATE OF ANXIETY PANDEMIC
While the city now has one of the lowest infection rates in the country, local leaders are trying to assuage our fear of uncertainty BY MICHAEL ORESKES
Megadoses of anxiety have always been essential to the New York state of mind. But this really does feel different. Existential uncertainty is our new normal and we are all trying to adapt. In BC times - Before COVID - we walked fast be-
As New Yorkers continue to struggle to get by during the pandemic and businesses are barely surviving, one elected official has proposed several measures to help the economy.
Last week, Council Member Keith Powers released a report outlining further action for small businesses’ recovery and employee aid, “Open for Business: Saving Our Small Businesses Post-COVID.” Among the many items in the report are Powers’ desire to make outdoor dining permanent and a measure to relieve businesses of paying commercial rent tax during COVID-19 State of Emergency. “I think [outdoor dining] is working really well,” Powers
told Our Town. “It’s an opportunity to make money and pay bills. It makes our streets more welcoming. If this doesn’t happen we’d see a lot more businesses be prepared to close. I think people are searching for answers and this is an opportunity to get back to normalcy.” The commercial rent tax is 3.9 percent of businesses’ annual rent charged only to businesses south of 96th
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INSIDE
MALONEY’S ‘DECISIVE WINNING MARGIN’ Board of Elections gives her an edge of over 3,700 votes, but Patel won’t concede until lawsuit over invalidated ballots is resolved. p. 3
CONTINUED ON PAGE 8
REDEFINING STREET FOOD
Restaurants, groceries and vendors are all occupying outdoor space, giving a new meaning to “street food.” p. 6
cause we had places to be. We talked fast because there was so much to say and so little time. Now, no words seem adequate and, in any case, where is there to rush to? New Yorkers have always displayed a striver’s certainty. “If I can make it here…” Well, you know the rest. This was our “concrete jungle where dreams are made from.” Sure, there was no telling when buildings might topple or the tides would flood the subways. This happened. Still we crossed
CONTINUED ON PAGE 9
WEEK OF AUGUST
WHAT’S HOT, WHAT’S NOT
A post-lockdown real estate primer. p. 26
Council Member Keith Powers (left) and Assembly Member Dan Quart (right) on the East Side on July 29, 2020. Photo: Assembly Member Dan Quart on Twitter, @AMDanQuart
Voices City Arts Business
6 10 26
15 Minutes Real Estate
28 30
Jewish women and girls light up the world by lighting the Shabbat candles every Friday evening 18 minutes before sunset. Friday, August 7– 7:46 pm. For more information visit www.chabbaduppereastside.com.
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MALONEY’S ‘DECISIVE WINNING MARGIN’ POLITICS
Board of Elections gives her an edge of over 3,700 votes, but Patel won’t concede until lawsuit over invalidated ballots is resolved BY EMILY HIGGINBOTHAM
The count is finally over. Congressmember Carolyn Maloney is ahead of insurgent candidate Suraj Patel in the Democratic primary contest for New York’s 12th Congressional district after weeks of waiting for the thousands of absentee ballots to be counted. The Board of Elec-
tions completed the count earlier this week, according to Maloney’s campaign, and the longtime incumbent leads Patel by more than 3,700 votes — a much stronger margin than the 648 ballots separating herself from Patel on the night of the June 23 election. “The Congresswoman is delighted, now that the Board of Elections has finished their preliminary scans of absentee ballots, to have a decisive winning margin of over 3,700 votes,” a spokesperson from the Maloney campaign said in a statement. “Both she and the campaign are thankful and ap-
preciative of all our volunteers and supporters, whose hard work and perseverance have made this possible.” While Patel has publicly acknowledged Maloney’s lead, he made it clear that he would not concede until his lawsuit — filed against the state’s BOE and Gov. Andrew Cuomo — regarding invalidated ballots is resolved. Of the 95,000 votes cast in the 12th district, more than 65,000 of them were via absentee ballots. And, according to Patel’s campaign, 12,000 of the absentee ballots were invalidated because they were missing a postmark the envelope or
the BOE received the ballot after the June 30th deadline. Earlier in the campaign, all four candidates, including Maloney, Patel, Lauren Ashcraft and Pete Harrison, called on the BOE to reinstate those ballots. Now, Patel is suing in pursuit of that aim. “Courts have held that you are not entitled to a perfect election, but you are entitled to a free and fair one,” Patel said in a statement. “Unfortunately, in ours, thousands of voters never received their ballots, and for those who returned their ballots by mail, nearly 25 percent were rejected. This is not just slightly above the norm compared with other states. It’s 100 times the rejection rate of Wisconsin. It shatters any semblance of normalcy — states like Georgia, Missouri, Michigan, South Carolina, and Mississippi all have invalidation rates under 1 percent.”
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Rep. Carolyn Maloney. Photo: U.S. House Office of Photography
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SEAWRIGHT ATTEMPTS INDEPENDENT RUN POLITICS
The UES assembly member collects signatures for the “Rise and Unite” party line BY EMILY HIGGINBOTHAM
After getting booted from the Democratic Party line due to a filing error, Assembly Member Rebecca Seawright has been collecting signatures to make an independent bid and is likely to appear on the ballot this November. Since the setback, the three term Upper East Side assembly member has gathered more than 5,000 signatures needed to get on the ballot as an independent. Seawright
Assembly Member Rebecca Seawright. Photo: Andre Beckles
will be running on the “Rise and Unite” party line in the 76th Assembly District. She is expected to submit the petitions this week ahead of the
July 30 deadline. “I am energized by this spectacular outpouring from so many friends, neighbors, and constituents on the Upper East Side, Yorkville and Roosevelt Island,“ said Seawright. “While petitioning in the Assembly district, I was invigorated by so many voters and their words of encouragement to keep fighting to prevent the Trump Republicans from stealing the seat. As I have said from the beginning: We will be on the ballot for the November General Election. We are in it to win it.” If the Board of Elections approves Seawright’s bid, the incumbent will face Republican Louis Puliafito, an UES doorman, during the Nov. 3 election.
STATS FOR THE WEEK Reported crimes from the 19th precinct for the week ending July 26 Week to Date
Year to Date
2020
2019 % Change
2020
Murder
0
0
n/a
1
Rape
0 4
0 3
n/a 33.3
5 119
12 83
-58.3 43.4
0 7
0 5
n/a 40.0
68 211
83 128
-18.1 64.8
32 3
31 1
3.2 200.0
662 42
878 17
-24.6 147.1
Burglary Grand Larceny Grand Larceny Auto
something
have
Do
us to
you You’d
0
look
% Change
n/a
?
into
Felony Assault
like
Robbery
2019
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GET HELP. GIVE HELP. Join a community of neighbors helping neighbors here in New York. With AARP Community Connections, you can find online mutual aid groups to stay connected, share ideas and help those in need. Just need to talk? Ask for a friendly phone call from a trained volunteer if you or a loved one is feeling anxious or overwhelmed. AARP and your community are here for you. Request a friendly phone call at 1-888-281-0145 or get connected at aarp.org/coronavirus
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Write to us: To share your thoughts and comments go to our website and click on submit a letter to the editor.
REDEFINING STREET FOOD EAST SIDE OBSERVER
BY ARLENE KAYATT
Mixed-up messaging Kind of weird to see that Whole Foods’s rotisserie chicken comes wrapped in packaging that promotes the fact that their chickens are fed a vegan diet. And what’s a vegan to do with that info? They sure aren’t buying. And if it’s so good to go vegan, why would you buy a chicken? No use to ask Jeff Bezos, he’s got to answer to Congress.
Speaking of Bezos - Amazon Go has come to the corner of 42nd and Lex in the retail space of the landmark Chrysler Building. Seeing theCome In sign at the Lexington Ave. entrance, I tried to enter. Door locked. Nobody there. Location hasn’t yet opened for business. At first I thought it was an Amazon book store but there were no books. Looking at the wall space from the street, it seemed like a grab and go convenience store. Some may call it a grocery store. Not sure Catsimatidis or Morton Williams would
Sidewalk tables at Tal Bagels on East 86th Street. Photo: Nancy Ploeger
see it that way. When I asked the security guard at the 42nd St entrance when the store would be opening, he grunted, “Wait.” Asking him “until when” seemed futile, so I did a look see. Info on the glass walls said that breakfast and lunch were available. I didn’t observe any seating or counter space for standing. Seems that it will be paperless - no physical menus - only graphically scripted menu items lavished the wall space. The print is large and readable. From some checking - not with the security guard - I learned that the stores are partially automated and rely on smartphones and the Amazon Go app for iOS and Android links to the customer’s Amazon account and that’s the primary manner of paying for purchases. However, because of the discriminatory implications of not accepting cash, the Amazon Go in the Chrysler Building may accept cash. You’ll have to show up and see what happens. Just bypass the guard. New dining venues - Every restaurant’s an outdoor cafe. At least until Oct 31. Add to the mix the bodegas where you could brown bag a meal and take it with you, and the buffet mecca where you could assemble a meal and have a seat at a table. Now they, too, have outdoor seating. Without having to worry about liquor consumption. The big corner store on 41st and Lex has set up tables and seating in the street under a canopy. The Third Ave. Garden on the UES has done the same on the sidewalk right outside the store alongside the flowers they sell. With restaurants, groceries and vendors all occupying outdoor space, we may have to redefine “street food.”
AUGUST 6-12, 2020
Voices
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR On youth voting, the 2020 Census and “Hamilton” The Unseen Electorate In the midst of a renewed civil rights movement and a devastating pandemic, one of the best actions young Americans can take to effect change is to vote. So why aren’t they registering to do it? A recent USA Today article revealed the voter registration rate has plummeted since March. This comes as no surprise: as students headed home and most public venues closed for the summer, established networks to register and engage voters have been rendered infeasible. With social distancing likely to continue into the fall, coordinating effective methods of registration has become imperative. This predicament poses a particular threat to young people. As youth, we stand to inherit the world our politicians will shape. By that logic, we have the most to lose. However, youth voter participation does not reflect this urgency. According to University of Florida political scientist Michael McDonald and his US Elections Project, youth have an average turnout of only 40% at presidential elections since 1998, compared to 67% of voters over 45. To bridge this gap, universities and their respective faculty and student organizations must join together to facilitate and promote youth voting. As a young person and new voter, I am inspired by the passion and persistence of my generation. The mis-
takes of today’s politicians will be ours to bear; talk alone will not sway them. To secure the strong leadership we so desperately need, we must not only register but also follow through at the ballot box. Rachel Freedman Upper East Side
Fill Out the Census You might have seen the recent news that President Trump issued a memo aiming to exclude non-citizens from the distribution of Congressional seats. While patently unconstitutional, it’s important to see this memo for what it truly is: just another attempt by the Trump Administration to manipulate the census, a foundation of our democracy, for partisan, political purposes by fanning the flames of fear and hatred. We’re not going to be deterred in our fight to achieve a complete and accurate count in the census this year, and our fight to ensure that all New Yorkers, including all immigrants, are fairly represented. As of July 21, 53% of New Yorkers have responded to the census. We have less than a month to go before the Census Bureau’s doorknockers hit the streets of the five boroughs, so we need every New Yorker to self-respond right now. If you haven’t filled out the census, please do so right away at my2020census.gov. It is 10 simple questions; takes about 10 minutes, and it will determine the next 10 years of our future here in
New York City.
Julie Menin Director, NYC Office of the Census
Offer “Hamilton” for Free Over the past months of the COVID-19 pandemic, I have been heartened to see how many organizations in the entertainment industry, and art and science institutions have stepped up to help all of us by offering their plays, concerts, performances, exhibitions, tours & lectures free online. As of this moment, however, what makes it so very disheartening to see is that the one play, which has been seen around the world with much fanfare and praise – “Hamilton” – was offered only by paying a subscription to a channel. How many people, children especially, have been pushed aside as they do not have the funding to pay for a subscription. Other organizations have generously donated their cultural offerings to help the public pass the time, and learn, while also being entertained. Perhaps Disney and Mr. Miranda can take this a step further so that those people who can’t afford to subscribe can also enjoy this acclaimed production – offer it free to schools, libraries and movie theaters when they are allowed to re-open. Let’s open up the opportunity to see “Hamilton” to all Americans. It can be a unifying and inclusive experience during this difficult time in our history. Brenda R. Acevedo West Side
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Street in Manhattan. This bill would help approximately 5,500 Manhattan businesses with an annual base rent of less than $1 million that are currently paying the tax. “This is money back in the hands of small business owners,” Powers said. “Right now, New York City is experiencing a state of emergency and our response to help businesses recover must be commensurate. Relieving payment of the commercial rent tax at this time is a tangible benefit for businesses.”
Uncertain Future In 2019, he introduced legislation to provide relief for up to 1,300 businesses from the commercial rent tax, in the form of expanded exemptions and sliding-scale tax credits. According to The Center for an Urban Future’s analysis, small businesses account for 1.2 million jobs and $65.5 billion in revenue. “Small businesses are the lifeblood of New York City and if we want them to survive in a post-COVID-19 city, we need to take action,” Powers said. “We can begin by providing financial assistance, removing regulatory hurdles, expanding existing programs and supporting targeted employment assistance.” Before the pandemic, businesses were struggling with competition from e-commerce, rising rents, the increased cost of doing business and more. Now, businesses face an uncertain future as those costs are met with the financial struggle of a COVID-19 shutdown and a collapsing economy.
Provide Emergency Rent Relief to Small Businesses:
The city should utilize future federal stimulus funds to establish a new financial assistance program modeled after the Payment Protection Program to help small businesses pay rent. Save Our Stages: Federal aid should give consideration to businesses, such as Broadway theaters and independent music venues, which cannot operate at reduced capacity and will be among the last to reopen. These “Phase 5” businesses, which have no current timeline forreopening,willbelostwithout extended financial assistance.
End Unnecessary Fines and Create Blanket Grace Periods: Earlier this year, the
mayor axed certain fines that were outdated and costly. Powers wants to expand that list. He wants the mayor to convene Small Business Services (SBS), Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA), Department of Sanitation (DSNY), Department of Health (DOHMH) and other agencies to establish a grace period on fines and fees.
Expand Existing Programs:
When the current eviction moratorium for commercial tenants expires Aug. 20, most small businesses will still be a long way from recovery. Residential tenants experiencing hardship due to COVID-19 have been handed a lifeline by the Tenant Safe Harbor Act, but no similar relief has been extended for commercial tenants. However, through an ex-
something
you You’d
Small businesses are the lifeblood of New York City and if we want them to survive in a post-COVID-19 city, we need to take action.” Council Member Keith Powers ecutive order or state legislation, the governor and state legislature should extend the eviction moratorium for commercial tenants by one year.
Cap Third-Party Fees Beyond State of Emergency: For
businesses that are struggling to stay afloat during and after COVID-19, the city should extend the cap on third-party apps. The current law passed by the City Council extends it for 90 days, but Powers wants the cap extended by 120 days.
Enable Street Vendors to Take Part in the Open Streets Program: Street vendors play
an important role in the city’s economy and Powers stressed they must be included in efforts to support small businesses. The Open Streets program provides an opportunity to include vendors in the plan for recovery and vision for a revitalized streetscape.
Extend Financial Assistance to Undocumented New Yorkers: Immigrants have
been essentially shut out of federal relief programs, despite playing a crucial role to the local and national economy. According to the Center for an Urban Future, 95 to 100 percent of undocumented New Yorkers have been unable to access federal financial assistance.
us to
like
Do
According to a Hospitality Alliance survey, only 19 percent of New York City businesses paid June rent and only 26 percent of landlords waived rent. Some steps Powers suggested include:
look
?
into
SMALL BUSINESSES CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
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AUGUST 6-12, 2020
STATE OF ANXIETY CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 oceans, worked nights, brushed off setbacks in an abiding faith that in New York, New York the outcome of our story was in our own hands. Our traditional anxiety was whether we were doing enough to make it here. The anxiety now is that here itself, our Great City of the twentieth century, won’t make it no matter what we do to bring down the caseload or restart the economy. “I’ve shifted my thinking to be long-term COVID,” said Amanda M. Goetz, a VP of marketing and mother of three. “It has helped with anxiety. Plan for the worst and be surprised to the upside.” After decamping to family in Florida and Illinois through the pandemic, Goetz returned to the Upper West Side the other day and said she had decided to stick with New York. “I actually feel New Yorkers take the pandemic seriously,” she reported. She also found a startup she liked to home school her kids here.
“We Won’t Give Up” Our local leaders are clearly trying to assuage our fear of uncertainty. “This is an extraordinarily difficult time, layer upon layer of crisis, but we won’t give up in the midst of this,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday. Governor Andrew Cuomo regularly reminds New Yorkers of the mountain of COVID19 cases we faced and overcame. He is so attached to the image he even once presented a clay model of the COVID mountain at one of his briefings. He rallied New Yorkers as Smart, Loving, United and Tough, although then changed the order to put Loving at the end when someone pointed out the initials spelled SLUT. Having achieved one of the lowest infection rates in the country, the governor has embraced New York confidence by advising others. With Jane Rosenthal of the Tribeca Film Festival and Kathryn Bigelow, the Oscar-winning director, New York created public serv-
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Our Town|Eastsider ourtownny.com ice ads to be shown around the country. In the ads, Morgan Freeman expresses one of Cuomo’s favorite themes. When you wear a mask, Freeman intones, you have my respect. “Mask up America. Be New York tough,” the ad recommends. New Yorkers have a wellestablished tradition of scoffing at our leaders, who as often as not have earned at least some of this New York disrespect. There is perhaps no higher honor for an elected official than to be booed at Yankee Stadium. But of course in this new age we can’t go to Yankee stadium to vent. And our ultimate leader, a former Queens developer with a finely honed talent for fueling uncertainty, said he had declined an invite to the stadium that may or may not actually have been made.
Free to Play The Yankees illustrated last week how unstable our former certainties have become. Their ubiquitous season schedule used to be something a fan could plan around. Both home and away. Not these days. A series last week in Philadelphia dissolved after the Florida Marlins, who had just played the Phillies, disclosed that the virus had infected half their team. The Yankees were about to head home to the Bronx when The Orioles in Baltimore said, hey, we’re COVID-free and free to play. Major League Baseball has come to resemble a pickup stickball game where teams hunt for who else is allowed to come out and play. It’s charming, but a bit unsettling to watch billion dollar businesses operate this way. “We’re in a world where no one has dealt with anything like this before, so I think we all need to be pliable and be able to pivot and at least be open to adjust,” said Brian Cashman, general manager of the Yankees. Baseball can help us understand the mind of New York, to paraphrase George Will in an earlier context. But nothing is more central to real life here than back-to-school month, also known as September. Mayor de Blasio pointed out that this is an
COVID-19: I’ve shifted my thinking to be long-term COVID. It has helped with anxiety. Plan for the worst and be surprised to the upside.” Amanda M. Goetz, a VP of marketing and mother of three anxious time even in normal times. On Friday, as the deadline set by the Governor loomed, the mayor and the schools chancellor, Richard Carranza, offered what Caranza described as “some semblance of security” around the uncertainty of schooling in the age of COVID-19. In-person schooling will only be allowed if the overall rate of infection in New York is under 3% (it has hovered lately between 1% and 2%), the mayor announced. This hewed closely to public health advice that the best way to make schools safe is to eliminate the virus in the larger community. Yet the mayor and the chancellor seemed to lack conviction in their own plan. “We’re really choosing from a portfolio of imperfect solutions,” said Carranza. “Our hope and dream is a vaccine real soon – everyone gets vaccinated, we’re back to full strength,” explained the mayor. It was puzzling to hear the mayor and the chancellor so swiftly undercut their own confidence-building efforts by talk of the more perfect plan – the one scientists and drug companies may deliver to us, sooner or later. So not New York tough. The virus can be contained through rigorous adherence to mask wearing and social distancing, cleaning and aggressively ventilating schools and swift and effective contact tracing. Layers of protection, the public health experts would call this. In other words, we can take our fate back into our own New York hands, tough, smart, united, disciplined and loving (as we now order them). If we can make it safe here ... Well, you know the rest.
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AMERICAN ART AT HOME
MUSEUMS
The Whitney Museum and its Summer Studio are repping for the kids during the pandemic who have the artistic itch
BY AHAD SANWARI
A pandemic (when you’re safe) can be unproductive. A pandemic (again, when you’re safe) can be mentally draining. A pandemic (ONLY if you’re safe) can, let’s face it, be boring. That can hit hard when you’re a child in New York City, who spent most of the cold winter months awaiting when summer would arrive and you could take off to summer camp. In the midst of a pandemic, summer camps are no longer an option. But, fortunately, there’s a source of respite: museums. Several museums around the city
have launched summer programs that are now underway, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Jewish Museum. But one that stands out is the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Summer Studio. The Whitney’s Summer Studio takes its vast collection of American art and turns it into an interactive experience for kids and families to learn not only how to draw and paint, but also how to seek inspiration from the artists themselves. Heather Maxson, the Whitney’s Director of School, Youth, and Family Programs, started this program with the exact intention of providing kids and their families with something to do in these summer months. “I wanted to give kids something fun to do and a way to really engage with the Whitney’s collection of artists and artworks,” she says, “and also to be able to kind of make something of their own.” Each week, four batches of classes
The program aims to allow parents to learn about artists with their kids. Photos: The Whitney Museum
(for different age groups) are held on Zoom with Whitney’s instructors. Each week’s classes are inspired by artists/collections at the Whitney, such as Cauleen Smith, Edward Hopper, and the Vida Americana murals. The classes are then tailored accordingly, and the week ends with a collaborative art project. “The first class that we did was based on Cauleen Smith,” Maxson says, “who’s an artist who makes these beautiful banners that were in the Whitney Biennial a few years ago that are also handmade. They’re also designed to be kind of marched with and used in protest. So we made kind of protest banners and protest signs that week.” Participants can also share their artwork on Instagram using the hashtag #WhitneyAtHome. Making these classes free was one of Maxson’s priorities from the getgo. “I felt like it was really important for the project to be free because everybody has so much going on in their lives right now,” she says. “And it’s such a difficult time that it’s a way for the Whitney to give back to our community.”
Free Classes for Public Schools
Families are coming together to create more art now that they’re all at home.
Museums have assumed a collective responsibility to use this time to show solidarity for their city and
their community. For example, the Museum of the City of New York’s recent photo projects, #ActivistNY and #CovidStoriesNYC, have shown how museums are using this time to showcase and support the voices of New York. “The Whitney has always really been a museum for New York City. And even more so now,” explains Maxson. “We have free programs for New York City public schools. And between April and the first two weeks of June, we were able to offer 230 free online classes for New York City public schools, which is pretty amazing because we really feel like we need to be there for our community and we need to support them in any way we can.” While summer art programs by museums aren’t new, the trying times that we’re in have necessitated them now more than ever. Such programs provide an outlet for creativity and allow productivity to seep back into the lives of anxietyridden and social-distancing New Yorkers. Another one of Whitney’s summer programs, Arts Careers, was able to enroll 52 New York City students for virtual sessions as opposed to the 20 cap for in-person ones. “We have so many limitations with COVID and other social distancing,” Maxson says. “But there are things that we can’t do in person
that we can do in this way where we are able to accommodate a lot of people in each class.” In fact, for the Cauleen Smith-inspired classes for teens, the artist’s work was taken one step further to design Zoom backgrounds as part of the class activity, which is probably as relevant and meta as it can get. “For teenagers, it’s a way to let them kind of have some control over their world and customize their world a little bit.” Fair point, considering how bored a majority of the Zoom populace probably is now of their own walls. While the Whitney, like most other museums in the city, is unsure of when it’ll be able to reopen its doors and work with young artists in person again, it believes that projects like these allow for them to stand out and make a difference. “I think it’s really a cool thing to think about an artist like Cauleen Smith or Edward Hopper or Emma Amos and think about, what can I learn from them? What ideas can I take from them? How can I be inspired to then make my own artwork that has a piece of meat in it?” Maxson says. The Whitney Museum’s Summer Studio project began July 7 and will go on til August 15. You can check out their classes and potentially enroll at whitney.org/summer-studio-2020.
BY THE NUMBERS
PG. 14
A STRAUS NEWS SPECIAL REPORT:
THE FUTURE OF EDUCATION FACING THE FALL ENGINEERING EDUCATION: OUT OF THE LAB TUTORING STARTUP
PG. 12 PG. 18 PG. 20
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FACING THE FALL Mayor Bill de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Richard A. Carranza discussed school reopening plans at City Hall on Friday, July 31, 2020. Photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office
How NYC public schools and the city’s colleges and universities are planning to keep students and teachers safe BY EMILY HIGGINBOTHAM
The month before a new school year begins is traditionally full of familiar rituals: school supply shopping, comparing class schedules with friends, and finishing up that pesky summer reading put off in favor of more time in the sun. There’s a general sense of anticipation, of excitement, of possibility that comes in August. But this year is unlike any other in recent memory. Now, parents, teachers and students await September with anxiety and uncertainty at the prospect of returning to the classroom amid a pandemic that just months ago ravaged New York City. “This year it’s filled with a whole different reality,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said at his press conference Friday morning after evoking many of those emotions that typically come with going back to school. The city’s Department of Education and New York City colleges are adjusting to this different reality with a new mode of instruction: a hybrid of time in the classroom and remote sessions, now known as blended learning. It’s an attempt to balance a student’s social and academic needs with their health and safety, as well as the health and safety of teachers and faculty members. Some institutions have been more successful in communicating the expectations and protocols in place for the fall, while others have left students and teachers with unresolved questions. And still, regardless of how thorough the plans drawn up in the past few months are, it’s clear that educating students amid a public health crisis as severe as the co-
ronavirus pandemic is unchartered territory for all stakeholders. Earlier this month, the mayor’s office announced that a partial reopening would include classroom attendance limited to one to three days per week, smaller class sizes, staggered schedules and the option to remain a full-time remote learner. Additionally, the city will give school staff free and priority access to COVID-19 testing, install hand washing and hand sanitizer stations, provide face coverings for each student and staff member for free, and conduct a deep cleaning of school buildings each day. On Friday, the mayor — accompanied by DOE Chancellor Richard Carranza and Ted Long, who leads the city’s Test and Trace program — offered a more specific plan on how schools would handle confirmed infections, and also made schools openings contingent upon the city’s infection rate. In order for schools to reopen and remain open, de Blasio said he city’s infection rate would need to be below 3 percent, which is a stricter standard than the state’s 5 percent standard. For weeks, the city has maintained an infection rate below the 3 percent threshold, with the rate currently held at 1 percent. Officials also stressed that students would have minimal contact with students and teachers outside of their classroom, which they said would help keep the virus contained if someone were to test positive. The city’s plan outlines six scenarios involving confirmed cases and how officials would respond to each scenario. For example, if a single student tested positive for the virus, that student’s classroom would close for 14 days and students and staff with close-contact would quarantine. If two cases are confirmed in different classrooms, the school would shut down and move to remote learning.
The mayor raised the possibility of repeated school openings and closings in the fall. “We need to prepare for an experience that is not linear,” said de Blasio. Officials seemed confident in their approach to the reopening, but teachers’ unions have not yet bought into the plan. On Twitter, a cohort of United Teachers Federation questioned why only a single classroom would close following a confirmed infection and not the entire school, as had been the protocol when the pandemic hit the city in March. “This ‘plan’ is confusing and absolutely frightening,” the group wrote in a tweet.
Quandaries on Campus Over the summer, the city’s colleges and universities have been working through the same logistical quandaries as the DOE on how to educate students amid a pandemic, with the additional obstacle of needing to house students in tight quarters on campus. Each has outlined social distancing and mask policies that have now become commonplace, and have also adopted blended learning as the mode for education. During a legislative session Tuesday, City University of New York Chancellor Felix Rodriguez said in some ways colleges and universities in New York are still in a stage of wait-and-see while the state has yet to make an official decision regarding school reopenings.
We need to prepare for an experience that is not linear.” Mayor Bill de Blasio
“Ultimately, all decisions on fall classes are pending final guidelines from the governor’s office,” said Rodriguez. “CUNY is working to offer its academic courses and programs for as many of its academic courses and support services as is reasonably practicable in an online modality and remote format.” CUNY has been working to help facilitate remote learning by purchasing 33,000 laptops and iPads for students to take courses online, the chancellor said. “Since the majority of CUNY students come from backgrounds of limited financial means, it became obvious that many of our students would not be able to successfully complete the spring semester without having a dedicated device they can use for academic work,” said Rodriguez. At other institutions, there’s a sense for students and faculty that some institutions have lacked transparency and clarity during this process. At Columbia University, officials who initially gave instructors the option to teach exclusively online have started to back away from that position. In an email, Amy Hungerford, Columbia’s executive vice president of arts and sciences, asked that instructors “mount a more robust offering of in-person or hybrid courses to meet important student needs.” She said the “vast majority” of faculty and instructors chose to teach exclusively online, and said the consideration for the needs of students needed to be expanded upon. Evan Jewell, who is a history professor at Rutgers, said a friend forwarded him the email, which Jewell then posted on Twitter along with very critical commentary of Columbia. “Today faculty and grad instructors @Columbia received an email
trying to shame them into teaching in person. As a friend who sent it to me summed it up, ‘stop being so selfish and come die in the classroom,’ Jewell said in a tweet.
“A Huge Headache” Annie Abramczyk, a junior at Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, said her university’s communication over the summer about the fall summer was purposely vague. It wasn’t until July 30 when the university sent an email detailing procedures for student arrival, COVID-19 testing, and quarantining that she felt as though she’d been given clear and concise information about what to expect in the fall. “As far as language goes, as far as instruction goes, it has not been very helpful,” said Abramczyk. NYU, too, is attempting to offer blending learning, but Abramczyk said educators haven’t been exact in describing what that will look like in practice, and her faculty advisor has not been as communicative as she’d expect under these circumstances. As a Tisch student, Abramczyk said she typically has studio classes for several hours each day, and while she thought her professors adapted well to remote learning, it’s not conducive to her own style of learning. So she plans to defer the semester, though it’s still not clear if the university will accept that request. “The thing that scares me though, is it’s July 30th, and I submitted my leave of absence request 10 and a half days ago,” she said, noting that fall tuition is due Aug. 4. “And I find it pretty bad that they have not given me any indication that this leave of absence request has been approved, processed or that it’s rejected — nothing. It’s honestly been a huge headache.”
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EDUCATION BY THE NUMBERS
SPECIAL EDITION
By Sami Roberts and Ahad Sanwari
1,040,274 HISPANIC
16.2%
WHITE
15.1%
RACE/ ETHNICITY
BOYS
GIRLS
source: data.nysed.gov
$
En
25.5%
ASIAN
48.5%
source: data.nysed.gov
40.6%
BLACK
51.5%
NUMBER OF PUBLIC SCHOOL STUDENTS IN MANHATTAN
13.2% 20.2% 72.8%
ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS
ECONOMICALLY DISADVANTAGED
STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES
source: www.schools.nyc.gov/about-us/reports/doe-data-at-a-glance
1,866
DEATHS AT THE DOE DUE TO COVID-19 (AS OF JUNE 22, 2020)
75
31 28 5 3 2 2 2 1 SCHOOL-BASED EMPLOYEES 1
Teachers Paraprofessionals Food service workers Guidance counselors Administrators Facilities staff School aides Parent coordinator Computer tech. specialist
source: www.schools.nyc.gov/about-us/news/covid-19-losses ILLUSTRATION: ADAM EMMERICH
700
NUMBER OF SCHOOLS IN MANHATTAN
20,000
18,339 17,737
15,000
NEW STUDENT ENROLLMENT IN MANHATTAN SCHOOLS (2019/2020) 10,884
10,964
11,021
18,065
15,948
11,267
10,000
180,636 TOTAL NEW STUDENT ENROLLMENT (2019/2020)
5,000 0
ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS
Source: NYCDOE InfoHub
K 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
GRADE
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The Verbatim Agency for American Education: Images of Teachers and Students in Action. Photo courtesy of Allison Shelley/
A VISION FOR THE NEXT GENERATION OF TESTING TESTING SYSTEMS
In the pandemic pause, an opportunity to look at new ways of assessment BY PEG TYRE
When schools were shuttered around the country two months ago, the pandemic did what nearly a decade of activist parents and testing skeptics could not do — put a system-wide pause on state-wide standardized testing. It wasn’t because the tests were too long, poorly aligned to classroom learning or because benchmark exams and test prep was robbing students of a deep and meaningful curriculum — charges that testing critics had been articulating for years. Rather, classroom learning was shifting to distance learning and the federal government, whose mandates motor much of the state-wide testing, offered waivers to the states. And just like that, the $1.7 billion testing system got a hole blown through it as big as Texas. In this pandemic pause, there’s an opportunity to look at some new ideas and to build a vision for a new generation of assessment. The PARCC and Smarter Balanced con-
sortium tests were a giant step forward for most of the states that adopted them. Even those states that balked were forced to up their game. But the promise of a “next generation” of assessment remains unfulfilled. How can assessments be better aligned to curriculum? How can tests be used to promote deeper learning? How can we test what is important rather than determine what is important by how easy it is to test it? The assessment system devised by the International Baccalaureate program is worth scrutinizing for answers to these questions. IB schools were established in 1968 as a way to provide children of peripatetic diplomats and international business people with a consistent, internationally-recognized, high school curriculum and assessment system that would be acceptable to top universities around the world. The 5,000 or so IB schools now use an interdisciplinary approach to education for 1 million students around the globe. Four different IB programs enroll students from age 3 to 19. Although the program started in Geneva, the United States has the largest number of IB programs (2,010 out of 5,586) which are offered in both private and public schools, some of which are serving middleand low-income communities.
While these tests are challenging, they succeed in assessing higher order thinking skills on a wide range of students who hail from different social and geographical contexts, and to hold those students to the same standard in a transparent way. They are graded by teams of teachers and exam monitors who are trained and overseen by chief examiners. Although formative assessments are given throughout the school year, the program has an annual summative assessment at the end of the school year, though not all IB students take it. Prepping, which is called “Reading Period,” isn’t about test-taking tricks or learning to fill in bubbles but rather reading deeply into material covered in their structured curriculum. Middle schoolers take a multi-media online test and submit both a project and a portfolio of work around art and design. High schoolers submit classwork and take tests in a myriad of subjects which usually consist of writing essays, conducting multi-step calculations and short answers. (This year, the IB program assessed students on classroom work alone.) These tests force students to actu-
ally show their ability to think and integrate ideas on the spot. And they aren’t easy. A high school student sitting down to take her history exam might be asked to write essays on sample questions like these: “How successful was either Lenin (1917-1924) or Mussolini (1922-1943) in solving the problems he faced?” Or “To what extent do you agree with the view that war accelerates social change?” A student might culminate his study of chemistry by taking a test with this question: “The effect of some drugs used to treat cancer depends on geometrical isomerism. One successful anti-cancer drug is cisplatin, whose formula is PtCl (NH ) 2 32. Describe the structure of cisplatin by PtCl (NH ) 2 32 referring to the following: ■ the meaning of the term geometrical isomerism as applied to cisplatin ■ diagrams to show the structure of cisplatin and its geometrical isomer ■ the types of bonding in cisplatin.” While these tests are challenging, they succeed in assessing higher order thinking skills on a wide range of students who hail from different social and geographical contexts, and to hold those students to the same standard in a transparent way. They are graded by teams of teachers and exam monitors who are
trained and overseen by chief examiners. Each grader uses a ““weak criterion referencing” system, that is, setting the standard according to a description of what to look for in candidate performance with an eye to how top IB students scored in years past. This kind of assessment costs a lot of money: $119 per student per subject. By comparison, states that use PARCC and Smarter Balanced test pay about $22 per student per test but some states pay as little as $9 per student per year for assessments. Almost every state is girding itself for severe cutbacks in educational spending. But education spending is on cycle. It might be useful to use this crisis as an opportunity to plan for the future. As they do that, states should ask: How does our current test system accurately measure the things that count? What better ways of measurement are available to us? And most crucially, how much are we willing to pay for a better test that assesses student learning, not simple recall, logic and test taking ability, the cheapest and easiest things to measure. Peg Tyre is director of strategy at the Edwin Gould Foundation in New York City and a FutureEd senior fellow. This piece was originally published by FutureEd at Georgetown University.
AUGUST 6-12, 2020
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With 51 years of experience providing progressive early childhood and elementary education, Corlears School knows how to support the social-emotional and academic growth of your child – especially during these uncertain times.
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MIXING IT UP AT ENGINEERING SCHOOL STEM EDUCATION
NYU’s Tandon School is implementing online, blended and in-person classes BY YUSUF HUSAIN
O
ur school vision is to awaken curiosity, cultivate high standards and celebrate successes. We combine the merits of single-sex and co-education in a unique provision that is both family-friendly and educationally sound. Backed by decades of educational experience at Wetherby School and Pembridge Hall in London, the children at Wetherby-Pembridge in New York enjoy a balanced, diverse and inspiring academic programme. They are challenged and fulfilled at all stages, embrace opportunities and learn from failure.
Like most colleges around the country, New York University’s Tandon School of Engineering is resuming classes this fall in online, blended (combining online and in-person class components) and in-person capacities. To do so, the school is implementing a variety of both safety-focused and technological changes to accommodate local health directives and different learning modes without disrupting the curriculum too much. NYU says classroom densities will be reduced to below 50% of normal capacity as students will be spaced at least six feet apart during inperson classes. Tandon’s own guidelines say that classes with more than 40 students will be online, while classes with 15 to 40 students will be blended, and classes with fewer than 15 students will be in-person. According to Tandon Industry Professor Joseph Borowiec, there are more factors going into determining which classes can safely run in-person than simply class sizes. “There are instructors with
health conditions … if there’s a medical reason why they should not come to class, they were given that option,” Borowiec said. “And you still have the reality of which classrooms are available.” Though some classes will offer in-person sections, every student still has the option to take classes completely remotely. NYU has been busy upgrading its classrooms to close the gap between a class’s online and in-person experiences. But the way each class is run is decided by the instructor, and not everyone has adapted well to teaching online. “If you have questions, it’s hard to get them answered via email because if they don’t respond soon, you have less time to complete an assignment,” Tandon sophomore Kavitha Rao said. But overall, the transition to online learning has gone relatively well. Borowiec said that after considering feedback from students even before the pandemic hit, he went and purchased a writing tablet for his computer.
Online Labs Most courses offered by Tandon consist of lectures, labs, and discussion-based sections called recitations. Though all types of sections have been online since midMarch, students and instructors have had very different
Visit our website to find out about our Open Houses. For more information: info@wetherbypembridge.org 646-213-3400 | www.wetherbypembridge.org 7 East 96th Street, New York
Photo: NYU Tandon School of Engineering
I do like the flexibility of watching lectures later.” Kavitha Rao, Tandon Schol of Engineering sophomore reactions to each. “The lecture was fine, my professor would go through the PowerPoint and she could draw, and she was very responsive to everyone in the class,” Tandon junior Chris Fazekas said. “I’ve had three online labs and only one worked well,” Rao said. “For General Chemistry, the labs were straightforward and simple in-person but online they required hours to complete.” Despite mixed reactions from students and faculty, however, one aspect of online lectures has been overwhelmingly positive. “I do like the flexibility of watching lectures later,” Rao said.
Assessment Methods Because many students will be attending completely remotely, Tandon will be offering some classes in an asynchronous format, which will allow students located in different time zones to view recorded classes at any time. But it also gives students attending lectures in-person and in real-time online a chance to roll back a lesson or redo a problem without contacting an instructor for help. Perhaps the biggest changes have been to the assessment methods instructors use. Most engineering classes have group projects or timed exams as their primary assessment methods. But online, those are difficult to use, and as Borowiec explained, may not be the best ways to assess progress. “[The pandemic] is making people rethink how they want to assess, like they’re even just doing a take-home exam,” Borowiec said. “That was pretty much not something that was considered all that acceptable. But now we’re trying it out. It’s not something that changes overnight, but it’s causing people to rethink in a lot of ways.”
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THE VIRTUAL SHIFT IN MUSIC EDUCATION PERFORMING ARTS
Conservatories are developing new methods to teach students and conduct performances online BY ADAM BURTON
No field has remained unaffected during the coronavirus pandemic, and education is no exception. Music education has been hit particularly hard, as it requires tactile feedback and intense teaching methods that are not easily communicated virtually. The shift to virtual methods of teaching was sudden and forced high level conservatories to completely overhaul their previous learning structures. At the onset of the pandemic, institutions had to adapt quickly to social distancing measures and quickly moved their curriculum online. “Everything was shifted online almost immediately: academics, classes, as well as individual instruction,” said Vladimir Valjarević, a pianist and professor at Mannes School of Music and the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. “That’s how the school year ended, and that’s how next semester will go as well.” Institutions such as The Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music and Mannes School of Music will be conducting classes online at least until January 2021. The shift to online teaching was particularly challenging
for one-on-one lessons, as the level of feedback required on performance and methods simply cannot be met by the existing online platforms. “None of the platforms were made for instrument performance,” said Valjarević. “They’re basically made for speaking, so Zoom, Webex, Viber, Whatsapp and wechat [...] some perform a little bit better than others, but all ultimately encounter similar problems.” Conservatories have found solutions to these impediments, however, quickly providing infrastructure and new methods to provide the highest quality of education possible. Manhattan School of Music provides high quality teaching facilities onsite, as Craig Mumm, a violist and professor in the Orchestral Performance Program, describes: “Manahattan School has been doing a lot of distance learning for a long time. So they already had a fancy studio with a large screen, and fast internet connection. They link it up with conservatories or orchestras around the world, and now for private lessons.” Manhattan School of Music has also been prioritizing safety, allowing only staff members inside the building, and requiring masks.
Access to Technology Valjarević says he’s added separate pre-recorded work to his curriculum to better serve his students, asking his students to send him videos and recordings to allow for a higher visual and sound quality. That
Manhattan School of Music’s virtual performance of Beethoven Symphony 3, “Eroica,” on YouTube. Photo: @msm.nyc on Instagram
Now is the time for reimagining everything.” Pianist and professor Vladimir Valjarević enables him to give more calibrated feedback on his students’ progress. “Getting recordings throughout the week, and writing comments works a lot better for me and the students,” said Valjarević. Virtual learning, has, however, raised issues of disparity between students, some of whom may not have access to the technology or internet connection required for lessons. Mumm says that the level of teaching “depends a lot on the quality of your connection to the internet, and your microphone and camera. If the person has a bad connection, it can be challenging.” He went on to describe the frustration he’s experienced when working with students overseas: “It’s just painful because if they don’t have a good connection, or they’re doing it on an old cellphone, it’s not viable.” With most institutions implementing online classes in the fall, virtual learning will continue, and for some aspects of classical music education, that’s exciting. Living in another country won’t be a barrier to attending masterclasses - instrumental lessons held before an audience - and collaboration will be much easier. “I’m sure there will be a lot more online components going forward,” said Valjarević “I will be teaching at a virtual music festival in August, and I gave a virtual masterclass, which was a first.” Mumm describes a similar advancement at Manhattan School of Music: “MSM has been doing remote learning for years and they’ve been doing a lot more recently. People from the Berlin Philharmonic, and Israel Philharmonic come on and teach. They work really well.” As music moves forward, so will the virtual aspects, and it’s unlikely that things will return to what they were after the pandemic has ended. Classes will be more accessible, and teachers will adopt new methods. As Valjarević put it, “Now is the time for re-imagining everything.”
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GROWING AN EDUCATION STARTUP IN A PANDEMIC INNOVATION
College students are the driving force behind Curious Cardinals, an online tutoring platform BY CECE KING
In a traditional classroom, teachers don’t ask students what they want to learn. This model almost assumes students don’t care about much and limits them from exploring beyond standard subject areas. The education startup I’m working with, Curious Cardinals, does the opposite. Curious Cardinals is an online education platform run by college students and recent graduates. We offer individualized tutoring and pair students with mentors to develop an independent project. Our seminar style classes connect students from elementary to high school from diverse backgrounds across the United States to discuss everything from Human Behavioral Biology to Mass Incarceration. Each setting sparks passions and liberates students from the pressure of grades. Growing Curious Cardinals, learning how to teach, and communicating with the team remotely has been a chaotic and invigorating experience. Audrey Wisch, one of my closest friends, founded Curious Cardinals with fellow Stanford sophomore Alec Katz in March when schools went remote. Concerned about the quality of education younger students were receiving and left with more time, they began tutoring two middle schoolers, Jane and Elise. When Audrey realized how limiting their curriculums could be, she and Alec officialized this tutoring gig. They named it Curious Cardinals. Now, we have nearly 100 students and over 30 employees. Jane has since analyzed “Just Mercy” by Bryan Stevenson with Audrey, which inspired her to join the Mass Incarceration class. “It felt pretty exciting to find something I was looking forward to learning,” she explained. Jane has thrived in the pressure-free environment. “There’s really no mistakes,” she said. Jane’s mom Alicia Tranen, whose three kids attend a mix of public and private schools in Los Angeles, is planning to use Curious Cardinals to supplement her childrens’ education this fall. “When I think about it, I’m like, I’m set now. Now that I have the Curious Cardinals, I don’t have to worry,” she said. When Audrey reached out to me about joining the team in May, I excit-
Curious Cardinals founders Audrey Wisch and Alec Katz. Photo courtesy of Curious Cardinals.
edly outlined the class I’m currently teaching called Girl Power: On the Streets and in the Books. I never thought I’d be a teacher, but now I get to mentor younger girls and craft a class I wish I could have taken. The goal is to re-interpret the history of U.S. women’s movements by highlighting the voices that standard narratives leave out. I have my students submit journal entries to raise issues that will influence the class trajectory. As I wrote in my syllabus, “this class is a collaboration.” I want to inspire my students to take control of their education so ranking systems will feel less important than learning about what they love.
A Budding Scientist I’ve found I can challenge students with material far above their grade level if they care about the topic. Tutoring works best when I combine skills they need to work on with topics that motivate them. I tutor 5-year-old Taylor in reading both Spanish and English. She learned the word “supreme” when we read about Ruth Bader Ginsburg, but during the Galileo lesson, she ran to get her Lego telescope, and I knew I was teaching a budding scientist. Since then I’ve focused on basic physics concepts and space. I had her bring a paper airplane to demonstrate the lesson on how planes fly. Now, Taylor will eagerly explain how gravity makes the planets orbit the sun, in two languages. Taylor, like most Curious Cardinals students, is reading above the kindergarten level because she excels in lessons that interest her. Aside from Alec, none of us have started a business, a circumstance that is both challenging and liberating. We’re busy researching financial models, educational technology and antidiscriminatory pedagogy. Early on, Audrey cold emailed Prep for Prep, an organization that prepares low income students of color in New York City for top independent schools, and built our first partnership. Since then we have been growing our financial aid program. We don’t feel obligated to follow tra-
ditional corporate norms. Rather than a hierarchy, we naturally adopted a horizontal leadership structure. We want our team to communicate and contribute freely. Texting one of the founders with an idea is a good thing! We bring in guest speakers like Harvard Law Professor Randall Kennedy and feminist icon Liz Plank to provide expert perspectives and also fellow college students like Darnell Carson, a spoken word poet, to show students that age is no barrier to what they can accomplish. Since we all believe strongly in our mission, it’s easy to ask guest speakers, parents, and business mentors to take us seriously, and they do. It’s harder to be your peers’ “boss.” Audrey, who is in charge of hiring, often turns down applicants who are older than she is. If their passion doesn’t translate over a Zoom screen, Audrey won’t hire them regardless of age or an impressive resume. When the founders decided to take off time from college to grow Curious Cardinals full time, I didn’t hesitate to join. Rather than continue my own education in a fractured setting, I wanted to help fix the problems younger students face. This month, we began planning for fall. Tutoring demand is high. Many parents whose students are not resuming school are gathering groups of their children’s friends to do supplementary classes with us in a setting with a lower student-teacher ratio. Others are looking for after school activities now that many have been canceled. We plan to grow our mentorship program and stay with the same clients long term. The need for imaginative curriculums won’t stop even after the pandemic does. Come September, the leadership team is moving to California to live in a house we’ve named the Cardinal Crib. Think post-it notes pasted on the walls and 20-something-year-olds sitting on the floor, hunched over laptops, yelling to each other from across the room. If we’ve been able to harness our collective creativity over Zoom and across time zones to get Curious Cardinals to where it is now, big things are sure to happen when we live together.
Utilizing outdoor spaces. Photo courtesy of Pine Street Middle School
PRIVATE SCHOOL LESSON PLANS FALL 2020
Hybrid models and small classes: administrators on reopening their schools this fall Jim Gaines, Admissions Director, Pine Street School/Green Ivy Schools: Pine Street School is NYC’s only fully-accredited International Baccalaureate school with a full Spanish and Mandarin immersion program from nursery (2s) through middle school. Our focus on developing student agency, scientific and technological fluency, and a global worldview left our community uniquely prepared for this pandemic challenge. We provided students in all grades with 4.5 hours per day of live, engaging and interactive remote learning, with a 90% attendance rate. This September, we plan to open live, on-site and fulltime. Pine Street School’s campus in downtown Fidi will safely accommodate all of our physically distanced students in small groups of 9 or 10, within a sanitized environment. Our faculty will offer a complete academic program, including music, art, and movement sessions, and utilizing nearby outdoor spaces as much as possible. For any students not on campus, all classes will be offered virtually, both simultaneously and recorded, with additional
staff focused on online student success. We offer both before-school and afterschool care, giving families additional support from 7:45 AM to 6:00 PM.
Mark Allen, Head of School, BASIS Independent Manhattan: We have every intention of returning to campus on September 8 with the most likely scenario being a hybrid model that combines on-campus instruction with social distancing, reduced classroom capacities, health and safety practices that exceed guidelines, coupled with an improved version of what we did last year for distance learning that gives more live time with teachers. This hybrid model is going to combine the enhanced distance environment with the valuable experience of being inperson at school. Our response to all of these difficult challenges will continue to be consistent with our school’s mission and culture, namely to educate our students to the highest international standards in a joyful, loving, respectful, safe and supportive learning environment. Our team of teachers and staff will continue to be flexible and nimble in adapting our plans and tactics to satisfy best the needs of our families. We will continue to rely upon positive and critical feedback and to be responsive listeners.
AUGUST 6-12, 2020
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Barrie Scrymgeour, Principal, Nord Anglia International School: Our school plans to reopen fully on September 8th to all of our students, ages 2 to 14 years old. We are fortunate to have an average of ten students per class which, along with large, spacious classrooms, enables us to keep within current city guidelines for social distancing. We have taken measures to ensure the safety of our students and staff: ■ We will have a cleaner working on site full time each and every day – repeated sanitization/ disinfection of all areas throughout the school ■ Industrial strength air filtration systems have been installed in hallways on each floor to remove bacteria and pollutants ■ Temperature check will be made on all staff and students each morning ■ All staff will wear masks when unable to maintain 6 feet distance from others ■ Staggered and flexible entry and exit times for students ■ Bathrooms will be allocated to year groups ■ Students will wash/sanitize their hands every time they enter/exit the classroom and hand sanitizer will be available throughout the school ■ Desks will be spaced out ■ Increased focus given to the health and wellbeing of our students and staff ■ We will continue to closely follow guidance given by government agencies and health authorities
Emily Benson, Director of Admissions, International Academy of New York The International Academy of New York is a pre-nursery through Grade 8 school. Because it is licensed to include early childhood, it is considered an essential business, and the DOH has allowed the school remain fully open this fall. The school is small, with 10 students or fewer per class, which works uniquely in its favor, but there are still challenges that the school is preparing for. For health and safety, individual student desks have been purchased to retain social distancing in the classrooms. Much of the curriculum is being reconfigured
Hands-on experience at Nord Anglia School. Photo: Paul Pacey0
to include more time outdoors in nearby Central Park and on the school’s roof deck, and disinfectant wipe-downs of railings and high touch areas will occur after each transition. There will be temperature checks upon entry and teachers and older students will have face shields and/or masks. With a new normal of parents no longer allowed enter the building - plus the cancellation of most field trips, cross-grade experiences, community performances and parent “Coffee and Conversations” - the new head of school, Nasreen Ikram Hussain, along with the admin staff and faculty, are working to brainstorm creative ways to support the social emotional health of new and returning students, as well as how to continue to foster the warm and supportive parent community that IANY is known for.
Kate Bailey, Head of School, Wetherby-Pembridge The one thing I do know, is that we shall see a difference in the children when they return to Wetherby-Pembridge in the fall. For many, this has been a challenging time and the bespoke care of their young minds and spirits is a top priority for my team and parents. I have no doubt we shall also be quite surprised at the increased resilience and flexibility for many, and for most, they will just be pleased to be back. Through our tailored social, emotional and recovery program, we aim to help them understand how empowering this has been in so many ways. Our children have had to quickly develop skills to navigate am-
biguity and change. They have all had to learn to implement solutions and adapt, as much as our teaching and admin team at the school. They have all done an exceptional job and have mastered many facets of online learning effortlessly. Our main concern is to welcome the children safely back to school in September. The team at Wetherby-Pembridge has worked hard to implement thorough safety and hygiene measures, and with our small class sizes, we shall be able to welcome back all pupils. I know we shall begin the new school year with new skills and a fresh outlook for educational possibility in the classroom. Our eyes have been opened to new channels for enhanced learning. What fascinates us all now is what we can adapt and streamline from remote learning to enhance classroom practice. As Wetherby-Pembridge is part of a larger group of schools, we have opportunities to share a bank of excellent specialist teaching. During closure, we proved that musical and drama productions were still possible, using Zoom, and our remote speaker and visitor events will be as prevalent as ever. With remote individual music lessons and virtual clubs, the children will benefit from a range of high-quality learning opportunities. Since March, the time spent at home has been the training ground for these new teaching methods and experiences, and with care and thought, I know the children will return and will adapt successfully and safely to school life.
Contact our admissions team to discover our exceptional private boarding and day school for young men in grades 6 through 12/PG.
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CULTURE
Questions about the role of Black artists in neighborhood galleries BY BENJAMIN MORSE
As race and inequity are brought to the fore in every aspect of the American social fabric — major league sports, media institutions, politics (the list goes on) — artists in and around Chelsea are examining whose work is repre-
class, is on display at Metro Pictures on West 24th St. The current moment may not be the best time to take a representative snapshot of the data, said Lewis Long, owner of Long Gallery Harlem. Galleries do not often put out blockbuster exhibitions in the summer. Part of the reason: “The people with money are in the Hamptons, the Vineyard and all these other places,” Long said. Add COVID-19 to the mix,
CONTINUED ON PAGE 24
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sented in the neighborhood’s galleries. Of the 14 artists featured on Galleriesnow.net under the Chelsea exhibitions tab, two are Black. Richard Mayhew, an artist known for his brightly-colored landscape paintings has an exhibit at ACA Galleries on West 20th St. Dorian Bergen, the president of ACA, told Chelsea News that the gallery has showcased Black artists since its founding in 1932. Garry Simmons, whose work addresses both race and
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RECKONING
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 23 and any semblance of normalcy is gone. But, “in the last ten years, more mainstream galleries, more traditional storied galleries are portraying Black artists,” Long said. “And they realize the value of them.” He pointed to two worth mentioning Chelsea art institutions that have focused on Black artists’ work: David Zwirner Gallery on West 19th and 20th St. and Jack Shainman Gallery on West 20th St.
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As is common in other major cultural and professional spheres, the art world is made up of an amalgam of decision-makers — ones who, according to Marc Handelman, a professor of painting at Rutgers, are often white and bound by racial hierarchies. “The New York art world is an institution, which like so many other institutions ... is white,” Handelman wrote in an email. “This means that the overwhelming majority of curators, museum owners, boards of trustees, directors, and administrative staff, critics, art historians, gallery owners and directors, and non-profit organizations are owned, or run by white people as is the collector and investor class.” In order for the New York art community in general and Chelsea galleries in particular to
Brooklyn Historical Society | livestream only | brooklynhistory.org Monopolies have lately concentrated power on a Gilded Age scale. Hear more from Zephyr Teachout (Break ‘Em Up: Recovering Our Freedom from Big Ag, Big Tech, and Big Money) in conversation with FTC commissioner Rohit Chopra (free).
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make meaningful change, critics such as Handelman argue that simple window dressing (i.e., periodically featuring Black artists) is not enough. “Merely representational changes within Chelsea and New York as well as the greater art world have a structural limit,” Handelman wrote. This moment in time, according to Handelman, is one in which limits stand not as unmovable boundaries, but rather as lines demanding to be crossed. “[Our national] reckoning with institutional racism and white supremacy poses a deeper question about equality and the very fabric of the art world itself, not just its composition.” He suggests a systemic reimagining, one that starts from the ground up; a reimagining not just of cultural values but the “de-acculturation of [fixed] economies: from art-school and student debt, to real-estate and the broader access to art…”
“Fuel to Fire” J.J. Pinckney, a Brooklynbased artist and CEO of Found Wonder is enmeshed in the New York art scene; his statements underscored the inequity that he sees in the city’s creative community. “Since I could remember, Black artists in major programs have never been represented justly,” Pinckney wrote in a direct message to Chelsea News. For him, “that’s just fuel to fire,” a catalyst for a competi-
The art we are creating makes people really FEEL. We’re not interested in pretty pictures.” Artist J.J. Pinckney tive edge. Pinckney’s expressed urgency comes across in his work. The Basquiat-esque strokes convey a sense of creative and professional vertigo. Viewing his work, it is clear, something, everything, is on the line. “The art we are creating makes people really FEEL,” Pinckney wrote. “We’re not interested in pretty pictures.” Take one glance at the world right now, and a pretty picture is far from top of mind. Yet, that glance is making people feel, and turning feelings into action. It took eight minutes of police-sanctioned violence captured on a cell phone camera and a deadly virus that disproportionately kills people of color for a critical mass of people to reexamine the racial imbalance of the art world. “Some of the most urgent and visionary work in this reimagining is by Black artists and writers,” Handelman wrote. “Despite the turmoil the pandemic has caused to the art world, there’s never been a better moment to imagine something better.”
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Union Square skyline. Photo: Eden, Janine and Jim, via flickr
WHAT’S HOT, WHAT’S NOT REAL ESTATE
A primer for post-lockdown NYC BY FREDERICK PETERS
What are New York City buyers looking for? What are they likely to buy, and how much will they want to pay for it? What neighborhoods and property types are hot? Here’s my post-lockdown primer on what, where, when, and how much: What? Agents already see that the majority of deals
being made are at lower price points. The inventory at $2 million and below began moving as soon as showings were permitted again about a month ago. These buyers see opportunity, and many of them have gone back to work, so they are in the city. They want to ensure that they enjoy a better home if and when they are obliged to quarantine again. Larger and more expensive units have not jump-started in the same way; those buyers, often family groups, have not decided when to return to the city from wherever they are.
Some are already enrolling their kids in local schools in Westchester, Connecticut, or the Hamptons in anticipation that schools in the city won’t open for in-person learning. What, Part two? Even though the city’s virus caseload is way down, workers remain careful and circumspect, as do building managers. These cautions will likely produce a slower and more careful process in both the review and execution of construction and renovation plans. This in turn will impact the popularity of unrenovated apartments, already on the wane before the virus hit, regardless of size. And while agents still recommend staging, especially for properties in need of renovation, a basic clean-up and paint job is essential. The walls need to be white, the musty rugs or carpeting taken up and the floors shining. The property has to look easy, now when everything feels so hard.
Where? Brooklyn remains hot. The retail and dining scenes there, while under pressure, have always been more modest and casual than in Manhattan, which has enabled many local places to survive and anchor the neighborhoods they serve. Maybe even too much so, as the recent mask-less parties in Williamsburg seem to indicate. So too with the Lower East Side, Tribeca, Washington Heights, Inwood, and much of Harlem – each of those neighborhoods remains sought after for relative affordability and neighborhood feel. The historic co-op neighborhoods of the Upper East and West Sides, with their larger apartments and more arbitrary Boards of Directors controlling who may purchase a unit, seem likely to recover more slowly than many of the younger, hipper, more condominium and rental heavy parts of town. When? For the smaller
units, the time is now. A properly priced one or two-bedroom trading at $2.2 million or less will probably move fairly quickly. For the larger units, it’s hard to say what the right time will be. Those which are on the market now receive little attention, and most of the larger deals being signed, even now, had their origins in showings which began before the city shut down. Not enough data exists yet to predict the comeback for larger properties. It’s a buyer’s market, especially for those that listed pre-pandemic. Many of those sellers just want out. How Much? Today, the discounts increase as the prices ascend. The studio and onebedroom markets, priced below $1 million, have seen full-price offers and even some multiple bids during the past four weeks. Although rental inventory is high, the market is also seeing a steady stream of signed leases, especially at $10,000 per month
and under. At the higher price points, demand falters. Many properties, especially in the range of $5 million and above, receive no requests to show week after week. So the serious seller of a larger property must be prepared to discount at least 10%, and probably more, from pre-COVID pricing. Overall indicators in the market suggest a blended average contract price at 8% to 10% below February levels. We are still in the early stages of our new reality. If New York can maintain its safety protocols and keep viral infection rates low, history suggests that a gradual recovery in higher-end sales will follow. But for now, so early in the process and surrounded by so many unknowns, the market will watch and wait. Frederick Peters is the CEO of Warburg Realty, a luxury residential real estate brokerage in New York City. Reprinted with permission from Frederick Peters’ Forbes column.
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YOUR 15 MINUTES
Check out our website to read about other people who have had their “15 Minutes”.
PROVIDING SOME FUN IN A CHILD’S HOSPITAL STAY MEDICINE
Morgan Stojanowski of Mount Sinai Kravis Children’s Hospital on animal-assisted therapy, brainstorming with teenage patients and using robots during the pandemic BY ANGELA BARBUTI
The Paws & Play team.
For the kids at Mount Sinai Kravis Children’s Hospital, having to undergo medical treatment can have a bright side because of people like Morgan Stojanowski, Assistant Director of the Child Life and Creative Arts Therapy Department. A child life specialist, she oversees programming using art, play, and music, which helps young patients with the psychosocial challenges and trauma of hospitalization and illness. The New Jersey native-turned Upper East Sider implemented their Paws & Play program, which uses facility dogs to provide the children with a source of comfort during their time in the hospital. Hired as fulltime employees, these three Goldendoodles interact with patients and staff, and this animal-assisted therapy results in improvements in their physical and mental health. A dog named Professor works in their out-
Morgan Stojanowski, Assistant Director of the Child Life and Creative Arts Therapy Department. Photo: © Robert Caplin, courtesy of Mount Sinai Kravis Children’s Hospital
Patient Kayla with Professor. Photos: Mount Sinai Kravis Children’s Hospital
patient pediatric hematology oncology clinic and pediatric intensive care unit, while Moby tends to inpatient pediatric units. “A lot of parents have said, ‘I wouldn’t be able to get him or her to come to clinic, but they know they’re going to spend the day with Professor, so they almost look forward to it,’” she said. The hospital’s newest canine addition, Moby, is responsible for the wellbeing of staff, faculty, and trainees. Her role also includes facilitating their Youth Advisory Council, which meets once a month in an effort to have 15 to 20-year-olds who have been in the hospital collaborate with staff on best practices. “I have leaders who come to these meetings and say, ‘I think we’re going to roll out this way,’ and the kids say, ‘Why? That doesn’t make sense … Have you thought about this?’ and no adult in the room had thought about it,” she said. As for how her work has changed during COVID, she noted learning how to use robots as one adaptation. “We did a quick training and figured out how to drive a robot into a room to deliver art materials so that the art therapists could have a remote session with the patient,” she explained.
You started at Mount Sinai in 2012. As a child life specialist, what does your job entail?
For child life specialists, a large focus of our work is helping children understand why they’re at the hospital or why they’re seeking care,
Kayla snuggling with Amos. to prepare them for what they will experience, and help them process that through creative arts and play so that they have a sense of control and opportunity for some normalcy. We have a 3,000-square-foot play space called The Zone. We do a lot of work with patient and family engagement, so really bringing the voice of the parent and the child to the forefront. We oversee a NICU Advisory Council, a Parent Advisory Council, and a Youth Advisory Council.
Explain how the children’s hospital is set up.
It’s a children’s hospital within a hospital within a system. We are located on Mount Sinai’s main campus. There are approximately 65 beds including cardiac ICU, pediatric ICU, a med-surge unit, and a unit devoted to hematology oncology. We also have a NICU that’s roughly 55 beds. And then we also have child staff in our pediatric ED and various other outpatient clinics like outpatient hematology oncology, which is where Professor is based. We have a general pediatric clinic and we support some other areas as well.
The first dog you acquired was Professor in 2017.
We paired him with a certified child life specialist, and developed a program based on incorporating animal-assisted therapy into a patient psychosocial treatment plan. So how can we use Professor and his skills to help motivate and support a child and family during a potentially
traumatic experience? He helps with pain management, motivation to ambulate, and is a physical comfort. He gives children the opportunity to care for and acknowledge something outside of themselves. These kids identity Professor as their best friend, as their buddy. It’s really a unique relationship that they’re able to form with him. So we were able to leverage funding throughout the years to acquire Amos, our second facility dog, who’s also dedicated to pediatrics.
The hospital also has a dog, Moby, who provides support to your staff.
We really saw with Professor and Amos, how much the staff responded to them and were drawn to them for their own self-care, that it became very apparent to have a facility dog just dedicated to staff wellness. We received funding to acquire our third dog, Moby. He’s paired with a licensed arts therapist and they are dedicated to staff support in the adult hospital. Staff say, “This made my week. I didn’t know if I was going to get through the day and had 15 minutes with Moby and feel like a different person.”
Give us an example of a child who was helped by the Paws & Play program.
I work with a 17-year-old patient, she’s a Youth Advisor member, and she’s talked to me about her sessions. She has said that when she’s experiencing pain, sometimes Professor is the only thing that can offer the distraction and comfort she needs at the moment to get through it. Knowing that it’s going to be a little bit of time before the medicine kicks in, cuddling with him and feeling his weight on her body is the reassurance, distraction, and comfort that she needs to get through that really tough time.
The dogs also help children who have had orthopedic surgeries.
We have a lot of patients who come here for orthopedic surgeries or scoliosis repairs, and part of their recovery is getting out of bed, moving around, and walking. A lot of them can’t go home until they show, for example, they can walk down the hall. But they’re scared to do that; it’s intimidating and they’re afraid of the pain they might experience. But we bring Professor into the equation and say, “You have to take this walk and it might feel scary, but let’s do it with Professor. He’s going to walk with us.” And that can be a huge motivator.
You also facilitate the Youth Advisory Council.
Some are still very active in the treatment process and are admitted frequently, coming to outpatient appointments weekly. Some are more distant from the immediate experience and visit outpatient clinics less frequently. We get together once a month and talk about what we are doing right, what could be improved, and how we are going to get there. It’s everything from the options in the cafeteria to patient confidentiality to as a young adult, when the medical team comes around, how do I want to be spoken to? A big theme that they really worked on this past year was as an adolescent, what makes me feel safe in the hospital when my parent isn’t there?
mountsinai.org/locations/kravis-childrens mountsinai.org/locations/kravis-childrens/services/child-family-support/childlife/paws-play
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C N V S H A K E S P E A R E I
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WORD SEARCH by Myles Mellor
K C H I I O M E X O R W F G E
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Each Sudoku puzzle consists of a 9X9 grid that has been subdivided into nine smaller grids of 3X3 squares. To solve the puzzle each row, column and box must contain each of the numbers 1 to 9. Puzzles come in three grades: easy, medium and difficult.
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SUDOKU by Myles Mellor and Susan Flanagan
by Myles Mellor
50
2
CROSSWORD
53
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