Fearing Staff Shortage, NYC Teacher And Principal Unions Push To Delay Vaccination Mandate

The New York City teacher and principal unions are pushing back against the upcoming deadline for Department of Education employees to comply with the city’s vaccination mandate, saying the mandate could lead to a potential staffing crisis next week with thousands of unvaccinated teachers and staff leaving.

As Mayor Bill de Blasio has doggedly pursued his goal of keeping the city’s 1,800 schools open for in-person learning, the DOE is under one of the city’s strictest policies. With few exceptions, nearly all DOE employees have been ordered to show proof that they’ve received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine by the end of the day on Monday September 27th.

As time runs out before the deadline, the president of the Council of School Supervisors & Administrators union said the city needs to delay the deadline so that principals and administrators can develop a plan if their staffing changes.

“Despite our repeated warnings, the city is ill prepared for the impact of the vaccination mandate on staffing in schools and early childhood centers with just four days to go before it takes effect,” said CSA President Mark Cannizzaro in a statement Thursday. He added, “Any staffing shortage, especially during a pandemic, is a threat to the health and safety of both students and personnel. It is dangerous and irresponsible for the city to move forward with its plan to allow schools and centers to operate so severely understaffed. As a result, we are calling on the city to delay the deadline for the mandate to allow the city to develop a reasonable contingency plan.”

The United Federation of Teachers union issued a short statement afterwards agreeing with the CSA.

“The principals’ union is right – our schools are not ready for the implementation of the vaccine mandate,” said UFT President Michael Mulgrew. “I hope for once City Hall is listening to its own school leaders and finally starts to put together a reasonable plan to face the challenge of keeping our children safe.”

The DOE mandate, announced by de Blasio on August 23rd, was immediately challenged in court. The Municipal Labor Committee and other unions sued the city, arguing the vaccine mandate should allow for religious and medical exemptions as well as accommodations for unvaccinated school staff. New York State Supreme Court judge Laurence Love lifted a temporary restraining order against the mandate policy Wednesday, and said he’s likely to rule on the overall validity of the mandate for educators early next week.

After arbitration with the unions, the city was forced to carve out some religious and medical exemptions to the mandate, but de Blasio said Thursday the religious exemptions would be limited.

“I believe it's two well-established religions, Christian Science and Jehovah's Witnesses, that have a history on this, of a religious opposition” to vaccines, de Blasio said. “But overwhelmingly the faiths all around the world have been supportive of vaccination. So, we are saying very clearly, it's not something someone can make up individually. It has to be, you're a standing member of a faith that has a very, very specific long-standing objection.”

Staff who qualify for these rare medical and religious exceptions can switch to assignments outside the classroom. Teachers who don’t qualify for these exemptions but still refuse to get vaccinated either have to take unpaid leave and can keep their health insurance, or they can resign and get severance.

De Blasio has insisted that DOE employees have largely been in compliance with the mandate and that he was confident schools will not suffer from lack of staffing, pointing to a robust roster of substitute teachers and educators working in the central offices who could be deployed to schools.

“We have thousands and thousands of vaccinated, experienced substitute teachers ready to go,” de Blasio said at his press briefing Thursday. “That's the obvious first go-to, but it's also true that central staff has thousands of educators, certified educators, who could step into different roles if needed. So, they’ll be ready, but the reality we're seeing right now is we think the overwhelming majority of our educators and staff are going to be there on Monday having gotten that first dose and moving forward.”

The DOE said there are about 11,000 substitute teachers available, but could not answer how many staff in the central offices could be deployed to schools.

As of Wednesday, 87% of teachers are vaccinated, de Blasio said. According to the DOE, there are 78,000 teachers total, meaning 67,860 have gotten at least one shot, and 10,140 have not. Of the 148,000 school staff members, de Blasio said Wednesday “around 80%” have had at least one dose, with 29,600 who have not gotten vaccinated.

DC 37, the union that represents numerous school staff positions, said 20,000 of its members work for the DOE, and union-wide more than 70% of DC 37 had gotten at least one vaccine dose.

“The case is not over and we are going to continue to fight for your right to make your own medical decisions. In the meantime, you should continue reporting to work,” DC 37 Executive Director Henry Garrido said in a letter to the union membership Thursday.

One teacher in the Bronx said he wasn’t sure de Blasio’s gamble would succeed in spurring more DOE employees to rush to get their vaccines before the deadline.

“I think that teachers by nature are planners. And it would surprise me if someone who, it's Thursday, hasn't made that decision -- it's not happening over the weekend. I just don't see it,” said Pedro Dones, who teaches at a middle school in the Bronx that he didn’t want to identify because he’s not authorized to speak to the press.

Dones said he disapproved of the idea that trained teachers could be easily replaced by substitutes: “I think that it's insensitive to the decision-making process that goes into being an educator,” he said.

Danielle Lerro, an assistant principal at IS 303 in the Morris Heights neighborhood in the Bronx, expressed more optimism about the mandate.

“Most people I know were very much in support of the vaccine and got vaccinated as soon as they could get it, and are pro the vaccine mandate, because they want to make sure that their kids and themselves are protected, and they know the vaccine is the best way to do it,” said Lerro. “I predict that almost everybody in the system who's currently unvaccinated will get themselves vaccinated by the deadline.”

Staten Island Council Member Joseph Borrelli tweeted that several schools in his borough would lose dozens of staffers once the deadline passes. He questioned why substitutes were preferable to unvaccinated teachers, especially for students with learning disabilities who have Individualized Education Programs or IEPs.

“It doesn't make sense how this benefits students when their teacher who's qualified to teach their specific class, in many cases specific to the student’s IEP, is going to be shelved in favor of a sub,” said Borrelli in a phone interview. He said the city should loosen the vaccine mandate to match that of other city agencies, where employees can submit weekly negative COVID test results in lieu of vaccination.

De Blasio has publicly maintained his belief that DOE employees will follow the mandate by the deadline. “The consequences are made really clear by the arbitration,” the mayor said at his press briefing. “In short order, they're not going to be getting a paycheck.”