UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — Tuesday's planned reopening of the Hunter College Campus Schools for in-person classes was thrown further into question over the weekend as teachers voted to authorize a strike over safety concerns in the main school building, and a state judge ruled that the school could not force teachers to return unless new air filters were installed in classrooms.
A strike authorization vote that began Saturday ended on Sunday, with 85 percent of participating teachers voting in favor, according to an email obtained by Patch. Union leaders will now decide whether to call a strike.
Staff at the Upper East Side school have complained for weeks that Hunter's reopening plan lacks key coronavirus safety protections in place at other public schools around the city. Despite winning several concessions from administrators, teachers continue to worry that the school's fortresslike 94th Street building has inadequate ventilation that could put staff in danger.
.@HunterPresident Raab @ChancellorCUNY, @Hunter_College Campus Schools teachers don't want to strike but are holding a safety strike authorization vote now. Allow an independent COVID safety inspection! #HCCSsafereturn #1unyc
— PSC_CUNY (@PSC_CUNY) September 26, 2020
On Friday, Manhattan state Supreme Court Judge Eileen Rakower granted the temporary restraining order requested days earlier by the Professional Staff Congress — the union representing Hunter teachers — which sought to delay the reopening until the school installed HEPA filters, believed to more effectively stop the spread of the coronavirus.
Hunter, though, said in court filings that it finished installing those filters last week, providing receipts showing that dozens of HEPA filters had been ordered Monday and arrived Wednesday.
Union leaders allege that Hunter administrators had previously misrepresented the type of devices they had installed — what the school called HEPA filters were in fact air purifiers with untested capacity to curb the virus's spread, the union says. (Raab claimed as early as Sept. 15 that HEPA filters had already been installed in classrooms.)
"Having real HEPA filters in the classrooms is a victory, but the fact that we had to go before a judge to force the Hunter Schools to follow their own COVID plan after they misrepresented the devices they were using demonstrates why we need an independent inspection of the ventilation in every classroom," PSC President Barbara Bowen said in a statement Saturday.
Testing promised after protests
Hunter, a K-12 public school which is governed by CUNY, is scheduled to reopen Tuesday for grades K-6 with a mix of in-person and remote instruction. Grades 7-12 are set to return Thursday, while juniors and seniors will start the year fully remotely.
Hunter has made other concessions to the teachers union in recent days — this week, the school announced that randomized COVID-19 testing of students and staff would be in place starting in October. Staff had complained for weeks that Hunter would be the only public school in the city to reopen without widespread testing.
"We've been told over the last several weeks that several things are impossible and then it turns out that they are possible," Irving Kagan, a social studies teacher and vice-chair of Hunter's union chapter, said Sunday.
Still, tensions have escalated throughout the past week — on Tuesday, teachers passed votes of no confidence in Hunter College President Jennifer Raab and Campus Schools director Lisa Siegmann.
The union said Saturday that members might refuse to report to school this week unless Hunter allows an independent inspector hired by the union to examine the ventilation systems in every classroom. Administrators have resisted that demand for weeks, saying they have hired their own inspectors who have deemed its buildings safe.
"The necessary air filtration units are in place," CUNY spokesperson Frank Sobrino said in a statement. "In-person classes will begin as scheduled."
To reduce crowding, Hunter will divide students between the 94th Street building and its Silberman School of Social Work in East Harlem. Hunter also plans to mandate social distancing, conduct daily health screenings and add hand sanitizing stations.
Previous coverage from Patch:
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Hunter Teachers Vote To Strike As School Reopening Nears - Upper East Side, NY Patch
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