City teachers’ union leaders blasted Mayor de Blasio’s ability to keep schools safe amid the ongoing coronavirus crisis in a newly released survey.
A poll of roughly 1,200 United Federation of Teachers chapter leaders done at a meeting of union brass on Wednesday revealed a near unanimous lack of confidence in City Hall’s stewardship of city schools.
Asked if de Blasio has “any clue” what’s happening inside classrooms, 98 percent of respondents answered in the negative.
An overwhelming 93 percent said kids were not complying with social distancing mandates throughout the day while 89 percent said students were not properly using masks.
Presided over by union chief Michael Mulgrew, roughly 200 chapter leaders attended the meeting in person while another 1,000 participated remotely.
Mulgrew reminded his members of de Blasio’s approaching exit and said that his likely successor, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams. should be made aware of union imperatives through organizing and activism.
Meanwhile, unvaccinated city teachers now have just three days to get their first shot or face removal from classrooms.
As of Wednesday, 87 percent of 78,000 city educators had received their first dose, according to the DOE. That means roughly 10,140 teachers remain unvaccinated.
Overall, the DOE said 78 percent of all 130,000 DOE staffers — including kitchen and custodial staff — have gotten the shot.
That leaves a balance of more than 28,000 employees who are still lacking the jab.
Any DOE worker who fails to get it by Monday must either take a year of unpaid leave with health coverage or exit the system with a severance package.
The city is offering religious and medical exemptions, but union sources said those accommodations have been minimal.
De Blasio said Thursday that only Christian Scientists and Jehovah’s Witnesses have any prayer for a religious exemption based on their established opposition to vaccines.
He repeated Thursday that the city was ready to deploy a platoon of vaccinated substitute teachers to replace current staffers who fail to comply with the mandate.
