Schools may be open -- but they're struggling

The problem there and in many other schools boils down to a mismatch between demand and supply. While many officials and parents nationwide push to keep kids in school and away from remote learning, Omicron has left many schools short of the essentials needed to operate, like teachers, substitutes, bus drivers, cafeteria workers—and sometimes students themselves.

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At Brooklyn Tech, empty desks dot classrooms, and roughly 10% of teachers are absent, according to the head of the school’s chapter of a teachers union. Teachers say they struggle to teach in classrooms while also delivering remote lessons to students who can’t attend because they tested positive or were near someone who did. Safety measures, such as providing good ventilation in the century-old school’s nine-story stone building, are a constant challenge.

The result is a sort of low-grade chaos. Teachers improvise Zoom classes for those who are absent. Some students try to teach others who have missed long stretches. Students give themselves Covid tests in crowded hallways.

Exhausted teachers, having lost their planning periods while covering for others, say they lack uniform practices on matters ranging from how far windows should be opened to which absences count as excused.

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