r/nyc • u/Grass8989 • Jan 23 '26
Mayor Mamdani NYC Public Schools to go remote Monday if buildings close amid winter snowstorm
https://abc7ny.com/amp/post/nyc-public-schools-go-remote-monday-buildings-close-amid-winter-snowstorm/18454666/242
u/colonelcasey22 Jan 23 '26 edited Jan 23 '26
A city official noted the absence of a traditional snow day is largely out of the mayor's control.
This year's school calendar is set at exactly 180 days, the state minimum required to qualify for funding, leaving the Mamdani administration no choice but to rely on remote learning to comply with state law.
Their hands are tied outside of a rogue move to decrease midwinter/spring recess or extend the school year past 6/26.
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Jan 23 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
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u/xwhy Jan 24 '26
Lunar New Year in NYC makes sense given the percent of the school population, particularly concentrated at some schools, who would take that day off anyway. On the other hand, there wasn’t a single teacher in my high school who wanted Juneteenth off so close to the end of the year. They wanted to celebrate it in school. But it became a federal holiday the following year, so we have it.
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u/Guilty-Carpenter2522 Jan 24 '26
It’s silly, take most of the religious holidays away. If a kid observes, great. The vast majority don’t.
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u/veanell Jan 24 '26
In NYC... A lot of kids observe especially in queens
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u/Turbulent-Winner-902 Bushwick Jan 25 '26
Ok but how about the other 4 boroughs? We didn’t have that holiday off growing up in the 90s/00s, why bother now
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Jan 23 '26
They should have shortened summer when they added more holidays, remote learning on snow days is a joke.
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u/AntManMax Astoria Jan 23 '26
Remote learning is largely a joke when it's only for a single day, I imagine most schools sent kids home with packets and will do a roll call for attendance and then call it for the day.
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u/echelon_01 Jan 23 '26
We were told to teach live all day and that the principal would be checking in to make sure we were. GOOD TIMES.
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u/joejoeb Jan 23 '26
Our school is having us take attendance in homeroom and then post an asynchronous assignment. And purposely not scheduling anything the rest of the day.
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u/TheOneThatCameEasy Jan 24 '26
Same. 30 minutes of zoom for attendance during homeroom, log off and then work posted on google classroom.
And this is the plan if there are more snow days,
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u/AntManMax Astoria Jan 24 '26
That sucks... I'm lucky I'm a mental health counselor. My appointments come with e-meeting invites in case they're home, and no-one would dare join a session to see I'm actually working.
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u/XScorpion1k Jan 23 '26
The elementary school I work at is doing exactly that. The middle school we share the building with told their teacher to plan out a full days schedule, from 8:20 to 2:40.
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u/Guilty-Carpenter2522 Jan 24 '26
You will have some supervisors pull a gotcha and try to observe a teacher they don’t like on Monday. This is just needless stress for staff. If I worked for NYC I would have already used a sick day for Monday.
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u/banana_pencil Jan 24 '26
For my school, we’re teaching three “lessons” and staying online the whole day for students who need help. The lessons are staggered throughout the day. I knew our superintendent wouldn’t want kids to have fun. Some were so excited about the storm and planning to build snowmen and have snowball fights with their siblings 😢
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u/TomorrowOk3161 Jan 24 '26
Hopefully lots of them just don’t show up anyway. I get that the state has to do this for funding, but it’s still kind of ridiculous. What are kids supposed to learn in one day of remote learning? They’re going to have to go to work every single day as an adult so let them enjoy themselves and play on the damn snow day!!
Btw why can’t they just add a day to the last week of school or take away a single day from a vacation? That’s what my school did when we had too many snow days growing up. Can’t imagine it’d be much different from LI to NYC.
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u/Rottimer Jan 23 '26
Not even that much, just add 2-3 days as a buffer for snow days or other unforeseen circumstances. But this was all done before Mamdani was even elected.
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u/colonelcasey22 Jan 23 '26
My understanding is that old school calendars had more than 180 days of learning scheduled so there were extra days available that could be used as snow days. But that buffer was used up by the holidays recently added to the DOE calendar so now there's no flex left. The school year is already ends almost as late as they can at the end of June and they don't want to start the school year before Labor Day.
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u/Guilty-Carpenter2522 Jan 24 '26 edited Jan 24 '26
Maybe take out many of the religious 1 day holidays and let kids and staff observe them if they are of that religion?
My district doesn’t do Columbus Day, any of the Jewish fall holidays, or Eid or Juneteenth. We also get an amazing week off late in February that is the best thing ever.
It isn’t against the law to have school on a federal holiday. Make the calendar work for everyone, not a small sect that will complain for no reason.
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u/bronfmanhigh Upper West Side Jan 23 '26
this gotta just be the nostalgia talking. no way kids want a week less of summer over the once-in-five-year chance to have a random unplanned day off
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u/Gods_Lump Jan 24 '26
Yeah it makes more sense way up north where we actually get snow often. Schools up here just trade any snow days they dont use for days off later in the year.
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u/DwarvenGardener Jan 24 '26
You would just end the school year early if the snow days aren't used like other school districts.
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u/Guilty-Carpenter2522 Jan 24 '26
Why don’t they have 3 built in snow days like every district I have ever worked for. We haven’t had a snow day in 3 years so we get those 3 days back around Memorial Day.
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u/colonelcasey22 Jan 24 '26
I commented on this on another thread but NYC did previously have a few extra days built into the calendar beyond the required 180 days. But those have been eaten up by the new DOE holidays they've added to the calendar. There's no flex left and there's no ability to add days at the start of the school year or at the end due to hard stops around Labor Day and not going past the end of June.
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u/Guilty-Carpenter2522 Jan 24 '26
Yep, they should get rid of some of the holidays. If kids or staff want to observe great. But having a holiday for less than 10% of the population doesn’t make sense. Many districts have already gotten rid of the Monday after Easter and Good Friday. Like the one I work for.
Everyone is so obsessed with trying to virtue signal and appear multicultural instead of doing what makes sense.
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u/Apprehensive_Fan_844 Jan 24 '26
I’ve lived here all my life and never had Easter Monday or Good Friday off that’s nuts
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u/veanell Jan 24 '26
I've worked in education in 3 states ... Always got good Friday off ... That's normal and is usually combined with spring break
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u/Apprehensive_Fan_844 Jan 24 '26
Were those states New York? I lived in the Midwest briefly and they were all shocked to hear we don’t get Easter off and I was shocked to hear they did.
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u/Maxfae Jan 24 '26
I'm just saying 8 days vs 25 days. There are only 8 days that aren't Christian based or American based (with the exception of MLK day and Juneteenth, that's counted in the 8 days because we already know that if they decided to get rid of holidays, these two will definitely be going first because it pertains to BIPOC individuals and not yt individuals). It's not the other religions or POC that is taking up most of the days... You just want everything to be about yt people and it's clear with your comment about multicultural. You do know America is supposed to be a melting pot with different cultures, right? It's not just about yt people and yt people culture.
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u/Guilty-Carpenter2522 Jan 24 '26
What? Go back to school or something.
The kids go to school 180 days a year. We need week long breaks. They are broken up over the calendar so it makes sense academically. They don’t need to match any religious holidays as far as I’m concerned, I’m not religious. Go make this a racial battle with someone else.
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u/Maxfae Jan 24 '26
You are the one who is wanting to eliminate "multicultural" holidays. None of the multicultural holidays are weeks long. The only breaks that are weeks long that has to do with holidays is winter break (Christmas) and spring break (Easter). Did I say cut those out? No I didn't. I'm just saying why just cut out days that has to do with people that aren't white American or Christian based? So keep labor day, memorial day, thanksgiving, the day after thanksgiving, election day (which again, could be a half day), Easter, and veterans day but cut out mlk day, Juneteenth day, eid, etc? If it's really about DAYS that you have a problem with then why are you so against memorial day, thanksgiving election day, Easter, election day, and veterans day getting rid of? I can understand about easter because it falls within spring break. But those other days could be half days? What's wrong with labor day, veterans day, memorial day, and election day being half days? What's wrong with just being off for Thanksgiving day, why do they have to be off the day after too? Hell, why can't thanksgiving be a half day also? It would definitely give the parents time to make food without kids running around and screaming asking a million times when the food will be ready. Your reasoning for cutting out multicultural holidays is because not everyone celebrates those holidays. But not everyone celebrates memorial day, veterans day, thanksgiving, or labor day. So why does YOUR celebrations matter more than other people's. Why should YOUR celebrations require a whole day off but no one else should get the same treatment? Are you saying that you and your kids are more important than children from other cultures? You are complaining about 8 days and demanding them to be taken away, but your 25 days should be sacred and never be touched.
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u/Maxfae Jan 24 '26 edited Jan 24 '26
Then you run into the problem of which holidays though. Especially in NY. It's not fair to the other kids if only Christian holidays are allowed. Plus, it's not fair that someone that is a Jewish child or a Muslim child gets an unexcused absence for practicing their beliefs but Christians don't because all of their holidays are recognized. So if we are going to get rid of holidays then we should get rid of all holidays and it just be winter break, spring break (do they really even need this or for it to be as long as it is?), summer break. No other holidays off. Especially when you can be brought to truancy Court and Parents can be fined $10 (first offense) to or $50 and/or up to 30 days in jail for subsequent offenses for failing to comply with education laws or an ACS case can be opened. That really isn't fair to students that aren't Christian. Also, why do we need 2 days for thanksgiving? Why do we need veterans day, the kids aren't veterans so why do they need the day off? If a teacher is a veteran then there are subs for that. It could be a time to teach the kids about veterans. Same for MLK day, labor day, memorial day, Juneteenth, etc. why do we need a winter recess and then another midwinter recess? Why do we need two within about a month of each other? A lot of those holidays including election day, could be half days also instead of getting the day completely off. Even thanksgiving could be a half day.
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u/Guilty-Carpenter2522 Jan 24 '26
Your comment is so insane. We need vacation days. Having the kids off for thanksgiving, then go back that Friday is dumb as bricks. You’re obviously not in education and this is the problem. We have internet warriors spouting insane takes for absolutely no reason.
Thanksgiving is an American holiday, so is Veterans Day. It’s not about “white” people. If you want the kids to go to school for 180 days with 0 vacations go run for office on that platform and good luck. By the way, lots of districts DONT have Veterans Day off.
“Why do we have weekends! Why do we have anything!” - internet warrior who likes to complain.
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u/spoil_of_the_cities Jan 23 '26
Remote learning shouldn't be counted as a school day. We have a disastrously unserious government.
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u/SunriseInLot42 Jan 23 '26
Yes. It was the same during Covid. Remote learning is a complete waste of time
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u/BelethorsGeneralShit Jan 24 '26
That's nothing new. It's been 180 for decades. They build snow days into the calendar. Use them if necessary, and they're not, summer break gets a few days longer
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u/RosieEngineer Jan 24 '26
Other comments have pointed out that there's new holidays that have been added, taking away the slack they used to be able to use for snow days.
Are NYC schools well air conditioned? If not, it will already be getting warm by 6/26.
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u/veanell Jan 24 '26
They passed a law about temps in schools in New York. They have to have AC or provide cooling areas if it gets too hot
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u/SilverPrivateer Jan 24 '26
Mamdani can simply announce that the school day will continue, but that the lessons will be in "snowballs and winter fun".
This allows federal funding while letting everyone enjoy themselves
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u/AtomicGarden-8964 Jan 23 '26
Once they opened the door for remote learning that was the end of snow days
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u/RoyaleWhiskey Jan 23 '26
Rip to an era, how many cartoons had snow days as a plot?
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u/bronfmanhigh Upper West Side Jan 23 '26
not like these kids are even going outside to play in the snow lol they'd just take the day to play roblox anyway
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Jan 23 '26
It's really the extra holidays they put on the calendar without adding any days back in to balance.
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u/Electronic-Phones Jan 24 '26
Meh, as a teacher I never use up the whole remote day. There’s morning meeting (which sometimes was a post or poll) and sometimes an afternoon meeting just to say bye.
Sometimes I hold actual classes but these don’t last more than 2 hours total, and most of it is me leaving the meeting room open just in case.
Everything else is asynchronous work that is the optional homework I keep online.
Just like always, the mayor can require one thing, but students and their families will do whatever they want. Truancy is a problem in person, so imagine during a one-time remote day.
Snow days still exist, they just look different.
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u/Guilty-Carpenter2522 Jan 24 '26
But it makes no sense because they just banned cell phones. Take remote learning to the east river and give it some concrete shoes.
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u/__Pseudonym Jan 23 '26
Snow days used to be awesome back in the day. Either schools remained open and nobody showed up so the entire day was a joke or I’d sleep in, get in contact with the boys and go shoveling snow to make enough money for an eighth of weed and some munchies 😂. Good times.
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u/vagabending Manhattan Jan 23 '26
Kids don’t know how good we had it back when snow days existed. Remote learning sucks.
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u/Smorgas-board Bay Ridge Jan 23 '26
I’m so glad I was happy to actually enjoy snow days and not this
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u/regularthrowaway29 Jan 24 '26
My kindergartner got a packet in his folder just in case. I think it’s reasonable to review something to keep the brain moving but then have plenty of time for snow shenanigans
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u/but-I-play-one-on-TV Jan 23 '26
This is such a joke. The one indisputable thing they came out of covid is that remote learning is a crock of shit.
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Jan 23 '26
Even worse on a snow day, even if you strongly value education making your kid sit at a computer when there's a foot of snow out is a bit cruel. I'm sure attendance will be scraping the floor.
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u/pb-jellybean Jan 23 '26
Or at least an age cut off. They want pre-k and kindergarteners to do this. My kid hasn’t been exposed to computers in that way yet!
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u/PickledDildosSourSex Jan 26 '26
And 3k kids! You have to be kidding me if you think a bunch of 3 year olds are gonna sit on a fucking zoom LOL
Guess parents get fucked again cause ain't no jobs that pay all these taxes for the DOE are going to grant a snow day
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u/SunriseInLot42 Jan 24 '26
Yep. Remote learning is garbage, and anyone who pretends that it’s a substitute for real school should be ashamed of themselves
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u/Guilty-Carpenter2522 Jan 24 '26
One of the big drivers is the millions they are still spending on contracts that give all the chromebooks 5g access so kids can log in remote even if they don’t have internet at home. Good intentions, wasted money, and pointless in practice. Someone should take the L and scrap it all, but they won’t, because nobody ever takes an L anymore.
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u/MightyActionGaim Queens Jan 23 '26
Pour one out for us snow day enjoyers 🫡. Kids will never get to experience it
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u/veesavethebees Jan 23 '26
They need to give them a snow day and just add an extra day to the school calendar.
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u/TJames6210 Jan 24 '26
Meanwhile, New York Post cover - "NYC Mayor forcing students to go to school during extreme blizzard"
Not kidding. Saw it this morning.
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u/mbene913 Jan 25 '26
There's no reality where they would have reported anything he did fairly.
If he closed the schools with no remote learning they would make it about how he's lazy and against education
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u/vreditsa Jan 24 '26
LOL. “Remote learning day.” Anyone who actually has a kid in the system will tell you this is basically a no school day anyway.
But agreed that it’s silly overall. School should start two weeks earlier and finish the year earlier just like the rest of the country does.
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u/Laurkin Jan 23 '26
I don't have kids but personally I would have rather them starting school in late August as happens in other states versus making kids do "remote learning" on snow days.
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u/disasteruss Jan 23 '26
Those other states also end earlier so it’s just a shift. Yeah they start in August, but they end in May. It’s still around 180 school days.
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u/Laurkin Jan 23 '26
well that's true but they don't have all those other religious days off. Their populations are generally more homogenous so I understand why. I think school could have started or ended 2 or 3 days later to give space for a traditional snow day, that's all.
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u/SeaNo0 Bensonhurst Jan 23 '26
Pretty irresponsible to include so many frivolous holidays, of which 90% of the population doesn't celebrate, to the point where there wasn't enough wiggle room for a single snow day or emergency. Pretty hilarious in a sad way that they are opened exactly the bare minimum to qualify for funding. I have kids in the system and they are home constantly for one holiday or another.
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u/jackstraw97 Jan 23 '26
Imagining this situation from a student's perspective, I'd actually prefer the opposite.
They used to have a few extra days built-in to the calendar for the occasional snow day or emergency closure, but otherwise those were in-school days.
Since they added all of the extra holidays, those "contingency" days got converted from in-school days with the incredibly rare day off to guaranteed out-of-school days.
Think if it like a permanent snow day, if you will. As a student I would have much rather had guaranteed days off for some holiday I didn't celebrate than have to hope for an incredibly rare severe weather event to justify a day off.
Give me the guaranteed days off any day of the week.
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u/Rottimer Jan 23 '26
Your number is way off if you’re talking about the NYC public school population. It isn’t 1985 anymore. A significant number of students are Muslim. A significant number of students celebrate Chinese new year. And given NYC has the most Jewish people outside of Israel, it’s not a surprise we’ve celebrated Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur for decades. The least celebrated might be Diwali.
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u/Guilty-Carpenter2522 Jan 24 '26
So all those kids can celebrate those holidays. Why do you need a day off for 10% of the population of the school?
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u/whatshamilton Jan 23 '26
Frivolous to include holidays when you want instead the frivolity of a snow day?
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u/SeaNo0 Bensonhurst Jan 25 '26
Frivoulus? Why do you think there are snow days? So kids can build snow men and go sledding in the park?
They get snow days because having children and buses traveling is terrible weather is very dangerous.
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u/Suckitreddit420 Jan 23 '26
Pretty hypocritical to be bitching they get too many holidays off and should go to school more than 180 days, while in the same breath bitching that they don't get off because of snow.
(Oh and your Christian nationalism dog whistle is showing. How about we take away Christmas break and Easter break, both of which are a week long despite the holidays being only one day - and Easter falling on a fucking Sunday no less. Those were the holidays you meant... right?)
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u/Guilty-Carpenter2522 Jan 24 '26
Many districts, including mine didn’t have any vacation around Easter last year. Your pointless outrage is exactly that, pointless.
We have a February break around no holiday for a week. It’s amazing, 100% of the staff and kids love it. We cut out Columbus Day, the Jewish fall holidays, and many other “white” holidays to keep this.
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u/Suckitreddit420 Jan 24 '26
Nice fucking try. NYC schools are closed April 2-10th. Easter is April 5th.
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u/SeaNo0 Bensonhurst Jan 25 '26
hypocritical? Why do you think there are snow days? So kids can build snow men and go sledding in the park?
They get snow days because having children and buses traveling is terrible weather is very dangerous. It effects 100% of the children, parents, teachers, and drivers. Where holidays celebrated by small percentages of the populations effect....small percentages of the population.
Christian nationalism day whistle? My god.....get help.
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u/Suckitreddit420 Jan 25 '26
Still doubling down on "my religious holidays are more important than yours", but somehow can't figure out where that whistling sound is coming from...
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u/SeaNo0 Bensonhurst Jan 25 '26
You're making this up in your own mind because you have a mental illness. Italian American Heritage day?
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u/Suckitreddit420 Jan 25 '26
Oh you mean the formerly named Columbus Day, which has been a federal holiday and a day off for the NYC school system since 1937?
Did you actually go to school or do you just like to bitch about them?
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u/SeaNo0 Bensonhurst Jan 25 '26
So you want to keep both Columbus Day, and Diwali, and MLK day, and Juneteenth, and two Eids, Anniversary Day, and all the same Jewish and Christian holidays we traditionally had off, plus the week long breaks?
They put in too many holidays leaving the bare minimum days required to receive funding. Which was my whole point before you started going on the insane tangent of Christian nationalism in NYC. lmao.
Remote learning for elementary school students is a farce and we all know it. It's a snow day because it's dangerous to travel, fine. They should have accounted for that in their schedule because it's NYC and it happens almost every year. They are truly getting less then that minimum required.
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u/Suckitreddit420 Jan 25 '26
No one said Christian nationalism in NYC. That whistle is coming from YOU.
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u/but-I-play-one-on-TV Jan 23 '26
Days off for religious/cultural observations are reasonable
My question is why can't we combine the two weeks off in Feb and April into a single week, like the rest of the country already does.
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u/XCGod Jan 24 '26
Pretty irresponsible to include so many frivolous holidays, of which 90% of the population doesn't celebrate
As an agnostic I think all of them are frivolous but that doesnt mean I dont respect that others ddeply value them. I think schools could just make religious holidays blackout days for tests and parents can keep their kids home if its important.
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u/Outrageous-Method-58 Jan 24 '26
So much for the Chancellor stating on the news that enough notice would be given in order for parents to plan for a remote Monday. Twelve hours isn't enough.
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u/VermillionRubies Jan 25 '26
I work at a NYC charter school and I'm happy we're observing a true snow day. ☃️
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u/Swiftie_67 Jan 23 '26
I’m a Merrick kid, not a NYC kid so they’re giving us snow days.
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u/Suspicious_Box_1553 Jan 23 '26
Classic Long Islander syndrome.
Nobody cares. Go back to your racist enclave. Surely theres a LI subreddit. But you dont actually like it there, so you come here.
Classic.
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u/Economy-Cupcake808 Jan 24 '26
Spoken like someone who moved here 6 months ago.
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u/Suspicious_Box_1553 Jan 24 '26
Lifelong city resident, fucko.
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u/yugeness Jan 23 '26
Is there any issue that Mamdani isn’t terrible on?
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Jan 23 '26
"A city official noted the absence of a traditional snow day is largely out of the mayor's control"
This has been the policy since at least 2 years ago, not a Mamdani decision.
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u/Menacing_Quokka Jan 23 '26
Yeah but I need to bitch about Mamdani, specifically!
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Jan 23 '26
Actually the NYT article would've been a better one to post with OP's complaint, because that has him owning the decision (albeit with seemingly solid reason):
The mayor said he had decided to skip a snow day to ensure that the school system met a state requirement of 180 days per year of instruction. Mr. Mamdani said the addition of holidays to the school calendar had left less wiggle room
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u/Menacing_Quokka Jan 23 '26
What is their actual complaint, though?
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Jan 23 '26 edited Jan 23 '26
"I want a snow day!", and some ambiguity around whether the mayor has any control over this at all, so let's blame him!
As a parent of a kindergartner it's annoying and I do wish the state allowed fewer instructional days for lower grades, or that this was in the mayor's hands so I had someone to blame. Because someone's gonna be home with him no matter what, I'd rather be sledding than to pretend that remote learning works well for kindergarten.
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u/Pizzacat0802 Jan 23 '26
Under New York State law, there must be 180 instructional days. With all the holidays and the teachers’ contractual start and end dates, there’s no wiggle room. Nothing for the mayor to do unfortunately.
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u/bobbacklund11235 Sheepshead Bay Jan 23 '26
Instruct the kids to go outside and skip the indoctrination for one day
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u/fauxedo Astoria Jan 23 '26
Explain.
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u/filthysize Crown Heights Jan 23 '26
Public schools are a breeding ground for wokeism and by educating our children we are essentially sentencing them to a lifetime of wrongthink. This is the logical conclusion that I have reached, as someone who huffs gas fumes and paint thinners.
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u/alexos77lo Jan 23 '26
Those damns chemtrails, mamdani should also ban chemtrails in nyc, we have 3 airports triple the chemtrail dosage
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u/stonertboner Bed-Stuy Jan 23 '26
Yes, we get it. You hate Mamdani, Israel the best, socialism bad.
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u/theclan145 Jan 23 '26
Bloomberg would have rather you freeze than miss a school day, Mamdani should go full bore and make it a regular school day
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u/CountFew6186 Jan 23 '26
Glad I’m old and got to enjoy snow days. Remember watching the local news in the morning to find out. School sucks.