The teachers union sent out a message to its members earlier this week instructing them to stay home Wednesday. That work action has now persisted through the end of the week, according to district officials who announced that Friday’s classes would likely be canceled throughout the city.
The union has pushed for classes to return to online instruction because of the spread of the latest variant of the coronavirus. District officials have continued to assert that there is no plan to return to online teaching, according to the Associated Press.
The union-driven standoff began two days after students returned to class following winter break. Now, the 350,000-student school district, third-largest in the nation, has frozen again except in “a small number of schools” where some staff have continued to show up despite the union-endorsed work action, according to district officials. Officials have deemed the school freeze an “illegal work stoppage.”
