#school-closures

#school-closures

Chimnaz Shahbazzade was relieved to secure a last-minute spot in a community-based childcare program for her daughter yesterday morning, as the San Francisco educators' strike continued with no end date in sight. It means she will have someone minding her 5-year-old for the foreseeable future. With public schools closed, the single mother, who works full-time as a lawyer, had no choice but to bring her daughter to work on Monday. "It was really, really difficult for me to take care of my child," Shahbazzade said, adding that with her daughter around, she did not get much work done.

The schools were determined to suffer from these challenges after an extensive review process analyzing enrollment trends, operating costs, capital repair needs and long-term sustainability, considering rising costs of insurance and pension obligations. This is an extraordinarily difficult moment for our school communities, Diocese Superintendent of Schools Deacon Kevin McCormack said. These schools have served generations of families with dedication and faith. The decision to close them was made only after careful consideration and with great sorrow.

After last weekend's snowstorm, streets in cities across the East Coast are crowded with dirty snow piles that squeeze pedestrians into single-file corridors and force them into gross half-frozen puddle swamps at intersections. But of the major metros, only Washington, D.C., closed its schools through Wednesday, finally reopening on Thursday with a delayed start time - all this despite receiving just six or so inches (plus, to be fair, a treacherous coating of ice on top).

Bellerose, Queens: 9 inches as of 1:45 p.m. Washington Heights, Manhattan: 8.3 inches as of 1:45 p.m. Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn: 8.1 inches as of 12:48 p.m. Bay Ridge, Brooklyn: 8 inches as of 12:45 p.m. Dongan Hills, Staten Island: 7.8 inches as of 11:45 a.m. Central Park, Manhattan: 7.2 inches as of 1 p.m. Fresh Meadows, Queens: 7.1 inches as of 1:31 p.m. LaGuardia Airport, Queens: 7.1 inches as of 1 p.m.

As snowfall begins to blanket our city and conditions become hazardous, closing school buildings is a necessary step to keep New Yorkers safe, Mamdani said. Over the past week, my administration has prepared for this moment ensuring devices are in hand, families are informed and educators are ready to welcome students online. Our school system, and our city, is prepared to weather this storm together.

In the displacement camps of Ad-Damazin in southeastern Sudan's Blue Nile State, the war is reshaping social norms and introducing new realities that are forcing Sudanese women into manual labour to survive. Rasha is a displaced mother. She has ignored old boundaries and perceptions of what a man's work is and started working as a woodcutter to feed her children. Carpentry is hard, but the axe has become an extension of my hand, Rasha told Al Jazeera Arabic.

Heavy snow throughout the Greater Toronto Area is forcing residents to rethink their Thursday morning schedules due to transit delays and some school closures. A total of 20 to 30 centimetres of snowfall is expected, with warnings of reduced visibility due to heavy and blowing snow, said Environment Canada. A yellow snowfall warning is in place for much of the Greater Toronto Area, including York, Durham and Peel regions.

The list of proposed cuts would be insulting and an abuse of trust to this community, JuNelle Harris, a Livermore resident and mother to a second grade student, told the board Tuesday night. She urged the school board to first hold wider discussions with parents, calling any immediate decision completely inappropriate and one that would cause tremendous damage to students.

More than 100,000 residents in the Texas border city of El Paso were left with little to no water after a main break over the weekend, and it was expected to take till midweek for operations to return to normal, officials said. The break in the 36-inch water main line happened late Saturday night in El Paso, which has a population of about 700,000, officials said.

On Wednesday morning, Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old Minneapolis resident, was confronted by immigration agents while in her vehicle, as a protest against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was unfolding. Video footage of the incident appears to show her attempting to move her car away from the scene when an ICE agent pulls out his gun and shoots her in the face, killing her.

Transport delays, treacherous driving conditions and school closures will greet many people as they return to work and study after the Christmas break, with winter weather warnings in place across the UK. Four amber warnings for heavy snow in northern Scotland are in place until Monday morning, while yellow snow and ice warnings cover all of Northern Ireland, Wales and much of England.

OUSD budget crisis OUSD has $100M in cuts to make. School sites won't be exempt - Interim superintendent Denise Saddler proposes $32 million in cuts from school site budgets as part of a broader $100 million deficit reduction plan that may include school closures and mergers. Ashley McBride explains the full scope of cuts, from custodial services to technology to special education.

Frustrated families are being left in the dark about how Boston's leaders are deciding which schools need to close, councilors said. The Boston City Council voted unanimously Wednesday to call for more transparency from the Wu administration and Boston Public Schools regarding ongoing efforts to close schools and consolidate the BPS system. There are many allies of Mayor Michelle Wu on the City Council, and the body has occasionally faced criticism for falling in line too easily with the mayor's agenda.

The early Friday raid on St Mary's co-educational school in Niger state in western Nigeria came after gunmen on Monday stormed a secondary school in neighbouring Kebbi state, abducting 25 girls. The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) had earlier reported 227 people seized, but the new number came after a verification exercise that concluded 303 students and 12 teachers were abducted. The number of boys and girls aged between eight and 18 years kidnapped from St Mary's is almost half the school's student population of 629.

Up until 16 March 2020, focus had been on keeping schools open, so there were no contingency plans in place, according to evidence given by the former education secretary Gavin Williamson. Sir Gavin described a "discombobulating 24-hour sea change" in his written evidence, counsel to the inquiry Clair Dobbin KC said. Her opening statement came on the first day of the eighth session of the Covid inquiry, which will look at the impact of the pandemic on children and young people across the UK.

Multiple schools have temporarily closed in New Zealand and hundreds of education facilities are seeking advice from officials after asbestos was detected in several brands of widely used coloured play sand. Last week, the ministry for business, innovation and employment confirmed a voluntary recall was under way for two brands of coloured sand sold in New Zealand, after testing in Australia found asbestos in similar products.

The school day is just getting started, and 4-year-old Vasiliki Vourgou, a little girl with dark eyes and hair pulled back in a shiny ponytail with a hot pink scrunchie, is alone. Most days, there are two pupils in this small classroom on the Greek island of Lemnos, with big windows and a view of the school's front courtyard. But one student is sick, so today it's just Vasiliki, going through the morning routine with her teacher.

We were focused on trying to delay the peak of the pandemic and we thought that the closure of schools, if it had to be used at all, would be a measure of last resort, the former prime minister said. He added: It was my impression that the work was being done. I certainly, let me put it this way, I certainly assumed that the work was being done.

"We've already lived through the painful impact of past closures, consolidations and modernizations, disruptions that left deep scars on our families, students and staff," she said. "Please, do not reassign our students again. Do not implement these boundary changes."

Diwali, the vibrant festival of lights celebrated in Hinduism and other religions, will become an official state holiday in California starting in 2026. The new law was sponsored by Democratic state Assemblymember Ash Kalra, who represents part of San Jose. Starting next year, public schools and community colleges will be able to close on Diwali, and state employees can choose to take the day off with pay.

I've read in Gavin Williamson's statement that he says that the department had not done any planning by this point for school closure because their priority was keeping schools open, Coles said when giving evidence to the inquiry on Monday. I almost fell off my chair when I read that. I think that's an extraordinary dereliction of duty by the leadership of the department both political and civil service.

According to the Education Policy Institute, London may be worst hit as a declining birthrate coincides with families moving away from the capital or sending their children to private schools. In fact, nine out of ten local UK authorities predicted to have the most significant drop in pupil numbers are in the capital, with places such as Westminster, Lambeth and Southwark being among the worst hit.

Barack Obama has admitted he has been digging himself out of a hole with his wife Michelle for years. The former United States president, 64, revealed he is on level ground with his partner, 61, eight years after leaving the White House. He made the comments during the London leg of his European speaking tour, in which he also criticised Donald Trump's recent comments about autism and the decision to shut schools during lockdown.

The data reflects that the district's current approach is not working, and urgent transformational change is necessary to improve outcomes for all Austin ISD students," TEA Commissioner Mike Morath said in the letter.

More than 50 private schools across England have announced closures so far this year, following the introduction of Labour's 20% VAT on school fees in January 2025.