Comptroller Stringer Op-Ed: How to Create Outdoor Classrooms: Maximize Use of Schoolyards to Get In-Person Teaching to as Many Students as Possible

(New York, NY) ⁠— The New York Daily News published an op-ed by New York City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer on the need for the DOE to fully utilize the city’s outdoor schoolyards as places that can be repurposed into both classroom and programming spaces to help keep the city’s students safe and outside as much as possible in the upcoming academic year.

Text of the op-ed is available below and can be viewed online here.

Of all the data points that the New York City Department of Education could be crunching as they prepare to re-open schools this fall, one number has received almost no attention: 29.5 million. That’s the combined square footage of the city’s outdoor schoolyards — space connected to our schools that can be repurposed into class and programming space to help keep our kids safe and out of doors this fall as much as possible.

Parents and educators alike agree on the wisdom of moving as many classes as possible outdoors. The science is clear: The potential for transmitting the virus is drastically lower outside. And outdoor learning has long been recognized as a creative, hands-on way of helping children learn while engaging in the environment around them. We should be seizing every opportunity to get our kids outside and away from the deadening computer screens that have been their only classrooms since March.

To be clear, outdoor learning is not a substitute for safe school buildings and classrooms. We still need to open all our schools in a manner that protects students and teachers alike. But by fully leveraging every inch of outdoor space, we could allow more children to go to school on more days — instead of the restrictive models the Department of Education has so far proposed, some of which would have students in school only one day a week.

Many have suggested that the DOE should be considering a range of new indoor and outdoor spaces to try and expand classroom space, from our 28,000 acres of public park space to local libraries and houses of worship, or to the streets outside our schools. But let’s face it: The DOE has shown little capacity to make these accommodations in any swift, comprehensive way.

There is no excuse for failing to take full advantage of our schoolyards. The DOE’s own data indicates that its 29.5 million square feet of outdoor yard and physical education space encompasses 1,575 school buildings in all five boroughs. Of that space, 8.2 million square feet are in Brooklyn, 7.1 million is in Queens, 7.3 million is in the Bronx, 3.3 million is in Staten Island and 3.5 million is in Manhattan. These are spaces that the city controls and that are literally connected to our schools, which would allow students to stay outside but still maintain easy access to bathrooms, handwashing stations and cafeterias.

Estimates suggest that 75% of our students could be accommodated in this outdoor space at any given time, even while maintaining six feet of separation. On particularly windy or stormy days when the weather poses a challenge to outdoor learning, schools could use the process currently utilized during snow emergencies to curtail the number of kids who come to school. 

In recent weeks, expanding our restaurants into re-purposed public space was a creative response to the needs of businesses and residents hit hard by the months of closure. But in the public dialogue about education, there has been no inclination towards similar outside-the-box thinking. Instead, all the proposals for returning to school mirror the status quo: some combination of either traditional classrooms — albeit with reduced capacity — or “remote learning,” with no indication of meaningful innovation to match the scale of the challenges facing our students, families, and educators today. 

Are we really saying it is more important to be able to sip a beer outside than to provide a similar outdoor option to help educate our children? Is that who we are?

The benefits of outdoor classrooms are clear. They are healthier environments than many indoor classrooms and offer opportunities to engage in lessons in a different, deeper way. 

As September approaches, we should harness this readily available resource and give our children rich, dynamic learning experiences. Education is the foundation of a healthy, equitable, and thriving city. Let’s meet this moment with boldness and creativity. 

###