NYC schools continue to struggle with high teacher, staff absences

City schools continued to battle heavy absenteeism among both teachers and students Tuesday amid an ongoing surge in coronavirus cases.

Teachers union sources said that staff absences were not as marked as Monday but remained high.

At Clara Barton High School in Brooklyn, 37 staffers were missing from the building Tuesday — down slightly from 41 on Monday.

A total of 39 employees were absent from Forest Hills High School Tuesday, down from 46 on the first day back from winter break on Monday.

Forest Hills union chapter leader Adam Bergstein said the school was offering available teachers additional pay to come in early and stay late to address staffing shortfalls.

Bergstein said masses of students failed to show up again Tuesday, and estimated the absentee rate to be roughly 30 percent.

Overall, 33 percent of kids in the nation’s largest school system did not show up for class Monday. Tuesday’s rate ticked up to 72 percent who were present.

“The majority of staff don’t feel comfortable and would like to see a remote option for just a short period of time, one to three weeks. enough to ride out this viral infection.” he said

Bergstein said tensions are running high between teachers, their union, Mayor Adams, and the DOE.

Adams reiterated his commitment to keeping schools open in interviews Tuesday and warned against the promotion of “hysteria.”

Meanwhile, the city’s largest charter operator, Success Academy, had its first day of classes Tuesday and reported an 89 percent student attendance rate, down a few percentage points from before the winter recess.

Success officials said teacher attendance was roughly 90 percent.

The operator enrolls 22,000 students in schools in all boroughs except Staten Island.