Looking for leadership in difficult times

Daily Point

A chat with SBU's new president

Tuesday afternoon’s virtual meeting with incoming Stony Brook University president Maurie McInnis wasn’t the way the Newsday editorial board traditionally gets to know a newly selected university president, and it won’t be a traditional start to a presidency for McInnis, either.

McInnis, the provost and executive vice president of the University of Texas at Austin, told the board that she’s not even sure when and how she’ll be able to come to New York to start her tenure, which officially begins July 1. But there are other ways the coronavirus pandemic will change her job, from how she oversees the medical school and hospital, to the determination of when and how students will return to campus.

To read more, click here.

—Randi F. Marshall @RandiMarshall

Talking Point

A familiar hurdle

The postponement by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of May 19’s school budget and board member voting until sometime in June would seem to present logistical difficulties for districts, whose fiscal years begin July 1. But veteran educators have faced similar uncertainties before.

In pre-Cuomo days, it was not uncommon for state budget negotiations to drag into the summer, leaving districts in the dark about how much state aid they would get. In the early 90s, there was a mid-year cut in state aid. In 2010, it was the gap elimination adjustment. Another hit came on 9/11, when the state budget went from $4 billion in the black to $4 billion in the red, according to Nassau BOCES Superintendent Robert Dillon, a former superintendent of the Eastport and East Meadow school systems.

“Everyone screams and yells but you make it work,” Dillon told The Point. “You lose a lot of things. Some comes back, some doesn’t, it morphs, you learn to do things differently.”

Dillon acknowledged the financial issues caused by the coronavirus crisis are serious.

“When you’re doing your budget today, given the status of the economy, so many businesses going out, taxes not being collected, the towns have asked for relief to push back their collection of taxes, it’s going to slow the money flow to school districts,” Dillon said. 

Dillon advises that districts be conservative as they budget spending. Asked whether teachers unions might be asked to take emergency pay freezes, he said, “I don’t think anything is off the table. It’s a little too early to tell.”

Speculation among educators about a future voting date includes holding it on the same day as the newly scheduled June 23 presidential primary, holding it later in the summer if polling is still not deemed safe from the coronavirus, or cancelling a public vote altogether and rolling over current school budgets with an inflation-adjuster. In that scenario, the terms of school board members up for election would also be extended.

“It’s kind of a wait-and-see situation,” said David Albert, spokesman for the New York State School Boards Association. “We don’t know what’s going to happen two weeks from now.”

—Michael Dobie @mwdobie

Pencil Point

They don't all wear capes

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Final Point

How many deaths is a lot?

As the number of people who’ve died from the coronavirus grows, some context can help us understand the mounting mortality numbers. On Monday, for instance, 332 people died from coronavirus in New York, bringing the total to 1,550. On Sunday, 253 people died from coronavirus in New York.

But how significant is that compared with the total number of deaths in the state on an average day? 

It’s huge.

According to statistics from the state Department of Health, an average of 425 people died each day in 2017. If the coronavirus deaths were all additional to the usual 425, the mortality increase would be staggering: Monday’s 382 pandemic-related deaths would mean a 78% increase. It’s an increase the state’s hospitals, morgues, mortuaries and cemeteries can’t help but be overwhelmed by, and the daily death numbers are expected to grow dramatically as the pandemic crisis reaches its peak in New York. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has said COVID-19 deaths in the state could reach 800 a day, increasing the total number of daily deaths in the state by 200%.

In New York City, 147 people die each day on average. In the 24 hours ending Monday morning, 138 people in the city died from coronavirus, implying an increase of more than 90 percent, and an astonishing burden. 

In Nassau County, an average of 32 people die each day, and 15 died from coronavirus Monday, implying an increase of just under 50 percent. In Suffolk County, an average of 33 people die daily, and nine died from the coronavirus Monday, implying an increase of about 27%.

There are asterisks to keep in mind. One is that some percentage of the people who die from coronavirus, generally elderly and with other ailments, might well have died on the same day or soon thereafter even without the virus.   

But the biggest complication is how many lives a pandemic like this, with its associated societal shutdown, may save or take beyond the illness itself. Traffic deaths will be down dramatically. Major crimes have plummeted. But isolation and economic stagnation bring with them a host of effects that can often only be understood after the fact.

—Lane Filler @lanefiller

Opinion Point

Cuomo's leadership

Read what New York State Democratic Party Chairman Jay Jacobs has to say about Governor Andrew M. Cuomo's leadership during the coronavirus pandemic here.