Nearly 500 New York City high schools reopened for classes Monday as officials marked the latest step in efforts to resume in-person learning across the nation’s biggest public school system.

Some 488 high schools opened their doors to around 55,000 returning students who had signed up for in-person classes last fall, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced.

“This morning, all across the five boroughs of New York City, our high schools reopened,” he said in a televised briefing, “and what a good feeling, what a good sign — what a hopeful sign — about our future.”

The mayor began the day with New York City Schools Chancellor Meisha Ross Porter at the Bronx School for Law, Government and Justice, where the pair greeted returning high schoolers with elbow bumps.

The city teens, de Blasio said, were “happy to be back with their friends and teachers” for in-person learning in a “really supportive and warm school community.”

Monday’s high school re-openings are the final phase of an effort by the city’s Department of Education to gradually reopen schools amid the pandemic, starting with elementary school students in December and middle schoolers in February.

The majority of New York’s 326,000 high schoolers remain at home, participating in remote learning. They and students of all grade levels will have another chance to opt for in-person classes during a two-week period beginning Wednesday, the mayor announced.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued updated guidelines Friday stating that, with masks, most children can safely attend school while staying 3 feet apart from one another — down from 6 feet — thus enabling schools to accept more in-person students.

“We need to open the opt-in window now so that schools can start planning for the opportunity to welcome more students in,” Porter said. “We want every single child who wants to attend school in person to have the opportunity to do so.”

United Federation of Teachers, which represents New York City’s educators, criticized de Blasio’s quick move to allow for more in-person learning.

“As educators, we plan before we go to work each day,” UFT President Michael Mulgrew said in a statement. “But as usual, this mayor has come out with another proclamation without any plan or authority to proceed. We will wait for [New York state officials] to weigh in as we continue to do the real work of keeping our school communities safe.”

Contributed by UPI.

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