“I understand the mayor’s position, which is he thinks school should be canceled for the rest of the year. When we made the decision to close the schools we made it for the entire metropolitan region: Suffolk, Nassau, New York City Westchester, Rockland. You can’t make a decision just within New York City without coordinating that decision with the whole metropolitan region. So I understand the mayor’s position, which is he wants to close them until June, and we may do that. But we’re going to do it in a coordinated sense with the other localities. It makes no sense for one locality to take an action that’s not coordinated with the others.” “Is that action invalid?” “That’s his opinion. But he didn’t close them and he can’t open them. It happened on a metropolitan-wide basis and we’re going to either — we’ll act on a metropolitan basis. And ideally I’d like to coordinate with New Jersey and Connecticut if we can. The New Jersey and Connecticut coordination is not a legal matter. It’s a mutual basis of interest. Legally, I want the metropolitan area coordinated. I don’t want Suffolk doing something that Nassau doesn’t do, that New York City doesn’t do, that Westchester doesn’t do.” “Just to clarify for parents in the New York City metropolitan region who have kids in public schools, should they anticipate them going back to school or is school off?” “There has been no decision.” “Are you saying it’s your legal authority to make that decision on New York City schools, not Bill de Blasio’s?” “It is my legal authority in this situation, yes.”