Brooklyn principal in ICU after fellow DOE staffer dies from coronavirus

A second city principal from the same Brooklyn Department of Education building where an educator died from coronavirus complications is suspected of having contracted the illness and is hospitalized, The Post has learned.

Ronda Phillips, 48, principal at Kappa V High School in Brownsville, has pneumonia and is in serious condition, sources said.

She worked in the same DOE building as Dez-Ann Romain, 36, who died from coronavirus complications Monday.

Romain was principal at Brooklyn Democracy Academy, which shared the same grounds as Kappa V on Rockaway Boulevard in Brownsville.

“Our thoughts are with Principal Phillips and her family for a speedy recovery, and we’ll support the school community in every way we can,” DOE spokesperson Miranda Barbot said Tuesday.

Romain’s death at a relatively young age sent shockwaves through the nation’s largest school system of 1.1 million students and heightened worries over the severity of the coronavirus threat.

Teachers and other DOE staffers have ripped City Hall and schools Chancellor Richard Carranza for not closing schools earlier in the COVID-19 crisis and argue that they let buildings with confirmed and suspected exposures to remain open.

Sources told The Post that the building where Romain and Phillips worked in was operational until Mayor Bill de Blasio shuttered the system entirely last week.

“Anyone who had any contact over there is obviously deeply concerned right now,” a teachers union source said.

In several cases, critics said DOE failed to apply a state directive to immediately shutter buildings with coronavirus cases for 24-hours and probe other possible exposures.

The DOE has countered that they closed the one school confirmed by the Department of Health to have a coronavirus case before the system shutdown.

The Post reported that the DOE told schools not to directly relay COVID cases to DOH to keep their phone lines open and to wait for labs to alert the agency.

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