West Orange Superintendent Clarifies Reopening Plans – TAPinto.net
WEST ORANGE, N.J. – Before Monday’s budget hearing, the West Orange Board of Education (WOBOE) held a special meeting last Friday to address concerns from both the board and the public.
Many parents came out specifically to ask questions about the letter from Superintendent Scott Cascone which was sent to West Orange Public School Families on Friday.
As was announced previously, the letter notes that grades K-5 will have hybrid learning for four half days per week starting Monday, May 3, but in addition, Fridays will now have synchronous instruction in the afternoon.
Starting May 7, Fridays will be fully synchronous and virtual days.
The letter also mentioned that according to the CALI index ending the week of April 24, the Northeast region, where the Township of West Orange is located, is in the moderate range of risk.
As a result, if the township remains within the moderate range for two successive weeks, the district will reduce the social distance from six feet to three feet in order to combine cohorts for grades 6-12 by Monday, May 17.
During public comment, several parents including Julie Bookbinder and Lauryn Weinshank were excited to hear that the district was finally implementing four half days, however, Bookbinder said that the district should also try to have a plan for five-day full-day schooling this year.
“I sometimes get the disheartening feeling that we are at the end—the tail minutes of a sports game and we’re running out the clock,” she said. “We really should be planning a way to get to full days, at some point this school year. I completely appreciate that there’s no way to really tell what the Fall is going to look like and what procedures will be necessary as outlined in the letter today. But we know what the procedure should be now.”
Other parents, including Laura Noesner asked for more clarification on how Fridays were now going to look like at the elementary level and why students couldn’t be in person.
In response, Cascone asserted that the district is not “running out the game clock” and that May 3 represents a “fairly significant forward momentum” in terms of the district’s reopening timeline.
He continued that after meeting with other Essex County superintendents, all but two did not have plans to go full-day on the elementary level.
Livingston is expected to go full-day on May 10 and Glen Ridge is considering May 24, according to the superintendent, but he clarified that those schools have a smaller number of students who have decided to opt into hybrid schooling.
In terms of why Fridays will not be on-site, Cascone said that he met with administrators, who explained the differences in impact between a synchronous day and an on-site day.
Broadly speaking, basic skills, the kindergarten intervention program, small group instruction, gifted and talented, enrichment, ESL, physical education, instrumental lessons, Fountas and Pinnell assessments, intervention, and referral services (I&RS) meetings, special education programs, related services and transportation are among the programs that would be affected.
For example, Cascone said that class size would increase for some related arts sections to 40 students. The district is also still facing issues with space because HVAC concerns remain in many classrooms, which will be remediated between now and the next school year. He also added that basic skills intervention would be reduced from three to two times per week.
In terms of grades 6-12 having their cohorts combined on May 17, Cascone explained that although the CALI score will be updated on Thursday, May 7, which could allow for an adjustment on May 10, he wanted to give staff, students, and families “ample opportunity to prepare” for that pivot.
In terms of reopening in September, West Orange parent Jay Faigenbaum commented that the district has failed to be consistent with its academic offerings throughout the school year and that at every step of reopening the superintendent has either given little or no notice about changes to the plan.
“There’s a lack of accountability. There’s a lack of creativity, and I feel like many, especially our special education children have suffered greatly,” he said. “I also see no plan to make up these gaps and move things forward without opening every minute you can. I know we can do better than this, but I think that we need to start doing better.”
In response, Cascone said that in hindsight the district could have done better with virtual offerings starting last year, but West Orange along with its 800 teachers were not prepared to shift out of brick and mortar and into virtual learning.
The technology gap was even more apparent between secondary teachers and elementary teachers, who had more difficulty in delivering virtual instruction.
Relative to reopening plans, when the November reopening was postponed to January, Cascone explained that a plan was in place prior to the postponement. Prior to the holiday break, he recalled having communicated with the public a timeline to implement hybrid schooling in the new year. And now the district is moving forward with expanding days and providing other adjustments.
In terms of planning for September, Cascone said that the district plans to open at full capacity, but in the absence of guidelines from the New Jersey Departments of Health (NJDOH), Education (NJDOE), or federal agencies, the district and other Essex County schools are focused on closing out the school year successfully, while awaiting new guidance.
WOBOE President Terry Trigg-Scales reminded the public that there was no guidebook to help the district navigate these unprecedented times.
She continued that even though “everyone’s not happy with the decisions that have been made” the number one priority of the board and superintendent is to keep students and staff safe.
“And I think we’ve done a very good job at that—keeping everyone safe,” she said. “And as far as next year, as Dr. Cascone said, we’re assuming it’s full steam ahead until someone tells us otherwise.”