Westfield Schools Announce Hybrid Reopening Plan For Fall – Westfield, NJ Patch

WESTFIELD, NJ — After months of discussions, the Westfield School District revealed its fall “restart and recovery” reopening plan at a Monday afternoon Board of Education meeting.

In the plan, presented in a 57-page document, all students have the option of full-time remote learning, something the state has required all districts to offer.

Westfield students also will have the option of being in the buildings two to three days per week, depending on grade level, and supplementing that with remote learning.

Right now, Westfield students can switch options at any time during the school year.

For those desiring some in-person instruction:

• Pre-K through kindergarten students would attend school two days a week as well as alternating Wednesdays, all single-session days without lunch. They will get remote learning as well. There will be two “cohorts,” A and B, alternating which days they are in the building.
• Grades 1-5 also will be on that cohort schedule, four hours per day.
• Grades 6 through high school will be on the A/B model as well, but they will be in the building only two days per week and home each Wednesday for remote learning.
• Special education students, English as a Second Language students, and others will have specific provisions in the schedules.
• To skip to the schedules in the above reopening plan, start on page 33.

The document also includes health precautions (desks will be 6 feet apart, and all students in New Jersey must wear face coverings, with exceptions); information on extracurricular activities and wrap-around care, and answers to that common question, “What happens if a student or teacher tests positive?”

On Monday, the board also approved a separate list of coronavirus policies for the district.

Around the state, school districts have presented a variety of options to parents. One New Jersey district, Old Bridge, offered a choice of in-person learning only four hours per week and the rest remote, or all remote. Hoboken offered either full-day in-person learning five days a week, or full-day remote learning. Cranford and Millburn have offered blended plans, with alternating single-session days and a remote component. Summit students can attend single-session classes all five days.

Schools in Westfield reopen on Wednesday, Sept. 9.

Kids and coronavirus

See this week’s update on Westfield coronavirus statistics here.

While most children in the United States have avoided severe symptoms from the virus, a large-scale study in South Korea, quoted widely last week in American media outlets from the New York Times to the Wall Street Journal, suggested that teens spread the virus at the same rate as adults, and more easily than younger children. The CDC also confirmed a large outbreak at a camp in Georgia in a press conference Friday.

Some teachers’ unions, including in Essex County, and the state teachers’ union, have said they believe learning should stay remote for now. But working parents, parents of special needs children, and others have argued that they need aspects of on-site learning.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy warned last week and this week that New Jersey’s coronavirus cases are on the rise again, and he believes that indoor parties have been largely responsible. Read more: Gov. Murphy Warns That NJ’s Coronavirus Cases Are Rising Again

On Monday, Murphy said that the state’s transmission rate has climbed to 1.48, as high as it was in early April during the thick of the crisis. He has said recent large parties have increased transmission and Monday reduced the limit on indoor gatherings to 25 people.

A total of 13,971 New Jersey residents have now died as a result of the virus, and 182,350 cases have been confirmed. He said 356 people are currently hospitalized statewide with the virus, including a child under 18, as well as another 382 hospitalizations under investigation.

But the current daily death rate is down from New Jersey’s peak: a high of 460 deaths in 24 hours on April 30, or one person every three minutes.

Last month, Murphy ordered residents to wear masks. He also has asked for residents to quarantine after coming from 34 states that are seeing spikes.

States around the country that reopened earlier than New Jersey have had to pull back on some of their reopenings, including Texas, which began seeing a record number of hospitalizations and deaths as facilities reopened this summer. See the daily increases in each state here.

Murphy’s administration released its broad school reopening guidelines to the districts in late June.

Testing

• To find out about getting tested in Union County, contact your doctor, visit covid19.nj.gov/testing, or see this link for more information.
• If you’re a Union City resident, you can make an appointment at the testing site by calling 908-214-7107.
• The schedule for the Union County drive-through testing center has changed several times. For more information, click here.

What do you think about Westfield’s plans? Will you send your student? Why or why not? Comment below.

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