As COVID cases surge, some schools will go remote in January. Here are districts’ plans. – NJ.com

As coronavirus cases continue to surge throughout the state, several New Jersey schools have announced plans to shift from in-person schedules to remote learning. Others say that while they plan to return in person, they have plans in place to switch to remote learning if necessary.

“We know it’s best for children to be in person,” Trenton Superintendent James Earle told NJ Advance Media. The school plans to open in person after its winter break, “however, if at any point during the break we feel like COVID-19 cases and/or quarantine infections have spread to a point where we can’t keep our staff and students safe, we will activate our emergency virtual/remote learning plan.”

On a statewide level, Gov. Phil Murphy said this week that officials will do “everything we can” to keep having in-person classes in schools across New Jersey after the upcoming winter break. However, individual schools have over the past few days made announcements regarding how upticks in COVID-19 cases, driven largely by the omicron variant, are affecting schools.

Here’s how several districts across the state have announced they plan to handle the surge in the coming weeks:

South Orange Maplewood Schools: School Superintendent Ronald Taylor announced that the district will begin the 2022 school year with virtual instruction starting Jan. 4.

“As we enter into the holiday and winter break the District, in collaboration with our local health departments (both Maplewood and South Orange) and school nurses, has been closely monitoring our community COVID-19 numbers,” he said in a statement on Wednesday. “In consultation with these stakeholders and based on N.J. Department of Health guidelines, we are committed to make any changes to our protocols and delivery of instruction if needed based on the numbers of positive cases.”

Taylor said all staff and students will return to school for in-person instruction on Monday, Jan. 10.

“Thankfully, there has been no evidence of in-school COVID-19 transmission; however, our local community transmission is high and the cases are rising rapidly,” Taylor said in the statement.

Taylor said the recent spike in verified cases in the district’s schools have resulted in hundreds of students shifting to virtual learning due to quarantine. Additionally, dozens of staff members have also had to be isolated due to breakthrough cases. “The operations of our schools have suffered greatly,” as a result, he said.

Newark: The superintendent of the state’s largest school district, consisting of 38,000 students, told parents in a letter on Monday there’s a possibility the district may again go fully remote.

“COVID-19 continues to be a brutal, relentless, and ruthless virus that rears its ugly head at inopportune times,” wrote Superintendent of Schools Roger Leon, whose letter was posted on the Speedway School Facebook page. “We are redoubling our efforts to be prepared for any necessary changes and a potential pivot to remote instruction. Some may move to that point sooner than others, but we all will be prepared if and when necessary.”

The district is set to be on break until Jan. 3.

“(R)ight now the plan is we will be back (in person), but if things change, we will be prepared to go remote,” Newark Public Schools Acting Communications Director Nancy Deering told NJ Advance Media.

Irvington: The town’s public schools district started a fully-remote learning schedule on Monday and plans on returning to school in January using remote learning, as well. The district will return to an in-person schedule on Jan. 10.

Superintendent April Vauss said in abundance of caution she felt it was necessary for the district to move to a remote learning model, and it will continue to monitor cases closely.

“A lot of our scholars already were in possession of Google Chromebooks. Since last year, at the beginning of the pandemic, we tried to move to a one to one model so that our students would have chromebooks at home and have chromebooks at the at the school,” Vauss said. “There are certain requirements that we have just as a district that would lend itself to being able to to move quickly to a remote model necessary, similar to what we did back when I became the superintendent back in 2020. We already implemented Google Suites and so it made it almost a seamless transition.”

Paterson: School officials announced on Wednesday in a statement that, after the upcoming holiday break, students and staff will begin remote learning and remain remote from Jan. 4-18.

The district’s remote request was made in collaboration with the Paterson Health Officer, Dr. Paul Persaud.

“The rising numbers of COVID-19 cases due to multiple variants are cause for concern for all of us. A surge of new cases has occurred in northeastern New Jersey, and it is expected that the trend will continue through the holiday break,” Superintendent of Schools Eileen Shafer said in the statement. “That is why I told the Paterson Health Officer of my concerns and asked for his support of my recommendation to begin remote learning throughout the district starting Jan. 4-18.”

Students are scheduled for a 1 p.m. dismissal on Thursday.

The district’s schools and offices will be closed for the holiday break from Friday, Dec. 24 through Monday, Jan. 3.

Trenton: Public Schools Superintendent James Earle said the district is planning to return in January in-person, though it is closely monitoring case numbers and has a contingency plan.

“Our districts are required to have an emergency remote learning plan … so we have that already established,” he told NJ Advance Media. In monitoring COVID-19 cases, “we’ve actually seen some slight increases, and working with the health department and different medical professionals, just keeping ourselves on high alert about some schools in some areas in our district; however, we haven’t had to go virtual yet.”

Though the district wants to stay in person, he said, it will switch to remote if necessary.

Toms River: The Regional Schools District has said it plans to return to school on Monday, Jan. 3, fully in person.

“I know that as we enter this break and look toward 2022, there are questions and concerns about our schools as yet another wave of this pandemic factors in. While I certainly did not want to include the word ‘COVID-19′ in this holiday message, I do want to take a moment to reiterate that we’re maintaining our approach, with respect to the size of this district, to handle each situation as it arises, with no plans to alter district-wide operations,” Superintendent of Schools Stephen Genco said in a statement on Wednesday.

Office of Grants and Communication Coordinator Mike Kenny said the district has no plans to transition to remote learning in 2022, and will continue to provide all the necessary technological resources our staff and students need.

“While we remain very much in tune with the trends and continue to prioritize safety and health above all else, our goals remain the same, and we maintain the hope that our collective efforts will help us continue to forge ahead this school year,” Genco said.

Freehold: The district is also planning to return to full-time, in-person daily instruction when its break is over on Monday, Jan. 3.

“The Freehold Township School District already allocates one Chromebook per student in kindergarten through eighth grade. We also utilize two learning management systems, Schoology and Google Classroom. While the transition to full remote instruction would be seamless, we have no intention of going fully remote in January 2022 unless mandated to do so,” Superintendent Neal Dickstein said.

Jackson: Superintendent Nicole Pormilli said at this time there are no plans to go fully remote after the winter break, which ends on Jan. 3.

“Throughout the school year, we remind our students, staff and parents to be prepared for any scenario. This includes the need to go fully remote at any time, if necessary,” Pormilli said.

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Vashti Harris may be reached at vharris@njadvancemedia.com.