COVID Closes Early Childhood Center Near West Orange/Livingston Border – Livingston, NJ Patch

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — The director of a popular early childhood center serving Essex County announced late Monday afternoon that the center would have to close for the rest of the week because of COVID cases among staff.

But she said that depending on test results that are received from last month, they may be able to reopen Monday or sooner.

Leslie Fleischman, the director of early childhood programs for the Jewish Community Center (Metrowest) — based in West Orange and serving much of — said on Monday that because of positive COVID cases and outstanding test results, the day care programs would have to close for now.

“Due to a very high demand for testing,” she wrote in her letter to families on Monday afternoon, “our JCC test results remain outstanding for many staff. Additionally several staff members are presenting with symptoms, and results that are coming in have had a high ratio of positivity.”

She said this could cause a staffing shortage, but hopefully a short-term one.

“Rather than a day by day decision, we have made the difficult choice to choose to keep our ECC closed … for the remainder of this week,” she said. “If we can open any sooner than Monday, Jan. 10th we will and we will communicate to you immediately. By Monday, January 10th, from our December 30 testing, should an individual have had a positive result, the full 10 days that we require positive individuals to isolate will be complete.”

The rest of the letter is below.

Meanwhile, these were the 3,806 new cases of coronavirus reported in Essex County yesterday since the day before:

The Letter To Families

Dear Families,

This is the communication you have been waiting for, but unfortunately not the news you want.

Due to a very high demand for testing our JCC test results remain outstanding for many staff. Additionally several staff members are presenting with symptoms, and results that are coming in have had a high ratio of positivity. We are anticipating the ratio of returns to positive results to continue at the same rate. This presents what we hope to be a very short-term staffing shortage.

Rather than a day by day decision, we have made the difficult choice to choose to keep our ECC closed due to a staffing shortage as well as the high rate of positive cases and a lack of test results for the remainder of this week. If we can open any sooner than Monday, Jan. 10th we will and we will communicate to you immediately. By Monday, January 10th, from our December 30 testing, should an individual have had a positive result, the full 10 days that we require positive individuals to isolate will be complete.

If you have had a chance to review the flowchart we sent out last week and again today, http://eepurl.com/hRbHLf you can see that all positive cases of the ECC are still required to be out 10 days either from the date of the positive test results or onset of symptoms. The CDC requirement for a person testing positive that is vaccinated can return to the workplace in 5 days with a strict masking policy. As our teaching staff, in most cases is with children 7 hours or more a day and working around unvaccinated, susceptible children, we do not feel that the CDC policy applies to our vulnerable population, your children.

Additionally, we are not willing to accept rapid test results as they are not as sensitive and asymptomatic individuals do still spread the virus. Again, it is our business to proceed in the manner that we believe best protects all children in our school.

We understand how this interrupts not only your adult responsibilities, but also your child’s routine. We are agonizing over these decisions and will continue to do everything we can to provide a safe environment for your child and get them back to the ECC as soon as possible.

It is my hope that we have answered your questions or explained our decision thoroughly. We will keep you promptly informed as we move forward.

All the best,

Leslie