Covid: Some NJ schools can go 100% remote; Willingboro plans 2 months of virtual only

TRENTON — Some New Jersey school districts, including Willingboro Public Schools, are to start the school year with remote-only learning, following a new executive order from Gov. Phil Murphy.

Virtual-only learning is needed for districts which have “legitimate and documented reasons why some … core health and safety requirements cannot be met on day 1,” Murphy said Wednesday at his daily coronavirus briefing.

“There is no one-size-fits-all plan to this very difficult situation,” Murphy said, adding that the state’s educational system is “rooted in local control and decision making.”

The governor’s executive order also clears preK-12 schools and colleges and universities to reopen for full in-person learning. However, any student who continues to choose remote learning must be accommodated, according to the executive order.

Department of Education Interim Commissioner Kevin Dehmer said all districts must work toward in-person learning, but acknowledged some districts are not ready to open.

The state Department of Education is “sensitive to the concerns of school leaders who say they need additional time to implement the health and safety guidelines… before they can return any portion of the population to in-person,” Dehmer said.

Murphy credited several school districts, including Willingboro and East Brunswick, with standing on the “front lines” of new and unprecedented challenges.

Willingboro Superintendent Neely Hackett said the district remains committed to returning to classroom for in-person learning.

“Before this return is possible the Board of Education members must know all appropriate safety measures are in place,” Hackett said at the press briefing Wednesday. “Although the staff of the Willingboro Public Schools has worked extremely hard over the last several months, there is still much work that needs to be done to ensure the safety of our students and staff.”

Willingboro’s current challenges include inadequate HVAC systems and a lack of equipment to protect against spread of the coronavirus.

“Many of our schools have only partial air conditioning, making the early months of the school year an additional challenge,” Hackett said. “We are currently researching appropriate ventilation systems.”

The district has struggled to obtain a sufficient store of personal protective equipment and protective barriers, she added. Willingboro plans to provide two masks to students and staff every month, totaling 8,000 face masks a month.

Hackett said Willingboro families are widely supportive of the plan.

“In collecting feedback from families, we found that the overwhelming majority were not comfortable sending their children back to school,” she said.

Willingboro intends to go remote-only for the first marking period, which runs Sept. 8-Nov. 18.

When Willingboro schools transition away from exclusively remote instruction, they are to use a hybrid model in which families can select partial in-person learning or virtual-only learning, according to the district's reopening plan.

Since the COVID-19 outbreak hit Burlington County, Willingboro has consistently reported the highest number of coronavirus cases. According to the health department, about 12 percent of the county’s 6,352 COVID-19 cases were in Willingboro. About 7% of the county’s population lives in the township, according to U.S. Census data.

Numerous Burlington County teachers and staff in recent weeks have said they are in favor of remote-only instruction. Some families have echoed that support — and voiced frustration with proposed hybrid models, which some families said are impractical or overly complex.

The Burlington County Education Association earlier this month called on local school districts to stick to remote learning in order to protect community health and well-being.

In an open letter the education association acknowledged remote-only could create hardships for working parents. But those concerns are outweighed by potential impacts of the virus, according to the association, a labor union which represents more than 9,000 Burlington County teachers and staff member.

“If school buildings reopen for in-person instruction as scheduled, we fear that it is not a question of if or when the virus spreads, but at what cost,” Anthony M. Rizzo, association president, said in the letter posted online. “That is a gamble that we cannot afford to take with the lives of our students and staff.”

School officials face a daunting — if not impossible — number of health and safety problems to overcome, including issues related to busing, virus testing, contact tracing, HVAC systems, budget shortfalls and a shortage of school employees and qualified substitutes, according to the education association.

With only a few weeks until the first day of school, Burlington County districts are in the midst of preparing for an unprecedented school year — a task that has been complicated by evolving state guidelines and changes in public health data.

Earlier this summer, the state Department of Education said schools should plan for partial in-person instruction, but on July 24 updated its guidance to require schools to provide a 100% remote learning option.

Until that announcement, most local districts had been working to develop hybrid learning models, many of which would have students attend school on alternating days.

The governor on Wednesday commended Hackett, Willingboro Mayor Tiffani Worthy and Burlington County Health Department Director Dr. Herb Conaway on their community leadership, adding a “hats off” to Burlington County as a whole.