Coronavirus Case Rise In Belleville Prompts School Update

BELLEVILLE, NJ — A recent spike of coronavirus cases in Belleville prompted a COVID-19 update from Belleville Superintendent Richard Tomko on Thursday.

Tomko issued the following letter to the school community:

“As an update to my correspondence to you all sent on Tuesday, November 17, 2020 and the promise I made to all stakeholders regarding the safety of students and staff, I have been closely monitoring both our community and district COVID-19 data over the past several days to ensure the district’s plan to move to all-remote instruction was still well grounded. In less than one week, the township has realized 88 new positive cases of COVID-19, and our current district numbers identify approximately 5% of our hybrid in-person population of students and staff currently testing positive or having to quarantine due to being a close contact with an individual who has tested positive for COVID-19.

“Due to these increasing numbers and the continued impact that the current cases of COVID-19 throughout the township are having on all of our schools, I will be amending our move to an all remote learning environment to begin this Monday, November 23, 2020. The buildings will be closed to all students and faculty members to allow for additional sanitizing measures during the closure.

“I am confident that this is the right step to take for the health and safety of our students, families, and staff as we continue to battle the current increase in cases around our township. As I stated in my previous correspondence, great consideration and research goes into these decisions, and I understand wholly that this will cause hardships for some of our families in Belleville. Therefore, our Champions Aftercare program will continue to provide services during the closure, and our food service will continue to provide meals throughout that time as well.

“In the coming days, district offices will be communicating to parents about synchronous remote learning schedules and other pertinent information.

“Should you have any questions or concerns, please contact your building principal or me directly at extension 1022.

“Please stay safe, and continue to monitor and report symptoms to your child’s building principal or nurse. I will continue to communicate with you over the remote learning period.”

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