Chatham Schools Plan For Further Reopenings With Caution

CHATHAM, NJ — The School District of the Chathams appears close to returning to in-person schooling five days a week. Officials set a tentative timeline for the following grades to return to school every day:

• April 19: grades 8-12 return
• April 26: grades 6-9
• April 28: grades 7, 10 and 11
• From May 3 to June 15, all schools will work to provide additional outdoor social events and activities.

Superintendent Dr. Michael LaSusa introduced the plan at Monday's Board of Education meeting. Days earlier, the Centers for Disease Control revised school guidelines, relaxing social distancing in certain situations. As expected, state officials adopted the new guidance Wednesday. Read more: Social Distance For Many NJ School Students Changes To 3 Feet

The district's plan would allow Chatham students currently learning through the hybrid model to return to five-day, in-person education. Granted, holding lunch would still be "impractical, if not impossible," since 85 to 90 percent of the district's students chose to learn in-person, LaSusa said. See the full note here.

But Chatham schools must consider certain risk factors as each date approaches, according to LaSusa.

"The NJDOH (New Jersey Department of Health) guidelines released yesterday indicate that middle and high schools cannot implement the 3 feet of physical distancing as a standard if there is a 'high' COVID risk in the community," LaSusa told Patch. "The NJDOH has designated our region as having 'high' risk for three consecutive weeks, so we are hopeful that our risk level will change in the coming weeks."

New Jersey's most recent weekly coronavirus activity report, released Friday, places Morris County and most of the state under "high" COVID-19 risk. State officials judge risk level based off factors such as case rates, prevalence of COVID-like illness and positivity rates.

The state has labeled Morris County a high-risk area for the past three weeks. The area carried a "moderate" risk for the two prior weeks that ended Feb. 13 and 20.

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