Hopatcong Schools Pull Plug On In-Person Instruction For A Month

HOPATCONG, NJ - The Hopatcong School District has pulled the plug on in-person learning for one month and calls a full time return "out of the question" after a spike in COVID cases, and according to Superintendent Art DiBenedetto there is plenty of blame to go around.

"I am very sorry to inform you that the COVID-19 virus has once again significantly reared its ugly head in our school district," DiBenedetto said in a letter to parents and guardians Thursday. He noted the following circumstances the district is tasked with dealing with:

• The high school has seventy five students and fifteen teachers quarantining due to exposure and has two new cases that are interconnected hence resulting in even more quarantine situations.
• The fifth grade at the middle school has a significant number of cases affecting students and teachers.
• At the primary schools we are dealing with children who are ill coming to school and later testing positive causing whole classes to quarantine.
• Students who are supposed to be quarantined are interacting with each other on the weekend further complicating matters. One simply needs to visit Modick Park on a Saturday to witness this.
• The Department of Health reports that Sussex County is currently the most affected county in the state.
• Because allergies demonstrate symptoms of COVID, we have had to quarantine many students who suffer from those allergies. But we have also had allergy symptoms actually be COVID in two cases.
• We have also been informed that staff members who have received both vaccine shots should still quarantine if they travel over the Spring Break.
• "That coupled with family travel cements the following decision," he said. "I cannot in good faith continue to operate the district as we are. Beginning tomorrow, March 26, all students will be on virtual instruction. Staff members will be able to instruct from schools, but students should remain home."

Hopatcong is scheduled to return from Spring Break on April 12, but instruction again will be virtual for two weeks after that date, until April 26.

"With any luck we will then re-open as currently running, all schools for the four-hour day," DiBenedetto said. "Returning full time now is out of the question."

DiBenedetto noted that the decision will not be a popular one with some parents and offered an apology for the "expected reality."

"I understand and respect that anger," he said. "I only ask that you respect and understand how difficult it is for me to do this for reasons of safety."

Thanks for reading! Learn more about posting announcements or events to your local Patch site. Have a news tip you'd like to share? Got photos? Please include express written permission from the photographer for us to use them. Or maybe you have a press release you would like to submit or a correction you'd like to request? Send an email to russ.crespolini@patch.com

Subscribe to your local Patch newsletter. You can also have them delivered to your phone screen by downloading, or by visiting the Google Play store.