Lacey Schools Move To 5 Days In-Person Next Month

LACEY, NJ — The Lacey Township Board of Education unveiled the next phases of the district’s reopening plan during a meeting Thursday.

As the district moves from phase 1 to phase 2, high school and middle school students will have the option to attend school five days per week beginning March 8. The third phase will allow elementary school students to attend the 5-day schedule on March 22.

Superintendent Vanessa Clark said the decision to welcome high school and middle school students back first was based on the lower in-person enrollment numbers in those schools.

“Social distancing requirements are going to be easier to maintain at the middle school and high school, and that’s a fact that we recognize,” Clark said.

Clark added that high school and middle school students are already familiar with the “grab-and-go” lunch system that will be implemented for all students during 5-day in-person instruction. The lunches that students take home at the end of the day also include breakfast for the next day.

The district will send surveys to parents soon, which give them a choice of 5-day in-person instruction or full remote learning.

“Fully remote is still an option, but we’re moving in this direction in all of our buildings because there are students out there who have never had the experience of their building,” said District Supervisor William Zylinski. “Freshman have never had an experience of being a freshman, seventh graders never had a middle school experience, fifth graders never had their Mill Pond experience.”

The current dismissal schedule will remain in place for returning high school and middle school students on March 8 through March 19.

When elementary school students return to in-person instruction, all schools will shift to a 4-hour day beginning on March 22:

• High school: 7:05 - 11:05
• Middle school: 7:30 - 11:30
• Mill Pond: 8:00 - 12:00
• Lanoka Harbor: 8:25 - 12:25
• Cedar Creek: 8:50 - 12:50
• Forked River: 9:15 - 1:15

Clark said the need for multi-tiered, shortened days is because of the district’s omission of lunch periods and capacity limitations on buses.

“There are going to be more students on our buses, but we are going to take mitigating steps to ensure that we’re going to keep one student to a seat or siblings on a seat together," Clark said.

The district’s fourth phase will happen when schools can implement full days of in-person instruction. At this time, there is no estimated date for that phase.

Clark assured parents that the district will continue to monitor COVID-19 cases in the district and updated health guidelines as schools adopt 5-day in-person instruction.

“Our students have been amazing, resilient, patient and we are in this together. We have been from day one and we have to continue going in that direction,” Clark said.

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