Around Manchester: School Plans Delayed, Project Grant Awarded

MANCHESTER, NJ — Manchester Township students will be attending classes remotely Thanksgiving week, and the district has postponed its plans to move to five days a week of in-person learning, a response to increasing cases of the coronavirus.

The surge in cases is affecting the township government as well, as township buildings have been closed to public access for the time being.

Ocean County has moved to "High Risk" on the state's COVID-19 Regional Risk Matrix, and surpassed 20,000 cases as of Sunday, with 20,073, up 1,452 from the 18,621 on Nov. 21. Manchester Township has 114 new cases in that time, from 1,149 on Nov. 21 to 1,263 as of Sunday, according to the Ocean County Health Department. Lakehurst has risen from 61 cases as of Nov. 21 to 71 as of Sunday.

Statewide, New Jersey now has more than 306,000 cases since March, including 3,998 new ones on Sunday, according to the state Department of Health COVID-19 website. As of Saturday, 2,563 people were hospitalized due to the coronavirus, with 466 in intensive care and 237 patients on ventilators, according to the state COVID-19 website.

The school district's move to remote instruction for Thanksgiving week was a response to several cases within the schools. The aim is to a deep cleaning of all buildings this week, Superintendent David Trethaway said. Read more: Manchester Schools Go Remote For Thanksgiving Week

But the rise also has led the district to hold off on moving to five days a week of in-person instruction. The district had surveyed parents about the move and was preparing to expand instruction soon. That plan has been pushed back to after winter break. Read more: Manchester Schools Delay Plan For 5-Day In-Person Instruction

Around town

The Manchester Township Council is scheduled to meeting at 6 p.m. Monday. Because of the change in in-person gathering limits, the meeting will be held by Zoom. Instructions on how to access the Zoom meeting can be found here. The meeting agenda is available here.

Township offices will be closed Thursday for Thanksgiving. Public works collections will be delayed a day.

The township also received a $323,000 state grant for road improvement work for an ongoing project at Schoolhouse Road. Read more: Manchester, Lakehurst Awarded State Grants For Roadwork

Additional headlines

• 1 Hurt In ATV-Car Crash On Route 37: Manchester Police
• Manchester Man Dies After Boat Capsizes On Raritan Bay: NJSP

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