Maplewood Students Attend Sit-In; K-2 To Return To Class Monday

MAPLEWOOD, NJ — With schools in the South Orange-Maplewood, NJ school district having been remote for nearly a year now, students conducted their virtual learning on Friday outside of a South Orange elementary school in a sit-in meant to urge for schools to open five days a week.

The reopening of the district's schools was originally set for November, then pushed to January because of ventilation problems (see timeline below), then pushed to February, then begun for some special needs students late last month.

The teachers' union announced this week that they will honor a commitment to return to classrooms Tuesday to teach K-2 kids, but parents say it's not enough.

On Friday, Gov. Phil Murphy asked both parties to work to get students back on-site, The Village Green reported.

Friday morning, April Mason, a spokeswoman for one of the parent groups that has formed in response to the delays, said, while outside Marshall Elementary School in South Orange, "Our hope is that all the kids can go back five days a week as soon as possible."

She added, "My kids are in fifth and eight grade. They have not been back even one day or one hour in a year. They haven't met their teachers in person. They have no relationship except through a screen. It has impacted their learning."

She said more than 80 parents and children had showed up for the protest.

Updates this week

The Maplewood Board of Education announced on Wednesday evening that it was withdrawing from mediation with the teachers' union, an ongoing process meant to help both parties determine when the students would return to in-person learning.

However, the union said in a letter Thursday night that they will still honor a previous commitment to return to K through 2 classrooms this coming Monday.

The teachers' union also issued a fact sheet on Thursday. Read the fact sheet and a union letter here.

A SOMA parent group has a counter on their webpage that says that it's been nearly a year since the last in-person class for all students.

Timeline of setbacks

The 2020-2021 school year in Maplewood so far has been riddled with setbacks.

• The teachers' union sent a letter to the district last month saying they were concerned about conditions in the schools, and would not report to the buildings. READ MORE: Maplewood Schools Are Now Remote Indefinitely
• The district responded later that day, "We are in receipt of SOMEA’s email indicating that they are once again refusing to report to the school buildings. As per the Community Reopening Update of only a few hours ago, the district was making progress in its Phase 3 reopening with no evidence of in-school transmission. We felt that the Sidebar Agreement with SOMEA was working as intended..."
• On-site was to begin in the district in November, but problems with the ventilation system put those plans on hold until January.
• The schools did open for a week in January for certain grades and special needs students, but then went remote again when teachers cited unsafe conditions and a need for all teachers to get vaccines.
• A snowy nor'easter also caused schools to go remote for several days after the January reopening.

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