‘We Were Robbed:' Colts Neck Parents Demand More Live Class Time

COLTS NECK, NJ - When Colts Neck second-grader Julie* was starting to show signs of struggle in math and reading, she was promptly placed into an extra help environment where she soon “excelled” in the subjects. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and Julie’s classes transitioned online - save for the extra help program, which was completely eliminated, according to her mother. Nearly one year later, Julie’s parents worry that she may be struggling so much, she may have to repeat second grade as her peers graduate to another school.

“She continued to fall behind,” Julie’s mother told Patch. “My daughter is so behind, it’s sad. The extra help program they implemented five months after virtual learning started is also remote. It’s not going to help … My husband and I, we’re thinking of moving, or private school. But there would be no shot that they would look twice at my daughter because she is so far behind.”

Julie’s struggles during the COVID-19 crisis aren’t limited to academics, either. Her mother claims that the young resident has become “a completely different person” since the school district went virtual in March. Julie is frustrated when she can’t follow lessons online and gets anxious when her teacher doesn’t log into meetings immediately. Her mother isn’t sure if this is a momentary effect of remote learning or a permanent change in her child.

“Now she gets upset over the smallest things and it’s because she doesn’t understand,” her mother told Patch. “It’s so hard to follow along because the kids are either messing around or talking over the teacher. It’s impossible for her to follow along. She then gets emotional. How can they let our children get so far behind?”

Since September, students in Colts Neck have been attending classes for two to three days each week. While kindergarteners returned to five days of in-person classes in November, parents of some of the district’s youngest students in grades 1 and 2 have raised concerns regarding the use of asynchronous learning, in which students watch pre recorded videos in place of live instruction with a teacher.

How do you get a six-year-old to sit down and watch educational videos for an afternoon?

“You can’t,” one parent told Patch. “We’re lucky that our primary teachers have been overall pretty good, but it’s hit or miss. You get the kindergarteners off the buses at lunch and then expect her to go on a computer? Her mind has gone.”

“Since the beginning of the school year, they’re watching videos for science, physical education, art and music. They have been doing the same thing for world language and health since March,” another parent said. “For the younger children who are in a class with a teacher who is balancing first and second graders - half of who are at home on a screen - how can you assess how everyone is on task and doing what they need to do? It’s impossible. School is supposed to be a haven for children, it’s the constant. It’s safety: emotionally, academically and psychologically. We were robbed, and continue to be robbed of that right now, during a very uncertain time.”

But Dr. MaryJane Garibay, the superintendent of the Colts Neck Township School District, argues that the current hybrid model is a necessary tool for keeping any semblance of in-person instruction afloat.

“The more children we bring into a building, the more risk for exposure and/or a need to quarantine. That defeats the purpose,” Garibay told Patch.

“If the goal is for in-person instruction, but potentially, by increasing the number of students in the classroom, you potentially have to shut down a classroom or shut down a school or the district (which we only had to do for eight days in November). Now, that is something that our hybrid model has done for us. Albeit, hybrid is a slow and steady model for keeping in-person learning, but since September, we’ve only had to go to remote for eight days. That’s not the case in other districts, that’s something I’m pretty proud of.”

Parents have advocated for sending children back to school five days a week since the beginning of the school year, with one petition alone amassing over 600 signatures. After an October parent survey reflected a whopping 70 percent of parents eager to send their children back to classrooms, the district promised a mid-November phase-in, with all grades slated to receive a five-day short session schedule by Nov. 30.

However, the plan was scrapped after the district shuttered in-person classes in mid-November after a COVID-19 case spike. Students returned in December under the same hybrid model, save for kindergarteners (which had already been phased in).

“I now have one child in kindergarten that’s going five half-days and one child in third grade that’s going [to school] hybrid,” one parent told Patch. “Why is it okay for two different children to have two different schedules within the same household? What makes it safe or not safe? These kids that are home, they’re getting together with other groups of kids because they’re so bored and everybody is congregating outside of school. At least if they were in school, it would be in a safer environment.”

And while a Jan. 19 letter to district parents informing of a transition to five half-day classes for preschool through eighth grade students starting Feb. 16 may seem like a light at the end of the tunnel for some, other parents remain unconvinced that the district will follow through with the plan.

“Why wait until mid-February to bring the kids back? It’s ridiculous,” one parent said. “They will keep doing this … and push off phasing children back in schools, unless they do it now.”

“A year has gone by with no way of knowing how our children are performing in multiple subjects,” she added. Without any contact with teachers, how can we possibly address and remediate learning differences? The more time they take from our children, the more they fall behind. The only remedy will be compensatory education, and we are prepared to fight for that.”

Some, like Julie’s mother, demand legal repercussions for the district even if in-person instruction does resume five days per week:

“My child will be left back. This is going to be a serious mental and academic issue for my daughter for the rest of her life,” she said.

“Whether they put our kids back in school tomorrow or not, this will be something that is going to be a struggle for them. When we started seeing changes in [Julie’s] behavior and emotional state is when we realized this will be a problem that, quite frankly, I don’t see going away. We should pursue litigation whether they send our kids back to school tomorrow or not, because, the repercussions of what they’ve already done to our children, they should be responsible for that. How do you get away with that? If they’re going to have long term effects, they have to take responsibility for that and be sued for that.”

*Julie is an alias for a Colts Neck second-grader.