Middletown Schools Reinstate Full Classroom Instruction May 10

MIDDLETOWN, NJ — At the Board of Education meeting Wednesday night, the Middletown school district announced the monumental news that the district will reinstate full-time, five-days-a-week classroom learning starting May 10 for all students.

"Our students will finally be experiencing a regular school day," said Middletown schools superintendent Mary Ellen Walker in this letter to parents.

Any student who still wishes to remain virtual can do so. However, they likely will not have that option this fall, as Gov. Murphy already said there will be no remote learning in September 2021.

Middletown students will go back in phases, with the middle schools going first:

• On Monday, April 19, any middle school student who wishes can attend in-person instruction five days a week. Students who currently participate in the four-day hybrid model will be scheduled to attend in-person five days a week. These will still only be half days until May 10.
• On Monday, May 10, all Middletown schools will start the regular full-day schedule.

Many of the area's private schools have been full-time in-person all year. Neighboring districts like Holmdel have been back full time since January. Toms River, a comparable large school district, is still on a hybrid schedule of four half days, and Brick is still hybrid, as well.

"Grateful to every administrator in the district that has worked towards making this happen, grateful to all my fellow parents who have never stopped pushing for this, and looking forward to even more normal school year in September," said Middletown BOE member Jacqueline Tobacco in a Facebook post Wednesday night. "We made it through the restart and reopening plan in full while so many districts are still all remote. Congratulations Middletown Schools for doing what many districts haven’t!"

This is a regular, full school day with students eating lunch at school. In early March, Patch reported how the school district was working to resume lunches, and was looking to hire lunch aides who could help enforce six-foot social distancing in the cafeteria.

All students and teachers must still wear masks on school grounds. Some Middletown parents said they wanted to send their children back to school, but not have them eat lunch in the cafeteria, as that is a prolonged time without masks. Walker said the district looked into sending some kids home for lunch, but that was just logistically not possible.

"All students who attend school in-person will be required to remain on campus for the full day, including during the lunch period," she said. "Our principals and assistant principals have been working with their Pandemic Response Teams to create plans for lunch that include six feet social distancing between students."

Related: Middletown Schools Working On Five-Day Return, Lunch In Schools (March 5)

NJ School Remote Learning Stops Next Year: Gov. Murphy (March 25)

*This story has been edited; it previously contained an error about the April 19 half days.

Be the first to know what's happening in your town and area. Sign up to get Patch emails and don't miss a minute of local and state news: https://patch.com/subscribe Contact this Patch reporter: Carly.baldwin@patch.com