Toms River Moves School To Remote Learning After COVID Outbreak

TOMS RIVER, NJ — Washington Street Elementary School students and staff are on fully remote instruction through next week after a spike in coronavirus cases at the school, the district announced.

In a letter to parents and staff, Interim Superintendent Thomas Gialanella said the closure, which started Wednesday, will be in place until the schools return to session after spring break.

The decision was made "after careful consideration and with guidance from the Ocean County Health Department," Gialanella said.

The district's elementary schools had been holding four shortened days of in-person instruction since March 1, and its intermediate and high schools moved to four days in person on March 15.

Gialanella said there had been "several positive cases at the school," but did not specify how many.

The state Department of Health defines an outbreak in a school as two or more laboratory-confirmed cases of the coronavirus among students or staff "with onsets within a 14-day period, who are epidemiologically linked, do not share a household, and were not identified as close contacts of each other in another setting during standard case investigation or contact tracing.

"If an outbreak has been identified, schools and local health departments should promptly intervene to control spread," the health department said.

"I understand this is not ideal, and I acknowledge the hardships this imposes on our parents," Gialanella said, adding the district is "working tirelessly to ensure ... all of our schools continue to be the safest possible environments during this extremely challenging time."

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