Toms River Schools Add COVID-19 Stats To District's Website

TOMS RIVER, NJ — Parents and staff in the Toms River Regional School District can now see how many students and teachers have reported coronavirus infections to the district, in a new feature on the district's website.

The COVID-19 section of the Toms River Schools website includes links to COVID-19 information for the district, from the daily form parents must fill out for students to information on free wi-fi for families in need.

The numbers, which include cumulative cases and the numbers of students and teachers in quarantine, were added last week.

Michael Kenny, spokesman for the Toms River schools, said the counter was published to provide transparency about the number of cases in the district, which has more than 15,000 students and more than 2,500 staff members. It also offers "some context for students and families making all-virtual or hybrid decisions," he said. More than a third of the district's students — 5,936 as of last week's Board of Education meeting — are all-virtual, Kenny said.

The case counter is a cumulative total, while the quarantine number varies based on the current number of those in quarantine.

The quarantine number only reflects students or staff who are required to quarantine under the CDC's guidance, Kenny said, and not situations where an entire school is closed.

For example, Silver Bay Elementary School is on fully remote instruction until Feb. 1. However, of the student population at the school, there are 58 who would be quarantined if the school had reopened Monday, Kenny said.

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The counters pull from a data sheet that district staff update twice a week, Kenny said.

At Wednesday's Toms River Regional Board of Education meeting, Interim Superintendent Thomas Gialanella said the district is working hard to keep the schools open. In addition to Silver Bay, Cedar Grove Elementary School was fully remote last week because of a spate of positive coronavirus tests.

"That's the last resort," Gialanella said. "We don't jump at the chance to close schools."

He said in situations where there's an outbreak, they try to isolate it to the affected class, moving the class to remote instruction, and only close schools when staffing is an issue or they cannot isolate the outbreak to just the affected class or classes.

"I know how difficult it is for parents to find sitters when they're working." Gialanella said. "I know it makes people frustrated and angry. We don't want to do it, we do it as a very last resort."

A surge in cases after the holidays had pushed coronavirus case rate for the Central East region (which includes Ocean County) above 66 percent. That number decreased last week but was still above 50 percent. That surge was creating problems for schools throughout the county, Gialanella said.

He's hopeful that as the surge subsides and COVID-19 vaccinations become more widespread, the district can bring students into school more, and sooner rather than later.

That has been the district's goal even before winter break. The administration was discussing moving to four days of in-person instruction before the holiday surge led to delaying further discussions.

"I know the best instruction we have is in-person instruction," Gialanella said.

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