Wayne Schools Delay In-Person Start; Virtual Until February

WAYNE, NJ — Public Schools officials made the decision to delay an in-person start until the middle of February, citing growing concerns about the coronavirus as case numbers spike across New Jersey.

Case numbers are also trending upward in the district, according to a recent report presented at a Board of Education meeting last week.

Since Oct. 26, the district reported that 656 students have been forced to quarantine, 220 students have tested positive, 205 staff have been forced to quarantine and 61 staff have tested positive.

The two township high schools have been hit hardest when it comes to cases and quarantines, with 125 Wayne Valley students have quarantined and 60 tested positive.

At Wayne Hills, 45 students have tested positive and 77 have been forced to quarantine.

According to Superintendent of Schools Mark Toback, the even if schools could have reopened, many would have been forced to remain virtual due to staffing issues.

"Even if we had continued with the plan to re-open for in-person instruction on January 19th, a number of our schools would not have been able to open due to severe staffing shortages. For a variety of reasons, we simply do not have enough employees and substitutes to properly staff our schools and provide adequate supervision for students," he wrote.

Quarantine and case numbers have risen consistently month over month, according to district trends presented at the meeting.

Since the end of October:

• Staff positive increased from 38 to 61
• Staff quarantining increased from 160 to 205
• Students positive increased from 129 to 220
• Students quarantining increased from 518 to 656

Officials have cited a variety of reasons for an increase in cases, whether that be out of school behavior or failure to complete daily COVID-19 health screenings before arriving for classes.

According to Wayne Public Schools data, from September to October, 6,249 students across the district failed to complete the daily screening. In November, and additional 1,898 failed to complete the daily screening, totaling 8,147 screenings incomplete for the three-month span.

Pointing to these factors, the Board of Education made the decision to institute completely virtual instruction for phase three of the return to school plan, meaning in-person learning likely won't resume until Feb. 12, at the earliest.

The Board of Education will make a decision about phase four of the reopening plan at their Feb. 11 meeting, according to officials.

Now that in-person learning will officially continue, Toback said the district is working to make improvements to their model.

"Now that we know we will not be returning for in-person instruction until mid-February, we are working on a number of enhancements to our virtual program. While some may disagree, virtual instruction can yield excellent educational results for our students. Every day we see examples of excellent virtual teaching. While we all hope to be “back to school” in the traditional sense as soon as possible, we must take a step back at this moment and we apologize for any inconvenience," said Toback.