All Woodbridge Schools Will Be Back 5 Days A Week

WOODBRIDGE, NJ — The Woodbridge school district has the goal of getting all students back in class five full days a week by the end of April, Superintendent Dr. Robert Zega announced in this video posted on the school district website April 2.

Woobridge public schools started off the year on a hybrid model, but then switched to all virtual in November when New Jersey's second wave of cases skyrocketed. The district was then all virtual from late November to March 1, when it resumed hybrid. Most Woodbridge public schools are already back to five days of in-person learning, but a few schools in the district are still hybrid.

That should all end by the end of April, said Zega, when hybrid models will be disbanded and all schools will return to five days a week of in-person learning.

With 26 schools and more than 13,000 students, Woodbridge is the eighth largest school system in the state.

"It's hard to believe that it's been over a year since we first closed our schools back in March 2020," said Zega. "It's been a struggle. We've had our ups and downs. But we are happy to report that we finally have most of our schools back to five days of instruction. Those schools that are not back to five days will hopefully be back to five days very, very shortly. It is our goal to have all of our schools offering five days of instruction by the end of April."

According to Zega, three things have made this possible: The most important was a guidance change from the CDC in March, when the agency said classroom desks only need to be spaced three feet apart, and no longer have to be spaced six feet apart.

"This allowed more students to be in person at the same time," said Zega.

The second thing was a partnership formed in the last few weeks with Hackensack Meridian JFK University Medical Center in Edison, who offered to vaccinate any Woodbridge public school teacher, teacher's aide or bus driver who wanted the vaccine.

"That was really a wonderful gesture by Hackensack Meridian to make those vaccinations available," he said. "We are certainly way ahead of the game as far as getting our staff vaccinated."

Woodbridge schools also made a bulk order of several thousand desk shields, which are currently being installed in classrooms.

"These three things combined have helped us get more students back in the classroom," said Zega.

Students still have to wear masks in school buildings.

Zega also acknowledged that students have suffered in the past year.

"I know you are hearing things in the news about learning loss and how far behind our students are. We are aware of all of this," said Zega. "And we know that the only sure cure to getting our students where they need to be academically and emotionally is to get them back in school, and get them in person and in front of their teachers."

"That's really the only thing that's going to help them. Not another online platform. Not some sort of computer program. They need to be with our teachers, and they need to be in person and they need to be there as often as possible. And we are committed to making that happen."

Woodbridge schools used some of its COVID grant money to purchase several thousand Chromebooks for students during the pandemic. There was some delay getting the Chromebooks, but all are now on their way, said Zega.

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