Woodbridge Superintendent Fears Teacher Shortage After Fall Break

WOODBRIDGE, NJ — The Woodbridge school system will be on fall break next week and the superintendent is worried that in that time, so many teachers may travel to high-risk states — and then follow Gov. Murphy's 14-day quarantine — that he will be forced to revert Woodbridge schools to an all-virtual schedule.

Right now, Woodbridge schools are on a hybrid schedule, with half the students in class on alternating days. The week of Nov. 2-6, Woodbridge schools are closed for their scheduled fall recess.

"But the week we come back we have some issues," said superintendent Dr. Bob Zega in this YouTube address to the community. "Anyone who travels over the break, students or staff, if they travel to a high-risk state, they will be required to quarantine for 14 days. So that could pose a problem when they return back to school."

Per the New Jersey health department, there are now 41 "high-risk" states, including Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Delaware. "Self-quarantine is voluntary, but compliance is expected," writes the DOH.

Zega told Patch he of course cannot forbid teachers from going out of state on their fall break. And the quarantine is mandatory if you work for Woodbridge public schools.

"We cannot restrict teacher travel during the break," he said. "Although the out-of-state quarantines are 'recommended,' we are requiring staff (and students) to quarantine if they travel to a high-risk state," he told this media outlet.

To that end, Nov. 9 is a fully remote day, district-wide in Woodbridge. That is so the principals in each school can assess if they have enough teaching staff who are not quarantining.

"If we have too many teachers and staff members that are quarantined, we won't have enough subs, and we won't have enough people to supervise the children," said Zega. "We are concerned about that."

The decision to go all virtual will be made on a school-by-school basis. "Schools that can remain open, will remain open," vowed Zega.

With 26 schools and more than 13,000 students, Woodbridge is one of the largest school systems in the state.

Murphy announced Thursday that New Jersey is officially in a second wave of the coronavirus.

But Zega also warned that if the numbers keep increasing, there may be state shutdown order from Trenton anyway, which would apply across the state and force all New Jersey schools to go fully virtual. The Hackensack school system just announced Thursday it is going all virtual.

"But as for now we haven't heard that; we haven't heard any inkling of that," said Zega.

"The statewide numbers are not encouraging. We are trending in the wrong direction here," he said. "The more and more new cases that we see in our community every day, the more of a chance we see new cases in our schools. And that's something none of us want."

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