Ramapo High Remains Virtual As District Pauses Next Restart Phase

WYCKOFF, NJ — After reporting four positive coronavirus cases in the span of four days, Ramapo High School in Franklin Lakes was forced to delay the in-person start of classes until Monday. This comes as the other high school in the district, Indian Hills in Oakland, began in-person courses Tuesday.

The district had also planned to implement a single cohort model in which students would attend classes five days a week starting Monday, but officials announced that the plan has been delayed until Feb. 1.

According to district officials, this decision follows some alarming trends in the communities of Franklin Lakes, Oakland and Wyckoff (FLOW), in which two in-school learning students have been hospitalized.

The number of students and staff in quarantine has also risen as the district reported 36 presumptive cases of the coronavirus at Indian Hills and 48 presumptive cases at Ramapo.

"After following New Jersey Health Updates specifically for Bergen County and working with all of our school nurses, our school safety specialist and administrators along with the support of the Board of Education, I have decided to put a hold on this plan until February 1, 2021 which is the start of our next marking period," wrote Interim Superintendent Anthony Riscica.

"The reason for this change is based on the recent increase of cases in the state where we have seen numbers climb from over 3,000 new cases to over 7,000 new cases in the last four days. According to state reports this is a 63% increase from a little over two weeks ago when I made my initial recommendation to move ahead with our new plan," he added.

According to Riscica, the decision wasn't made lightly, as he and the district understand that many want to return to school. But that won't happen until the coronavirus' effect is felt much less within the buildings of the two district high schools.