Brick Schools Plan To Stay In Person In 2022: Superintendent

BRICK, NJ — When classes resume in the Brick Township Schools Monday after winter break, students and staff members will be in the buildings, as they were before the holiday.

Brick Township Schools Superintendent Thomas Farrell said there were no plans for the district to shift to fully remote instruction — a move some districts in New Jersey have made because of a surge in coronavirus cases in the weeks leading up to the break.

"Brick is going to stay the course," Farrell said in an email to Patch before the break.

New Jersey has reported more than 69,000 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 since Dec. 22, as thousands of people sought testing ahead of Christmas holiday celebrations. In Ocean County, the report Monday said the county had 2,215 new cases since Dec. 23, according to the Ocean County Health Department, including 313 new cases in Brick in that time.

Vaccination rates in Brick have edged up over the last month, with 77 percent of those 18 or older having received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine and 68 percent having received two doses. Among kids ages 12-17, 31 percent have received one dose and 27 percent have received two doses.

The Brick schools have not closed an entire school in the district since November 2020, when Brick Township High School was shifted to remote instruction after an outbreak of cases that apparently were tied to a Sweet Sixteen party.

CDC guidelines for quarantine have changed, and state Department of Health had changed quarantine rules for schools earlier in December. Students and staff members who are identified as closes contact of someone who tests positive for COVID-19 only are required to quarantine if they are not vaccinated, according to the recent change by the state Department of Health in its guidelines for student and staff quarantines.

Those who are fully vaccinated or who have had COVID-19 and recovered from it within the last 90 days do not have to quarantine, under the new guidelines. Those who are required to quarantine can return to school after seven days if a COVID-19 PCR test at the fifth day or beyond comes back negative for the virus. Without testing, unvaccinated students or staff must wait 10 days in quarantine.

The CDC on Monday reduced quarantines to five days from 10, but how quickly that will filter down to the state health officials and from there to schools is unclear.

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