East Brunswick Schools On Track To Begin In-Person Classes Jan.18

EAST BRUNSWICK, NJ — After two weeks of virtual classes, East Brunswick Public Schools is on track to reopen for in-person learning on Jan. 18, the district said.

During the first week of January, the school district announced it was going virtual due to COVID-19 related staffing shortage. Virtual learning was extended for another week as more staff members needed to quarantine. According to the latest update, the district has “moved past” its staffing shortage across all facilities.

“On behalf of Board President, Laurie Lachs and Superintendent, Dr. Victor Valeski we look forward to welcoming students and staff back to in-person instruction on Tuesday, January 18th,” the district said in a Facebook post. "Based on our reported numbers across all facilities, we have moved past our staffing shortage caused by COVID.”

Since Jan. 3 a total of 102 staff members tested positive for COVID-19, according to the district’s dashboard. They are expected to end their quarantine this week. Meanwhile, 151 students across the district tested positive for the week of Jan. 3.

On Tuesday, Gov. Phil Murphy extended the K-12 mask mandate due to the growing number of COVID-19 cases.

Murphy declared another public health emergency in New Jersey on Tuesday, citing the extremely high numbers of COVID positives. Read More: NJ Public Health Emergency Extended To Fight 'Omicron Tsunami'

By declaring the state of emergency, Murphy is able to unilaterally extend a number of his emergency executive orders, all of which were set to expire at 11:59 p.m., this includes the mask mandates.

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