Hoboken Schools Share Details Of Full-Day Reopening Plan (UPDATE)

HOBOKEN, NJ — Hoboken Superintendent of Schools Christine Johnson sent an email to parents in the mile-square city on Wednesday afternoon revealing school reopening plans. The plans include:

• For K-12, families will be able to choose between a "Full Day Traditional Onsite Learning Model" (Monday through Friday from 8:15 a.m. to 3 p.m.), or a Full Day Remote Learning Model. Parents must make a choice by Aug. 7.
• Pre-K will be different. Johnson wrote, "Just days ago, our Office of Early Childhood Education was notified by the New Jersey Department of Education that all former Abbott Districts’ preschool programs must open in September using a hybrid learning model which includes a combination of onsite traditional learning and remote learning. The Hoboken Public School District is mandated to direct our providers (HOPES and Mile Square) to design a schedule that meets these state requirements for PreK 3 and PreK 4 children."

For the older kids, the Hoboken plan was in contrast to some North Jersey districts that announced "blended" plans including half days for younger kids with no lunch and recess, and alternating half days for older students, all with a remote component. Every district in the state is now required to also offer the option of full-time remote learning.

Hoboken is a mile-square city of 53,000 people across the river from Manhattan, where many parents work full-time. It was also among the first towns in the region to begin shutting down facilities. The local coronavirus death toll has remained at 29 for more than a month. But there have been upticks in local young people and in people returning from travel to states that are dealing with spikes in deaths and hospitalizations, the mayor has said.

(For the most recent updates on Hoboken statistics, reopenings, businesses, and where to get tested in Hoboken, click here.)

Johnson wrote Wednesday, "We are also prepared with contingency plans if we need to shift to a hybrid learning model for all students or even a remote learning model for all students if the local conditions in our area change due to spikes in positive COVID-19 cases."

The Hoboken schools are set to reopen for students on Tuesday, Sept. 8 (see calendar here).

Johnson wrote, of the in-person model, "This model employs stringent health and safety protocols both inside and outside of our classrooms. Families who are not comfortable sending their child(ren) back to school, may opt for a Full Day Remote Learning Model."

As of now, students in New Jersey must wear facemasks in school and social distance, which makes it unlikely that all students will be in any building at one time.

Johnson cautioned in her letter to parents that if they form their own "learning pods," they may lose their place in the district. "If an alternative is chosen such as private home schooling or registering with a for-profit company or private school for the purpose of 'pod' learning, your child would need to disenroll from the district," she noted.

On Thursday morning, the district posted a "Reopening of Schools webpage," containing plans for remote and in-person learning, and safety guidelines, including random temperature checks for students and teachers. Plans are linked here.

For the remote model, the plans for the coming week will be published each Sunday by 7 p.m. Students will have some instruction sessions with teachers, and some group learning sessions with up to 10 classmates at a time, virtually.

While most children in the United States have avoided severe symptoms from the virus, they can transmit it to teachers, parents, and others. A large-scale study in South Korea, quoted widely last week in American media outlets from the New York Times to the Wall Street Journal, suggested that teens spread the virus at the same rate as adults, and more easily than younger children.

Teacher considerations

Some teachers' unions, including in North Jersey districts and the state teachers' union, have said they believe learning should stay remote for now. But working parents, parents of special needs children, and others have argued that they need aspects of on-site learning.

The Hoboken plans stated, "The district will make every effort to assign staff members who are at a higher risk for severe illness to remote learning and/or make medical leave information available." More details are outlined in the plans.

Hoboken and New Jersey coronavirus trends

Gov. Phil Murphy has asked people returning to New Jersey from 32 other states to quarantine for 14 days. Coronavirus levels are increasing in many states where precautions were not as strict as in New Jersey. (See the daily increases in all 50 states by clicking here).

Murphy said Wednesday that New Jersey had just experienced its highest 24-hour case spike since June 6, with 565 new coronavirus cases and 24 more confirmed deaths since Tuesday.

In New Jersey, a total of 13,923 people have died from the virus, with the highest one-day toll (460 residents lost) on April 30. Since then, the daily statewide toll has come down, and in July has hovered between single digits and 45 deaths reported each day.

Check back here later for more details of the Hoboken reopening plan, and keep checking for other Hoboken news on Hoboken Patch.

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