St. John Vianney HS Goes Virtual Amid Four COVID-19 Cases

HOLMDEL, NJ - Students at St. John Vianney Catholic High School in Holmdel will be completing classes online until December, a result of four new COVID-19 cases in the school community.

On Monday, the private Holmdel school announced that it would operate on an all-remote learning from Nov. 10 through Dec. 9, according to Principal Margaret Kane. Non-varsity sports are also suspended until further notice.

Four cases were confirmed amid the decision, not connected to school activities or events.

“When we reached four [cases], the board of health recommended that we move online,” Kane told Patch.

“The board of health director said, as a precaution, you should go ahead and go virtual. He knows our capabilities going virtual, so it wasn’t anything that we were concerned about. We didn’t miss a beat in terms of teaching the kids.”

When asked if the cases were related to each other, Kane said there are no known instances of community spread and that cases were “very random” among the student population.

Christian Brothers Academy in Lincroft similarly shuttered its doors until Nov. 30, according to the Asbury Park Press. The private school previously transitioned to two weeks of virtual learning in September amid another outbreak among students. 880 students returned this fall to in-person classes on a full-time basis.

The Lincroft campus’ cases were generated from a gathering not associated with the school, Christian Brothers Academy President Ralph Byrne told the Asbury Park Press. Two students reported cases stemming from a family dinner, while two others could not confirm where they contracted the virus.

“A number of schools have reported two or more cases within a 2-week period to MCHD,” Freeholder Director Tom A. Arnone told Patch. One cluster stemmed from a Halloween party where guests attended the same school, while another cluster extended from a travel baseball team, the county official confirmed in an email.

It was not immediately clear which school was affected by the clusters.

Christian Brothers Academy and St. John Vianney High School are the latest institutions to join a growing list of schools transitioning to remote learning. Red Bank Catholic High School, Red Bank Regional High School, Howell High School and Marlboro High School all went virtual in recent weeks amid reports of additional COVID-19 cases at the schools.