Manchester Schools Look To Expand In-Person Schooling

MANCHESTER, NJ — The Manchester Township School District is asking parents to complete a survey on interest in returning students to in-person schooling four or five days a week.

Superintendent David Trethaway announced the survey Friday.

"The goal of our district has always been to provide more opportunities for our students and parents who choose in-person instruction while maintaining health and safety guidelines," he said. "At this time we have prioritized students in Pre-K and Kindergarten as well as special needs and ESL students and they have been able to attend on a four- or five-day basis. We are continuing to work on requests from parents of special needs students to provide a four-day schedule.

"We are also working on class lists to determine when we will be able to begin to transition all of our students who wish to receive in-person instruction on a four- or five-day schedule," Trethaway said.

He said a survey will be sent out to determine how many students want to attend four or five days a week and how many want to continue with remote instruction.

"The important part of the survey is that these decisions must remain in effect for the entire second marking period, which is February 3, 2021," Trethaway said.

The survey will be distributed through the parent portal soon.

"I am asking all parents to complete the survey as soon as possible in order for us to make the correct decisions based on parent choices," he said.

Once the survey results are finalized, they will announce specifics on the transition to allow more students to receive in-person instruction on a four- or five-day basis.

"Our decisions will continue to be made based on the health and safety of all of our students and staff," Trethaway said.

In addition to the expanded schooling, the district is warning parents who are planning to go away when schools are closed the first week of November that they may need to quarantine.

Schools will be closed Nov. 2 through Nov. 6, a week that has been scheduled from early in 2020 due to Election Day on Nov. 3 and the New Jersey Education Association teachers convention set for Nov. 5 and 6. The NJEA convention is being held remotely this year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
A number of families typically schedule vacations for the week off.

"If families are planning to travel to another state during this time, they need to be fully aware of the travel advisory issued by the state of New Jersey," Trethaway said. "Any person who travels to any of the states on (New Jersey's) advisory list is advised to quarantine for 14 days. As stated in the advisory: The self-quarantine is voluntary, but compliance is expected."

Parents are urged to contact their child's school principal with questions.

Click here to get Patch email notifications, or get Patch breaking news alerts sent right to your phone with our app. Download here. Have a news tip? Email karen.wall@patch.com Follow Manchester Patch on Facebook.