What To Expect As School Resumes In Moorestown

MOORESTOWN, NJ — Tuesday is the first day of school for students in the Moorestown Public School District. For students everywhere, school will be different this year, as learning will be mostly remote amid the coronavirus pandemic.

There will be a 100 percent remote learning option, and even the hybrid plan only sees students in school for a limited time.

Under the hybrid portion of the plan, students in all grades will be split into two groups, with one group attending class in-person on Monday and Wednesday, and the other attending in-person on Tuesday and Thursday.

On days in which they are not in school, children will engage in remote learning. All students will engage in remote learning on Fridays, which will be abbreviated days so the classrooms can undergo a deep cleaning and the staff can engage in professional development.

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After Gov. Phil Murphy said he was limiting indoor gatherings to 25 people and to 25 percent capacity per room, the district decided to make all in-person days early dismissal days because they would be unable to safely serve lunch.

Students will have the option to pick up a lunch from their school's cafeteria before heading home. Early dismissals at each school will take place on the following schedule:

• Grades 1-3 will dismiss at 1:10 p.m;
• Grades 4-6 will dismiss at 12:35 p.m.;
• Grades 7-8 will dismiss at 12:01 p.m.; and
• Grades 9-12 will dismiss at 11:59 p.m.

Students will have roughly one hour to eat lunch before the day resumes in a remote learning environment. Classes will meet together in the afternoon, and teachers will build on lessons that began in person that morning.

Preschool classes will be reduced to two hours instead of three. Kindergarten is moving to a cohort model, and students will attend every other day. Kindergarten students were previously scheduled to go every day.

The kindergarten switch was made to increase the amount of in-person instruction students will get every other day, rather than reduce in-class time to two hours every day. It gives kindergarten students an extra 2 ½ hours a day in school each week, according to district officials. Read more here: Moorestown Schools Reopening Plan Altered By NJ Gathering Limit

The most important thing to expect is the unexpected. No one thought last year at this time that schools would close in March for the rest of the academic year, and school administrators remind residents the situation for this school year is fluid.