Paramus Schools To Review Restart Plan, Slight Adjustments Made

PARAMUS, NJ — Paramus Superintendent Sean Adams is having an interesting first year on the job.

After taking over this summer, Adams and the district submitted what they thought would be a sufficient reopening plan for Paramus Public Schools under the guidance they had at the time. Then, of course, new guidance was released as Gov. Phil Murphy signed an executive order Thursday.

The executive order allowed for New Jersey school districts to begin the year with full-remote instruction, a reversal from the original guidelines, which led schools in the state to submit plans for hybrid learning.

Now, Adams said the district will reconsider their plans if they cannot meet new health and safety guidelines.

"We will fully review and evaluate our existing Restart and Recovery Plan according to the updated guidelines once we receive them. However, in the absence of clear direction from the State at this time, we must continue to plan for the reopening of schools in September," said Adams, who added that updated guidelines are expected this week.

In a slight adjustment to the school calendar, the first day of school for all students remains Sept.3, but all students will be participating in virtual learning on Sept. 3 and 4.

Students participating in the in-person program will begin their in-person learning on Tuesday, September 8.

Though the district is still preparing as if in-person learning will start in September, Adams asked that all parents who wish to enroll their children in the full-remote program do so by Wednesday.

Adams included additional information about how the full-remote program would work:

• Students participating in the full-remote program will have the opportunity to transition into the in-person program on a monthly basis. The first opportunity to transition into the in-person program is on October 12. Parents/guardians will have until October 5 to notify their principal via a transition request form if they would like to initiate that change.
• Parents/guardians of students participating in the in-person program may request to have their children transition into the full-remote program at any time by submitting a transition request form to their building principal. Such requests will be processed as quickly as possible.
• Students participating in full-remote learning who return to in-person learning during the school year will remain in the same cohorts into which they have already been placed. However, teachers the students have during full-remote learning may be different from teachers the students have if they transition to in-person learning.
• The times of the full-remote school day will be similar to the times of the in-person school day.
• Students participating in the full-remote program will receive live synchronous instruction in an amount comparable to that provided to students participating in the in-person program.

More information about the restart plan can be found here: https://sites.google.com/paramusschools.org/paramus-community-connections/school-reopening/restart-and-recovery-plan-for-education

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