356 In Quarantine: Behind Toms River Schools' Remote Decision

TOMS RIVER, NJ — For four days last week, Toms River Regional School District officials and officials in the Ocean County Health Department talked about rising numbers of coronavirus cases in the school district.

Two high schools had been recommended for remote instruction, and one grade in another building was being considered for remote instruction. As administrators weighed concerns, phones in the nurses' offices at several schools started ringing. North Dover. Cedar Grove. West Dover. Toms River South. The Early Learning Center. All reporting new positive cases of the coronavirus.

The Toms River Regional School District has 356 students and staff members who have to quarantine because they are positive, presumed positive, or have exposure to someone who is positive for the coronavirus, including 28 new cases between Nov. 18 and Monday. It's a number that has led to the district juggling classes, combining classes and moving people around to ensure students in the buildings have appropriate supervision.

It's also a number that has put a tremendous burden on school administrators, who are responsible for the contact tracing within the schools to determine whether a student or a staff member was exposed to the virus outside of school at an unrelated activity, or as a result of in-school transmission.

"We have students and staff who have to quarantine in every building," Assistant Superintendent James Ricotta said Wednesday.

"We are barely keeping our head above water with appropriately staffing our classrooms," Superintendent David Healy said, noting the district is tapping every resource to get substitute teachers to fill classrooms.

All of those factors, in combination with recommendations from Ocean County Health Department staff to shift some schools to remote instruction and citing the state Department of Health's designation of Ocean County as "high risk" for the spread of coronavirus infections, led to Monday's announcement that the district would shift to remote instruction, with a return date of Dec. 15, if not sooner, Healy said.

"I am ultimately responsible for the safety and well-being of 17,000 people," Healy said. "We're not going to put anyone at risk of death or illness or anything."

Under the state Department of Education's guidance, school districts in 18 New Jersey counties are at risk of moving to remote instruction because of the high risk designation.

"We will continue to emphasize the importance of local decision-making based on consultation with the district’s local health department," the education department said in a statement to NJ.com. "Our message will remain the same as it has been throughout the pandemic, underlining the importance of districts working in close collaboration with their local health department in a manner that recognizes the importance of in-person learning while continuing to monitor and respond to shifts in the public-health data."

Daniel Regenye, the public health coordinator for the Ocean County Health Department, has pushed back on the county health department's role in Toms River's decision to shift to remote instruction, both in a phone call to Patch and in comments shared by parents on social media that quoted conversations with him.

"We had expressed concerns about two schools," Regenye said, after the district's contact tracing left officials with cases at Toms River High School East and Toms River High School North that had no clear connection to contact outside of those schools.

"We talked about maybe hitting the pause button," Regenye said. He said the school district's letter saying it had shifted to remote instruction at the urging of the department "does not accurately reflect" the health department's role in helping districts manage the crisis.

"We take calls all day and night" from the districts representing 114 schools in Ocean County, Regenye said, and while school districts are required to report cases to the county health department immediately, "we don't approve their plans."

The New Jersey Department of Health had moved Ocean County (and 17 other counties) into the orange "high risk" category through data it had as of Nov. 14. On Nov. 20, Ricotta said, a member of the Ocean County Health Department staff alerted Kathy Shea, the school district's nursing coordinator, that the Nov. 14 COVID-19 Activity Report from the state health department had Ocean County listed in the high-risk category.

Under that category school districts, in consultation with their local health department, are told to consider implementing fully remote learning, according to the state Department of Health.

The following day, Ricotta said, Regenye made a recommendation that Toms River East and Toms River North be moved to remote instruction.

"We asked him if we were being ordered to close, and he said, 'I can't order you to close,' " said Ricotta, who was part of the Saturday phone call.

"We went over all the cases and based on the cases, we believed we could isolate those cases and still keep the buildings open," Healy said.

Ricotta said Regenye again expressed concern on Monday morning when Shea told him the district wasn't planning to order the two high schools to go fully remote.

"When she told him we decided to wait, he said we were in the high-risk category," Healy said. "She advised him that we were not closing at that time."

The plan was to move all of the fourth-grade classes at East Dover Elementary, where there had been several cases, to remote, along with affected classes at the two high schools, Healy and Ricotta said Wednesday morning.

The high-risk designation was based on data that was 10 days old on Monday, when Regenye asked if Toms River North and Toms River East would be remote, Ricotta said. The change to the entire district going to remote was because the real-time data they were receiving Monday — phone calls reporting new cases to nurses' offices across the district — showed a far more widespread issue.

"We've been tabulating our data daily, even hourly, and we were watching our cases skyrocket," Ricotta said. A pizza party, a competitive cheerleading program that isn't based in the school district, and other issues led to an explosion in cases between the Nov. 14 report and Monday, he said.

"We all believe kids should be in school," Healy said. "I've said that from the beginning." But the strain of the cases put the district in a no-win situation.

Healy expressed frustration at the pushback from Regenye after the district moved to remote classes.

"When we get a call on Saturday from Dan Regenye telling us to shut down East and North because of cases and he says, 'I can't order you,' what role do they serve?" Healy said.

The ensuing decision to move the entire district to remote learning has frustrated some parents and pleased others. It's also led to incorrect information, Ricotta said.

Pine Beach Elementary School, which had been the subject of social media claims that there were no cases in the school, has nine students who are presumed positive or showing symptoms and must quarantine, he said.

Healy said the district has been working to keep kids in the schools all along.

"We are barely keeping our head above water with appropriately staffing our classrooms," Healy said.

There are 99 teachers who are quarantined and working remotely, with substitutes in the buildings to cover for them. There are 16 who are on leave due to child care issues, and some who are out due to maternity leaves.

As staff members have had to quarantine, the district has combined classes where it wouldn't exceed social distancing guidelines, and moved others into larger areas such as the media center or auditorium to provide distancing.

And that is with 4,200 students — nearly a third of the district — who have been receiving remote instruction the entire school year, Ricotta said.

Ricotta said the strain of the contact tracing reached a breaking point on Monday.

"The contract tracing is a full-time job," he said, noting the influx of cases on Monday was more than what could be accomplished in the two days before the Thanksgiving holiday. "It's all day and all night for our nurses on the contact tracing and the documents that have to be provided to the health department.

"We really did try ot make it to Thanksgiving," Ricotta said, "but with the cases blowing up it was a health emergency."

"We do everything we can to give as much advance notice as possible," Healy said. "When you get phone calls on a weekend and then you get inundated on that Monday you can't wait a week" to shift to remote instruction.

Healy said the district is evaluating ways to bring the students back as soon as possible, starting with the special needs students, who are a smaller group and have the greatest needs for in-person instruction.

"We're looking at it school by school," Healy said. "It's not an all-or-nothing, especially when you're a district as big as ours."

"We are fighting every day to keep kids in school," Ricotta said, and relying on the county health department staff — the district doesn't only speak with Regenye, he said — for guidance.

The district is concerned about the possible move to red — the "very high" designation, which includes the state Department of Education's advice that all districts in an affected county move to remote — on the COVID-19 Activity reports that are distributed by the state for use by local health departments.

Ricotta said they asked Regenye who will notify the district when the state moves Ocean County to red and said Regenye's response was it wouldn't be the county health department.

"That's concerning," Ricotta said.

"I stand firm that I made the final descision (to shift to remote) but it was made in consultation with the county health department," Healy said. "We acted based on the document that the state produced, based on consultation with the county health department. For them to not take ownership is just not factually correct."

"We really believe every student belongs in school," Healy said, "but there's too much in the balance."

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