Toms River Schools Release Restart Plans

TOMS RIVER, NJ — Students will have a mix of in-person and remote learning for at least the first quarter of the 2020-2021 school year in the Toms River Regional School District, under plans to restart school in the coronavirus pandemic unveiled Wednesday night.

Many of the details of the tentative plans were an extension of what was discussed during two meetings of the school board earlier this month, including details about how the hybrid model would be set up, but others were released for the first time. Read more: Toms River Schools' Tentative Fall Reopening Plans Evolving

The new detail that drew the most attention: Toms River is not planning to take the temperatures of students and staff each day.

The tentative plan, subject to any changes from the state, was to be posted online Thursday. It will be shared on the districts "Safe Restart" webpage on its website. There is additional information and an email address for asking specific questions. Read more: Have Reopening Questions? Toms River Schools Have Some Answers

Assistant Superintendent James Ricotta said the district will not do temperature checks because the latest guidance from the federal Centers for Disease Control is that a fever is no longer considered a primary indicator that someone has the virus.

"There's lots of reasons someone can have a fever," Ricotta said to one parent who asked about the issue. "You can take people’s temperatures all day and it isn’t going to stop the spread" because of asymptomatic spread.

Gov. Phil Murphy announced in late June that New Jersey schools could resume in-person instruction in September, provided the district creates a safety plan approved by its school board. But there are significant concerns from parents and from teachers and staff about the safety issues, as the infection rate has risen in recent days. The New Jersey Education Association issued a statement Tuesday urging a delay in the start of in-person classes because of the concerns.

The initial guidelines in the education department's "The Road Back" have seen changes, including the move by Murphy last week to allow school districts to go fully remote with instruction. Read more: NJ To Offer Remote-Learning Option For Schools Amid Coronavirus

For now, Toms River's tentative plan includes the following:

• Four-hour school days for students, with teachers working full school days.
• Students would be divided into two groups, A and B. Group A would attend in person on Mondays and Wednesdays and have virtual lessons on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Group B would have in-person classes Tuesdays and Thursdays, and virtual instruction Mondays and Wednesdays.
• Special-needs students who are in self-contained classes would have in-person classes Mondays through Thursdays.
• Parents will have the option to choose all-remote learning for their children and must notify the district by Aug. 7. The choice to go with all-remote learning can be changed on a quarterly basis.
• Fridays would be a mix of live remote learning and virtual lessons for all students.
• Teachers would spend the time after their in-person lessons Mondays through Thursdays giving feedback and help remotely to students who need more help.
• Teachers and staff would be required to wear masks throughout the day. Students would be required to wear masks on the bus and any time they were moving between classes or could not otherwise socially distance.
• Students in elementary school would stay in their classrooms for special subjects like art or music, with the teacher coming to them, to minimize movement around the school.
• School buses would be able to operate at a reduced capacity because of the reduction of the number of students attending in-person classes.
• Students participating in afterschool activities, including sports, theater, band and clubs, would need their own transportation to get to those activities on the days their remote-learning days.
• School start times and busing tiers would remain the same.
• Students attending the Ocean County Vocational-Technical Schools for the half-day classes in the mornings will be transported by the district. Students in the OCVTS morning classes would have virtual learning for their Toms River classes.

Parents called in and asked questions for more than three hours, and the health concerns were the primary topic.

The plan to not do temperature checks drew the most consternation. Toms River's plan is to instead have parents fill out a short questionnaire daily on the online parent portal about their children, including questions on whether they had come into contact with someone who has tested positive for the virus within a specified time, whether they had traveled to a hotspot for the virus, and whether their child was showing any symptoms. School nurses would follow up and check those forms daily.

Some, including members of the school board, questioned whether parents would fill the forms out daily or would be truthful about factors that could mean their child is sick — something teachers say has been a problem for years, with parents sending their children to school with fevers often during flu season.

The fact that teachers and staff would be required to wear masks all day but students would not also was criticized. The concern is that students who could be asymptomatic could expose teachers, such as when a teacher is at a student's desk, offering specific help with something the child was learning.

Several people asked about procedures if a teacher, staff member or student tests positive for the virus. Ocean County schools are required to report a positive case of the virus to the Ocean County Health Department, which then will conduct contact tracing.

While a teacher or student who tests positive for the virus would be required to quarantine, it wasn't clear whether the health department would require an entire classroom to shift to virtual learning to quarantine if a student or teacher in a class is sick.

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