WESTWOOD REGIONAL SCHOOLS, N.J.—Parents of students in elementary schools, especially K–2 parents, question why the district is not moving more quickly to open schools as they watch school districts all around them start to offer in-person learning or plan to soon return to in-person learning.
Concerned Township of Washington and Westwood parents told Pascack Press that they are frustrated by Superintendent Raymond González’s reliance on a state database that reports Covid-19 transmission risk by six regions, including the Northeast, which includes Bergen, Essex, and Hudson counties.
(See “Murphy eyes fall for reopenings; tensions at Westwood Regional,” March 8.)
Parents noted that the Covid Activity Level Index, CALI, has consistently remained in the “high risk” or orange zone since mid-November, which prevented any phased-in return to in-person learning initially scheduled to begin in January.
Concerns were also voiced that CALI includes transmission rates in two other counties, unrelated to rates occurring specific to the Township or Westwood.
“We are the only single district in the area that is not back or planning to go back soon,” said Kerry Sardina, of Washington Township, who sent a hand-drawn map of the county showing towns already back or moving to return to full in-person learning.
Sardina said that the superintendent’s return to school policy is based on CALI showing at least two consecutive weeks of moderate COVID transmission risk, indicated by a yellow color on the state Health Department CALI map.
“Slowly but surely every town near us is starting to increase or return to in-person instruction,” said Sardina, naming Hillsdale, Woodcliff Lake, Montvale and Upper Saddle River as examples. “They figured it out and here we are with our little ones still on this hybrid schedule,” she said of children in Kindergarten through second grade.
Sardina said parents are upset that more information is not being shared with them on plans for reopening schools. She said the longer all students remain on the current hybrid schedule—part remote and part in-person—the more harm will be done to students academically and socially.
She said under the current hybrid schedules, most students get only about 20 hours of in-person instruction every two weeks. She said parents want a plan to bring back all the grades now rather than waiting on CALI to show two weeks of moderate risk.
Sardina also questioned how many other districts based re-opening decisions strictly on a state covid index that includes two other nearby counties. She estimated nearly 40 towns in Bergen have moved to begin in-person school for all grades.
She said children have missed over 220 hours of instruction on the hybrid schedule and noted people have been regularly calling school board meetings to complain to no avail.
She said González “rarely” offers specifics on questions regarding reopening plans and often provides general answers offering little helpful information about reopening.
“Why is a [reopening] plan not being put forth in our district? We’re all paying taxes,” Sardina asked. She said if Paramus and Ridgewood can figure this out, then the Westwood regional district should figure it out too.
Meghan Dowd, of Washington Township, with a second grader in Washington Elementary School, said “I think our kids are being denied their right to an education.” She also said the district administration “is failing” by not implementing a back-to-school plan and remaining on a hybrid schedule.
She called the CALI “arbitrary” and wondered why González relies on it. “It’s frustrating, more along the lines of infuriating.”
She said that “it’s ridiculous that we’re not going back. So many other districts are doing it. How are they able to do it? It boggles my mind.”
She said the most important impact is being overlooked by administrators. She cited the short- and long-term impacts on children in all grades. They don’t understand the effects that this (hybrid learning) is having on the children. It’s a setback emotionally and socially.”
Sardina and Dowd both said they understand teachers want to be safe, as do students in every classroom. “We all want our teachers to feel safe and comfortable, but at this point we’re a year into the pandemic. It’s time (to return),” said Sardina, a parent of two children in Washington Elementary School
Jennifer Puccio, parent of a second grader at Washington Elementary School, questioned why the district is not moving to open schools when districts all around them have done so. “They all have clear plans and are moving onto the next phase and where are we?”
Puccio said that her daughter was not receiving proper math instruction and she had to secure private math lessons for her. She said it’s “very hard to tell what’s going on in the classroom” and that “of course, [students] are falling behind.”
She questioned why Gonzalez relies on CALI for school reopening guidance. Also, she said it was unclear what would occur if two weeks of moderate risk (yellow color) occurred consecutively and schools could reopen.
She said what if the transmission risk moved to “high risk” (orange color) within a week or two of being okay for going back, what then? She wondered would the students be moved back to a hybrid or fully remote learning? She said no one knows what Gonzalez plans to do or thinks about those variables.
González responds
Reached March 9, González said the district uses the Covid Activity Level Index to guide reopening decisions because “no other barometer has been provided to districts for school reopening decisions.”
“The same guiding document, which is consistent with the CDC recommendations, emphasizes the maintenance of social and physical distancing and small group cohorting. Our next phase will effectively [comprise] those universally proven mitigation strategies; therefore, it is critical that we time our implementation with a decrease in COVID activity in order to reduce the risk of COVID spread or identify another means to keep our students and staff safe,” González told us.
He added, “With warmer weather ahead and access to a vaccine increasing, we are hopeful that COVID activity will go down and/or updated guidance will become available to permit additional options to the mitigation strategies for increasing the number of occupants in classrooms sooner than later.”
Asked what grades will open first following two straight weeks of “moderate” Covid risk transmission reported by the Covid Activity Level Index, González said, “As of now, K–2, middle and high schools will open first, followed by grades 3–5.”
Asked if there was any current plan to reopen schools, González said “absolutely. We have been publicly discussing the possibilities and plans for the elementary schools since November and the middle and high schools since January.”
He said, “This planning also includes surveying our families to gather essential information needed to prepare the logistics associated with increasing in-person learning for our students and staff safely.”
We asked González to address parents’ concerns about emotional, social, and academic impacts on students due to continued hybrid or remote education.
He added, “We share the concerns regarding the effect that the coronavirus has had on our ability to educate our students; however, we are working tirelessly to make sure the impact is not irreparable. Our schools have no choice but to operate within the limits placed upon us by the public health emergency to maintain a continuous educational experience for our students while also supporting their social and emotional needs.”
He said, “As we continue to emerge from this pandemic, our educators are prepared to address our students’ needs so that they will meet with success moving forward. There is no doubt that returning to normal is going to be the best for everyone when it is safe to do so. That is our goal and I am confident that we will get there.”