Chatham Schools Push Back First Day Of Classes

CHATHAM, NJ—Schools Superintendent Michael LaSusa announced that the upcoming academic term will begin on Tuesday, Sept. 8, one week later than planned, due to equipment delays and staffing issues.

"Despite assurances to the contrary, our desk shields have not yet arrived," said a statement from LaSusa. "Delaying the start of school will allow us to receive the desk shields and distribute them to classrooms throughout the district."

LaSusa added that the district is also waiting on delivery of the non-mandatory face shields for elementary students. The letter also highlighted another major challenge for the schools: teacher leaves of absence, which he called "significant."

"We are in the process of hiring leave replacement teachers for those staff," said the statement, "but we need the extra week to try to arrive at being fully staffed."

The superintendent said earlier this summer 82% of Chatham teachers favored in-person instruction. But when the governor changed his stance, he said, there was a rash of teacher leave requests.

"The obvious and predictable consequence of this about-face is that, as districts move to this option to start the year, even more teachers have childcare problems because now their home districts are completely closed for in-person instruction."

The statement said the upcoming school year wouldn't be the ideal, and would require sacrifices, including wearing masks and adapting to other changes. But LaSusa noted that earlier generations were asked to make bigger adjustments.

"Not ideal is not perfect, but it is not necessarily bad. The sacrifices we are making will hopefully result in more normalcy, learning, and interpersonal connection."