Gloucester Township Schools Outline Plan For Safe Reopening

GLOUCESTER TOWNSHIP, NJ — The Gloucester Township K-8 Public School District’s plans for a Safe Return To School promotes a resumption of normal operations while following the state’s guidelines for masking and social distancing, Superintendent of Schools John Bilodeau said in a letter to the community.

The district formed a “Road Forward Committee,” which has begun planning for the 2021-22 academic year after Gov. Phil Murphy announced that all New Jersey school districts must return to a full in-person learning model with no remote option. Read more here: NJ Lifts COVID Travel Advisory, Orders In-Person School Next Year

“I am confident that the plans will offer educational excellence, flexibility, and options to rapidly adjust to unforeseen circumstances related to the potential change in school operations,” Bilodeau said. “Our Road Forward plans will continue to be revised over the next several weeks, however, we expect that our initial draft plan provides the foundational expectations we foresee during the 2021-2022 school year.”

Schools will be open five full days a week, with all students required to attend in-person. The district will continue to follow the Department of Health’s quarantine guidelines.

In cases in which students or staff must quarantine because they have health conditions that make them more susceptible to the coronavirus, remote instruction may be offered.

Students returning to school in the fall will have the option of wearing face coverings, although all students and staff who have not yet been vaccinated will be encouraged to do so, according to a copy of the plan posted on the district’s website.

Masks will be required for all passengers on school buses, in accordance with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) federal order.

The district will follow social distancing guidance of 3 feet in all classrooms, where possible. When not possible, the district will implement supplemental barriers.

In lunchrooms, though, district officials expect that spacing will be 3 feet or less. Students will be distanced to the greatest extent possible, officials said.

While students will be socially distanced as much as possible on school buses, there is no guarantee that they will be able to follow the previous social distancing guidelines that were in effect.

The district will continue to follow enhanced cleaning procedures established during the pandemic including the daily disinfection of school buses each evening.

The district will keep up with updated guidelines and requirements that may come in throughout the summer. It is also taking comment from the community via a survey that is available here.

“Additional adjustments may be made after staff and community comment,” officials said. “A complete/final plan will be shared in early August.”

The district has also posted consideration for preschool and kindergarten students, and is seeking feedback from the community on these points as well, via a survey that can be found here.

“Early Childhood education is a unique experience in which much of the instruction takes the form of social and relational learning during play and group interactions,” officials said. “Students learn to share and communicate wants and needs through cooperation and close play in ‘centers’ and other interactive activities. During hybrid instruction last year, many of these activities were eliminated or significantly altered to accommodate social distancing and other pandemic protocols.”

This included students sitting at individual desks instead of at tables, with peers; not sharing objects with others unless they were cleaned first; and limiting students’ contact with other students while using “centers.”

In evaluating how to move ahead, the district said it would prefer to allow students to:

• sit at tables, facing each other;
• sit in circle time on the carpet in the room; and
• have more freedom to move around at “centers,” without limiting contact with other students.

“We would continue to implement as many of the health and safety protocols as we can outside of these considerations,” officials said. This would include frequent cleaning of toys and other high touch surfaces, as well as frequent handwashing and hand sanitizing. All other daily district cleaning protocols will be in place in addition to any early childhood specific cleaning protocols.”