COVID Staff Absences Force Hopatcong Schools Virtual

HOPATCONG, NJ — Over 60 staff members in Hopatcong’s school district are in quarantine, with the schools transitioning to virtual instruction this coming Thursday and Friday.

In a letter to families on Tuesday, also posted on the school’s website, Superintendent Dr. Joseph Piccirillo wrote that students would be in school on Wednesday and he hopes will be back in-person by Jan. 10.

Piccirillo says he'll alert the community to the return date by Sunday, describing the situation as a “fluid."

He called the decision a “painful one,” but made with 55 staff absences on Monday and more than 60 on Tuesday.

All Hopatcong Borough Schools will move to virtual instruction on Thursday, January 6 and Friday, January 7.
— Hopatcong Schools (@HopatcongSchool) January 5, 2022

“In some instances, we were able to secure substitute teachers, consolidate classes or make other arrangements, but the majority of the positions vacated have remained unfilled,” he said. “We are simply not able to sustain appropriate instruction and supervision under these circumstances.”

Piccirillo said the Sussex County Department of Health told him countywide there were 610 new cases in 24 hours, with “likely many more positives left unreported due to folks taking at-home tests.”

He said families and staff, in spite of vaccination status, should be vigilant in checking daily for symptoms, with screening tools on the district’s website.

“Of course, being vaccinated, boosted, masked and checking for symptoms still does not completely remove the risk of COVID spread in schools,” he wrote, with possibilities still left even with greater cleaning procedures, air filtration and other methods of infection control.

When asked if the district is following CDC guidelines, he said they are not because they do not apply to schools, but are following ones that come from New Jersey’s Departments of Health and Education, which do not mirror the CDC’s.

Some of these present guidelines from the state on quarantining and isolation, according to Piccirillo's letter include:

• Being an unvaccinated “close contact” requires quarantining for 10 days.
• Unvaccinated close contacts can “test out” with a negative COVID test on days 5-7, with a return as early as the eighth day.
• With a positive COVID test for vaccinated and unvaccinated people, the quarantine period is 10 days.

Questions or comments about this story? Have a news tip? Contact me at: jennifer.miller@patch.com.