COVID ‘Test-To-Stay’ Program Idea In Limbo For Long Valley Schools: Superintendent

LONG VALLEY, NJ — The idea of a COVID “test-to-stay” program in the Washington Township Schools is currently in a holding pattern, as the district looks for ways to implement it.

Washington Township Schools Superintendent Dr. Peter Turnamian told families and staff in a recent “Community Update” letter that the district’s “top priority” is keeping classes in-person.

Though he had mentioned at the district’s first Board of Education meeting of the year on Jan. 4 that school officials were exploring the test-to-stay idea, in his letter posted on the district's website on Friday, Turnamian wrote that the “current delay in test results remains a challenge."

He additionally thanked families in his update for “keeping students home when they are not feeling well and presenting with one or more symptoms for COVID-19.”

Turnamian also told families that on Tuesday, the district began with the CDC and New Jersey Department of Health guidelines for COVID isolation and quarantine timelines, which reduced both to a five-day timeframe.

He explained that as part of it, “Day zero is the first day of symptoms or if asymptomatic, day zero is the day of the positive test.”

The date of exposure for close contacts, Turnamian wrote, is “considered day zero.”

He broke down an isolation timeline in his letter for students and staff who are out, providing their return to school date, as long as they’re asymptomatic.

More information in Turnamian’s letter is available here.

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