Chester Super Spells Out COVID School Virtual Contingency Plan

CHESTER, NJ — Chester School District Superintendent Dr. Christina Van Woert says she has been doing everything possible to keep classes in-person, right down to subbing herself in classrooms and handling bus duty in the week after the holiday break.

"We have been doing the very best we can," Van Woert wrote about the district, in an email to Patch.

"We are experiencing a tremendous shortage of staff and faculty that are ill with COVID-19," she explained. "We've been running with nearly 30 teachers and staff members absent every day this week."

According to Friday's districtwide total, there are 106 people currently out who tested positive for COVID.

As of the State of New Jersey's Jan. 1 COVID-19 Activity Report, Morris County, which is lumped into the Northwest Region with Passaic, Sussex and Warren Counties - like all counties statewide - is listed at a "very high level" of transmission or "red" level.

Regionally, the score is "4," mirroring the statewide score, with the Northwest having the highest case rate statewide at 304.2. The "COVID-Like Illness" or CLI percentage however, is the second lowest statewide at 14.74 percent, according to the report. The Northwest Region's positivity percentage though is currently the second highest statewide, at 36.62, according to the report.

On Chester School District's website on Friday, because of the snow, road conditions and "a severe staffing shortage," there was a message that there would be a traditional snow day, rather than remote instruction.

"The District cannot provide virtual instruction on a snow day until after the third day of consecutive school closings as per the New Jersey Department of Education Chapter 27 Emergency Virtual or Remote Instruction Programs," was on the website.

Additionally, the school district's website, like many county and statewide, included a message about a shortage of substitute teachers.

"The Chester School District is in need of substitute teachers in all three of our buildings. Daily sub pay is $105.00 a day," was written, with a link to the application here: https://jobs.willsubplus.com/jobs/nj-morris-county-chester-school-district-substitute-teacher-4059.

Should the COVID positivity rate in the school district rise to a level where remote school is temporarily necessary, VanWoert said, "Our contingency plan is simply to switch to Chromebooks (which all of our students have) and Google Classroom for all of our teachers, but we are desperately doing everything we can in our power to ensure that this does not happen."

See the district’s COVID-19 Dashboard here, which includes various COVID-related topics and reports.

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