Dear Flemington-Raritan Board of Education Policy Committee,

The FRSD School Closure Preparedness Plan (Oct 2021) outlines required COVID mitigation steps within the district.  This plan details the district policy on masks, contact tracing, close contact quarantine rules, social distancing and other mitigation methods. 

According to this BOE-approved document, which is aligned with the district's "Plan for Safe Return to In-Person Instruction and Continuation of Service," the Flemington-Raritan School District would make decisions about mitigation strategies based on "heightened collaboration" with the Department of Health, "following safety recommendations established by the CDC" and in coordination with the NJ Department of Education.

The color-coded metrics listed in the district plans are tied to the NJ CALI regional reports, issued weekly, which are based on the COVID case rate (cases per 100k residents),  percent of CLI (covid-like illnesses), and the percentage of positive PCR cases reported that week.  These metrics are reported by the NJ Department of Health.

Based on these metrics, and the policy laid out in the district's plans, our region must be in the "Green" or "Low" range in the COVID Activity Level Index to return to "normal."  At that time, our district has already stated we would be able to remove the mask requirement, remove contact tracing and quarantine requirements, and remove all social distancing.  

The parents and community members who have signed this petition strongly support the continued use of CDC and NJDOH guidelines as the district's "primary metric" (as stated in the Road Forward document) to guide our mitigation methods through the remainder of the pandemic, and ask that the FRSD Board of Education remain committed to their own Road Forward, School Closure Preparedness Plan and Plan for Safe Return.

The FRSD school district should follow policy and require masks, contact tracing, close contact quarantining, social distancing and other listed mitigation methods until we are in the "Green" or "Low" category in the NJ CALI report.  Decisions about our school safety should be based on science, and not politics.

Respectfully,