Our community is experiencing a surge in covid-19 cases that has presented new challenges in running our schools in-person under the existing mitigation policies.

Given that our community is highly vaccinated, most of these cases are mild and not transmitted in school. In his December 22, 2021 announcement, Superintendent Dr. Ronald Taylor, confirmed that "there has been no evidence of in-school COVID transmission."

We need to adjust our policies to reflect this new reality around co-existing with this virus while prioritizing our children’s education and mental health. Despite the rise in cases, the fact remains that this virus is typically no more than a mild illness for the vaccinated and the very young – as is widely reported and supported by statistics. Furthermore, research supports in-person learning in spite of rising case levels. 

The CDC has given us a roadmap to adjust to life with COVID—by recently endorsing test-to-stay and reduced quarantines! The New Jersey Department of Health recently adopted the CDC guidelines relating to shortened quarantine time frames. 

A Test-to-Stay policy would allow students — who would otherwise have to quarantine due to a close contact exposure to a COVID-19 positive individual — to stay in school as long as they have no symptoms and perform testing in the week after exposure. In support of a test-to-stay policy, Governor Murphy said “We know the impact of learning loss has been overwhelming, particularly in underserved communities. We’re going to do everything we can to stay in person, obviously safely and responsibly.” 

We are asking our district administrators and public health leaders to make every effort NOW to adopt these new test-to-stay and reduced quarantine policies. 

We are also asking the district to commit to its plan of a full reopening no later than January 10th, 2022. The damage done by a year+ of virtual learning is devastating and cannot be prolonged.

Thank you.