(Editor’s Note: Find all of the most important pandemic education news on Educating N.J., a special resource guide created for parents, students and educators.)
Nearly 1,000 kids, parents and teachers spread out on the basketball courts in the Lakewood High School gymnasium this week, as more than a dozen health professionals administered tests for the coronavirus or the antibodies that fight it.
Last week, construction crews drilled holes for footers to secure eight modular units behind Lakewood Middle School. Eight more are coming in October.
And a report from Michael Inzelbuch, the school district’s outspoken attorney, said nearly all clear plastic dividers that aim to keep students safe had been installed in township’s seven public schools.
Everything must come together before kids return to school Sept. 4 in Lakewood, one of more than 60 public districts in New Jersey currently planning to welcome students in class full-time, at least to start the year.
In a town where just about everything is controversial, the decision to reopen schools is no different. A teacher and an aide already have resigned in protest, and the teachers union continues to fight plans. But the school board, which voted unanimously July 22 to hold in-person classes, has support from many parents who don’t want to leave their kids home alone or see them spend the school year behind a computer.
Similar battles are being waged across the country as people wrestle with how to educate kids during a pandemic that has killed more than 180,000 people.
In Lakewood, the stakes are especially high. Here, nearly all students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, and many rely on schools for one or two meals per day.
The district points to success over the summer, when classes were held for about 700 students and there were no reported virus cases. Daniel Regenye, Ocean County’s health officer, said he isn’t aware of any cases stemming from Lakewood’s summer school.
But for teachers union spokeswoman Dawn Hiltner, those classes proved little.
Hiltner said teachers reported high touch areas were visibly dirty in the summer and “that was only a fraction of the students and a fraction of the teachers. What happens when even more people are in the buildings?”
Having kids at school all day, every day during a global pandemic carries the potential for a coronavirus outbreak in a town hit hard this spring, with 2,820 cases and 196 deaths reported since March. Both figures are the highest in Ocean County, though Lakewood is also the largest town in the county.
In the southern United States, where school began earlier than in New Jersey, hundreds of students and teachers have contracted the virus and some schools that initially reopened have closed, at least temporarily.
Cases of coronavirus in children have increased since late July, going from nearly 447 cases per 100,000 children on July 30 to 583 cases on August 20, according to a report from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association.
With the district’s purchase of plexiglass desk shields and table dividers last month, Hiltner deemed the barriers as “pretty much worthless.” She said the desks are still too close together.
The two Lakewood educators who recently resigned agreed with Hiltner.
“The schools are crowded. The rooms are small. There are very little precautions in place. It is inevitable that not only teachers but also students’ family members will get sick. This is a plan that I cannot get behind,” one of the staff resignation letters, dated Aug. 12, reads.
“Unfortunately due to the current COVID-19 epidemic I am unable to continue my employment here. I do not feel safe exposing my 4 month old daughter to the possibility of contracting this virus,” the second letter, dated Aug. 17, says.
One plan to relieve overcrowding at Lakewood schools is the installation of 16 modular classrooms at Lakewood Middle School. Eight will be ready the first day of school; the others are expected to be functional at the end of October.
Inzelbuch, Lakewood’s school board attorney who has been in the thick of the district’s coronavirus preparation, insists the district has done everything asked by the state and the Ocean County Health Department, both of which signed off on Lakewood’s plans to hold in-person classes.
He said Lakewood opening schools is crucial because many students would be home alone if class were held remotely.
“They go to work, COVID or not, because more important is food,” the board attorney said about the district’s parents, adding that being able to hold classes is better than “sitting at home with no parents.”
“We can’t tell our population to stay home and good luck.”
Alejandra Morales, a community activist and member of Voz Latina, a group that helps the town’s Latinx population, echoed Inzelbuch’s points during a remote school board meeting Aug. 12.
“Our community is mostly immigrants. We don’t qualify for unemployment,” Morales said. “This signifies that mom and dad have to go out to work to be able to pay their bills.”
Morales said the security of children is the community’s main concern. If school were remote, many children would be forced to stay at home alone because their parents have strictly in-person occupations.
At the Board of Education meeting Wednesday evening, Inzelbuch, district superintendent Laura Winters and two board members gathered in a classroom. Other members joined remotely over video chat.
Viewers watching from home saw what school will be like. The board members spoke through their masks and sat behind plexiglass shields, which rose up on three sides of each desk.
Inzelbuch answered questions sent via email prior to the meeting. The attorney said the board received over 100 emails containing a similar message.
“The school district has shown a blatant disregard for both staff and students. Enough is enough. Only when it’s safe,” Inzelbuch read off of his smartphone.
“Let me say this: We follow the law,” he responded, pointing out that the Ocean County Department of Health visited Lakewood earlier in the month and deemed the school setups compliant.
Despite the district meeting regulations, Hiltner said the board is “only doing what’s convenient.”
“It’s going to be very hard to keep the staff healthy,” she said. “They’re treating the staff as if they’re replaceable.”
At the meeting Wednesday, Inzelbuch disputed that, saying, “Our staff have worked harder than any other district I know, and I sue quite a few.”
Regenye, the Ocean County health officer, and the Health Department worked with Lakewood schools on their reopening plan throughout the summer. He said he has been impressed and wouldn’t hesitate to send his two kids, a high schooler and middle schooler who do not attend Lakewood schools, to the district.
“I would have no problem with them attending,” he said.
Have a news tip or a story idea about New Jersey schools? Send it here.
Payton Guion may be reached at pguion@njadvancemedia.com.
Jenny Whidden may be reached at jwhidden@njadvancemedia.com.
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