UNION, NJ — A Facebook Live session addressing school district COVID-19 protocols was hosted on Thursday, Dec. 9, by Union Mayor Michele Delisfort, Superintendent of Union Schools Scott Taylor and township health officer Marconi Gapas, who answered questions from the public regarding where the Union school system currently stands concerning the safety of students and the new omicron coronavirus variant.
With about 84 percent of the township faculty vaccinated and the remainder being tested weekly, Taylor discussed the latest school COVID-19 numbers, the benefit of half days and what is being done to keep everyone safe.
“After today’s meeting with the Department of Health and several members of my leadership team, we’ve determined that the numbers are starting to wane somewhat in most of our schools, not all of our schools,” Taylor said during the session. “Mr. Gapas and I believe that we saw a post-Thanksgiving bump, and we’re hoping that the trend downward is continuing.
“Regarding what protocols we’re using to determine if we switch to half days or, perhaps at some point, all full virtual days, I am going to send a phone message out to all district students, parents and guardians that will very clearly lay out in detailed form the updated protocol the Department of Health and the school district developed that we’ll follow very closely every week to determine what the following schedule will look like,” he continued. “I can assure everyone who’s watching that it was put together thoughtfully. We considered the impact that the schedule changes we make have on our students, parents and guardians because I’m fully aware, as a parent myself, that the switches and schedules are causing a lot of challenges for the work schedules of our parents and guardians. That will come out tomorrow morning.”
Referencing Gov. Phil Murphy’s mandate that school districts provide only in-person instruction, the superintendent said districts cannot close down schools for full days unless either directed or strongly recommended to do so by the Department of Health and only when approved by the Department of Education. He emphasized that they can’t simply close schools, even in a preemptive move, as he had been thinking of doing before Thanksgiving. The Department of Education will not allow that unless the Department of Health says the numbers are really high.
“Every Thursday, the school district and the Department of Health get together and have a standing meeting set up to check in, look at our data, and refer to the protocol that I’ll be sending out to the community tomorrow and make a determination about what the following week looks like,” said Taylor.
The superintendent told viewers that half days help to drastically minimize transmission of the virus by reducing contact time among people in the school by about three hours; eliminating lunch periods, the one time during the school day when students don’t wear masks for a period of time; and allowing for a deep cleaning and sanitization of the buildings that can’t usually be done when students have full days. He said he had two custodial crews come in, one in the afternoon and one in the evening.
“I can assure the parents and guardians who are watching today that we are prepared to elevate the quality instruction we’re providing to quarantine students,” said Taylor. “As the district’s curriculum team saw the increase in the number of quarantined students, we realized we need to do even more than we’re doing right now to provide instruction. So, midweek next week, the district community is going to get a message from me that specifically lays out how we’re going to provide even more effective instruction to those students who are being quarantined at home.
The superintendent said the high school is providing needed student support in afternoon sessions because a student had given them a tremendous amount of input about what they felt was the effectiveness of coming back in the afternoon. Admitting there were still a lot of concerns about afternoon sessions, he said the elementary afternoon session should be continuing instruction.
“Since 2020, we’ve had 8,708 cases. Sadly, 94 deaths and an estimated 8,500 recoveries,” said Gapas during the session. “Within our community … we started to see a gradual increase in cases anywhere from the first week of November, 4.5 cases a day. In the second week, we saw nine and a half cases per day, and we saw a gradual leveling off weeks three or four. Since the Thanksgiving holiday, we did see a communitywide increase, which may lend our decision-making … a shift in some of the quarantine protocols for close contacts.”
In answer to a question, Taylor said Union is looking to stream live instruction to quarantined students.
“As every positive case is detected within the state, whether you’re a primary care provider, a lab or walk-in clinic, that information or those results are entered into a state database,” Gapas said. “My department only sees what’s available in Union, although we can request access for contact tracing of other municipalities, if we feel that there’s a connection. I have staff that are contact tracers who handle as much work as they can possibly handle, and we’ve also partnered with the county whenever there’s overflow and especially during this time where, statewide, we’re seeing a surge.
“I was just on a conference call with our commissioner of health (Wednesday, Dec. 8), and she was saying that we’re not alone,” he continued. “Multiple counties are experiencing this post-holiday surge, and we’re still in a much better place than we were … but we certainly have the tools to fight this virus, and contact tracing is one of them. I have my staff and I also have the county staff which we work with, and we also work with the school as well. They do a certain amount of contact tracing for us, and it’s always a joint effort.”
When Delisfort asked what parents can do to help keep their children and other students in school safe during the holiday season, Gapas stressed the importance of vaccinations among children and wearing a mask.
“They’ve expanded the categories from 5 to 11 now, and we’re seeing that category rise throughout the state,” said Gapas. “We’re hoping to pick up those numbers here in Union, along with our other age ranges within our school-age population. We’ve been through surges before and there’s been very solid, commonsense practices like masking, physical distancing, making sure you have good hygiene practices, staying home while you’re sick and certainly getting tested. Just remember, if you’re in a high-risk area, crowded setting, mask up.”