After months of remote learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic, school districts in the state are now tasked with preparing various plans for school come September.
Late last month, Gov. Phil Murphy and the state Department of Education released a 100-plus-page plan called The Road Back: Restart and Recovery Plan for Education. The plan outlines New Jersey’s best recommendations for opening schools to in-person instruction and activities for the 2020-2021 school year.
Schools are to open for “modified in-person instruction and operations” and are expected to utilize a hybrid environment with reduced capacity. Districts are to submit their plans to the state 30 days prior to school opening.
According to Superintendent Robert Cloutier, Eastern is creating a Pandemic Response Committee that will be active throughout the school year to react and respond to different situations caused by COVID. But Eastern is also forming additional stakeholder committees in an effort to receive more feedback.
“What I’m doing is also forming some stakeholder committees that will focus on what I consider three of the big issues,” Cloutier explained. “The one committee focuses on instruction, curriculum and technology, really the quality of our instruction and the methods for instruction, especially if we need to go remote.
“The second committee will focus on health and wellness to make sure our protocols are keeping the kids safe as well as addressing the social emotional well-being as they navigate through this process,” the superintendent added. “And the last committee is on facilities and operations.”
Last week, the district sent out surveys to the community for feedback on a myriad of issues, from how remote learning could be improved to how comfortable parents are with their students potentially going back to in-person schooling this fall.
The survey allows residents to show interest in being part of one of the district’s committees to help provide more perspective on how the district can adapt and react to certain situations. Meetings are planned to be in person for those who are comfortable, but others can attend virtually.
“Ultimately the goal is to receive as much feedback as possible from the community,” Cloutier said. “Plus, while I’m doing this, Principal Robert Tull will be creating a student survey to get out there, while also forming a student committee to get direct feedback from them, too.”
As the district prepares for the 2020-2021 school year, Cloutier said it is preparing various plans, including in-person attendance, a hybrid model and remote learning.
At a board of education meeting planned for Wednesday, Aug. 19, Cloutier said the topic of fall schooling will be heavily discussed and the district, ideally, will at that point have more formal plans. Changes could be wrought by further executive orders and state policy changes in the coming weeks.
