In a meeting today between Secaucus Mayor Michael Gonnelli, School Superintendent Jennifer Montesano, and the COVID-19 Secaucus task force, it was decided that all Secaucus public schools will remain closed until at least April 17th. The situation will be re-evaluated at that time to determine when schools should reopen.
Originally, schools would have been closed anyway from April 10 to April 17 for spring break. This remains unchanged. So during that period, there will be no school at all, not even with remote learning. In addition, due to the unusually warm winter New Jersey experienced this year, it was announced that the school district still has two left over snow days. These two days will be utilized on April 3 and April 9. There will be no remote classes during these two days either.
Schools were first closed on March 13th. At that time, the closure was only scheduled to last one week. However, since then, the Coronvirus outbreak continued to spread very rapidly. So not only did Secaucus schools remain closed, but schools nationwide have been shut down for the most part. With the dramatic increase in the number of confirm cases, the U.S. is now the country with the highest number of reported cases, even surpassing China.
Today marks the end of the second week since Secaucus students have switched to online learning. Although some classes are hampered by the new remote setup, the majority of classes seem to be progressing successfully. Some teachers have taken the approach of holding live webcam meetings during class time, while other have pre-recorded lessons that students can play back at their own pace. Homework is still regularly assigned and checked, and tests have been taken remotely using tools such as Kami and Quizizz.com.
So far, students have mixed reactions about remote learning. Some miss seeing their friends everyday and participating in their usual after-school activities. For other kids, they really enjoy not having to get up early and going to school. With school closures now extended to the middle of April, though, even die-hard homebodies may get a little antsy after being cooped up for so long.
