At his Friday press conference, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy struck a noncommittal tone when asked by a reporter whether there exists a chance that he would not allow schools to reopen for the new academic year in September.
The reporter, Brent Johnson, asked the governor if, considering Covid-19 spikes in other states and reports that some teachers may not return to work, schools may not take place in-person, and if parents will have the option to choose remote learning for their children.
Governor Murphy responded to the question by saying that his “strong hope and expectation” is that schools will be able to reopen in the fall.
“But if we get close and if we see something that again, not just on any given day, but a trend that is causing enormous concern, we’re not going to put people’s health at risk,” Murphy said. “As I’ve said many times before… the number one nut that we’ve got to make sure that we crack is the passing, as we said earlier in our remarks today, from the asymptomatic, healthy, probably young kid to an older educator, administrator, mom, dad, or someone with [a] comorbidity.”
Concerning parents’ having an option to choose remote learning for their children, Governor Murphy hinted that he would leave that decision up to school districts, but said that for now he would like to wait and see what the situation is closer to the start of the school year.
Governor Murphy has long said that he is unwilling to bend on restrictions that help prevent the spread of Covid-19, and has been quick to reverse certain reopening measures as cases of the virus continue to soar across the United States.
President Trump on Friday tweeted that schools “must be open in the Fall.” The president argued that “Virtual Learning has proven to be TERRIBLE compared to In School, or On Campus, learning. Not even close!”
The United States on Saturday recorded a record single-day count of new coronavirus cases, with about 70,000 new positive results in one day.
The spikes in other states are a major cause for concern, and we can only hope that NJ continues on its downward trend.. Praying for an end to this all, and good health for all those affected across the US..
I hope we in Lakewood dodnt open any of our schools until every single girl has a schools, and I know of multiple girls including my daughter that were not accepted into any high schools so I hope we voluntary decide to keep the schools closed until every girls has a school.
It amazes me that we can raise millions of dollars for different amazing organization and yet when it comes to opening schools for our children that require allot of money we dodnt step up to the plate, I just dodnt understand whats going on we have to become askanim and open up more girls high schools. If any askanim that have the resource/connections and are interested in opening a girls high school then contact me at [email protected]
@Muti I feel for you, but experience shows, it doesn’t work. You yourself don’t want to send to a new school that was opened for girls that were even not-rightfully accepted to another school. So opening a new school will not work. Usually these issues happen when people aim for the stars, knowing very well that due to room constraints, they may very well not be accepted. When they are not accepted, at that point, the next choice slots are unavailable, and you are unfortunately only left with below level slots. Opening more schools will not help, as the so-called better-chance girls will always gravitate to certain schools, and the average-chance girls who try for the top, will end up on the bottom. I have begged parents to initialy apply to good newish schools where they have a high chance of acceptance, and they refuse, only to have no slots available at end.
A noted elementary school mechaneches in Lakewood told me that the real solution is to have every girls elementary school have a high school for the girls to go to after they graduate. Stand alone high schools could still exist and some girls may go there but if every elementary school has a k-12 it will give every neshoma a place to go. Just food for thought.
There are numerous girls that were accepted to food schools that just decided they want to go to different schools that are absolutely full . And then they say they have no school . Then there are many girls that would gave been accepted to good schools but chose not to apply so now they say they have no school . You cant have one school having 100 kids in 9th grade and another school having 25 kids in 9th grade. Yiu have to balance out the numbers so that those who need schools go to the school that has room
I am not sure that’s true my understanding is that we have way more girls than slots available.We cant keep up with our growth and not enough of new girls high schools are opening up to keep up with the demand.
First, to be correct, schools have been, are, and will be open, just not in the traditional manner. The question is, how will they teach in the future?
The bottom line..virtual remote, even synchronous remote teaching and learning simply have not, do not, and will not work, not just for those with special needs, but for all students. This statement is based on personal knowledge and research.
Schools must open for in-person, teacher-student, student-student — human, face to face interactions. Education entails so much more than reading, writing and ‘ritmetic. Not to do so will lead to a societal loss in the long-term.
Regarding the special needs population, those schools such as SCHI and The Center for Education (again not Special Children’s Center, which everyone, including Mr. Inzelbuch of Lakewood School district gets incorrect when speaking about Lakewood’s Approved Private School for Students with Disabilities), along with the Lakewood School District again need to be commended and acknowledged for their bringing their students back to in-person, in-school teaching and therapies.
Hopefully, they can continue to do so. Not to do so would be a tragedy for all concerned.
@chacham. What u say is not true. We sent our oldest daughter to one of the new high schools in lakewood. It has since closed down and we now have a second daughter who is a regular good kid and did not get accepted to any school despite the fact that we applied to 6 schools including the new schools in town. We have no problem sending to new schools or “inferior” schools but we didn’t get it. So before u make comments abt others being picky…do some research to verify ur facts
U can contact me as I am trying to put together a 9th grade I will provide a comfortable first floor apartment that can be adapted and I will be getting on board an experienced principal .u can contact me at [email protected]
So I don’t see where the problem is . Here we have somebody who is willing to fund and run and house a new high school. That should cover at least 25 to 35 girls who have no school. And the others who have schools but want something different, I don’t think all schools need to remain closed in order for anybody to get their first choice in a school that is full .
To Esther
A noted elementary school administrator told me that while every elementary school making a high school sounds like a great idea , for some schools it spells financial suicide. The girls elementary schools for the most part are managing financially. The costs to run a high school are much higher than the costs to run an elementary school . The teachers are departnntalized there is a lot of extracurricular, each class has mechaneches that need to get paid etc etc. . In Lakewood ,the reduced high school tuitions are not that much more than the elementary school tuitions ,maybe a few hundred more over a year . Unless the elementary school has a great fund raising department ,the cost of the high school could put severe financial stress on the elementary school .
Why doesn’t the Governor show as much concern and close the bars. Closing school and keeping bars open where there are much bigger crowds and no social distancing makes no sense.
I really don’t understand why the started becoming a platform about girls high schools there’s regular high schools just send them to a regular High School this was about whether we should open the schools because of the coronavirus and weather good children the teachers and School staff or parents that the children come home to or Graham parents or Guardians at the kids come home to or going to be in Jeopardy or at risk of getting the coronavirus because we reopen the schools we have already seen that by reopening things we have already seen by reopening things to quickly the numbers of positive cases of the coronavirus have gone up and instead of worrying about health guys are worried about whether you can go to a store or whether your kids are getting into a high school or not I’m working CERN about all the people that died from the coronavirus there for families and whether my family or other people are getting the coronavirus and have to go through that that to me is the most important thing I don’t think this should have become a form on weather Moore high schools for girls should be open what’s wrong with the regular High School oh my God your teenage daughter might touch a boy let me tell you whether she goes to an all-girls school or a boy and girl school they’re going to be touching for boys I’m a mother of teenagers to I also have adult children they are going to touch the opposite sex if it’s because you think that all girl school is more Elite and is going to bring your social status up whatever worry about that when we’re not worrying about who’s going to die next from the Coronavirus I don’t believe school should be open in the fall I think that is one thing Governor Murphy has done has actually tried to keep us safe I believe that he is opened up diners and stores way too quickly because he’s been pressured by people that are were concerned about their Elite status then what’s actually going on and I am a waitress and I’ve lost a lot of money and now the schedule $600 is going to go away and I’m going to get less than $200 a week to raise my children and live off of and I still think that we should not be opening up because I would rather live in poverty and have to scrape by a little bit and ask for a little extra help for that been worried about my children dying or me going to work and bringing home the virus to a family member so it’s really that’s all you’re worried about is whether your daughter got into school for opening up new female schools and not the Coronavirus shame on you