May 25, 2021 at 11:25 AM
SPARTA, NJ – Students at Helen Morgan School had a special event to conclude their One Book One School. The celebration included guests, essay contest and the planting of a seedling from the Salem Oak, a 565 year old heritage tree that was uprooted and fell in June 2019.
They had finished reading the “Wishtree” by Katherine Applegate and were joined by guests board of education members Kim Bragg, Jennifer Grana, Niamh Grano and Rob Zywicki, Sparta Mayor Christine Quinn, Sparta Interim Superintendent Patrick McQueeney, Freedon Superintendent Matthew Beck, Sparta Historical Society members Marjorie Strohsahl and Renee Ferguson, Helen Morgan School PTO representative Melanie Zywicki.
| 07 May 2021 | 08:03 A class at Delaware Valley High School, which provided full-time, in-person instruction from start to finish (Photo provided)
School districts can see the finish line after a tough year negotiating remote, in-person, and hybrid instruction, and everything in-between. Now they’re looking to end the year with students back at their desks.
Ending with a return to normal, however brief, is the overwhelming preference of parents everywhere.
“So many parents and teachers are relieved to have this time, as small as it is, for students to transition into what we’re calling the normalized school experience,” said Karen D’Avino, the superintendent in Vernon, N.J., which on April 12 switched from fully remote learning to in-person instruction. “Hopefully by the time September comes, we’ll have more students back.”
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N.J. district suspends plan to return to 5 full days of school due to rising COVID cases
Updated Mar 16, 2021;
A Sussex County district that planned to switch to five full days of in-person instruction for middle and high school students at the end of the month has postponed that change due to rising COVID-19 cases in the community.
The delay for the Sparta district comes after several students and staff tested positive for COVID-19, causing a “severely depleted custodial staff as a result of required quarantines,” according to a community letter on Friday from Interim Superintendent Patrick McQueeney.
“It’s always a difficult decision and it is frustrating because that’s the nature of this virus… It seems like this year is just constant flexibility and adjustment,” McQueeny told NJ Advance Media.