Toms River Schools' COVID-19 Quarantine Numbers Down A Third

Toms River NJ

06 October, 2021

2:19 PM

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TOMS RIVER, NJ — A week after nearly 900 Toms River Regional students were listed as in quarantine by the district due to possible coronavirus exposures, the quarantine number has fallen by more than a third. As of 1 p.m. Wednesday, there were 561 students and 24 teachers in quarantine, according to the district's dashboard, which is updated daily. That is 3.76 percent of the district's 14,600 students and just over 1 percent of the more than 2,200 staff members. Those numbers have declined about 34 percent from the 864 students and 26 staff members who were in quarantine a week ago, when eye-popping numbers in quarantine made headlines. The numbers prompted criticism of the Toms River Schools' decision to use the extreme heat exemption to allow students and staff in district buildings without air conditioning to have the option to remove their masks. Read more: 881 Students, Teachers In NJ School District On COVID Quarantine Interim Superintendent Stephen Genco pushed back on reports that tied the quarantine numbers to the mask-optional decision, calling them misleading. "Masks were only optional in non-air-conditioned spaces," Genco said in a letter to parents and staff. Seven of the district's 19 buildings are fully air-conditioned or have air conditioning everywhere but the gym: Toms River High School East, Toms River Intermediate North, Toms River Intermediate South; Beachwood, Citta, and South Toms River Elementary schools, and the Early Learning Center. In those schools, mask-wearing was not optional, district spokesman Michael Kenny said. At other schools, the mask optional excessive heat exemption only applied to the spaces where there is no air conditioning, Kenny said. Masks have been required throughout the district since Sept. 20, he said. There have been no COVID-19 outbreaks in the Toms River schools. Ocean County has one confirmed in-school outbreak in the 2021-22 school year, according to the state's COVID-19 dashboard. That outbreak, which involves five cases, is in the Lakewood Public Schools, Judith Persichilli, New Jersey's health commissioner, said Wednesday during Gov. Phil Murphy's COVID-19 update. Outbreak status is determined by the county health department, she said. On Wednesday, Persichilli said districts will be required to report the number of cases to the state on a weekly basis, after the number of school outbreaks doubled from a week ago. Read more: 69 COVID Outbreaks Reported At NJ Schools Since September Kenny said the Toms River schools have seen some in-school transmission. "However, the vast majority of our positive cases have come from outside of school," he said. Toms River has 292 cumulative confirmed cases of the coronavirus since the start of the school year among students and 35 confirmed staff cases, according to the district's dashboard. The student cases are roughly one-third in the high schools, one-third in the middle schools and one-third in the elementary schools, with the elementary cases the highest, Kenny said. One elementary school classroom was transitioned to virtual, but Kenny said it was due to special circumstances in that classroom that he could not detail due to privacy issues. The district's general education classes are averaging 29 to 31 students, he said, which makes spacing students 3 feet apart challenging. "All of our schools have worked diligently to ensure that a minimum of 3 feet can be maintained between students to the greatest extent possible," he said. The district also has faced some challenges on school buses and in the cafeterias. Kenny said there had not been any instances where an entire bus of students has been quaratined. But there have been quarantines because students were not 6 feet at lunch when they removed their masks to eat. "As these locations were identified, we began to put procedures in place that provide for additional distancing; in our elementary and intermediate schools, staff members have begun to either take students back to their classrooms or to an alternate location (i.e., media center, outdoors) to provide for social distancing and eliminate any potential close contacts," Kenny said. The district is being very conservative about its COVID-19 procedures. Kenny said the district is following guidance from the state Department of Education and the state Health Department. Students who arrive at school without masks are provided a mask. "In the case of a refusal, there is communication between the administration and parents. Students will be sent home if there is refusal from the student after the parent conversation," Kenny said. Parents of children with seasonal allergies have complained the district is sending children with the sniffles home even when they provide a doctor's note. Kenny said the procedures for students who have chronic illnesses are only supposed to be sent home if they show new symptoms or symptoms worse than their "baseline" symptoms. He said the state guidance on excluding children from school due to potential COVID-19 symptoms includes the following: If a student presents with just a fever: follow district procedures that the child goes home and stays home for 36 hours and is fever-free without any medication or development of new symptoms.If a student exhibits two of the following symptoms the individual cannot return for 10 days unless they receive a negative COVID-19 test (rapid or PCR) and is fever-free for 24 hours.Fever greater than 100.4Sore throatCongestion or runny noseNausea / VomitingChillsDiarrheaHeadacheFatigueMuscle or body achesIf a student exhibits one of the following symptoms the individual cannot return for 10 days unless they produce a negative COVID-19 test (rapid or PCR) and is fever-free for 24 hours.New loss of taste or smellCoughShortness of breathDifficulty breathingThe parent will be contacted and provided specific directions regarding the next steps as listed below.For students with chronic illnesses, only new symptoms or symptoms worse than baseline should be used to fulfill symptom-based exclusion criteria.Any siblings of this student will also be excluded from school until the symptomatic child receives a negative test result (rapid or PCR). If the ill student tests positive, all siblings must quarantine. Click here to get Patch email notifications, or download our app to have breaking news alerts sent right to your phone. Have a news tip? Email [email protected] Follow Toms River Patch on Facebook.