COVID Pivots Some Sussex County Schools To Remote Schedules

SUSSEX COUNTY, NJ — The rise in COVID cases within the county has triggered some schools to transition temporarily to virtual schedules and activities.

Among them is Newton High School, which for the remainder of the week before the holiday between Tuesday and Thursday, Dec. 23, the school plans to be fully remote.

A letter emailed to families from Superintendent Dr. G. Kennedy Greene, said the switch was because of a “recent rapid increase in COVID cases among our high school population.”

The remainder of the town’s schools, Merriam Avenue Elementary School and Halsted Middle School the letter read, would stay in-person.

Greene wrote that as of Dec. 13, there were 24 COVID positive student and staff, with 309 close contacts and 128 needing to quarantine at Newton High School.

“Another nine positive cases were identified last night [Dec. 19] requiring contact tracing today,” Greene wrote in the letter dated Dec. 20, “which will add dozens more close contacts to these totals.”

At the district’s preschool at Camp Auxilium, there were two positive cases with five close contacts and five quarantined, the letter stated. At Merriam, there were 11 positive, 13 close contacts and six quarantined. Halsted had one COVID positive case listed, with no close contacts or quarantines, as of Dec. 20.

During the winter break, Greene “implored everyone to take appropriate safety precautions to protect you and your families as these shifts in viral activity arise.”

Some Cancellations Within Frankford Township School District

Frankford Township School District suspended its basketball program for boys and girls until at least January, because of the rise in cases, they explained on their social media.

"We will monitor the situation closely throughout the winter break to see if we can safely participate again in January," the school district wrote.

On Tuesday, the district announced it was also canceling its "Holiday Sing" event, scheduled on Tuesday night.

However, they said they would "be recording the rehearsal and sending it home for everyone to view."

Hopatcong First Of County School Districts To Start Postponing Activities

On Dec. 13, Hopatcong Borough Schools postponed several activities, including its concert and “Night of Hope” after Sussex County rose to “orange” or “high” transmission status on New Jersey’s Dec. 4 COVID-19 Activity Report on the state’s Department of Health website. That orange level remained during the most recent, week-ending Dec. 11 report.

On Monday, Hopatcong's Board of Education meeting was also only held virtually.

Durban Avenue Elementary School created a video of its winter concert, with the majority of the kids performing their numbers at school outdoors.

The video below from the school premiered on Dec. 16.

Sussex County Data On The State's COVID-19 Dashboard

According to data on New Jersey’s Department of Health COVID-19 dashboard on Monday night, with the last update from Dec. 5, Sussex County had 24 confirmed outbreaks and 105 linked cases in its schools. On the list, it was the fifth highest statewide of all counties, with Bergen then showing 32 confirmed outbreaks and 139 linked cases; Atlantic with 28 confirmed outbreaks and 107 linked cases, Camden with 26 confirmed outbreaks and 213 linked cases and Monmouth with 26 confirmed outbreaks and 127 linked cases.

Sussex County, on the other hand, with data from Dec. 12 on the state’s COVID dashboard, was on the lower end of the scale, the eighth lowest among all the counties statewide, with 193 new student cases and 33 staff cases among 87 percent or 47 schools reporting. Total cases of 1,000 countywide is 9.69, with 86.69 percent of staff vaccinated.

This compares to Monmouth County, with the highest number of new cases statewide from Dec. 12 at 645 cases among students and 138 with staff, among 66.9 percent of schools reporting; and total cases of 1,000 countywide is 8.2, with 85.52 percent of staff vaccinated. Bergen clocked 576 new cases during that time period in students and 159 cases in staff, among 77.9 percent of the schools reporting, with total cases of 1,000 countywide at 4.69 and 85.97 percent of staff vaccinated.

This story was updated on Dec. 21 to reflect Frankford Township's postponements and cancelations because of COVID.

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