Dear Parents & Guardians,
The Hoboken Public School District is excited to welcome your family back. The 2021-2022 school year will be an amazing experience for your children.
There is so much that I want to share with you before we open our doors tomorrow morning. First and foremost, we have an updated reopenning plan that was sent to all families and is posted on our website.
In developing this plan, we worked to ensure that our cleaning protocols, entry and exit procedures, contact tracing methods, and reporting mechanisms that we employed last school year are all set and ready to go. We also learned a lot from testing last year and have put in a new testing schedule for this school year. Thank you to all families for being patient and cooperative. As you can see, we started with an aggressive testing program. As a result, we will be able to iron out all of the kinks so that if we have to keep it in place a bit longer we can or scale it back when possible.
Those families who participated in onsite learning last school year know that we followed a strick protocol for mask wearing both in the classrooms, in all school buildings, and outside during the school day. This protocol enabled us to stay open. While there were positive cases last year, our transmission rate was very low.
This school year, we will once again follow a mask protocol. Masks are required to be worn in all parts of the school. All classrooms in our schools are air conditioned. During outdoor walks when there is not a heat advisory, masks are required. During outdoor recess and physical education, masks are highly recommended but not required. This is an update to our plan.
Over the past two days, we have tested 2605 students in our schools, while the remainder of families chose to test independently. On Tuesday, we tested 1904 students. Of those, 1656 tests were already processed. There were 3 positive cases. Those that tested positive have been notified. From Tuesday afternoon's testing, the lab is spinning the remaining 248 tests. We should have those results in an hour or so. Any positive cases from that batch will be notified.
Please understand that all families will receive an email with a copy of their results directly from the lab. Be sure to check your SPAM folders if you haven't received results. Also understand that the lab's main priority is to notify the positive cases first. Therefore, do not panic if you haven't received your results yet.
Today, we tested 701 students. The lab is spinning those and guarantee the results from today back to us by 5:00 a.m. tomorrow morning. We will notify positive cases before coming to school.
When you receive your test results, you do not need to send them to the school or to me. We have a master spreadsheet from the lab. *If you tested at any of our schools yesterday or today, you do not have to keep your child home. You will be notified if your child tested positive and needs to stay home.
As we move through the new few months, it is my hope that we can slowly release the requirements in our updated reopening plan and that our district, our city, state, nation and world can make it's way back to a sense of normalcy. This includes testing requirements. I would rather be prepared and practiced and pull back, as opposed to implementing more stringent requirements later.
The 2021-2022 school year opens officially on Thursday, September 9, 2021.
- School hours for Preschool Disabilities and Kindergarten through 12th grade students school are from 8:15 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
- School hours for Preschool Disabilities Program at Wallace Elementary School are from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
- School hours for HOPES & Mile Square PK 3 and PK 4 can be found here.
If you have any questions or concerns that are school-based, early childhood related, or special education in nature please reach out to the following administrators:
I would like to remind everyone that when school is in session, please be cognizant of traffic and practice safety measures. Be sure to use cross walks. Walking in the middle of the street to get a child to the front of any building is very dangerous. I also cannot stress enough that double parking or parking illegally and getting out of your car with a child is also not safe. Let's do everything we can this year not only to think of our own safety, but also the safety of others.
Some have also asked for a copy of the district's 2021-2022 calendar. It is linked here for your review. Take note of our Back to School Nights. At this time, we will be hosting Back to School Nights in person. However, rather than assembling in our gyms and auditoriums for a principal's welcom, parents will report right to their child's homeroom. There, a video created by the principal will be shown. This will most likely give parents more time with the teachers and in classrooms.
Back to School Nights
- Brandt - Tuesday, September 21 (6:30 pm - 8:00 pm)
- Wallace - Thursday, September 23 (6:30 pm - 8:00 pm)
- Middle School - Tuesday, September 28 (7:00 pm - 8:30 pm)
- High School - Wednesday, September 29 (7:00 pm - 8:30 pm)
- Connors - Thursday, September 30 (6:30 pm - 8:00 pm)
In closing, I wish everyone a happy and healthy new school year. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at cjohnson@hoboken.k12.nj.us. After 17 years in the role as Superintendent of Schools, I can honestly say that I am most excited about this school year and all that we can accomplish together.
Sincerely,
Christine Johnson
Superintendent of Schools
