At the West Windsor-Plainsboro school district Board of Education meeting on October 7, Superintendent David Aderhold’s message to students and staff: “if you are sick, stay home from school.”
Under normal circumstances, that advice would never make the front page of a community newspaper. But Aderhold offered it as part of an update on the district’s response to the recent outbreak of the Enterovirus 68, which claimed the life of a preschooler in neighboring Hamilton Township.
“Throughout the district, we use hospital grade chemical cleaners every day to clean out classrooms and our schools. The cleaner that we use kills the enterovirus. The administration is strictly following the state health guidelines on how best to stop the spread of this virus, and we have sent out the health department’s advisory to everyone in the district,” said Aderhold. “The administration has also met with our building and ground staff to ensure that we are doing everything possible to prevent an outbreak of the virus in our district.”
“We will continue to distribute more information about the virus as we receive it. In the meantime, my message to students and staff alike is, ‘if you are sick, or show any symptoms of the virus, please stay home from school. And if you are running a fever, please go to the doctor.’ That will help to keep everyone healthy and safe.”
This message comes after the district had sent out clarification regarding the parameters of the state’s newly mandated attendance policy, which seemed to classify only absences due to religious holidays and “Take Your Child to Work Day” as excused absences. All other absences, ranging from absences due to educational events, college visitations, and illness, were considered “unexcused.”
While waiting for a response from the state Department of Education for clarification on the new policy, the administration sent out a district-wide memo, redefining the types of absences as three categories: Exempt; Excused; and Unexcused.
Exempt absences are those due to religious holidays and Take Your Child To Work Day.
Excused absences are those absences due to a student’s illness; a family illness or death; educational opportunities; accommodation plans, such as IEPs (individualized education plans) and individualized health care plans; suspension from school; required attendance in court; an interview with a prospective employer; interviews with a college admissions officer; driver’s license testing; and unavoidable medical or dental appointments.
Unexcused absences, in contrast, will be any absence that has not been verified or does not fall not within one of the above categories.
Subsequent to this memo being issued, the district has received additional guidance from the state education department. Aderhold explained that the district’s consultant, Strauss Esmay Associates of Toms River, is working with the district to develop a revised district attendance policy.
Said Aderhold: “we do not yet have a revised policy in place, but I expect that it will be fairly similar to the attendance policy we had been using prior to this academic year.”
Aderhold also has announced that the all 10 schools in the district will be participating in “No Homework Nights” once a marking period, in order to allow families to attend school events together as a family, or simply to just have family time together. The dates will be announced in the near future.
Board President Tony Fleres thanked two district secretaries while announcing their retirements: Carol Johnson, secretary for the Community Education department, who has worked for the district for 27 years; and Jane Cormack, a secretary at Millstone River School, after 13 years’ employment.
