Like many school districts, South Orange-Maplewood is taking precautions to prepare for a potential shutdown of schools in the case of an outbreak of coronavirus in the community.
On February 28, Superintendent Dr. Ronald Taylor released an update of the steps the district is taking, including updating its already existing Emergency Management Procedure in coordination with municipal agencies, and following the guidelines issued by the CDC and the state.
Thus far there have been no confirmed cases of coronavirus in New Jersey, and officials still say the risk remains low — although the virus is expected to eventually spread to the state.
Village Green reached out to Taylor on Wednesday for an update on its last communication. District spokeswoman Anide Eustache provided the following response:
“…we are working to update our existing Emergency Management Procedure to address any possible disruption to our schools that a pandemic would cause. We are working with township health departments, central administration, technology, facilities, curriculum & instruction, health services, and special services to develop a scalable plan to address the continuation of instruction for our students should a shutdown be required (as you can imagine this plan can’t be developed in a couple of days).
Please note at this time and as per updates from the Governor’s office, the NJ Department of Health and both the Maplewood and South Orange health departments there is no immediate concern or verified case of the COVID-19 in New Jersey. We continue to monitor the situation and are working on communications to send to both our District staff and the greater SOMSD community.
When we have more information available regarding the plan we will inform the community and media.”
