NJ Education Report

Predictably, transmission of COVID-19 is affecting schools’ commitment to in-school instruction and Chris Christie’s posh school district is no exception. On Friday officials at Mendham Middle School in Mendham Township shut down in-person classes on Friday and went to remote instruction because of a coronavirus outbreak. “Due to multiple positive Covid cases within our student population we will be going 100% virtual,” Patrick J. Ciccone, the school principal, wrote in an email to parents.  “We will provide more information throughout the weekend with regards to Monday’s academic configuration.

The cause? New Jersey Globe reports it was the bar mitzvah of Christie’s nephew, held indoors with hundreds of people who were unmasked, which turned into a super-spreader event. “Oh what a night,”  Todd J. Christie, the brother of former Governor Chris, describing his son’s party at Avenue A in Newark on Facebook.

“Thanks to your brother Todd’s super spreader event for his son, Mendham Twp MS is already going virtual,” said Richard Smith in a tweet targeting Chris Christie.  “Letting people continue to make their own personal decisions while putting others at risk doesn’t work.  You can’t even convince your immediate family.”

Other New Jersey schools, sans b’nai mitzvot, have gone virtual due to COVID spread. This week Robbinsville High School moved to remote instruction after nearly 7% of Robbinsville school district’s student population — a total of 220 kids –were exposed and 30 students tested positive. Superintendent Brian Betze said, “right now I have asked the state to give me permission to close the high school, because we are experiencing just an explosion of positive cases and many students needing to quarantine.” Other schools have also temporarily gone virtual, although the state doesn’t keep track–at least publicly–of school closures.

(Photo courtesy of Todd Christie’s Facebook page.)