Students in the Berkeley Township and Central Regional school districts will get back to hitting the books on Monday, superintendents of both districts say.
Seaside Heights students will be returning as well -- as many of them as the district is able to locate -- and they will be attending school at Central Regional High School.
"We had a meeting with our teachers this morning and they will be contacting as many families as possible," said Triantafillos "Tom" Parlapanides, superintendent of the Central Regional and Seaside Heights Elementary School districts, told the Seaside Heights Borough Council and residents on Wednesday night.
Parents whose children attend Hugh J. Boyd Elementary School students are being asked to drive their children to Central Regional High School on Monday for the normal opening time of school, at 8:45 a.m. Students will be checked in and current addresses will be taken, Parlapanides said.
The hope, he said, is for as many children as possible to be bused to the school with students who are attending Central Regional through the School Choice program.
The elementary school students' classes will be held in the high school's history wing, Parlapanides said.
Berkeley Township Superintendent James D. Roselli said both districts have been working with township officials to make sure it is safe for the students to return to school.
"We just don't want kids walking where there are downed power lines," he said.
The district has been reaching out to its teachers and had reached 90 percent of them early in the week, Roselli said, and teachers in turn were reaching out to the families of their students to find out about their situations.
A crisis team has been set up and is offering information for the teachers on how to help students dealing with post-storm issues, Roselli said.
"We want to be as proactive as possible," he said.
Parlapanides said opening the schools on Monday will be a step forward in helping students get back to some sense of normalcy.
