By JOHN T. WARD
Reportedly prompted by “parent response,” Little Silver closed its two schools Thursday, just a day after announcing it would remain open along with those in the other sending districts for Red Bank Regional High.
A posting on the district website said only that “will be closed on Thursday, March 12th. Information regarding future closings will be forthcoming.”
As of 11 a.m., the same message remained on the district’s Facebook page without an update.
But the Red Bank district remains open, Superintendent Jared Rumage posted on Facebook:
Please be aware that the Little Silver School District opted to close today, March 12, due to parent response. The choice to alter their original decision was not made due to any change in the recommendation we received yesterday from medical personnel or the Monmouth County Regional Health Commission. At this time, we expect our school district will continue to follow the advice of medical officials, however, the situation continues to evolve.
Little Silver is home to a pair of siblings, aged 27 and 17, who have been reported by state and Monmouth County officials to be “presumed positive” infected with the COVID-19 coronavirus sweeping the globe.
The younger sibling is a student at Red Bank Regional, which is now in indefinite shutdown and conducting lessons online.
Late Wednesday evening, the Little Silver district announced the cancellation of a March 20 “Planting Seeds of Knowledge” event.
“Sadly, last evening we came to the conclusion that, in the current environment, the best course of action” is to postpone the event until May 15, the post said.”We hold the health and safety of our community as our highest priority and did not make this decision without a great deal of forethought.”
There was no immediate word of a change in direction for the Shrewsbury Boro School, which said in the joint statement it issued Wednesday evening along with Little Silver and Red Bank that there was “no recommendation to close any of the PK-8 sending school districts at this time.”
Red Bank Charter School was also among the participating schools. It, too, had not signaled a change Thursday from the plan to remain open.
The districts had said they would remain open after their administrators met Wednesday with representatives of the Monmouth County Regional Health Commission and Riverview Medical Center.
