GETTING READY
Trenton school officials lead tour of Hedgepeth-Williams ahead of May reopening >>
TRENTON >> It looks like a metal detector, but it detects something just as potentially life-threatening: fevers.
Temperature gauges — which reveal one of the most common symptoms of the coronavirus — are among the first upgrades that visitors encounter when walking into Trenton’s Hedgepeth-Williams Middle School.
Trenton officials said Wednesday they’ve poured about $10 million into making schools safer ahead of the May 3 return to in-person learning.
Trenton is the last district in Mercer County to return to classrooms since instruction went virtual last year, officials said.
Schedules will remain shortened and staggered, with students alternating days between in-person and virtual instruction.
Educators begin preparations next week for reopening since classes were halted last spring to stem the spread of the coronavirus.
Since then, at least 6,700 Trentonians were infected and 87 died of the virus.
At least 150 Trenton school staffers came down with the virus, although officials did not provide the district’s death toll.
On Wednesday, Interim Superintendent Alfonso Llano, accompanied by Mayor Reed Gusciora and members of the health department and school support staff, led a guided tour of the middle school, showing off improvements that are reflected throughout the district, intended to ease fears over the return to in-person learning.
Llano said the goal is to keep school days “as normal as possible.”
“We are excited about bringing them back in. It’s been a long road,” he said.
While the teachers union applauded the district’s safety efforts in a statement, which included providing instructors with personal protective equipment, it remains skeptical whether enough is being done to ensure students and faculty are safe.
The union focused on indoor air quality where COVID-19 particles can spread more rapidly.
“We want to return to our buildings,” said Talithea Duncan, president of the Trenton Education Association, which represents more than 1,000 city educators. “We want our students to return to their buildings but only when it’s safe. The PPEs are helpful, but it is the air our students breathe that can destroy a life in their home.”
Shuffling a throng of masked media members through the hallways, Llano pointed out the new digs throughout inside the school.
Many offices and classrooms are equipped with portable HEPA filtration systems, although the union says some nurse’s offices still don’t have them.
Teachers will have cleanup kits to target “high-touch locations,” and the district hired an additional 80 custodians, and plans to bring on another 75, to enhance sanitation efforts, said Dwayne Mosley, the district’s facilities administrator.
If students forget they’re returning to school in a pandemic, they’ve got reminders all around them.
Signs plastered on walls caution students to maintain six feet of distance. White and orange tape divides the hallways into two lanes of traffic, with arrows pointing in each direction.
Water faucets are battened down with padlocks to keep students from potentially contacting virus particles on spigots. Breakfast and lunch will remain “grab-and-go,” Llano said.
The cavernous auditorium — where world-renowned maestro Gustavo Dudamel once took in a performance of Hedgepeth-William students — sits empty and cordoned off by yellow caution tape.
The performance space remains “off-limits” and is being used as an overflow area, school officials said.
“It is not lost on you how quiet the school,” said Hope Grant, the assistant superintendent of secondary education and former Trenton Central High School principal. “It’s time for our students and our buildings to come back to life. Our students need to have that social-emotional interaction with their peers, with their teachers and get back some sort of normalcy and routine.”
Classroom desks are spaced out, with plexiglass dividers on each of them. Hand-sanitizing stations were installed throughout the school.
And there’s even a socalled “wellness room” — an odd designation considering it’s where students with COVID-19 symptoms will isolate while waiting for parents to pick them up.
Students must follow stringent protocols, including filling out daily symptom checklists.
For those who contract the virus, they cannot return to school until they’ve been cleared by a doctor or provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test.
“I think this is a responsible way of gradually reabsorbing the student body,” Gusciora said.
Duncan said the Trenton area is still considered a high-transit “red zone” and cannot be compared with surrounding districts.
In a two-page statement, the TEA bulleted unaddressed items it said were identified in a walkthrough of school buildings.
Most of them revolved around air quality inside the schools, which the state Department of Education attempted to address last month by issuing guidance to schools about how to improve airflow.
The recommendations included opening windows and blow potentially contaminated air out.
Duncan said that is more problematic at Trenton schools, where some windows do not open and vents don’t work or open at minimum capacity.
School union leaders in one instance said someone almost fell out of a thirdstory classroom while trying to open a window.
Exhaust fans in parts of the buildings, including sickly wellness rooms, are broken, and the schools’ ventilation systems are too antiquated to handle MERV-13 air filters that capture airborne COVID-19 particles.
The union said the district shuts down ventilation systems when buildings aren’t occupied, meaning outside air isn’t flowing indoors at all times.
Duncan called that practice acceptable “only in non-COVID pandemic conditions.”
While officials focused on improving infrastructure, there was also a “heavy push” to get educators vaccinated, Llano said, estimating between 50 to 70 percent of district staff received shots.
Gusciora said at least 1,000 vaccines were administered to teachers since February, with help from the Henry J. Austin Health Center.
Some staff chose not to get vaccinated, Llano said, although the district “highly encouraged” it.
The interim school chief acknowledged that the administration and union had contentious talks about returning to in-person instruction but downplayed any friction.
Union leaders said they planned to hold a news conference later in the week to outline their remaining issues.
“It’s what is expected in terms of the partnership,” Llano said. “It’s kinda like a marriage. We fight. We make up the next day. I see them as a partner.”