NJ Schools

The Manalapan-Englishtown superintendent who was removed from duty so that the Board of Education could allow parents to send their children to school without masks says he agreed to sacrifice his job for the best interests of the community.

As the temperature rises, school officials are empowered to relax masking among students and staff in buildings given extreme weather conditions, Gov. Phil Murphy announced on Monday.

“There is a chance,” Murphy said, when asked again about whether the state might lift its requirement for masks in schools after the summer.

A municipal court judge in Galloway Township is scheduled on Thursday to examine the case of Michael Smurro, vice principal of Neptune Middle School, as well as those he accuses of harassing him and his wife, Lisa.

From 2017 to 2019, the percentage of teenagers who said they had vaped nicotine in the past year spiked among eighth graders from 7.5% to 16.5%.

Murphy announced Monday the current mask mandate remains in effect for public, private, and parochial elementary and secondary schools including charter and renaissance schools as vaccines are not yet available for children under the age of 12.

Gov. Phil Murphy announced that the remote option for instruction would expire with the end of this school year.

Another protest is planned by a group calling for the firing of Neptune Middle School VP Michael Smurro following his wife's comments about a trans woman using a restroom at a Smithville restaurant.

A school nurse who refused to wear her mask in school will be looking for a new job after she said the Board of Education voted to not renew her contract for the next school year and to continue her suspension without pay.

Erin Pein, who has been a nurse in the Stafford public school district for three years, stopped following the state directive for facial coverings after saying that she thought masks were causing a range of physical illnesses in children.