All over the country, schools have been dealing with COVID-19. Monmouth County’s 32 public schools, including all five MCVSD schools, have not been exempt from this 

Many school districts have closed for the holidays due to people spending time with their families, including Freehold Regional, Middletown and Monmouth Regional. Middletown North has also had to shut down twice.

This raises concern for students attending MCVSD schools who participate in activities at their home schools, have siblings there or take a bus managed through that district. 

Sophomore Danielle Lirov of Marlboro explained the precautions she is taking to participate in Marlboro High School’s drama club. 

“We do all our rehearsals online with virtual backgrounds and we had our show online,” she said. “All clubs and activities except sports are virtual to reduce the spread of COVID. Currently, we are doing a Seussified Christmas Carol 100 percent virtual.” 

Like MCVSD, Marlboro High School also uses a hybrid schedule, but there are some differences. Instead of Wednesday being a half-day at home, each cohort alternates attending in person.

“Some of my theatre friends have gone virtual recently due to the spike in cases,” Lirov added.

Additionally, at multiple schools, they don’t have all the same classes with the same people like the underclassmen do at CHS. Having the same classes with everyone can reduce the spread of COVID-19 as if one person in a class tests positive, only a few people they were exposed to would be at risk. 

“Unlike us, they don’t have every class with the same people which increases the possibility of COVID exposure,” Lirov said.

Sophomore Mindy Preston from Howell commented on how in her hometown, the party culture remains relatively unchanged and the in-school guidelines seem looser than those of CHS. Preston noted the importance of social distance as the pandemic continues.

“The majority of my friends went all virtual because we have like a thousand kids and a lot of them had COVID cases…a lot of people are partiers and I think they shut the whole school down,” Preston said. “There was a Halloween party and a lot of kids went and a lot of them got COVID.”