There were many things that drew her to this affluent bedroom community in Bergen County, but a large part of her decision was the reputation of its top-ranking public school district. Cresskill Middle School is ranked 78 statewide out of 715 peer schools in New Jersey, and Cresskill High School is ranked 40 out of 406 peer schools statewide, according to U.S News & World Report.
“We had wanted to move here because we had friends that moved here and we heard about their amazing experience, and particularly how good the schools are,” Joshi said. “And I’ll tell you, as many people will, your decision is based on the school system.”
But school hasn’t exactly been normal for her children. Like many districts, Cresskill switched to virtual learning in October 2020 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
After a year of this, Joshi’s seventh grade daughter and fifth grade twin boys were preparing to return to in-person learning this fall. And her two boys did return — they attend school each day, socialize with friends, and interact with their teachers daily.
Joshi’s daughter, however, remains stuck at home in a limbo of virtual learning as one of approximately 1,000 students at Cresskill Middle/High School who have been displaced because of damage done to the middle and high school by Tropical Storm Ida. At this point, there’s no telling when she’ll be able to log off Zoom and walk into a classroom.
“Going through this experience is honestly heartbreaking,” Joshi told NJ Advance Media. “I mean, these kids are sitting at home for two years now.”
1,000 students without a school
After already spending a year learning remotely during the pandemic, students and educators at the middle and high school went back to the same virtual pattern after the town was rocked by the remnants of Ida, which tore through the school building causing damage that was equal to half the district’s yearly operating budget.
Nearly three months after the storm, the school has yet to reopen. Officials have said it will likely remain that way through the end of this calendar year.
“I think we really thought it would be very temporary,” said Sarah Barrs, whose sixth grade daughter began middle school on Zoom this year. “I don’t think anyone thought that two-and-a-half months later, we wouldn’t have made really any progress. That’s still shocking to me every single day.”
NJ Advance Media spoke with half a dozen parents like Barrs, who said they are still feeling the impact of a storm most of the state has long forgotten, but that continues to turns their lives upside down.
Interviewees said school administrators in Cresskill are doing the best they can, but facing an almost insurmountable challenge between the high cost of restoration, a lack of alternative learning spaces, and a frustrating amount of red tape.
A financial chokehold
According to district officials, the damage to Cresskill Middle/High School totals approximately $19 million.
The district is turning to insurance and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide some of the funding needed, but it’s not a straightforward process.
Since the school is located in a flood zone, insurance will cover only up to $2 million of damage. And while officials have been informed FEMA will cover 75% of its remaining costs, the agency operates on a reimbursement basis, meaning Cresskill Public Schools has to front the cost of repairs (depleting its existing funds) before seeing a penny of federal funding.
This catch-22 is the source of much delay, said Board of Education President Denise Villani.
“In order to issue purchase orders or go out to bid by regulation, we have to have the money to pay for the goods in the bank — we do not,” Villani said. “So we are looking for help from anywhere — from the state, from the federal government, from anywhere — that will give us a bridge loan in order to have the cash and be able to go out to bid for the boilers and the vents and the things that we need.
“And then we can pay them back once we’re reimbursed by FEMA.”
Villani, along with many other Cresskill school community members, has been writing pleas to the state legislature, Gov. Phil Murphy’s office, and even President Joe Biden, for assistance in obtaining a loan.
There’s been little response, and no luck in securing that help so far.
During a Board of Education meeting this week, officials said the state did come back with a funding option through the Bergen County Improvement Authority, but an application could take anywhere between four to six months to process.
“Right now we’re in a very vicious cycle of bureaucracy and red tape, and getting nowhere really fast,” Villani said.
In light of this financial barrier, residents have taken it upon themselves to launch an ambitious fundraising campaign, with the Cresskill Middle School/High School Home and School Association leading the charge.
President Limor Covar said the Home and School Association has raised approximately $82,000 in donations from parents and received a $25,000 donation from LG Electronics, Inc.
Cresskill Cougars United, a local soccer program, also raised $27,100 for the school.
“The community has definitely stepped forward to help in any way they can,” Covar said. “But, it’s a drop in the bucket compared to what we need.”
Covar said the district is hoping to receive a large donation from a business or benefactor to move things forward. The district is also amenable to showing its gratitude to whomever bequeaths it with such a gift, for example, in the form of renaming a school lab or similar space, dependent upon approval from the board of education.
“To get someone who is willing to donate millions right now, they will get everything, pretty much, that they want,” Covar said.
A ‘hybrid solution’
Parents in Cresskill are getting desperate, said parent David Spelbrink. “I’m just frustrated. My kid is suffering,” Spelbrink told NJ Advance Media.
Following Ida, for the first two months of the 2021-22 school year, Spelbrink’s seventh grade daughter took her classes virtually while waiting for the district to open the Academy of St. Therese — a shuttered Catholic school Cresskill will be able to use for 10 months.
It was a bright spot in an otherwise bleary start to the school year when St. Therese finally opened to students on Nov. 10 for the first day of in-person learning. However, the school can only accommodate about 250 students at a time, or two grades from the Cresskill Middle/High School, forcing the district to bring in students on a rotational basis.
Spelbrink said under this arrangement, his seventh grade daughter attends school every fourth day and has only had two full days of in-person learning since St. Therese opened. The scarcity of school days is maddening enough, Spelbrink said, but worse yet is what happens on the days his daughter must learn from home.
“The internet in St. Therese is so poor that they can’t stream a lot of days that the kids are at home, so they’re not even getting virtual because they can’t get good internet streaming. That’s a whole different battle,” Spelbrink said.
During a recent remote school day, Spelbrink said his daughter was able to have synchronous instruction for only three out of seven classes. The rest of her day was “basically worksheets,” he said.
Multiple middle and high school parents told NJ Advance Media that their children had difficulty accessing synchronous learning.
“There have been multiple days this week where my freshman has not seen a soul all day,” said Dimple Kabadi-Berger. “And several days actually last week, where almost every single one of his classes were asynchronous.”
As an integrative wellness coach, Kabadi-Berger said the mental and physical impact on students from long days spent alone, staring at a computer screen, was not lost on her.
This week, Kabadi-Berger met with the district’s director of special services, she said, “to see what we can do to to identify kids who may be in crisis and not know how to ask for help. And to see how we can support their social emotional learning.”
Kabadi-Berger also said the longer this situation goes on, the more herself and other parents worry about the academic future of their children.
“Cresskill is a school district where our high school children have always swung for the fences as far as what colleges they want to attend,” she said. “But they’re realizing that they’re at a tremendous disadvantage competing for those top spots against peers who have been receiving a real in-person education, not a deficient academic experience.”
Kabadi-Berger also has a fifth grader who is supposed to attend Cresskill Middle/High School next year, but it remains to be seen whether there will even be a functioning building for her to walk into. At this point, it might be time to look into private school options, Kabadi-Berger said.
At last count, she said she’s heard of at least 50 parents who have pulled their children out of the Cresskill Public School District and placed them in either a private school, opted to homeschool, or found a different public school system that accepts a limited number of students on a tuition basis.
Stephanie David presented the option of transferring out of district to her own daughter, who is currently in eighth grade and has an older sister who attends an area Catholic school.
“She chose not to, and my husband and I supported her because she wanted to finish her eighth grade year with her friends,” David said.
Trying to make the best of the situation, David organized a small learning pod for her daughter and some classmates, which meets once a week.
“That way even if they still have to learn virtually, they’re doing it together,” David said. It’s a pretty good compromise given the circumstances, but asked if her daughter would still prefer to attend school in-person, David gave an unequivocal, “Yes.
“There’s no real substitute for that,” she said. “These kids who lived through COVID with their education are now stuck at home, still. And the kids who are juniors in high school haven’t been in a building since ninth grade. How are they going to be functioning university students in two years when they haven’t been in front of a teacher? It just blows my mind — what are we doing to these kids?”
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Jackie Roman may be reached at jroman@njadvancemedia.com or on Twitter @JacqueRoman.
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