Red Bank Regional starts remote and online lessons after 17-year-old gets coronavirus

A Monmouth County regional high school has announced it will be first in New Jersey to enact its virtual learning contingency plan for novel coronavirus.

The decision came on the same day that the state lab returned a positive test result for a 17-year-old girl in the district.

Red Bank Regional High School — which serves students from Red Bank, Little Silver and Shrewsbury — will transition March 12 to its "virtual school instructional plan until further notice," officials said.

The announcement on the school's website also noted the older sibling of a student tested “presumed positive” for the virus, also known as COVID-19, as of Monday, March 9. The school closed as a precaution on March 10 and 11.

A 17-year-old Little Silver female resident was among Wednesday's latest presumptive positive cases of the novel coronavirus, state officials confirmed to New Jersey 101.5 News.

Monmouth County health officials confirmed that the teen was an immediate family member of the 27-year-old Little Silver man whose illness was announced Monday, according to state health officials. His exposure was believed to have occurred at a conference in Boston in late February. Dozens of fellow attendees of the Biogen conference also tested positive.

Messages left for the Red Bank Regional School superintendent and principal were not immediately returned Wednesday evening.

These days are counted by the state Department of Education as official school days, according to Red Bank Regional school officials. Extra-curricular activities and sports are suspended indefinitely.

In Middlesex County, the East Brunswick district is closing schools and canceling activities from March 12 to 15 after a township resident tested positive on March 11.

Also in Middlesex County, South Brunswick schools were closed March 11, amid concern that a student might have been exposed to novel coronavirus as a gathering in Princeton, township school officials said. No virtual learning was in-place, and the day does not count toward the 180-day minimum under state Department of Education requirements.

The following closings and schedule adjustments have been reported to New Jersey 101.5 via its school closing system. Additionally, you can check your district's own website.

[NOTE: Entries marked "TEST REPORT" are not actual closings.]

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