Leaning forward in his desk chair, flanked by a disinfectant gun full of cleaning solution, Robert Zywicki prepared for a major announcement.

But first, the Mount Olive school superintendent had to finish another phone call about the coronavirus.

That call required him to tap out a lengthy text message Friday about the novel virus sweeping the globe and now New Jersey.

Finally, the superintendent was free to spill it. Mount Olive will close schools Monday so teachers can start doing the very thing that has consumed Zywicki — figuring out how to pull off weeks of “home instruction” if coronavirus spreads to the Morris County community.

“I understand that might cause alarm,” Zywicki said as he filmed a video message. “This is purely precautionary."

Precautionary and coronavirus were the dominant words Friday as Zywicki and his team of administrators met to develop plans to do something unlike anything they’ve done before: Teach more than 4,500 students remotely at the drop of a hat.

“It’s unprecedented,” Zywicki said during a break before two hours of coronavirus meetings. “We are in uncharted territory here. We really are."

With the state’s first four cases of coronavirus appearing this week, New Jersey announced Friday that schools should plan for “home instruction” if ordered to close by health officials. The state also broke precedent and said it would count those days toward the mandatory 180-day school year.

The news sent New Jersey’s nearly 600 districts scrambling, as reality set in that the state’s 115,000 teachers must prepare for the possibility of educating 1.3 million students from home if the coronavirus causes a statewide shutdown.

Yet leaders remained calm in Mount Olive, where Zywicki gathered top district officials Friday to make a plan for, well, making a plan. Mount Olive will prepare for at least 14 days of home instruction based on feedback from the state and as long as 30 days, he said.

Though remote learning sounds easy in the digital age, Zywicki said, it presents a “logistical nightmare” that schools never imagined they would experience.

“There were massive, long closures for Hurricane Sandy,” Zywicki said. “There have been multiple-day closings for snow days. But no one attempted to do instruction like that.”

Robert R. Zywicki, left, superintendent of Mount Olive Township School District, prepares to announce a school closing Monday so teachers can plan for home instruction days. Patti Sapone | NJ Advance Media

He called an all hands on deck meeting with 19 key officials, including the township mayor, the local health officers and his top administrators. Sitting around a long conference table, they began formulating a vision that looks a lot more like school of the past than school of the future.

The district has a 1-to-1 ratio between laptops/tablets and its students, but not every Mount Olive family has internet access at home, Zywicki said. And expecting a kindergartner to take home an iPad and watch a teacher on a screen is asking too much, he added.

In fact, a synchronized, online experience just isn’t feasible for any grade level, Zywicki said.

So what will students see instead? Textbooks. Worksheets. Novels. Actual pencils and paper.

“This is why books still matter,” Zywicki said.

The district is directing teachers to meet Monday to build plans for each grade level in the core subject areas. Anything students can get from high school electives will be considered a bonus, officials said. Mount Olive also intends to develop additional online options for students who have internet access at home, including high school students who each have a district laptop.

State guidelines don’t appear to give a specific length of time students will need to be participating in instruction or school work. They require “a length of time sufficient to continue the student’s academic progress,” depending on their ability to participate. The state Department of Education declined to comment on any daily time requirements beyond providing that language from the state school code.

Mount Olive expects it can offer students at least an hour of schoolwork a day and hopes to provide more. It’s basic, but better than nothing, Zywicki said.

“If we were not providing home instruction, it would be like summer break,” Zywicki said. “At least we are making an effort to do the best we can."

Weeks of home instruction are “far from ideal," said Steve Baker, spokesman for the New Jersey Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union. But students’ health must come first, and schools should do what they can to continue educating students if they need to stay home, he said.

Mount Olive expects the bulk of school work would be focused on maintaining skills rather than new instruction, officials said. The district also expects a difficult transition if classes resume after a multiple-week absence.

Beyond basic academics, home instruction days present major logistical challenges. What about special education? Mental health services? Sports? Childcare? Paychecks for cafeteria workers and bus drivers?

Zywicki is thinking about all of that, plus the growing need for custodial crews to keep the schools and buses sanitized with special cleaning sprayers filled with a pH-neutral chlorine solution.

He is especially worried about students who receive free or reduced breakfast and lunch. He hopes to come up with a plan for providing meals, even if it means dropping them at the door of the school for families to pick up, he said.

“My biggest concern is meeting the needs of our at-risk students when school shuts down,” he said. “For many of those kids, school is a safe place. School is place that is warm, and school is a place where they get fed.”

Adam Clark may be reached at adam_clark@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on twitter at @realAdamClark. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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