How badly are New Jersey schools struggling with Covid regulations and staffing? This badly: middle and high school students in Millville Public Schools will have their schedules truncated through the end of February because the district can’t find enough substitute teachers to fill in for teachers calling in sick.

On a video released late Friday, Millville Superintendent Tony Trongone explained why, beginning today, high school students will start school at 7:40 a.m.and end at 12:15 p.m. and middle school students will begin at 8:30 a.m. and end at 1:00 p.m.

Right now, we have students sitting in gyms for 90 minutes for five days…We had parents complaining … We hope to mitigate that, and erase it, by making this move in February, while the numbers come down with regard to COVID, and also as we work to improve our substitute coverage…Also, we’ll have less behavioral issues, because when students go to those large areas, there’s more chances of behavioral issues.

Millville is a medium-sized district with an enrollment of about 5,300 students, K-12. According to the NJ Department of Education database, 70% of students are economically-disadvantaged and a whopping 23.3% are labeled as eligible for special education services, well above the state average of about 17%. Student proficiency is quite low, with only 27% meeting proficiency benchmarks in reading and only 17% meeting them in math. The district tends to not meet its annual targets in critical areas like high school graduation rate and academic achievement.

According to Advance Media, Trongone said students will end up with additional instruction time when the shortened days begin tomorrow. The local teachers union didn’t respond to a request for comment.