H eadlines
Nurses Continued from Page 1
Gornstein-Talotti is tired;
she comes in early every day
and hasn’t eaten lunch since
the school year began four
weeks ago.
She isn’t the only school
nurse experiencing burnout.
In a Sept. 21 survey by the
Philadelphia Federation of
Teachers — the union of which
Philadelphia public school
nurses are a part — many
nurses mentioned the amount
of stress they experienced and
the need for additional help
and resources in schools.
Michele Perloff, the school
nurse at Albert M. Greenfield
Elementary School, believes
that some just don’t under-
stand what goes into the job.
“This is not just giving out
boo-boo Band-Aids and ice,”
she said.
For some Jewish school
nurses, their Jewish values
keep them coming back.
“Repairing the world,
giving help anywhere that it’s
needed, loving your neighbor
as yourself,” said Jessica Rose,
the nurse at Kohelet Yeshiva in
Merion Station.
But the commitment isn’t
always easy.
Perloff just returned to
Greenfield after being hospi-
talized with a kidney infection.
Though no longer sick, she cut
her medical leave short because
the school of 680 students
was short-staffed on medical
professionals. “I probably came back a
little too soon, but I need to be
here,” Perloff said.
Like Gornstein-Talotti,
Perloff has skipped lunch to
treat the kids coming into her
office. The school district now
mandates testing for asymp-
tomatic children, per the
recommendations of school
nurses. But nurses say they
don’t have the time to process
all of the paperwork that comes
with documenting testing data
and consent forms, in addition
to paperwork for non-COVID
ailments. When a student bumps their
head on the playground and
comes into the nurse’s office,
for example, the nurse must
conduct a concussive head
check, complete documen-
tation and call the child’s
caregiver. In addition to updating
testing documents for hundreds
of students, a single nurse is
responsible for contract tracing
at their respective schools,
despite the school district telling
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them in August that it would
not be their responsibility.
“Here we are four weeks
later, and we’re doing all the
contact tracing,” Perloff said.
Perloff has help from two
Jefferson and Drexel University
nursing students twice a week
but still feels overwhelmed.
Risa Babitt, a nurse at
Stephen Decatur Elementary
School, also is expecting student
help in the coming weeks. She
is working 30 extra hours per
week to conduct contact tracing.
Perloff and Babitt are not
alone. According
to the
Philadelphia Federation of
Teachers, 52.6% of schools
have contact tracing completed
by school nurses, 30.9%
completed by nurses and the
Philadelphia Department of
Public Health, and 6.2% of
schools have contact tracing
done solely by the PDPH.
According to Perloff, there
are 17 schools in the district
without school nurses; seven
nurses are on medical leave.
The school nurse-to-student
ratio stands at 1:1,500.
Even in private schools,
there’s a nurse shortage, Rose
said. When Rose worked at a
public school, a school nurse
there would visit a private
school a couple of days a
week to conduct checkups on
students who needed one.
“Private school kids also
need attention and help and
care, more than just a day or
two here and there,” Rose said.
Though understaffed, these
nurses still feel as though
they are the lucky ones; they
have school administration
that supports them; their
schools enforce mask-wearing
and social distancing when
necessary. Lack of support for nurses
has come from elsewhere, they
said. The school district changes
COVID guidelines frequently.
There’s already been more than
one COVID testing protocol
change this year and, by the
time nurses adjust to the new
JEWISH EXPONENT
Jessica Rose is the school nurse at Kohelet Yeshiva in Merion Station.
Courtesy of Jessica Rose
guidelines, they change again.
Gornstein-Talotti said this
makes communicating with
parents difficult. If a student
is sent home with COVID-like
symptoms or has to be isolated
after testing positive, parents
can get confused by out-of-
date information on the school
district’s website that conflicts
with a school nurse’s instruc-
tions for the child.
“When we don’t know what
we’re doing, or [parents] hear
something else from someone
else’s parents, it makes us look
bad,” Gorstein-Talotti said.
Within the school, teachers
want nurses to be more asser-
tive in testing students and
sending them home. For Babitt,
it’s just not possible because of
a lack of time and resources.
“We’re being seen as the bad
guys in the building,” she said.
However, the greatest
frustration for the nurses is
the lack of support from the
school district, where they
are seen as second fiddle to
teachers, though both groups
are members of the teacher’s
union. Because they are part of
the union, school nurses
are required to have a
license. According to Perloff,
most school nurses have
backgrounds that required
additional medical certifica-
tions, as the school district
wants “very highly qualified,
educated, experienced people.”
Yet school nurses cannot
attain National
Board Certification with as much ease
as teachers, Gornstein-Talotti
said. Therefore, they are not
eligible to receive the additional
compensation teachers can
receive when they pursue
additional certifications.
The pay disparity between
teachers and school nurses can
reach up to $15,000, Gornstein-
Talotti said.
“We’re doing two full-time
jobs as one person, not being
compensated,” Babitt said.
Even with a love for the job,
sticking with being a school
nurse is something Babitt is
finding hard to do. As she
nears retirement age, she’s
considering expediting when
she says farewell to being a
school medical professional.
“I was thinking of going
out a year from this coming
January,” Babitt said. “But now
I’m thinking sooner.” l
srogelberg@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0741
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
H eadlines
Margate Continued from Page 1
the offseason.”
Ventnor City Police Chief
Douglas Biagi confirmed
Sandler’s perception. Biagi said
that, looking out his office door
on Atlantic Avenue, he could
see cars in driveways that were
normally empty by now.
Last year, after COVID
broke out, Biagi said, summer
residents escaped Philadelphia,
Cherry Hill and other densely
populated areas by decamping
to shore houses. Almost
overnight, a summer commu-
nity of second homeowners
became a community.
And throughout 2020,
workplaces and schools stayed
virtual, allowing families
to stay down the shore. In a
normal year, Ventnor’s popula-
tion plummets from 30,000 in
the summer to 10,000 in the
fall, Biagi estimated.
The Downbeach Deli in Margate on a Wednesday at 5 p.m.
Photo by Jessica Della Fave
bakeries and other businesses
still open, all the way down the
Ventnor/Margate strip.
“Pre-COVID, after Labor
Day, you’d look down Ventnor
or Atlantic Avenue, after 7
when everybody leaves, and
you wouldn’t see a car from
Ventnor to Margate to AC,”
Margate, the island’s grocery
store, believes that business
this month is comparable
to September 2019, the last
pre-COVID fall. Seiden lives
in Margate, too, and he isn’t
seeing too many cars on the
street this month.
The owner guessed that
From left: Downbeach Deli owner Buddy Della Fave and assistant
manager Liam Plante
Photo by Jessica Della Fave
Subs, a popular island lunch
spot. Wainwright did acknowl-
edge “a little bit of an influx”
of new year-round residents.
But overall, at least for now,
the annual rhythms are likely
to remain the same.
“The whole area down here
needs the summer people.
They need what they bring to
the economy,” Wainwright
said. “You just wish you had
more of that longer in the year,
instead of just three months.” l
jsaffren@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0740
Pre-COVID, after Labor Day, you’d look down Ventnor or Atlantic
Avenue, after 7 when everybody leaves, and you wouldn’t see a car from
Ventnor to Margate to AC.”
THINKING ABOUT –
DOUGLAS BIAGI
But last year, it only
dropped to about 15-20,000
by the colder months, he said.
Businesses stayed open to
support and take advantage of
the change.
“We’ve kind of reinvented
ourselves,” Biagi said. “We’re
not just a summer place.”
Biagi was referring to 2020.
But he still kind of feels that
way in 2021. It’s just not quite
as many people.
The nice weather has
brought families back down
during weekends. And the
remote work transformation
has allowed older couples and
couples without kids to just
stay. In addition to seeing more
cars, Biagi sees restaurants, dog
groomers, bagel shops, gyms,
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM Biagi said.
So, is the shoobie dead? Is
the typical Margate/Ventnor
summer resident a year-round
community member now? Not
exactly. Several business owners
said their September pace,
like in most years, has already
slowed. Buddy Della Fave, the owner
of the Downbeach Deli and
Restaurant in Margate, said
he had 40 employees over the
summer. Now he has 15.
He also said that, in August,
his phone rang every five
minutes for orders. Now, it may
go a half-hour without ringing.
“It goes from 100 miles per
hour to 10,” Della Fave added.
Howard Seiden, the owner
of Casel’s Marketplace in
last fall, when “everybody was
down here,” was a one-off.
But he’s fine with that, as he’s
owned Casel’s since 1982, and
understands how to operate
on a summer-heavy business
model. It may be unconven-
tional, but it works, he said.
“There’s no such thing as a
shoobie,” he said. “I don’t like
that term.”
Everyone is welcome in
Margate/Ventnor, for however
long they wish to stay. But by
October, like in pre-COVID
years, the summer residents
will probably be gone again.
Society is reopening. Kids
are going into school and
playing sports again, and
their parents are following
them around, explained Tim
Wainwright, owner of Dino’s
JEWISH EXPONENT
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11