Leonia has become the latest New Jersey school district to reinstate fall sports for the 2020 season.

The Board of Education reversed its initial decision Monday evening by a 9-1 vote.

This announcement comes nearly a month after superintendent Edward Bertolini stated in a letter that the district would not be competing in fall sports this year.

Before Monday’s vote, the board asked Bertolini to develop a plan that would meet the safety and health guidelines to return extracurricular activities for the fall season.

The guidelines are outlined in a 25-page document which include, but is not limited to, locker rooms being unavailable for practices or games, temperature checks and NJSIAA questionnaires prior to a practice or game, masks for transportation provided by the school district and players bringing their own individually labeled water bottles.

The document also outlined sport-specific guidelines. For the football team, along with its co-op in Palisades Park, all players and coaches must wear masks at all times and all helmets must include either a visor or eye shield and a spit shield.

Currently Palisades Park does not require athletes to wear both mask and face shield; according to the guidelines, however, no Leonia football player will be permitted to compete unless all members of that team wear the required protective gear.

Palisades park athletic director Joe Spafford confirmed that his players participating in the co-op will do whatever they can to ensure they have a season.

“My coaches are on board if those are the requirements that will get the team to full strength,”Spafford said. “We went through everything, we’ve had discussions about it over the past few days and we agreed that it can be done.”

Boys and girls soccer players are required to wear masks at all times. Girls tennis players must wear masks at team meetings and if they are competing in a doubles match.

The NJIC cross country championship has also made strides to ensure safety among its competitors and officials. For the starting line, individual schools will stay together and ensure that they are not alongside others for over a 10-minute period. The league has also purchased bib chips to electronically record a runner’s time and place and will hire additional officials to stop bunching at the finish line.

Leonia becomes the fifth school district in reversing its decision to cancel the 2020 fall season, joining Trenton, Teaneck, Manchester Regional and New Egypt.

The number of schools that will currently not participate in fall sports this season is now down to eight. That list includes West Windsor-Plainsboro North and South, Carteret, Piscataway, Dover, Dwight-Englewood, Medford Tech and Westampton Tech.

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