Question about "neither of"

I was going through some 5th grader's assignment and there was a question which required the synthesis of two sentences.

1. Mary is not going to attend the party.
2. Jane is not going to attend the party too.

The questions dictates that the sentence must start with "Neither of...". The answer provided by the teacher was: "Neither of Mary and Jane is going to attend the workshop."

For some reason, this bothers me tremendously. I don't really understand why, but I know I would be less uncomfortable with: "Neither of the girls, Mary and Jane, is going to attend the workshop."

Solution 1:

You should not forget that "neither" is paired with "nor" rather than "or". I think the rule of thumb is "neither, nor and either, or"

If "neither" must be used in the sentence, I would try:

Neither Mary nor Jane will attend the workshop.