At the school Committee meeting on Wednesday, March 9th the School Committee discussed next year’s school calendar. Mr. Tretter, a School Committee member, proposed that the School Committee eliminate all religious holidays from the calendar starting next year. Last weekend Mr. Tretter retracted his proposal, saying it was too late in the year to consider making a major change to next year’s calendar.
Mr. Tretter says he made this proposal after hearing from teachers and community members that the school year doesn’t have enough continuity. Now, I will agree with Mr. Tretter that this school year’s schedule has at times lacked flow. However, I believe a large portion of this can be attributed to the 4 snow days we had in January. The days missed are no ones fault but they essentially wiped out the month of January at the high school beyond taking midterms. Many years in Westborough we only have one or two snow days, and they are spread out throughout the winter months. We should not let this difficult winter influence future school calendars when we may not have another winter like this for years.
More importantly, we should not eliminate religious holidays from the school calendar because in today’s fast paced world religion is an outlet for some people to “take a deep breath” and refocus. By eliminating religious holidays from the calendar, administrators, teachers, and students will be forced to choose between their religious health and their jobs. As a high school student who cares about academics, it is difficult for me to miss a day of school for anything. I don’t want others in future years to have to choose between observing their religious holiday and falling behind academically.
Besides, in the years that calendar continuity is an issue, curriculum half -days are a major factor. This year there are five curriculum half-days. There was one scheduled in October, one in December, one in February, one this past Monday, and there is one more scheduled for May 2oth. This doesn’t even include the teacher curriculum day in mid January. If we are going to discuss continuity in the school schedule, it is time we discuss what occurs on these half-days. Our understanding as a community of what transpires on half-days after we go home at 11:00 is a vague idea that the teachers are discussing the curriculum and learning new teaching methods.
It’s as though trade secrets are being discussed after the students go home and no one wants them to be known.
Mr. Tretter says he will bring up the issue of continuity in the school calendar next year. When he does, I hope the community and the School Committee are willing to discuss all of the times school is not in session.
