The district is discussing whether to change its no-school policy for three religious holidays that the district currently observes with full days off.
School Superintendent Kristen Vogel opened the discussion by saying that every year the district presents a draft of the following year’s school calendar that includes the first and last days of school, professional development days, open houses, and parent teacher conferences. She said the process is “fairly routine” and that, this year, the draft is being presented a couple of weeks earlier because the School Department “has been getting quite a few phone calls from parents wanting to know when the first day of school is so they can try to do their planning for the summer.”
Vogel said the district conducted a survey of families, faculty, and staff in January regarding three religious holidays the district observes in full – Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Good Friday. The survey noted that while school is not scheduled on those days, athletic teams hold practices and games. It further stated that if school was scheduled on the holidays, “there would be no major tests, projects, or new content presented on these days, respecting the need for some students and faculty to observe the day(s) as a religious holiday(s).” It also said that the change would also result in the school year concluding a few days earlier in June.
The first question asked if families supported going to school on religious holidays. Of the 315 responses, 61.9 percent said yes, while 27 percent said no. The third-most recited answer was maybe, which appeared to be less than 10 percent from the chart.
Faculty and staff were asked whether they would take the day off to observe religious holidays if school was scheduled on those days. 57.1 percent of the 163 respondents said no, 29.4 percent said yes, and 12.9 percent said maybe.
Vogel then presented comparative data showing what 13 other Cape Ann League schools and neighboring towns do on the three holidays. The districts included Gloucester, Hamilton-Wenham, Ipswich, Manchester-Essex, Marblehead, Masconomet, Melrose, North Reading, Pentucket, Reading, Rockport, Swampscott, and Tri-Town. Swampscott was the only district with no school on all three religious holidays. Marblehead has no school on both Jewish holidays and early release on Good Friday. Rockport has no school on Good Friday, and North Reading and Triton had early release on Good Friday. Vogel said Lynnfield is “comparable to both Swampscott and Marblehead” and that “most schools” have school on all three holidays.
School Committee member Kate DePrizio said the framing of ending the holidays would be important.
“I think traditionally these have been holidays in Lynnfield and I think for sure we will get some pushback, but I think that when we reframe it and discuss how we are trying to be equitable that we just can’t celebrate all holidays, it’s just not that possible with our criteria for a school year, this is the most equitable way to do it,” DePrizio said. “I think the framing is going to be the key because I think we’ll have a lot of push back I think more so on the Jewish holidays.”
Vogel said the religious holiday issue came up two years ago when the district conducted an equity audit and was asked “to look at the religious holidays,” with a suggestion that Lynnfield conduct a survey.
“I think to have the conversation, to start the conversation is important,” said Vogel.
Committee member Phil McQueen asked Vogel what the state guidelines are on religious holidays. Vogel said she didn’t know if there are any.
“My understanding is it’s just left up to the local level,” said Vogel.
Committee member Jamie Hayman said he “really struggle(s) with this one.”
“On the one hand you see we have school out, but you see teachers assigning work and teams playing and practicing and that says one thing,” he said. “But if 39 percent of our kids are going to be out or 40 percent of our teachers are going to be out, the other side is do we want subs? Is that a lost day? I think it’s something that we need to continue to talk about and evolve with and I don’t think we are ready to go there. We need to really open up a dialogue.”
“Sports practices kind of take advantage of what people do on those days and that’s confusing to students,” DePrizio said.
School Committee member Stacy Dahlstedt said she can go either way on the issue.
“I understand a lot of districts in terms of the district comparison are heading in the direction of only observing the federal and state holidays. From an equity standpoint, that absolutely makes sense because there are other religious holidays,” she said.
Dahlstedt suggested that the district should reach out to other districts to find out how they handle religious holidays to make sure they are not “lost days,” and that the committee should continue discussion on the issue with teachers and families.
In a subsequent meeting, School Committee Chair Rich Sjoberg said the current policy will be in place for the 2023-2024 school year.
