By a 3-2 vote, the School Committee reaffirmed its earlier decision to hold a half-day of school this year on Wednesday, Dec. 24, despite a contrary recommendation from its school administrators. Members on each side of Monday’s brief but heartfelt discussion agreed that it was an extremely difficult call.
Last February, the committee voted unanimously to approve a calendar with a half-day of school on the day before Christmas. That decision was in accord with the committee’s policy on religious holidays, adopted in 2010, of remaining open unless a day is also a federal holiday. In response to opposition from both teachers and parents, the committee reconsidered the issue in late March and asked interim Superintendent Joe Connelly to return with a recommendation.
School administrators opposed
On Monday, Connelly told the committee that the potential for a high absence rate led him to recommend closing school on Dec. 24. He said that 70 percent of teachers say they plan to ask for Christmas Eve as personal day. In those circumstances, he said, it would be “less than a productive day” of school. Connelly reported that the recommendation had the full support of all school administrators.
As an alternative to the half-day on Dec. 24, Connelly proposed holding a full day of school on Friday, Aug. 29, the day before the Labor Day weekend. Under the current calendar, there is no school that day.
The three members who voted to keep the current calendar–Kirsten Wright, Bob Sullebarger, and Patricia Wenger–all said they based their decision on respect for the effort that had gone into setting the policy on religious holidays, which entailed heated public debate and extensive research into the policies of other school districts.
Wright noted that it was a difficult and emotional process to establish the existing policy and said she wanted “to stick to the letter of the policy … to honor the neighbors and friends who were involved.”
Both Wenger and Maureen Babcock, the nonvoting representative for Devens on the committee, agreed with that position.
Sullebarger also urged the committee to honor the effort that went into the policy. He recommended that they “implement the policy as designed until we find by real experience that it has failed.”
Committee Chairwoman SusanMary Redinger acknowledged that no decision on this issue was going to please everyone. But she said she did not see the benefit to students of holding classes “on a day when [the schools] are not going to be providing quality instruction.” She also raised the question of adequate safety and supervision on a day when many teachers will be absent.
Motion to alter dates fails
Redinger then moved that the previously approved school calendar be revised to hold classes on Aug. 29 and not on Dec. 24. The motion failed, with only Redinger and the School Committee’s newest member, Jennifer Bedford, voting in support of it.
In the public commentary period at the close of the meeting, Oak Hill Road resident Kate Squire returned to the issue. Squire, who has spoken publicly in opposition to holding school on Dec. 24, praised the tone of the committee’s debate. “It shows that we keep our promises, even when they are inconvenient,” she said, although she disagreed with the decision.
‘Trust or apathy?’
Squire also pointed out that she was the only parent attending the meeting. She said that the absence of others might indicate the community’s trust in the School Committee and school officials to make the right decision. But she said, “You also have to wonder, is this trust or is it apathy?”
