Community makes strong case to add Lunar New Year to school calendar

While Lunar New Year didn’t make the official 2023-2024 Wellesley Public Schools calendar, there’s a good chance it will in coming years.

The Wellesley School Committee has a bit of time to consider the addition of this important holiday for the Asian community locally and around the world, as its start falls on the weekend this year (Jan. 22) and next. Lunar New Year, along with other holidays such as Diwali and Eid al-Fitr, could all get consideration, as the School Committee and school system figure out how to balance the interests of various growing communities within the system while maintaining the state standard for 180 school days.

During citizen speak at the start of the Dec. 20 School Committee meeting (see Wellesley Media recording) members of Wellesley’s Asian community—including parents, the Wellesley Chinese Language School ‘s principal, and students—lined up online to make their case for Lunar New Year’s importance. More than 13% of the town’s population identifies as Asian, per Census data, and nearly 17% of the school population does, according to state figures.

Richard Wang said he and his wife usually take Lunar New Year off from work, and when their kids were younger, would take them out of school to celebrate in a traditional way, such as making dumplings at home.

“Now our kids are older and due to the study and school workload it’s not as easy anymore to take them out from school for one day,” he said.

Wang pointed out that a growing number of school districts, from San Francisco to Brookline, are adding Lunar New Year to their calendars.

Separately, resident Yi Wang said Lunar New Year “symbolizes the hope for a better future and also celebrates the value of family and community,” transcending cultures.

Among the students who spoke was Jocelyn Li, a Wellesley High senior who said that she and members of the Young Ethnic Scholars group proposed the addition of the Lunar New Year to the calendar last year to school administrators and they were receptive. Li said she wants students to be able to fully celebrate the holiday going forward. Junior Clementine Zei said her family celebrates Lunar New Year with big dinners and decorations, but often pushes activities to the weekend because of school commitments.

A broader discussion needs to take place on how the school system should think about religious and cultural holidays as the school community becomes more diverse, Superintendent Dr. David Lussier said. Directives have already been getting sent out for no homework and flexibility on assignments during such holidays, he said.

A short-term solution for Lunar New Year could be to at least acknowledge it on the online calendars published by the school system, as School Committee student rep Ivy Wang suggested.

The School Committee approved a calendar for the 2023-2024 school year, which is slated to run from Aug. 30 to June 20.

School Committee Chair Leda Eizenberg said there’s a plan to take a look at the calendar and the inclusion of cultural and religious holidays as part of the strategic plan, as well as a plan to consider adding another page of the calendar.

Related: The Wellesley Public Schools’ new strategic plan: is it an opportunity to add religious and cultural holidays to the academic calendar? (The Bradford, November 2022)

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