It took two motions and two votes, but the Wellesley School Committee on Tuesday approved the addition of three holidays to the academic calendar for the 2024-25 school year. (See Wellesley Media recording of the meeting.)
Diwali, Lunar New Year, and Eid al-Fitr will join Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Good Friday as days off for students, faculty, and staff.
After the School Committee delayed a vote on finalizing the 2024-25 academic year calendar during its Dec. 12 meeting, citing a need to seek out additional insight around religious and cultural holidays, four calendar options were made publicly available to the community.
One week later on Dec. 19, the School Committee after discussion first voted on a motion to pass option A, which would have kept the school calendar the same, with no additional holidays added on. That vote did not pass.
The School Committee then voted on a motion to pass option D, which added three cultural or religious holidays to the school calendar, and retained the three that have been part of the calendar in the past. That vote passed.
The dates for the religious/cultural holidays during the 2024-25 school year will be as follows:
- *Yom Kippur
- Rosh Hashanah—Thursday, Oct. 3
- Diwali—Friday, Nov. 1
- Lunar New Year—Wednesday, Jan. 29
- Eid al-Fitr—Monday, March 31
- Good Friday—Friday, Apr. 18
*Falls on a Sunday in 2024, therefore no school day off next year.
School Committee Chair Craig Mack expressed appreciation for feedback and comments from the community that poured in over a four-day period ahead of the vote—in over 75 emails, in addition to phone calls and in-person conversations, stakeholders let their opinions be known about what the school calendar should look like.
Superintendent David Lussier confirmed that his office also received communications from the public reflecting a range of opinions which he said was “in line with the feedback the School Committee got.”
“What stood out to me is that the responses were all over the place,” Vice Chair Catherine Mirick said. “There were people who thought we had too many holidays, and people who thought we had not enough holidays. And that’s just the small sample size that had time and took the effort to send us something.”
A few things stood out for me, too, as the Committee members discussed the five calendar options, presented and referred to as Calendars A through D. First was a levity to the process at the start by one member. Second was a stunning lack of civil discourse by the Chair.
First the levity. In early comments, Leda Eizenberg said, “I asked my 10 year old, who felt that if we really believe in inclusion and care about belonging, then we should have the six holidays. So she voted for Calendar D,” as did Eizenberg.
If you find it interesting that a 10-year old gets an informal, non-binding vote on a School Committee issue, just wait. There’s more.
Chair Craig Mack, in an 11th-hour move, tried his hardest to wipe Good Friday off the 2024-25 school calendar. This despite the fact that out of the 4 calendar options made public to the community ahead of time, not one of them listed the Christian holiday as possibly being left off.
The Chair first identified Good Friday as a day that has been “given” off, as if bestowed by the benevolence of a 5-member board, rather than negotiated during public meetings over 20 years ago. If a holiday is “given,” by the powers that be, then a holiday can therefore can be taken away. So celebrate the expansion of religious and cultural representation in next year’s school calendar cautiously. It just might be a one-off.
Perhaps removing Good Friday from the school calendar will turn out to be the thing to do going forward. But that wasn’t for Mack to put forward unilaterally at the last minute. It’s for the community to weigh in on. Linda Chow in noting the wide range of public opinion in the emails suggested, “there’s a lot more analysis that we could do…maybe we step back and take a much bigger picture look at our calendar and consider what some towns nearby and across the Commonwealth are doing, which is really just to observe the state and federal holidays.”
Mack then suggested that the School Committee, that very night, could quite easily remove Good Friday. “Even though we have it on the calendar, we have not voted, but perhaps that is a day we could take off [the calendar] if we’re going to consider Option D, if you will.”
After calling himself a “recovering Catholic,” a pejorative term if ever there was one, I had to wonder. Would Mack during a public meeting have characterized any other religion as something from which one needed to recover, as from a disease? I can’t imagine that, just because it was said with a “kidding, not kidding” smile, the jab went over the head of every one of his other four Committee colleagues, as well as the five school department employees in attendance during the Zoom meeting. Yet nobody called Mack out.
Mack said he checked in with Catholic churches in town. His discovery: that Good Friday is NOT a holy day of obligation, a fact he relayed with something close to glee, as if he’d caught out the Catholic church in an as-yet undocumented mortal sin.
Data point: “holy days of obligation” isn’t terminology that most Christian denominations use. It doesn’t mean those days aren’t sacred to the non-Catholics who observe the string of religious days. But why did Mack hold up the Catholic Church as the standard, a denomination that according to the Pew Research Center makes up only about 20% of Christians in the United States? Why weren’t other religious leaders in town consulted?
Craig argued that removing the day would be fine, “As it’s not associated with part of Holy Week or Easter for the folks who are Christian and celebrate, but Good Friday is not a day that would be expected to be off.”
Such a full recovery has Mack made from the disease of Catholicism that he’s forgotten that Good Friday is, indeed, a part of Holy Week. But hey, if Mack wants to make holy days of obligation the standard for which Christian holidays should be “given” off, then look out—there are generally half a dozen per year that fall on a weekday. Sometimes more.
Anyway, what “expectations” as identified by Mack have to do with anything, I’m not sure. I thought what the School Committee was trying to do during this meeting was ascertain what was important to the community, something Eizenberg touched on.
“I understand the importance of gathering data and feedback and all these things, but does it then become the population size, or are we somehow in the position of gauging a holiday’s import? Short of getting rid of everything—which is still sort of problematic because Christmas is a federal holiday—I’m not sure what criteria we come up with. To me, folks who have come forward and said how it feels to not have their holidays acknowledged and observed is sort of more compelling to me in a way than numbers or an attempt to rank holidays by import.”
Christina Horner, who said she was “pleasantly surprised” by the diversity of comments that the Committee received, advocated for looking at adding religious holidays to the school calendar through a lens of equity, diversity, and belonging. “I’m feeling like yes, it would be nice to continue the conversation, but we do have a deadline. And also, I feel as if we wait, we are basically reinforcing a message that the Christian and the Jewish holidays are the only ones that are going to matter. That does not sit well with me…I can’t sit with it.”
In the end, the majority of the School Committee members stood with Horner, and voted to add three holidays to the 2024-25 academic calendar.
Here’s how the voting went:
A first motion was made by Mirick, seconded by Chow, to go with Option A (which did not include the addition of any new holidays, and kept Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Good Friday as days off)
That vote went as follows:
- Mirick, yes
- Eizenberg, no
- Chow, yes
- Horner, no
- Mack, no
Option A did not pass.
Next, a motion was made by Mack, seconded by Horner, to go with Option D (which includes the addition of Diwali, Lunar New Year, and Eid al-Fitr, and the retention of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Good Friday)
That vote went as follows:
- Horner, yes
- Mirick, no
- Eizenberg, yes
- Chow, no
- Mack, yes
During ending remarks, Mack said the work on the matter of holidays and observances is expected to continue going forward and thanked everybody saying, “The input and the discussion and the respectful nature, I’m very proud of our community because we got so many respectful perspectives. So thank you, everyone.”
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Deborah,
Thank you very much for your work on this subject! As you might or might not know, there is a lot of frustrations with the Wellesley School Board in general and David L..
It would be great if you could reach out to the School Committee and ask if Craig Mack would like to clarify his comments for this article?
This does two things. First, it does give him an honest opportunity to clarify anything “if” he would like in case the words did but come out correctly. If he chooses not too, then shame on him.
Second, it reinforces to the School Committee that the local newspaper is on top of these meetings, which in return, will hopefully create more of a sense of them watching what they say in these meetings.
You might ask yourself why not a Wellesley resident ask this? Well, the school committee has created a policy where in the vast majority of zoom meetings, residents can “only read statements”, not ask questions or have a back and forth dialogue, which in itself is very telling! Thank you!!!!!
Just to note for what it’s worth , the NY Stock Exchange closes on Good Friday.
When making these types of important decisions one should do research …
I think it is completely inappropriate to publish a comment without using one’s name. If we had to the tone of these comments would be more mature and kinder (I hope!). This anonymous speech promotes hostility and division. If you can’t own your speech, keep it to yourself!
Polly, I have heard from many parents hesitant to speak up due to the fear of retaliation against their child. We clearly saw that happen just a few weeks ago when a student spoke up for herself. I do not blame parents for not using their real names. The relationship between the school dept and parents needs work. Unfortunately what has come out of parents trying to relay their frustrations is a proposal to put forth a “code on conduct”. This is being pushed by the Select Board and has been proposed at the WHS School Council for parents. We do not need more ways to silence people in this community we need more well rounded committees that can thoroughly discuss concerns. We need to add more seats to the School Committee. We also need people to be able to express concerns without judgment. It is clear they can’t do this by the posts here. I have no issue with those who want to express their concerns without their names.
Just wondering how adding more people to the school committee will help? That will just mean additional non-diverse voices. How would that be an improvement?
Polly Fraga: The very real fear of retaliation prevents parents from using their names here. During public comment at a recent School Committee meeting we heard a parent speak out about retaliation against his child. The WPS culture needs to be challenged and changed. Everyone would benefit.
As if the SC Zoom video wasn’t bad enough, take a look at the meeting summary (below) in the Chair’s own words sent 12/20 and suspend your disbelief when you read how deliberations were made and feedback shared. What a joke. They must think we are stupid to be able to get away with a summary full of so many falsehoods.
Dear Members of the WPS Community,
On Tuesday evening, the School Committee approved adding three new holidays to the WPS academic calendar for the 2024-2025 school year. The vote to approve the calendar followed deliberations across three School Committee meetings, including discussion of feedback shared with the Committee from parents, staff, and students.
Additionally, the Committee expressed an interest in engaging in a broader conversation with the community about a longer-term pathway to approach the calendar beyond next year. The voted WPS calendar for School Year 2024-2025 can be found here. This includes three additional holidays: Diwali (Friday, November 1), Lunar New Year (Wednesday, January 29) and Eid al-Fitr (Monday, March 31).
Craig Mack, Ed.D.
Chair, Wellesley School Committee
What do working parents do on these three additional days? How many extra holidays are appropriate? What is the criteria for a holiday to be recognized (population within community)? What do the teachers think? If we have snow days, are the kids getting out in July?
Yes they will get out in July with snow days, it’s completely ridiculous! There is no continuity in the school year with a day off every other week!
Excellent summary, Swellesley Report. As a Catholic, I am deeply offended by Mack’s words. Catholicism is not a disease that needs to be cured. His lack of emotional intelligence and unprofessionalism is not befitting of someone in public office. He should resign for not only his insulting remarks but also for allowing (as Chair) such an important decision to be made before gaining sufficient feedback from both parents and teachers. The lack of process was an abuse of power. Lastly, reducing this decision solely to one of inclusion is simplistic thinking, and insinuating that anyone with a different viewpoint is against inclusion is arrogant. Thank you to Chow and Mirick for being voices of reason in this discussion.
A huge thank you to the Swellesley report for producing such an accurate description of how many parents feel.
Let me tell you what will happen next…..
The SC and the group that is so closely attached to it will accuse everyone here of writing mean emails, some may be called threatening but there has never been proof of that. The emails are usually just parents who disagree and have valid points,
The Chair will play the victim role and have friends call into support him. He will continue his weekly praise for all who created the division.
We will see another person who fits nicely into their narrative pull papers and run for SC this March.
If anyone with a differing opinion attempts to run they will find something to discredit you and make you like miserable
You will be labeled part of the vocal minority who needs to understand that you were heard but SC just doesn’t agree with you,
This is why these issues keep popping up and why we end up in the news. Poor decisions made by a group of like minded individuals talking in a bubble. Maybe, just maybe if SC was more inclusive in the diversity of view points we could avoid some of these issues.
Bingo. I’m waiting for them to claim they are being harassed and “threatened” while completely ignoring the feedback of their constituents and behaving so inappropriately during a Zoom meeting that it was hard to even watch. Nobody will apologize for their disturbing decision, behavior and/or comments, and they’ll claim victimhood per usual.
Tom, not a bad solution but then school should probably go through Christmas. Best solution IMO is the current slate of holidays and the choice to miss 3 days for individuals if there are uncovered holidays.
I am Jewish and found Mack’s comments unprofessional.
Thank you, Swellesley Report for this article and bearing witness to what many also saw in the live feed or video recording.
As a WPS parent and longtime resident, I am outraged at the leadership, process and dialogue that occurred at the SC meeting re the school calendar. Our town and our school community deserve a lot more from our SC members than what we got on Tuesday night. It absolutely appears as if the 3 SC members who voted yes decided what they wanted ahead of time and had no problem with the unethical manner in which they achieved the outcome. Do I trust these members with my students’ education? NO. Do I trust these people with my tax dollars? NO.
I’m surprised by the level of bias on this article. This isn’t a letter from a community member(s). Also there is no need to slander Craig Mack. He is a good person who cares about this community AND a dedicated volunteer who gives hours and hours of his free time to this town – at no benefit to himself or his family of six. Let’s remember ALL our SC members are volunteers with day jobs, and being on SC is not a small commitment. They all deserve our thanks and respect.
Also what is so outrageous about Good Friday being a school day so that kids of other traditions and faiths have one day where they don’t have to miss school and face the stress of having to make up work and fall behind? I have an 11th grader, and I can assure you she and most of her friends are extremely anxious when they even need to take a sick day. After all, Christians already get an entire week off for Christmas. It may officially be named “winter break” but everyone calls it “Christmas break” bc that’s what it is. As a Jew, I never get to spend Passover with my family in Fl, even though it’s one of only 3 high holy days in the Jewish calendar and marks the time Jews became a people (we only get one day off school for a two day holiday, clearly not enough time for families to travel), but there is some time given off for Jewish holidays (3 days total), so I’m not actually complaining or pushing for more. I’m not suggesting in the slightest that we change Christmas break, but giving up Good Friday (and letting families who feel it’s important to pull their kids out of school for the day, do so) is worth it to give people who celebrate other traditions ONE day. It shows respect and communicates that we recognize them and and their importance to our community. This is 3 days total we’re talking about. That the US and our community has become more diverse is a simple fact, and one that we should all embrace and celebrate.
And there is no war on Christmas or Christians, as so many have suggested. The hysteria around this, both in Wellesley and elsewhere, is either manufactured or outright delusional. Let’s be reasonable people.
It’s a winter break and every Jewish school that I know of in the area, and elsewhere, has a winter break and a spring break. The winter break also happens to coincide with celebrating the New Year. Christmas is a Federal holiday that falls within the winter break.
So what you’re saying is you think speaking of another person’s religion in the way Mack did is ok? You’re defending hurtful comments? Do you not see the people’s comments here and on community groups? They listened and were hurt. Instead of recognizing the hurt caused you will defend his words and say he is right? So there feelings aren’t valid? Maybe time for some self reflection.
He may donate time, but he signed up for the job. He ran and was elected. You demand respect for him, but where is his respect? No data driven evidence provided, but no lack of hate. How sad. This is what you want as a role model for your children?.
Continue preaching inclusion while minimizing the feelings and opinions of others. I’d rather be delusional than ugly to and judgmental of others.
Mr. Lerner – I would like to take this opportunity to share with you and others why Good Friday is a significant holy day in the Christian liturgical year and why I believe that it should remain on the school calendar. I speak as a practicing Catholic.
Holy Week, which culminates in Easter Sunday, is the holiest time on the Christian calendar. Holy Week is the last week of the 40 days of Lent, which begins on Palm Sunday and runs through Holy Saturday. Lent is a formal season of reflection, fasting, and almsgiving. Because Christians believe that Christ died for our sins, Lent is also the time for Christians to atone and seek forgiveness for theirs. Good Friday, which falls near the end of Holy Week, is considered the most significant day in Lent, which is why a past school committee, in its wisdom, rightfully included it as a day-off, along with the significant Jewish holy days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
Christmas is a national holiday. Unlike Good Friday, Christmas is a day of joyous celebration, feasting, and gift-giving. It could not be more different in tone or observance from Good Friday.
In the spirit of inclusion, I was pleased to see the school committee add Lunar New Year, Diwali, and Eid al-Fitr as days-off on the school calendar. The more we can learn from one another’s traditions, the better we can all get along. And the more we learn, the more we discover what our faith traditions have in common.
Wishing you a happy new year.
Thank you, Swellesley Report, for your coverage of this and other school committee and town meetings. After reading this article, watching the full meeting recording, and reading the robust conversation on the What’s Up Wellesley Facebook group, I am disappointed by the three school committee members who rushed this decision without adequate process. This decision and how it was arrived at was divisive and ideologically driven. It was not grounded in how to best support all learners.
I agree with Linda Chow and Catherine Mirick that this should be addressed at a bigger picture level. I would be in favor of updating the calendar to follow state and federal holidays, only. See the conversation at 17:37 where the Committee discusses what they call the IMDA* policy, approved in Spring 2023 to respect religious and cultural observances. Coupled with this, WPS currently recognizes 33 community-based religious and cultural observances, meaning students observing those holidays can ask for the time off and teachers bear these dates in mind when scheduling tests, assignments, etc (see bottom of the WPS Academic Calendar webpage https://wellesleyps.org/academic-calendar-2023-24/?fbclid=IwAR0Ccxy6i9S42ISm_L7R8kBMI-vIvIzF9i8sJ0lQHwbJt3o0n6AN0pSkrOw).
I welcome Wellesley becoming more supportive of diversity in all its forms (which I broadly define to include socioeconomics, neurodiversity, etc). I also believe that it’s possible to arrive at a solution that respects diversity AND supports our learners. The School Committee decision that was made on the 19th does not do this.
Again, thank you, Swellesley Report, for your coverage!
*Note, I don’t know what IMDA means. I tried to find the page that was displayed on the MASC (Massachusetts Association of School Committees) website, but couldn’t find it. I’m trying to be better informed, but it’s so hard to find the information!
Thank you for the summation. Really appreciate all the work that you do. I watched the meeting live and sat there with my mouth open to what I was watching. Not only was I shocked that a vote took place for such an important decision that practically no research was done for. I watch many of our meetings and these volunteers work so hard on behalf of our town, spending so much time and energy on research before making decisions that affect us all. This is not so with the school committee. So much disrespect and ignorance. Also between Craig Mack,l putting down the Catholic religion, and Leda Eizenberg, letting us all know that her daughter drives her decision-making for all of us, not to mention her unprofessionalism when her cat was allowed to stay on camera after it accidentally walked into the frame-it happens to the best of us but what it happens, we don’t let our pet just stay there and then laugh about it (with the cats rear end in the camera!) –during what was a very, important meeting and vote taking place. The whole meeting was a joke, and I cannot believe that this is the best we can do in our town on behalf of our kids! An apology is owed to the community by these two individuals on the school committee. I am embarrassed for Wellesley.
I agree completely. Leda Eizenberg and Craig Mack conducted themselves with a remarkable lack of maturity and professionalism at the meeting. It was cringeworthy.
As for Leda’s cat, I recall the utterly professional manner in which former Select Board chair Margery Freiman conducted herself when her cat inadvertently walked across her computer screen at a zoom SB meeting. Margery briefly noted the cat and then quickly moved on to business. She didn’t miss a beat, nor did she make a fool of herself – or her cat.
Please, how about No religious holidays during the academic year?
We NEVER got Good Friday off from school. Instead we went to 6 am Mass then to school and then back to church for 2+ hours of Stations of the Cross celebrations while we Knelt the entire time. Good Friday is for SUFFERING.
It was ridiculous when Good Friday became a holiday because a bunch of parents wanted the same thing as the Jewish families.
Instead, ZERO religious holidays and the students can use the maximum of three unpermitted absences to take one or two religious holidays of their choice.
Simple and Logical, because otherwise in a few years there will 10 or 12 religious holidays in the public schools….
So students should go to school on Christmas Day? lol
No Bob, I don’t believe Christmas should be a school or work day, and I don’t think anyone is suggesting that. And anyway, it’s a federal holiday, though one could argue that’s a Constitutional violation – though it’s a long part of US tradition and nobody would realistically suggest changing it.
But for me as a non-Christian, you’re LOL as in how can we not give a day off for a holiday of such importance as Christmas, betrays a lot about your perspective on the world and people. It suggests entitlement and a certain belief in one’s superiority over people of other traditions and backgrounds. It also demonstrates a belief that the US is still a fundamentally Christian nation, despite the separation of church and state so clearly spelled out by our founding principles. Christmas matters to Christians – sure I and many others appreciate the lights and festivities during the darkest part of the year especially. But the US has become a diverse country of people from everywhere, with different faiths and cultures.
And clearly I don’t support the views of the individual you were responding to, who wrote that we should scrap all days off given for holidays. These traditions matter to people and to families and become part of culture and identity – and denying families that is unfair and sad imo. I say this as a true atheist with a strong Jewish ethnic/cultural identity.
Bob, you are 100% correct!
Pretty soon Mr. Mack is going to want to start banning Christmas Trees!
That is certainly within the realm of possibilities.
Last year, for example, the Select Board chair proposed that the Town not hang festive wreaths on the lamp posts, which has been an annual or “settled” tradition. These wreaths, which are meant to generate holiday cheer, help the Wellesley business community by promoting holiday shopping. Fortunately, the Select Board chair was over-ruled, and we had the wreathes last year and again this year.
That said, I think we all need to be watchful of the secular grinches in our wonderful Wellesley community.
This is part of the political motivated nonsense on why parents are removing their children from the Wellesley Public Schools!
– only activities for certain ethnic groups where the school needs to get sued to change course
– only certain flags can be hung in schools however others are not allowed based off of certain political view points of the school committee
-canceling American day! That worked out great when the national media caught wind of it!
Now Craig Mack wants to cancel Good Friday for the whole town of Wellesley as it’s not aligned with his personal beliefs!
Craig, you really don’t get to you?! Stop stop stop Craig pushing your political agenda on our wonderful schools! It’s not wanted here!
Craig M. is really clueless with what Wellesley residents wants for their schools. We both live off of Bancroft in Wellesley and I can’t tell you how many of us on our street have issues with him, as it relates to his approach as a school committee member. It’s his viewpoints only and if we bring anything up to him , he is not someone that is willing to listen to you, especially if you have a different viewpoint.
Also, as everyone knows there is a huge shift from enrollment shifting from Wellesley public schools, to private schools in Wellesley, which the Swellesley report did a great job of highlighting recently.
Yet people like Craig M. still think it’s related to covid or younger families not being able to afford this town anymore. Yet, when you look at the data, that is not true. Craig M. should think twice before he makes jokes about Catholics! Really really unprofessional!
I completely agree. I was shocked and saddened by how trite and imprudent the school committee members were with the exception of Chow. Eisenberg and Mack were flippant at times, and there was an unprofessional quality to the meeting and how it was run with at least one member playing with her cat and referring to her 10th year old for advice on issues that impact almost the entire community. The sense that this was pre-designed to target Christians was felt multiple times and Mack’s rhetoric about Catholics was jarring, insensitive and telling.
Craig Mack is completely tone deaf and should resign from the board!
I live in his neighborhood and can’t tell you how many of his neighbors dislike him as he comes across as a know it all and is very demeaning when we bring up school related issues.
Also, during the November 2021 school board meeting you had parents express their frustration to the School Board on their handling or lack of handling regarding the latest bullying in the schools.
But Craig Mack felt the need to put his self interest first by kicking off his campaign to run for the school board telling them how wonderful they handled the bullying incident.
I really hope Craig reads this. Please do the town of Wellesley a favor by resigning or not running again for the school committee. The students will be better off without you on this committee!
We are at a point now that all religious holidays need to be eliminated. There is no case where we can include everyone, and for the sake of full inclusion, let’s think of those that don’t celebrate any form of religion.
I too watched the school committee meeting online. My overall impression was that the decision to add additional cultural/religious holidays was rushed without adequate in-depth deliberation. The Swellesley Report correctly highlights the comments made during the meeting by the School Committee Chair which were not appropriate and seem to provide a glimpse into his unfortunate bias on these issues.
Thank you for this excellent reporting, Mrs. Swellesley. I am glad that the school committee added the three new holidays to the school calendar.
As a practicing Catholic, I find Craig Mack’s remarks to be offensive and unprofessional. As an elected official, Mr. Mack should check his personal baggage at the door. So glad that I voted for the other candidate.
This article is spot on. Thank you for writing it. I found Mr. Mack’s behavior in general, and his commentary about Catholicism specifically, so incredibly unprofessional.
I find it shocking how the School Committee (SC) has abused its power and made decisions that impact thousands of families based on a child’s say, with no data or survey on the number of people celebrating religious holidays. As a Chinese American myself, I know the Chinese community in Wellesley has been pushing hard to have Lunar New Year included as a means to emphasize and appreciate the culture. What the SC did was offensive from my point of view, stating that ‘approving Lunar New Year would send a message of exclusivity if not approving the other holidays,’ regardless of how many people actually celebrate them in town. I did not vote for Mack, but it is beyond me that people in Wellesley somehow identify themselves with Mack and his group, wanting him to make decisions on the future of education for the children of Wellesley.
Thank you Swellesley report for shining a light on such a dysfunctional meeting and the lack of respect the SC has for members in our community. The outcome of the meeting clearly shows the pattern of how decisions are being made in our town and at our schools. Very important decisions are being made based on hurt feelings, not data and not with a process. The meeting was virtual signaling at its best, clearly alluding to “you are in the wrong” if you do not accept these changes.
I am very sad to see our schools go in this direction. The next thing you know we will be letting 10 year olds on Town Meeting (since there is no age requirement) and lowering the voting age to 16, to be fair to our teenagers of course.
Thank you again for stating what many residents are thinking. Merry Christmas!
PS : the last line is not joke. Coming to Town Meeting this March.
Great summary of the meeting. So few parents watch the school committee meetings and even fewer non-parent residents, that this is a real service to the town. These are the people we have voted into office and how they hold meetings and make decisions has very real consequences for everyone in town regardless of whether they have kids in school or not. Thanks for your continued excellent journalism. Frankly I am flabbergasted at the derisive comments by the chair. Very disrespectful of Catholics and all Christians – would he have said the same about practitioners of any other religion? I hope people remember his comments for the next voting season.