After adding three holidays to the 2024-25 academic calendar in a process that one parent called rushed and not transparent, the Wellesley School Committee has launched a task force to review and recommend changes to the religious and cultural holidays for the 2025-26 academic calendar.

The task force will come up with proposed academic calendar and “criteria for determining” religious holidays, said committee chairman Craig Mack during the Feb. 27 School Committee meeting (beginning at about 54 minutes into the Wellesley Media recording).

Member Leda Eizenberg agreed that a key purpose of the task force was to create a clear and transparent process for deciding which holidays the town observes in its school calendar.

“Is it because they are days of low attendance, are they days of religious significance, are they federal holidays, so that it can be applied going forward,” Eizenberg said.

Parents Wanted For Taskforce

The School Committee is seeking up to seven parents or caregivers to serve on the task force. Meetings will be on Thursdays at 7 p.m. beginning April 4. Most meetings will be held remotely. Five meetings will be held April to June, then another four meetings will be held in September and October. The goal is for the task force to present a report and recommendation to the School Committee in November 2024.

Parents can apply using this form. Applications are due by Friday, March 8 at 5 p.m. The School Committee plans to select parents and caregivers with a “broad array of backgrounds, experiences, including dual-working families, diverse views of calendar, and various grades/schools,” according to the School Committee’s presentation on the task force.

Direct questions about the application or the process should be directed to Linda Chow at chowl@wellesleyps.org. Parents will be notified by March 15 if they are selected.

How We Got Here

In December 2023, the School Committee approved six religious and cultural holidays for the 2024-25 academic calendar. Three holidays were added this year—Diwali, Lunar New Year, and Eid al-Fitr—which join Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Good Friday as days off for students, faculty, and staff.

The task force was first recommended during the Jan. 9 meeting, in which Superintendent David Lussier said the teachers’ union had asked for a say in school holidays for the 2025-26 academic calendar. Also during that meeting, a parent spoke during citizen speak to say the process seemed rushed and characterized by a lack of transparency.

In presenting the task force charge and details to the committee on Feb. 27, Chow repeatedly emphasized that the calendar meetings would be subject to open meetings laws to keep the process transparent to the public. All task force meetings will be recorded.

Details of Full Charge

Here is the full charge approved by the School Committee:

In an increasingly diverse community in which WPS strives to ensure a shared sense of value and belonging among students, staff, and families, how should the district
approach determining the academic calendar, particularly given the importance of religious and cultural holidays among its stakeholders?

As part of its process of creating recommendations for the School Committee, the Task Force, composed of a cross-section of community stakeholders, will consider a range of factors associated with any changes to the WPS Calendar and their impact operationally and programmatically to the district as well as to its culture and climate.

The Task Force will develop a report and recommendations for the School Committee’s consideration no later than November 2024.

The task force also will consider whether homework can be assigned on religious and cultural holidays.

New Faith/Cultural Leader Advisory Council

The School Committee recommended creating a new Faith/Cultural Leader Advisory Council that would attend some of the task force meetings and provide guidance to the task force, as requested.

The School Committee recommended the advisory council instead of adding a specific number of faith leaders onto the task force.

“The question was would we include faith leaders on the task force, but that ultimately felt like it would be unwieldy and a big time commitment,” Eizenberg said. “We are hoping to identify members of different religious and cultural communities that could sort of share with us what these holidays mean, why they might be of value, how they are observed, just to help frame thinking and make sure everyone has an understanding of the diverse cultures and religions that we’re taking into account.”

The new task force will be led by a School Committee member and include 23-27 members. In total, the breakout of the task force is expected to include: