Share This Article
The Sudbury Public Schools School Committee moved one step closer to voting a calendar for the 2026-2027 school year on Thursday, December 18. A unanimous vote of the committee advanced a draft calendar that will come back before the committee for a final vote at a later meeting. (Page 43 here.)
The committee had previously voted to have the administration produce a calendar that preserved the existing holidays on the current calendar on the basis of teacher and student absences, and the district’s ability to safely open the schools. That approach has been the preferred approach across many school districts in recent years, which are typically trying to stay on the legal side of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution while meeting student needs with an accommodation policy. (Details on recent legal developments here. Additional DESE info here.)
The format of the calendar was a focus of conversation on Thursday. A public comment from a member of the community criticized the committee for not listing Jewish holidays other than to say “No School.”
Most State and Federal “No School” days on the draft calendar had been labeled for the corresponding holidays, though Good Friday was also listed simply as “No School.” As it turns out, that practice has been in place for several years, tracing back to a 2022 decision by a different formation of the committee.
Member Nicole Burnard proposed either labeling all no school days with any corresponding holidays, or not labeling any of them. The majority of the committee voiced a desire to simply list all holidays as “No School” and then in the ensuing pages of the calendar list them out in a different format. Superintendent Brad Crozier committed to working on the formatting of the additional pages of the calendar for a version he will bring back at a later date.
While Burnard proposed changes to the labeling method, Chair Karyn Jones pointed out that Burnard was present at the November 21, 2022 school committee meeting when the committee voted unanimously to take the religious and cultural labels off of any “No School” days that were tied to religious observances.
The idea was proposed by then-Vice Chair Meredith Gerson and had the full support of the committee, including then-Chair Silvia Nerssessian and member Nicole Burnard. (Timestamp 32:00 in the below video)
At that meeting, the committee also supported adding a second page to the calendar that included a laundry list of religious and cultural observances in an effort to be more inclusive according to comments during the meeting. That format has been used in each of the years following the decision.
During the November 21, 2022 meeting Vice Chair Gerson said “We are a district that currently has Yom Kippur and Good Friday off. I think that we just label that as a ‘No School’ day and those days would be covered on the supplemental [page]. Ideally, I have always thought it strange that public schools get religious holidays off. And I know that Brad, in the past, you’ve said it’s because they’re historically low-attendance days. But some districts have, such as Belmont and Concord, have moved away from that. They get out of school nice and early in June. And again it’s not uplifting a select few religions and cultures in the school calendars. I think that would be a larger push, and there are bussing things that would need to be sorted out as well, because we share buses with Lincoln. For now I’d be happy moving the holiday names to a supplemental page that is more inclusive to all of our communities, cultures and religions.”
Superintendent Crozier asked for clarification and both Chair Nerssessian and Vice Chair Gerson confirmed that the Federal holidays would be left on the calendar but religious holidays would be moved to the second, supplemental page. Gerson referenced Belmont Public Schools as a good example for how to do it, and emphasized calling out the accommodations available for students observing any religious holidays.
After some additional discussion, member Sarah Troiano added “I’m in agreement. I think this would be a really great move forward and improvement to actually be more inclusive and representative.” Members Nicole Burnard and Mandy Sim also added that they agreed.
The ensuing vote was unanimously in favor.
The 2026-2027 SPS calendar is expected to come back before the committee in the coming weeks. The meeting packet is available below.