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After some leg work to ensure compliance with the Massachusetts Open Meeting Law, the Tri-District Calendar Review Subcommittee has begun its work to review the calendars of the Sudbury Public Schools, Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School and Lincoln Public Schools.
The specific goal of the subcommittee’s work remains somewhat unclear after their Thursday, June 26 meeting. Consideration of certain religious and cultural holidays are part of the discussion, but the existence of a Tri-District Subcommittee was also positioned, in prior conversations, as a general means of finding ways to bring the calendars of the three districts into closer alignment wherever possible.
With regard to specific holidays, the subcommittee discussed wanting to avoid the impression that a group of stakeholders advocating for inclusion of Diwali, Eid, and Lunar New Year were directing the work of the subcommittee.
Chair Nicole Burnard told the subcommittee “I have two concerns. One is if we’re inviting only specific faith leaders by invitation-only to join us, is it being exclusive to other potential faiths that may request having their holiday off? So I want to be mindful of giving the appearance that the leaders are not advocating for their holiday, as opposed to educating the committee in terms of what the holiday encompasses. I don’t want to get into a discussion over one holiday being more important than another holiday based on advocacy of faith leaders. So I just think it’s an important criteria to have the faith leaders, if and when we have them, really just to educate the committee moving forward.”
Burnard went on to add comments regarding communication received from the public “Over the last several weeks there seems to be a growing concern that the committee is being directed by those advocating for holidays. I’m very grateful for their advocacy and sharing their stories, as well as their continued engagement and open conversation with members of the committees. I also realize that advocacy from the community is one piece of the puzzle while we continue our work and investigate every avenue. So I just want to make sure as a committee we are being transparent to everyone in the community. While vocal, the advocates are not directing or steering the work of the committee.” (46:30)
Member Ken Lepage described the holidays being considered as a “package deal” and expressed that he didn’t expect the committee to be “picking and choosing” among them for holidays to include in a calendar recommendation.
The subcommittee discussed non-exclusive methods for collecting input from a broad selection of faith leaders with consistent questions for each. It appeared at the end of the meeting that the subcommittee was entering a data collection phase of their process, and that data could inform the direction they take in the future. The subcommittee can make recommendations to the full school committees in each district, but the full committees retain all authority to take any action on calendar changes.
