School Calendar Equity Considerations
As is the case with many topics, the views on the school calendar in the Falls Church City school community run the gamut, and whether it’s when to start, when to end, what holidays are included, how many half-days are necessary, etc., almost everyone recognizes the calendar is the outcome of an attempt to balance competing goals. Here, I’ll focus on the addition of various religious/cultural holidays in the coming academic year, but the considerations apply to all days off (including (but not limited to) the Monday holidays we have traditionally taken off).
The goal of adding more cultural/religious holidays is to be more equitable in recognizing days venerated by people from various cultures that have not been historically recognized by institutional calendars in our area. To that end, the board voted (at the recommendation of school staff) to add Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Diwali, and Eid al Fitr to this school year’s calendar. I applaud the board and school staff for recognizing the cultural diversity in our community.
Adding holidays to the school calendar increases cultural equity, but one part of systematic decision-making is asking whether a policy has any off-target effects or unintended consequences. Because these additional holidays are not usually recognized by institutional calendars in our area, without any further actions, additional days off of school (for religious holidays or otherwise) can place a large burden on families with lower incomes who cannot take time off from work (note: 8.4% of FCCPS students (~210 students) qualified for free/reduced price lunch last school year) and households (especially single-parent households) in which all caregivers are employed outside of the home. In addition to socio-economic and employment status, the effect of additional days off can vary based on the age of the children in the household and whether a child has special needs and/or receives regular services at school. I also know that for some (not many, but some) children, disruptions to their routines and schedules can cause many difficulties and make days off from school less conducive to their social, emotional, and academic progress.
A board member should strive to meet all needs in the school community that might arise on the path towards increasing cultural equity. With the chosen policy of adding additional holidays, one way of mitigating unintended consequences is to have the schools (either by themselves or in coordination with the Community Center) provide child care programs on these additional days for families that need it, ensure those programs remain affordable for all families (if there are any fees), ensure the children who receive various services from the schools are served appropriately, and ensure that these child care programs are reflected in the budget. Some of these issues received a brief mention on December 8 just before the school board voted on the school calendar. I look forward to any updates (from the school administration or the board) on these issues as the beginning of the school year gets closer. As a board member, I would continue to ensure these issues receive the necessary consideration and urge the board and the schools to be communicative about their efforts to address these issues.
p.s. In addition to holidays, there are many other considerations that go into developing an effective school calendar, including appropriate start and end dates (taking testing season into account), adequate professional development, how long winter break should be, the number of half-days, the number of “asynchronous learning” days, and many other issues. Underlying all these decisions should be a priority on effectively facilitating student learning (in a broad sense) and well-being.
p.p.s. Some members of the school community have asked why some other cultural holidays (such as Chinese New Year and Nowruz) were not included. I have been told that an important consideration for how the holidays were chosen is the increased absenteeism on those days, but that wasn’t mentioned in the initial board discussion in October nor were data presented. Absenteeism was only raised briefly in the discussions on November 17 and December 8, but only in regards to potentially shortening winter break. Absenteeism in regards to the extra holidays might have been brought up in the committee discussions and not in the board meetings. I will note that communicating not just the decision but also why that particular decision was made (i.e. knowing all the factors that went into a decision and what the alternatives were) goes a long way towards increasing public understanding of the issues. While I think some considerations were not adequately discussed, the three meetings in which the board discussed the school calendar are good examples of presenting options and presenting reasons for the final decision, and I applaud them for the work they did on the calendar.
