Earlier this month I wrote about the options for next year’s Northborough-Southborough’s public schools calendar that the combined school committees would be voting on. I haven’t had time to follow up on that vote. Fortunately, the Community Advocate has.
The vote kept in place the observance of three religious holidays — Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Good Friday. But according to the CA’s Article, the district still may be headed towards removing all religious observances in future years.
The Northborough-Southborough Coalition for Equity’s calendar working group recommended that the district eliminate the holidays from the 2025-2026 calendar year.
The CA wrote:
After approving “Option 1” for 2023-2024, the focus immediately shifted to next year’s calendar. The committees voted to declare their intent to keep the holidays on the 2024-2025 calendar and vowed to continue to work to find an equitable solution to the scheduling conflict. Though almost all members adamantly agreed, the vote was ultimately non-binding and members may change their minds by next year’s scheduling process.
You can read their full coverage of the decision and the reactions here.
An announcement by Superintendent Gregory Martineau wrote about the biggest change in next year’s calendar:
The 2023-2024 School Calendar also includes four Wellness Days, which are District-wide days where no homework, tests, or quizzes will be assigned. More detailed information regarding wellness days will be communicated at the beginning of the 2023-2024 school year.
You can find next year’s calendar here, and Martineau’s announcement here.
