Above: This month, school committees adopted three, reformatted Wellness Days (circled in purple) to include in the 2024-2025 NSBORO district calendar. (image by Beth Melo, edited from posted calendar)
Northborough-Southborough Public Schools’ Wellness Days won’t look the same next year. Starting in the fall, they will be fewer, more evenly spread out, and held as half-days for students.
Wellness days were introduced to the school calendar this year to help deal with religious/cultural holiday conflicts and student stress. The revisions are in response to Algonquin student and teacher feedback that this year’s schedule came with unintended negative consequences.
On Wednesday, March 13th, the combined Northborough, Southborough, and Regional school committees met to consider Superintendent Gregory Martineau’s proposal regarding adjustments and the continuation of Wellness Days.
Martineau’s Recommendation
Martineau’s proposed revision to the current Wellness Day schedule and process passed unanimously.
A total of three Wellness Days will fall on November 1, January 29, and April 17. These dates were chosen to provide breaks in the fall, winter, and spring. The aim is to ensure that students don’t face extra workloads on the days preceding or following these breaks.
The new dates for ’24-’25 still cover Diwali and the Lunar New Year, plus add Holy Thursday (the day before Good Friday). They won’t include the second full day of Yom Kippur and Halloween which had been included this year. (Feedback from surveys was that too many of the days had been loaded at the front of the school year.)
Due to the impact half days can have on parents, Regional School Committee member Kathleen Howland asked aboutt extending childcare benefits for families. Many of the members of the committee with children of their own shared their concerns about half days.
Martineau recommended partnering with the districts’ recreation departments, youth and family departments, and extended day programs to really give families the best options for the schedule changes.
One of the advantages of the half day approach is that it allows for the additional time that is needed for teacher development. This was a major concern that came up in the aforementioned surveys that were put out.
“If you talk about the stress in the wellness of an educator, it’s that predominantly their time is in front of students, and they have very little time to actually plan and learn and hone their craft,” Martineau said.
Southborough School Committee Chair Kamali O’Meally asked, “Is that enough time for the Educators to learn what they need to learn during that [Professional Development] time?”
Martineau’s response was that any additional time is useful. “I think it would be greatly appreciated and the schools would make the most of it.”
What are Wellness Days?
Wellness Days are a fairly new concept. In the discussion, Martineau’ focused on the intent to “provide opportunities for students to have evenings that really are homework free and workload free, [as well as free] from school events so that they can focus on their wellness.”
During the 2023-2024 school year there are four designated Wellness Days in which teachers are not allowed to assign work or plan for a test on that day.
Issues with Pre-Existing Wellness Days
As a student at Algonquin, I found Wellness Days to be helpful conceptually, but in practice they lacked in some aspects.
Making a day that teachers aren’t permitted to assign work caused the days before and after to be filled with tests. It’s difficult for teachers with a fixed curriculum and schedule to push back their plans too far, so the immediate solution was to place examinations around the day. Afterwards, a common sentiment amongst the student body was that it would be less stressful to simply have the tests dispersed throughout the week as they normally would be.
After survey results raised issues, the administration worked on putting together a revised format to recommend to the school committees.
One improvement is that two of the three days will be the last school day of the week, ensuring that no tests can be given afterwards.
The half day format will also give students more time to focus on non-school related activities, as well as give educators more time for professional learning.
Public Criticism
The public comments consisted of suggestions for how to better incorporate the need for various religious holidays and Wellness Days or days off simultaneously. Commenters mentioned Eid, a Muslim holiday, which is not scheduled to be observed with a day off or Wellness Day next year, despite its observance in surrounding towns such as Hopkinton and Westborough.
Speaking as a resident, Northborough Select Board Chair Mitch Cohen noted, “I fear that if we take away holidays as opposed to honoring additional [holidays], we’re moving in the wrong direction.”
Regional School Committee member Matthew Spencer responded that since students and families are not required to share their religious affiliation that it becomes more difficult to determine which holidays to take off.
“I probably lean towards adding religious holidays as well and not taking [them] away. I’m only open to taking away if we take the opportunity to educate when our fellow students are not in the school building because they’re participating in their religious holidays… I feel like schools are here to serve the community and if we don’t know which religious holidays they observe because we’re not allowed to ask them, how can we be truly responsive to meeting the needs of the community?”
Martineau’s response addressed the necessity of gathering comprehensive information through study groups to determine the most effective approach for managing holidays.
“Ultimately it’s 180 days. You have to place the 180 days in the calendar and that is a legal requirement.”
[Editor’s Note: This post was written by intern Laney Halsey with edits by Beth Melo.]
