HomeMy WebLinkAbout2024-03-18-SC-min LEXINGTON SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEETING
Monday, March 18, 2024
Meeting Minutes
AGENDA:
CALL TO ORDER AND WELCOME: 5:21 PM
SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT
Sara Cuthbertson, Chairperson
Kathleen Lenihan, Clerk
Eileen Jay
Larry Freeman
SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS PRESENT
Dr. Julie Hackett, Superintendent
The minutes were taken by Julie Kaye, School Committee Meeting Recording Secretary.
The School Committee convened remotely. Members of the public can view and participate in
person or in the meeting webinar from their computer or tablet by clicking on the link provided
with the meeting agenda. Please note that this meeting is being recorded and that attendees
are participating by video conference. This evening's meeting is being broadcast live and also
taped by LexMedia for future on-demand viewing. All supporting materials that have been
provided to members of this body are available on the Town's website unless otherwise noted.
Vote to Accept the Neurodiversity Cele ration eek Procla ation
Ms. Cuthbertson read the Proclamation.
Mr. Freeman moved to approve the Neurodiversity Celebration Week Proclamation,
Ms. Lenihan seconded. Ms. Cuthbertson took a roll call vote, passed 4-0.
Ms. Jay asked how this will be handled annually. Ms. Cuthbertson will ask the HRC if the School
Committee will need to vote a new week every year.
Public Hearing on School Calendar Working Group Recommendations
A public hearing was held regarding the proposed calendar recommendations by the School
Calendar Working Group:
a. Recommendation #1
b. Recommendation #2
Ms. Lenihan will work on getting calendar examples that go through a couple of different years
to help with clarity.
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Ms. Jay asked if the Calendar Working Group consulted various leaders of faith-based
organizations. Ms. Lenihan replied, "Did we specifically go out and say here's x church, let's go
talk to someone at that church? No" Ms. Jay asked about Recommendation #4 and who we
would consult as to which day off would be Jewish holiday. Ms. Lenihan replied that it would be
Yom Kippur.
Public Comments
Candice Lin (student): "I'm a junior at Lexington High School. I'm also here with Angela
and Lucy to represent the Chinese American Association of Lexington, The Youth Council in
advocating for the inclusion of Lunar New Year into the school calendar. So, Lunar New Year is a
very important holiday in China but also holds profound cultural significance in Vietnam and
South Korea. Regrettably, it's also the only Chinese holiday that still plays a large role in my
life. So, like many of my peers, I am a Chinese American teenager, meaning I was born and
raised here in the US, but I still have this Chinese ethnicity. So, growing up, I witnessed a lot of
others lose touch with their Chinese heritage. Many even struggled to speak Chinese with their
parents and gravitated towards English that they'd grown accustomed to at school. And growing
up, I would tell myself, "I'll never be like them," and I was so determined to continue learning,
and embracing my Chinese heritage. But upon entering middle school and high school, I realized
that the same was happening to me. This drift away from our culture was a bit inevitable,
considering that environments like school offered little support and training for this
already diminishing connection. I've already stopped celebrating a lot of Chinese holidays that I
once anticipated, such as the Mid-Autumn Festival and the Dragon Boat Festival. And all these
holidays just blended together for me. The sole exception to this was Lunar New Year, and I
don't think you understand how happy I was to learn that Lunar New Year fell on a Sunday this
year because I knew that there wasn't going to be school and that I could finally attend all the
performances and community gatherings I missed for the past few years due to school
homework and other endless assignments. And my cousins in China always told me that I'm
really lucky to receive such a good education in America. And I really agree with them because
Lexington is such a wonderful public school system. But as I scroll through their social media,
on their social media during their week-long vacation and celebration for Lunar New Year, I see
them together as a family, laughing, eating, and celebrating. And my mom always manages a
somewhat like joining celebration by sticking in a video call during work, but at school, I don't
get this luxury. And by the time I get home from school, I would have missed the gathering
altogether due to the time difference. I would feel like a hole in my chest, and I didn't know
exactly what I was feeling it might have been like, I don't know, maybe jealousy, sadness, or
just a bit of disappointment, but I know for sure that students shouldn't have to choose
between education or the celebration of their culture. So including Lunar New Year into the LPS
calendar may not single-handedly restore every student's connection to their culture, but I do
believe that it represents a significant step in the right direction, particularly considering the
large Asian population within our town. I feel like embracing Lunar New Year upholds the LHS
core value of We All Belong, and it sends a powerful message to students that their cultural
heritage is not only acknowledged but also celebrated within our educational system and
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calendar. It enriches, like the educational experience by promoting inclusivity, respect, and
cultural diversity. I feel like the same can be said about the other cultural holidays that are being
considered, such as Diwali and Eid, and I hope you take into account the significance when
designing the next school calendar and I'd like to thank you for your time and consideration"
Lucy Wei (student): "Out of the 2 billion people in the world to celebrate the Lunar New Year,
my family is one of them. Lunar New Year isn't the Asian Christmas or Thanksgiving, It's THE
holiday of my culture. To give you some context in China, the Lunar New Year isn't a single day,
It's a full three weeks called the Spring Festival. It dates back to 1,600 BC, which is 2,000
years before the creation of Christmas. Like the inception of many holidays, it was created to
celebrate the end of winter, a harsh season where people were isolated and trapped by the
increased difficulty of survival. The Lunar New Year broke the period of isolation with families
coming together and feasting on foods, lighting fireworks, and giving gifts. It was, and is, a
celebration being with the people you love and simply enjoying the sanctity of life, a universal
message that extends beyond the Asian community. When I was eight years old, my February
break happened to overlap with the Spring Festival, and I had the privilege to truly experience
the Lunar New Year in China. For the first time in my life, I lit fireworks and firecrackers with my
cousins, I sat around a table with my aunts and uncles, And I was able to spend time with my
grandparents and watch my sister[inaudible]from my grandparents. It was really funny. I
genuinely felt happy simply being with my family. When I look back at these moments, it
reminds me that the Lunar New Year I celebrate at home is a fraction of this experience. It's not
because Massachusetts is the only state that completely bans all consumer fireworks, and it's
not because my extended family moved across the Atlantic Ocean in China, in a completely
different timezone. It's because there's simply no time to celebrate it. I have to go to school. It's
a stark reminder that in the name of assimilation in elementary school, I gave a bunch of
[inaudible]. I used to hyper-fixate on the pronunciation of words because I was scared I had
inherited my mom's accent. I'm tired of having to forfeit my heritage into American culture.
However, it bothers me more that for a community that emphasizes inclusivity and equality, the
Lunar New Year, the cornerstone of many individuals in this community, culture celebrations are
acknowledged but excluded, or you aren't given the time to celebrate it. Instead, we are forced
to make decisions between keeping up in school and our culture. It's choices unfairly placed on
us. The benefits of including the Lunar New Year as an actual LPS holiday extend beyond
families like mine, who celebrate it as a part of their heritage. Some holidays actively engage me
to recognize and learn more about the diverse histories and cultures of people in the
community. The focal point of Lunar New Year is to celebrate togetherness and build
connections within a community, affirming LPS is my mission statement that we all belong thank
you for your time and consideration."
Angela Tang (student): "I'm a junior at Lexington High School as well. And I'm also here with
Candace and Lucy from the CAAL Youth Leadership Council. So, for as long as I can remember,
I've also never celebrated Lunar New Year without working over my head. And as a result, year
after year, I would neglect to celebrate the holiday with my family, and on a few occasions when
I made the effort to celebrate, for example, when I tried to make dumplings with my family, one
of the most essential dishes for the holiday, there was always this nagging feeling in the back of
my mind that I still have some work to do and I was never able to truly enjoy the holiday for
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what it was meant to be, which is a cleansing of the bad from the past and a welcoming of the
new. But I couldn't really welcome the new or cleanse the past when I saw pages of math
homework, and I couldn't really truly celebrate when I still have mounds of work to do as well,
usually during Lunar New Year. In addition, my family calls my relatives back in China to
celebrate the fundamental holiday together. But when I joined in on these calls, I always just say
a brief Hello before returning to my room to catch up on my work, when I really wanted to talk
to them for hours and catch up and make up for the years that we haven't seen each other but I
really couldn't because I still had so much work to do. So, I hope you realize there's starting to
be a pattern by now. However, regardless of the circumstances, I believe the current school
schedule in general just sets a dangerous and toxic paradigm for a town, which is that our
current schedule encourages Asian American kids like myself to drift away from their culture.
Because when you can never truly celebrate Lunar New Year without work hanging over your
head; but you can, for example, always have a free and fun Christmas. It makes for a cycle
where kids are encouraged to drift away from Lunar New Year and in turn, their culture as well.
And kids will always unconsciously think of other holidays like Christmas as more fun, and thus
they'll always just disregard Lunar New Year because who wants to really celebrate a holiday
that still requires someone to go to school and do homework as well. Kids won't anticipate
Lunar New Year, we won't have the luxury of lying awake in our beds, ready for the fun day
ahead. Instead, it's just going to be another day of mundane schoolwork, and by the time we
get home, we're probably going to be too tired to partake in any of the fun, dramatic
celebrations that the holiday comes with. And the kids who do make the effort to celebrate they
really just fall behind on schedule, unlike all their peers, which just makes for a discouragement
of kids putting their work aside to celebrate their culture and with school being many of our
priorities right now, the school schedule in turn unquestionably sets a paradigm on what
should, and shouldn't be prioritized for us. And with one of the highest Asian populations in
Massachusetts, it's honestly just incoherent to me as to why the town does not extend more
efforts to allow us Asian American students to connect with one of the most foundational
holidays of our culture and history. And also, the same can be said for Diwali and Eid. So thank
you for your time today and attention today, and I hope you can consider our voices into your
choice"
Douglas Folsom - 661 Lowell St: "I'm a liberal Democrat who's also a Christian, so I'm not
coming at this from an evangelical point of view. I'm coming at it just from a Christian point of
view. I'm also a former pastor, and I would just say I don't know why they're considering trying
to get rid of Good Friday being a day off because, really, it's the only Christian holiday during the
school year that is for a Christian holiday because Christmas you can't say because it's not called
"Christmas holiday" or "Christmas break"; it's called December break. And no matter what
there would be a need for a break in December because as the longest school period of time
between September and the middle of December. No other time of the school year do you go
that long without any sort of break, and so there needs to be a December break. I would just
encourage it because there should be a separation of church and state. I'm not sure why the
school is thinking so much about the need to have to teach about all these different religions.
When really is that the school's place? I mean, my daughter has been coming home with all
sorts of religious symbols and teachings about different religions and their holidays, but I don't
think you'd like it if I came in and taught about Christianity and handed out crosses. I mean,
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some of this seems like it's not about inclusiveness, it's about trying to exclude or get rid of
Christianity, and I don't think that's right, either. My proposal is don't have any school closings,
for any of the holidays and just let the teachers not give any homework or give kids excused
absences for anybody that wants to take the day off for their particular holiday. The other issue
that comes up is that not all religions are peaceful and honor women. Why are we supposed to
celebrate those religions? I think you had to be cognizant of that. I just don't see where I can
understand why you don't want someone like me coming in teaching about Christianity. That's
not the place of the school system. But I do believe in the Lunar New Year, you should make
time for kids to celebrate that".
Denit Netzer- 17 John Poulter Rd: "I wanted to voice my concern about dropping the Jewish
holiday of either Rosh Hashanahh, which is the Jewish New Year, or Yom Kippur, which is the
holiest day, which includes fasting. I understand that there is a proposal to alternate those each
year, so we would only have one Jewish holiday per year. I wanted to say that I think that that
solution is not sustainable of alternating each year. I think it will create confusion for families
and for teachers. My second point is I think demographics in our town is important, and there
are many Jewish students, families, faculty, and teachers who are not going to be in school
during those days. I will also add that we do have a lot of Asian students, and therefore a Lunar
New Year and Diwali do make sense in this situation for our town. I just want to say that I think
that the cancellation of one Jewish holiday seems unnecessary and confusing, and it's
particularly targeting for the Jewish community at this time when there was a lot of
antisemitism, even here in our town, given the war in Israel and Gaza. So I would like...I think
that that issue is significant and needs to be considered. We have all kinds of anti-semitic events
and issues in our area on college campuses. And this is a hot topic, which really triggers many of
us in the community. I will just point out that we have, there are 10 Professional Learning days
on the calendar, which are half days and I don't understand what those are. Maybe somebody
can speak to that at some point and in addition to two half days. So perhaps, I don't know who
makes that decision if it's the teachers union or MTA or some other group, but how about
adding a few more school hours instead of taking all of those professional learning days. Thank
you for your time"
Kairvi Rathi (3rd-grade student): "I am in third grade, and I go to Estabrook School. So during
Diwali, we recite an ancient hymn that translates to "Om, may all be happy, by all be healthy,
free from illness. May All See what is auspicious. May no one suffer in any way." I am so glad to
be on this call and to have gotten a heartwarming reply to the letter I sent about having a
holiday on Diwali. I'm here today to give a speech on why we should have a day off on Diwali.
The hymn meaning I started with today is an overarching thought behind the well-being of
mankind and having a happy life. Celebrations become a medium. I know that school is
important because students learn to be capable of anything when they're older. But religion is
important as well. Just like with education, we become able; religion brings us a sense of
belongingness, and that's why I think we should have a day off on Diwali. We need time to pray,
worship, spend time with family and friends, and just enjoy the feeling of being who we are.
Once again, thank you for letting me on this call. And thank you to my parents, who gave me the
courage to know that I could always dig deeper. I'm grateful to be part of a community that
respects and appreciates belongingness. Thank you so much. Bye."
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Suhani Jain (3rd Grade student): So I think we should have a holiday or break on Diwali because
it's special to some people around here like Kairvi Rathi and some other people. So it's also a
little unfair because lots of holidays from different cultures get breaks like Christmas, Hanukkah,
and lots more. So why can't we ever break for Diwali? One reason we should have a break for
on Diwali is because it's important to me and a lot of people in Lexington. It's important to me
because it's a special day when you celebrate when Rama came back home from his 14 year
exile from the city. We, my family, and most everyone also celebrate it as the Festival of Lights
when they do peace for good over evil or lightness over darkness. My second reason is that it's
sad not to get to celebrate this fun and special holiday because of school. We want to be with
our family and friends on a special day. So please make a break. You can even add two days to
school to make a break. One more reason I think we should have a break on Diwali is because of
the importance of the holiday. Like Kairvi Rathi said, you have to say lots of important prayers.
This Diwali I had to go to the temple so early and come back all the way to school so early
because I had to go to school and lots more stuff to do. Thank you.
Alexa Muse - "I'm an 11th year English teacher and my second year teaching at
Lexington High School. I'm also a PhD candidate at the University of Oxford in education with a
focus on equity and education policy. Honestly, I'm not super opinionated about either
calendar, but I am pretty concerned especially with the statement we were worried about how
the quantitative results of a potential survey may prevent us from adhering to the value of
majority rules. So the things that the committee took into account were things like anecdotal
evidence, which is important as a qualitative researcher I agree, previous discussions and
published data on town students, staff demographics but without like a statistician looking at
them. And that really, really concerns me that a committee would put down quantitative data
that really is needed to support marginalized voices. We have students and families coming
here to plead with a committee, and that's not fair to them, that you believe their identities
would not be quantitatively significant. I'm hearing people come here to validate their identities
as worthwhile to be put onto a calendar. But there needs to be an equitable and careful way to
do this. For example, in the Orthodox Church, they celebrate Christmas on January 7, or in
Wiccan culture or...or...or and I could keep going. I understand and I love the idea of inclusivity
but it needs to be done in a way that incorporates both mixed methods, qualitative and
quantitative data. And I'm deeply concerned when a calendar is made based around the
discussions of people without taking into account deeper analyses of the data than what can be
determined by a random committee. Thank you."
Yiyun (Yolanda) - "You can also call me Yiyun, I also represent Chinese American Association of
Lexington, and I'm an 11th grader in Lexington High School. So, I'm different from others, I'm an
immigrant from China, I came to the US in 2022. Back in my previous life, our school had a
winter break just for Lunar New Year. And we usually spend a lot of time to prepare for meals as
a family and put out decorations for visiting relatives. And because my my dad and mom live
away from my grandparents, so we'll usually travel from other cities to visit my grandparents
and spend time with each other. And then, my family decided to travel to the US, and things
change, and understand about change. So this year we got lucky because the school gave a half
day on the celebration and we still had a great time preparing meals and put on decorations, I
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have time with family and friends. And the teacher recognized our holiday and was willing to
postpone many tests. However, I still feel something is lost because right now, I moved to the
US, I cannot fly back to China to visit my grandparents. And when I wake up, we usually will
watch an annual celebration performance on TV, but because of school, I cannot watch the
whole series. And also, I don't have enough time to call back to my grandparents because of
school. And when I get back from the half-day they are already in sleep because like they're
older people and they need rest. So, if the school are willing to consider to add a day just for
New Year to learn Chinese, students to come back to their relatives from the people in back in
China, and you will spend important time with their family. We will be really, really appreciative
of this decision, and that's all I want to say".
Rachel Athens - 53 Rhinecliff St, Arlington: "I'm a teacher at Clarke. So, following the
presentation at the School Committee meeting last week, looking more closely at the data that
they provided in the slideshow, and then also speaking with a member of the working team, I
do think that it's vital to create some dedicated time and space for LEA members to discuss the
calendar recommendations before we vote one put into effect. I, too, wanted to raise the
concerns about the calendar recommendations that they stem from very limited data, some of
which I think may include some personal bias, some hearsay, and they use data from
non-comparable or surrounding communities like Framingham, Easton, and Hopkinton. I'm a
little concerned that the lack of input from a variety of community members has accidentally
led to some assumptions about the preferences of the community as a whole. I am concerned
that in an effort to be inclusive, the calendars inadvertently might favor some more wealthy and
affluent families in the community and don't really consider the impact on other groups,
including but not limited to single-parent households, full-time working-parent households, and
households in which the primary income is hourly based. Despite the slideshow presentation,
the calendar recommendations do not align with many of the surrounding communities, and
therefore, they assume that our committee members are not educators in other districts. I
recognize that there is no calendar that will be perfect or please everyone. Overall, the calendar
recommendations do feel premature because they don't consider a wider range of community
input, nor do they consider the impact of other groups. So I'm asking that the School Committee
hold off on making any changes to the calendar, especially for next year, until the community
input can be considered, including LEA members, and more formal data can be collected and
evaluated. Thank you so much for your time and consideration"
Lisa Foo - 289 Wood St: "There was a comment made earlier that seemed to be implying that
the holidays that the calendar committee was recommending to be added were representative
of religions that were not peaceful and did not respect women. And I know that there recently
was a School Committee meeting where somebody made a slew of remarks that were
immediately addressed by the people who are running the meeting. And I just want to put
out there that those comments I don't think are representative of the values of the community
as a whole. Secondly, I just also additionally would like to advocate for the retention of the
Jewish holidays as they have been in the calendar. These are holidays that involve full-day
worship and celebration, and so it's not that you can easily be participating in that with being at
school, especially at Yom Kippur being a fast day. And the fact that they're at the beginning of
the school year additionally makes it very challenging for students to be getting into the milieu
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of the school year with missing those early days of school. When I look at the days that are
being suggested of being taken off, or rather no longer being taken off, the only group that ends
up really being negatively targeted by that are Jews because the day before the Labor Day
weekend is not for religious reason as I read through the information provided by the
committee, that Good Friday, even the clergy in the area said this is not a problem to be making
that an early release day. And especially as an earlier caller said of what's been going on locally
in terms of incidents of antisemitism and larger issues throughout the country, I think that the
optics of that the only group that would be disadvantaged in this proposal would be Jewish staff
and students is something that should be considered. Thank you"
Jane Reynolds - 31 Curve St: "I'm speaking to support most of the suggestions, but I did have a
few things. I think there are a lot of people in town who have interracial or interfaith marriages,
and I just wanted to speak up for a second for those groups. I'm personally Catholic, but I've
married into a Chinese American family. I wanted to reiterate I would absolutely support having
Lunar New Year granted as a holiday. I think it's kind of amazing that it hasn't been up until now,
considering the numbers in the town. And I think it would only be fair to add Eid and Diwali. I
agree with those who pointed out that even if it might be fair in some ways to have one holiday
per religion, given everything that is going on in the world at this time, this really seems like an
awful time. You know, a really terrible time to ask the Jewish community to somehow choose
between Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah. And so I would, I would suggest leaving that alone. As
far as the Christian holidays go, there was one speaker earlier who noted that, in a way, having
Christmas as our holiday doesn't quite count, and I think there is something to that. Because so
many people celebrate it in a secular way. I just wanted to mention if Good Friday is on a half
day, that would work as far as religious observance goes because, for people who don't realize
what might be involved in celebrating Good Friday, we have no religious obligation in the
morning. The biblical tradition says that Jesus was dying between the hours of noon and three
out of course, who knows, but that's the tradition. And so you are expected to have a sort of
time of prayer and reflection in those hours and then go to church at three o'clock. So if
everyone were let out, you know, and of course, nobody is going to fuss over 12 verses 12:30.
But that would be the reasoning for people who aren't aware for just having half a day but not
necessarily a full day. There's no reason that children could not be in school in the morning. So
those are my thoughts. Thank you for the opportunity to speak"
Nikhil Shah (student): "I am a sixth grader at Clarke Middle School, and I've spoken to School
Committee a couple of times about the importance of Diwali and how I would love if it was
recognized as a formal holiday or school calendar. I'm here just to address that issue again
because Diwali's always been such an important holiday to my family and just to my religion in
general. But when I have put a day's work into setting up for Diwali, preparing food, and just
getting my whole house ready and clean for it, the outcome of it is it's just more is less than
what I would expect it to be. Since I have schoolwork, I have to get done, or I have a test I have
to study for the next day. I'm interested just because I've addressed this issue so many times
and just looking at the amount of people who've also find this holiday is under-represented
even though we have such a large Hindu population throughout our town. I find that it would be
amazing if this holiday could be formally represented as other holidays are on our school
calendar. And especially since a lot of my other friends who celebrate Jewish holidays or
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Christian holidays, they can invite friends and family over on that day. However, with my family,
especially on Diwali, I can't invite my family and friends over since it's a school night or I have
schoolwork to get done. That's all for thank you so much. Thank you for your time. Thank you."
Sam Schlussel and Lizzie Bell - 65 Solomon Pierce Rd: "We want to express our support for the
Jewish community and for especially what's going on in the world right now. And we also think
it'd be really hard to have one holiday, not the other. You know we've grown up with various
levels of religiousness in our lives. But you know, the High Holidays in the Jewish religion are
extremely important, as you all know, and it's one of the things that attracted us to come to
Lexington is that we knew that the holidays would be off in the school calendar. That signaled to
us that this is a town that, you know, takes the Jewish community seriously. And so we just can't
imagine having one, not the other off. It just seems so silly because, you know, it's hard as an
adult having to go to my first job telling my boss, you know, I'm Jewish, I have to take the
holiday off. And I think it'd be really hard for my kids and tell their teacher, you know, they're
shy, and I just think it would really deteriorate in terms of them not celebrating at all because it
would just feel really stressful I think, for them to have to like, tell the teacher they can't do the
project or they can't come to school that day. And that's sort of how it's been in my life. So I
think that given that there's so many towns in Massachusetts which do have both holidays off, I
would just be a little bit more proud to be part of that list. And I really appreciate your time.
Thank you"
Ms. Lenihan made the following clarifying statement: "There's the one calendar option that has
both Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah as holidays. The other option isn't rotating, it's that Yom
Kippur is a school closure day. Whenever Yom Kippur is on a school day, it is a school closure.
The reason why Rosh Hashanah is the closure next year is because Yom Kippur is on a Saturday.
So if Yom Kippur is on a Saturday or Sunday, then Rosh Hashanah is a school closure. But if both
Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah are school days, only Yom Kippur is the closure."
Monica Manocha - 142 Pleasant St.: "So I just was mentioning that I was very happy to hear all
the speech given by the kids from different cultures and I mark the importance of these holidays
too. I just wanted to add just few things which because I am an educator now and I feel that I
should mention that this holiday which is Diwali is mostly celebrated for the kids so that they
understand the importance of light over darkness and a new beginning associated with the
Hindu New Year. It is the triumph of good over evil too, so whenever we celebrate this holiday
we start from night before and it goes for two days. So having a holiday that day creates a lot of
enthusiasm in the family to decorate the houses to cook food, as you know about Indian culture
is mostly around food and decoration. So I want this holiday to be included for the reason that
we all community members enjoy being together and togetherness is the key. But I also respect
other holidays too, like the Jewish holidays and the Chinese Lunar Year. So I want to mention my
part that if it is a day that is a happy day. It should be a holiday."
Danit Netzer: "Thank you for taking my call again. I just wanted to kind of reiterate something
that another speaker said which is both Rosh Hashanahh and Yom Kippur are celebrated or
commemorated during the day. While most Jewish holidays begin the evening before, those
two days are actually full-day events in which many in our community will actually spend the
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entire day in synagogue, or several several hours a day in synagogue. So if there is school, our
students will not be able to attend the services in synagogue, so these are not just holidays that
are celebrated in the evening. I just want to make sure that the community understands that,
and they are both holy days again. And we do not have any other Jewish holidays in the
calendar, we do not have time off for Hanukkah, or Passover, or Purim, or any other any other
Jewish holidays. So those are the only two and thanks again for taking my call."
Katie Wipke - 53 Asbury St: "I have had some appearances long ago to the School Committee
about the calendar, and I feel pretty passionate about the fact that we moved here, and we
decided to go to public school for the fact that it's public and it's separation of church and state
so to speak. And I am a firm believer that we can honor the national holidays and once we get
into, I mean I think that Good Friday should be eliminated. I grew up Catholic, but I don't think it
should be part of a public school system. And I don't think that it's fair to honor some religions
and not others. And once you enter in and allow some religious holidays of whatever
denomination it's a slippery slope. And I think it should be the national holidays given that
Christmas is a national holiday but most everyone around the country takes that week off
between the two holidays at the end of the year. So I also want to say a side note on the rest of
the year. When we get out of school so late, and we have relatives that live in other parts of the
country, and they get out of school, much different than not like in late May or mid-May. Our
relatives or cousins, my kids cousins. We can only overlap in the month of July because they go
back and you know. So it's not just religion. It's also timing. It's families that don't live here that
don't you know, we want to have some connection with our family and have a little bit more
leeway. And that's all I wanted to say thank you."
Catie Sawka: "I'm a teacher at Bowman Elementary School. And I just wanted to speak
on behalf of some staff in regards to the calendar changes. Some staff across the district just
wanted to put out there that all of these days will impact student learning and face-to-face time
with the kids. That going until the end of June is and will be very hard for students and staff as
the buildings are not all equipped for the increase in climate change that has occurred. Also,
lots of families end up being put into difficult situations as summer camps start at different
times and it makes it hard for families to plan their vacations. And then we can't do end-of-year
celebrations with all of the kids or we can't complete all of the testing for the end of the year. So
we just wanted to put that on everyone's radar as well. Thank you for your time, and have a
good evening."
Dr. Avon Lewis: "There are undoubtedly many varied reasons for doing each of these holidays.
My concern right now is the process with which you are undertaking on this. And the fact that
there was not an effort to solicit feedback from community and family in a systematic way
through surveying or something. And you had a small group, but there was not a lot of asking
about it. And I feel like people would have felt more heard if we had had a chance to contribute.
And just on another note, years ago Lexington used to start after Labor Day. I vastly prefer that.
Unfortunately, we agreed years ago to start before Labor Day, to shorten the school year in
June, out of respect for the religious holidays that we wanted to keep in the calendar. But the
agreement was at that point, that we would move before Labor Day but that Friday before
Labor Day we'd keep as a day so that families could do the things we do on holiday. My family
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has for years gone camping that weekend. And I am very saddened that this agreement that
was worked out years ago between the School Committee, the LEA and the community, is being
sort of pushed aside and has not been considered. So if we want to make the school year
shorter, we want to end earlier in June, why don't we just start after Labor Day? Okay, then we
have a longer summer. Okay, and it gives people through the end of the summer at the sort of
New England traditional and the summer point of Labor Day. So, anyway, thank you. That's all
wanted to say."
Angela Tang (student): "I already talked before, but I'm just going to talk again because I've
heard some really valid points on both sides. But I just wanted to maybe reiterate a few points
and give also another perspective. So I think the main thing I would like the board to consider
with this decision, is that the main people that are being affected are the students and staff of
the schools and obviously, families and such are being affected as well. However, as students
who feel really strongly about this issue, I think it is super important to us, especially because as
high school students, school is what we prioritize right now because school is pretty important
to us. And we really do value our education and all of that, however, it really is just impossible
for us to maintain a balance between our education and our culture if the schedule does not
allow any sort of leeway for that. There are valid concerns on both sides of, you know, like,
maybe families who aren't able to, like find, like care for their kids. But I also would just like to
propose maybe a no-homework day or a half day for Lunar New Year. I'm not sure about Divali
but Lunar New Year. I think that would also maybe solve some of the issues on both sides. And I
think that could also address some of the concerns as well, but it would still allow for, you know,
the Asian American students that make up over I think half of the student body to sort of stay
connected to their culture which is something super important to us as well."
Myra Luharuka - 1347 Mass Ave: "I just wanted to state my view on Diwali, I think that if Diwali
was a holiday, it would make me and 1,000's of other students feel like we all belong. And that's
all I wanted to say. But I just really hope that Diwali becomes a holiday because I'll be able to
spend more time with my family by setting up and just being able to do something bigger than I
was able to do last year. And yeah, that's all I wanted to say."
Town Meeting Articles
Ms. Cuthbertson addressed that Town Meeting Articles Discussion was on the agenda. There is
nothing to discuss tonight.
Public Comments (con't)
Sonali Toshi - 7 Flintlock Rd: "I'm also a substitute at Lexington Public School. I think, you know,
noticing all the students out there at the school, more students from diverse cultures so they
kind of, you know, celebrate the festivals in a very holistic and happy way. And from my
background, which is Indian, I would definitely like my children to learn a lot about my culture
and how it's being celebrated because, you know, this is our country, this is where we belong
now. And yeah, Diwali is a very, very important festival for us and I would definitely appeal
request that Diwali to be declared as a holiday in Lexington."
Katie Wipke - 53 Asbury St: "I just had to ask about the working group's data. I sent an email, I
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just wanted to also say it here on the meeting. If there was any effort to get more data about
the neighboring schools or the districts who you contacted about other years, other than this
current year, on what they're doing because of the weekends, and how half I think it was, three
out of six, of the holidays landed on a weekend"
Ms. Lenihan responded: "So that's actually one of the things we did talk about, which was that
the 24-25 school year is the only year you will find going way way out in which five of those six
holidays are on a school day. And that is the most it can be. In other years it's four, I don't
remember exactly what the numbers are but there's never a time when it's all six. And it's rarely
five." She is going to try and get some calendars for multiple years for what we've proposed
here in Lexington.
ADJOURNMENT
Ms.Lenihan made a motion to adjourn at 8:24 p.m., Mr. Freeman seconded. Ms.
Cuthbertson took a roll call vote,passed 5-0.
Ms. Cuthbertson reminded the public that another hearing will be held on Zoom at 8 a.m. on
Wednesday, the 20th.
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