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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. JK 03/18/24-DRAFT 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 JK 03/18/24-DRAFT 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 JK 03/18/24-DRAFT 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, JK 03/18/24-DRAFT 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." JK 03/18/24-DRAFT 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 JK 03/18/24-DRAFT 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 JK 03/18/24-DRAFT 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 JK 03/18/24-DRAFT 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 JK 03/18/24-DRAFT 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 JK 03/18/24-DRAFT 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 JK 03/18/24-DRAFT 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. JK 03/18/24-DRAFT