Stamford School Board Approves 2023-2024 Calendar

STAMFORD, CT — The Stamford Board of Education on Tuesday approved a school calendar for 2023-2024 after weeks of planning and debate.

Eid Al-Fitr, a Muslim holiday, will be a new observed holiday for the district next year, with no classes on April 10.

Columbus Day and Veterans Day will be traditionally observed as in years past with no classes. There were some conversations early in the calendar planning process about removing those holidays, but the school board received pushback from the community.

The calendar passed by a vote of 5-2-1. Members Lisa Butler, Joshua Esses, Michael Hyman, Andy George and Board President Jackie Heftman voted in favor. Becky Hamman and Fritz Cherry opposed, and Versha Munshi-South abstained.

"There's so many competing interests in developing a calendar, whether it's child care, or continuity of instruction or cultural awareness," said Heftman. "Knowing that there is no way we're going to be able to satisfy everyone, hopefully we can do the best we can to satisfy the vast majority of the people who will be impacted by this calendar."

Before taking a final vote, the board made some adjustments to the calendar which originally included Diwali, Three Kings Day and Eid-Al-Adha — all of which occur on weekends next year.

Board President Jackie Heftman made a motion, which was ultimately passed, to remove them from the calendar and place them in a notes section that shows the district acknowledges them, but that they are not school holidays.

"I guess the perception out there that people are feeling is that once it goes on the calendar, even if it is a weekend, the following year when it isn't a weekend it would be a school holiday. I'd like to amend the motion to alleviate that concern," Heftman said.

"This accomplishes letting people know we acknowledge the holidays, letting teachers know these are holidays they should be sensitive to with students, so if someone celebrates one of those holidays, they should be aware of that and cognisant of the fact they shouldn't require work to be due the day after the holiday," Heftman added.

As part of Heftman's motion, she also recommended decoupling Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day, saying the city doesn't recognize Indigenous Peoples' Day.

In a subcommittee meeting earlier this month, Munshi-South urged the board to think about what it would mean to have a day that's called "Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples' Day." She called the pairing "oxymoronic."

During Tuesday's meeting, Munshi-South put forward a motion to add Rosh Hashanah to the notes section with Diwali, Three Kings Day and Eid Al-Adha, since it, too, falls on a weekend this coming September. Her motion failed.

Munshi-South said she wanted to be consistent, and have a possible subcommittee examine all holidays in the future.

Superintendent of Schools Dr. Tamu Lucero said earlier this month she hopes to form the committee under the Labor Committee in conjunction with the city that could work on calendar planning.

Hamman on Tuesday urged the board and a possible committee to remain neutral on religion.

"If we start going in that direction, we're going to end up with one to two weeks of vacation time because everybody in every religion wants a holiday," she said.

Board member Joshua Esses said there would be a significant number of staff absences for Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Good Friday if classes were held those days in the future.

"Even if you wanted to bring everybody back in school that day, there would be concerns about making sure you could adequately staff the building. I think we know that's not an issue for the other holidays we're considering adding," Esses said, citing teacher absence data.

The district has not taken any action on a calendar for 2024-2025 yet.