Presidential Primary Causes Beverly School Calendar Late Shift

BEVERLY, MA — A late shift to the Beverly Public Schools calendar means a day off for the presidential primary in March, and the loss of a day off in December, while spurring a larger conversation among the Beverly School Committee about the disruption that having city schools as polling locations is causing to the educational process.

Superintendent Sue Charochak brought the change to the School Committee on Wednesday after she allowed that the March 5 presidential primary was overlooked as a day schools should be closed for students because of the voters on campus.

She brought two alternatives — forgoing a day off for parent conference and professional development in December for the extra day in March, and simply adding the day in March and extending the school year.

In the second option, the last day of school with five snow days would have been June 27.

"I have some concerns about extending the school year so far into June," she allowed in pushing for the first option.

(Also on Patch: Beverly High School Bans Cell Phones In Classrooms For New School Year)

The School Committee voted for the first option to move the K-8 early dismissal day from Dec. 7 to Dec. 8 and eliminate Dec. 8 as a student day off. But the issue rekindled talk of potentially removing religious holidays Good Friday, Yom Kippur and potentially Rosh Hashanah in some years (it falls on a weekend this year) from being days off from school.

Christmas Day is a religious holiday that is also a federal holiday as well as being the start of the traditional holiday break.

School Committee member Lorinda Visnick voted against the school calendar in the spring based on her objection to having holidays off for some religions and not all — which she allowed is not feasible — with Charochak saying on Wednesday that will be considered when forming next year's calendar given next year's presidential election and additional federal holidays extending the school year later and later.

The superintendent said that was talked about as a potential replacement for March 5, 2024 but it was determined that with Yom Kippur on Sept. 25, it would not be enough notice to families to take away that date this year. Good Friday is on March 29 in 2024.

Visnick said one other solution to the election issue would be to remove schools as polling locations.

"We have three days of no schools because of elections," she said. "That is a hit. That is disruptive to the education process and it is a burden on the parents."

Mayor Mike Cahill, who is a member of the school committee, said he will convene a group including city and school officials prior to next year's calendar being set to discuss the possibility of moving those locations — though he cited the potential issue of having suitable locations in each ward that do not involve a school.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)