Westborough Schools to Hold Half-Day on Good Friday

Westborough students will have a half-day of school this Friday -- Good Friday -- to avoid shortening summer vacation by a Monday this June.

The school committee voted Wednesday night to change this Friday's scheduled day off.

School Superintendent Marianne O'Connor recommended the change, citing Westborough having used five snow days this winter.

The school board’s vote makes the last day of school Friday, June 21 rather than Monday, June 24.

“Our camp programs in town begin on that day. People have already pre-paid for many of the events that have taken place. We have faculty that are taking course work that week. We have faculty that have summer jobs, that start their job that day. We have families that are traveling,” O’Connor said.

“The likelihood of having an instructional day on June 24 is slim to none.”

O’Connor said she  checked with the Westborough clergy about Good Friday observances, and “there’s nothing beginning until noon.”

Students and staff can “come to school and still participate in religious observances,” she said.

School committee member Jody Hensley said that “I find that it could be a greater inconvenience” to “come back to school on the 24th.”

“It’s our holy day, but I think it is a good decision,” she said.

Chairman Ilyse Levine-Kanji said she checked the calendar to see if there was “any other day that we have off before the end of the year.”

Memorial Day, a state and federal holiday, was the only one, she said.

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