Another Snow Day, Holiday Added To Edison School Calendar

EDISON, NJ — The Edison Board of Education voted Monday night to push graduation back two days for the class of 2019, allowing them to add another snow day and another holiday to the calendar.

Graduation will now be held on Friday, June 21 instead of the originally scheduled Wednesday, June 19, Board of Education president Jerry Shi confirmed to Patch. The move was made to add a third snow day to the calendar, and to allow a day off for Eid al-Fitr.

This is not the first change the Board has made to try to squeeze in more snow days. They voted last month to change the first day of school from Sept. 5 to Sept. 4 in order to add an extra snow day.

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Eid al-Fitr is an important Muslim holiday that marks the end of Ramadan, a holy month of fasting. Students will have off on June 5 in observation. Because Islamic holidays are based on a lunar calendar, the date changes annually. Shi did not say if the holiday will now be given off every year.

All of these changes mean students will have three built-in snow days instead of the one included in the first version of the calendar. During the 2017-2018 school year, the district built in two and used five. To make up the days, students lost three days of a five-day spring break.

Parents and students have complained about the lack of snow days for months, with some saying there are too many holidays built into the calendar.

"How do you live in the northeast and only allow for one snow day. But at the same time, people want to have all these holidays... if they have off and snow days the kids would be going to school until July," Laurie Ann told Patch in March.

Should more than three snow days be used next year, Lunar New Year will be the first make-up day, Shi told Patch in March.

Edison students have off for the following holidays, listed in chronological order: Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Diwali, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's Day, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Lunar New Year, President's Day, Easter/Passover (combined on the calendar), Memorial Day, and Eid al-Fatr.

In addition to these holidays, the state has a list of holidays that schools must excuse absences for. That list includes the above holidays, and additional holidays from over 20 different religions.

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