Holmdel School Calendar Tweaked, Includes Jewish Holiday Again

HOLMDEL, NJ - Holmdel Township Public Schools has updated its 2021-22 school calendar after the last version scheduled two staff professional development days on a Jewish holiday.

According to the current 2021-22 school year calendar posted to the district website, two days of staff professional development were set for Sept. 7 and 8, coinciding with the observance of the Jewish holiday Rosh Hashanah.

You can view the 2021-22 school calendar here.

In an April 9 memo, the Holmdel Board of Education announced that the professional development days will be rescheduled to Sept. 1 and 2. All district schools are slated now to close in observance of the holiday, with the first day of school set for Sept. 9.

The calendar revisions will officially be approved by the Board of Education at the upcoming April 28th Board meeting, the memo reads.

However, the schedule conflict did not go unnoticed before the Board of Education made its changes. One Holmdel resident shared an open letter sent to the board on a local Facebook page expressing her concerns with the calendar:

“In all my years living in Holmdel the Jewish High Holy Days have always been considered when building the school calendar,” the letter reads. “These holidays are holy days for the Jewish people. The days are spent in reflection and prayer in synagogues. The hours spent there preclude students from doing homework or studying for tests on these days as I once had to instruct an AP History teacher who wanted a paper due the day after Yom Kippur … Not all students and families in this district are Christian as I’m sure you are aware, since for many years the district has had no problem scheduling closings for Chinese New Year in deference to those who observe that holiday.”

The initial calendar decision eventually gained attention from District 13 Assembly candidates Erin Howard and Allison Friedman, who argued that the decision “forces the teacher to miss important education that will benefit the children in order to observe their religion … everyone has the right to observe holy holidays without compromising their jobs. No one should be forced to choose between their religion or miss important professional development.”

A spokesperson for the Holmdel Board of Education told Patch that members of the District staff who prepare the calendar, which includes union representatives, ultimately recommended the schedule change to the board. The group advised the BOE that they preferred having schools open on those days, while allowing staff members who observe the Jewish holidays to have the day off, the spokesperson said.

Rabbi Laurence Malinger of Temple Shalom of Aberdeen, who has been in communication with the Board of Education since his discovery of the schedule conflict, told Patch that he first became aware of the issue when another holiday, Yom Kippur, was at risk of being an in-school class day for students and eliminated altogether.

“It was implied, in a very badly worded letter, that residents were asked to choose to have off for Yom Kippur or get a longer spring break,” said Malinger, who reports that 30 percent of his congregation comes from Holmdel.

The decision to eliminate Yom Kippur as a holiday was eventually tabled, Malinger said. However, when the rabbi emailed interim superintendent Dr. LeRoy Seitz regarding the staff development conflict with Rosh Hashanah, Malinger reports that he was met with a less than desirable answer.

“[Dr. Seitz] wrote back the standard superintendent response, which is, ‘well of course a Jewish teacher can take a personal day,’ which I take great offense at because I guarantee you that nobody who follows the Christian faith will ever have to take a personal day for a holiday," the rabbi said.

Malinger told Patch that, while the Holmdel Board of Education’s quick reversal of the schedule conflict is a positive step, he hopes to strengthen his connection to Holmdel schools in the future to avoid a similar situation.

“The previous superintendent and I, we had a wonderful relationship. Unfortunately, I don't know Dr. Seitz because he just came to us in the middle of the pandemic and we never connected,” Malinger said. “I see myself to be a partner and advocate - not to be an adversarial, that's not my job. I want to represent the community, but a situation like this has not happened before in Holmdel. I don't know how much of it was ignorance or maliciousness, but it's just uncomfortable.”