SOMA School District to Have Unusual Start Schedule

Due to the timing of the Jewish high holy days this year, the start of the South Orange-Maplewood School District school year will be a little, em, unorthodox.

Monday, September 6, schools will be closed for Labor Day. The first day of school for district students in grades K-7 and 9 will come on Tuesday, September 7. Those students will also report to school on Wednesday, September 8—along with grades 8 and 10-12. The entire district will then be closed in observance of Rosh Hashanah on Thursday and Friday, September 9 and 10. (Rosh Hashanah begins at sundown on September 8.)

School will resume on Monday, September 13.

The full calendar is available online on the SOMSD website.

Board of Education President Mark Gleason called the start-of-school schedule "crazy" at Monday's BOE meeting, but acknowledged that he must of agreed to it. Superintendent of Schools Brian Osborne gently reminded Gleason that, indeed, there had been lengthy discussions about the schedule and that it was agreed that this was the best solution given the dates of the holidays.

The 2010-2011 school year calendar was initially approved by the Board of Education on December 21, 2009. A revised calendar was approved in August 2010.