Woodbridge BOE Publishes 2022-2023 School Calendar

WOODBRIDGE, NJ — At their meeting Thursday night, the Woodbridge school board approved thee 2022-2023 school calendar, which you can see here: https://core-docs.s3.amazonaws...

The first day of school will be Sept. 7, 2022 and the last day of school will be June 21, 2023, provided there are no snow days.

Columbus Day is not on the school calendar. However, Woodbridge parent Jimmy Dabrowski spoke at the meeting and asked the school board to officially put an Indigenous People's Day on the school calendar. Dabrowski is the father of a fourth grader in the Woodbridge school system.

The town of Woodbridge has a Columbus Day celebration and flag raising every October, and Dabrowski said he takes issue with that and wants the school board to denounce the town's Columbus Day celebration.

Dabrowski also asked the school board to publicly denounce the Proud Boys, which it declined to do.

There is a chapter of the Proud Boys in Woodbridge and they sparred with local Black Lives Matter members at Dec. 14 Woodbridge town council meeting. Read that story: Proud Boys, BLM Spar At Woodbridge Council Meeting

"If the Klan came in white hoods, you can't tell me you would just not say anything. I don't buy that," said Dabrowski. "We have to do better. There is no excusing that. I'm not the only one in this community that feels that way. Proud Boys are not welcome in this community and if you wont' say it, community members, we will. But it should be the leaders who say it."

The Woodbridge school board declined to do that, and board lawyer Jonathan Busch (who also happens to be the mayor of Metuchen) said any such resolution would be "performative" and "a legally ineffective resolution that just says things."

"Columbus Day is not on our school calendar. We can't control any other entity or what anybody else does, but most certainly Columbus Day is not on our calendar," said Kendall Ali, the director of diversity, equity and inclusion.

This is a new position created last year in the Woodbridge school district and Ali is a new hire.

Ali said Woodbridge public schools have increased the number of multicultural clubs, increased the opportunities for students to discuss issue with identity and are trying to increase diversity in staff and teachers.

"We have a daily dialogue as to how do we get better," replied Woodbridge school superintendent Dr. Joe Massimino to Dabrowski's comments. "The biggest thing we've worked to push is what does it mean when we talk about celebrating diversity, equity and inclusion. I think sometimes it's unfortunately narrowed to race and culture. And it's not, it's so much more expansive than that. I think we've been very deliberate as to how we've approached it ... we've made tremendous gains."

Dabrowski begins speaking at 24:30:

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