DALTON, Mass. — Central Berkshire Regional School Committee approved an amended version of its 2024-2025 school calendar that removed a controversial religious holidays' box.

 

The box listing major religious holidays was originally included to inform teachers of what days students may be absent or fasting. The decision at the March meeting passed 10-4, with one abstaining. 

 

"I do not feel the religious holidays should be listed on here, given that I know that one of the justifications in other times were that these are days that teachers should be aware that they might have students that are either out or they might be fasting," School Committee member Elizabeth Lounsbury said. 

 

"The problem I see with this is that it's either all or none, as there's plenty of other fasting days and days that students may be out besides these major ones here."

 

The School Committee can discuss adding other holidays teachers should be aware of next year, School Committee member Ellen Lattizzori said. 

 

The holidays that were listed in the box "are more of the major [holidays] and we do have some pockets of students where kids need to be out so there are other holidays where the teachers do need to be aware. We can make a note to put them on the calendar next year," Lattizzori said. 

 

Hanukkah and Kwanzaa don't necessarily need to be included because they falls during winter break this year. There was also discussions surrounding the inclusion of Good Friday because it falls the Friday before spring break, she said. 

 

"It just sort of makes sense as that's going to be the day off given that all the teachers have so many holidays, but we were discussing that maybe in the years going forward that you we survey the teachers or maybe the families to see how many kids and staff will be out Good Friday," Lattizzori said. 

 

"Traditionally, that's a day where lots of staff and students tend to take the day off, but we just don't know how true that is anymore in this day and age." 

 

Lounsbury was against holding off on postponing the discussion to remove all religious holidays from the calendar because that is what they did last year, and it didn't happen. 

 

"I would just, same thing as last year. I don't think this calendar needs more jobs than to tell us when we're in school or not," David Stuart 

 

Once the committee voted to remove the holiday box from the calendar, it also rephrased the reference to Good Friday on the other side of the page concerning snow days. 

 

The calendar previously said "If there is a sixth snow day the district would make it up with one half-day of school on Good Friday."

 

This was included because it is the nearest holiday that the district knows they are done with snow days, Lattizzori said. This was revised to be included in spring break. 

 

Rather than being called Good Friday it will be listed as the first day of spring break. 

 

The half-day in-service days will take place Aug. 26 and 27 for paraprofessionals and teachers, Sept. 13, Dec. 13, March 14 and May 16.  

 

There will be a full in-service day for teachers and paraprofessionals on Oct. 11 and a half day for conferences on Nov. 7. 

 

The district tries to stretch the in-service days throughout the year. It is a little more concentrated in the fall because when you are working as a group you are trying to "collectively build knowledge and expertise around teaching and learning or around social emotional support," Superintendent Leslie Blake-Davis said. 

 

"And it's going to be more beneficial to teachers in terms of supporting students, if you upfront those days. That's been sort of fairly consistent throughout the years. So, it's fairly consistent. The days are similar. I mean, obviously, they fall on different days, but the timing is similar to what it was this past year." 

 

School Committee member Richard Lacatell said he heard comments last year about people wanting to line up the in-service days with the rest of the county but there was "apparently" no attempt to do that. 

 

At this point the district has not heard feedback from teachers expressing an interest in doing that, Blake-Davis said. 

 

"I think the other thing is when we looked at our strategic plan, one of the things that we've talked about is wanting to make sure that the professional development is in line with our strategic plan,"  she said. 

 

"And while I do agree that the county wide offerings can be great, we don't know right now if they line up with our strategic plan, that's been the biggest hurdle for us and a barrier in terms of moving forward."

 

Upon request, the district does allow teachers to go to other professional developments and the district " actually hosted one last year," Assistant Superintendent Michael Henault said. 

 

"We did host one here, so we're definitely open to it. We support it, but we have not put it in our calendar," Blake-Davis said.