Updated 3:15 p.m. – The Board of Education on Tuesday delayed its scheduled discussion and vote to finalize the 2016-2017 school calendar, a decision that could’ve meant moving up the first day of school and confirming the closing of school for students on an important Muslim holiday.
Brian Edwards, the school system’s chief communications officer, said Tuesday the agenda item had been removed from the board’s meeting schedule. "The Board wanted to have more time to discuss the calendar and will schedule a meeting to do that soon," Edwards wrote in an email.
The board was expected to discuss and possibly approve Interim Superintendent Larry Bowers’ recommendation to move the first day of the next school year from Aug. 29 to Aug. 24.
Bowers said the move was necessary in order to reschedule a teacher professional day—on which students don’t have school but teachers do professional development work—to Monday, Sept. 12, so Muslim students could have the day off to celebrate the holiday of Eid al-Adha.
By a 6-2 vote last month, the board instructed Bowers and school system staff to move a teacher professional day to Sept. 12 in order to accommodate Muslim students. Muslim county residents have long fought for a day off from school on the holiday, just as the school system provides days off on Jewish and Christian holidays.
It’s unclear what prompted the board to remove the discussion from its Tuesday agenda, but the proposal to start the 2016-2017 school year earlier has drummed up concern from some parents in just the past 24 hours.
Parents on the listserv of a Bethesda elementary school on Monday urged others to send emails to board members stating their opposition to moving up the first day of school because of previously plans for summer camps or family vacations.
Aug. 24 is a Wednesday. Aug. 29, the day school was expected to start before the proposed changes, is the following Monday.
Bowers said the school system would have to move one of the three professional days not negotiated for a specific date with teachers unions to Sept. 12. To accommodate that change, Bowers said the first day of school must be moved to Aug. 24.
The proposal would also involve moving the first of four pre-school year professional days for teachers to Aug. 18.
