Proposing a calendar to expand on religious holidays and professional development.
-Written by a non-politically connected Educator in the Community
In a prior article, school calendars of 17 districts, including Berkeley Heights (BHPS), were analyzed on if/how they honor particular religious holidays (Diwali, Lunar New Year, and Eid) and how professional development for teachers is set in the calendar.
The findings were that BHPS is one of seven districts (out of the 17 total) that remains open for Diwali, Lunar New Year, and Eid, but two of those seven districts will close for at least one of those holidays in the 2025-26 school year. Additionally, BHPS currently offers the minimum three (3) full professional development days while all other districts offer four (4) or five (5) full professional days and/or partial days for students (delayed opening or early dismissal) where faculty remains for the remainder of the day (after a 12:30pm student dismissal, for example) for workshops delivered by administrators and/or collaboration.
In the proposed 2025-26 school year calendar below, there are three (3) full professional development days (two PD days prior to the first day of school; one PD day on Election Day) and the addition of five early dismissal PD days. One of these days will occur on Columbus Day, two days the week of NJEA Convention, one day the Friday before Presidents’ Day, and one day the Friday before spring break.
As Director of STEAM Dr. Kelly Curtiss stated how “finding time with PD in the calendar is a challenge” at a recent BOE meeting, these additional professional development days can provide for training for teachers in programs such as i-Ready, LinkIt!, phonics, artificial intelligence (AI), and general grade-level and subject-level collaboration, including across buildings.
Summary of the below table:
- Diwali, Lunar New Year, and Eid are recognized as there is no school for any of these days.
- Therefore, the school year will begin earlier and include two student days before Labor Day similar to New Providence, Warren, Watchung, and Green Brook. Chatham has five days of school with students prior to Labor Day.
- Two early dismissal days are provided the first week of November to allow for parent-teacher conferences. Twelve (12) other districts provide for early dismissal days at some point in the fall to add afternoon hours for parent-teacher conferences. Whether the conferences include a second round in the spring and middle school teachers is up for discussion. Teachers not participating in conferences such as high school (and possibly middle school) can have PD/time for collaboration.
- The purpose of added professional development is to provide teachers with training without removing them from their classrooms and their students (and thus reducing substitute teacher costs).
The 2024-25 BHPS has already been approved. Here is what a 2025-26 calendar could potentially look like:
Notes:
- In order to include all three holidays (Diwali, Lunar New Year, and Eid), school with students had to begin before Labor Day. If it were to be explored that one or more of these holidays does not receive a high amount of respondents and there is school on Eid, for example, then there can be a conversation about starting school with students the Tuesday following Labor Day (similar to fall 2024) but with teacher professional development still the Wednesday/Thursday before Labor Day.
- Of the 17 districts during the 2024-25 school year, five (5) school districts start school with students before Labor Day (with teacher PD earlier in the week), six (6) school districts start school with teachers before Labor Day (no students until after Labor Day), and six (6) school districts do not have teachers or students come in until after Labor Day. In total, 11 of 17 school districts do not have students come in before Labor Day.
- Of the 17 districts during the 2024-25 school year, eight (8) school districts have school conclude prior to Juneteenth (June 19th), three (3) school districts have school conclude on Juneteenth, and seven (7) school districts have school conclude after Juneteenth.
- Note that some districts only honor two of the three holidays, such as New Providence and Bernards (school open on Eid but closed the other two holidays) and Scotch Plains-Fanwood and Watchung (school open on Lunar New Year but closed the other two holidays).
- At this moment, this calendar includes four (4) emergency closure days.
- The purpose is to avoid a staff in-service on Diwali, Lunar New Year, or Eid, in the event that staff members celebrate and/or childcare matters (a BHPS staff member has a child in another district whose school is closed for the holiday, too).
Note that of the 17 districts analyzed, eight (8) districts have an approved 2025-26 calendar. It is expected that the Berkeley Heights Board of Education (BOE) will approve their 2025-26 calendar in fall 2024/winter 2025.
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