Schools

School Year Set to Begin in August

The first day of school is scheduled to begin on August 30, which also coincides with the Muslim holiday, Eid Al Fitr.

The Winchester School Calendar will remain unchanged for the following school year with the first day of school set to begin on August 30.

With the new collective bargaining agreement signed last year, this is the first time that the school year will be beginning before Labor Day.

However, because of the new start date, the first day of school falls on the Muslim holiday of Eid Al Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan.

Find out what's happening in Winchesterwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Members of the School Impact Committee – Dennis Brett and Seeme Moreira – asked and the to change the date.

“We feel as though Eid Al Fitr should be a no-event day,” Brett said. “Kindergarten, sixth and ninth grade students would lose that first day for orientation. I think changing the date would show that Winchester is an inclusive community and would be a model for other school districts.”

Find out what's happening in Winchesterwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

According to McAlduff, the calendar has been set since last November and it would be logistically difficult to change the first day of school so late in the year. He also said that, according to a calendar they received, Eid Al Fitr was on August 31, which proved to be inaccurate.

“Students miss the first day of school for a lot of reasons,” McAlduff said. “And I would hope that the staff would make the appropriate accommodations. Changing the first day of school now would be problematic. I understand this is problematic for the Muslim community and I’m sorry about that.”

McAlduff asked that, in the future, if they’re given more notice, it would help the School Committee come up with the calendar.

“In previous years the start of the school year came after Labor Day, and Eid Al Fitr would fall in the summer, but the switch caught us off guard,” Moreira said.

Moreira said that the dates for the next few years of the holiday have been set, so the School Committee will be able to use that in coming up with future calendars.

Under the current collective bargaining agreement, if Labor Day falls between Sep. 1 to Sep. 4, the school year starts after Labor Day, but if it falls between Sep. 5 to Sep 7, the school year will begin before Labor Day.

“We’ve had the calendar out a while now and to make a change would present a whole host of problems,” McAlduff said. “I appreciate that this issue has been brought forward, and as this community becomes more diverse we will need to recognize other religious holidays as non-event days. Eventually we’re going have to look at the big picture because I don’t know how many no-event days we can have.”


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here