SHREWSBURY – The draft 2024-2025 school calendar went before the School Committee on Feb. 28. The committee is expected to vote on the calendar today, March 13.
According to Superintendent Joe Sawyer, the calendar takes the same approach as past years.
“The recommendation I’m making to [the School Committee] is that we take the same approach that we have in recent years. We did have a Calendar Committee that convened in 2016 to revisit the approach that the district takes to the calendar. The calendar has remained pretty in line with what their recommendations were. That group pretty much reaffirmed the approach we had been using for some time,” he said.
The first day for staff would be Aug. 26, the Monday before Labor Day, with students returning on Aug. 27. The district would continue to give students an extra-long Labor Day weekend, with staff having a professional development day on Friday, Aug. 30.
The calendar also includes a full professional development day in October and monthly professional development early-release days from December through April. There will be no school on Election Day (Nov. 5). In a presidential election year, high voter turnout makes parking difficult at elementary schools that double as polling locations. The district will instead use the day for professional development sessions for high-school educators. Parent-teacher conferences will be held on Election Day for Pre-K through eighth-grade students.
In a change to the calendar, preschoolers and kindergarteners would not have school May 1 and 2. Staff will focus on screening next year’s new students at the time. While the district previously had an approach that did not use school days for screening, district leaders found the proposed approach far more effective, according to Sawyer’s report.
After several years of Hindu community members petitioning to add Diwali to the calendar, the district seeks to maintain its current policy. Although the district must recognize state holidays — such as Christmas and Patriots Day — any other religious holiday is not included in the district calendar. School will be in session on Diwali.
“My recommendation remains that our school district calendar continue to follow the longstanding practice of having school in session on religious holidays related to different faiths, whether Hindu, Muslim, Jewish, Christian, or any other,” Sawyer said. “As a district, I believe we should continue to emphasize to families that we strongly encourage them to observe their religious obligations, including when students may miss a day of school in order to participate, while communicating clearly accommodations will be provided to make up missed work where necessary and that there will be no repercussions for missing school.”
Other important dates on the proposed calendar include:
- Oct. 14 – Columbus Day/ Indigenous Peoples’ Day (Shrewsbury recognizes both names on the official calendar)
- May 29 – Class of 2025 graduation
- June 13 – Last day of school (assuming no snow days)
The School Committee will discuss a “no homework calendar” at future meetings.
