School Calendar Approved With Early Release on Good Friday

Burlington's School Committee has approved the calendar for the next academic year, which features a change Superintendent Eric Conti hopes will support a handful of the district's priorities at once.

Each year Conti comes to the Committee with one or more calendar options, taking into account state and federal holidays, professional development days, and family and staff preferences around start and end dates.

Setting the start and end dates is the first step in this process, and the task is easier some years than others depending on when Labor Day falls. The question of starting before or after Labor Day is at times difficult to balance with an end date that doesn't extend into the last week of June or even July in the event of snow cancellations.

The proposed starting date was presented at the January 27 School Committee meeting, and the Committee agreed with Dr. Conti that the logical first day is August 31 for grades 1-12 and September 8 for preK and kindergarten students.

Following that agreement, open questions remained on how the district is required to observe the Juneteenth holiday on June 19 – which generally falls in the last week of the school year and this year falls on a Saturday – and how the Good Friday holiday should be handled.

Dr. Conti's initial calendar each year is a secular one, assuming the district will have school on all religious holidays (though student and teacher absences are excused when for religious reasons).

However, Good Friday in particular has presented a challenge for the district, as on years when school is planned for that date staff absences have previously made a full school day ineffective – and in some cases led to the cancellation of school altogether. This year, the district will try a compromise approach, holding an early release day rather than a full school day or a day off.

This decision came after the Burlington Education Association surveyed teachers about their willingness to work on the religious holiday. Out of 338 BEA educators who responded to the survey, 268 said "they would most likely work the school day if scheduled as a 90 minute early release day for students and educators," according to an Instagram post by BEA.

School Committee member Meghan Nawoichik raised concerns about ensuring adequate staffing on the day, particularly for students requiring special education services and support from paraprofessionals. "I want to make sure that we are delivering the services that every student needs to succeed," she said, expressing hope that this configuration works and can be implemented in future years.

Conti acknowledgee the staffing concerns but noted that if staff absenteeism is too high to be able to deliver an effective day of education, the district could call the day as it has in the past, extending the school year by a day.

"The early release day is the option that gets us back to a full day of school on Good Friday and allows us to present a secular calendar," said Conti. "We can try it this year. If it does not work out, then I think that would be an important piece of information moving forward."

The calendar also includes some minor other changes from previous years. All parent conferences have been consolidated to Election Day on November 3. The Monday after winter break, January 4, becomes a professional development day, giving students an extra day of winter break before returning on January 5 and staff a day to ease back into work before students return.

The last day of school is scheduled for June 16, 2027, assuming no snow days. The district has built in five snow days, which could extend the school year to June 24 if needed. While Conti and Operations Director Bob Cunha acknowledged the question of Juneteenth remains open, they said some contracts require observance of a Saturday holiday on Friday – meaning there would be no school on Friday, June 18, and pushing school into the last full week of June if there are two or more snow days.

The approved calendar will be posted on the district website soon.