Until a couple of years ago, the high school’s core values were: Academic Excellence, Commitment to Community, Value and Respect for Human Differences, and Caring and Cooperative Relationships. The new addition of “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging” (DEI), however, seems to have a larger influence than the others.
DEI has recently become a widely embraced standard in many schools and workplaces. At the high school specifically, achieving this equity for minority religious groups was the main reason for three new holidays to be added to the academic calendar. Eid al-Fitr, Diwali, and Lunar New Year now have a day off for observation.
This decision sparked negative and positive conversations about DEI in a school made up of mainly one ethnicity. With 66 percent of Wellesley’s student body being White, it is difficult for minorities to feel represented.
Officially, we celebrate mainly Christian and Jewish holidays – religions whose followers are 81 percent and ninety percent White respectively – such as Christmas, Good Friday, and Rosh Hashanah. This forces students who practice other ones to be absent from school to observe their culture. While Christmas break is federally required, the other few days off are not.
By choosing to celebrate holidays outside of federal ones, the district implicitly prioritizes certain students over others. To avoid this, they can either eliminate all holidays except government-mandated ones or find a compromise between major and minor celebrations.
Choosing the latter option, the School Committee created the WPS Academic Calendar Task Force between December 2023 and spring 2024. The group finalized which holidays to add, and will also decide on calendar changes for the coming years.
There were years of lead-up to reach this point. For a while, families were upset and wanted students from other cultures to be allowed to celebrate without being penalized. There was a lot of advocacy for the Lunar New Year especially (William Liu ‘23 covered this for The Bradford in his article “Lunar New Year should be a school holiday in Wellesley”). In May 2023, the School Committee implemented Policy IMDA (Accommodations for Religious and Cultural Observances) – allowing celebrating students exemption from homework and tests the following day. This idea was ineffective, however, as it did not have enough publicity within the school.
In addition, these students were still at a disadvantage. They missed out on learning and testing because of circumstances outside their control.
Typically teachers cannot assign tests for three days after a religious break. Policy IMDA does not follow that rule, as there was no official time off. Therefore, students’ tests could be pushed back by a singular day. This means an equal amount of stress and study time – suggesting one might have to sacrifice this reserved religious time for academics. This ambiguous policy still left minority groups unrepresented and ignored — proving ineffective in an additional way.
Therefore, the Task Force had to find another solution. They began research by gathering data from other districts and meeting faith and cultural leaders. These leaders represented the six current holidays on this year’s calendar, (including two rabbis and a member from the South Asian American community). They concluded that adding three new holidays was necessary.
These selected three typically require hours or a day of observance. Diwali involves making Rangoli (patterns out of sand), decorations, celebratory dinners, firecrackers, and prayer. Eid al-Fitr consists of a morning prayer service, and dinner with family that marks the end of Ramadan. Lastly, the Lunar New Year entails decoration, a large dinner, traditional games, and exchanging red envelopes. The point of these days is to focus on one’s religion and family.
Timeline of the Task Force Committee and their decisions.
This current solution has sparked much controversy and backlash within Wellesley. Residents argue not enough people within the school celebrate these holidays for them to constitute a day off.
This argument is unfair, as the high school has a larger White population than any other race. Only 16.4 percent of students are Asian, and that percentage includes East Asian and South Asian students — whose cultures are vastly different. By stating holidays should not be celebrated because of an uncontrollable ratio, a message is sent that the 34 percent of non-White students are unimportant.
More importantly, students celebrating these holidays feel their active observation of them is important. The Task Force surveyed 2,607 teachers/staff, parents/caregivers, WMS students, and WHS students about this topic. Out of the six school holidays, 1,114 people asked did not celebrate any. Additionally, 803 celebrate Good Friday, and 97 Eid al-Fitr.
When looking at Good Friday specifically, about fifty percent of participants answered it was “not really/somewhat important” to require a day off school. This contrasts the 93 percent of people who stated Eid al-Fitr was “extremely/very important” to the same question. This data demonstrates the number of students within a community does not matter, as their prioritization of culture is still, if not more, pressing.
Another major concern people have with the new calendar is the last day of school being June 26. This prohibits many students from beginning summer activities such as jobs and camps. It also makes it more difficult for teachers to get summer jobs and finish AP curriculums on time. Lastly, the middle school and many elementary schools lack air conditioning, creating environments that are not conducive to learning.
These are valid and important concerns voiced by the Wellesley community. It is, however, important to note this last day incorporates the built-in snow days. Unless we have five days off from the weather, which we have not had in many years, school can end by June 21.
This is still later than usual, which suggests we still need to find viable options for the future. Unfortunately, Policy IC/ICA by the School Committee required the first day to be the Wednesday before Labor Day. Thus, beginning earlier is not a plausible solution.
There are still many more problems, such as working parents who cannot take time off, and students with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) having their routines interrupted. To find a proper solution, we have to work productively together as a community.
The Task Force’s current fix is to keep Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Lunar New Year, Eid Al-Fitr, or Eid Al Adha for the 2025-2026 calendar year. This would remove Good Friday and Diwali – not allowing fair representation for the Indian-American students at the high school.
Compromise is necessary in this process. It is unfair for certain cultures to be favored over others, especially when the high school values DEI. The additional days off are justified. Sacrificing minority groups’ holidays is not an option moving forward – but allowing an equal number of them for each culture could be a viable option.
The Task Force makes the final decision on December 10. People are encouraged to sign up for public comment for that meeting or email them about their opinion on the topic.
Whichever resolution is decided upon in the future, we as a community have to practice empathy in the meantime. Even though one might not be part of a cultural group, we must try to understand what others experience. Having fair representation about something “insignificant” like holidays has a deeper meaning about minority groups’ value in our community.
