Some dates are simple—Christmas on Dec. 25, Halloween on Oct. 31. But some holidays require more consideration—like Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday in November—especially when it comes to school planning. That’s where the SCASD Calendar Committee comes in. The committee is in charge of creating the calendar, which ultimately goes to the school board to be finalized.
State High teacher Eugene Ruocchio became a member of the calendar committee by default when he served as president of the teacher’s union. Despite leaving the role, he continues to work on the committee.
Many factors play a role in creating the calendar. “You always run into challenges, with when holidays fall and different breaks fall and end of the marking periods fall […],” Ruocchio said. “All those variables have to be taken into account because the school board has sort of this overarching ‘here’s what we’d like from the calendar,’ and the calendar committee is kind of charged with making it fit in those parameters.”
Specifically this year, new systems are in place dealing with grades and student records, which have an impact on the calendar and teacher in-service days.
The 2024-25 calendar also accommodates a wider range of religious holidays, due to the influence of SCASD community members.
“The community has the same voice as everyone else on the committee, so if there are parents who are at a particular meeting […] they’ll voice their opinion on religious holidays, inconvenience for having certain days off,” Ruocchio said.
The broadness of the committee’s members allows for multiple angles of consideration.
“[…] Because of […] Ms. Black, who’s our diversity inclusion director, they’ve been able to add a voice to understand our populations of students who want to celebrate their certain religious holidays but aren’t able to, because they have school,” Ruocchio said. “So we’ve now taken into account certain religious holidays we haven’t in the past.”
One of SCASD’s newly-observed religious holidays, Rosh Hashanah, was made a day off school for students on Oct. 3. Senior Avery Selber celebrated the holiday in past years and offered insight on the impact of having the day off.
“For a while, I think if you weren’t Christian, […] you never [got to celebrate your holidays],” Selber said. “I’ll be honest—I like that they’re [including new holidays], but it feels a little weird, just changing. […] Maybe I have to get used to it.”
However, while students get the day off for various religious holidays, teachers still work an in-service day based on the 190-day teacher contract (page 12). But if students are able to celebrate their holidays, teachers should also be able to partake.
Selber agreed with this sentiment. “They should have the day off too. […] If we’re getting the day off for a religious holiday, then the teachers should also get that day off for the same holiday, because they may celebrate that religion. So that doesn’t make a lot of sense,” Selber said.
The SCASD calendar impacts the entire school district of almost 7,000 students, as well as thousands more parents, guardians, faculty, and staff. Looking at the numbers, the diversity the district accommodates is clear.
“I think this is a step in the right direction, definitely. I feel like everyone feels like a part of that, in some way, when everyone gets a piece of the pie,” Selber said. “I feel like it’s an opportunity to learn a little bit about that holiday, like ‘why do we have this day off?’”
Over the years, SCASD has strived for equity for thousands of students, but there’s more it can do for the hundreds of staff. The calendar has a wide impact, and the committee has the ability to foster inclusivity for every member of the district by including faculty in religious holidays.
