For the 2024-2025 school year, Lexington Public Schools is observing three new school holidays—Diwali, Lunar New Year, and Eid al-Fitr—on its official calendar. The change aims to acknowledge and represent the diversity of the Lexington community, as well as address student difficulty juggling both academic and cultural responsibilities.
In March 2024, the Calendar Working Group, a subgroup of the School Committee, worked to gather information and present different options regarding cultural observances for a new LPS calendar.
“We believe we cannot make this decision without gathering information and input from various sources, including, but not limited to students, staff, and families. We did a lot of research with other communities and different constituency groups in town,” Johnny Cole, Director of Equity and Student Support at LPS, said.
Following careful consideration, consultation with the affected communities, and input from the Calendar Working Group, the School Committee unanimously passed a new calendar that introduced a day off on Diwali, Lunar New Year, and Eid al-Fitr. The calendar introduced a half day on Good Friday and a full school day on the Friday before Labor Day Weekend.
Additionally, the School Committee created a website with important information about the calendar for members of the Lexington community. They continue to update it and notify faculty throughout the district about upcoming holidays.
“We wanted to continue to emphasize that, even though these are school closure days, there are many other holidays for which students may need to miss school, and they can miss those days without any kind of penalty,” Cole said.
For those who belong to historically marginalized communities, the calendar change hopes to recognize students’ experiences and sentiments about being underrepresented.
“It resonates with a larger theme of embracing people’s cultural background and everyone’s differences and the diversity we have in our community,” Julie Hackett, Superintendent of LPS, said.
The voices of student advocates and cultural associations that presented to the School Committee, played a vital role in supporting this school calendar change by accentuating its significance.
“The implementation of the new school holidays isn’t just adding some new days off to the calendar. It’s really an affirmation that we all belong in the Lexington community,” Diya Nigam, a sophomore at LHS who presented to the School Committee, said.
The prioritization of community engagement in the new LPS school calendar decisions hopes to serve as an inspiration for Lexington community members, especially students, to speak out and continue to make changes in the community.
“I hope the student activists feel very proud that their voices can make a difference, and that when they see something that they feel is unfair or unjust or needs fixing, that even if it takes time and patience, it can be addressed eventually. You should never give up. You should just keep fighting the good fight until you see the world changing in the way that feels right and acceptable to you,” Hackett said.
