← School Committee · 2025-12-09 · School Committee Meeting
Vote: 2026-2027 School Year Calendar
Agenda original PDF
Minutes original PDF
Policy and Planning - Matt Hartman/Margaret Driscoll A Vote: 2026-2027 School Year Calendar Mr. Hartman presented the draft 2026-2027 school calendar, including a list of holidays and observances. The discussion included: establishing expectations for scheduling school events around these observances, the late occurrence of Labor Day will result in a later start to the school year, and agreed to keep early release days on Fridays. A portion of the conversation focused on Juneteenth, which falls on a Saturday; the board needs to determine the official observed day if school is in session due to snow day makeups, and the impact this would have on the last day of school. The plan is to align the school calendar's Juneteenth observance with the city's schedule, and the committee voted to postpone the vote until the meeting on the 16th to allow time for this necessary alignment with the city's calendar. MOTION: To Postpone the Voting of the 2026-2027 Calendar until the December 16th Meeting RESULT: ACCEPTED [UNANIMOUS] MOVER: Jennifer McAndrew SECONDER: Jennifer Razi-Thomas AYES: Dorie Withey, Jennifer McAndrew, Jennifer Razi-Thomas, Jennifer Grigoraitis, Seamus Kelley, Margaret Raymon
Transcript
▶ 44:21 Speaker 8: Good evening and welcome to Policy and Planning. We have a couple of items on our agenda tonight. Um, we are going to tackle, first, the school year calendar for 2026, 2027. Uh, it in- also includes in that agenda item, um, the, uh, observances of holidays that, that many members of our School Committee observe, for your information. Um, and the calendar draft is included in the packet. Uh, we would intend to take a vote on it. Are there questions? Uh, are there questions, or... Yes, Mayor.
▶ 44:52 Jen Grigoraitis: Yes. Sorry. Thank you. Um, and I, I just wanted to first say how much I appreciate the holiday observance being back in the packet. I think this was a practice of the district that it seems like we had kind of fallen off of, um, and I do think it's more reflective of our community. I just, uh, two questions of clarification. With the holiday observances, is there an expectation that school events are not scheduled on these dates, even- like, for example, sporting events, PTO activities? Um, or is it just to make the district aware that there could be members of our community observing a holiday?
▶ 45:22 Speaker 7: Um, I personally-
▶ 45:24 Speaker 1: You don't have to know the answer right now.
▶ 45:25 Speaker 7: ... would like to explore not having events on those specific days. Okay. Um,
▶ 45:31 Jen Grigoraitis: yes. Great. And then my second question, and I had a chance to talk with the solicitor today, um, on the school calendar. I know- June- Yes. ... teenth will fall on a Saturday for the first time since it became a holiday, and so I just wanted to know, in the event that we end up in school between that 180 and 185 days, which hopefully won't happen- (laughs) ... what would be the observance for the district? TBD?
▶ 45:56 Speaker 7: TBD. Okay. Yes. So, um, I would be, wanna understand what other, like, the city is doing. Yeah. Um, in terms of- because that also will be, that's a non-contractual work day for many of our other- Right. ... um, school employees, so I want it, uh, to be very clear on that calendar and it is not at this moment in time. So, I do think we have one, um, addition that we need to make and decision to make- Yeah. ... on when, when that is.
▶ 46:21 Speaker 1: Thank you.
▶ 46:22 Speaker 8: Any other questions from members? Ms. Rosse Thomas.
▶ 46:25 Speaker 2: Yes. Traditionally, Melrose is always one of the first districts- Mm-hmm. ... to go back, and this is a much, much later start, so I'm just curious about the rationale for that.
▶ 46:35 Speaker 7: I think it's just because Labor Day is so late. Late.
▶ 46:37 Jen Grigoraitis: Correct? Yeah, it's, it's the seven- it's the latest it can possibly be this time of year.
▶ 46:40 Speaker 7: Yes, so it's just so late, so it, it knocks us up that whole time. Okay.
▶ 46:45 Speaker 2: Yep. So, that means in June, we're gonna go later?
▶ 46:48 Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.
▶ 46:49 Speaker 7: A little bit.
▶ 46:49 Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.
▶ 46:50 Speaker 2: Well, we'll see what the weather brings, right? Mm-hmm. Maybe not. That's not that much different. Okay. Um, and we're keeping the early release days on Fridays?
▶ 47:00 Speaker 1: Yes.
▶ 47:03 Speaker 2: Mm-hmm. That's all I have. Thank you.
▶ 47:05 Speaker 8: Great. Any other questions from members? Um, one point of clarification. If we did choose to approve the, um, the calendar as it sits with, in front of us, to the mayor's question about Juneteenth, we could come back and add that- Mm-hmm. ... if we end up having three snow days this winter, right? Like, that's, we're not locked into this position at this point, right? That would be just something we would take up in Policy and Planning again.
▶ 47:28 Speaker 7: Uh, yeah. We, I think we do want to make a decision- Yeah. ... on, on when that day is going to fall to coincide with the city and the schools, correct? I mean...
▶ 47:37 Speaker 1: Yeah. I wonder if that's something that we could potentially do between now and the 16th, since we have such a quick turnaround with our next meeting. Mm-hmm. Um, so I could see a world where perhaps we approve as is or hold, um, so that we can make sure that we have the right alignment with the city. Approve as is meaning approve in- with the caveat of waiting to understand when the last day would be in the event that we did have to go the additional five.
▶ 48:02 Speaker 8: Mm-hmm. Um, if there's no rush, it might just make sense to put the right calendar together for the 16th, and- Works too. ... and, um, make sure that the public knows that this is basically where we are. Uh, Ms. McAndrew.
▶ 48:15 Jennifer McAndrew: Motion to postpone the vote to December 16th.
▶ 48:18 Speaker 5: Great.
▶ 48:18 Speaker 2: Second.
▶ 48:19 Speaker 8: Motion by Ms. McAng- McAn- the, Ms. McAndrew to postpone until the 16th, seconded by Ms. Rosse Thomas. All those in favor? And that motion passes unanimously. On to our next item, um, this is an updated competency determination. Uh, this is in response to DESE's ongoing updates, uh, implementing a ballot question from a couple y- years ago now. Uh, this is the second time we've seen this information, but the first time in this form. Last year, we passed a one-year competency determination, uh, knowing that we would come back to it this year, knowing that we had to put a more permanent item into place. During that time, uh, DESE has come out with regulations, which I see Ms. Acevedo and Principal Merrill coming to the, the table here to tell us more about, uh, and they'll tell us all about how this was developed, how it, um, will be implemented, and what DESE expects of us. So, I'll, with that, I will leave it to our experts here to tell us more about