On Thursday, Nov. 6, community members, Brookline School Committee (BSC) representatives and Superintendent Bella Wong shared their views about what the 2026-27 school calendar should look like during a BSC meeting. The discussion was the latest in the district ​debate surrounding what should constitute a school-free day, and largely centered around whether Category One holidays should be school-free days. Also discussed were whether school should start before or after Labor Day and whether there should be no school the day before Thanksgiving, which is currently an early release day.

Under this year’s calendar, there is no school on five Category One holidays (Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Lunar New Year, Good Friday and Eid al-Fitr), the school year starts after Labor Day and school is in session the day before Thanksgiving.

Eight community members spoke during public comment regarding the 2026-27 school year calendar. Many community members and BSC representatives are in favor of retaining Category One holidays as days off from school to preserve students’ ability to celebrate religious observances without worrying about their education.

Claudia Kreimen, senior rabbi of Temple Beth Zion, read a letter during public comment that was signed by eighteen Brookline religious leaders and addressed to the BSC. The letter expressed strong opposition to removing non-federally mandated religious holidays from the 2026-27 school calendar.

“Our community thrives because of our commitment to honoring the many cultures, faiths and traditions that coexist here,” Kreimen read. “The proposal to remove religious and cultural observances from the school calendar would undermine these core values and risks sending a message that faith and cultural identity are secondary to academic scheduling.”

Wong expressed a similar sentiment to Kreimen. In her proposal addressed to the BSC, she said she was in favor of retaining Category One holidays as days off from school.

“How we as a community embrace the diversity that is here is what defines us, sets us apart and sets us up as a role model for our students and others,” Wong said. “Other communities with less diversity don’t even have a chance to do this. This is an opportunity.”

There was also debate surrounding whether to implement three Category One holidays per year as days off from school on a rotational basis, alternating between different observances year to year. This system is used in the Wellesley public schools. Proponents argued that rotation would be an equitable way for all cultures to maintain their religious observances and would ensure a reasonable end to the school year by eliminating some of the days off currently designated as Category One holidays. Critics argued that such a system would create more dilemmas than it solves, both in terms of equity and logistics.

BSC representative Jesse Hefter said a rotating system would not ultimately be equitable, because students whose faiths aren’t recognized in a given year would still miss school for their religious observances.

“Public schools have an obligation to treat all faiths equally, but not by rotating which ones matter in any particular year,” Hefter said. “Moreover, such a policy would create unnecessary confusion. Families, teachers and administrators would have to relearn the calendar every year; complicating scheduling, testing and attendance.”

Finally, some community members and BSC representatives argued that the 2026-27 calendar should include only federally mandated holidays as days off from school. They cited reasons including the importance of a consistent schedule for education, concerns about the school year bleeding into summer scheduling, and difficulties working parents face in finding childcare for their children. Hefter said he supported such a calendar.

“The public schools have an obligation to maintain teaching and learning every weekday, five days a week, 180 days in the year,” Hefter said. “Recognizing one religious holiday or another is appropriate when communicated throughout the school system by announcements, classroom discussions [or] posters, but not by causing a system-wide loss of a day of instruction.”

The BSC is scheduled for a third reading of the 2026-27 school year calendar proposals and will potentially vote to decide on a calendar on Thursday, Nov. 13th. You can review the proposals here.