A School Day Like Any Other

Spring has begun to peek its head out from behind the cold, dark days of winter storm clouds. The temperature is rising, and small flower buds are poking their way out of the soil to greet the warming sun with their small green shoots.

Nature isn’t the only thing adding a little color to the environment to cheer up the cold winter landscape. Across the Tri-Town, decorations of bunnies and flowers and vibrantly-colored eggs are popping up everywhere. Easter is around the corner.

As Easter gets closer, one is reminiscent of the time when Old Rochester decided to hold school on Good Friday. This was a very controversial topic in the Tri-Town for quite a while, but now that some time has passed, the question arises, how do the students at ORR feel about attending school on Good Friday?

First, however, it must be explained why school will be in session on a day that students would traditionally have off. It started two years ago, when the joint school committee [a school committee that consists of member from each school, from the elementary schools all the way up] decided last year to hold school on the Friday before Easter. Principal Michael Devoll explained how it happened.

“I think that the school committee wanted to show equity because we don’t take any other religious holidays off,” said Devoll. “So there are Jewish holidays that we are in school for, so the feeling was that to be equitable, we would be in school for the Catholic holidays as well.”

Many students and community members believe that the switch was made for the sole reason of allowing students the day before Thanksgiving off, but this is not necessarily the case, as Devoll explained it.

“What the school committee tried to do was create a school calendar that maximized student attendance,” Devoll said. “For example, that used to be a half day, but it was a poorly attended half day, so they decided to make it a day off in exchange for a full day later in the year.”

That full day ended up being Good Friday.

But the school ran into a few hiccups last year regarding student attendance. When reporting to the superintendent last year’s attendance, the high school could boast the highest teacher attendance of the Tri-Town’s public schools. But the students of ORR were not as cooperative about coming into school.

The high school also held the lowest student attendance of the Tri-Town schools, with about 20 percent absent. Devoll explained why he believed the attendance was so low.

“I think one of the things that happened last year was that there was a perception out there that it was an optional day of school,” said Devoll, “and kids ran with that and told their parents it was optional, but it’s a day of school, so we fully expect everyone to be in school, and we will follow our normal attendance procedure.”

This year, students were reminded that attendance for this Friday is not optional. But that doesn’t mean the school is forbidding students from being absent. They may be excused as long as they follow Old Rochester’s excused absence guidelines.

Devoll explained the attendance policy for Good Friday: “Absences can be excused, so students have to refer to the handbook as to what constitutes an excused absence. Just staying home is not an excuse because it’s Good Friday. Going to a religious service would be excused.”

But how do students feel about having school on a day that had always been a day off? When questioned, the majority of the students at Old Rochester held the same opinion – most students didn’t seem to mind at all.

It seemed to be fair, as Erin Costa explained.

“I don’t have an issue about school being held on a religious holiday because we already go to school on religious holidays,” said Costa. “We go to school on Jewish ones, so it’s reasonable to me to go to school on Christian ones.”

Mary Roussell felt similarly.

“If there is going to be no school on a particular religious holiday, there should be no school for other religious holidays,” Roussell said. “Since that is pretty unrealistic, I think it’s fair to have school on Good Friday.”

Many students appeared not to have observed the day before the change, so the switch didn’t have much of an effect on them, as Emma Cadieux explained.

“I’m not religious at all, so to me it just feels like an extra day off. I don’t feel that having the day off or not having the day off is really not important to me.”

The switch may even be helpful for students, as Costa explained.

“Now we get the day before Thanksgiving off which is nice because that has always been a wasteful school day,” said Costa. “Since school used to be shortened the day before Thanksgiving, I don’t remember doing anything in any of my classes.”

And although attendance has been a problem in the past, prospects look bright for better attendance this year, as some people who didn’t attend school previously are planning on attending this year.

Senior Eli Kovacevich said, “Last year, I decided to bring in a note to get out of school, because traditionally, regardless of religion, everyone got to stay home from school. I changed my mind this year to preserve the authenticity of Good Friday for people who religiously celebrate it.”

Other students are planning on attending school in order to stay caught up on their work, said Costa.

“I do plan on going to school because the masses to celebrate Good Friday aren’t until after school ends,” she said. “Also, because of the snow day on Monday, my hard day is now on Good Friday so I really can’t miss school.”

For the students of ORR, school on Good Friday appears to have become relatively normalized, and most students have accepted their required attendance on that day. As for the school committee, they will be anxiously waiting for the attendance rate results in order to determine if having school on Good Friday will raise student attendance in the grand scheme of things.

By Sienna Wurl

Schools_ORRHS_15

Leave A Comment...

*