LS School Committee opens door to comprehensive calendar review

SUDBURY — October 22, 2024 — Lincoln-Sudbury School Committee agrees to comprehensively review district calendar after Eid request. Two Sudbury residents, parent Ahmed Fazly and LS senior Leena Muntasser, asked the committee to recognize Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha as district holidays, with Muntasser saying Muslim students currently "feel very isolated and ignored." Chair Ravi Simon said legal counsel confirmed the calendar is entirely the committee's purview, and members reached informal consensus to launch a comprehensive review in the spring rather than act on a single holiday. Member Maura Carty pushed for attendance and cost data and offered a peer-district comparison spreadsheet; member Kevin Matthews warned that adding individual religious days becomes "an ever expanding universe" and pointed to Concord's state-and-federal-only calendar as a model. No changes will be made to the 2025-26 calendar. Director of Finance Kirsteen Patterson also told the committee no roof-project borrowing vote will occur this fiscal year, with a possible January 2026 warrant article and summer 2026 construction.