By Brandon T. Bisceglia
The Amity Board of Education voted at its Jan. 13 meeting to add Diwali and Eid al-Fitr as new holidays to its school calendar for the 2025-2026 school year.
The measure, which passed 8-5, came at the behest of Amity Superintendent Dr. Jennifer Byars, who said that adding Eid al-Fitr had been pushed for by three consecutive student government presidents at the high school.
Eid al-Fitr marks the end of the month-long Ramadan fasting period. Ramadan is one of the “five pillars” of Islam, and Eid al-Fitr is celebrated by Muslims worldwide.
Diwali is the Hindu festival of lights, and variations of the holiday are also celebrated by other religions of Asian origin, such as Sikhism and Jainism.
Byars had pointed out during a previous discussion on the calendar in December that there is a limit to how many holidays the school calendar can accommodate.
“There is a danger in that. I know our students mentioned that several neighboring school districts that currently have Eid off, they also have Three Kings Day off. We have a large Greek Orthodox church in our community. They celebrate Easter and Good Friday on a different day,” she said. “We have to have a tipping point of when there is a large enough groundswell for adding another holiday.”
To that end, BOE Chair Paul Davis asked the board’s Policy Committee to review the policy governing changes to the school calendar so that it could provide recommendations for possible revisions that would give the board “better direction in planning for future years.”
Eid in 2026 happens to fall on a professional development day for the elementary schools in the member towns of Orange, Bethany and Woodbridge. However, that coincidence will not occur every year.
The Amity schedule does not perfectly align with the vacation schedules for the elementary schools on other dates as well. Some board members worried that calendar misalignments could put extra strain on parents with children in both systems.
“I think it’s only fair to those families and those communities that our middle schools and that our high school align with those [elementary school] calendars,” board member Dana Lombardi said. “If not, there are a lot of problems that arise with kids being in school and not being in school.”
Board member Carol Oladele pointed out, however, that the Amity calendar would not have been aligned with the elementary schools regardless of whether the holidays were recognized.
“This request started a few years ago and came from our students. We heard from the larger community,” she said, adding that she would support it.
Board Treasurer Michael McDonough cautioned that adding holidays prior to revisiting the policy seemed a backward way to do things. He suggested that a survey of member towns be conducted, as has happened in other nearby school districts.
“Okay, you give these two holidays, but now you can’t extend the school year anymore, so anybody coming next gets nothing,” McDonough said. He noted as an example that Three Kings Day was gaining traction in many area school systems.
“I think we had a tremendous outpouring of people here speaking about what we should do with our calendar at the last meeting,” said board member Patrick Reed, “and I think it’s important for us to listen to that and make the decision about what’s best for the Amity district.”
The current student government had also requested the Chinese Lunar New Year be added to the calendar.
The best-known Lunar New Year is the one celebrated in China, where it is a major holiday. Other cultures have similar celebrations, but use differing criteria with varying dates, including Buddhist and Hindu calendars from South and Southeast Asia as well as Jewish and Islamic calendars from the Middle East.
Board member Donna Schuster moved to recognize the Chinese New Year, saying that it happened to be a day off for winter recess in 2026 anyway. Davis, however, said it would be inappropriate to add because the district does not note other holidays that fall on days when school is not in session. Christmas and New Year’s Day, for instance, fall during holiday recess and are not listed on the calendar.