The Paramus Board of Education moved ahead last week with accepting a report by the Calendar Advisory Committee, which did not recommend adding new holidays to the school calendar despite a push from local residents.
The Calendar Advisory Committee was charged with determining whether or not to close Paramus Public Schools for two Muslim holidays, Eid Al-Fitr and Eid Al-Adha, and Diwali, a Hindu holiday, in response to requests from the community.
Superintendent Dr. Michelle Robinson said governmental entities must articulate valid secular reasons when determining to close for religious holidays. The criteria used to determine the holidays for which the school district closes is based on what the anticipated student and staff attendance is for that particular day.
In summarizing the findings of the report, board member Anthony Balestrieri, the chairman of the Calendar Advisory Committee, said it was determined the number of student or staff absences during those holidays does not warrant closing the school in the 2016-2017 school year.
Eid-Al Adha begins on Sept. 11, 2016 and Diwali begins on Oct. 30, 2016. Eid Al-Fitr occurs during the summer on July 6, 2016.
The report strongly encourages faculty to avoid administering exams or teaching critical lesson plans on days with student requests for religious absences and recommends the further refinement and development of more reliable information regarding student absences during religious holidays.
The district also will not schedule district or school-wide events on state-approved religious holidays with a history of student requests for absences and complies with the state law allowing students to be excused from school because of a religious holiday without penalty.
Public responds
Borough resident Nick Matahen, who has previously lobbied for the inclusion of new holidays in the calendar, contended the information the committee had to work with was not truly representative of the actual number of Muslim students in the district.
“You’re basing your recommendation on incorrect and incomplete data,” said Matahen. “Incomplete data is going to give you wrong output.”
Board member Jeffrey Warren said the committee looked through the school system’s data to determine how many absences there were on the days of certain religious holidays.
Warren reported there were 109 students absent on Sept. 24, 2015, which was the date of Eid Al-Adha, for religious reasons. The committee then applied an error factor of 100 percent to bring the total to 218. With the error factor, 5.6 percent of the 3,871 students in the district were absent that day, an average of 1.13 students for a classroom of 20 students.
Matahen offered outlying cases to those averages, such as a second grade class at Ridge Ranch with four students of Muslim faith by itself and seven that were among the 59 students playing an instrument there, both of which could be affected by absences on a Muslim holiday.
At least two different speakers presented cases of students receiving an incorrectly marked absence for a religious holiday along with another parent who said her children attended school on their religious holidays.
Ahmed Al-Shehab, a Paramus resident and a member of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, also suggested the process was flawed and offered his organization’s help as they have worked with other communities around the country in a similar situation.
“Maybe we can take a step back,” said Al-Shehab. “We’re here to help, the community is here to help and we can come up with a better process of figuring out how many [Muslim] students you have, how many households you have in Paramus and start from scratch.”
Eman Al Yousefy, a Paramus High School senior, said the pass she was given upon her absence on Eid was marked for “illness,” which she said made her question the validity of the absentee numbers presented.
Board President Sharon Bower responded that should not have happened and should be corrected in the school’s system.
Al Yousefy also suggested the day off from school would allow students to learn more about her Muslim holidays as she did during Rosh Hashanah.
“They told me they fast for a whole 24 hours, I did not know that,” said Al Yousefy. “I was intrigued and found it really interesting. I would honestly be grateful if someone came to me and asked what we did on Eid.”
An ongoing process
The resolution to accept the report and recommendations passed by a 6-2 vote with many trustees stating this would be an ongoing process and the door was still open for the board to consider adding the holidays in future years.
Board Vice President William Holzman, in explaining his yes vote, said the process had been a “great learning opportunity” for him. He views the process in a “living document” approach where the conversation about these holidays is ongoing.
“We need to continue to look for opportunities to align secular reasons with religious holidays so we can stay within the parameters of the law,” said Holzmann.
This view was shared by board member Alison Donoghue, who said she looked forward to working on the calendar and taking these holidays into consideration each year. Bower, Balestrieri, Warren and Joanne Bergman also voted in favor.
Board member Bernadette McCausland voted against the resolution, stating it was “premature” for the board to be voting on accepting the recommendations because the subcommittee working on the issue did not have members of the community involved.
“Historically the board has created subcommittees of community members and board members,” said McCausland. “This committee was not properly structured because it only had board members on it. I don’t feel they were creative in trying to solve this problem.”
Trustee Melissa Caminiti agreed with McCausland, noting final approval of the calendar is not due until February and other options could still have been explored.