Wake school calendar change to help Muslim students, but not all like ‘yo-yo’ scheduling

Wake County schools won’t hold classes on a Muslim holiday next month, a last-minute scheduling change that’s drawing both praise and complaints.

The Wake County school board voted this week to move the remote learning day scheduled for May 5 at traditional calendar schools to May 13 — the first day of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr. There won’t be in-person classes or live online classes, which the district says will allow “families to retain activities originally scheduled for May 13.”

Members of the Muslim community praised the decision after they had complained that Wake had removed the teacher workday originally scheduled for May 13.

“This change was not random,” Zainab Baloch, a Raleigh activist tweeted Tuesday. “WCPSS moved the May 13th workday, which was advocated for by thousands of people and for years to get off for Eid-al-Fitr.

“This was the first year it was to be observed. We rallied the school board to at least give us an asynchronous day.”

But the decision is drawing complaints from parents and teachers about the change being made with little advance notice. The complaints don’t appear to be religiously motivated, though.

“You did not consider what events schools had planned during asynchronous days,” Deb Robinson, a Wake teacher tweeted to the district Wednesday. “Please stop with the constant calendar changes!”

Calls to mark Eid al-Fitr

Before the pandemic, May 13 had been designated a teacher workday for traditional-calendar schools following lobbying by the Muslim community. Eid al-Fitr is a three-day holiday that marks the end of Ramadan, the time when Muslims fast for 30 days from sunrise to sunset.

The majority of Wake’s schools use the traditional calendar.

But last month, the board moved the May 13 teacher workday to April 7 to help middle and high schools prepare for the return of students to daily in-person classes.

The change drew complaints from the Muslim community, which previously commended Wake for being inclusive. It led to the district taking another look at what could be done with May 13.

“The district received significant feedback from parents regarding the impact of removing the teacher workday from May 13 and suggested that we add an asynchronous day to that day instead,” Wade Martin, assistant superintendent for school choice, planning and assignment, told the board on Tuesday.

Martin said that the district’s calendar committee agreed that moving the remote learning day to May 13 will allow schools to go ahead with the staff training they had already scheduled for that day.

Later Tuesday, Martin was named the principal of the new Willow Spring High School opening in August.

Changing calendars like a ‘yo-yo’

School board members received emails both in support and opposition of moving the remote learning day from May 5 to May 13.

“We’re again making yet another change,” said board member Karen Carter. “I just want to voice that concern. It just seems like we just approved it. Now we’re coming back. Another change is, for a lack of a better term, like a yo-yo.”

But board member Chris Heagarty thanked the calendar committee for coming up with a way to help families who didn’t want to have classes May 13.

“There will be some uncertainty for some families where things change again,” Heagarty said. “But I appreciate your diligence working on this issue.”