Friday, March 19, 1999
Sycamore keeps Jewish holidays
Calendar change helped attendance
BY CHRISTINE WOLFF
The Cincinnati Enquirer
MONTGOMERY — Sycamore schools will continue — for at least one more school year — to close on two fall Jewish holidays be cause so many students stay home anyway.
The school board voted 3-2 Wednesday to stick with a controversial two-year pilot program that recrafted the district's calendar to include the Jewish holidays as vacation days. Board President Peter Hershberger and member Don Hirsch voted to return to the district's original calendar and open the schools on those days.
The board will address the issue again this spring when it sets the calendar for the 2000-01 school year.
The decision to close on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur was made in March 1998 on the recommendation of Superintendent Bruce Armstrong. The days were not productive school days because of high absenteeism, with an estimated 15 percent of Sycamore's students districtwide staying home, Mr. Armstrong said.
The new calendar, which started fall term two days early, accomplished its purpose, Mr. Armstrong said. On Rosh Hashana 1997, 984 Sycamore students were absent; on the first two days of the '98 fall term, only 88 students were absent, he said.
“To me the question is, "Could I schedule school on a day that would guarantee a higher attendance rate than that day (a Jewish holiday), and the answer is, "Yes,'” Mr. Armstrong said. “To me, it is a concern over attendance.”
The new calendar upset many Sycamore residents, including members of the Islamic and Hindu faiths who said the board should recognize all minority religious holidays or none at all.
Steven Stuhlbarg, an attorney representing Parents for Fairness in Sycamore, a group of Sycamore residents who opposed the new calendar, said the board's decision “is not what my clients wanted.” He would not comment on whether the group would continue its protest.
Research by the school board's planning commission found two other districts locally that close on Jewish holidays — Finneytown and Wyoming. Both cite high absentee rates as the reason to close.
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