Philadelphia School District Makes Controversial Calendar Changes

It’s always a big deal when the Philadelphia School District makes changes to its calendar. After all, many Philly residents have children in school, and so these changes can have a major impact on family life and scheduling. The District just released its calendars for the next two school years: 2017-2018 and 2018-2019. There were some notable changes from the current schedule on those calendars, and the amendments have caused somewhat of an uproar.

The Philadelphia School District has released its academic calendars for the next two years, and there have been some interesting changes.

First of all, in 2018-2019, one of two days off that were normally set aside for Rosh Hashanah will again be counted as a school day. This is a difference from this year’s calendar, in which both days of the Jewish holiday were off days. Some have predicted that this change will inevitably cause tumult for the District, as Jewish faculty take the day off anyway and there’s a scramble for substitutes, and students will be absent in large numbers, which is never desirable. The new calendar maintains the traditional day off for Yom Kippur.

The school year will also start earlier in 2019-2019, and spring break will be shortened. The explanation behind this is that an earlier start to the school year means fewer weeks of interrupted instruction before the winter holiday, and also that schools will let out earlier. Again, this is a change that has critics. They argue that schools will be too hot if the year begins in late August (this past year, schools had to take one heat-related day off), as many schools lack air conditioning and the District is hundreds of millions of dollars behind on updating its cooling systems. Plus, parents may have to navigate additional childcare for the shorter break.

According to The Algemeiner, “School district deputy chief of communications Lee Whack said that the calendar changes were made on December 15, after an open process that included members of the Jewish community.” Neither parents nor teachers were asked for their input, however.