Mansfield Schools to have Rosh Hashanah off in 2012

The Mansfield School Committee voted 4-1, with chair Michael Trowbridge against, to institute Rosh Hashanah as a full day off for 2012.

The committee approved the calendar in a previous meeting without giving Rosh Hashanah off, reflecting that they did not want to repeat the end of 2011, which saw so many snow days, the last day of school was pushed back considerably.

“We can’t control what happens with the weather,” committee member Jean Miller said. “The department of education does not grant us much wiggle room, so if we have a lot of snow we have to figure it out, take away a vacation… We need to protect the calendar, because what do we do if [the snow] does go out there. We need to plan ahead.”

Mansfield resident and president of the Temple Chayai Shalom in Easton Andy Faber and Rabbi Jodi Seewald Smith, of the same temple, came to ask that the holiday be a day off for Mansfield. Faber said that while there are many observed days in the Jewish tradition, such as Chanukah, there are fewer actual holy days, which many in the Jewish faith keep sacred, like Passover.  Faber said that the first day of Rosh Hashanah is one of them.

“There are many holidays in the Jewish calendar each year,” she said. “Many are lesser known holiday, ones that are not considered holy days, and many are considered to be holy… But Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippuor are the most significant, symbolic and holy days of the year. These are days we spend in Temples praying.”

Now the calendar reflects the change and marks the last (scheduled) day of school on June 27, instead of 26. Near the end of 2011, school committee members felt that a Saturday makeup day was best to help make up those days so that teacher’s contracted end date would not be affected. This caused a serious problem as many students and, reportedly, some teachers did not attend that day. 

The initial calendar sparked some harsh response from many Jewish Mansfield residents, as in a 2008 meetings it was implied that the holiday would be off no matter what. The school committee agreed that they voted to approve it as a holiday for that year

“At that time we were told this was something that was going to happen once in a blue moon, which to me, means very rarely,” Trowbridge said. “I think that Jean had made it very clear that at the time we were not setting a precedent, we would visit this at another time… The tone of some of the emails that we were getting was that we reneged on a promise that we had made; that we had given permission for this to be [a day off] every year. That certainly wasn’t the case and if you go through the minutes and watch the [video] from what was not what was said at the night of the [2008] meeting.”