How Should Flint Hill Observe Holidays?

By Ella Leggett, Section Editor

Fairfax and Loudon County School Systems in the 2022-2023 school year have chosen to observe most religious and cultural holiday days in respect to the variety of cultures within their communities. This means that since the first day of school, the counties have only had 5 full weeks of school and their summer vacations will start on June 16, 2022. Contrary to the public schools, Flint Hill School does not observe some of those same religious and cultural holidays, leading to our summer vacation starting on June 2, 2022. However, as a school which is inclusive to religions and cultures, conversations have begun around whether or not Flint Hill should give those holidays as days off. 

To get some insight on opinions regarding this topic, I interviewed some faculty and students. The student-based interviews concluded that the majority believed that rather than completely giving the days off, we should give the students who celebrate those holidays an excused absence and extensions on all assignments due that day or assigned that day. This is to  maintain the early release for summer break. However, for the faculty, the results varied. Many chose to not answer the question or questioned if their name would remain anonymous, but most felt that we should take the time to observe the most important cultural and religious holidays. 

How do you feel we should deal with this situation? How should we take action, if we need to take action? This discussion is a very important topic to our school, as we are an inclusive school all around and this is an issue that will resurface in years to come.