JACKSON – Students may not see April 3 as a good Friday because they will be going to school when normally they would be off due to it being a Christian holiday.
Students and parents of the school district were a bit surprised over an announcement during a recent Board of Education meeting that a shortened session would be held on Good Friday. The district experienced several weather-related closures and an unexpected internet outage and school district officials announced it was converting April 3 (Good Friday) into a required day of instruction to make up for lost time. The district also has shortened sessions on April 1 and 2.
The decision was said to be made to ensure the district meets mandated instructional hours, shifting from a planned day off, but parents have expressed that another day should have been chosen despite the reasoning to address a backlog of missed school days.
Many schools schedule their spring break to happen over Good Friday. Schools in the 12 states that recognize Good Friday as a state holiday usually close.
Jackson’s School District was closed on February 24 due to the impact of a winter storm and closed again the next day because of an internet outage.
The decision to remain open on Good Friday has caused frustration for some township families who have called for reconsideration of that action. It was noted that Memorial Day and Juneteenth are the only remaining holidays left and spring break is already accounted for.
Teachers are unable to work past June 30 per their contract and administrators determined the best move was to drop the next nearest holiday – Good Friday. This avoids running out of makeup days should any additional snow days or other disruptions take place. There are only three potential extension days left so a buffer day was called for, officials said.
Some parents noted that during the period of the COVID-19 pandemic there wasn’t as much scrutiny concerning time off when students were taught virtually and were later found to fall behind academically. Parents have also expressed that taking a different day off from spring break, or adding a day onto the end of the school year, would work better.
Parents were also critical of the school district for not building in more snow days into the school calendar and having too many in-service days that fall on a weekday. Some parents expressed that they wouldn’t be sending their children to school that day in observance of Good Friday.
Other districts have opened the school on this day as well. For example, the calendar for the Central Regional School District shows April 3 as a half day for students and staff.
Jackson School District Communications Manager Allison Erwin told The Jackson Times that “the calendar changes that were necessary due to our weather and emergency closures were communicated to parents when we incurred the snow days.”
“Unfortunately, we did need to adjust the days in the beginning of spring break to have a calendar that provided the strongest continuity of instruction while also not extending the school year even deeper into the last week of June,” she added.
Erwin said “the days of April 1, 2, and 3 are all on a shortened day schedule (half days, not full school days). “We updated the calendar to reflect the changes.”
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