You are reading

NYC School Calendar Sees End to Snow Days, Columbus Day Renamed and Addition of Juneteenth

(Stock Pexels)

May 5, 2021 By Ryan Songalia

New York City has unveiled the public school calendar for 2021-2022 and it includes a new holiday and a change to Columbus Day.

The Department of Education in making the announcement also said that there would be no snow days in the upcoming school year, noting that students will be switched to remote learning in days of poor weather.

The holiday of Juneteenth, which commemorates the end of slavery in the U.S., has been added to the calendar. Meanwhile Columbus Day has been replaced with Italian Heritage Day/Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

The loss of snow days, however, caught many by surprise and prompted much conversation.

The DOE said that it had to get rid of snow days to ensure that students get their required 180 days in class while observing all scheduled holidays.

“The pandemic has also created the ability to switch seamlessly to remote learning, and DOE central and schools have distributed hundreds of thousands of devices to ensure that learning can continue remotely during school closures,” the DOE said in a statement.

Maya Wiley, a candidate for mayor, tweeted “snow way!,” while promising to allow students to enjoy a bit of winter wonderland should she be elected.

“Under a Wiley administration, snow days will be snow days,” Wiley tweeted.

Rep. Jamaal Bowman, a former South Bronx school teacher, reminisced fondly about playing football as a kid during snow days.

“Let the kids play. Or make money shoveling snow…,” tweeted Bowman, a freshman congressman. “Let them have a mental health day. We need those more than ever after a global pandemic.”

Tiffany Cabán, a candidate running for city council from Astoria, also tweeted her dissatisfaction with the decision, saying “Let kids have snow days.”

Felicia Singh, a city council candidate from Ozone Park, teaches at a public charter school in Brooklyn. She says the switch to remote learning during snow disadvantages students with learning disabilities.

“Choices like these make it clear that we need leadership that has experienced the impacts of those decisions, and the courage to fix them with urgency,” Singh said.

The replacement of Columbus Day proved to be an even more contentious issue for some– especially Italian Americans.

Columbus, the explorer who was born in Italy, is revered by some as a symbol of Italian pride and achievement– hence the holiday. However, his legacy has come under fire in recent times, with critics pointing to his role in the mass killing of indigenous people and in the slave trade.

Robert Holden, the city councilmember in District 30, called the decision to change the name a “disgraceful insult” to Italian Americans.

“There’s room to celebrate everyone’s heritage in this city,” said Holden, who described himself as being of Italian heritage.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a long-time defender of Columbus Day, called the holiday a celebration of Italian-American heritage, and says it will still remain a state holiday.

“You don’t have to exclude Italian-Americans to celebrate Native Americans,” Cuomo said at press briefing Wednesday.

“Why do you feel the need to diminish the Italian-American contribution to recognize the indigenous peoples’ contribution? It’s not one or the other.”

Juneteenth will be observed on June 20. It was declared a state holiday last year.

The first day of school for students will be Sept. 13 while the last will be June 27.

email the author: news@queenspost.com

3 Comments

Click for Comments 
Johnny Deng

Since so many African Americans are attacking Asians over the past year and a half I suggest we cancel “Black History Month” since their atrocities offend me as an Asian American.

Reply
FoHi

The Juneteenth addition is fine but renaming Columbus Day is out of line and removing snow days is even worse. I am an educator (not teaching in NYC but living in Queens), so I am not saying this as a teacher upset over losing snow days but as one who can say 100% that no students are going to get an extra edge by having those 1 or 2 extra school days that would have been snow days. NYC was never generous with snow days anyways. Most of the kids will probably not log on to their virtual classes those days and will probably go out and play in the snow, or maybe they will need to help parents/grandparents/neighbors to shovel out. I would bet that a lot of NYC teachers will take those days off too since they will probably have their own kids at home. And besides, the whole virtual learning thing is another sad reminder of these Covid days, let’s not use that to punish future kids, so ridiculous, way to go Bozo!

Reply
Bertha Coombs

This is absolutely ridiculous to the point of being comical. How long before President’s Day / Week is abolished because some feel their past is full of atrocities? Where does it end? We need more conservative leadership in NYS and NYC because the pendulum has swung so far left that you can’t even see the center from their POV.

12
Reply

Leave a Comment
Reply to this Comment

All comments are subject to moderation before being posted.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Recent News

City debunks drone reports over LaGuardia after real emergency unfolds in Queens skies

As drone hysteria swept from New Jersey across the Hudson River to New York City on Thursday night, fueled by online reports of nearly a dozen large drones spotted over Queens, a genuine emergency unfolded in the skies above the borough.

The Port Authority and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) confirmed that a flight out of LaGuardia Airport earlier in the evening was forced to make an emergency landing at JFK Airport after a bird strike blew out an engine on the aircraft.

Op-ed: A new JFK Airport is a doorway to opportunity for local and diverse businesses

Dec. 12, 2024 By Elena Barcenas and Loycent Gordon

As successful small business owners here in Queens, we join all New Yorkers in looking forward to the transformation of JFK International Airport into the world-class airport our city deserves. But a new JFK will serve as more than a global gateway for travelers—for local and minority-owned businesses like ours, it will be a doorway to life-changing opportunities.

Former Jamaica cop pleads guilty to negligent homicide in Grand Central Parkway construction worker’s death: AG

Former NYPD Officer Tyler Paul pleaded guilty in Queens Supreme Court to criminally negligent homicide and assault for the killing of a highway construction worker while speeding on the Grand Central Parkway in April 2023, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced on Wednesday.

Paul, 25, of Jamaica, was off-duty and driving his personal car at a high rate of speed on the Grand Central Parkway on the morning of April 26, 2023. As he made a lane change from left to right, without signaling and while driving between lanes, Paul struck a vehicle in the right lane.