Wake County students will get Election Day and a Muslim holiday off from school
Wake County students will get both Election Day and a Muslim holiday off from classes in the 2020-21 school year.
The Wake County school board approved Tuesday the 2020-21 calendars that will be used by traditional-calendar schools, modified-calendar schools and multi-track year-round schools. All three calendars include a teacher workday on Nov. 3, 2020 due to the election and on May 13, 2021 — the first day of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr.
Several Muslim speakers thanked the school board on Tuesday, saying the vote sends a message of inclusiveness to the community. Wake will be a trendsetter for the state, according to Naeman Mahmood, a junior at Enloe High School in Raleigh. (An earlier version of the article misspelled Naeman Mahmood’s name.)
“It is motivating to see how the system works in favor of the people’s voice,” Mahmood told the board. “You have helped thousands of children practice their First Amendment rights of freedom of religion.”
Historically, Wake has scheduled a delayed opening on Election Day to avoid having students on campus during the heaviest of the morning voter traffic. Administrators said that they can now hold a teacher workday on Election Day because of a decision to cut the number of school days by eliminating early release days.
Nearly 70 Wake schools serve as polling sites.
Eid al-Fitr is a three-day holiday that marks the end of Ramadan, the time when Muslims fast for 30 days from sunrise to sunset.
Members of the Muslim community lobbied Wake to show Islamic students the same consideration given to Christian and Jewish students when school isn’t held on religious holidays.
Officially, students aren’t getting Eid al-Fitr off for religious reasons but due to the expectation that many people will miss school that day.
“There will be countless other children who will be ecstatic about spending this holiday with their families,” said Mariya Shaikh, a Raleigh parent who had lobbied for the Eid al-Fitr teacher workday for two years. “There will be thousands of thankful parents who will be relieved that their kids will no longer have to make this difficult decision when it comes to a religious celebration.“
Eid al-Fitr will fall in 2021 when high school students are taking Advanced Placement exams. Since the test dates are set by the College Board, Wake school officials say they will provide transportation to any students who need to come to school that day to take AP exams.
The 2020-21 calendars for Wake’s specialty schools, such as the early colleges, will be adopted next year.
This story was originally published March 19, 2019 at 6:58 PM.
