PORTLAND School Superintendent Carole Smith listens to Jewish Student Union Regional President Natan Brownstein, a senior at Grant High School, and Wilson High School junior Vanessa Meyerowitz address the Portland School Board Feb. 11. The students asked the school district to consider Jewish holidays when creating the school calendar.
Students ask school board to consider Jewish holidays
By Deborah Moon
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Ever since she graduated from Portland Jewish Academy, Wilson High School junior Vanessa Meyerowitz, like many Jewish students in public school, has asked teachers for and completed assignments that will fall on Jewish holidays.
But when she saw that two of the three days of finals this spring fall on Shavuot, it spurred her to action on behalf of all Jewish students.
Meyerowitz wrote a letter to Portland Public School Superintendent Carole Smith and the PPS Board of Education asking that they make accommodations for students unable to attend finals on those days and that they consider Jewish holidays when planning future school year calendars.
With the encouragement of Jewish Student Union Advisor Meira Spivak, the letter was circulated at PPS high schools.
More than 300 students and teachers signed a petition in support of Meyerowitz’s letter.
The letter was sent to Smith and the board on Feb. 6 and Meyerowitz and JSU Regional President Natan Brownstein addressed the board at its Feb. 11 meeting.
Meyerowitz’s letter had two specific requests:
• “In past years, the policy has been that students who miss finals can make them up after school on one of the other finals days.
“It is very difficult, if not impossible to take all my finals on one day. As we will be missing for religious reasons, I request that accommodations be made to allow me to fulfill my religious and academic obligations.”
• “Furthermore, I would like to request that the district take the Jewish holidays into consideration while planning the school calendar for future years.”
Spivak said she doesn’t believe Jewish students deserve special treatment; she said school districts should be considerate and try to accommodate students of all religions as much as possible.
In her direct remarks to the school board Meyerowitz said, “This year I have missed six days of school for Jewish holidays.…I have lost valuable class discussions, explanations and instruction.”
Spivak noted that this year teacher in-service days, which are days off for students, fell near Jewish holidays and with a little foresight could have been scheduled to fall on the holidays.
Meyerowitz said that the board said the calendar for next year is already set, but “we are hoping for future years it will be able to be taken into consideration.”
Spivak said she spoke to several school board members following the meeting and they told her the students made great presentations and they definitely plan to discuss the issue for future years.
My name is Vanessa Meyerowitz and I am a junior at Wilson High School.
This year, I have missed six days of school for Jewish Holidays.
Allow me to explain what these absences mean to me and my family. For me, it means countless talks with my teachers and peers about what I have missed. Often times, even after completing the missed assignments and class work, I am still disadvantaged. I have lost valuable class discussions, explanations and instruction. These experiences can never be made up. After missing school for Jewish Holidays, my grades have dropped from A’s to B’s or C’s. This year, my physics grade dropped from an A to a C. I have had to work extremely hard to bring my grades back up. For my sister, it has meant a lot of stress over the missed work and points. In a class she loves, and excels at, her grade for first quarter dropped from a strong A to a C. My family was shocked when her report card portrayed this. My sister had to go into class during lunch and break to make up the lost points. To my parents, this has meant numerous discussions with me over whether my academic obligations are worth sacrificing for my religious ones.
It is not that I don’t enjoy school. The reason I am here is quite the opposite. Throughout the years, I have noticed that the teacher planning days often fall within a week of the Jewish Holidays. Just one week after the holiday of Sukkot on the 4th and 5th of October, when I missed two days of school, there was a teacher in service day on October 12. Had this in service day been moved just one week earlier, I would have missed less class time, and less work. Also, this year the holiday of Passover falls mostly over the weekend. However, the day I won’t be able to attend school on falls on Monday, April 21st. On April 11th, a teacher planning day is scheduled. With just a little planning these accommodations can and should be made.
I wrote a letter to the Superintendent in this regard, which has been supported by over 300 highschoolers and teachers. Some were Jewish, some were not. However, they all recognized the importance of this issue.
Another issue this year is that second semester finals are scheduled over the holiday of Shavuot. As with all Jewish Holidays, I will not be able to attend school over those two days of finals. This is an inconvenience for both me and the teachers. If the district cannot schedule around all the Jewish Holidays, we ask that you please ensure that exam schedules are considered in the future.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Hello.
My name is Natan Brownstein and I am a senior at Cleveland High School.
I am here today to bring to your attention a problem that has been apparent for many years in the Portland area. The Jewish population in the Portland area is steadily increasing, thus the Jewish involvement in the Portland Public schools is larger then ever before. When just five years ago the Jewish community was confined to the west side of Portland, we now have Jewish Student Union Clubs in Grant, CHS, and six other schools in the metro area. Just recently we had the largest Jewish teen even in Portland history.
However with this growth comes a toll. Unlike cities such as New York, and Boston there is no option for Jews who would like to continue their education beyond eighth grade. Therefore Jews we like everyone else go to public school for the four years of High School. As long as there have been Jews in this city, the teenagers have struggled with Jewish holidays landing on regular school days. We continue to do the best we can academically while still maintaining religious observance.
In Judaism there are two types of Holidays. Religious and non-religious ones. The non-religious ones include Hanukah and Purim, commonly known holidays in the secular community. For these all that is required for Jewish observance is to practice the customs.
The other type is the religious holidays for which observant Jews are forbidden to go about their every day lives. The Saturday (Sabbath) is one such day others include Rosh Hashanah, Shavuot, Yom Kippur and Shemini Atzeret, Sukkot and Passover. When these holidays fall on school days observant Jews are academically impacted. Depending on the amount of time make up works can take weeks and grades can suffer.
We are not asking for all the Jewish holidays off, but we would like to bring this issue to your attention so that in the future we can try and accommodate the Jews of Portland Oregon.
Thank You.