Preservation of Brooklyn-Queens Day creates NYC school holiday calendar conundrum

The unexpected decision to preserve the "obscure" Brooklyn-Queens Day on the city’s public schools holiday calendar – while also adding Diwali – has created a scheduling conundrum that top officials previously said had to be avoided.

In October, Mayor Eric Adams, Schools Chancellor David Banks and Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar announced legislation to add Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, to the calendar while nixing Brooklyn-Queens Day – also known as Anniversary Day – which commemorates the founding of the first Sunday school in Long Island in 1829.

Rajkumar and Banks explained that the school system is required by law to provide a minimum of 180 days of instruction and there simply wasn’t room on the calendar for both holidays.

“If we're going to meet this 180 day minimum requirement, we cannot institute any more holidays. But in removing the antiquated Anniversary Day school holiday that is observed by no one, my legislation makes the room for Diwali to be a school holiday while also meeting the 180 day minimum requirement for days of school instruction,” Rajkumar said.

But earlier this month, lawmakers appeared to punt on the 180 day issue, with the Assembly and state Senate passing a bill to add Diwali to the city schools calendar – and maintaining Brooklyn-Queens Day, which is on the second Thursday in June. Diwali falls in October or November based on the lunar calendar.

In an interview with Gothamist this week, Assemblymember Stefani Zinerman said she and fellow Brooklynite Assemblymember Latrice Walker led the behind-the-scenes push to preserve the holiday. Both have marched in traditional Brooklyn-Queens Day parades.

“Well, I love it,” said Zinerman, who represents Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights. “I grew up in the tradition. Anniversary Day was a celebration of what Sunday schools meant to the Christian community. Sunday schools, especially for African-American people are very important because that’s where we learned how to read. You know, it was illegal [during slavery] to teach us to read…And so it was through the Bible and through those teachings that we became educated.”

Church groups also lobbied elected officials.

“The churches, the precinct council, the clergy councils here and … those members of the Brooklyn Sunday School Union were the ones that started calling into the leadership saying that they wanted to preserve the day,” she said.

The group, formed as a coalition of churches and their Sunday Schools, is credited with holding the first Anniversary Day parade in 1829; it did not respond to an email.

Just what this means for the school calendar is unclear.

At the October press conference, Banks said Brooklyn-Queens Day was the only day “we could adjust” to make way for Diwali, emphasizing the minimum requirement of 180 school days.

“This day has been known traditionally, as I came up in the school system, as Brooklyn-Queens Day … In many ways it's an obscure day, it's a day that's been on the calendar for a long time,” said Banks. He called it the “perfect example” of a holiday the city could replace with a “much more meaningful” one.

In recent years, the city has added Lunar New Year, Eid and Juneteenth, which is also now a federal holiday, to the city school’s calendar

There are also rules written in the contract with the teachers’ union, the United Federation of Teachers, about when schools open and close in September and June respectively.

When asked about the apparent logistical challenge posed by the holiday calendar, an education official only noted that Diwali and Lunar New Year fall on a Sunday in the coming school year. That gives education department officials some time to manage scheduling.

“We are pleased that the New York State Legislature has joined Mayor Adams and Chancellor Banks in recognizing the importance of adding Diwali as a school holiday,” said education department spokesperson Nathaniel Styer. “We are equally pleased that the state has formally joined New York City public schools in recognizing the Lunar New Year. We appreciate the partnerships required to advance these important measures forward and look forward to celebrating the growing diversity of NYCPS staff and students.”

Still, the 2023-2024 calendar has rankled some teachers. It includes 182 instructional days, two more than the minimum. Easter comes early in 2024, and there will be no day off for Easter Monday because it does not fall during spring break. Passover also extends two days longer than spring break, prompting objections and a petition from some Jewish teachers and parents.

A faction within the United Federation of Teachers — Mobilization of Rank and File Educators, or MORE – called the calendar “miserable.” The group cited additional work days, including on religious holidays, as well as a decision to hold parent-teacher conferences on Fridays.

For her part, Zinerman had a solution to the crowded school holiday calendar: 200 days total of instruction – or at least 184 – instead of the current 180.

So far, her effort has not gained momentum.