The School Committee meeting brought debate and contention during their second reading of the 2023-2024 school year calendar last Wednesday night as they discussed changing Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples’ Day and changing the day before winter break to a full day of school.

Superintendent Dr. Glenn Brand provided the committee with a range of examples of what other districts have done relative to the issue of celebrating Columbus Day, including no change, re­moving the name and just using “holiday” or “no school,” and Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Jesse Fennelly pointed out that Columbus Day might be mentioned in some of their union contracts. Brand suggested that those could be chan­ged using a memorandum of agreement.