Arlington school trustees rejected a 2010-11 school calendar Thursday night that would have made the district the first in the area to honor labor leader César Chávez with a day off for staff members and students.
In objecting to the proposal, some trustees said the holiday would cost too much instruction time a week before state math tests and just after the district’s planned spring break, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported in today’s editions.
About 38 percent of the Arlington district’s more than 63,000 students are Hispanic. Supporters of the new holiday said honoring Chávez would have demonstrated to those students, and to non-Hispanics, that it’s possible to triumph over adversity.
Trustee Gloria Pena, the board’s lone Hispanic member, made an impassioned appeal to her colleagues to support the proposal, made by a committee of parents, teachers and students.
“This is something we need to do for our students. He is significant. He is important. César Chávez is an important individual who helped the community, not just Hispanics,” she said.
“This is important to me. It should be important to you because it’s about the students.”
But Trustees Peter Baron and Aaron Reich said that another holiday a week after spring break and a week before Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills testing would harm instruction, the district’s No. 1 priority. READ FULLS STORY
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