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Rochester Public Schools proposes test-free school days for key religious observances; board to study next steps
Summary
District staff recommended that when certain religious holidays fall on school days in 2026–27 and 2027–28, teachers should not schedule major assessments, presentations, assemblies or field trips; the board discussed concerns about staffing, extracurriculars and whether to close schools instead and asked staff for more data and outreach.
Superintendent Kent Pickell presented a proposal at a school board study session Tuesday asking Rochester Public Schools to adopt an approach that would, when certain religious holidays fall on a school day, prohibit teachers from scheduling or administering major assessments, presentations, schoolwide assemblies or field trips for the 2026–27 and 2027–28 calendars.
The recommendation is not to close schools on those days but to treat them as regular instructional days with limits on high‑stakes events. “When the following religious or cultural holidays fall on a school day, teachers in schools will not schedule or administer major assessments or events, which include tests and quizzes, major student presentations, due dates for significant projects, schoolwide assemblies, or field trips,” RPS staff member Will Ruffin II told the board.
The proposal grew out of student requests and public comments asking the district to better accommodate observant Muslim and Jewish students, and follows state law that requires districts to make reasonable efforts to accommodate student absences for religious observances. “There was a long thought process about whether to simply close school on those days,” Pickell said in his presentation. “As you’ve seen…that is not, in fact, our recommendation.”
Why it matters: district staff said the approach aims to reduce the academic penalty for observant students without decreasing required instructional minutes. Closing school would require adding days later in the calendar; leaving school open without limits can subject absent students to unavoidable, nonrecoverable experiences such as field trips. The staff noted that some holidays (notably Eid) follow a lunar calendar and can shift by a day or two, complicating scheduling.
Board members voiced a range of concerns. Director Weyhorn said keeping regular instruction on those days could still disadvantage students who miss complex lessons and warned it might become “a play date” if attendance is low in particular classes. Director Marvin and others said closing school outright is a fair approach for both students and staff, while Director Cook and others worried that granting specific dates could prompt requests from many other religious groups and make calendar planning untenable.
On staffing and agreements: Pickell told the board that, under the district’s recent contract with the Rochester Education Association, staff may take time off for religious observance and that the district already excuses student absences for religious reasons when parents call. “We immediately excuse any parent who calls in their student for the reason of religious observance,” Pickell said. The staff presentation also noted that some other Minnesota districts have closed schools for the same holidays in previous years.
Extracurriculars and athletics: Board members asked how the proposal would affect after‑school activities and league rules. Pickell said the district would treat these absences as excused for the purpose of play: teams that require school attendance to play would be instructed to treat the absence as excused in this context so students could still participate in scheduled games.
Data and next steps: Several board members asked staff to pull attendance and absence data for the relevant holidays to show how many students already are absent on those dates and whether the absence patterns differ by grade. “We absolutely could pull what our absence dates have been,” Pickell said; staff recommended additional outreach to families, community groups and staff and suggested the board’s executive committee debrief the study session and propose next steps. No vote was taken at the study session; the presentation was explicitly a request for board feedback.
What’s next: staff said the calendar decision remains a separate, later action item when the board considers 2026–27 and 2027–28 calendars. The board asked staff to return with attendance data and with options that show the operational implications — for transportation, food service and staffing — if the district were to close school on floating religious dates versus the test‑free/event‑free approach.
