Holy day mix-up may cost Dearborn schools
State could cut district funding
January 7, 2006
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BY PEGGY WALSH-SARNECKI
FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITER
Dearborn Public Schools could lose an estimated $100,000 in state funding because of a misunderstanding about the exact date a three-day Muslim holy festival, Eid al-Adha, is to begin next week.
As much as 35% of Dearborn’s student population is expected to stay home from school Tuesday to celebrate the day the festival begins, according to David Mustonen, the district’s communications coordinator. But the state will cut funding if attendance dips below 75% at any time, unless special arrangements are made to make sure school time is made up.
That means Dearborn may have to bring students back on a day they were scheduled to be off or find ways to cut its budget to make up for the lost funds.
Dearborn officials said they thought they had already taken care of the problem, scheduling three days off next week, Wednesday through Friday, to account for the holiday in a district where as many as a third of the 17,000 students are Muslims.
As it turned out, their calculations were off by one day.
“Even if there is school, my son will not be attending,” said Ghada Makki, who has a 15-year-old son, Nour, at Fordson High School. “We come to the mosque, we pray, we celebrate with family.”
**“It’s haram to work on our Islamic holy days,”(WHAT??? SINCE WHEN??) **Makki said Friday, using the Arabic word for prohibited. “It will be a sin to do something that is haram. Even my husband, he owns a shop. He will close.”
Eid al-Adha, known in English as the Feast of Sacrifice, marks the end of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca and is one of the two most important Muslim festivals each year. The other is the Eid al-Fitr, celebrating the end of the fast of Ramadan.
On Eid al-Adha, Muslims around the world celebrate in solidarity with pilgrims in Mecca, recalling the ancient patriarch Abraham’s obedience to God and his sacrifice of a ram.
The exact date the festival begins each year is based on the appearance of the new moon over Mecca, to coincide with those making a pilgrimage there.
School districts compensate for holidays that may cause heavy absences in various ways. Dearborn usually avoids a problem with absences by not having school on Eid al-Adha. But the changing date makes planning tricky, because school calendars typically are planned up to three years in advance, when teacher contracts are signed.
This year, Dearborn schools figured the first day of Eid al-Adha – the day most Muslims stay home from work and school – would fall on one of the days they set aside.
In December, however, school officials realized there was a problem. Local Muslim officials made calls to Saudi Arabia and determined the day is actually Tuesday – a school day, said Mustonen.
“As Muslims, we are very frustrated ourselves,” said Eide Alawan of Dearborn, a prominent Muslim spokesman in Michigan. “We live in a western culture. People feel, ‘Well, Christmas is on the 25th every year.’ We don’t do that.”
Mustonen said missing school for religious reasons is an excused absence. But, he said, school attendance is important.
“If parents want to keep their kids home because of their religion, we’re not objecting to that, we totally understand,” Mustonen said. But, "many times what happens is parents feel it’s going to be a low enrollment day, that’s not going to count anyhow, so I’m not going to send my kid.
“But that’s not true,” Mustonen said. “Beyond the money aspect of it, it is a day of instruction.”
The exact amount of school money in jeopardy will depend on the number of students absent Tuesday.
The state requires 180 days of instruction, and days districts have less than 75% attendance don’t count toward that number. So the state cuts funding by a prorated amount depending on how many students are absent.
Dearborn school officials are weighing two options: One would be to spread the lost money across the district with overall belt-tightening. But after years of tightening school budgets, it’s tough to lose $100,000 even in a budget that totals about $190 million.
The second option would be to make up the school day during a previously planned teacher training day, when teachers are scheduled to be present, but students are scheduled to be off.
“It’s a lot of money. I hate for them to lose it,” said Makki. “If there’s any way for them to compensate on another day, I would be all for it.”
*Contact PEGGY WALSH-SARNECKI at 586-469-4681 or [EMAIL=“[email protected]”][email protected]. Staff writer David Crumm contributed to this report.
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