Three additional holidays may be coming to the school calendar for kids in Loudoun County, Virginia.
Loudoun County School Board members discussed adding Juneteenth, the Lunar New Year and Veterans Day as holidays to the 2021-2022 school calendar.
The proposed additions to the calendar, which were already approved last December, would bring it “into closer alignment with Virginia State Holidays,” according to Loudoun County Public Schools.
School board members focused their attention on Veterans Day, Nov. 11, during Thursday’s school board meeting.
School Board member Beth Barts, of the Leesburg District, said she was concerned that ceremonies and “special days of observances” tied to Veterans Day would be lost if schools closed for the federal holiday.
“I personally hesitate to create a day off for students because I’m not sure when … they will have that experience of understanding the military and the service and the respect that our veterans deserve,” Barts said.
But Loudoun County School Board Chairwoman Brenda Sheridan, who serves the Sterling district, said she didn’t think that would happen.
“I fully believe that our schools will, indeed, continue their traditions for Veterans Day, and they can do it on the 10th or the 12th, depending on how the calendar falls, and that it will be just as special,” Sheridan said in response to Barts.
Sheridan said feedback she’s received from county school staffers who are veterans “is that they would like to be acknowledged with a federal holiday on a holiday that honors them.”
A vote on the revised school calendar is planned for the next school board meeting on May 25.
