Over the last few weeks, students and teachers at Troy High School are pressing their concerns regarding the Troy School District calendar. The calendar is quite different compared to those in other school districts. It is set up in a way that the school has slightly shorter school days by the minute, but less days off for holidays. Along with that, the holidays are spread out in a way that there are many more Christian holidays as opposed to other holidays for people of other ethnicities, races and religions. Many are expressing that they feel as if the way the calendar is set up is unfair and inconvenient. 

School counselor Jesse Allgeier shared what she dislikes about the Troy School District calendar. “I am not sure that I love late start days. I just don’t feel like it’s enough time to be very productive, I wonder if the time could be condensed somehow so that we could have more time to be productive.” 

Along with Allgeier’s thoughts, many students are also expressing their thoughts on how the consideration of other ethnicities, races and religions is exhibited in the district calendar. Sophomore Siri Kashyap shared her thoughts on how inclusive the district calendar is. 

“There are so many other religious holidays that are important to many students in the school, so I think it’s important for us to have days off for that.” At Troy High School, a large population of students consists of people of color. Since the school is so diverse, students want their beliefs to be valued and prioritized. 

While there are downsides to the current district calendar, there are also upsides. The careful curation of the calendar is quite a long process, and plenty of thought is put into it. It takes a large staff team who work diligently for a number of months to create a calendar that satisfies the majority of teachers and students. Many teachers have differing opinions about the calendar, so it is extremely unlikely to meet the needs of each individual person. 

History teacher Scott Gibbons discussed his thoughts on whether he thinks the setup of the calendar is fair or not. 

“The TSD calendar is a negotiated item between the teachers and the district. We are an organization of well over 800 members, so it’s not going to be perfect for anyone.”

Although the calendar isn’t ideal for every person, the intentions behind its creation are. At the time of the original generation of the district calendar, Dr. Barbara Fowler was the superintendent of the Troy School District. Isaac explains Fowler’s reasoning behind creating the calendar in the way that she did. 

“We strive for excellence in the Troy School District. Her belief was that if we eliminated days from the school year, we would lose the value of our education in the Troy School District.”

Fowler’s actions reflect the immense effort that the Troy School District has been putting in to provide students with a valuable education. 

In the near future, many members of the district are hoping to see some changes to the calendar for more inclusion towards students and staff. If changes are implemented to the calendar, plenty of the staff and students believe that the school years will run much smoother.