The Great Neck Board of Education announced Monday that the Lunar New Year would be included as a school holiday beginning in the 2016-17 school year.
The decision comes two months after Mimi Hu, communications committee chair for the Great Neck Chinese Association, and Father Joseph Pae, representing the Great Neck Korean Civic Association, called for the board to consider recognizing the holiday.
“We often speak of the richness and value that we place on diversity on our community and also on family,” Board President Barbara Berkowitz said. “This decision shows the respect that we place on both.”
Various other school districts in the country have begun recognizing the Lunar New Year, the first day of the new year in the traditional Chinese lunisolar calendar, as a holiday including the New York City and San Francisco school districts.
Prior to the board’s decision, Great Neck Teacher’s Association President Sheila Henchy said the recognition of the Lunar New Year was unanimously supported by the teacher’s association and its affiliated groups.
“Our point is, of course, that accepting this holiday as a school holiday is not solely a recognition of the people who celebrate this holiday, but it is also the recognition that we are all enriched by the cultures that come into our district,” Henchy said.
At the Jan. 11 meeting, Hu noted the prominence of Asian-American students in Great Neck schools, pointing out that 33 percent of students districtwide are Asian-American and more than 50 percent of the students in Great Neck South High School and Middle School are Asian-American.
Pae said he believes the addition of the Lunar New Year to the school calendar would benefit all types of people within the community.
“I applaud the board for recognizing the Lunar New Year as an official holiday,” he said. “It is a step forward in fostering greater understanding and a deeper appreciation of the diversity in our community.”
Superintendent Teresa Prendergast has said that scheduling the Lunar New Year into the school calendar would be difficult, citing complications with other recognized holidays and when the state schedules Regents exams.
Pae said the board’s announcement of the holiday’s inclusion came as a shock to him.
“It was a welcoming surprise,” he said. “I didn’t expect it to be passed so quickly.”
Since the Lunar New Year lands on a Saturday next year, Berkowitz said, the board had time to consider recognizing the holiday, but did not want to wait.
The holiday would be recognized for the first time on Feb. 16, 2018, since that is a Friday.
