Prince William County schools have traded in Presidents Day for President-elect Barack Obama’s day.
The Prince William County School Board voted Wednesday to close schools on Jan. 20, Inauguration Day and, in exchange, to open schools on Feb. 16, Presidents Day, which was originally scheduled to be a holiday for students and staff.
The change will take place this January and every four years when there is a presidential inauguration.
The School Board approved the change with a 5-3 vote. Board members Betty Covington (Dumfries), Denita Ramirez (Woodbridge), Grant Lattin (Occoquan), Julie Lucas (Neabsco) and Michael Otaigbe (Coles) voted in favor of the change. Board members Donald Richardson (Gainesville), Gil Trenum (Brentsville) and Milton Johns (Chairman-at-large) voted against it.
Also this week, the Manassas Park School Board voted to close schools on Inauguration Day this year. In exchange, Manassas Schools will be open on Jan. 26, which was originally scheduled as a teacher workday.
The Manassas Park board is considering making Inauguration Day a holiday in future years, but has not voted on the matter, school officials said.
In Manassas, schools are still scheduled to be in session on Jan. 20.
Most Prince William County School Board members said they had received many calls and e-mails from parents and staff, asking to make Inauguration Day a holiday this year.
“I’ve had just an overwhelming number of calls and e-mails and people stopping me in the supermarket who would like to have Jan. 20 as a holiday,” said Covington, who proposed exchanging the Presidents Day holiday for Inauguration Day.
Lucas said she proposed making Inauguration Day a regular holiday four years ago but there was not enough support for the idea on the board at the time.
“It’s history for our students,” Lucas said. “We want everyone to participate and to watch.”
Johns said he was concerned that people may have already made plans for what would have been a three-day weekend on Presidents Day.
Richardson and Trenum agreed, saying it “is a little late in the game” to make a calendar change now.
“I don’t think think it’s necessary to have a day off school to observe this historic occasion,” Richardson said.
Jan. 20 was originally slated to be a parent-teacher conference day for elementary schools and an exam review day in high schools. Changes to the high school testing and elementary parent-teacher conference schedules will be announced later, school officials said.
Staff writer Amanda Stewart can be reached at 703-878-8014.
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