MOORPARK : Schools to Recognize Jewish Holidays

The Moorpark Unified School District will soon be the third district in the county to recognize Jewish holidays in its school calendar, board members have decided.

The board’s 4-1 decision last week to make the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur a school holiday also included a move to push the beginning of the school year back two days to miss the Jewish new year of Rosh Hashanah.

This year, Yom Kippur falls on Sept. 15, and Rosh Hashanah falls on Sept. 6.

Both the Conejo Valley and Simi Valley unified school districts have included the holidays in their schedules for more than five years.

Moorpark board member Tom Baldwin cast the one dissenting vote, offering support for including the Jewish holidays in the schedule but asserting that a Mexican-American holiday should be recognized as well.

“We have never had a Jewish holiday included in our schedule, but we’ve also never had an Hispanic holiday,” he said. “(Hispanics) make up over a quarter of the students in Moorpark. I think they should be a priority.”

Baldwin said he wanted to start the school year on the first of September, include the two Jewish holidays, and add either a holiday honoring Cesar Chavez’s birthday March 31 or one on Cinco de Mayo.

Board member Gary Cabriales said the Jewish and Hispanic holidays celebrate very different events.

“Religious holidays versus ones honoring people are like comparing apples and oranges,” he said. “Most of the Hispanics in this town are Catholic and they already have Christmas and Easter holidays.”

Cabriales said that because each holiday requires the district to make up the day to complete the school year, a new holiday must be negotiated with the teachers union.

“I’d love to have a holiday recognizing Cesar Chavez, but before we can do that we have to negotiate something that the (union) will accept,” Cabriales said.