Decision to keep school open on holiday sparks furor

CHESTERFIELD, Va. -- A suburban Richmond school district that's staying open on Martin Luther King Jr. Day is led by a black man who believes his students simply can't afford to take another day off from their studies.

But many black leaders in Chesterfield County aren't buying it, saying superintendent Billy Cannaday's decision reflects an all-white school board's lack of respect for what the holiday means to blacks.

"I am very respectful of the fact that the 20th is a very significant day not only for African-Americans but for all Americans," Cannaday said in defense of the move last week. "But I am also here to make sure that we are doing right by our kids."

Cannaday emphasized that the county's original calendar did indeed include King Day as a holiday. But two days lost to snow in early December, and another two days canceled in October because of concerns about the sniper shootings put the district in a bind to provide students enough instruction time for standardized tests that begin in March.

He has repeatedly cited test results that showed those who miss more days are more likely to get failing scores.

Cannaday's chief critic, Bishop Gerald O. Glenn of New Deliverance Evangelistic Church, said there were other days that could have been used to make up for the lost time.

The district's treatment of Jan. 20 as an "expendable holiday," Glenn said, indicates officials don't respect the decades-long battle and acts of Congress and state legislatures to gain widespread recognition for King Day.

"Why should we give back something we fought so hard to obtain?" he asked.

"If one day is going to make or break our children, something is very wrong with this school system. ... That's the biggest fabrication I have heard in recent times."

Chesterfield County is not the only district in Virginia choosing to hold classes on King Day. But its decision to do so has drawn protests because it is among the largest districts in the state, with 54,000 students, nearly a quarter of them black.

Cannaday said the controversy has reinforced in him King's belief of education as an equalizer.

But in the end, he said, the decision came down to the fact that the school calendar was simply too restrictively designed, with no built-in make-up days in case of snow or other circumstances.

And the solution, he said, is to make sure next year's calendar allows more flexibility.

With snow falling during a school board meeting last week, Cannaday commented that "I saw a snowflake falling today and I wondered, 'How many days are we going to lose now?"'

Still, Cannaday and the school board concede that some residents may disagree with their decision to hold school on the holiday. They said that they will not object if some parents take their children to participate in King Day events outside school -- but only with a written excuse.

To Glenn, that requirement is another source of irritation, demeaning to both student and parent in a manner that he likens to a slave being required to obtain permission from his master to go to town.

Glenn will speak at one of those outside events, a mass meeting and celebration held each year at the Arthur Ashe Center in Richmond and sponsored by the city's school system.

Glenn's daughter, a Chesterfield County public school student, will be with him. And he won't be giving her a note to take to school.

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On the Net

Chesterfield schools: www.chesterfield.k12.va.us/

New Deliverance Evangelistic Church: www.ndec.net/