Sewanhaka students will have off on both Eid holidays and see them officially recognized on this upcoming school year’s calendar, marking the successful end of a years-long campaign by Muslim parents and students.
“This decision means everything,” said Farahana Islam, a district parent. Islam, who serves as the vice president of the Eid Holiday Coalition, has advocated for Sewanhaka’s elementary and high schools to have the holiday off since 2020 with a group of other parents and students, some associated with the coalition or high school Muslim Student Associations.
The decision to fully recognize both Eid holidays was made by the Sewanhaka Central High School District School Board on July 8. It trickles down to the four elementary districts that feed into Sewanhaka’s high schools, including the New Hyde Park-Garden City Park and Floral Park-Bellerose School Districts.
It comes after the district previously agreed to have the Eid holidays off for students but not staff starting in the 2023-24 school year. Eids weren’t marked as holidays on the calendar but instead as Superintendents Conference Days, something Islam said she took as a partial victory.
However, this past school year, Eid al-Adha, which fell on June 6, was not marked as a Superintendent’s Conference Day, which students and parents took serious issue with, as the board had previously agreed for students to have the day off.
The district said that Muslim students would be be granted an excused absence for the day, but the omission as an official holiday triggered an email campaign from Floral Park Memorial High School’s Muslim Student Association and a handful of speakers at the June 24 Sewanhaka school board meeting, both which emphasized the importance of recognizing Eid with an official day off for all students.
“You are missing the opportunity to learn if you are absent when others aren’t,” said Rayan Hussein, the secretary of the Muslim Student Association. He helped organize an email campaign in May, asking the superintendent to alter the school calendar and grant the day off.
“We were hoping that everyone would be absent that day, similar to Christmas, or similar to Easter, so it’s fair to everybody,” Hussein said. “This school district has a very large Muslim body, so we were thinking that it would impact a lot of people if it wasn’t a day off for everyone.”
At the June 24 board meeting, Islam read a letter from Adam Waali, her young neighbor and New Hyde Park-Garden City Park elementary student, in which he wrote about the difficulty he faced not having an officially recognized day off for the holiday this past Eid al-Adha.
“Schools should be closed on Eid al-Adha, because what if there is a test and the kids miss the test? This actually happened to me, because I missed a test, and then on Monday, I had two math tests, which was a lot of stress,” Waali’s letter reads. “I think that other Muslim kids would also feel anxious if they had to have two tests on one day because they took off for Eid.”
“Another reason why school should be closed on Eid is because there are only two Eids in a year,” his letter continued. “Our relatives might be mad at us for missing half the day because we had to go to school. If I had to go to school on Eid, I would have to skip going to the mosque, getting free ice cream, and most kids would probably hate that.”
Waali said he was happy to hear the news of the official holiday recognition and day off.
“I’m happy this year I can have it off,” Adam said. “I’m looking forward to our party.”
Adam’s parents, mom Farah Akbak and dad Meer Waali, said they were proud of their son for writing the letter and were thrilled that the district has decided to officially recognize the holiday.
“I’m happy that we came to this point,” Akbak said. “I’m proud of Adam for writing that letter and proud of the community for fighting this much. Finally, having Eid off recognizes the diverse community where everybody’s holiday and religious practices are accepted.”
“I’m proud of my son for writing that letter,” Adam’s father said. “He struggles with writing, but he kept at it and worked really hard to voice his concerns about fairness, about how certain groups of kids did not get their holidays off.”
Islam and Hussein echoed Adams’ parents’ sentiments, adding that she felt Adam’s letter helped push the board to make their decision and felt the Eid holiday designation was a personal victory.
“This is personal for me, because growing up as a Muslim-American girl, and I never had the holidays off,” Islam said. “I always wanted it off, and it almost felt like I didn’t belong here when we didn’t have it off. That young girl never dreamed or imagined that she would grow up to be an adult woman whose children get to enjoy the holidays off and be able to see the word Eid Holiday on the calendar.”
“I was delighted,” Hussein said of hearing that Eid would be recognized by the school board. “I was just really happy, because Eid is supposed to be a time where we can sit down and relax, not be worrying about the lessons that we’re missing and what we’re doing at school.”
The district said it took the student and parent advocates seriously and made the change in response to their work.
“After thoughtful review, the district became aware that many students were absent on June 6 to observe Eid al-Adha,” Sewanhaka Superintendent Regina Agrusa said in a statement. “Taking their perspectives into account, we revisited the school calendar and recommended to the board that school remain open on Dec. 23 and instead be closed on May 27.”
May 27 is the date Eid al-Adha falls on in 2026.
Islam said the fight to convince Sewanhaka to recognize Eid started off frustrating when the group began advocating to the elementary boards, who did not inform parents they did not have the authority to decide the matter for years, but has become fruitful since beginning to work with Sewanhaka’s board.
“The Muslim community’s relationship with the school board is really great,” Islam said. “They value our input. They look to us for guidance on other issues that have arisen.”
She said the district has implemented Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives, prayer rooms for Muslim students and increased Halal and vegetarian school lunch offerings to accommodate dietary restrictions.
“It’s been such a positive experience,” Islam said. “It all started with requesting Eid holidays, and it blossomed into so many other initiatives. It was really great to open so many doors for not just our community, but for so many other communities that might be marginalized.”
