Bernards Indian Community Holds Sandy Fundraiser for Diwali

Blogger reports that Bernards Township Indian community held Sandy assistance fundraiser as Diwalli project.

Diwali Requested Again to be Bernards School Holiday

Parent approaches Bernards Board of Education as school officials prepare to re-examine future school calendars.

For more than a year, parents and some students who are Indian-American have attended Board of Education meetings with the persistent request that school officials make Diwali, the Indian festival of lights, into a day off from school so that their children might fully partake of the holiday. Monday's meeting, the annual reorganization of the school board, was no exception. One parent, Rippi Karda, told the board about how her daughters' enjoyment of a family-oriented day was hampered by their worry about showing up at school the next day without having completed the work that their classmates have done. Karda said she explained that the school does not require students to do homework on the day of a religious holiday. Diwali this year …

•  80 Comments
• Photos (1)

Moms Talk Q&A

Moms Talk: Is School Calendar Due for an Overhaul?

Is it time to give up that full week in February? Should Diwali be a school holiday?

This week's discussion at the Board of Education meeting regarding whether the school year ends too late in June and whether the Indian festival of Diwali should be added as a school holiday brought back to the front burner a topic that's been brought up several times. On Monday, two parents spoke up and reminded the board that hundreds of residents had either sent e-mails or signed a petition about the same time asking why with the township's Indian population growing, Diwali can't added as a day off on future school calendars. Diwali, the Festival of Lights, falls on Nov. 13 this year. But even before the parents' comments, Board Member Beverly Cwerner had reported that the board's policy committee had been planning to re-examine future …

•  23 Comments
• Photos (2)

Parents Again Ask Why Diwali Isn't a Bernards School Holiday

Mothers say their children want to know why other cultures and religions get to celebrate while they don't.

Two parents approached the Board of Education on Monday night with a question that was raised last year — why isn't the Indian Festival of Lights, Diwali, part of the school calendar? "We want to send the message to our kids that their culture is respected," said Sundari Arni, one of the two mothers who spoke before the board. She said that children in the Indian community are asking why other children are able to celebrate their holidays have a day off, without having to make up their work at a later time. Reena Singhvi pointed out that during September, two days were given off from school for the Jewish holidays. Yet she said that the township demographer's report from the 2010 census identified 9 percent of the local population as …

•  32 Comments
• Photos (2)

Letter to the Editor

Resident and Parent Asks Diwali Become School Holiday

Letter to the editor.

  Editor's Note: The Board of Education was approached at its Dec. 19 meeting with a petition and public requests to add one day off from school in a future calendar to recognize the holiday of Diwali, which typically falls in October or November. The board, which works three years ahead in setting school calendars, approved the 2014-15 school calendar without adding Diwali as a holiday. However, the matter is scheduled to go before a board subcommittee in January, and could be discussed in public after that time. This week's Moms Talk Q&A also addressed the issue. To the Editor: My husband and I have been residents of Basking Ridge for the past 10 years. Our kids are in 8th and 10th grade of Bernards township public schools. On Dec 19th a…

• Photos (1)

Moms Talk Q&A

Moms Talk: Should Diwali Become a School Holiday in Bernards?

Request made at this week's school board meeting, to be further examined in early 2012.

  If Bernards Township schools follow through on a request by parents and students from the Indian-American community to add the start of the festival Diwali as a day off on a future school calendar, we would certainly be in the vanguard in New Jersey. Of course, recognizing a holiday that is important to a number of our residents also would reflect the growing diversity of this community. Among other aspects, the "Festival of Lights" as celebrated by various sects of Asians worldwide, calls for time spent at gatherings, cooking and other family and culture-oriented traditions. At the school board meeting on Monday, Ridge High School graduate Saniya Waghray said it is hard to concentrate and give full time to the holiday for students who …

•  7 Comments
• Photos (1)

n

3:24 pm on Thursday, April 12, 2012

Christmas day and Thanksgiving Day are national holidays and the BOE has no control over those holidays.   more ›

Petition, Parents Ask that Diwali Be Added to School Calendar

Parents and students ask that the Indian "Festival of Lights" be given a day off in the school calendar under consideration for 2014-15.

Monday night's Board of Education meeting was attended by dozens of residents from Bernards Township's Indian-American community, who asked that the festival of Diwali, an annual holiday that falls each October to November be added as a day off from school in a future calendar. "Diwali is important to Indians, and all of the Indian community," said Deepak Kapadia, a parent who presented the school board with a petition asking that the district recognize Diwali on an upcoming school calendar for 2014-15. Schools Superintendent Valerie Goger on Tuesday said the petition was received with 78 signatures. Kapadia said the Indian community in Basking Ridge reflects the diversity not only of the town, but of a group of Americans who are rapidly …

• Photos (1)