SAN ANTONIO — The Harlandale Independent School District has decided to keep Martin Luther King Day as a holiday, according to a letter sent to district families.
The district sent the letter Wednesday after coming under fire from members of the community as well as the San Antonio chapter of the NAACP for announcing it would exchange the school holiday with the Election Day holiday taken earlier in November.
"The decision to exchange the Martin Luther King holiday with the Elections day holiday was ultimately decided by a survey that was sent out to all of our employees," District Superintendent Gerardo Soto wrote.
Soto also said the district thought having school on MLK day would be a "great learning opportunity," and students would have taken part in virtual MLK events.
Harlandale ISD will instead make up for taking Election Day as a holiday by extending the school year through June 7, 2021, for students and June 8 for campus staff.
Read the full letter below:
Dear Harlandale ISD family,
As many of you know the decision to exchange the Martin Luther King holiday with the Elections day holiday was ultimately decided by a survey that was sent out to all of our employees. We know that the results from that survey have troubled different organizations in our community as well as some of you. While we believe that having our students take part of the MLK virtual events during a school day was going to be a great learning opportunity to honor and understand more about Dr King’s legacy, we have decided to keep the Martin Luther King day a holiday and instead add an extra day to our school calendar at the end of the school year.
This means that the last day of school for students will now be Monday, June 7th, 2021, and the last day for campus staff would be Tuesday, June 8th, 2021. Please know that our student attendance for this day, June7, will be critical for future district funding. Also, teachers are required to fulfill their 187 day contract and therefore must be in attendance on June 8 as well. We ask all of our Harlandale ISD families and staff to make plans for this extension. We understand that our decisions affect all of our students and staff and that is why we don’t take them lightly and we always keep your best interest in mind.
We appreciate your understanding and we thank you in advance for continuing to provide the best education possible for our Harlandale ISD students.
Sincerely,
Gerardo Soto
Superintendent of Schools