BCSD Board Of Education Votes to Change Columbus Day to Indigenous People’s / Italian American Heritage Day
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During their meeting on September 18, 2023, BCSD’s Board of Education (BOE) voted to change the name of the federal holiday on the school calendar from Columbus Day to Indigenous People / Italian American Heritage Day. They considered it one year ago in October 2022, and scheduled opportunities for the public to submit comments on the topic.
In response to their consideration, the Board had formed a 6-person committee of community members to hear public comment and submit a direction on how to proceed. While public insight was gained, the committee and public comment was split. Said BOE President Meredith Heuer in the September 2023 meeting to vote the Board’s decision: "I was disappointed that it ended in a deadlock. But I really am grateful to the community members that participated. It's a hard thing to talk about. While I'm disappointed, I'm also not surprised."
Because the community committee ended in deadlock, the BOE members needed to create a name and vote. Meredith said it was “up to a board member to make a change from the current to something else. We don't need to vote to keep it Columbus Day. This is purely a change on the district calendar. Does not rise above that.”
Bringing the vote to a motion to start the re-naming process was Kristan Flynn, who proposed to change the name to Indigenous People / Italian American Heritage Day, which she said matched New York City’s, and responded to some of the feedback from Italian Americans in Beacon who came forward to voice their comment to the committee. Her motion was seconded by Flora Stadler and Semra Ercin.
Anthony White then optioned to amend her motion with an amendment to not name the holiday at all on the school calendar, and to eliminate all holiday and break names from the school calendar. "If we are going to change it,” he proposed, “I would like to change all of the holidays on the district calendar to ‘Holidays’ and not name it. And it's up to the parents to have a conversation as to why we are off. If it's a district calendar, it would say Holiday or Break... If we are going to change one, that is not required to be changed, I would like to change all of them to ‘Holiday’ and/or ‘Break.’ It's taking all the names off.”
This caused momentary confusion amongst board members.
Said Flora: “I'm really unclear how to vote on the name of the holiday, and then vote to take away all the names of holidays. They seem like two separate things.” Meredith contributed: “To me that does feel like a giant other conversation.” Kristen concluded: “If we didn't have a committee to change the names of all of the holidays, then we wouldn't be following process. We specifically voted on a committee about this holiday. So I thought we were just voting on this holiday."
Anthony responded: "And I'm saying, if agree to change the name on this holiday, I would like to change the names on the whole district calendar to non -pecific names and to just call it a holiday or break. So you can vote on yours...the amendment was to adjust it to name it ‘Columbus Day’ or ‘Indigenous People's,’ to ‘Holiday.’"
Anthony’s suggested required someone to second his proposed motion, which nobody did. The vote toward the proposed name of Indigenous People’s / Italian American Heritage Day proceeded. Voting in favor of the change was Meredith, Flora, Kristan, Semra, and Yunice Heath. Abstaining to vote was Alena Kush. Voting not to change name was Anthony (former President of the Board) and Eric Shetter.
In explanation of her proposed name, Kristan said: “It would have been great to be given and answer [by the committee]. But I don't think that is as important as driving people within a community to talk to each other and listen to each other...I understand the attachment to Columbus. At the heart of the argument was about people who were immigrants from a certain country that felt quite discriminated against, and had made great contributions to America and feel that they deserve that to be celebrated...I am not of the mind that, especially given the fact that that represents a significant portion of the population that has lived in Beacon for a long time and continues to live here, I'm not of the mind that we should take that pride away in any way.
“Also given the acknowledgement that since most of us came here from someplace else, America was not discovered, it was taken from people who were living here before most of us came. So, It would be disingenuous to say that we should be celebrating the beginning of that process for them. And we need to acknowledge that it was and continues to be theirs as well. This is a compromise makes makes everyone a little unhappy I'm sure, but I can live with it, and I hope other people can too.”
Eric also proposed another amendment, that the day be changed to Columbus Day / Indigenous People’s Day. Kristan responded: “I understand the attachment to the name. Based on readings that I have done, it would be against the spirit of honoring the Indigenous people....they believe that that arrival is the beginning of genocide.”
Anthony pressed on: “I do not feel able to make a decision of what is right or wrong. Keep it simple. Call everything a holiday. And now we’re making changes. We are taking that burden on as a Board. You said earlier, what is a good use of our time. I got on this board to ensure kids get educated, and they get educated properly. I do not feel qualified to make a change. That’s one reason I made it simple. Call it a holiday. The kids - they are off from school. That’s what they see.” His proposal to change it to nothing does not seem to educate anything.
Meredith responded: “One of my interested in updating the name is the way that we teach the history of this country has changed a lot since I was in elementary school, and I've seen the material that my kids got through the years, and it's different. It's acknowledging the genocide of the Indigenous people in this country, and acknowledging the damage that was done. It's not a simple story. It's a hard story, but it's an important story to acknowledge. That is why I'm open to the change.”
Yunice felt that Kristan’s proposal was acknowledging the committee’s result of a 50/50 split based on community feedback. “I believe Kristan is pretty much suggesting that we go 50/50 to change the holiday name to acknowledging both groups. Not one over the other, which is what we are trying to avoid here. The district is really working toward inclusion. And that would show that we are standing strongly to that mission and our values.”
Anthony tried again to justify why changing one name might exclude other situations. Kristan responded: “That name brings up for some people harm. If the spirit of if over time has been captured in a different way...You remove the harm by changing it."
Alena explained why she felt comfortable abstaining from the vote: “I'm not qualified to make a decision. I feel like to take it off the calendar, to add something else....I don't know how I would feel if someone made decision to take something off that was very important to me and my culture and my background. I would want to know...I'm not educated enough to make the decision. I learned a lot from the committee and the letters that came in that I did not know because I was not taught that while I was in school. I knew that he [Christopher Columbus] obviously did not discover America, but that was the extent of the knowledge that we had. I understand that we are growing as society as far as just really understanding more about our history. For the reason that we ended up with Juneteenth, which is a national holiday...I didn't learn about Juneteenth until I watched it on a television show, and I was in my 30s....If someone asks me, ‘Alena, why did you vote?’ I want to be able to then say, ‘I did it because of XYZ,’ and I can't. That is just my growth, and my learning and understanding of myself and more about society.”
In an interview with News Channel 12, Paloma Wake, who is a Beacon City Council Member and Operations Manager of the Forge Project responded to the final vote with this statement: "It's not what we would have preferred. While I appreciate the imperative to celebrate Italian heritage in America, it doesn't have to be done at the cost of the erasure of native peoples."
Locally, M&T Bank cited Indigenous People’s Day as the reason for their Monday holiday. Chronogram curated a list of 13 things to do this Indigenous People’s Weekend, where only one of which had to do with Indigenous people or education, which was Indigenous Peoples' Day Weekend at YMCA Frost Valley in Claryville.
Federally, Vice President Kamala Harris acknowledged Indigenous People’s Day solely in her address of the Monday holiday.
