The Eanes ISD board of trustees voted March 29 to move the last day of the 2016-17 school year from May 26, 2017, to May 25, 2017, to accommodate students during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

The action also moves the date of commencement from May 26, 2017, to May 25, 2017.

“We wanted graduation to be something that everybody had an opportunity to attend, and shifting the date solved that problem,” EISD Superintendent Tom Leonard said.

Westlake High School administrators and counselors realized in January that Ramadan—a holy month in the Islamic religion in which Muslims fast from dawn to dusk—begins at sunset on May 26, said Claudia McWhorter, the school district’s director of communication.

That means Muslim children and their families observing Ramadan would be unable to attend commencement services, she said.

“It’s something that we look at constantly, just to make sure we are on top of any kind of conflicts that could prohibit our students from attending things,” McWhorter said.

In addition, the teachers’ last day for the 2016-17 session, originally scheduled for May 30, 2017, will now be May 26, 2017. A teacher workday has been added on Aug. 10, 2016, to meet the state’s 187-day teaching requirement.

The EISD teachers reported having an extra day at the beginning of the school year is “a positive change,” according to background information posted in the trustees’ March 29 agenda packet.