Memorial Day is still nine weeks away but it’s a front-burner issue with veterans’ groups and a school district in Stamford, Connecticut.

To many Americans, the unofficial start to summer means cookouts and parades. Others are more reflective about the day’s true meaning, visiting graves to honor the military personnel who died protecting our freedoms.

Archie Elam, an Army veteran of the Gulf wars and the first Iraq War, is serious about patriotism and veteran causes. A state officer with the Connecticut Veterans of Foreign Wars, he has handed flags to families at funerals. He’s also had the difficult assignment of carrying the tragic news to families that their loved one wouldn’t be coming home.

After learning that his school district was considering holding a half-day of classes on Memorial Day to make up for snow days, Elam made his feelings known. He said the story was not about him but about respecting the memories of those who paid the ultimate sacrifice.

School Superintendent Earl Kim had presented two options to the Board of Education to help reduce the school year after the district accumulated seven snow days. Since state law only requires students to be in school 180 days, the board has the option to forgive the 181st day of school. The law allows students to go to school on national holidays as long as the day’s lessons focus on the holiday. Holding classes on Memorial Day could also cost the district more in holiday pay for teachers and staff.

Elam, a member of the Stamford Board of Education from 2004 to 2007, said he heard about the Memorial Day proposal through word-of-mouth. He said it was a serious oversight not to include anyone in the veterans’ community to discuss the Memorial Day options.

Philip Alan Gerard, a retired naval officer and the parent of a Stamford High student, agrees that Memorial Day should remain a holiday for families to spend time together and to reflect. He’s also a member of the Stamford Veterans’ Council which consists of six major veterans’ organizations in Stamford.

Although the superintendent said the district planned to consult with local veterans’ organizations before the board makes a decision, Gerard said his group was not notified of the possibility to hold classes on Memorial Day.

Lynn Rule, a Stamford parent and Parent-Teacher Council co-president, said most of the families she heard from supported having school on Memorial Day but Elam and Gerhard said that’s not the kind of feedback they experienced, especially from those families who had lost loved ones in the military.

Rule, however, says the district means no disrespect to any families who have lost loved ones. She feels that having class provides the opportunity for “a teachable moment” for students and that the district would rather take time to honor the veterans who sacrificed.

Stamford isn’t the only district to experience backlash from veterans about the holiday.

In 2014, a parent in the Livingston Parish School District in Louisiana was not pleased that the school was open and his son was taking final exams on Memorial Day. The parent, who served in the Marine Corps, said the story was not about him, but about respect.

A school administrator said they had no choice. Extra state accountability testing and graduation schedules forced the school system to push back the school year.

The father said that Mardi Gras was important enough for the school to have two days off, but the board members and administrators had trouble setting aside a day to honor the men and women who have died for this country.

Like the Stamford district, the Louisiana school officials said that no disrespect was intended.

Benjamin Harrison, a Union officer during the American Civil War who became the 23rd president of the United States (1889-93), might be one of the subjects that Stamford teachers could quote while providing students with the kind of “teachable moment” that the parent-teacher official had hoped to see.

“I have never been able to think of the day as one of mourning; I have never quite been able to feel that half-masted flags were appropriate on Decoration Day,” Harrison said in explaining what Memorial Day meant to him. “I have rather felt that the flag should be at the peak, because those whose dying we commemorate rejoiced in seeing it where their valor placed it. We honor them in a joyous, thankful, triumphant commemoration of what they did.”

By Jim Zbick | tneditor@tnonline.com