There may still be a question as to whether or not a large percentage of teachers and students will attend class on Good Friday next year, but there’s no question that tri-town schools will be in session.

In March, the Joint School Committee voted to make Good Friday a regular school day in 2015. Since then, a petition 700 names strong has circulated throughout the tri-town against the decision as well as several letters to the editor from residents on both sides of the issue.

At a contentious Joint School Committee meeting on Monday night the discussion over Good Friday was reopened, though ultimately no change was made.

Committee members went back and forth over the issue, particularly whether or not the day would be educationally productive if a large number of the school population was absent.

In addition to the Good Friday decision, in March the School Committee also voted to change the half-day vacation on Thanksgiving eve to a full day, saying it is traditionally a wash academically. Last year 11 percent of students were absent.

While the day before Thanksgiving is a required work day for faculty, some committee members were concerned that teachers taking Good Friday for religious reasons would mean employing a lot of substitute teachers for the day and could be a strain on the school budget.

“It’s my opinion that there will be a significant amount of people that will not work that day as well as students,” said member Cary Humphrey of Rochester. “I feel like that puts a burden on the school district, cost-wise, safety-wise.”

While teachers would be permitted to take the day off for religious reasons, Paul Goulet of Marion thought most teachers would be present.

“I think you’re going to see the professionalism on that day,” he said.

Informal polls taken by Junior High Principal Kevin Brogioli and High School Principal Mike Devoll suggested that might not be the case.

“Approximately 25 percent of faculty said they would not be in that day, that they would take a personal day,” said Brogioli.

Devoll said an anonymous poll with his faculty resulted in approximately 25 percent as well. A teacher from Center School said many of her peers also indicated they would take the day off.

Several decades ago the Joint School Committee made a similar decision, which was only in effect for one year.

“The district tried this 20 years ago, and it failed miserably,” said Marion committee member Jay Pateakos. “Not much has really changed I’m sure. If that didn’t work, why would it work now?”

Several members, however, said the vote was a move to keep the sacred and the secular separate and would not be an issue in the long run.

“Next year, yes, it could potentially cause a problem, but I think if it’s something we were to continue over time, that would not be the case,” said Joseph Scott.

Much like the School Committee, residents who spoke were divided.

Marion resident Shaun Walsh encouraged the committee to make the decision based on data, “not based on how many signatures are on a petition and not just because that’s the way we did it in the past.”

Walsh said he spoke with the superintendent of Bourne Public Schools, where Good Friday has been a regular school day for 13 years. Last year, only three faculty members took the day off, he said.

Identifying herself as Catholic, Rochester’s Isabel Gomes McCann was in favor of the committee’s decision and said cannon law doesn’t require abstaining from work on Good Friday.

“There are no rules whatsoever for secular activity and prohibiting it on Good Friday,” said McCann.

But Maggie McGee, who collected around 700 signatures on a petition against the committee’s decision, said the issue was an affront to Christians.

“It’s not just about Catholics, it’s about a Christian holiday,” said McGee.

She called the decision a “subtle way of removing God from our schools.”

Former School Committee member Joe Napoli said the decision was a mistake just as it was when they tried it in the 1980s.

“I don’t know why we have to reinvent the wheel,” said Napoli, adding that more than two-thirds of teachers didn’t come to school then.

Rochester resident Steve Burke also encouraged the committee to rescind its vote but for a different reason.

“I don’t care what decisions you make, but make it on valid data,” he said. “I just think that you probably need to reassemble and rethink this.”

Superintendent Doug White also weighed in on the discussion.

“The issue I have is not about religion, it’s about the quality of the day and the safety of the day,” said White. “I cannot sit here and honestly tell you that I know what that day is going to look like.”

The motion that would have reinstated Good Friday as a vacation day failed in a close vote.

Members representing the elementary schools voted it down three to four. Old Rochester Regional members did the same, four to five.