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STAMFORD -- They've stormed the beaches of Normandy, fought the Vietcong and defended their country against the "axis of evil."

Now, local veterans are taking on the city's Board of Education, fighting its decision not to close for Veterans Day next year.

By requiring school children to attend classes, veterans say the board has decided not to observe the holiday.

Representatives of the local American Legion, Marine Corps League, Disabled American Veterans, Jewish War Veterans, and the Veterans of Foreign Wars are planning to protest the change in the school calendar at the school board meeting Tuesday night at the Stamford Government Center.

"This is not Memorial Day for the guys who have been killed, to remember them. This is for the guys who are alive," said John Rubino of the local Marine Corps League. "Veterans Day is for living, breathing veterans of all armed forces. These guys have gone though a lot and they have earned that one day of the year."

Veterans say having school on the holiday is disrespectful to the men and women who served their country.

"Our day is a sacred day," said Pat Battinelli, chairman of Stamford's Patriotic and Special Events Commission and leader of the local Marine Corps League. "It's like taking Good Friday away from the church."

Opponents have set up a Web site, www.saveveteransday.com.

The school board voted 8 to 1 Feb. 28 in favor of opening on Friday, Nov. 10, to cut one day off the end of the year in June. Friday is the holiday this year because Veterans Day falls on a Saturday.

School board President Susan Nabel said students should get a lesson in civics and history instead of a day off.

"We all felt the real meaning of Veterans Day has been lost for students for quite a few years," she said.

Board members also felt it was more productive to have an extra school day in November rather than June, she said.

Nabel said the two veterans on the board -- Archie Elam and Charles Conway -- voted for the change. She also said members of the Jewish War Veterans and the VFW had been consulted and approved of the plan.

"As a matter of fact, a couple of them said they were very much for it and said they wanted to be involved in the planning of the assemblies at the schools, so I am very distressed now that veterans groups are accusing us of disrespect and accusing us of making a hasty decision," Nabel said.

She said the discussion about whether to hold classes on Veterans Day began last summer.

If the holiday fell on a school day, Nabel said she personally would have opposed the change, but that's not the case this year.

"Veterans Day is actually Nov. 11. We are having school on Friday, Nov. 10. Having school that day in no way prevents students from participating in the events that happen on Veterans Day," she said. "They'll march in the parades and play in the orchestra with a better idea of why they are doing what they are doing."

Board member Martin Levine said the whole purpose was to create a Veterans Day curriculum for the schools.

"Now we seem to be accused of being unpatriotic for what was supposed to be a patriotic thing," he said.

Democrat Marggie Laurie was the only member to vote against the change. She said it would violate union contracts that give some school employees the day off.

School district spokeswoman Sarah Arnold said the situation has been resolved with all of the affected unions, and in each case members were given an alternate day off, or other accommodations were made.

If the schools had Veterans Day off next year, students would go to school only three days that week. Election Day falls on that Tuesday.

At a Republican Town Committee nominating convention last week, Kurt Zimbler, commander of the local Jewish War Veterans post, voted against running two Republican school board members for re-election -- Angela Lorenti and Charles Conway -- because they voted for having school on Veterans Day.

Lorenti and Conway said their vote has been misunderstood.

Conway said the board wants to partner with local veterans to develop a Veterans Day curriculum.

"The day's been lost in terms of the importance of it," said Conway, a former Marine. "Ask half the kids what Veterans Day is and they have no idea."

Lorenti said teaching students about veterans is a better way to honor their service to the country than giving kids a day off to play video games or go to the mall.

"Kids are not really acknowledging veterans on their day off. They are at home doing whatever," she said. "We were concerned that it's just another day off and no one was really honoring the veterans."

Public schools in Connecticut are not required to have the day off.

In Wilton, where the schools were in session last Veterans Day, students interviewed veterans, wrote letters to veterans or watched a video about the seriousness of war. School also was in session in New Canaan and Westport last Veterans Day.

"It can't happen here," Battinelli said. "We're not a little country-bumpkin town anymore, and the veterans take the holiday very seriously. There is the American way, and there is this way."

If learning about a holiday is a better way to celebrate than taking a day off, veterans say school should be in session on all holidays, including Labor Day, Columbus Day and Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

"How can you have that one school holiday stricken from the school calendar and not the others?" said Rubino, who will have two sons at Toquam Magnet Elementary School in the fall. "You could imagine the outrage if they tried to remove Martin Luther King Day and say, 'We are going to come to school and talk about who Martin Luther King was.' "