Why is school closed on Sept. 25th?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We should only get Federal Holidays off. We don't need Yom Kippur off.

I'm the outlier that loves all the random days off in FCPS. The long weekends give us a chance to see family, relax, whatever.

I completely disagreed with the previous O day policy where they couldn't teach any new material or give a test or take a field trip. That was more of an issue than the days off. But recognizing major religious holidays with a school closure is fine with me.

That's cool. Some parents work for a living.

So use a vacation day? It must be so easy to just take a day, since that's the suggestion for Jewish teachers and students to just take time off to observe Yom Kippur.

The observance of Yom Kippur, or any other religious holiday, is a personal choice. I know I know, not a popular opinion. But no one has a gun to your head. I don’t see why 99% of students and their families need to be inconvenienced to enable others to seamlessly engage with the faith that they chose.

-Culturally Jewish family that does not celebrate any religious holiday

You’ll survive being “inconvenienced.”

You’re right, I’ll survive. But guaranteed there is some unsupervised teen or tween out there who won’t. In this day and age, I don’t know why we are creating more opportunities for kids to OD.

I cannot make guarantees for every teen in FCPS. Those are issues that go beyond religious observance days off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We should only get Federal Holidays off. We don't need Yom Kippur off.

I'm the outlier that loves all the random days off in FCPS. The long weekends give us a chance to see family, relax, whatever.

I completely disagreed with the previous O day policy where they couldn't teach any new material or give a test or take a field trip. That was more of an issue than the days off. But recognizing major religious holidays with a school closure is fine with me.

That's cool. Some parents work for a living.

So use a vacation day? It must be so easy to just take a day, since that's the suggestion for Jewish teachers and students to just take time off to observe Yom Kippur.

The observance of Yom Kippur, or any other religious holiday, is a personal choice. I know I know, not a popular opinion. But no one has a gun to your head. I don’t see why 99% of students and their families need to be inconvenienced to enable others to seamlessly engage with the faith that they chose.

-Culturally Jewish family that does not celebrate any religious holiday

You’ll survive being “inconvenienced.”

You’re right, I’ll survive. But guaranteed there is some unsupervised teen or tween out there who won’t. In this day and age, I don’t know why we are creating more opportunities for kids to OD.

I’ve been reading these boards for a long time. This is absolutely among the dumbest things anyone has ever posted here.

By this “logic” school should be a locked ward no one ever leaves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We should only get Federal Holidays off. We don't need Yom Kippur off.

I'm the outlier that loves all the random days off in FCPS. The long weekends give us a chance to see family, relax, whatever.

I completely disagreed with the previous O day policy where they couldn't teach any new material or give a test or take a field trip. That was more of an issue than the days off. But recognizing major religious holidays with a school closure is fine with me.

That's cool. Some parents work for a living.

So use a vacation day? It must be so easy to just take a day, since that's the suggestion for Jewish teachers and students to just take time off to observe Yom Kippur.

The observance of Yom Kippur, or any other religious holiday, is a personal choice. I know I know, not a popular opinion. But no one has a gun to your head. I don’t see why 99% of students and their families need to be inconvenienced to enable others to seamlessly engage with the faith that they chose.

-Culturally Jewish family that does not celebrate any religious holiday

You’ll survive being “inconvenienced.”

You’re right, I’ll survive. But guaranteed there is some unsupervised teen or tween out there who won’t. In this day and age, I don’t know why we are creating more opportunities for kids to OD.

Wow. We shouldn't allow four days off for other religions to observe their holiest days of the year, because a kid might OD while school is closed. That's the argument you're going with?

Yom Kippur is a day of atonement. Perhaps contemplate that theme with your day off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We should only get Federal Holidays off. We don't need Yom Kippur off.

I'm the outlier that loves all the random days off in FCPS. The long weekends give us a chance to see family, relax, whatever.

I completely disagreed with the previous O day policy where they couldn't teach any new material or give a test or take a field trip. That was more of an issue than the days off. But recognizing major religious holidays with a school closure is fine with me.

That's cool. Some parents work for a living.

So use a vacation day? It must be so easy to just take a day, since that's the suggestion for Jewish teachers and students to just take time off to observe Yom Kippur.

The observance of Yom Kippur, or any other religious holiday, is a personal choice. I know I know, not a popular opinion. But no one has a gun to your head. I don’t see why 99% of students and their families need to be inconvenienced to enable others to seamlessly engage with the faith that they chose.

-Culturally Jewish family that does not celebrate any religious holiday

You’ll survive being “inconvenienced.”

"Inconvenienced" in this case meaning "you don't get to learn today".

When did school go from learning to finding any reason to get out of school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We should only get Federal Holidays off. We don't need Yom Kippur off.

I'm the outlier that loves all the random days off in FCPS. The long weekends give us a chance to see family, relax, whatever.

I completely disagreed with the previous O day policy where they couldn't teach any new material or give a test or take a field trip. That was more of an issue than the days off. But recognizing major religious holidays with a school closure is fine with me.

That's cool. Some parents work for a living.

So use a vacation day? It must be so easy to just take a day, since that's the suggestion for Jewish teachers and students to just take time off to observe Yom Kippur.

The observance of Yom Kippur, or any other religious holiday, is a personal choice. I know I know, not a popular opinion. But no one has a gun to your head. I don’t see why 99% of students and their families need to be inconvenienced to enable others to seamlessly engage with the faith that they chose.

-Culturally Jewish family that does not celebrate any religious holiday

You’ll survive being “inconvenienced.”

"Inconvenienced" in this case meaning "you don't get to learn today".

When did school go from learning to finding any reason to get out of school?

It's a day off. Not a day shortened. They still have 179 other days.

Are you always this dramatic?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When you start bemoaning Columbus Day and Presidents’ day I will listen.

I think the kids should be in school on Columbus Day and President’s Day. Toss in MLK and Veteran’s Day and I would be thrilled. I think a good number of parents who have the Federal Holidays off enjoyed it when the kids were in school on Veteran’s Day. It was nice to have a day to run errands or get a lunch date in. For every religious/cultural day we add, remove a Federal Holiday.

I would like more 5 day school weeks and for the school year to not drag into the middle of June. This year isn’t as bad as last year because so many of the new days off are on the weekend but last years schedule was awful. There were too many disruptions. The lack of a consistent schedule is hard for kids with disabilities and ES kids.

Oh, you’re one of those lazy parents. It’s all clear now.

Only "lazy" parents want their kids in school? Strange definition of lazy. You must be comatose with that definition of lazy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every religion has at least 1 day off on the FCPS calendar. Remember: equity!

Yes, equity. How horrible it is to show respect to a diverse community & let them celebrate their holidays. /sarcasm

Rastafarians? No insult to them (just an example), but if everyone was to get a holiday, there would be no school. What should be the size of the student population or petition necessary to get a holiday?

I don't have the answer.

You are not actually comparing Jews to Rastafarians

Are YOU saying Jews are more important than Rastafarians?

I am saying you cannot seriously compare taking a day to celebrate the holiday of one of the 3 major Abrahamic religions to taking days off for every single faith no matter how niche. There is a huge difference between schools saying let’s take off for Buddhist and Rastafarian and Bah’ai and Pagan and whatever else holidays and schools saying, this is a major Jewish holiday that many people observe.

Do you have any rough numbers for Fairfax? Relatively it may not be that many.

I think there is just some general frustration that there are lots of partial weeks (disruptive for many families) and despite the fact that school starts much earlier, it still doesn't end until mid June.

I personally think there are too many other closures and the winter break is at least 3 days too long.

And if it bothers you enough, you have other educational options available to you.

Simply making an argument based on logic against the elongated school calendar. I have every right to express my opinion as you do. You may like the current schedule, I do not. Other options may be available, but my tax dollars give me a right to fight for change. Now, if you would like to provide vouchers...

I’m pretty sure that disagreeing with celebrating Yom Kippur does not give you a right to a voucher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We should only get Federal Holidays off. We don't need Yom Kippur off.

I'm the outlier that loves all the random days off in FCPS. The long weekends give us a chance to see family, relax, whatever.

I completely disagreed with the previous O day policy where they couldn't teach any new material or give a test or take a field trip. That was more of an issue than the days off. But recognizing major religious holidays with a school closure is fine with me.

That's cool. Some parents work for a living.

So use a vacation day? It must be so easy to just take a day, since that's the suggestion for Jewish teachers and students to just take time off to observe Yom Kippur.

The observance of Yom Kippur, or any other religious holiday, is a personal choice. I know I know, not a popular opinion. But no one has a gun to your head. I don’t see why 99% of students and their families need to be inconvenienced to enable others to seamlessly engage with the faith that they chose.

-Culturally Jewish family that does not celebrate any religious holiday

You’ll survive being “inconvenienced.”

You’re right, I’ll survive. But guaranteed there is some unsupervised teen or tween out there who won’t. In this day and age, I don’t know why we are creating more opportunities for kids to OD.

Maybe the parent could work to prevent an OD with their own child. That responsibility doesn’t fall on FCPS.

[Anonymous]

Fcps serves over 180,000 students in over 400 schools. As is true in many places, ethnic and religious minorities have created sub communities which makes some schools have large numbers of students all from the same minority community. While not all schools would be affected by days like Yom Kippur or Diwali or Eid being in session, the reality is some schools *are* heavily affected and the district has those days off.

To be completely honest, FCPS could probably use being split into a few smaller districts that are able to be tailored to their unique populations a bit better but I also love the level of resources that come with a district of this size.

Also having religious holidays off is in no way bringing religion into the schools. They aren't teaching the doctrines of these days, they're literally just acknowledging that they exist and are important for some.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Fcps serves over 180,000 students in over 400 schools. As is true in many places, ethnic and religious minorities have created sub communities which makes some schools have large numbers of students all from the same minority community. While not all schools would be affected by days like Yom Kippur or Diwali or Eid being in session, the reality is some schools *are* heavily affected and the district has those days off.

To be completely honest, FCPS could probably use being split into a few smaller districts that are able to be tailored to their unique populations a bit better but I also love the level of resources that come with a district of this size.

Also having religious holidays off is in no way bringing religion into the schools. They aren't teaching the doctrines of these days, they're literally just acknowledging that they exist and are important for some.

Look at this post! It's reasonable and thoughtful!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every religion has at least 1 day off on the FCPS calendar. Remember: equity!

Yes, equity. How horrible it is to show respect to a diverse community & let them celebrate their holidays. /sarcasm

Rastafarians? No insult to them (just an example), but if everyone was to get a holiday, there would be no school. What should be the size of the student population or petition necessary to get a holiday?

I don't have the answer.

You are not actually comparing Jews to Rastafarians

Are YOU saying Jews are more important than Rastafarians?

I am saying you cannot seriously compare taking a day to celebrate the holiday of one of the 3 major Abrahamic religions to taking days off for every single faith no matter how niche. There is a huge difference between schools saying let’s take off for Buddhist and Rastafarian and Bah’ai and Pagan and whatever else holidays and schools saying, this is a major Jewish holiday that many people observe.

Do you have any rough numbers for Fairfax? Relatively it may not be that many.

I think there is just some general frustration that there are lots of partial weeks (disruptive for many families) and despite the fact that school starts much earlier, it still doesn't end until mid June.

I personally think there are too many other closures and the winter break is at least 3 days too long.

And if it bothers you enough, you have other educational options available to you.

Simply making an argument based on logic against the elongated school calendar. I have every right to express my opinion as you do. You may like the current schedule, I do not. Other options may be available, but my tax dollars give me a right to fight for change. Now, if you would like to provide vouchers...

I’m pretty sure that disagreeing with celebrating Yom Kippur does not give you a right to a voucher.

It's not all about Yom Kippur. I referenced what I believe is an elongated school calendar. And there are many days off in there including too many in the winter break. I was also responding to the poster who basically told me to pound sand and go elsewhere if I did not like it when what I said was I would fight for a calendar that is more consistent and compact(not so many breaks). Didn't say it was so bad that I would leave, but if they don't want me to have an opinion or to lobby for what I want then vouchers might be appropriate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why is school closed on Sept. 25th?

Simply put, to make your life a living hell 😀

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We should only get Federal Holidays off. We don't need Yom Kippur off.

I'm the outlier that loves all the random days off in FCPS. The long weekends give us a chance to see family, relax, whatever.

I completely disagreed with the previous O day policy where they couldn't teach any new material or give a test or take a field trip. That was more of an issue than the days off. But recognizing major religious holidays with a school closure is fine with me.

That's cool. Some parents work for a living.

So use a vacation day? It must be so easy to just take a day, since that's the suggestion for Jewish teachers and students to just take time off to observe Yom Kippur.

The observance of Yom Kippur, or any other religious holiday, is a personal choice. I know I know, not a popular opinion. But no one has a gun to your head. I don’t see why 99% of students and their families need to be inconvenienced to enable others to seamlessly engage with the faith that they chose.

-Culturally Jewish family that does not celebrate any religious holiday

You’ll survive being “inconvenienced.”

"Inconvenienced" in this case meaning "you don't get to learn today".

When did school go from learning to finding any reason to get out of school?

I hope you weren’t one of the parents complaining about school starting too early this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We should only get Federal Holidays off. We don't need Yom Kippur off.

I'm the outlier that loves all the random days off in FCPS. The long weekends give us a chance to see family, relax, whatever.

I completely disagreed with the previous O day policy where they couldn't teach any new material or give a test or take a field trip. That was more of an issue than the days off. But recognizing major religious holidays with a school closure is fine with me.

That's cool. Some parents work for a living.

So use a vacation day? It must be so easy to just take a day, since that's the suggestion for Jewish teachers and students to just take time off to observe Yom Kippur.

The observance of Yom Kippur, or any other religious holiday, is a personal choice. I know I know, not a popular opinion. But no one has a gun to your head. I don’t see why 99% of students and their families need to be inconvenienced to enable others to seamlessly engage with the faith that they chose.

-Culturally Jewish family that does not celebrate any religious holiday

You’ll survive being “inconvenienced.”

You’re right, I’ll survive. But guaranteed there is some unsupervised teen or tween out there who won’t. In this day and age, I don’t know why we are creating more opportunities for kids to OD.

“Schools can’t let people observe Yom Kippur or someone will OD and die” is the craziest leap of logic I have ever seen on this forum

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every religion has at least 1 day off on the FCPS calendar. Remember: equity!

Yes, equity. How horrible it is to show respect to a diverse community & let them celebrate their holidays. /sarcasm

Rastafarians? No insult to them (just an example), but if everyone was to get a holiday, there would be no school. What should be the size of the student population or petition necessary to get a holiday?

I don't have the answer.

You are not actually comparing Jews to Rastafarians

Are YOU saying Jews are more important than Rastafarians?

I am saying you cannot seriously compare taking a day to celebrate the holiday of one of the 3 major Abrahamic religions to taking days off for every single faith no matter how niche. There is a huge difference between schools saying let’s take off for Buddhist and Rastafarian and Bah’ai and Pagan and whatever else holidays and schools saying, this is a major Jewish holiday that many people observe.

Do you have any rough numbers for Fairfax? Relatively it may not be that many.

I think there is just some general frustration that there are lots of partial weeks (disruptive for many families) and despite the fact that school starts much earlier, it still doesn't end until mid June.

I personally think there are too many other closures and the winter break is at least 3 days too long.

Saying “winter break doesn’t need to be this long” is fair and reasonable. Saying “schools shouldn’t close for a major Jewish holiday” isn’t. You wouldn’t expect schools to be open on Christmas Day.