Melanie Meren's FB post about the calendar

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People are mad about this year. I get it. But next year’s calendar and the year after is fine.

Meren voted for these calendars and supported them. Very odd that she chooses NOW to say she is ready to act? What is going on with her?

Because you can only make policy changes while people are mad. You think they’ll end early release in a year when everyone isn’t mad?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People are mad about this year. I get it. But next year’s calendar and the year after is fine.

Meren voted for these calendars and supported them. Very odd that she chooses NOW to say she is ready to act? What is going on with her?

It is the first FB page that she has made in a long time that people are posting on.

[Anonymous]

I'm supportive of the effort to relook at them. Maybe it won't change by much but even 3 days of change to get out earlier in June would be beneficial.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, love the non-5 day weeks. They are great. Summer is such a pain to plan, and we (and most of our friends) much prefer a day here and there, rather than additional weeks in the summer.

I agree! We love the 4 day weeks! It really helps with the sleep for middle and high schoolers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, love the non-5 day weeks. They are great. Summer is such a pain to plan, and we (and most of our friends) much prefer a day here and there, rather than additional weeks in the summer.

I agree! We love the 4 day weeks! It really helps with the sleep for middle and high schoolers.

Typical 4 day-week schools have under 150 days. https://www.nwea.org/blog/2026/what-the-research-tells-us-about-four-day-school-weeks/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Both the 2026-27 and 2027-28 calendars look fine to me. But that’s because they don’t include 3 hour early releases yet. It’s when those get peppered in, especially in the winter months when delays and closures are prevalent that the calendar goes to hell.

What’s worse, since they run the bus routes twice on those days, they split the county in half. 5 of the 8 early releases for us have coincided with already short weeks. That should be the first thing on the chopping block. It’s also equivalent to 3 school days, so if the instructional hours have been deemed expendable, why not remove those days off the end of the calendar before going after Federal holidays and religious/cultural observances?

They don’t need to have those 3 hour early releases. They shouldn’t have had them this year and I’m not sure the justification for them when the original justification was additions teacher training needed for just one year.

Teachers need planning time. They used to have weekly early release Mondays.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Both the 2026-27 and 2027-28 calendars look fine to me. But that’s because they don’t include 3 hour early releases yet. It’s when those get peppered in, especially in the winter months when delays and closures are prevalent that the calendar goes to hell.

What’s worse, since they run the bus routes twice on those days, they split the county in half. 5 of the 8 early releases for us have coincided with already short weeks. That should be the first thing on the chopping block. It’s also equivalent to 3 school days, so if the instructional hours have been deemed expendable, why not remove those days off the end of the calendar before going after Federal holidays and religious/cultural observances?

They don’t need to have those 3 hour early releases. They shouldn’t have had them this year and I’m not sure the justification for them when the original justification was additions teacher training needed for just one year.

Teachers need planning time. They used to have weekly early release Mondays.

Sorry but coming from one of the 99% of districts in the US that didn’t do a weekly early release for “planning time …” the early releases are ridiculous. Everywhere else gets a teacher work day at the end of the quarter for grades, plus 1 in-service or school planning day per quarter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Both the 2026-27 and 2027-28 calendars look fine to me. But that’s because they don’t include 3 hour early releases yet. It’s when those get peppered in, especially in the winter months when delays and closures are prevalent that the calendar goes to hell.

What’s worse, since they run the bus routes twice on those days, they split the county in half. 5 of the 8 early releases for us have coincided with already short weeks. That should be the first thing on the chopping block. It’s also equivalent to 3 school days, so if the instructional hours have been deemed expendable, why not remove those days off the end of the calendar before going after Federal holidays and religious/cultural observances?

They don’t need to have those 3 hour early releases. They shouldn’t have had them this year and I’m not sure the justification for them when the original justification was additions teacher training needed for just one year.

Teachers need planning time. They used to have weekly early release Mondays.

Sorry but coming from one of the 99% of districts in the US that didn’t do a weekly early release for “planning time …” the early releases are ridiculous. Everywhere else gets a teacher work day at the end of the quarter for grades, plus 1 in-service or school planning day per quarter.

+1 retired teacher who never taught in a system with so many teacher planning days and early release.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, love the non-5 day weeks. They are great. Summer is such a pain to plan, and we (and most of our friends) much prefer a day here and there, rather than additional weeks in the summer.

As the parent of a middle schooler, I do love the non 5 day weeks. This is the only way we get doctors appointments in without missing school. My son is out of the house from 6:30 to 3 everyday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, love the non-5 day weeks. They are great. Summer is such a pain to plan, and we (and most of our friends) much prefer a day here and there, rather than additional weeks in the summer.

As the parent of a middle schooler, I do love the non 5 day weeks. This is the only way we get doctors appointments in without missing school. My son is out of the house from 6:30 to 3 everyday.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People are mad about this year. I get it. But next year’s calendar and the year after is fine.

Meren voted for these calendars and supported them. Very odd that she chooses NOW to say she is ready to act? What is going on with her?

Because you can only make policy changes while people are mad. You think they’ll end early release in a year when everyone isn’t mad?

Government is supposed to move slow on things like this. You are reacting to snow days and unable to pull out of the emotional reaction to see that it isn’t really the calendar, it is the snow days that is making this year so hard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Both the 2026-27 and 2027-28 calendars look fine to me. But that’s because they don’t include 3 hour early releases yet. It’s when those get peppered in, especially in the winter months when delays and closures are prevalent that the calendar goes to hell.

What’s worse, since they run the bus routes twice on those days, they split the county in half. 5 of the 8 early releases for us have coincided with already short weeks. That should be the first thing on the chopping block. It’s also equivalent to 3 school days, so if the instructional hours have been deemed expendable, why not remove those days off the end of the calendar before going after Federal holidays and religious/cultural observances?

They don’t need to have those 3 hour early releases. They shouldn’t have had them this year and I’m not sure the justification for them when the original justification was additions teacher training needed for just one year.

Teachers need planning time. They used to have weekly early release Mondays.

Sorry but coming from one of the 99% of districts in the US that didn’t do a weekly early release for “planning time …” the early releases are ridiculous. Everywhere else gets a teacher work day at the end of the quarter for grades, plus 1 in-service or school planning day per quarter.

+1 retired teacher who never taught in a system with so many teacher planning days and early release.

You probably had more planning time built into the day if you are retired. I definitely had more when I started teaching in the early 2000s. US schools have the least planning time for teachers in developed countries.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People are mad about this year. I get it. But next year’s calendar and the year after is fine.

Meren voted for these calendars and supported them. Very odd that she chooses NOW to say she is ready to act? What is going on with her?

Because you can only make policy changes while people are mad. You think they’ll end early release in a year when everyone isn’t mad?

Government is supposed to move slow on things like this. You are reacting to snow days and unable to pull out of the emotional reaction to see that it isn’t really the calendar, it is the snow days that is making this year so hard.

The calendar is absolutely the problem. There was an extra week scheduled for this school year which is why there are more disjointed weeks than usual. Compare it to other recent calendars. Labor Day was early this year, so we started earlier in August, yet we end the same time in June. Many holidays fell mid week this year. The snow days compounded the issue but the 2025-26 calendar is abnormally bad.

Fortunately, it’s an outlier and the next two school years have decent calendars. They should be using this backlash to shape the calendars for 2028 and beyond.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Both the 2026-27 and 2027-28 calendars look fine to me. But that’s because they don’t include 3 hour early releases yet. It’s when those get peppered in, especially in the winter months when delays and closures are prevalent that the calendar goes to hell.

What’s worse, since they run the bus routes twice on those days, they split the county in half. 5 of the 8 early releases for us have coincided with already short weeks. That should be the first thing on the chopping block. It’s also equivalent to 3 school days, so if the instructional hours have been deemed expendable, why not remove those days off the end of the calendar before going after Federal holidays and religious/cultural observances?

They don’t need to have those 3 hour early releases. They shouldn’t have had them this year and I’m not sure the justification for them when the original justification was additions teacher training needed for just one year.

Teachers need planning time. They used to have weekly early release Mondays.

More than a decade ago.

Besides the reason early release needs to go is the lying. You don’t get to say it’s about training and then bait and switch the parents by calling it a success.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People are mad about this year. I get it. But next year’s calendar and the year after is fine.

Meren voted for these calendars and supported them. Very odd that she chooses NOW to say she is ready to act? What is going on with her?

Because you can only make policy changes while people are mad. You think they’ll end early release in a year when everyone isn’t mad?

Government is supposed to move slow on things like this. You are reacting to snow days and unable to pull out of the emotional reaction to see that it isn’t really the calendar, it is the snow days that is making this year so hard.

Are they? Than why did early release happen so fast? I appreciate your idea that I’m reacting to snow days but the early release has been the problem since ‘24, and I’ve been disgusted by the lying about it since ‘25.

Also, ask federal employees who weren’t being paid how they felt about Oct/Nov this year. I promise it wasn’t the snow days that were the problem.

Having said that now is a good time to look at snow day policy. Moving teacher training remotely to snow days could limit spring SD days.