Is there ANY way to put the genie back in the bottle re: all of the religious holidays off?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Best way would be to remove Christmas and Easter. That would cause enough an uproar that all religious holidays would be examined.

Easter is conveniently positioned on a Sunday. You want kids to come to school on a Sunday? I would LOVE for spring break to not be tied to Easter, as would many families. Easter Monday is not a thing and can be removed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We certainly had a better education system when we only recognized Christian holidays. Even the reprobates at NYSE and CME take off Good Friday.

Lots of Muslim countries if you prefer that vibe.

We don’t “recognize” Jewish holidays. We just have them off because there aren’t enough teachers to teach on those days.

We have them off because not having them off would look bad.

When they pulled the original data Yom Kipur and Rosh Hashanah had better attendance than the statistical average attendance for the day of the week they fell on for each of the 5 years from which the data was pulled. Whereas for the Islamic holidays, the data was somewhat incomplete because several of the times for the 5 years the days fell during summer, a weekend, or a high day off (e.g. once was the last day of school and I believe another was the Friday before Memorial day weekend). However, the limited times the data was usable, the absentee rate was about twice the weekday average, suggesting there may be a justified reason to have the holidays off. If I remember correctly, Theravada New Year had staff numbers that justified having the day off.

The board knew the optics of giving off the Islamic holidays without giving off the Jewish holidays would be bad, therefore we get off both.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Having kids home so much and having disjointed weeks cannot be good for kids brains. FCPS has to recognize that a majority of the families in this county have 2 working parents, and although we shell out $ for one day camps sometimes that is not really realistic much of the time. Why we have off today (I am Catholic) and Friday is beyond me...our children are running around like crazy because this is the 6th day off...for no reason. And I would like to understand what a "student holiday" is for...PP noted this was "like college" no one I know has a "work holiday" or a "college day" off...so what the heck is it for?

Huh. Mine is working on a science project and studying for an AP exam. We are happy.

We don't care because it isn't about you and your stupid little family.

Likewise we don’t care if your children are running around feral on their day off. As long as my kid gets extra sleep and study time I don’t give a damn about your kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Best way would be to remove Christmas and Easter. That would cause enough an uproar that all religious holidays would be examined.

Easter is conveniently positioned on a Sunday. You want kids to come to school on a Sunday? I would LOVE for spring break to not be tied to Easter, as would many families. Easter Monday is not a thing and can be removed.

This is where a unified Northern Virginia calendar would REALLY help with SACC care available on days off when they fall in the middle of the week. As someone who teaches in a different county, with kids in FCPS, I would absolutely take days off during FCPS’ longer breaks. Many others would do the same which is what sunk the idea in the first place.

FCPS and surrounding counties can make longer breaks at a set time, but they absolutely have to work together on this on or it won’t work. There is too much crossover in the area between counties for the workforce to make anything else work.

Common sense and cooperation would really help here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Best way would be to remove Christmas and Easter. That would cause enough an uproar that all religious holidays would be examined.

Easter is conveniently positioned on a Sunday. You want kids to come to school on a Sunday? I would LOVE for spring break to not be tied to Easter, as would many families. Easter Monday is not a thing and can be removed.

This is where a unified Northern Virginia calendar would REALLY help with SACC care available on days off when they fall in the middle of the week. As someone who teaches in a different county, with kids in FCPS, I would absolutely take days off during FCPS’ longer breaks. Many others would do the same which is what sunk the idea in the first place.

FCPS and surrounding counties can make longer breaks at a set time, but they absolutely have to work together on this on or it won’t work. There is too much crossover in the area between counties for the workforce to make anything else work.

Common sense and cooperation would really help here.

Honestly, it’s untenable for FCPS to have a uniform schedule for its own district let alone to have to be in lock step with 4 or 5 other counties. If teachers want a schedule that matches that of their kids, they should prioritize working in the same school system their children attend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Best way would be to remove Christmas and Easter. That would cause enough an uproar that all religious holidays would be examined.

Easter is conveniently positioned on a Sunday. You want kids to come to school on a Sunday? I would LOVE for spring break to not be tied to Easter, as would many families. Easter Monday is not a thing and can be removed.

This is where a unified Northern Virginia calendar would REALLY help with SACC care available on days off when they fall in the middle of the week. As someone who teaches in a different county, with kids in FCPS, I would absolutely take days off during FCPS’ longer breaks. Many others would do the same which is what sunk the idea in the first place.

FCPS and surrounding counties can make longer breaks at a set time, but they absolutely have to work together on this on or it won’t work. There is too much crossover in the area between counties for the workforce to make anything else work.

Common sense and cooperation would really help here.

Honestly, it’s untenable for FCPS to have a uniform schedule for its own district let alone to have to be in lock step with 4 or 5 other counties. If teachers want a schedule that matches that of their kids, they should prioritize working in the same school system their children attend.

I would prefer Spring break at a different time, but you are wrong. This is not untenable It is practical to have it at the same time. There are a lot of Fairfax teachers who live in an adjoining county.
Do you think they can fine subs for all those teachers?

[Anonymous]

Other counties follow what Fairfax County does, you morons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Other counties follow what Fairfax County does, you morons.

You are living in the past.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Other counties follow what Fairfax County does, you morons.

When Fairfax adopted the new holidays a few years ago, it was because Loudoun and Arlington had done it first.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Best way would be to remove Christmas and Easter. That would cause enough an uproar that all religious holidays would be examined.

Easter is conveniently positioned on a Sunday. You want kids to come to school on a Sunday? I would LOVE for spring break to not be tied to Easter, as would many families. Easter Monday is not a thing and can be removed.

This is where a unified Northern Virginia calendar would REALLY help with SACC care available on days off when they fall in the middle of the week. As someone who teaches in a different county, with kids in FCPS, I would absolutely take days off during FCPS’ longer breaks. Many others would do the same which is what sunk the idea in the first place.

FCPS and surrounding counties can make longer breaks at a set time, but they absolutely have to work together on this on or it won’t work. There is too much crossover in the area between counties for the workforce to make anything else work.

Common sense and cooperation would really help here.

I'm very pro teachers (and anti school board/ school admin) but this is a hypocritical take. Coworkers where I work are struggling with all the half days at FCPS, but we just get told that our work schedules don't matter and school doesn't need to match work. So I'm not sure why school needs to work for teachers schedules since they don't care about anyone else.

Maybe school should take into account the work schedules of ALL parents? DH and I can usually make it work by staggering out schedules (one does drop off and the other gets to work early and does the pickup) but the past years have really been wild for us. We can no longer cover all the days off, the random half days have no coverage and we've struggled to find camps. SACC is full at our school and we don't need it daily.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Best way would be to remove Christmas and Easter. That would cause enough an uproar that all religious holidays would be examined.

Easter is conveniently positioned on a Sunday. You want kids to come to school on a Sunday? I would LOVE for spring break to not be tied to Easter, as would many families. Easter Monday is not a thing and can be removed.

This is where a unified Northern Virginia calendar would REALLY help with SACC care available on days off when they fall in the middle of the week. As someone who teaches in a different county, with kids in FCPS, I would absolutely take days off during FCPS’ longer breaks. Many others would do the same which is what sunk the idea in the first place.

FCPS and surrounding counties can make longer breaks at a set time, but they absolutely have to work together on this on or it won’t work. There is too much crossover in the area between counties for the workforce to make anything else work.

Common sense and cooperation would really help here.

Honestly, it’s untenable for FCPS to have a uniform schedule for its own district let alone to have to be in lock step with 4 or 5 other counties. If teachers want a schedule that matches that of their kids, they should prioritize working in the same school system their children attend.

I would prefer Spring break at a different time, but you are wrong. This is not untenable It is practical to have it at the same time. There are a lot of Fairfax teachers who live in an adjoining county.
Do you think they can fine subs for all those teachers?

Hi Teacher! Just to repeat what teachers say nonstop "school is not childcare."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Best way would be to remove Christmas and Easter. That would cause enough an uproar that all religious holidays would be examined.

Easter is conveniently positioned on a Sunday. You want kids to come to school on a Sunday? I would LOVE for spring break to not be tied to Easter, as would many families. Easter Monday is not a thing and can be removed.

This is where a unified Northern Virginia calendar would REALLY help with SACC care available on days off when they fall in the middle of the week. As someone who teaches in a different county, with kids in FCPS, I would absolutely take days off during FCPS’ longer breaks. Many others would do the same which is what sunk the idea in the first place.

FCPS and surrounding counties can make longer breaks at a set time, but they absolutely have to work together on this on or it won’t work. There is too much crossover in the area between counties for the workforce to make anything else work.

Common sense and cooperation would really help here.

Honestly, it’s untenable for FCPS to have a uniform schedule for its own district let alone to have to be in lock step with 4 or 5 other counties. If teachers want a schedule that matches that of their kids, they should prioritize working in the same school system their children attend.

I would prefer Spring break at a different time, but you are wrong. This is not untenable It is practical to have it at the same time. There are a lot of Fairfax teachers who live in an adjoining county.
Do you think they can fine subs for all those teachers?

Hi Teacher! Just to repeat what teachers say nonstop "school is not childcare."

Wrong, haven't taught in years and years. Never taught in Virginia. Just practical. FWIW, never taught where Spring break was tied to Easter. And, grew up where spring break was in March--Easter or not.

[Anonymous]

In many places, spring break is not tied to Easter, even in the deep south.

I think parents here mostly want school closings tied to religious holidays so they can travel to be with family. In many places, that is really not so much a concern.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In many places, spring break is not tied to Easter, even in the deep south.

I think parents here mostly want school closings tied to religious holidays so they can travel to be with family. In many places, that is really not so much a concern.

Here I think most people want to travel to family for spring break overseas and 1 week isn't long enough. They'd prefer cheaper tickets at a time separate from Easter.

We are in VA with a higher Asian population and many take their kids out for 2 weeks straight every spring. School complains a lot, but isn't accommodating them, so it is what it is. I too would like to be able to take a longer vacation with kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Best way would be to remove Christmas and Easter. That would cause enough an uproar that all religious holidays would be examined.

Easter is conveniently positioned on a Sunday. You want kids to come to school on a Sunday? I would LOVE for spring break to not be tied to Easter, as would many families. Easter Monday is not a thing and can be removed.

This is where a unified Northern Virginia calendar would REALLY help with SACC care available on days off when they fall in the middle of the week. As someone who teaches in a different county, with kids in FCPS, I would absolutely take days off during FCPS’ longer breaks. Many others would do the same which is what sunk the idea in the first place.

FCPS and surrounding counties can make longer breaks at a set time, but they absolutely have to work together on this on or it won’t work. There is too much crossover in the area between counties for the workforce to make anything else work.

Common sense and cooperation would really help here.

I'm very pro teachers (and anti school board/ school admin) but this is a hypocritical take. Coworkers where I work are struggling with all the half days at FCPS, but we just get told that our work schedules don't matter and school doesn't need to match work. So I'm not sure why school needs to work for teachers schedules since they don't care about anyone else.

Maybe school should take into account the work schedules of ALL parents? DH and I can usually make it work by staggering out schedules (one does drop off and the other gets to work early and does the pickup) but the past years have really been wild for us. We can no longer cover all the days off, the random half days have no coverage and we've struggled to find camps. SACC is full at our school and we don't need it daily.

Are you really this dumb? It’s because teachers are needed to teach the kids. Without them, school and learning can’t happen. And they don’t have enough subs. So yes, they should prioritize working teachers.