Will voting out the school board make the school calendar sane again?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:What's so insane about the school year calendar? I think it's great that we're observing religious holidays beyond the Christian ones.

We don't observe the Christian holidays.

Easter is on a sunday. So it is never observed by FCPS.

Christmas is a federal holdiay, on a week that every industry in our area including most of the federal government shuts down.

Christmas would be off no matter what, for secular reasons.

It’s no coincidence that spring break always falls the week before Easter, or that winter break aligns with Christmas. The fact that many Christian holidays already fall on weekends, and are still widely observed, shows how deeply our western calendars are structured around Christian traditions. And I understand why; the country was founded on those roots. But centuries later, we’ve become a diverse population, and it’s time our schedules reflected that.

If you want religious holidays, then go private. If you want a different calendar, feel free to move to another country.

FCPS tried to move Spring Break from Easter but if failed horribly. Christmas is one day and not a specific school holiday. Feel free to advocate for a shorter or different Winter Break.

-Incorrect. At the non secular private schools they have breaks into between quarter with the standard "winter break" being around a Christian holiday. Spring break was 2 weeks and always in March, school year finished up late May. Great schedule!
You were probably thinking only religious schools.

Religious schools don't schedule spring break in Holy Week. That is a week for fasting, prayer, and attending church, not partying on the beach.

Spring break tied to Easter is a uniquely northern Virginia public school thing.

False. It is not a NOVA public school thing. I grew up five states away, and my school system always tied spring break to Easter. So did my university.

And, I grew up in the Bible Belt. And, Spring break was in March. No Good Friday or Easter Monday off. Catholics and Episcopalians could leave at noon on Good Friday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The calendars are a disgrace because they’re not pedagogically supported— it’s 100% about the adults (teachers clamoring for more time off, board members clamoring for THEIR religious holidays) and not about the students or families public institutions should serve. The hypocrisy of combining a calendar like this with the constant harping about attendance is nauseating— FCPS doesn’t want kids in school, but they really want to scold.

So my calendar of preference: no religious holidays, even Christmas, are school-wide closures. There is a week long winter break at New Year which may or may not include Christmas depending on the way the calendar falls.

BUT any absence for religious observance is excused. No one is penalized for being out, for example, Christmas Eve or Diwali.

Teacher work days are on less important Federal holidays (no a teacher shouldn’t have to work Labor Day but Columbus Day seems fair) or Election Day.

I’m a retired ES teacher, now substitute and I don’t hear this. The number of contracted days has stayed the same and teachers don’t like the choppy schedule.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Please tell me how to vote to get any improvement to this horrific school calendar that is a complete atrocity to working families and disservice too kids trying to learn. I don’t care if I have to vote blue, red or purple - it just needs to change for next year.

The calendars are planned out for the next three years. Take a look at them now and start planning ahead for childcare. Here are some ideas.

(When I had a school-aged child, my husband and I took turns taking days off. Or we would partner with another family and take turns that way. You're going to need to start working with other families as your kids get older anyway. Having a parent carpool saved us when our daughter was in high school sports and didn't have her license yet. She had to be picked up after school every day.)

1. Community and Local Program Options

Park Authority Day Camps: Fairfax County Park Authority often offers one-day “Schools Out” camps or workshops at recreation centers. These usually run 8:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m. and include sports, crafts, and games.

Local YMCAs or JCCs: Many host “Schools Out” programs with flexible drop-off and pickup times.

STEM or Art Centers: Look for one-day workshops at places like Code Ninjas, iCode, ArtSpace, or local pottery/painting studios.

Sports Clubs: Soccer, basketball, and gymnastics facilities sometimes offer day clinics during school breaks.

2. Parent-Organized Solutions

Childcare Swap: Partner with a few trusted families to rotate childcare duties on teacher workdays. Each parent takes one day off work to host a small group of kids.

Shared Sitter/Nanny Pool: Team up with neighbors to hire one sitter for a group of children—lowering costs and adding built-in playmates.

High School Helpers: Many responsible high school students are available for daytime babysitting on no-school days. Ask through neighborhood groups or school parent chats.

3. Flexible Work Options

Adjust Work Hours: If possible, shift hours earlier or later to accommodate a partial day at home.

Remote Work Day: Some parents coordinate with their managers to work from home when schools close.

Split Schedule with a Partner or Friend: One parent covers the morning, another covers the afternoon—so neither has to take a full day off.

Clearly written by someone not dealing with this.

I dealt with it for seven years from kindergarten to sixth grade, and I dabbled in a little bit of all of these options. It all worked out in the end, and my kid is thriving.

The people who struggle with this do not have the time to post on DCUM.
They are not suburban moms living a comfortable lifestyle.

I'm a suburban mom living a comfortable lifestyle. And I have a demanding job. And I do plan ahead but sometimes still have to scramble to find care for my kids on these days.

There is not a single school calendar that will make it easy to be a working parent of elementary school students.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:School calendar is fine, now we have three year's calendar and it really helps families plan ahead. Remember those days that we didn't have any calendar a few months before the new school year??

Off days are great for some students and frustrating for others, we’ve discussed this so many times, and no one is going to convince anyone otherwise. Maybe it’s time to move on.

Maybe you're ok with a bad calendar, but many parents actually care about their kids education.

What's bad for some kids isn't bad for others. As another PP noted, for MS and HS kids, shorter weeks give them some downtime and help reduce burnout. Seniors have time to work on college applications. And with block scheduling, planned days off don't get "missed", the even/odd schedule just goes to the next day.

The calendar is a primarily a problem for elementary school students and parents. But even in that group, there are parents who wouldn't want a longer summer because then you are stuck paying for more weeks of camp and after college kids go back to school, there are fewer camps and they are really expensive.

I care about my child's education, and once they were out of elementary school and could be home by themselves, I didn't care at all whether they had a particular day off or not.

So screw the elementary school kids because lazy seniors can't do applications on the weekend?

Not exactly a winning argument.

I don’t think anyone’s saying elementary kids don’t matter. It’s just that different ages have different needs. High schoolers especially have a lot on their plates between AP classes, heavy reading and projects, sports, SAT prep, and college applications. They’re not being lazy. And while the student holidays and teacher workdays weren’t necessarily designed to give them downtime or catch-up space, that’s still a real benefit of the current calendar. So it’s fair to say the calendar isn’t a burden for every group. It just impacts families in different ways.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's so insane about the school year calendar? I think it's great that we're observing religious holidays beyond the Christian ones.

Did you just stumble across this message board? Do you even have kids in FCPS?

I do. My kid’s in FCPS. I’ve just been an FCPS parent long enough to see how the calendar affects different age groups and different populations in different ways.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School calendar is fine, now we have three year's calendar and it really helps families plan ahead. Remember those days that we didn't have any calendar a few months before the new school year??

Off days are great for some students and frustrating for others, we’ve discussed this so many times, and no one is going to convince anyone otherwise. Maybe it’s time to move on.

Maybe you're ok with a bad calendar, but many parents actually care about their kids education.

What's bad for some kids isn't bad for others. As another PP noted, for MS and HS kids, shorter weeks give them some downtime and help reduce burnout. Seniors have time to work on college applications. And with block scheduling, planned days off don't get "missed", the even/odd schedule just goes to the next day.

The calendar is a primarily a problem for elementary school students and parents. But even in that group, there are parents who wouldn't want a longer summer because then you are stuck paying for more weeks of camp and after college kids go back to school, there are fewer camps and they are really expensive.

I care about my child's education, and once they were out of elementary school and could be home by themselves, I didn't care at all whether they had a particular day off or not.

So screw the elementary school kids because lazy seniors can't do applications on the weekend?

Not exactly a winning argument.

I don’t think anyone’s saying elementary kids don’t matter. It’s just that different ages have different needs. High schoolers especially have a lot on their plates between AP classes, heavy reading and projects, sports, SAT prep, and college applications. They’re not being lazy. And while the student holidays and teacher workdays weren’t necessarily designed to give them downtime or catch-up space, that’s still a real benefit of the current calendar. So it’s fair to say the calendar isn’t a burden for every group. It just impacts families in different ways.

Gee. Why do high school kids even need to go to school? Those complaining about teachers not teaching need to realize that it is hard to teach if the kids are not there.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I thought they sent an email out this year saying they were going to revisit the calendars?

Really?? With the implication being that they now understand there is a desire on the part of many to return to sanity? (Well, except for, apparently, on the part of the trollish moms on here whose kids are in their 30s now.)

Btw, they could have foreseen the chaos if they actually asked people if this is what they want.

"Please give me a swiss cheese calendar that makes it difficult to predict what is happening week to week, sets my child up for failure, and lengthens the school year for all so that everyone is undeniably exhausted by the end." --No one.

Are you new? They sent out a comprehensive survey a few years ago before they added all these holidays. They even shared the results.

Yes, I remember that survey and taking part in it. I thought it was great that they involved the community in making these decisions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought they sent an email out this year saying they were going to revisit the calendars?

Really?? With the implication being that they now understand there is a desire on the part of many to return to sanity? (Well, except for, apparently, on the part of the trollish moms on here whose kids are in their 30s now.)

Btw, they could have foreseen the chaos if they actually asked people if this is what they want.

"Please give me a swiss cheese calendar that makes it difficult to predict what is happening week to week, sets my child up for failure, and lengthens the school year for all so that everyone is undeniably exhausted by the end." --No one.

Are you new? They sent out a comprehensive survey a few years ago before they added all these holidays. They even shared the results.

Yes, I remember that survey and taking part in it. I thought it was great that they involved the community in making these decisions.

People are short sighted and they want everything. 2 full weeks at Christmas! Every religious holiday and Federal holiday! The day before Thanksgiving! An extra day or two at Spring Break! And then they’re shocked that the calendar is a disjointed hot mess and summer is 8 weeks long.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School calendar is fine, now we have three year's calendar and it really helps families plan ahead. Remember those days that we didn't have any calendar a few months before the new school year??

Off days are great for some students and frustrating for others, we’ve discussed this so many times, and no one is going to convince anyone otherwise. Maybe it’s time to move on.

Maybe you're ok with a bad calendar, but many parents actually care about their kids education.

What's bad for some kids isn't bad for others. As another PP noted, for MS and HS kids, shorter weeks give them some downtime and help reduce burnout. Seniors have time to work on college applications. And with block scheduling, planned days off don't get "missed", the even/odd schedule just goes to the next day.

The calendar is a primarily a problem for elementary school students and parents. But even in that group, there are parents who wouldn't want a longer summer because then you are stuck paying for more weeks of camp and after college kids go back to school, there are fewer camps and they are really expensive.

I care about my child's education, and once they were out of elementary school and could be home by themselves, I didn't care at all whether they had a particular day off or not.

So screw the elementary school kids because lazy seniors can't do applications on the weekend?

Not exactly a winning argument.

I don’t think anyone’s saying elementary kids don’t matter. It’s just that different ages have different needs. High schoolers especially have a lot on their plates between AP classes, heavy reading and projects, sports, SAT prep, and college applications. They’re not being lazy. And while the student holidays and teacher workdays weren’t necessarily designed to give them downtime or catch-up space, that’s still a real benefit of the current calendar. So it’s fair to say the calendar isn’t a burden for every group. It just impacts families in different ways.

Gee. Why do high school kids even need to go to school? Those complaining about teachers not teaching need to realize that it is hard to teach if the kids are not there.

I don’t think anyone’s suggesting high schoolers shouldn’t go to school. The point was just that when there are scheduled days off, older students often use that time to catch up or recharge. It’s not about skipping class. It’s about recognizing that the built-in breaks affect different age groups differently.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School calendar is fine, now we have three year's calendar and it really helps families plan ahead. Remember those days that we didn't have any calendar a few months before the new school year??

Off days are great for some students and frustrating for others, we’ve discussed this so many times, and no one is going to convince anyone otherwise. Maybe it’s time to move on.

Maybe you're ok with a bad calendar, but many parents actually care about their kids education.

What's bad for some kids isn't bad for others. As another PP noted, for MS and HS kids, shorter weeks give them some downtime and help reduce burnout. Seniors have time to work on college applications. And with block scheduling, planned days off don't get "missed", the even/odd schedule just goes to the next day.

The calendar is a primarily a problem for elementary school students and parents. But even in that group, there are parents who wouldn't want a longer summer because then you are stuck paying for more weeks of camp and after college kids go back to school, there are fewer camps and they are really expensive.

I care about my child's education, and once they were out of elementary school and could be home by themselves, I didn't care at all whether they had a particular day off or not.

So screw the elementary school kids because lazy seniors can't do applications on the weekend?

Not exactly a winning argument.

I don’t think anyone’s saying elementary kids don’t matter. It’s just that different ages have different needs. High schoolers especially have a lot on their plates between AP classes, heavy reading and projects, sports, SAT prep, and college applications. They’re not being lazy. And while the student holidays and teacher workdays weren’t necessarily designed to give them downtime or catch-up space, that’s still a real benefit of the current calendar. So it’s fair to say the calendar isn’t a burden for every group. It just impacts families in different ways.

Gee. Why do high school kids even need to go to school? Those complaining about teachers not teaching need to realize that it is hard to teach if the kids are not there.

I don’t think anyone’s suggesting high schoolers shouldn’t go to school. The point was just that when there are scheduled days off, older students often use that time to catch up or recharge. It’s not about skipping class. It’s about recognizing that the built-in breaks affect different age groups differently.

They have two built -in breaks every week

[Anonymous]

FFor those who have concerns about the current calendar, consider reaching out to your school administration or your school board member. This can be a good way to better understand the reasoning behind the calendar and why it is structured the way it is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FFor those who have concerns about the current calendar, consider reaching out to your school administration or your school board member. This can be a good way to better understand the reasoning behind the calendar and why it is structured the way it is.

The only "reason" behind the calendar is woke politics. There is no operational or academic rationale for it.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Create your own calendar. What do you remove (25/26 version)? Italicized are federal holidays (plus the two embedded in Winter Break). Total of 39 days.

Labor Day (x2) - dictated by law, unable to be removed
Sept. 9th - special election, teacher workday
Rosh Hashanah
Yom Kippur
Columbus/Indigenous - staff development
Diwali
Nov. 3 - School planning day (end of Q1)
Nov. 4 - Election and teacher workday (end of Q1)
Veteran's Day
Thanksgiving (x3)
Winter Break (x10)
MLK day
Jan. 29 - Staff Development (end of Q2)
Jan. 30 - Teacher Workday (end of Q2)
President's Day
Lunar New Year - Teacher Workday
Eid al-Fitr
Spring Break (x5)
Apr. 6 - Teacher Workday (end of Q3)
Orthodox Good Friday - School Planning Day
Memorial Day
May. 26 - Teacher Workday
May. 27 - Eid al-Adha

We only started having Veteran's Day off two years ago. We should also remove Eid - it's ridiculous to have a holiday that changes a few weeks before the day. We can't plan for it. It should be an excused absence.

They can’t remove Eid. The last year we had school on Eid, it was very dicey in special education with so many IAs and bus drivers out. That’s a liability that the county just can’t tolerate. I was so grateful we made it through that day safely.

There are clearly operational issues with some of the holidays. I've asked this before and didn't receive a response - what do you think that the response would be if only the Eids were off and not Yom Kippur/Rosh Hashahana?

There are absolutely operational issues with some of the religious holidays. But people on here will swear up and down that the reason we have the Jewish holidays and the Muslim holidays and Diwali and Lunar New Year is because there was such a demand for them and isn’t it great that we’re multi-cultural. When really, it’s because they couldn’t get enough IA’s on Eid, but giving just the Eid holidays as days off school but nothing else, would be horrible optics.

There is no evidence of operational issues for ANY of the religious holidays.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Create your own calendar. What do you remove (25/26 version)? Italicized are federal holidays (plus the two embedded in Winter Break). Total of 39 days.

Labor Day (x2) - dictated by law, unable to be removed
Sept. 9th - special election, teacher workday
Rosh Hashanah
Yom Kippur
Columbus/Indigenous - staff development
Diwali
Nov. 3 - School planning day (end of Q1)
Nov. 4 - Election and teacher workday (end of Q1)
Veteran's Day
Thanksgiving (x3)
Winter Break (x10)
MLK day
Jan. 29 - Staff Development (end of Q2)
Jan. 30 - Teacher Workday (end of Q2)
President's Day
Lunar New Year - Teacher Workday
Eid al-Fitr
Spring Break (x5)
Apr. 6 - Teacher Workday (end of Q3)
Orthodox Good Friday - School Planning Day
Memorial Day
May. 26 - Teacher Workday
May. 27 - Eid al-Adha

We only started having Veteran's Day off two years ago. We should also remove Eid - it's ridiculous to have a holiday that changes a few weeks before the day. We can't plan for it. It should be an excused absence.

They can’t remove Eid. The last year we had school on Eid, it was very dicey in special education with so many IAs and bus drivers out. That’s a liability that the county just can’t tolerate. I was so grateful we made it through that day safely.

There are clearly operational issues with some of the holidays. I've asked this before and didn't receive a response - what do you think that the response would be if only the Eids were off and not Yom Kippur/Rosh Hashahana?

There are absolutely operational issues with some of the religious holidays. But people on here will swear up and down that the reason we have the Jewish holidays and the Muslim holidays and Diwali and Lunar New Year is because there was such a demand for them and isn’t it great that we’re multi-cultural. When really, it’s because they couldn’t get enough IA’s on Eid, but giving just the Eid holidays as days off school but nothing else, would be horrible optics.

Yeah, people will call the School Board "woke" for giving the religious holidays off, but imagine the uproar if only the Muslim ones were recognized. Fox News would be tripping over themselves.

[Anonymous]

It's not about the calendar. Complaining about the school calendar seems “non-political” on the surface, but it provides a way to voice broader discontent with the school board’s values or priorities. It’s easier to rally people around something tangible, like too many days off, than around abstract policy disagreements.

That's why this discussion will never end. Concerns about childcare challenges (despite many available solutions), the impact on student learning (FCPS consistently ranks among the top school systems in the country), or the length of summer break (too short for what, exactly?) will never be satisfied. Because it's not about the calendar. It’s a means to rally support for a different school board.

So just say what you mean so that we can have a proper discussion.