Bill Giving MD Schools Flexibility on Start Date Gains Traction in Assembly (Opposed by Governor)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Pretty much everyone I know in MoCo hates the Hogan calendar. It's the Ocean City people who like using the school calendar as a form of corporate welfare to their beach resorts.

Yeah no. People hate what MCPS has done in response to the labor day opening. They don't hate ending mid June and starting after Labor Day. It comes down to whether you look at other counties and notice that "Hey wait, all those other counties still have a normal spring break and winter break with the mid-June-labor day calendar, why can't MCPS do that" or if you just believe whatever BS MCPS gives you.

MCPS is a political beast. They intentionally made the calendar as screwy as possible combining it with the spin that they had no choice and just assuming no one would look at other counties. The intent was to get people in MoCo to push to give MCPS back control of the calendar. We'll see if it works.

This is just NOT TRUE. Hogan gave Garrett and another mountain county exceptions - they start before Labor Day. Howard County couldn’t fit the days into their schedules. Lots of other counties have less than a week of spring break. You are just WRONG.

Garrett County first day of school, August 27. Allegany County first day of school, August 29. Well, how about that.

How come it's ok for Garrett County and Allegany County to start before Labor Day, but it's not ok for Montgomery County?

Gee...how many snow days do those counties average vs. MoCo. This isn't hard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mcps decided our children couldn't have 5 days off for Spring Break this year.

Don't tell me teachers care about how the children fare in AP classes. My kid has a long-term substitute in one of their APs and was harrassed to the point dropping out of an AP last year for not offering accommodations and after getting physically assaulted on school grounds sustaining a concussion.

I fully support Governor Hogan and his interest in keeping MoCo students safe.

But do you fully support Governor Hogan and his executive order that all school districts, statewide, must base their calendars on the best interests of the Ocean City tourism industry?

Look, you union beasts are going to call it what you will. I, stupidly, believe unions shouldn't support pedophiles and a policy that screws over all children victimized by the crimes of smug administrators. Good luck.

All your name calling and hyperbolic language just smacks of partisanship at any cost. Just admit it -- Hogan's order puts the interests of Ocean City businesses over the education of our kids. That's the bottom line.

That's kind of a cop out when I said my kid was harmed on school property and suffered a violation of ADA and you defend this and the policies that result in hurting children. I didn't realize "protecting children" was a partisan issue. sigh.

Good grief. This is about the school year, not safety on campus or ADA violations. Stop the hyperbole and false congruencies. How in the world to do you put better learning retention and teaching schedule at odds with safety? How do you equate supporting OC Businesses with your personal issues and safety? You have bought into some irrelevant info.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I actually very happy with current calendar. It is much easier to plan ahead for summer. Nobody can study late in June or in early August. The problem is not start and end date. Problem is MCPS with ton of closed days. It is MCPS that is by purpose trying to twist parents' hands and make our life miserable with crazy schedule during the year and rediculous spring break.

I feel the exact same way.

+2. I am also happy with kids having the summer off. They go to camps, pool and are outside big part of the day. They really rest over the summer. I don’t want them learning math and abcs in summer. Yes, there is slide, but kids catch up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mcps decided our children couldn't have 5 days off for Spring Break this year.

Don't tell me teachers care about how the children fare in AP classes. My kid has a long-term substitute in one of their APs and was harrassed to the point dropping out of an AP last year for not offering accommodations and after getting physically assaulted on school grounds sustaining a concussion.

I fully support Governor Hogan and his interest in keeping MoCo students safe.

But do you fully support Governor Hogan and his executive order that all school districts, statewide, must base their calendars on the best interests of the Ocean City tourism industry?

Look, you union beasts are going to call it what you will. I, stupidly, believe unions shouldn't support pedophiles and a policy that screws over all children victimized by the crimes of smug administrators. Good luck.

All your name calling and hyperbolic language just smacks of partisanship at any cost. Just admit it -- Hogan's order puts the interests of Ocean City businesses over the education of our kids. That's the bottom line.

That's kind of a cop out when I said my kid was harmed on school property and suffered a violation of ADA and you defend this and the policies that result in hurting children. I didn't realize "protecting children" was a partisan issue. sigh.

Good grief. This is about the school year, not safety on campus or ADA violations. Stop the hyperbole and false congruencies. How in the world to do you put better learning retention and teaching schedule at odds with safety? How do you equate supporting OC Businesses with your personal issues and safety? You have bought into some irrelevant info.

"Bought into" adorable. Good night. Sleep well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Pretty much everyone I know in MoCo hates the Hogan calendar. It's the Ocean City people who like using the school calendar as a form of corporate welfare to their beach resorts.

Yeah no. People hate what MCPS has done in response to the labor day opening. They don't hate ending mid June and starting after Labor Day. It comes down to whether you look at other counties and notice that "Hey wait, all those other counties still have a normal spring break and winter break with the mid-June-labor day calendar, why can't MCPS do that" or if you just believe whatever BS MCPS gives you.

MCPS is a political beast. They intentionally made the calendar as screwy as possible combining it with the spin that they had no choice and just assuming no one would look at other counties. The intent was to get people in MoCo to push to give MCPS back control of the calendar. We'll see if it works.

This is just NOT TRUE. Hogan gave Garrett and another mountain county exceptions - they start before Labor Day. Howard County couldn’t fit the days into their schedules. Lots of other counties have less than a week of spring break. You are just WRONG.

Garrett County first day of school, August 27. Allegany County first day of school, August 29. Well, how about that.

How come it's ok for Garrett County and Allegany County to start before Labor Day, but it's not ok for Montgomery County?

Gee...how many snow days do those counties average vs. MoCo. This isn't hard.

So it's ok for those counties to be allowed to set their own calendar for their own districts based on the individualities of their districts, because it's snowier, but it's not ok for Montgomery County to set its own calendar for its own district based on the individuality of its district, because...?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I actually very happy with current calendar. It is much easier to plan ahead for summer. Nobody can study late in June or in early August. The problem is not start and end date. Problem is MCPS with ton of closed days. It is MCPS that is by purpose trying to twist parents' hands and make our life miserable with crazy schedule during the year and rediculous spring break.

I feel the exact same way.

+2. I am also happy with kids having the summer off. They go to camps, pool and are outside big part of the day. They really rest over the summer. I don’t want them learning math and abcs in summer. Yes, there is slide, but kids catch up.

Lots of kids don't, actually. There's plenty of research on the topic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mcps decided our children couldn't have 5 days off for Spring Break this year.

Don't tell me teachers care about how the children fare in AP classes. My kid has a long-term substitute in one of their APs and was harrassed to the point dropping out of an AP last year for not offering accommodations and after getting physically assaulted on school grounds sustaining a concussion.

I fully support Governor Hogan and his interest in keeping MoCo students safe.

But do you fully support Governor Hogan and his executive order that all school districts, statewide, must base their calendars on the best interests of the Ocean City tourism industry?

Look, you union beasts are going to call it what you will. I, stupidly, believe unions shouldn't support pedophiles and a policy that screws over all children victimized by the crimes of smug administrators. Good luck.

What does that have to do with the CALENDAR?

-not a member of any union

[Anonymous]

Ugh. I am now getting annoying Facebook ads from “friends of Governor hogan” asking that I call my delegate to support “common sense” in the school calendar because school must start after Labor Day. No Governor, common sense is having a calendar that allows for a spring break that is more than 3 days long when every other state has a full week off (at least!)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Pretty much everyone I know in MoCo hates the Hogan calendar. It's the Ocean City people who like using the school calendar as a form of corporate welfare to their beach resorts.

Yeah no. People hate what MCPS has done in response to the labor day opening. They don't hate ending mid June and starting after Labor Day. It comes down to whether you look at other counties and notice that "Hey wait, all those other counties still have a normal spring break and winter break with the mid-June-labor day calendar, why can't MCPS do that" or if you just believe whatever BS MCPS gives you.

MCPS is a political beast. They intentionally made the calendar as screwy as possible combining it with the spin that they had no choice and just assuming no one would look at other counties. The intent was to get people in MoCo to push to give MCPS back control of the calendar. We'll see if it works.

This is just NOT TRUE. Hogan gave Garrett and another mountain county exceptions - they start before Labor Day. Howard County couldn’t fit the days into their schedules. Lots of other counties have less than a week of spring break. You are just WRONG.

Garrett County first day of school, August 27. Allegany County first day of school, August 29. Well, how about that.

How come it's ok for Garrett County and Allegany County to start before Labor Day, but it's not ok for Montgomery County?

Gee...how many snow days do those counties average vs. MoCo. This isn't hard.

So it's ok for those counties to be allowed to set their own calendar for their own districts based on the individualities of their districts, because it's snowier, but it's not ok for Montgomery County to set its own calendar for its own district based on the individuality of its district, because...?

It's apparently OK to allow earlier starts when days off are caused by the weather, but not when they are the result of religious holidays.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ugh. I am now getting annoying Facebook ads from “friends of Governor hogan” asking that I call my delegate to support “common sense” in the school calendar because school must start after Labor Day. No Governor, common sense is having a calendar that allows for a spring break that is more than 3 days long when every other state has a full week off (at least!)

Amen! Also, common sense is having more time worked into the calendar for teachers to prepare and students to catch up during the year and less time over the summer for kids to forget most of what they learned the previous year. "Common sense" is not pandering to business interests at the expense of retention or adhering to a calendar based on harvesting schedules when we were largely agrarian and kids helped harvest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ugh. I am now getting annoying Facebook ads from “friends of Governor hogan” asking that I call my delegate to support “common sense” in the school calendar because school must start after Labor Day. No Governor, common sense is having a calendar that allows for a spring break that is more than 3 days long when every other state has a full week off (at least!)

There are so few breaks in the second half of the year. My HS kid could really use that full week for Spring Break. I know young kids need child care but your perspective will change when you are a high schooler juggling AP exams and trying to visut a few colleges while in session. I know we are allowed two days to visit colleges but it is tough to miss classes and his coach does not consider that an valid reason to miss practice (whole nother story)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ugh. I am now getting annoying Facebook ads from “friends of Governor hogan” asking that I call my delegate to support “common sense” in the school calendar because school must start after Labor Day. No Governor, common sense is having a calendar that allows for a spring break that is more than 3 days long when every other state has a full week off (at least!)

Common sense is letting the district boards of education set start and end days based on the needs of that district. Just as the Worcester County Board of Education used to do, in the days before the governor's executive order required all districts to set start and end days based on the needs of the Worcester County Chamber of Commerce.

Has a bill been filed in the House? I need to email my delegates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ugh. I am now getting annoying Facebook ads from “friends of Governor hogan” asking that I call my delegate to support “common sense” in the school calendar because school must start after Labor Day. No Governor, common sense is having a calendar that allows for a spring break that is more than 3 days long when every other state has a full week off (at least!)

There are so few breaks in the second half of the year. My HS kid could really use that full week for Spring Break. I know young kids need child care but your perspective will change when you are a high schooler juggling AP exams and trying to visut a few colleges while in session. I know we are allowed two days to visit colleges but it is tough to miss classes and his coach does not consider that an valid reason to miss practice (whole nother story)

I’m a parent of a young kid and would love to have a longer break with him or even two breaks (feb/April) like they do in DC and much of the Northeast. It’s much easier for me to take time spread out throughout the year than 13 weeks straight so Hogan can try to direct more money to Ocean City.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ugh. I am now getting annoying Facebook ads from “friends of Governor hogan” asking that I call my delegate to support “common sense” in the school calendar because school must start after Labor Day. No Governor, common sense is having a calendar that allows for a spring break that is more than 3 days long when every other state has a full week off (at least!)

Amen! Also, common sense is having more time worked into the calendar for teachers to prepare and students to catch up during the year and less time over the summer for kids to forget most of what they learned the previous year. "Common sense" is not pandering to business interests at the expense of retention or adhering to a calendar based on harvesting schedules when we were largely agrarian and kids helped harvest.

Actually the long summer vacation is not based on harvesting schedules. If it were, the vacations would be in the spring (planting) and fall (harvesting), and school would be in the winter and summer. The long summer vacation is based on middle-class urban families who would spend the summer in country resort hotels to avoid the heat and malaria.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/education/debunking-myth-summer-vacation

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I actually very happy with current calendar. It is much easier to plan ahead for summer. Nobody can study late in June or in early August. The problem is not start and end date. Problem is MCPS with ton of closed days. It is MCPS that is by purpose trying to twist parents' hands and make our life miserable with crazy schedule during the year and rediculous spring break.

I feel the exact same way.

me too. teachers need to maximize the time kids are in school. I hear too many stories of chromebook days, or watching videos during class while teacher takes a break. and for those complaining about lack of childcare the last couple weeks of August, that is simply not true. there are plenty of camps that are filling the gaps and plenty of sitters available on care.com. I'd rather my kids be at the pool or beach instead of a hot classroom.