Why extend the calendar feedback?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They probably didn't get feedback that matches the calendar they want to choose. So stupid. Why bother asking for feedback. Just pick something.

They should look to APS, that’s never stopped them from plowing ahead with what they want.
I’m guessing that Fairfax made some sort of alignment agreement with surrounding districts who’ve all published by now and they feel stuck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Work session today showed that almost all the SB members want the 2-week break.

And I bet most families don't. The school board is a bunch of lazy, selfish losers. The vast majority of them don't even have children in FCPS. I really miss my hometown, when the school board was full of parents who actually cared about their children's education. I hate that FCPS is so huge.

Except if you look at the data from the survey, most families do want two weeks.

I would prefer 1.5 week winter breaks most years but I voted for the two week options because the 1.5 one in orange has winter break start Xmas eve for 2025 and that is awful. If they were not applying the same rule for all years for winter break I would have voted for that option instead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If the school board weren’t a bunch of idiots the sievert would have one question:

Which would you prefer (select one)
A. A two week winter break
B. Religious holidays that don’t fall during winter break

Done. Pick one or the other because the school year is too long and disruptive otherwise, and nobody can agree. They opened up Pandora’s box with this and have created a huge mess.

LOL, if they asked that question the results would be so far in favor of A it wouldn't even be close.

[Anonymous]

I bet asking for emails and specific schools is off putting to a lot of people. And there is no place to provide comments. It is a crap survey that ids people. Staff doesn’t want their names attached to this anymore then parents want their name attached to it. I just did it and pretty much only said that I like the 180 days and the shorter winter break and that I didn’t like the number of 5 day weeks (they all are bloated with short weeks) and long winter breaks. I could careless about the end and start date.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Work session today showed that almost all the SB members want the 2-week break.

And I bet most families don't. The school board is a bunch of lazy, selfish losers. The vast majority of them don't even have children in FCPS. I really miss my hometown, when the school board was full of parents who actually cared about their children's education. I hate that FCPS is so huge.

Except if you look at the data from the survey, most families do want two weeks.

+1
I went to find the link that showed the survey results from earlier in the week and it looks like it has been taken down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Work session today showed that almost all the SB members want the 2-week break.

And I bet most families don't. The school board is a bunch of lazy, selfish losers. The vast majority of them don't even have children in FCPS. I really miss my hometown, when the school board was full of parents who actually cared about their children's education. I hate that FCPS is so huge.

Except if you look at the data from the survey, most families do want two weeks.

+1
I went to find the link that showed the survey results from earlier in the week and it looks like it has been taken down.

Here it is: https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/CNLQ896771DD/$file/SY%20Calendar%202023-24%201-31-23.pdf

Regarding the length of winter break, it looks like parents preferred the purple or blue calendars.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I bet asking for emails and specific schools is off putting to a lot of people. And there is no place to provide comments. It is a crap survey that ids people. Staff doesn’t want their names attached to this anymore then parents want their name attached to it. I just did it and pretty much only said that I like the 180 days and the shorter winter break and that I didn’t like the number of 5 day weeks (they all are bloated with short weeks) and long winter breaks. I could careless about the end and start date.

More may have completed if they had included one comment box on survey.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I bet asking for emails and specific schools is off putting to a lot of people. And there is no place to provide comments. It is a crap survey that ids people. Staff doesn’t want their names attached to this anymore then parents want their name attached to it. I just did it and pretty much only said that I like the 180 days and the shorter winter break and that I didn’t like the number of 5 day weeks (they all are bloated with short weeks) and long winter breaks. I could careless about the end and start date.

I didn't complete the survey because of that. I did the initial survey but I couldn't think of a legitimate reason why they needed my email address (maybe to cross reference their records and ensure I was a parent, but that seems like an awful lot of work for a calendar survey), so closed it out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They only had 21(?)% staff response?

It was a huge long survey and we were overloaded with work including the SPED stuff they want. So no I wasn’t filling out the survey they don’t even read.

LOL! It was five checkboxes on four pages. Neither huge nor long. Took about sixty seconds to fill out.

[Anonymous]

This survey is horrible! So much money wasted for all bad choices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They only had 21(?)% staff response?

It was a huge long survey and we were overloaded with work including the SPED stuff they want. So no I wasn’t filling out the survey they don’t even read.

Pretty sure that says 21% of the responses came from staff, not 21% of staff responded. I don't know how many staff there are in FCPS but that would have been roughly 4600 staff members (21% of 22k).

[Anonymous]

They always have the absolute worst surveys overly engineered with awful choices. As if they don’t really want to know what people think or want but need to check the box for conducting a survey…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If the school board weren’t a bunch of idiots the sievert would have one question:

Which would you prefer (select one)
A. A two week winter break
B. Religious holidays that don’t fall during winter break

Done. Pick one or the other because the school year is too long and disruptive otherwise, and nobody can agree. They opened up Pandora’s box with this and have created a huge mess.

They keep having feedback sessions because they are getting too much negative feedback about the disruptive religious holidays (that don't belong in public schools unless legitimate data on student absences supports a need). They really, really want to show the world they are equitable by having these holidays on the calendar but are running into bothersome staff and parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If the school board weren’t a bunch of idiots the sievert would have one question:

Which would you prefer (select one)
A. A two week winter break
B. Religious holidays that don’t fall during winter break

Done. Pick one or the other because the school year is too long and disruptive otherwise, and nobody can agree. They opened up Pandora’s box with this and have created a huge mess.

They keep having feedback sessions because they are getting too much negative feedback about the disruptive religious holidays (that don't belong in public schools unless legitimate data on student absences supports a need). They really, really want to show the world they are equitable by having these holidays on the calendar but are running into bothersome staff and parents.

Is it legal in Virginia to schedule days off around religious holidays?

I seem to recall an email from the school board a while back that stated it was not legal to build the calendar around religious holidays.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If the school board weren’t a bunch of idiots the sievert would have one question:

Which would you prefer (select one)
A. A two week winter break
B. Religious holidays that don’t fall during winter break

Done. Pick one or the other because the school year is too long and disruptive otherwise, and nobody can agree. They opened up Pandora’s box with this and have created a huge mess.

They keep having feedback sessions because they are getting too much negative feedback about the disruptive religious holidays (that don't belong in public schools unless legitimate data on student absences supports a need). They really, really want to show the world they are equitable by having these holidays on the calendar but are running into bothersome staff and parents.

Is it legal in Virginia to schedule days off around religious holidays?

I seem to recall an email from the school board a while back that stated it was not legal to build the calendar around religious holidays.

I’m wondering that too. Is it just a VA thing? As far as I know, places with high Jewish populations have had off school on the major Jewish holidays for years now.