Why is Thursday Oct 3 a Non-Instructional Day?

[Anonymous]

My understanding is that MCPS has long given off the Jewish high holidays, and of course, there are the breaks around Christmas and Easter.
But, a few years ago, there was a Muslim coalition that wanted Eid off, citing the days given to the other religions. MCPS realized that if they honored that request, they would have to honor the requests of every other religious group and there would never be school.
So, now instead of calling it a day off for RH or YK, they just say "non-instructional day" rather than officially connect the day off with a religious holiday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks from the OP. Am not Jewish and didn't pick up on that. Makes sense now. I couldn't figure out why it was a Thursday and not a Friday.

If you are not Jewish, it is the perfect time to take a 4-day weekend and go to Disney. We did that several times.

are a lot of kids out on friday? even for middle school/high school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks from the OP. Am not Jewish and didn't pick up on that. Makes sense now. I couldn't figure out why it was a Thursday and not a Friday.

If you are not Jewish, it is the perfect time to take a 4-day weekend and go to Disney. We did that several times.

Then Friday will be unexcused

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks from the OP. Am not Jewish and didn't pick up on that. Makes sense now. I couldn't figure out why it was a Thursday and not a Friday.

If you are not Jewish, it is the perfect time to take a 4-day weekend and go to Disney. We did that several times.

Then Friday will be unexcused

ooooooohhhh nooooooooo an unexecused absence. qu'elle horreur!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, in MCPS, the following days are non-instructional days if they fall on a weekday...

Rosh Hashanah
Yom Kippur
Diwali
Chinese New Year
Passover
Eid

Christmas & Easter always fall within Winter & Spring Break

I have high schoolers, and this was not the case when my kids began school here 10+ years ago.

I fall within one of the above non-instructional day groups and would rather have a longer winter break!

To be sure, winter and spring break are planned AROUND Christmas and Easter. It's a legacy from the days when they paid lip service to the notion of separation of church and state and pretended like schools didn't formally take off for Christian holidays. They always did, of course, since Christianity is the dominant religion in this country, but the fiction was that the breaks' proximity to those holidays we coincidental.

Yes, because the state requires Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Good Friday, and "Eastern Monday" to be off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, in MCPS, the following days are non-instructional days if they fall on a weekday...

Rosh Hashanah
Yom Kippur
Diwali
Chinese New Year
Passover
Eid

Christmas & Easter always fall within Winter & Spring Break

I have high schoolers, and this was not the case when my kids began school here 10+ years ago.

I fall within one of the above non-instructional day groups and would rather have a longer winter break!

To be sure, winter and spring break are planned AROUND Christmas and Easter. It's a legacy from the days when they paid lip service to the notion of separation of church and state and pretended like schools didn't formally take off for Christian holidays. They always did, of course, since Christianity is the dominant religion in this country, but the fiction was that the breaks' proximity to those holidays we coincidental.

Yes, because the state requires Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Good Friday, and "Eastern Monday" to be off.

Oops "Easter Monday"

[Anonymous]

I am curious when do you pull out kids to disney if we want to go to all 4 parks in FL? I think we need at least 6 days. Summer is too hot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am curious when do you pull out kids to disney if we want to go to all 4 parks in FL? I think we need at least 6 days. Summer is too hot.

We’ve been to WDW about a million times but have never been six days. That’s an awful lot. If you fly down We’d night and fly back Sunday night that’s four days in park so can do one day at each park. You can also easily skip Epcot especially if your kids are too young for Guardians of Galaxy — there are some okay rides at Epcot (plus the aquarium is kind of nice) so it’s definitely worth a day if you have it but everything is far apart and it doesn’t have the shows like other parks do. It’s definitely my least favorite park at this point although Guardians is my favorite ride at any park anywhere. We generally don’t want to do more than 3 days in any visit — it’s exhausting.

I’d also say that I’d be hesitant to do this with HS students but there is so little done in a post holiday Friday in an ES or MS that it really doesn’t matter. and in my experience none of the ES teachers and very few of the MS teachers care. In HS there’s definitely more of a risk that a teacher will give a test that day and not let you make it up, which can tank a grade very quickly.

[Anonymous]

There's a legit four day weekend this year November 2-5. You just need to vote early or absentee!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, in MCPS, the following days are non-instructional days if they fall on a weekday...

Rosh Hashanah
Yom Kippur
Diwali
Chinese New Year
Passover
Eid

Christmas & Easter always fall within Winter & Spring Break

I have high schoolers, and this was not the case when my kids began school here 10+ years ago.

I fall within one of the above non-instructional day groups and would rather have a longer winter break!

To be sure, winter and spring break are planned AROUND Christmas and Easter. It's a legacy from the days when they paid lip service to the notion of separation of church and state and pretended like schools didn't formally take off for Christian holidays. They always did, of course, since Christianity is the dominant religion in this country, but the fiction was that the breaks' proximity to those holidays we coincidental.

You mean back in the days when 95-99% of the population was Christian? The horror!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There's a legit four day weekend this year November 2-5. You just need to vote early or absentee!

Yes, that’s a good travel weekend if you don’t work in the political world.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, in MCPS, the following days are non-instructional days if they fall on a weekday...

Rosh Hashanah
Yom Kippur
Diwali
Chinese New Year
Passover
Eid

Christmas & Easter always fall within Winter & Spring Break

I have high schoolers, and this was not the case when my kids began school here 10+ years ago.

I fall within one of the above non-instructional day groups and would rather have a longer winter break!

To be sure, winter and spring break are planned AROUND Christmas and Easter. It's a legacy from the days when they paid lip service to the notion of separation of church and state and pretended like schools didn't formally take off for Christian holidays. They always did, of course, since Christianity is the dominant religion in this country, but the fiction was that the breaks' proximity to those holidays we coincidental.

You mean back in the days when 95-99% of the population was Christian? The horror!!!

That was, um, never. Despite the whitewashing of history.

[Anonymous]

Damn, two pages on a simple question. Only on this board. Smh.

[Anonymous]

October 3 is Mean Girls Day. Definitely warrants a day off from school.

[Anonymous]

School also closed on Oct 18 for YK Jewish holy
?