The response to MoCo's calendar change shows why the FCPS religious holidays will never go away

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a cultural Catholic, and think it's extremely disrespectful to use other religions' Holy Days without also using Christian Holy Days.

This would all be solved if we had year-round school, with large breaks in every season. It would reduce brain drain. Daycare and camps would adjust to offering care for the 4 large breaks throughout the year. And it would mean people with means could spread out their travel across four seasons, which is so much nicer than cramming everything during the hot summer months. And people wouldn't get so distressed over missing a few days of school for weather...

I am Catholic and looking at the FCPS calendar right now.

Here is what I see:

Christmas, Easter, and Good Friday (the three holiest days for Catholics) are all off and clearly labeled. Long breaks are built around them, so that families can travel.

I then looked at Holy Days of Obligation

All Saints Day/Dios los Muertes (Nov 1) is labeled, but was on a Saturday this school year, so it's not taken off. The Holy Day was also abrogated for the same reason.

The Immaculate Conception (Dec. 8) is an O day, which would allow for people to attend Mass, but is listed as Bodhi Day

The Solemnity of Mary (Jan 1) is off, but is listed as New Year's Day

I then looked at other days of religious significance

Christmas Eve (No religious obligation during school hours, but culturally a day that many Catholics gather and celebrate) is off but unlabeled

Epiphany/Three Kings Day is labeled as an O Day

Ash Wednesday (Jan 18) is an O day

Easter Monday (April 6) (also no religious obligation, but a day when many Catholics like to have off) is not labeled but is a TW work day.

I will also note that none of the O days are days that Catholic schools take off, so while All Saints, Ash Wednesday and Epiphany and Immaculate Conception are important to Catholics, they aren't days that Catholics are expected to miss work or school.

How is this Catholics being discriminated against? Can you please explain to me? Which other religions get more than this?

Quoting myself because I forgot that all 52 of our sabbath's are off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So you remove Federal Holidays, which are about the same in number as the religious holidays. Fixed.

And you uncouple Spring Break from Easter as a bonus, providing an annual date for Spring Break that doesn't move.

People can complain all they want that Christmas falls in Winter Break but it is a federal holiday and has been a time period for travel across the country for forever. Schools would be shut due to lack of attendance and teachers and staff if it wasn't off. There are no other holidays were that would be the case.

There are 11 federal holidays:

- Independence Day and Juneteenth fall outside of the school year.
- Labor Day (plus the Friday) is mandated by VA law.
- Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years are untouchable, and I'd argue Memorial Day also.
- Columbus is already used as a teacher workday.
- So, only MLK, Presidents, and Veterans Days are viable school days.

Of the surrounding districts (Arl, Falls Church City, Prince William, Loudoun), the only one that has school on any of those three days is Loudoun for Veterans Day.

Thanksgiving doesn’t require 3 days. Make the Weds or the Fri a teacher work day.

Christmas does not require two weeks. Make 23rd a teacher work/training day.

Memorial Day does not require three days. Make one a work day.

Teacher should be allowed to work remotely on their workdays and training should be available online.

There, got rid of three days off and didn’t upset anybody/disenfranchise any religion.

Majority of the TW are timed around the end of a quarter. Nit picking a few days off the calendar isn’t going to fix that. It would be more effective to time quarters around existing breaks. For example, Monday and Tuesday of Spring Break could have been TW/SD days instead of tracking them onto the following week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a cultural Catholic, and think it's extremely disrespectful to use other religions' Holy Days without also using Christian Holy Days.

This would all be solved if we had year-round school, with large breaks in every season. It would reduce brain drain. Daycare and camps would adjust to offering care for the 4 large breaks throughout the year. And it would mean people with means could spread out their travel across four seasons, which is so much nicer than cramming everything during the hot summer months. And people wouldn't get so distressed over missing a few days of school for weather...

I am Catholic and looking at the FCPS calendar right now.

Here is what I see:

Christmas, Easter, and Good Friday (the three holiest days for Catholics) are all off and clearly labeled. Long breaks are built around them, so that families can travel.

I then looked at Holy Days of Obligation

All Saints Day/Dios los Muertes (Nov 1) is labeled, but was on a Saturday this school year, so it's not taken off. The Holy Day was also abrogated for the same reason.

The Immaculate Conception (Dec. 8) is an O day, which would allow for people to attend Mass, but is listed as Bodhi Day

The Solemnity of Mary (Jan 1) is off, but is listed as New Year's Day

I then looked at other days of religious significance

Christmas Eve (No religious obligation during school hours, but culturally a day that many Catholics gather and celebrate) is off but unlabeled

Epiphany/Three Kings Day is labeled as an O Day

Ash Wednesday (Jan 18) is an O day

Easter Monday (April 6) (also no religious obligation, but a day when many Catholics like to have off) is not labeled but is a TW work day.

I will also note that none of the O days are days that Catholic schools take off, so while All Saints, Ash Wednesday and Epiphany and Immaculate Conception are important to Catholics, they aren't days that Catholics are expected to miss work or school.

How is this Catholics being discriminated against? Can you please explain to me? Which other religions get more than this?

Take all the religious holidays calendar off the calendar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So you remove Federal Holidays, which are about the same in number as the religious holidays. Fixed.

And you uncouple Spring Break from Easter as a bonus, providing an annual date for Spring Break that doesn't move.

People can complain all they want that Christmas falls in Winter Break but it is a federal holiday and has been a time period for travel across the country for forever. Schools would be shut due to lack of attendance and teachers and staff if it wasn't off. There are no other holidays were that would be the case.

There are 11 federal holidays:

- Independence Day and Juneteenth fall outside of the school year.
- Labor Day (plus the Friday) is mandated by VA law.
- Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years are untouchable, and I'd argue Memorial Day also.
- Columbus is already used as a teacher workday.
- So, only MLK, Presidents, and Veterans Days are viable school days.

Of the surrounding districts (Arl, Falls Church City, Prince William, Loudoun), the only one that has school on any of those three days is Loudoun for Veterans Day.

Thanksgiving doesn’t require 3 days. Make the Weds or the Fri a teacher work day.

Christmas does not require two weeks. Make 23rd a teacher work/training day.

Memorial Day does not require three days. Make one a work day.

Teacher should be allowed to work remotely on their workdays and training should be available online.

There, got rid of three days off and didn’t upset anybody/disenfranchise any religion.

Majority of the TW are timed around the end of a quarter. Nit picking a few days off the calendar isn’t going to fix that. It would be more effective to time quarters around existing breaks. For example, Monday and Tuesday of Spring Break could have been TW/SD days instead of tracking them onto the following week.

Sure. And Presidents Day could
be TW with end of Winter Break as SD. The point is that there’s no reason to do both, and combining TW/SD with existing vacations serves the students/families without creating the false religious holidays conflict which is intended to create division with the parents.

[Anonymous]

DD teaches college and students have to arrange ahead of time if they are taking-off, need to be accommodated for a religious holiday. Why not have that be the case?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a cultural Catholic, and think it's extremely disrespectful to use other religions' Holy Days without also using Christian Holy Days.

This would all be solved if we had year-round school, with large breaks in every season. It would reduce brain drain. Daycare and camps would adjust to offering care for the 4 large breaks throughout the year. And it would mean people with means could spread out their travel across four seasons, which is so much nicer than cramming everything during the hot summer months. And people wouldn't get so distressed over missing a few days of school for weather...

I am Catholic and looking at the FCPS calendar right now.

Here is what I see:

Christmas, Easter, and Good Friday (the three holiest days for Catholics) are all off and clearly labeled. Long breaks are built around them, so that families can travel.

I then looked at Holy Days of Obligation

All Saints Day/Dios los Muertes (Nov 1) is labeled, but was on a Saturday this school year, so it's not taken off. The Holy Day was also abrogated for the same reason.

The Immaculate Conception (Dec. 8) is an O day, which would allow for people to attend Mass, but is listed as Bodhi Day

The Solemnity of Mary (Jan 1) is off, but is listed as New Year's Day

I then looked at other days of religious significance

Christmas Eve (No religious obligation during school hours, but culturally a day that many Catholics gather and celebrate) is off but unlabeled

Epiphany/Three Kings Day is labeled as an O Day

Ash Wednesday (Jan 18) is an O day

Easter Monday (April 6) (also no religious obligation, but a day when many Catholics like to have off) is not labeled but is a TW work day.

I will also note that none of the O days are days that Catholic schools take off, so while All Saints, Ash Wednesday and Epiphany and Immaculate Conception are important to Catholics, they aren't days that Catholics are expected to miss work or school.

How is this Catholics being discriminated against? Can you please explain to me? Which other religions get more than this?

Quoting myself because I forgot that all 52 of our sabbath's are off.

Yes, I also noticed that stray apostrophe. Sorry!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So you remove Federal Holidays, which are about the same in number as the religious holidays. Fixed.

And you uncouple Spring Break from Easter as a bonus, providing an annual date for Spring Break that doesn't move.

People can complain all they want that Christmas falls in Winter Break but it is a federal holiday and has been a time period for travel across the country for forever. Schools would be shut due to lack of attendance and teachers and staff if it wasn't off. There are no other holidays were that would be the case.

There are 11 federal holidays:

- Independence Day and Juneteenth fall outside of the school year.
- Labor Day (plus the Friday) is mandated by VA law.
- Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years are untouchable, and I'd argue Memorial Day also.
- Columbus is already used as a teacher workday.
- So, only MLK, Presidents, and Veterans Days are viable school days.

Of the surrounding districts (Arl, Falls Church City, Prince William, Loudoun), the only one that has school on any of those three days is Loudoun for Veterans Day.

Thanksgiving doesn’t require 3 days. Make the Weds or the Fri a teacher work day.

Christmas does not require two weeks. Make 23rd a teacher work/training day.

Memorial Day does not require three days. Make one a work day.

Teacher should be allowed to work remotely on their workdays and training should be available online.

There, got rid of three days off and didn’t upset anybody/disenfranchise any religion.

Majority of the TW are timed around the end of a quarter. Nit picking a few days off the calendar isn’t going to fix that. It would be more effective to time quarters around existing breaks. For example, Monday and Tuesday of Spring Break could have been TW/SD days instead of tracking them onto the following week.

Looking at FCPS calendar, the pattern seems to be that there is a TW day at the end of each quarter (presumably for grading, and finalizing the gradebook) and 1 TW and one SD or SP day during each quarter, allowing for teachers to plan.

You could move those days to non-religious holiday days, I guess, but it wouldn't change the fact that teachers need days to plan, and that those days need to be distributed throughout the quarter, not clustered. If this doesn't seem obvious to you, I'd ask you this. How does it work in your job? When you have time when your client isn't present. Perhaps you're creating documents, reviewing documents, or meeting with colleagues. Are those kinds of tasks clustered, or do you have time to do that every single month that you work? Are you asked to do things in illogical sequence, or do you generally get to gather data before you analyze it? Or plan meetings with clients after you already held the meetings? Because that is what people seem to think teachers should do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We haven't had a new calendar thread in a few hours, so I thought that I better pick up the slack.

Our sister district across the river is struggling with making up snow days, and they are proposing to use Eid al-Fitr to accomplish that. Obviously, that is rubbing some people the wrong way.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2026/02/15/muslim-holiday-makeup-day-backlash/

Zainab Chaudry, director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations office in Maryland, said Eid al-Fitr should be granted the same respect as Judeo-Christian holidays like Yom Kippur and Easter, which are designated non-instruction days in both school districts. Chaudry said it is unfair to put families in the position of choosing between religious observance and school instruction.

She called on the districts to amend their makeup plans.

“Our holidays are not expendable. Our communities do not get to decide whether or not they want to observe the holiday based on circumstances beyond their control, including the weather,” Chaudry said. “Our communities deserve the same level of dignity and respect as all other communities.”

...

Glass said he has been in contact with members of Maryland’s legislature, and is urging for a change that could prevent religious holidays from being used to make up for lost instructional time.


In other words, the calendar isn't going to change. The only realistic days to remove (based on the 25/26 and 26/27 calendars) are Veterans Day and Presidents Day. The next options are the paired Teacher Workday and Staff Development/School Planning days at the end of each Quarter. It is pointless to advocate for the removal of some or all religious holidays.

Easter is always on a Sunday, so he appears to have no idea what he's talking about.

Maryland state law dictates that there can’t be school on Good Friday or Easter Monday. That’s what he’s talking about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So you remove Federal Holidays, which are about the same in number as the religious holidays. Fixed.

And you uncouple Spring Break from Easter as a bonus, providing an annual date for Spring Break that doesn't move.

People can complain all they want that Christmas falls in Winter Break but it is a federal holiday and has been a time period for travel across the country for forever. Schools would be shut due to lack of attendance and teachers and staff if it wasn't off. There are no other holidays were that would be the case.

There are 11 federal holidays:

- Independence Day and Juneteenth fall outside of the school year.
- Labor Day (plus the Friday) is mandated by VA law.
- Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years are untouchable, and I'd argue Memorial Day also.
- Columbus is already used as a teacher workday.
- So, only MLK, Presidents, and Veterans Days are viable school days.

Of the surrounding districts (Arl, Falls Church City, Prince William, Loudoun), the only one that has school on any of those three days is Loudoun for Veterans Day.

Thanksgiving doesn’t require 3 days. Make the Weds or the Fri a teacher work day.

Christmas does not require two weeks. Make 23rd a teacher work/training day.

Memorial Day does not require three days. Make one a work day.

Teacher should be allowed to work remotely on their workdays and training should be available online.

There, got rid of three days off and didn’t upset anybody/disenfranchise any religion.

Majority of the TW are timed around the end of a quarter. Nit picking a few days off the calendar isn’t going to fix that. It would be more effective to time quarters around existing breaks. For example, Monday and Tuesday of Spring Break could have been TW/SD days instead of tracking them onto the following week.

Looking at FCPS calendar, the pattern seems to be that there is a TW day at the end of each quarter (presumably for grading, and finalizing the gradebook) and 1 TW and one SD or SP day during each quarter, allowing for teachers to plan.

You could move those days to non-religious holiday days, I guess, but it wouldn't change the fact that teachers need days to plan, and that those days need to be distributed throughout the quarter, not clustered. If this doesn't seem obvious to you, I'd ask you this. How does it work in your job? When you have time when your client isn't present. Perhaps you're creating documents, reviewing documents, or meeting with colleagues. Are those kinds of tasks clustered, or do you have time to do that every single month that you work? Are you asked to do things in illogical sequence, or do you generally get to gather data before you analyze it? Or plan meetings with clients after you already held the meetings? Because that is what people seem to think teachers should do.

They can be distributed through the quarter without adding more holes to the calendar. Indigenous peoples day is a great example.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So you remove Federal Holidays, which are about the same in number as the religious holidays. Fixed.

And you uncouple Spring Break from Easter as a bonus, providing an annual date for Spring Break that doesn't move.

People can complain all they want that Christmas falls in Winter Break but it is a federal holiday and has been a time period for travel across the country for forever. Schools would be shut due to lack of attendance and teachers and staff if it wasn't off. There are no other holidays were that would be the case.

There are 11 federal holidays:

- Independence Day and Juneteenth fall outside of the school year.
- Labor Day (plus the Friday) is mandated by VA law.
- Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years are untouchable, and I'd argue Memorial Day also.
- Columbus is already used as a teacher workday.
- So, only MLK, Presidents, and Veterans Days are viable school days.

Of the surrounding districts (Arl, Falls Church City, Prince William, Loudoun), the only one that has school on any of those three days is Loudoun for Veterans Day.

Thanksgiving doesn’t require 3 days. Make the Weds or the Fri a teacher work day.

Christmas does not require two weeks. Make 23rd a teacher work/training day.

Memorial Day does not require three days. Make one a work day.

Teacher should be allowed to work remotely on their workdays and training should be available online.

There, got rid of three days off and didn’t upset anybody/disenfranchise any religion.

Majority of the TW are timed around the end of a quarter. Nit picking a few days off the calendar isn’t going to fix that. It would be more effective to time quarters around existing breaks. For example, Monday and Tuesday of Spring Break could have been TW/SD days instead of tracking them onto the following week.

Looking at FCPS calendar, the pattern seems to be that there is a TW day at the end of each quarter (presumably for grading, and finalizing the gradebook) and 1 TW and one SD or SP day during each quarter, allowing for teachers to plan.

You could move those days to non-religious holiday days, I guess, but it wouldn't change the fact that teachers need days to plan, and that those days need to be distributed throughout the quarter, not clustered. If this doesn't seem obvious to you, I'd ask you this. How does it work in your job? When you have time when your client isn't present. Perhaps you're creating documents, reviewing documents, or meeting with colleagues. Are those kinds of tasks clustered, or do you have time to do that every single month that you work? Are you asked to do things in illogical sequence, or do you generally get to gather data before you analyze it? Or plan meetings with clients after you already held the meetings? Because that is what people seem to think teachers should do.

Except for the fourth quarter. ES grades are always due a week to a week and half or so before the last day of school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So you remove Federal Holidays, which are about the same in number as the religious holidays. Fixed.

And you uncouple Spring Break from Easter as a bonus, providing an annual date for Spring Break that doesn't move.

People can complain all they want that Christmas falls in Winter Break but it is a federal holiday and has been a time period for travel across the country for forever. Schools would be shut due to lack of attendance and teachers and staff if it wasn't off. There are no other holidays were that would be the case.

There are 11 federal holidays:

- Independence Day and Juneteenth fall outside of the school year.
- Labor Day (plus the Friday) is mandated by VA law.
- Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years are untouchable, and I'd argue Memorial Day also.
- Columbus is already used as a teacher workday.
- So, only MLK, Presidents, and Veterans Days are viable school days.

Of the surrounding districts (Arl, Falls Church City, Prince William, Loudoun), the only one that has school on any of those three days is Loudoun for Veterans Day.

Thanksgiving doesn’t require 3 days. Make the Weds or the Fri a teacher work day.

Christmas does not require two weeks. Make 23rd a teacher work/training day.

Memorial Day does not require three days. Make one a work day.

Teacher should be allowed to work remotely on their workdays and training should be available online.

There, got rid of three days off and didn’t upset anybody/disenfranchise any religion.

Majority of the TW are timed around the end of a quarter. Nit picking a few days off the calendar isn’t going to fix that. It would be more effective to time quarters around existing breaks. For example, Monday and Tuesday of Spring Break could have been TW/SD days instead of tracking them onto the following week.

Looking at FCPS calendar, the pattern seems to be that there is a TW day at the end of each quarter (presumably for grading, and finalizing the gradebook) and 1 TW and one SD or SP day during each quarter, allowing for teachers to plan.

You could move those days to non-religious holiday days, I guess, but it wouldn't change the fact that teachers need days to plan, and that those days need to be distributed throughout the quarter, not clustered. If this doesn't seem obvious to you, I'd ask you this. How does it work in your job? When you have time when your client isn't present. Perhaps you're creating documents, reviewing documents, or meeting with colleagues. Are those kinds of tasks clustered, or do you have time to do that every single month that you work? Are you asked to do things in illogical sequence, or do you generally get to gather data before you analyze it? Or plan meetings with clients after you already held the meetings? Because that is what people seem to think teachers should do.

They can be distributed through the quarter without adding more holes to the calendar. Indigenous peoples day is a great example.

Indigenous people day is a great example of what?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So you remove Federal Holidays, which are about the same in number as the religious holidays. Fixed.

And you uncouple Spring Break from Easter as a bonus, providing an annual date for Spring Break that doesn't move.

People can complain all they want that Christmas falls in Winter Break but it is a federal holiday and has been a time period for travel across the country for forever. Schools would be shut due to lack of attendance and teachers and staff if it wasn't off. There are no other holidays were that would be the case.

There are 11 federal holidays:

- Independence Day and Juneteenth fall outside of the school year.
- Labor Day (plus the Friday) is mandated by VA law.
- Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years are untouchable, and I'd argue Memorial Day also.
- Columbus is already used as a teacher workday.
- So, only MLK, Presidents, and Veterans Days are viable school days.

Of the surrounding districts (Arl, Falls Church City, Prince William, Loudoun), the only one that has school on any of those three days is Loudoun for Veterans Day.

Thanksgiving doesn’t require 3 days. Make the Weds or the Fri a teacher work day.

Christmas does not require two weeks. Make 23rd a teacher work/training day.

Memorial Day does not require three days. Make one a work day.

Teacher should be allowed to work remotely on their workdays and training should be available online.

There, got rid of three days off and didn’t upset anybody/disenfranchise any religion.

Majority of the TW are timed around the end of a quarter. Nit picking a few days off the calendar isn’t going to fix that. It would be more effective to time quarters around existing breaks. For example, Monday and Tuesday of Spring Break could have been TW/SD days instead of tracking them onto the following week.

Looking at FCPS calendar, the pattern seems to be that there is a TW day at the end of each quarter (presumably for grading, and finalizing the gradebook) and 1 TW and one SD or SP day during each quarter, allowing for teachers to plan.

You could move those days to non-religious holiday days, I guess, but it wouldn't change the fact that teachers need days to plan, and that those days need to be distributed throughout the quarter, not clustered. If this doesn't seem obvious to you, I'd ask you this. How does it work in your job? When you have time when your client isn't present. Perhaps you're creating documents, reviewing documents, or meeting with colleagues. Are those kinds of tasks clustered, or do you have time to do that every single month that you work? Are you asked to do things in illogical sequence, or do you generally get to gather data before you analyze it? Or plan meetings with clients after you already held the meetings? Because that is what people seem to think teachers should do.

They can be distributed through the quarter without adding more holes to the calendar. Indigenous peoples day is a great example.

Indigenous people day is a great example of what?

Using the calendar to provide TW days on days students are already out of the classroom, not adding more disruption.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So you remove Federal Holidays, which are about the same in number as the religious holidays. Fixed.

And you uncouple Spring Break from Easter as a bonus, providing an annual date for Spring Break that doesn't move.

People can complain all they want that Christmas falls in Winter Break but it is a federal holiday and has been a time period for travel across the country for forever. Schools would be shut due to lack of attendance and teachers and staff if it wasn't off. There are no other holidays were that would be the case.

There are 11 federal holidays:

- Independence Day and Juneteenth fall outside of the school year.
- Labor Day (plus the Friday) is mandated by VA law.
- Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years are untouchable, and I'd argue Memorial Day also.
- Columbus is already used as a teacher workday.
- So, only MLK, Presidents, and Veterans Days are viable school days.

Of the surrounding districts (Arl, Falls Church City, Prince William, Loudoun), the only one that has school on any of those three days is Loudoun for Veterans Day.

Thanksgiving doesn’t require 3 days. Make the Weds or the Fri a teacher work day.

Christmas does not require two weeks. Make 23rd a teacher work/training day.

Memorial Day does not require three days. Make one a work day.

Teacher should be allowed to work remotely on their workdays and training should be available online.

There, got rid of three days off and didn’t upset anybody/disenfranchise any religion.

Majority of the TW are timed around the end of a quarter. Nit picking a few days off the calendar isn’t going to fix that. It would be more effective to time quarters around existing breaks. For example, Monday and Tuesday of Spring Break could have been TW/SD days instead of tracking them onto the following week.

Looking at FCPS calendar, the pattern seems to be that there is a TW day at the end of each quarter (presumably for grading, and finalizing the gradebook) and 1 TW and one SD or SP day during each quarter, allowing for teachers to plan.

You could move those days to non-religious holiday days, I guess, but it wouldn't change the fact that teachers need days to plan, and that those days need to be distributed throughout the quarter, not clustered. If this doesn't seem obvious to you, I'd ask you this. How does it work in your job? When you have time when your client isn't present. Perhaps you're creating documents, reviewing documents, or meeting with colleagues. Are those kinds of tasks clustered, or do you have time to do that every single month that you work? Are you asked to do things in illogical sequence, or do you generally get to gather data before you analyze it? Or plan meetings with clients after you already held the meetings? Because that is what people seem to think teachers should do.

They can be distributed through the quarter without adding more holes to the calendar. Indigenous peoples day is a great example.

Indigenous people day is a great example of what?

Using the calendar to provide TW days on days students are already out of the classroom, not adding more disruption.

What day in late February are you proposing be used in that way?

Also, do you work federal holidays, or are you just expecting that teachers do so?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So you remove Federal Holidays, which are about the same in number as the religious holidays. Fixed.

And you uncouple Spring Break from Easter as a bonus, providing an annual date for Spring Break that doesn't move.

People can complain all they want that Christmas falls in Winter Break but it is a federal holiday and has been a time period for travel across the country for forever. Schools would be shut due to lack of attendance and teachers and staff if it wasn't off. There are no other holidays were that would be the case.

There are 11 federal holidays:

- Independence Day and Juneteenth fall outside of the school year.
- Labor Day (plus the Friday) is mandated by VA law.
- Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years are untouchable, and I'd argue Memorial Day also.
- Columbus is already used as a teacher workday.
- So, only MLK, Presidents, and Veterans Days are viable school days.

Of the surrounding districts (Arl, Falls Church City, Prince William, Loudoun), the only one that has school on any of those three days is Loudoun for Veterans Day.

Thanksgiving doesn’t require 3 days. Make the Weds or the Fri a teacher work day.

Christmas does not require two weeks. Make 23rd a teacher work/training day.

Memorial Day does not require three days. Make one a work day.

Teacher should be allowed to work remotely on their workdays and training should be available online.

There, got rid of three days off and didn’t upset anybody/disenfranchise any religion.

Majority of the TW are timed around the end of a quarter. Nit picking a few days off the calendar isn’t going to fix that. It would be more effective to time quarters around existing breaks. For example, Monday and Tuesday of Spring Break could have been TW/SD days instead of tracking them onto the following week.

Looking at FCPS calendar, the pattern seems to be that there is a TW day at the end of each quarter (presumably for grading, and finalizing the gradebook) and 1 TW and one SD or SP day during each quarter, allowing for teachers to plan.

You could move those days to non-religious holiday days, I guess, but it wouldn't change the fact that teachers need days to plan, and that those days need to be distributed throughout the quarter, not clustered. If this doesn't seem obvious to you, I'd ask you this. How does it work in your job? When you have time when your client isn't present. Perhaps you're creating documents, reviewing documents, or meeting with colleagues. Are those kinds of tasks clustered, or do you have time to do that every single month that you work? Are you asked to do things in illogical sequence, or do you generally get to gather data before you analyze it? Or plan meetings with clients after you already held the meetings? Because that is what people seem to think teachers should do.

They can be distributed through the quarter without adding more holes to the calendar. Indigenous peoples day is a great example.

Indigenous people day is a great example of what?

Using the calendar to provide TW days on days students are already out of the classroom, not adding more disruption.

What day in late February are you proposing be used in that way?

Also, do you work federal holidays, or are you just expecting that teachers do so?

Few people get all the federal holidays off. For example, I have worked at three different companies and have always worked on President’s Day. Therefore, I nominate President’s Day!

[Anonymous]

Why do they have 2 teacher work days and an early release at the end of every quarter? It’s a lot. I just checked the calendar for the district where I grew up and they get one teacher work day at the end of the quarters.