Melanie Meren's FB post about the calendar

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's the thing: if they create more 5-day school weeks the school year will start later and/or end sooner. Either scenario is fine with me, but childcare will be needed when school is not in session. That's the financial side of things. And with the amount of advanced notice families have had to get childcare lined up - calendars published years in advance - only emergencies and snow days are not known ahead of time for planning.

Please, it's a lot easier to figure out childcare for full weeks of summer vs random days scattered throughout the year.

This. Much easier.

Agree. Retired teacher here.

[Anonymous]

For everyone commenting, please send the board your comments too!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, love the non-5 day weeks. They are great. Summer is such a pain to plan, and we (and most of our friends) much prefer a day here and there, rather than additional weeks in the summer.

You are a 2-parent working household with kids in early elementary with that take?

DP would think opposite, that <5 hardest for elementary. For MS and HS is great especially for HS with jobs/applying to college/studying for SAT/AP/etc.

[Anonymous]

did FCPS do 3 years worth of “locked in” calendars or is this the last year of that?

[Anonymous]

Hope they will also get rid of early releases while they are on it!

[Anonymous]

I emailed my representative. Enough is enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, love the non-5 day weeks. They are great. Summer is such a pain to plan, and we (and most of our friends) much prefer a day here and there, rather than additional weeks in the summer.

You are a 2-parent working household with kids in early elementary with that take?

Yes!! Random days off are covered by SACC and martial arts camp and included in the monthly fee. Summer camps are CRAZY expensive. Adding more weeks of summer is a bigger financial burden.

I think it's the working parents who flex hours and don't pay for daily childcare to extend the school day who must be complaining. We've always paid for before and after care.

[Anonymous]

It's too late to change the first half of the 2026-27 calendar. People already have summer plans and changing the 2026 start date would be really disruptive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, love the non-5 day weeks. They are great. Summer is such a pain to plan, and we (and most of our friends) much prefer a day here and there, rather than additional weeks in the summer.

You are a 2-parent working household with kids in early elementary with that take?

DP would think opposite, that <5 hardest for elementary. For MS and HS is great especially for HS with jobs/applying to college/studying for SAT/AP/etc.

Yeah no that was my point. No one with 2 working parents with kids in ES think 25 random days off or early dismissals or late arrivals is preferrable. forgot my /s

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, love the non-5 day weeks. They are great. Summer is such a pain to plan, and we (and most of our friends) much prefer a day here and there, rather than additional weeks in the summer.

You are a 2-parent working household with kids in early elementary with that take?

Yes!! Random days off are covered by SACC and martial arts camp and included in the monthly fee. Summer camps are CRAZY expensive. Adding more weeks of summer is a bigger financial burden.

I think it's the working parents who flex hours and don't pay for daily childcare to extend the school day who must be complaining. We've always paid for before and after care.

+1. I didn't mind it in ES and I don't mind it for MS/HS either. For ES, the kids are in school mode and are happy to go play at SACC or Karate. Summer camps are hard to coordinate, and going to random camps with random kids sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. I hate planning summers. Agree that it's parents who don't have proper childcare and then are overly burdened by changes that are announced months or years ahead. We are two parents, who both primarily work in the office, and the days off are fine.

My MS and HS kids LOVE the days off. For every ES parent who might complain, there are others who really appreciate the days off. Secondary school can be a slog and it is really nice to break it up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, love the non-5 day weeks. They are great. Summer is such a pain to plan, and we (and most of our friends) much prefer a day here and there, rather than additional weeks in the summer.

Now that I have somewhat older children (taking SOL’s and trying to get into Algebra in 7th etc.) I am actually pretty concerned and anxious about the relative lack of instructional time they get compared to other districts that have more full weeks. Aren’t you concerned that your kids are behind and being short-changed?

I fear this will only get worse as my kids get older. I can supplement now with upper elementary kids. I can’t teach a HS junior AP Calc or AP French or high school level cello. The HS block scheduling makes this even worse. Missing “a day” is like missing two days in one class. It all adds up very quickly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, love the non-5 day weeks. They are great. Summer is such a pain to plan, and we (and most of our friends) much prefer a day here and there, rather than additional weeks in the summer.

Now that I have somewhat older children (taking SOL’s and trying to get into Algebra in 7th etc.) I am actually pretty concerned and anxious about the relative lack of instructional time they get compared to other districts that have more full weeks. Aren’t you concerned that your kids are behind and being short-changed?

I fear this will only get worse as my kids get older. I can supplement now with upper elementary kids. I can’t teach a HS junior AP Calc or AP French or high school level cello. The HS block scheduling makes this even worse. Missing “a day” is like missing two days in one class. It all adds up very quickly.

Seriously. So many of these kids who love all the days off are going to have a real rude awakening once they get to college and/or the working world.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, love the non-5 day weeks. They are great. Summer is such a pain to plan, and we (and most of our friends) much prefer a day here and there, rather than additional weeks in the summer.

Now that I have somewhat older children (taking SOL’s and trying to get into Algebra in 7th etc.) I am actually pretty concerned and anxious about the relative lack of instructional time they get compared to other districts that have more full weeks. Aren’t you concerned that your kids are behind and being short-changed?

I fear this will only get worse as my kids get older. I can supplement now with upper elementary kids. I can’t teach a HS junior AP Calc or AP French or high school level cello. The HS block scheduling makes this even worse. Missing “a day” is like missing two days in one class. It all adds up very quickly.

No, I'm really not. The kids have a lot of HW in the older grades. They appreciate the downtime, or, for example, my DD had extra time yesterday to do a practice SAT that she would have needed to take on a weekend.

The AP Calc/French teachers adjust. They also know what's on the AP exam and focus attention properly. My kids go to a great school. I just really don't care if they are short a couple days of schools. The positive impact of the breaks far outweighs a missed class that impacts every other person at their school. If your kid is trying to get into algebra in 7th, your kid isn't at-risk either. Relax, it will be ok.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, love the non-5 day weeks. They are great. Summer is such a pain to plan, and we (and most of our friends) much prefer a day here and there, rather than additional weeks in the summer.

Now that I have somewhat older children (taking SOL’s and trying to get into Algebra in 7th etc.) I am actually pretty concerned and anxious about the relative lack of instructional time they get compared to other districts that have more full weeks. Aren’t you concerned that your kids are behind and being short-changed?

I fear this will only get worse as my kids get older. I can supplement now with upper elementary kids. I can’t teach a HS junior AP Calc or AP French or high school level cello. The HS block scheduling makes this even worse. Missing “a day” is like missing two days in one class. It all adds up very quickly.

They aren't getting less instructional time. It's just paced differently. In fact, in years that we don't use a lot of snow days (like last year), they actually get quite a bit more instructional time than surrounding districts. We build in enough hours to have something like 11 snow days. If they aren't used, that's bonus time. As opposed to, say Anne Arundel County, that only builds in 3-5 snow days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, love the non-5 day weeks. They are great. Summer is such a pain to plan, and we (and most of our friends) much prefer a day here and there, rather than additional weeks in the summer.

You are a 2-parent working household with kids in early elementary with that take?

Yes!! Random days off are covered by SACC and martial arts camp and included in the monthly fee. Summer camps are CRAZY expensive. Adding more weeks of summer is a bigger financial burden.

I think it's the working parents who flex hours and don't pay for daily childcare to extend the school day who must be complaining. We've always paid for before and after care.

There is only this much flex one can tolerate. Elementary schools with late start, random days off, early release, days when no new material should be given. Hard on many parents, disrupts education and just basic routines for children. And I'm not sure the case for all of it is convincing. There was basically no justification given for continuing early release for another year for example.