How DO we get the calendar changed?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Everyone says this. But then their kids get old enough to stay home alone and they stop caring.

My kids are old!!! This isn't a child care issue. It is a quality of education issue.

[Anonymous]

I truly think that if they didn’t have all these early releases - the 3 hour ones and the 2 hours at the end of the quarters for who knows what reason - that people wouldn’t be complaining so much. The 3 hour early release days are garbage and shouldn’t even count as instructional days. At the VERY least, don’t schedule any early release days in December (due to the 2 week long winter break) and January-March (lots of holidays in these months anyway plus risk of bad weather closures). But I hope they are gone for good next school year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Someone needs to get the Media involved!!!

I hope this is posted to be funny because it made me chuckle. But just in case it isn't because I know how stupid some DCUMs could be, if you haven't noticed, the media reports the school closings, delays, and early dismissals, so I'm pretty sure they are aware of these things.

Clearly you are the stupid one. The media can bring light to the overall effect this is having on families and students. In addition, the media certainly doesn't report all the other routine closures FCPS has nor does it report on how they close for every single religious holiday known to man!

If you're ok, you're not paying attention!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have had it with the FCPS calendar. The days off have gotten totally out off hand. At some point FCPS decided it need to celebrate EVERY possibly , religious and non religious holiday under the sun.
It is out of control.

Throw in all the weather delays and closing and kids are never in school. I know, I know, but they still meet their hours and are above the VA standard. Sure, who cares when it come to elementary, but HS teachers, especially, those teaching AP classes plan their year around having a certain number of days of school, and given that most AP exams are early May they already have a condensed timeline. Elementary parents come back to the conversation with your kid in in HS and school actually matters. Why not have a higher bar and if there aren't weather related closing we get more instruction.

Your kids get the same amount of instruction they always do. There's a number of hours they have to meet and they meet them.

Your complaints about observing holidays are invalid, as are your feelings. You seem to believe that the purpose of schools is to warehouse kids.

The time to "get the calendar changed" is when the board puts it out for comments. Weigh in then. Whining about it now is a bad look.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Welcome to DEI

Wut.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You need to write your school board members and then you need to engage them where they care which is politics.

All of the schoolboard members are liberal and many are progressive. This calendar is *not* progressive and disproportionately impacts lower-income and dual-working families. Women and hourly workers are supposed to be constituencies democrats care about. So raise the issue with local league of women voters, canvassers/fundraisers who are trying to get support for other democratic candidates (especially if you’ve donated before) and directly ask school board members how they are contributing to the affordability agenda with their calendar choices.

It is idiotic that this is how any of this works. But COVID created the idea for many Democrats that liberals don’t mind keeping kids out of school and now its course correction.

Have you confused school with being child care? You think its primary purpose is to warehouse children?

[Anonymous]

DP but I think the school's primary purpose is to provide CONSISTENT education.

[Anonymous]

I can't wait till we celebrate the Iranian New Year (Nowruz) on Friday!

Yayyyyy, another day off! Who cares about AP tests!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You need to write your school board members and then you need to engage them where they care which is politics.

All of the schoolboard members are liberal and many are progressive. This calendar is *not* progressive and disproportionately impacts lower-income and dual-working families. Women and hourly workers are supposed to be constituencies democrats care about. So raise the issue with local league of women voters, canvassers/fundraisers who are trying to get support for other democratic candidates (especially if you’ve donated before) and directly ask school board members how they are contributing to the affordability agenda with their calendar choices.

It is idiotic that this is how any of this works. But COVID created the idea for many Democrats that liberals don’t mind keeping kids out of school and now its course correction.

Have you confused school with being child care? You think its primary purpose is to warehouse children?

I think schools exist to provide a public good at public expense. Has taxpayers we have a right to assume the public will be provided efficiently and effectively, and not create undue burdens on the households they are intended to serve.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have had it with the FCPS calendar. The days off have gotten totally out off hand. At some point FCPS decided it need to celebrate EVERY possibly , religious and non religious holiday under the sun.
It is out of control.

Throw in all the weather delays and closing and kids are never in school. I know, I know, but they still meet their hours and are above the VA standard. Sure, who cares when it come to elementary, but HS teachers, especially, those teaching AP classes plan their year around having a certain number of days of school, and given that most AP exams are early May they already have a condensed timeline. Elementary parents come back to the conversation with your kid in in HS and school actually matters. Why not have a higher bar and if there aren't weather related closing we get more instruction.

Your kids get the same amount of instruction they always do. There's a number of hours they have to meet and they meet them.

Your complaints about observing holidays are invalid, as are your feelings. You seem to believe that the purpose of schools is to warehouse kids.

The time to "get the calendar changed" is when the board puts it out for comments. Weigh in then. Whining about it now is a bad look.

DP. Don’t you dare gaslight people trying to act like there was any point at which the public could give meaningful input on the calendar. They put out a completely bullsh*t survey with ridiculous binary choices. They purposely phrased the questions so there was no way to choose a sensible calendar. They wrote the survey with the goal of doing whatever they wanted while pretending they solicited input first. They think we are stupid. I guess a lot of people are because they keep voting for this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Someone needs to get the Media involved!!!

I hope this is posted to be funny because it made me chuckle. But just in case it isn't because I know how stupid some DCUMs could be, if you haven't noticed, the media reports the school closings, delays, and early dismissals, so I'm pretty sure they are aware of these things.

Clearly you are the stupid one. The media can bring light to the overall effect this is having on families and students. In addition, the media certainly doesn't report all the other routine closures FCPS has nor does it report on how they close for every single religious holiday known to man!

If you're ok, you're not paying attention!

They don't report on those things because it's not news. Schools set their calendars and move along. The news has much bigger issues to report.

[Anonymous]

The people here who constantly defend the county must be the morons who work there, or are political operatives who helped them get elected. Nobody I have talked to in real life likes the calendar and the school board knows it’s been very unpopular.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Someone needs to get the Media involved!!!

I hope this is posted to be funny because it made me chuckle. But just in case it isn't because I know how stupid some DCUMs could be, if you haven't noticed, the media reports the school closings, delays, and early dismissals, so I'm pretty sure they are aware of these things.

Clearly you are the stupid one. The media can bring light to the overall effect this is having on families and students. In addition, the media certainly doesn't report all the other routine closures FCPS has nor does it report on how they close for every single religious holiday known to man!

If you're ok, you're not paying attention!

They don't report on those things because it's not news. Schools set their calendars and move along. The news has much bigger issues to report.

I think you’re wrong, the decline of Fairfax is system is news because it used to be among the best in the country.

It is in no one‘s interests for our school to be laughingstock. Most people’s largest asset is their home, and people buy in Fairfax because of the schools. I heard a pretty damning comment at a (private) pre-K orientation event: when asked how the local elementary was a mother shrugged and said it’s fine when it’s open.

[Anonymous]

I teach an AP math course. We are finishing all curriculum during the 3 day week after spring break. We will have a solid 4 weeks of review.

You can argue we need a different calendar, but AP courses aren't the reason. Many schools on the west coast and in new england start 2 weeks after us, have a fall break/february break, and still cover the curriculum before the AP exam. Semester based schools (4x4 blocks) start end of January and somehow get it all in by May, and they get the brunt of snow days. The AP curriculum is designed to fit a variety of school schedules.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have had it with the FCPS calendar. The days off have gotten totally out off hand. At some point FCPS decided it need to celebrate EVERY possibly , religious and non religious holiday under the sun.
It is out of control.

Throw in all the weather delays and closing and kids are never in school. I know, I know, but they still meet their hours and are above the VA standard. Sure, who cares when it come to elementary, but HS teachers, especially, those teaching AP classes plan their year around having a certain number of days of school, and given that most AP exams are early May they already have a condensed timeline. Elementary parents come back to the conversation with your kid in in HS and school actually matters. Why not have a higher bar and if there aren't weather related closing we get more instruction.

Your kids get the same amount of instruction they always do. There's a number of hours they have to meet and they meet them.

Your complaints about observing holidays are invalid, as are your feelings. You seem to believe that the purpose of schools is to warehouse kids.

The time to "get the calendar changed" is when the board puts it out for comments. Weigh in then. Whining about it now is a bad look.

DP. Don’t you dare gaslight people trying to act like there was any point at which the public could give meaningful input on the calendar. They put out a completely bullsh*t survey with ridiculous binary choices. They purposely phrased the questions so there was no way to choose a sensible calendar. They wrote the survey with the goal of doing whatever they wanted while pretending they solicited input first. They think we are stupid. I guess a lot of people are because they keep voting for this.

Is this another Fairfax time warp moment? If you pop Fairfax school calendar into your search engine, you will find that even the board wasn’t presented with the calendars until the last possible second, there was no period for public input.