Calendar Adjustments: Please advocate to end Transition Day

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Whether they have transition day or not doesn’t really matter for the calendar. Are you advocating for us to start on 8/19 instead of 8/20 then? Because I want to make sure we start as scheduled on 8/24. My focus is them using the days they actually have already designated as makeup days as such regardless of if they are holidays or not

Respectfully, I think you're missing the point. August 24 is not really the first day of school - it is Transition Day. This day does not count toward the 180 day school year. Even if we start the week of August 24, orientation/transition should be returned to being a 1/2 day the week before school starts. The first day of school, no matter which week, should be on Monday and should be the first day of school for all students - not a made up full day orientation for grades K, 6, and 9 that doesn't count as a school day.

OP is saying that the elimination of the August 24 transition day (instead making it day one of the school year) helps to solve the problem of getting one snow day back.

My point is that this could backfire and make it start even earlier. No thanks. MCPS already has a calendar that works if they’re willing to use the makeup days they’ve designated, they’re just unwilling to say that yes they will use Eid or Passover.

1 of the makeup days tbe Superintendent is designating is in December. 5 of them are after the last day of school. We are literally going to repeat history next year

That's only if the Board passes the Superintendent's proposal... I know that's the most likely outcome with this rubber stamp of a board. But the more we can advocate for them to actually use what they already passed, the better.

They aren't going to use those makeup days. It does not matter what we say. The politicians only care about optics.

If the survey results show the public strongly prefers to use the religious holiday makeup days, rather than starting early or shortening breaks, then how about those optics?

The problem is that the minute the announce that they are using Eid as a make up day the Muslim groups will make a big stink and they will be kind of right because Eid is a big deal and Christians don't need Easter Monday and Good Friday (on top of Christmas). Instead of lobbying to reduce instructional days, MCPS should be lobbying to be allowed to have school on Good Friday and Easter Monday and Presidents Day. They added a bunch of holidays and they need to take some away that don't really matter to people. It's not hard.

Still, everyone should fill out the survey indicating their preference of having the holidays be makeup days.

[Anonymous]

Thomas's hard-on for Transition Day never made any sense to me so I'd be happy to back to the half-day for incoming 6th and 9th graders during pre-service for sure.

[Anonymous]

I think they need to keep transition day for this year. Families that need their kids to attend have made summer plans already. It's not fair for them to have to send their kids the week before. I'd support getting rid of transition day in the future as long as families are told that they will need to have their kids go to school during preservice week if they want them to experirence it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The addition of Transition Day is what dropped us from 2 to 1 snow day. If we get rid of transition day and return to the preserve orientation model, we will automatically get an additional snow day back in the calendar. There is no downside to that.

No we won't. They will still plan for 181 days. They won't go back to 182.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The addition of Transition Day is what dropped us from 2 to 1 snow day. If we get rid of transition day and return to the preserve orientation model, we will automatically get an additional snow day back in the calendar. There is no downside to that.

No we won't. They will still plan for 181 days. They won't go back to 182.

The entire goal of the proposed calendar adjustments is to add days to the school year. They are trying to get from 181 to 184. If they revert Transition Day to a regular school day, they get to 182 immediately. That leaves only two other calendar adjustments to get to their proposed goal: Make November 9 and December 23 school days. Done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The addition of Transition Day is what dropped us from 2 to 1 snow day. If we get rid of transition day and return to the preserve orientation model, we will automatically get an additional snow day back in the calendar. There is no downside to that.

No we won't. They will still plan for 181 days. They won't go back to 182.

The entire goal of the proposed calendar adjustments is to add days to the school year. They are trying to get from 181 to 184. If they revert Transition Day to a regular school day, they get to 182 immediately. That leaves only two other calendar adjustments to get to their proposed goal: Make November 9 and December 23 school days. Done.

Wrong they aren't proposing adding any days. They want to start the school year three days early so they can end it three days early so they can make up snow days after the school year ends but before Juneteenth to comply with what the State BOE directed.

[Anonymous]

Either way, returning Transition Day to a regular day of school is a good idea because it increases the number of school days to 182, giving us an additional snow day (which we clearly need in Maryland).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Either way, returning Transition Day to a regular day of school is a good idea because it increases the number of school days to 182, giving us an additional snow day (which we clearly need in Maryland).

Plus, Transition Day was just pointless. The students benefit more when they all start the school year on a Monday and begin the year with a full week. It allows teachers to establish routines and get the ball rolling for the year.

[Anonymous]

Transition day is just useful for K-2 in my mind. It’s a complete waste of time and money for 3rd grade and above.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Transition day is just useful for K-2 in my mind. It’s a complete waste of time and money for 3rd grade and above. [/quote
They used to have an orientation in the spring that incoming kindergarten kids could go to. Now it is up to each school to decide if they want to do that. Ours didn't last year and just had the open house the week before which was not helpful, very chaotic and crowded.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Transition day is just useful for K-2 in my mind. It’s a complete waste of time and money for 3rd grade and above.

They used to have an orientation in the spring that incoming kindergarten kids could go to. Now it is up to each school to decide if they want to do that. Ours didn't last year and just had the open house the week before which was not helpful, very chaotic and crowded.

[Anonymous]

I support ending transition day. We were new to the county last year and had kids attending transition day at both the elementary and middle school levels. A full day of "orientation" activities was just too much. A shorter orientation activity prior to the first week of school would have served that purpose much better. Both schools, in our experience, were just trying to fill the time that day, kind of waiting it out before starting school the next day. And then they seemed to repeat similar activities on the first day of school, which certainly didn't make my sixth grader happy. Kids can only do so many scavenger hunts and team building games before they are entirely over it. I personally wouldn't even send my kids to transition day again if it applied to us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I support ending transition day. We were new to the county last year and had kids attending transition day at both the elementary and middle school levels. A full day of "orientation" activities was just too much. A shorter orientation activity prior to the first week of school would have served that purpose much better. Both schools, in our experience, were just trying to fill the time that day, kind of waiting it out before starting school the next day. And then they seemed to repeat similar activities on the first day of school, which certainly didn't make my sixth grader happy. Kids can only do so many scavenger hunts and team building games before they are entirely over it. I personally wouldn't even send my kids to transition day again if it applied to us.

+1 My feelings exactly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I support ending transition day. We were new to the county last year and had kids attending transition day at both the elementary and middle school levels. A full day of "orientation" activities was just too much. A shorter orientation activity prior to the first week of school would have served that purpose much better. Both schools, in our experience, were just trying to fill the time that day, kind of waiting it out before starting school the next day. And then they seemed to repeat similar activities on the first day of school, which certainly didn't make my sixth grader happy. Kids can only do so many scavenger hunts and team building games before they are entirely over it. I personally wouldn't even send my kids to transition day again if it applied to us.

Does anyone understand where this concept came from or why Taylor clings to it for dear life? It's so counterintuitive to introduce kids of any age to a new environment by subjecting them to six hours of orientation. And to use a full day for this instead of using it to start the year off strong at the start of a week seems very shortsighted. I'm just not sure why Taylor and the Board don't let it go, return that lost emergency day, and move on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The addition of Transition Day is what dropped us from 2 to 1 snow day. If we get rid of transition day and return to the preserve orientation model, we will automatically get an additional snow day back in the calendar. There is no downside to that.

No we won't. They will still plan for 181 days. They won't go back to 182.

The entire goal of the proposed calendar adjustments is to add days to the school year. They are trying to get from 181 to 184. If they revert Transition Day to a regular school day, they get to 182 immediately. That leaves only two other calendar adjustments to get to their proposed goal: Make November 9 and December 23 school days. Done.

Wrong they aren't proposing adding any days. They want to start the school year three days early so they can end it three days early so they can make up snow days after the school year ends but before Juneteenth to comply with what the State BOE directed.

Exactly. They will still only have 181 days, no matter what they choose.