Next Year's School Calendar

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Someone needs to post all these on here so we can pressure the school board.

More to the point: so we can pressure the governor.

Yes!

[Anonymous]

Can someone tell me why the school year needs to end this early?
Couldn't we have a shorter summer and longer school year with more longer breaks?

In my home country (I've already posted about this, so apologies to frequent readers), the school year is longer and has more evenly spaced breaks for students to recharge.

For this year -
Start of school: Sept 4th
All Saints holiday: Oct 21st to Nov 5th (2 weeks)
Christmas holiday: Dec 23rd to Jan 7th (2 weeks)
Winter holiday: Feb 17th to March 4th (2 weeks)
Spring holiday: April 14th to 29th (2 weeks)
End of school: July 7th

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can someone tell me why the school year needs to end this early?
Couldn't we have a shorter summer and longer school year with more longer breaks?

In my home country (I've already posted about this, so apologies to frequent readers), the school year is longer and has more evenly spaced breaks for students to recharge.

For this year -
Start of school: Sept 4th
All Saints holiday: Oct 21st to Nov 5th (2 weeks)
Christmas holiday: Dec 23rd to Jan 7th (2 weeks)
Winter holiday: Feb 17th to March 4th (2 weeks)
Spring holiday: April 14th to 29th (2 weeks)
End of school: July 7th

Because this governor ordered it to, for every school system in the state, for the benefit of the Ocean City tourism industry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can someone tell me why the school year needs to end this early?
Couldn't we have a shorter summer and longer school year with more longer breaks?

In my home country (I've already posted about this, so apologies to frequent readers), the school year is longer and has more evenly spaced breaks for students to recharge.

For this year -
Start of school: Sept 4th
All Saints holiday: Oct 21st to Nov 5th (2 weeks)
Christmas holiday: Dec 23rd to Jan 7th (2 weeks)
Winter holiday: Feb 17th to March 4th (2 weeks)
Spring holiday: April 14th to 29th (2 weeks)
End of school: July 7th

Because this governor ordered it to, for every school system in the state, for the benefit of the Ocean City tourism industry.

Yes. And more to the point, many, many parents in MoCo and beyond, much to my chagrin, applauded the change (just look at prior posts on DCUM). I wish it weren't the case, and I agree it's stupid, but if he's getting plaudits from MoCo and HoCo people who have $$ and want a longer summer so they can extend their UMC summer on the shore, AND getting kudos from the businesses and workers on the shore, then there is no hope for a change.

[Anonymous]

Because year-round school isn't a thing in the US, no matter how much they try.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can someone tell me why the school year needs to end this early?
Couldn't we have a shorter summer and longer school year with more longer breaks?

In my home country (I've already posted about this, so apologies to frequent readers), the school year is longer and has more evenly spaced breaks for students to recharge.

For this year -
Start of school: Sept 4th
All Saints holiday: Oct 21st to Nov 5th (2 weeks)
Christmas holiday: Dec 23rd to Jan 7th (2 weeks)
Winter holiday: Feb 17th to March 4th (2 weeks)
Spring holiday: April 14th to 29th (2 weeks)
End of school: July 7th

I'd love that calendar!

I really don't get the requirement that school ends by June 15th.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can someone tell me why the school year needs to end this early?
Couldn't we have a shorter summer and longer school year with more longer breaks?

In my home country (I've already posted about this, so apologies to frequent readers), the school year is longer and has more evenly spaced breaks for students to recharge.

For this year -
Start of school: Sept 4th
All Saints holiday: Oct 21st to Nov 5th (2 weeks)
Christmas holiday: Dec 23rd to Jan 7th (2 weeks)
Winter holiday: Feb 17th to March 4th (2 weeks)
Spring holiday: April 14th to 29th (2 weeks)
End of school: July 7th

In your home country you don't have Independence Day, Thanksgiving, Labor Day or Memorial Day either. Your schedule barely has the kids in school. They get two weeks off every 6 weeks AND two months off at Summer. Then you would have to add our country's non secular holidays AND half day for professional teaching day.

Our state has 4 seasons and Summer is our biggest season for tourism and helps to pay for our school budgets. Not to mention all the summer camps that can not open in the middle of the year because of weather and not have the ability to hire college or high school counselors for those small 2 week windows. What about pool lifeguards. Most of them are high schoolers. How can they work when they are in the school parts of the summer. How would your schedule and all the breaks work with high school sports? Sorry, not a fan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

In your home country you don't have Independence Day, Thanksgiving, Labor Day or Memorial Day either. Your schedule barely has the kids in school. They get two weeks off every 6 weeks AND two months off at Summer. Then you would have to add our country's non secular holidays AND half day for professional teaching day.

Our state has 4 seasons and Summer is our biggest season for tourism and helps to pay for our school budgets. Not to mention all the summer camps that can not open in the middle of the year because of weather and not have the ability to hire college or high school counselors for those small 2 week windows. What about pool lifeguards. Most of them are high schoolers. How can they work when they are in the school parts of the summer. How would your schedule and all the breaks work with high school sports? Sorry, not a fan.

I'm not that PP, but I'm guessing that the PP's country has its own holidays, plus teacher training days, plus tourism and summer. Which means that they solve those problems somehow. Which means that we could too, if we wanted to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because year-round school isn't a thing in the US, no matter how much they try.

Yes, and the only places it can work are in areas that have year round tourism or no actual tourism at all.

People want to bitch about the summer break but there is a small window to keep state beach/lake areas, campgrounds, amusement parks, public pools, etc... profitable to keep them afloat. You continue to shrink that window and you shrink their economy, you close down small businesses, you decrease the chances these businesses can hire college/high school students, you decease sales taxes and business taxes going back to our state. These are things parents do not think about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

In your home country you don't have Independence Day, Thanksgiving, Labor Day or Memorial Day either. Your schedule barely has the kids in school. They get two weeks off every 6 weeks AND two months off at Summer. Then you would have to add our country's non secular holidays AND half day for professional teaching day.

Our state has 4 seasons and Summer is our biggest season for tourism and helps to pay for our school budgets. Not to mention all the summer camps that can not open in the middle of the year because of weather and not have the ability to hire college or high school counselors for those small 2 week windows. What about pool lifeguards. Most of them are high schoolers. How can they work when they are in the school parts of the summer. How would your schedule and all the breaks work with high school sports? Sorry, not a fan.

I'm not that PP, but I'm guessing that the PP's country has its own holidays, plus teacher training days, plus tourism and summer. Which means that they solve those problems somehow. Which means that we could too, if we wanted to.

You are guessing is correct. You think 2 weeks off every 6 weeks AND 2 months of summer would help dual working families and low income families? Should parents take off those two weeks or have to pay for more childcare and camps every 6 weeks and then a full two months of in the summer. Not ideal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

In your home country you don't have Independence Day, Thanksgiving, Labor Day or Memorial Day either. Your schedule barely has the kids in school. They get two weeks off every 6 weeks AND two months off at Summer. Then you would have to add our country's non secular holidays AND half day for professional teaching day.

Our state has 4 seasons and Summer is our biggest season for tourism and helps to pay for our school budgets. Not to mention all the summer camps that can not open in the middle of the year because of weather and not have the ability to hire college or high school counselors for those small 2 week windows. What about pool lifeguards. Most of them are high schoolers. How can they work when they are in the school parts of the summer. How would your schedule and all the breaks work with high school sports? Sorry, not a fan.

I'm not that PP, but I'm guessing that the PP's country has its own holidays, plus teacher training days, plus tourism and summer. Which means that they solve those problems somehow. Which means that we could too, if we wanted to.

You are guessing is correct. You think 2 weeks off every 6 weeks AND 2 months of summer would help dual working families and low income families? Should parents take off those two weeks or have to pay for more childcare and camps every 6 weeks and then a full two months of in the summer. Not ideal.

If this is your attitude then why even have kids if you think you shouldn't have to be responsible for their care and schools should be instead? You have kids, you have to figure out what to do with them when school is closed. If it means having to pay for camps and such, then so be it. If schools started to have more frequent breaks then we would cut back on something else in order to be able to afford camps or childcare for those times since we both WOH.

My kid is in before care for 30 minutes before the bus arrives and in after care 30 minutes after the bus returns. I pay $600/a month for one hour a day of care. That is because as the parent, I am ultimately responsible for finding care for my child, not his school. If I had your attitude, I would be here complaining that schools should be open for longer hours. After all, it's only 30 minutes here and 30 minutes there, right? What an inconvenience to me as the parent to have to pay for him to go to before and after care instead.

This new attitude of parents expecting schools to be held responsible for child care instead of parents is getting out of control.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

You are guessing is correct. You think 2 weeks off every 6 weeks AND 2 months of summer would help dual working families and low income families? Should parents take off those two weeks or have to pay for more childcare and camps every 6 weeks and then a full two months of in the summer. Not ideal.

Neither is a full 3 months off in the summer, of course.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

If this is your attitude then why even have kids if you think you shouldn't have to be responsible for their care and schools should be instead? You have kids, you have to figure out what to do with them when school is closed. If it means having to pay for camps and such, then so be it. If schools started to have more frequent breaks then we would cut back on something else in order to be able to afford camps or childcare for those times since we both WOH.

My kid is in before care for 30 minutes before the bus arrives and in after care 30 minutes after the bus returns. I pay $600/a month for one hour a day of care. That is because as the parent, I am ultimately responsible for finding care for my child, not his school. If I had your attitude, I would be here complaining that schools should be open for longer hours. After all, it's only 30 minutes here and 30 minutes there, right? What an inconvenience to me as the parent to have to pay for him to go to before and after care instead.

This new attitude of parents expecting schools to be held responsible for child care instead of parents is getting out of control.

Schools are responsible for child care. That's why you pay for before-care and after-care, but not during-care.

It's true that schools are not exclusively responsible for child-care. Nonetheless, the effect of a school calendar on child care is a valid consideration, and not just for parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because year-round school isn't a thing in the US, no matter how much they try.

Yes, and the only places it can work are in areas that have year round tourism or no actual tourism at all.

People want to bitch about the summer break but there is a small window to keep state beach/lake areas, campgrounds, amusement parks, public pools, etc... profitable to keep them afloat. You continue to shrink that window and you shrink their economy, you close down small businesses, you decrease the chances these businesses can hire college/high school students, you decease sales taxes and business taxes going back to our state. These are things parents do not think about.

Germany has a calendar like that. I haven't noticed their economy shrinking. Also I am reasonably certain that there is tourism in Germany.

[Anonymous]

Our state has 4 seasons and Summer is our biggest season for tourism and helps to pay for our school budgets. Not to mention all the summer camps that can not open in the middle of the year because of weather and not have the ability to hire college or high school counselors for those small 2 week windows. What about pool lifeguards. Most of them are high schoolers. How can they work when they are in the school parts of the summer. How would your schedule and all the breaks work with high school sports? Sorry, not a fan.

I agree. Summer is also an important time for kids to learn from experiences that happen outside the school structure. I am completely in favor of Governor Hogan's efforts to "let summer be summer." But of course some adjustments will have to be made within the school calendar to accommodate the change. I agree with the previous poster who said we should go with the plan to eliminate religious holidays and keep Spring Break. Spring Break comes at a time when families could use a break from school. This is not true of the Jewish Holidays which occur just when lessons are getting fully underway.