APS - what is up with the calendar in September??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OK obviously I should have paid attention to this earlier, but I'm looking at the calendar and there's a 5-day weekend around Labor Day? We now have schools closed for both Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur? This is the first year this has happened, right? I'm curious about what proportion of Arlington students observe these holidays. There are also days off for Diwali and Eid al-Fitr. Do we still have the same number of school days in the year? For the record I'm agnostic but culturally Christian, I would be more than happy to swap out existing Christian-based holidays for any of these other religious observances.

Christmas is the only Christian-based holiday in the APS calendar, unless you count scheduling spring break around holy week but that is a regional thing. Christmas is a federal holiday so giving that up wouldn't make much difference.

Why wouldn't you count scheduling spring break around holy week? To my count, that's two major Christian holidays that everyone has off as a matter of course.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m fine with the extra holidays, but what’s up with the grade prep day on a Tuesday with Diwali on Thursday. Why couldn’t grade prep happen on Friday for a less disruptive week? Wouldn’t kids get more done Mon-Wed instead of M/W/F?

OP here, this is my issue. As a working parent (not among the lucky teleworkers) it's incredibly hard to have to constantly take random days off in the middle of the week. I absolutely want to supports others' right to celebrate, but it's just a lot. Not to mention all the teacher work days and conference days, etc. In this example, why couldn't the 99.9% of APS teachers who do NOT observe Diwali do their grade prep on that day, rather than taking a whole other day for it?

It is your issue. Frankly, inconveniences are part of having kids and schools do not exist solely to make it convenient for you. As you said in your original post, you should have been paying attention, as this calendar was proposed and voted on MONTHS ago. That said, APS is finally moving to a more inclusive calendar. Sorry that doesn't work for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m fine with the extra holidays, but what’s up with the grade prep day on a Tuesday with Diwali on Thursday. Why couldn’t grade prep happen on Friday for a less disruptive week? Wouldn’t kids get more done Mon-Wed instead of M/W/F?

+1 It's the grade prep days that make me crazy.

[Anonymous]

Link to the previous (long) discussion on the APS calendar debate, from last October: https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/921198.page

[Anonymous]

As a family who celebrates Diwali, I am happy that APS acknowledges one of our holidays. Wish they did more of them.

No complaints for Christmas and Easter I see? *crickets*

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OK obviously I should have paid attention to this earlier, but I'm looking at the calendar and there's a 5-day weekend around Labor Day? We now have schools closed for both Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur? This is the first year this has happened, right? I'm curious about what proportion of Arlington students observe these holidays. There are also days off for Diwali and Eid al-Fitr. Do we still have the same number of school days in the year? For the record I'm agnostic but culturally Christian, I would be more than happy to swap out existing Christian-based holidays for any of these other religious observances.

Christmas is the only Christian-based holiday in the APS calendar, unless you count scheduling spring break around holy week but that is a regional thing. Christmas is a federal holiday so giving that up wouldn't make much difference.

Why wouldn't you count scheduling spring break around holy week? To my count, that's two major Christian holidays that everyone has off as a matter of course.

Easter is always on a Sunday. Everyone has it off no matter what you do with the school calendar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m fine with the extra holidays, but what’s up with the grade prep day on a Tuesday with Diwali on Thursday. Why couldn’t grade prep happen on Friday for a less disruptive week? Wouldn’t kids get more done Mon-Wed instead of M/W/F?

+1 It's the grade prep days that make me crazy.

+2 Especially as in the example OP cited making a very disjointed week. Not good for anyone, and it screws up the flow and schedule of students - especially those on block schedules. Senseless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OK obviously I should have paid attention to this earlier, but I'm looking at the calendar and there's a 5-day weekend around Labor Day? We now have schools closed for both Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur? This is the first year this has happened, right? I'm curious about what proportion of Arlington students observe these holidays. There are also days off for Diwali and Eid al-Fitr. Do we still have the same number of school days in the year? For the record I'm agnostic but culturally Christian, I would be more than happy to swap out existing Christian-based holidays for any of these other religious observances.

Christmas is the only Christian-based holiday in the APS calendar, unless you count scheduling spring break around holy week but that is a regional thing. Christmas is a federal holiday so giving that up wouldn't make much difference.

Why wouldn't you count scheduling spring break around holy week? To my count, that's two major Christian holidays that everyone has off as a matter of course.

Easter is always on a Sunday. Everyone has it off no matter what you do with the school calendar.

But having the week leading up to Easter and often the day after Easter off certainly makes it easier for those who celebrate Easter to make plans. It does not seem like agnostic scheduling to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m fine with the extra holidays, but what’s up with the grade prep day on a Tuesday with Diwali on Thursday. Why couldn’t grade prep happen on Friday for a less disruptive week? Wouldn’t kids get more done Mon-Wed instead of M/W/F?

+1 It's the grade prep days that make me crazy.

+2 Especially as in the example OP cited making a very disjointed week. Not good for anyone, and it screws up the flow and schedule of students - especially those on block schedules. Senseless.

+1. Make spring break the last week of March or first week of April every year, separate it from Easter and Passover. The fall would be so much easier if they clustered where possible into three or 3-1/2 day weekends. Don't have Wednesdays be early release, let that be a Friday. Or, the weekend of parent-teacher conferences roll in professional development so it's just a four day weekend for families. So much easier to plan than tossing in random times off willy nilly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a family who celebrates Diwali, I am happy that APS acknowledges one of our holidays. Wish they did more of them.

No complaints for Christmas and Easter I see? *crickets*

More of them? So if each of top 5 or so faiths in terms of proportion of adherents gets ~2-4 holidays from school, when will the kids actually be in class?

[Anonymous]

All I can say is I’m okay with this. My kids attend FCPS and this is the first year ever I will have days off alone. They will be in school and I’m off for all of those religious holidays. The different spring breaks mean we can’t travel but I can’t complain since we have the same two weeks in December.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OK obviously I should have paid attention to this earlier, but I'm looking at the calendar and there's a 5-day weekend around Labor Day? We now have schools closed for both Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur? This is the first year this has happened, right? I'm curious about what proportion of Arlington students observe these holidays. There are also days off for Diwali and Eid al-Fitr. Do we still have the same number of school days in the year? For the record I'm agnostic but culturally Christian, I would be more than happy to swap out existing Christian-based holidays for any of these other religious observances.

Christmas is the only Christian-based holiday in the APS calendar, unless you count scheduling spring break around holy week but that is a regional thing. Christmas is a federal holiday so giving that up wouldn't make much difference.

Why wouldn't you count scheduling spring break around holy week? To my count, that's two major Christian holidays that everyone has off as a matter of course.

Easter is always on a Sunday. Everyone has it off no matter what you do with the school calendar.

But having the week leading up to Easter and often the day after Easter off certainly makes it easier for those who celebrate Easter to make plans. It does not seem like agnostic scheduling to me.

I guess.....it just doesn't seem like Christmas. It's always on Sunday so not a school day, and I've never known people to travel for big family gatherings for Easter the way you do for Christmas--people treat it like spring break. I've never understood why it is tied to that week on the calendar. In other parts of the country it is fixed, and colleges don't do that either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m fine with the extra holidays, but what’s up with the grade prep day on a Tuesday with Diwali on Thursday. Why couldn’t grade prep happen on Friday for a less disruptive week? Wouldn’t kids get more done Mon-Wed instead of M/W/F?

+1 It's the grade prep days that make me crazy.

There are 3 grade prep days all year, on the calendar and tons of camps run those days. Not sure why that makes you crazy,

[Anonymous]

We need a ski week break more than we need xmas or Easter.

[Anonymous]

Grade prep always happens after the quarter ends and before the next one begins. The timing varies by the calendar.