How DO we get the calendar changed?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We don't get off for "every possible holiday." They added only FOUR holidays (Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Diwali, and Eid) as days off, in addition to already having a 2-week winter break for Christmas and tying Spring Break to Easter. Stop using holidays as a scapegoat.

I'd love to have fewer weather closures, but the weather and road clearing is not really in the school's control.

Lunar new year.
Eid is like 3 different days.

At the same time they added in all the religious holidays, they also threw in Veteran day and the Wednesday before thanksgiving for good measure because, why not have another sort week in November? One a one off the holidays don't seem bad but collectively they add an extra 1.5 weeks to the school year. No to mention, all the religious observance.

We never used to have these days off. I would love to see the data on how may kids actually missed school on these holidays and if it was really enough to rationalize adding them to the calendar.

The fall is especially disruptive with so many short weeks.

Lunar New Year doesn’t count as a holiday. Sometimes (like this year) it was treated as a TW. In 2028 they will have school on Lunar New Year (https://www.fcps.edu/system/files/forms/2025-02/2027-2028-standard-school-year-calendar.pdf)

They will have early release on LNY in ‘28 to be precise.

Well, yes. It aligns with the end of the quarter.

It does— and it is another non-full week of school. This is why we need to make some trade-offs instead of simply adding days off/early release and moving further and further into summer.

See, you want a longer summer, but I like having a 4 day weekend in January during a non-peak travel time. The early dismissal allows us to fly out or drive to our destination on Wednesday. I would prefer the 2027-28 calendar as is over hoarding days off for the summer.

That’s why there will never be a calendar that makes everyone happy. Even a compromise will leave people disappointed.

Exactly this. None of these complaints are academically data driven. They’re all about personal preference. FCPS cares about academics, plain and simple.

Find the group you align with, band together, and complain to whoever you please. However, there’s hundreds of thousands of parents and most simply do not care enough to complain. The vocal minority is just, loud.

Academically there's no reason to have so many disjointed days off.

I have not met a single parent who is happy with the calendar. You're right that most people aren't extremely vocal, but none are happy. Nearly everyone is very unhappy with it. Just Americans are a passive bunch and we aren't going to protest and riot.

“None are happy”

“Nearly everyone is very unhappy”

These statements are literally the definition of an anecdotal fallacy. You can’t speak for hundreds of thousands of people. There are literally posters on this thread who have no problem with it. Yes, you and your circle and the people you have talked to dislike it, but you truly have no idea what percentage or amount of people hate it vs love it.

The board said in September they had an unprecedented number of complaints about the calendar, and that was before the snow days. Thats pretty reliable data.

I dislike the 2025-26 calendar, specifically. The 2024-25 calendar was fine. The 2026-27 calendar is fine. The 2027-28 calendar is fine.

With all due respect, this is the problem. The issue is not whether specific calendar is lucky enough to have religious holidays fall on weekends, or spring break/Easter alignment to be reasonable or whatever. That's pure luck - other years will be as dismal as this year.

Issue is more the ridiculous "Guiding Principles" FCPS uses in setting the calendar to begin with - need to recognize every religious holiday regardless of how many folks observe, endless training/planning days etc. Other poster in their SB letter said it well: calendar is already borderline unreasonable under perfect weather/contingency conditions. But throw in inevitable snow days, mythical tornado days, early release Wed etc. - and it's brutal if your goal is actually to educate.

I don’t disagree. I just don’t see the point of tinkering with the 26-27 and 27-28 school calendars as Meren has stated she’d like to do. The worst thing they could do is drag their feet on approving calendars because they want to revamp the process.

People were freaking out about the delay in releasing the 23-24 calendar, and that was approved in February 2023. We’re halfway through March. I would find it incredibly frustrating if they started making changes to what’s been published.

Now, if they put guidelines around early release Wednesdays (which haven’t been announced for 2026-27) then I’d be all for that.

This is probably the bare minimum to be seen as taking the calendar issue seriously. Next low hanging fruit is Veterans Day.

[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.

Stop electing and reelecting these goobers on the SB - especially ones without children in FCPS

This+++

[Anonymous]

Stop messing up with the existing 26-27 and 27-28 calendar. Work on the 2028 or later, if you must.

As discussed in this forum many times, high school parents actually like this year's calendar, myself included. No calendar will make everyone happy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We don't get off for "every possible holiday." They added only FOUR holidays (Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Diwali, and Eid) as days off, in addition to already having a 2-week winter break for Christmas and tying Spring Break to Easter. Stop using holidays as a scapegoat.

I'd love to have fewer weather closures, but the weather and road clearing is not really in the school's control.

Lunar new year.
Eid is like 3 different days.

At the same time they added in all the religious holidays, they also threw in Veteran day and the Wednesday before thanksgiving for good measure because, why not have another sort week in November? One a one off the holidays don't seem bad but collectively they add an extra 1.5 weeks to the school year. No to mention, all the religious observance.

We never used to have these days off. I would love to see the data on how may kids actually missed school on these holidays and if it was really enough to rationalize adding them to the calendar.

The fall is especially disruptive with so many short weeks.

Lunar New Year doesn’t count as a holiday. Sometimes (like this year) it was treated as a TW. In 2028 they will have school on Lunar New Year (https://www.fcps.edu/system/files/forms/2025-02/2027-2028-standard-school-year-calendar.pdf)

They will have early release on LNY in ‘28 to be precise.

Well, yes. It aligns with the end of the quarter.

It does— and it is another non-full week of school. This is why we need to make some trade-offs instead of simply adding days off/early release and moving further and further into summer.

See, you want a longer summer, but I like having a 4 day weekend in January during a non-peak travel time. The early dismissal allows us to fly out or drive to our destination on Wednesday. I would prefer the 2027-28 calendar as is over hoarding days off for the summer.

That’s why there will never be a calendar that makes everyone happy. Even a compromise will leave people disappointed.

Exactly this. None of these complaints are academically data driven. They’re all about personal preference. FCPS cares about academics, plain and simple.

Find the group you align with, band together, and complain to whoever you please. However, there’s hundreds of thousands of parents and most simply do not care enough to complain. The vocal minority is just, loud.

Academically there's no reason to have so many disjointed days off.

I have not met a single parent who is happy with the calendar. You're right that most people aren't extremely vocal, but none are happy. Nearly everyone is very unhappy with it. Just Americans are a passive bunch and we aren't going to protest and riot.

“None are happy”

“Nearly everyone is very unhappy”

These statements are literally the definition of an anecdotal fallacy. You can’t speak for hundreds of thousands of people. There are literally posters on this thread who have no problem with it. Yes, you and your circle and the people you have talked to dislike it, but you truly have no idea what percentage or amount of people hate it vs love it.

The board said in September they had an unprecedented number of complaints about the calendar, and that was before the snow days. Thats pretty reliable data.

I dislike the 2025-26 calendar, specifically. The 2024-25 calendar was fine. The 2026-27 calendar is fine. The 2027-28 calendar is fine.

With all due respect, this is the problem. The issue is not whether specific calendar is lucky enough to have religious holidays fall on weekends, or spring break/Easter alignment to be reasonable or whatever. That's pure luck - other years will be as dismal as this year.

Issue is more the ridiculous "Guiding Principles" FCPS uses in setting the calendar to begin with - need to recognize every religious holiday regardless of how many folks observe, endless training/planning days etc. Other poster in their SB letter said it well: calendar is already borderline unreasonable under perfect weather/contingency conditions. But throw in inevitable snow days, mythical tornado days, early release Wed etc. - and it's brutal if your goal is actually to educate.

+1

FCPS needs to get clear on their priorities and set calendars that reflect those priorities.

They are clear about respecting the religious diversity in the county which is reflected in the calendar. You and others simply don’t have that as your priority. Don’t say that FCPS doesn’t have priorities.

+100.

Does it get to be a lot, especially combined with the early release Wednesdays? Absolutely. But the objective is clear.

[Anonymous]

2026 onward are a lot saner, holidays tend to fall on Fri or Mondays. 2025-26 was uniquely and especially terrible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We don't get off for "every possible holiday." They added only FOUR holidays (Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Diwali, and Eid) as days off, in addition to already having a 2-week winter break for Christmas and tying Spring Break to Easter. Stop using holidays as a scapegoat.

I'd love to have fewer weather closures, but the weather and road clearing is not really in the school's control.

Lunar new year.
Eid is like 3 different days.

At the same time they added in all the religious holidays, they also threw in Veteran day and the Wednesday before thanksgiving for good measure because, why not have another sort week in November? One a one off the holidays don't seem bad but collectively they add an extra 1.5 weeks to the school year. No to mention, all the religious observance.

We never used to have these days off. I would love to see the data on how may kids actually missed school on these holidays and if it was really enough to rationalize adding them to the calendar.

The fall is especially disruptive with so many short weeks.

Lunar New Year doesn’t count as a holiday. Sometimes (like this year) it was treated as a TW. In 2028 they will have school on Lunar New Year (https://www.fcps.edu/system/files/forms/2025-02/2027-2028-standard-school-year-calendar.pdf)

They will have early release on LNY in ‘28 to be precise.

Well, yes. It aligns with the end of the quarter.

It does— and it is another non-full week of school. This is why we need to make some trade-offs instead of simply adding days off/early release and moving further and further into summer.

See, you want a longer summer, but I like having a 4 day weekend in January during a non-peak travel time. The early dismissal allows us to fly out or drive to our destination on Wednesday. I would prefer the 2027-28 calendar as is over hoarding days off for the summer.

That’s why there will never be a calendar that makes everyone happy. Even a compromise will leave people disappointed.

Exactly this. None of these complaints are academically data driven. They’re all about personal preference. FCPS cares about academics, plain and simple.

Find the group you align with, band together, and complain to whoever you please. However, there’s hundreds of thousands of parents and most simply do not care enough to complain. The vocal minority is just, loud.

Academically there's no reason to have so many disjointed days off.

I have not met a single parent who is happy with the calendar. You're right that most people aren't extremely vocal, but none are happy. Nearly everyone is very unhappy with it. Just Americans are a passive bunch and we aren't going to protest and riot.

“None are happy”

“Nearly everyone is very unhappy”

These statements are literally the definition of an anecdotal fallacy. You can’t speak for hundreds of thousands of people. There are literally posters on this thread who have no problem with it. Yes, you and your circle and the people you have talked to dislike it, but you truly have no idea what percentage or amount of people hate it vs love it.

The board said in September they had an unprecedented number of complaints about the calendar, and that was before the snow days. Thats pretty reliable data.

I dislike the 2025-26 calendar, specifically. The 2024-25 calendar was fine. The 2026-27 calendar is fine. The 2027-28 calendar is fine.

With all due respect, this is the problem. The issue is not whether specific calendar is lucky enough to have religious holidays fall on weekends, or spring break/Easter alignment to be reasonable or whatever. That's pure luck - other years will be as dismal as this year.

Issue is more the ridiculous "Guiding Principles" FCPS uses in setting the calendar to begin with - need to recognize every religious holiday regardless of how many folks observe, endless training/planning days etc. Other poster in their SB letter said it well: calendar is already borderline unreasonable under perfect weather/contingency conditions. But throw in inevitable snow days, mythical tornado days, early release Wed etc. - and it's brutal if your goal is actually to educate.

+1

FCPS needs to get clear on their priorities and set calendars that reflect those priorities.

They are clear about respecting the religious diversity in the county which is reflected in the calendar. You and others simply don’t have that as your priority. Don’t say that FCPS doesn’t have priorities.

+100.

Does it get to be a lot, especially combined with the early release Wednesdays? Absolutely. But the objective is clear.

If thats the priority you make trade offs. Veterans Day isn’t a religious holiday and wasn’t a day off from school in 2023. Weds before thanksgiving, five days at memorial day etc. You go to school those days and you can say religious diversity is your priority.

This? Says not being in school is the priority.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:2026 onward are a lot saner, holidays tend to fall on Fri or Mondays. 2025-26 was uniquely and especially terrible.

The idea of reform now is not to be in exactly this spot in 2029. Elementary kids have a long way to go with this board…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We don't get off for "every possible holiday." They added only FOUR holidays (Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Diwali, and Eid) as days off, in addition to already having a 2-week winter break for Christmas and tying Spring Break to Easter. Stop using holidays as a scapegoat.

I'd love to have fewer weather closures, but the weather and road clearing is not really in the school's control.

Lunar new year.
Eid is like 3 different days.

At the same time they added in all the religious holidays, they also threw in Veteran day and the Wednesday before thanksgiving for good measure because, why not have another sort week in November? One a one off the holidays don't seem bad but collectively they add an extra 1.5 weeks to the school year. No to mention, all the religious observance.

We never used to have these days off. I would love to see the data on how may kids actually missed school on these holidays and if it was really enough to rationalize adding them to the calendar.

The fall is especially disruptive with so many short weeks.

Lunar New Year doesn’t count as a holiday. Sometimes (like this year) it was treated as a TW. In 2028 they will have school on Lunar New Year (https://www.fcps.edu/system/files/forms/2025-02/2027-2028-standard-school-year-calendar.pdf)

They will have early release on LNY in ‘28 to be precise.

Well, yes. It aligns with the end of the quarter.

It does— and it is another non-full week of school. This is why we need to make some trade-offs instead of simply adding days off/early release and moving further and further into summer.

See, you want a longer summer, but I like having a 4 day weekend in January during a non-peak travel time. The early dismissal allows us to fly out or drive to our destination on Wednesday. I would prefer the 2027-28 calendar as is over hoarding days off for the summer.

That’s why there will never be a calendar that makes everyone happy. Even a compromise will leave people disappointed.

Exactly this. None of these complaints are academically data driven. They’re all about personal preference. FCPS cares about academics, plain and simple.

Find the group you align with, band together, and complain to whoever you please. However, there’s hundreds of thousands of parents and most simply do not care enough to complain. The vocal minority is just, loud.

Academically there's no reason to have so many disjointed days off.

I have not met a single parent who is happy with the calendar. You're right that most people aren't extremely vocal, but none are happy. Nearly everyone is very unhappy with it. Just Americans are a passive bunch and we aren't going to protest and riot.

“None are happy”

“Nearly everyone is very unhappy”

These statements are literally the definition of an anecdotal fallacy. You can’t speak for hundreds of thousands of people. There are literally posters on this thread who have no problem with it. Yes, you and your circle and the people you have talked to dislike it, but you truly have no idea what percentage or amount of people hate it vs love it.

The board said in September they had an unprecedented number of complaints about the calendar, and that was before the snow days. Thats pretty reliable data.

I dislike the 2025-26 calendar, specifically. The 2024-25 calendar was fine. The 2026-27 calendar is fine. The 2027-28 calendar is fine.

With all due respect, this is the problem. The issue is not whether specific calendar is lucky enough to have religious holidays fall on weekends, or spring break/Easter alignment to be reasonable or whatever. That's pure luck - other years will be as dismal as this year.

Issue is more the ridiculous "Guiding Principles" FCPS uses in setting the calendar to begin with - need to recognize every religious holiday regardless of how many folks observe, endless training/planning days etc. Other poster in their SB letter said it well: calendar is already borderline unreasonable under perfect weather/contingency conditions. But throw in inevitable snow days, mythical tornado days, early release Wed etc. - and it's brutal if your goal is actually to educate.

+1

FCPS needs to get clear on their priorities and set calendars that reflect those priorities.

They are clear about respecting the religious diversity in the county which is reflected in the calendar. You and others simply don’t have that as your priority. Don’t say that FCPS doesn’t have priorities.

+100.

Does it get to be a lot, especially combined with the early release Wednesdays? Absolutely. But the objective is clear.

If thats the priority you make trade offs. Veterans Day isn’t a religious holiday and wasn’t a day off from school in 2023. Weds before thanksgiving, five days at memorial day etc. You go to school those days and you can say religious diversity is your priority.

This? Says not being in school is the priority.

Five day Memorial Day is not a thing. It’s a 5 day weekend that contains both Memorial Day and Eid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Stop messing up with the existing 26-27 and 27-28 calendar. Work on the 2028 or later, if you must.

As discussed in this forum many times, high school parents actually like this year's calendar, myself included. No calendar will make everyone happy.

NO. They need to mess with it and take out all the unnecessary fluff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We don't get off for "every possible holiday." They added only FOUR holidays (Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Diwali, and Eid) as days off, in addition to already having a 2-week winter break for Christmas and tying Spring Break to Easter. Stop using holidays as a scapegoat.

I'd love to have fewer weather closures, but the weather and road clearing is not really in the school's control.

Lunar new year.
Eid is like 3 different days.

At the same time they added in all the religious holidays, they also threw in Veteran day and the Wednesday before thanksgiving for good measure because, why not have another sort week in November? One a one off the holidays don't seem bad but collectively they add an extra 1.5 weeks to the school year. No to mention, all the religious observance.

We never used to have these days off. I would love to see the data on how may kids actually missed school on these holidays and if it was really enough to rationalize adding them to the calendar.

The fall is especially disruptive with so many short weeks.

Lunar New Year doesn’t count as a holiday. Sometimes (like this year) it was treated as a TW. In 2028 they will have school on Lunar New Year (https://www.fcps.edu/system/files/forms/2025-02/2027-2028-standard-school-year-calendar.pdf)

They will have early release on LNY in ‘28 to be precise.

Well, yes. It aligns with the end of the quarter.

It does— and it is another non-full week of school. This is why we need to make some trade-offs instead of simply adding days off/early release and moving further and further into summer.

See, you want a longer summer, but I like having a 4 day weekend in January during a non-peak travel time. The early dismissal allows us to fly out or drive to our destination on Wednesday. I would prefer the 2027-28 calendar as is over hoarding days off for the summer.

That’s why there will never be a calendar that makes everyone happy. Even a compromise will leave people disappointed.

Exactly this. None of these complaints are academically data driven. They’re all about personal preference. FCPS cares about academics, plain and simple.

Find the group you align with, band together, and complain to whoever you please. However, there’s hundreds of thousands of parents and most simply do not care enough to complain. The vocal minority is just, loud.

Academically there's no reason to have so many disjointed days off.

I have not met a single parent who is happy with the calendar. You're right that most people aren't extremely vocal, but none are happy. Nearly everyone is very unhappy with it. Just Americans are a passive bunch and we aren't going to protest and riot.

“None are happy”

“Nearly everyone is very unhappy”

These statements are literally the definition of an anecdotal fallacy. You can’t speak for hundreds of thousands of people. There are literally posters on this thread who have no problem with it. Yes, you and your circle and the people you have talked to dislike it, but you truly have no idea what percentage or amount of people hate it vs love it.

The board said in September they had an unprecedented number of complaints about the calendar, and that was before the snow days. Thats pretty reliable data.

I dislike the 2025-26 calendar, specifically. The 2024-25 calendar was fine. The 2026-27 calendar is fine. The 2027-28 calendar is fine.

With all due respect, this is the problem. The issue is not whether specific calendar is lucky enough to have religious holidays fall on weekends, or spring break/Easter alignment to be reasonable or whatever. That's pure luck - other years will be as dismal as this year.

Issue is more the ridiculous "Guiding Principles" FCPS uses in setting the calendar to begin with - need to recognize every religious holiday regardless of how many folks observe, endless training/planning days etc. Other poster in their SB letter said it well: calendar is already borderline unreasonable under perfect weather/contingency conditions. But throw in inevitable snow days, mythical tornado days, early release Wed etc. - and it's brutal if your goal is actually to educate.

+1

FCPS needs to get clear on their priorities and set calendars that reflect those priorities.

They are clear about respecting the religious diversity in the county which is reflected in the calendar. You and others simply don’t have that as your priority. Don’t say that FCPS doesn’t have priorities.

+100.

Does it get to be a lot, especially combined with the early release Wednesdays? Absolutely. But the objective is clear.

If thats the priority you make trade offs. Veterans Day isn’t a religious holiday and wasn’t a day off from school in 2023. Weds before thanksgiving, five days at memorial day etc. You go to school those days and you can say religious diversity is your priority.

This? Says not being in school is the priority.

Five day Memorial Day is not a thing. It’s a 5 day weekend that contains both Memorial Day and Eid.

It is ridiculous

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:2026 onward are a lot saner, holidays tend to fall on Fri or Mondays. 2025-26 was uniquely and especially terrible.

They shouldn't be days off on Friday or Monday. We shouldn't be celebrating religious holidays.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We don't get off for "every possible holiday." They added only FOUR holidays (Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Diwali, and Eid) as days off, in addition to already having a 2-week winter break for Christmas and tying Spring Break to Easter. Stop using holidays as a scapegoat.

I'd love to have fewer weather closures, but the weather and road clearing is not really in the school's control.

Lunar new year.
Eid is like 3 different days.

At the same time they added in all the religious holidays, they also threw in Veteran day and the Wednesday before thanksgiving for good measure because, why not have another sort week in November? One a one off the holidays don't seem bad but collectively they add an extra 1.5 weeks to the school year. No to mention, all the religious observance.

We never used to have these days off. I would love to see the data on how may kids actually missed school on these holidays and if it was really enough to rationalize adding them to the calendar.

The fall is especially disruptive with so many short weeks.

Lunar New Year doesn’t count as a holiday. Sometimes (like this year) it was treated as a TW. In 2028 they will have school on Lunar New Year (https://www.fcps.edu/system/files/forms/2025-02/2027-2028-standard-school-year-calendar.pdf)

They will have early release on LNY in ‘28 to be precise.

Well, yes. It aligns with the end of the quarter.

It does— and it is another non-full week of school. This is why we need to make some trade-offs instead of simply adding days off/early release and moving further and further into summer.

See, you want a longer summer, but I like having a 4 day weekend in January during a non-peak travel time. The early dismissal allows us to fly out or drive to our destination on Wednesday. I would prefer the 2027-28 calendar as is over hoarding days off for the summer.

That’s why there will never be a calendar that makes everyone happy. Even a compromise will leave people disappointed.

Exactly this. None of these complaints are academically data driven. They’re all about personal preference. FCPS cares about academics, plain and simple.

Find the group you align with, band together, and complain to whoever you please. However, there’s hundreds of thousands of parents and most simply do not care enough to complain. The vocal minority is just, loud.

Academically there's no reason to have so many disjointed days off.

I have not met a single parent who is happy with the calendar. You're right that most people aren't extremely vocal, but none are happy. Nearly everyone is very unhappy with it. Just Americans are a passive bunch and we aren't going to protest and riot.

“None are happy”

“Nearly everyone is very unhappy”

These statements are literally the definition of an anecdotal fallacy. You can’t speak for hundreds of thousands of people. There are literally posters on this thread who have no problem with it. Yes, you and your circle and the people you have talked to dislike it, but you truly have no idea what percentage or amount of people hate it vs love it.

The board said in September they had an unprecedented number of complaints about the calendar, and that was before the snow days. Thats pretty reliable data.

I dislike the 2025-26 calendar, specifically. The 2024-25 calendar was fine. The 2026-27 calendar is fine. The 2027-28 calendar is fine.

With all due respect, this is the problem. The issue is not whether specific calendar is lucky enough to have religious holidays fall on weekends, or spring break/Easter alignment to be reasonable or whatever. That's pure luck - other years will be as dismal as this year.

Issue is more the ridiculous "Guiding Principles" FCPS uses in setting the calendar to begin with - need to recognize every religious holiday regardless of how many folks observe, endless training/planning days etc. Other poster in their SB letter said it well: calendar is already borderline unreasonable under perfect weather/contingency conditions. But throw in inevitable snow days, mythical tornado days, early release Wed etc. - and it's brutal if your goal is actually to educate.

I don’t disagree. I just don’t see the point of tinkering with the 26-27 and 27-28 school calendars as Meren has stated she’d like to do. The worst thing they could do is drag their feet on approving calendars because they want to revamp the process.

People were freaking out about the delay in releasing the 23-24 calendar, and that was approved in February 2023. We’re halfway through March. I would find it incredibly frustrating if they started making changes to what’s been published.

Now, if they put guidelines around early release Wednesdays (which haven’t been announced for 2026-27) then I’d be all for that.

+1 we don’t need to tinker with the upcoming calendars that have already been decided on, they happen to work out fine and it is what it is. We just need to stop the 3 hour early releases going forward. And perhaps the next school year where religious holidays are causing a lot of continuity problems - there will need to be a discussion on what days can be holidays vs. which ones can be teacher/school work days (remember right now they get 2 days at the end of each quarter plus a 2 hour early release, but only the one work day is a traditional work day for teachers to get grades in. The other is a “school planning” or “staff development” day. But there is no reason that these have to be done back to back at the end of the quarters. The TW day for grades is needed, the other day can be done at another time).

No, they need to tinker. Early releases aren't the sole issue. Stop making it just about those.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We don't get off for "every possible holiday." They added only FOUR holidays (Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Diwali, and Eid) as days off, in addition to already having a 2-week winter break for Christmas and tying Spring Break to Easter. Stop using holidays as a scapegoat.

I'd love to have fewer weather closures, but the weather and road clearing is not really in the school's control.

Lunar new year.
Eid is like 3 different days.

At the same time they added in all the religious holidays, they also threw in Veteran day and the Wednesday before thanksgiving for good measure because, why not have another sort week in November? One a one off the holidays don't seem bad but collectively they add an extra 1.5 weeks to the school year. No to mention, all the religious observance.

We never used to have these days off. I would love to see the data on how may kids actually missed school on these holidays and if it was really enough to rationalize adding them to the calendar.

The fall is especially disruptive with so many short weeks.

Lunar New Year doesn’t count as a holiday. Sometimes (like this year) it was treated as a TW. In 2028 they will have school on Lunar New Year (https://www.fcps.edu/system/files/forms/2025-02/2027-2028-standard-school-year-calendar.pdf)

They will have early release on LNY in ‘28 to be precise.

Well, yes. It aligns with the end of the quarter.

It does— and it is another non-full week of school. This is why we need to make some trade-offs instead of simply adding days off/early release and moving further and further into summer.

See, you want a longer summer, but I like having a 4 day weekend in January during a non-peak travel time. The early dismissal allows us to fly out or drive to our destination on Wednesday. I would prefer the 2027-28 calendar as is over hoarding days off for the summer.

That’s why there will never be a calendar that makes everyone happy. Even a compromise will leave people disappointed.

Exactly this. None of these complaints are academically data driven. They’re all about personal preference. FCPS cares about academics, plain and simple.

Find the group you align with, band together, and complain to whoever you please. However, there’s hundreds of thousands of parents and most simply do not care enough to complain. The vocal minority is just, loud.

Academically there's no reason to have so many disjointed days off.

I have not met a single parent who is happy with the calendar. You're right that most people aren't extremely vocal, but none are happy. Nearly everyone is very unhappy with it. Just Americans are a passive bunch and we aren't going to protest and riot.

“None are happy”

“Nearly everyone is very unhappy”

These statements are literally the definition of an anecdotal fallacy. You can’t speak for hundreds of thousands of people. There are literally posters on this thread who have no problem with it. Yes, you and your circle and the people you have talked to dislike it, but you truly have no idea what percentage or amount of people hate it vs love it.

The board said in September they had an unprecedented number of complaints about the calendar, and that was before the snow days. Thats pretty reliable data.

I dislike the 2025-26 calendar, specifically. The 2024-25 calendar was fine. The 2026-27 calendar is fine. The 2027-28 calendar is fine.

With all due respect, this is the problem. The issue is not whether specific calendar is lucky enough to have religious holidays fall on weekends, or spring break/Easter alignment to be reasonable or whatever. That's pure luck - other years will be as dismal as this year.

Issue is more the ridiculous "Guiding Principles" FCPS uses in setting the calendar to begin with - need to recognize every religious holiday regardless of how many folks observe, endless training/planning days etc. Other poster in their SB letter said it well: calendar is already borderline unreasonable under perfect weather/contingency conditions. But throw in inevitable snow days, mythical tornado days, early release Wed etc. - and it's brutal if your goal is actually to educate.

+1

FCPS needs to get clear on their priorities and set calendars that reflect those priorities.

They are clear about respecting the religious diversity in the county which is reflected in the calendar. You and others simply don’t have that as your priority. Don’t say that FCPS doesn’t have priorities.

This is the classic red herring argument. It's not Respect Religious Diversity vs. Not Respect Religious Diversity. It's that Respect Religious Diversity >> Educating Students.

FCPS priority should be to educate. There should be no greater priorities in a school system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We don't get off for "every possible holiday." They added only FOUR holidays (Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Diwali, and Eid) as days off, in addition to already having a 2-week winter break for Christmas and tying Spring Break to Easter. Stop using holidays as a scapegoat.

I'd love to have fewer weather closures, but the weather and road clearing is not really in the school's control.

Lunar new year.
Eid is like 3 different days.

At the same time they added in all the religious holidays, they also threw in Veteran day and the Wednesday before thanksgiving for good measure because, why not have another sort week in November? One a one off the holidays don't seem bad but collectively they add an extra 1.5 weeks to the school year. No to mention, all the religious observance.

We never used to have these days off. I would love to see the data on how may kids actually missed school on these holidays and if it was really enough to rationalize adding them to the calendar.

The fall is especially disruptive with so many short weeks.

Lunar New Year doesn’t count as a holiday. Sometimes (like this year) it was treated as a TW. In 2028 they will have school on Lunar New Year (https://www.fcps.edu/system/files/forms/2025-02/2027-2028-standard-school-year-calendar.pdf)

They will have early release on LNY in ‘28 to be precise.

Well, yes. It aligns with the end of the quarter.

It does— and it is another non-full week of school. This is why we need to make some trade-offs instead of simply adding days off/early release and moving further and further into summer.

See, you want a longer summer, but I like having a 4 day weekend in January during a non-peak travel time. The early dismissal allows us to fly out or drive to our destination on Wednesday. I would prefer the 2027-28 calendar as is over hoarding days off for the summer.

That’s why there will never be a calendar that makes everyone happy. Even a compromise will leave people disappointed.

Exactly this. None of these complaints are academically data driven. They’re all about personal preference. FCPS cares about academics, plain and simple.

Find the group you align with, band together, and complain to whoever you please. However, there’s hundreds of thousands of parents and most simply do not care enough to complain. The vocal minority is just, loud.

Academically there's no reason to have so many disjointed days off.

I have not met a single parent who is happy with the calendar. You're right that most people aren't extremely vocal, but none are happy. Nearly everyone is very unhappy with it. Just Americans are a passive bunch and we aren't going to protest and riot.

“None are happy”

“Nearly everyone is very unhappy”

These statements are literally the definition of an anecdotal fallacy. You can’t speak for hundreds of thousands of people. There are literally posters on this thread who have no problem with it. Yes, you and your circle and the people you have talked to dislike it, but you truly have no idea what percentage or amount of people hate it vs love it.

The board said in September they had an unprecedented number of complaints about the calendar, and that was before the snow days. Thats pretty reliable data.

I dislike the 2025-26 calendar, specifically. The 2024-25 calendar was fine. The 2026-27 calendar is fine. The 2027-28 calendar is fine.

With all due respect, this is the problem. The issue is not whether specific calendar is lucky enough to have religious holidays fall on weekends, or spring break/Easter alignment to be reasonable or whatever. That's pure luck - other years will be as dismal as this year.

Issue is more the ridiculous "Guiding Principles" FCPS uses in setting the calendar to begin with - need to recognize every religious holiday regardless of how many folks observe, endless training/planning days etc. Other poster in their SB letter said it well: calendar is already borderline unreasonable under perfect weather/contingency conditions. But throw in inevitable snow days, mythical tornado days, early release Wed etc. - and it's brutal if your goal is actually to educate.

+1

FCPS needs to get clear on their priorities and set calendars that reflect those priorities.

They are clear about respecting the religious diversity in the county which is reflected in the calendar. You and others simply don’t have that as your priority. Don’t say that FCPS doesn’t have priorities.

+100.

Does it get to be a lot, especially combined with the early release Wednesdays? Absolutely. But the objective is clear.

If thats the priority you make trade offs. Veterans Day isn’t a religious holiday and wasn’t a day off from school in 2023. Weds before thanksgiving, five days at memorial day etc. You go to school those days and you can say religious diversity is your priority.

This? Says not being in school is the priority.

Five day Memorial Day is not a thing. It’s a 5 day weekend that contains both Memorial Day and Eid.

…and a random Tuesday. Which is my point about prioritizing— religious diversity is paramount? You don’t need Tuesday. Establishment clause purists? You don’t need Wednesday. Fairfax County? Porque no los dos?! If everything is a priority, nothing is a priority.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We don't get off for "every possible holiday." They added only FOUR holidays (Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Diwali, and Eid) as days off, in addition to already having a 2-week winter break for Christmas and tying Spring Break to Easter. Stop using holidays as a scapegoat.

I'd love to have fewer weather closures, but the weather and road clearing is not really in the school's control.

Lunar new year.
Eid is like 3 different days.

At the same time they added in all the religious holidays, they also threw in Veteran day and the Wednesday before thanksgiving for good measure because, why not have another sort week in November? One a one off the holidays don't seem bad but collectively they add an extra 1.5 weeks to the school year. No to mention, all the religious observance.

We never used to have these days off. I would love to see the data on how may kids actually missed school on these holidays and if it was really enough to rationalize adding them to the calendar.

The fall is especially disruptive with so many short weeks.

Lunar New Year doesn’t count as a holiday. Sometimes (like this year) it was treated as a TW. In 2028 they will have school on Lunar New Year (https://www.fcps.edu/system/files/forms/2025-02/2027-2028-standard-school-year-calendar.pdf)

They will have early release on LNY in ‘28 to be precise.

Well, yes. It aligns with the end of the quarter.

It does— and it is another non-full week of school. This is why we need to make some trade-offs instead of simply adding days off/early release and moving further and further into summer.

See, you want a longer summer, but I like having a 4 day weekend in January during a non-peak travel time. The early dismissal allows us to fly out or drive to our destination on Wednesday. I would prefer the 2027-28 calendar as is over hoarding days off for the summer.

That’s why there will never be a calendar that makes everyone happy. Even a compromise will leave people disappointed.

Exactly this. None of these complaints are academically data driven. They’re all about personal preference. FCPS cares about academics, plain and simple.

Find the group you align with, band together, and complain to whoever you please. However, there’s hundreds of thousands of parents and most simply do not care enough to complain. The vocal minority is just, loud.

Academically there's no reason to have so many disjointed days off.

I have not met a single parent who is happy with the calendar. You're right that most people aren't extremely vocal, but none are happy. Nearly everyone is very unhappy with it. Just Americans are a passive bunch and we aren't going to protest and riot.

“None are happy”

“Nearly everyone is very unhappy”

These statements are literally the definition of an anecdotal fallacy. You can’t speak for hundreds of thousands of people. There are literally posters on this thread who have no problem with it. Yes, you and your circle and the people you have talked to dislike it, but you truly have no idea what percentage or amount of people hate it vs love it.

The board said in September they had an unprecedented number of complaints about the calendar, and that was before the snow days. Thats pretty reliable data.

I dislike the 2025-26 calendar, specifically. The 2024-25 calendar was fine. The 2026-27 calendar is fine. The 2027-28 calendar is fine.

With all due respect, this is the problem. The issue is not whether specific calendar is lucky enough to have religious holidays fall on weekends, or spring break/Easter alignment to be reasonable or whatever. That's pure luck - other years will be as dismal as this year.

Issue is more the ridiculous "Guiding Principles" FCPS uses in setting the calendar to begin with - need to recognize every religious holiday regardless of how many folks observe, endless training/planning days etc. Other poster in their SB letter said it well: calendar is already borderline unreasonable under perfect weather/contingency conditions. But throw in inevitable snow days, mythical tornado days, early release Wed etc. - and it's brutal if your goal is actually to educate.

+1

FCPS needs to get clear on their priorities and set calendars that reflect those priorities.

They are clear about respecting the religious diversity in the county which is reflected in the calendar. You and others simply don’t have that as your priority. Don’t say that FCPS doesn’t have priorities.

+100.

Does it get to be a lot, especially combined with the early release Wednesdays? Absolutely. But the objective is clear.

If thats the priority you make trade offs. Veterans Day isn’t a religious holiday and wasn’t a day off from school in 2023. Weds before thanksgiving, five days at memorial day etc. You go to school those days and you can say religious diversity is your priority.

This? Says not being in school is the priority.

Five day Memorial Day is not a thing. It’s a 5 day weekend that contains both Memorial Day and Eid.

No one cares about Eid.