Is the 22-23 Calendar designed to be an f-u to parents?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why the f are Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur and Diwali holidays now?

...Why are Christmas and Easter 2 weeks and 1 week long, respectively?

Because that is the majority in the country.

You don't need a week to celebrate Easter (maybe a long weekend if you want to include Good Friday) and the entire week before Christmas.

Yes you do. If you celebrated those holidays you would understand. There is a lot of preparation for Christmas and Christmas Eve that takes place the whole month. There are gingerbread houses to be made, cookies, shopping, presents to be wrapped, decorating the house and tree. Going to see lights. It’s the whole month of December. We don’t just roll up to the actual day of the holiday and say Merry Christmas and hope everything comes together. Having that week off is essential.kids there may be traveling.

You do know this whole two week break is relatively new, right? I grew up in FCPS and it all just depended on where Christmas fell. We NEVER had a week off before the 25th and managed to celebrate just fine.

[Anonymous]

You do know this whole two week break is relatively new, right? I grew up in FCPS and it all just depended on where Christmas fell. We NEVER had a week off before the 25th and managed to celebrate just fine.

We frequently had two weeks. Maybe, if Christmas fell on a Monday, we would not get out until Wednesday--but then, we always had the day after New Years'. And, I'm pretty sure that when Christmas fell on a Sunday, we always had this schedule.

Do you know why? Because kids don't come to school if they are away and many people go away then. That is just a fact. Schools close on days when there is expected to be great absenteeism. It's not just a matter of "honoring" one group over another.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are like 23 weeks out of the ENTIRE calendar where kids are in school for 5 consecutive days
Pathetic.

So much for the public input and all the money they wasted hiring a survey company (and the questions and answer choices were still poorly worded or didn't have a range of choices to select from).
Again, pathetic.

It's even less than that when you count the optional attendance "O" days....sadly

O days will be different next year. New content will be taught.

What is the point of an O day then?

[Anonymous]

I think the two full weeks off at Xmas is ridiculous too but it got strong majority vote from parents in the survey. That said, I find it much less disruptive than the random days off for the holidays sprinkled everywhere.

[Anonymous]

So.......what exactly are we mad about?

1. Less instructional days? There are 180 days of school on this calendar. I don't know why some PPs are saying the SY23 calendar has fewer instructional days.
2. Not grouping religious holidays "together"? Religious holidays can't just "be moved". That's as ridiculous as saying FCPS will move Christmas to (insert arbitrary date here). Religious holidays are when they are. I guess the bottom line here is either we recognize religious holidays in some way or we don't. To say that XYZ holiday is "worthy" of an O designation or a school holiday, while ABC holiday is not (regardless of the # of celebrants) pits groups against each other.
3. Too many professional days? The community says they want a world-class school system. To have that, you must continually train & develop your teaching force. On a regular school day, teachers are "live" and "on" in front of kids 3/4 of the day, and the other 1/4, they are eating their lunch and meeting with their teams to plan, or prepping materials for future lessons, or attending conferences, IEP meetings, duties, etc. Teachers need time to develop their craft (some PW days) and do report cards (other PW days). I include that information for people who question why said training and work doesn't happen during the school day (or for some posters, maybe skip them entirely?). For those who might suggest "after school" or "on weekends"--well, for the after school piece, then they would need to extend the contracted school day. That proposal could conflict with offering after school opportunities for kids. As for doing PWs on Saturdays or Sundays, that would mean a 6 day work week, an enormous culture shift, and is a tough sell. Schedule PWs in the summer? Professional development opportunities do exist in the summer, but going 10 months without real opportunities (read: time) for training and learning and the housekeeping work of being a teacher is a long stretch.
4. Too many O days and no new content? Teachers will now be permitted to introduce new content on those days. They cannot schedule tests and schools cannot host events on those days. Some of the O days have now been converted to actual holidays.
5. School year too long? There are only 365 days in the year, and we have to schedule 180 days. The parameters are finite.

The one thing I do agree with in this thread is the length of SY23's winter break--it's 11 weekdays out of school. That seems excessive. I think they could have done maybe 7 or 8 and gotten out 3-4 days earlier in June. I agree that having the whole week before Christmas off is weird (I thought that this year too).

Personally, I'd love to see what a year-round calendar would look like for FCPS. I know it was sort of attempted in the mid-2000s (Falls Church HS comes to mind), but I don't recall exactly why it was scrapped.

[Anonymous]

Why didn’t these angry parents comment during the comment period???

[Anonymous]

Everyone wants different things, so there's no consensus to what people dislike.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Everyone wants different things, so there's no consensus to what people dislike.

Exactly, so some will like some aspects, while others hate it. The calendar represents that - and it always has.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are like 23 weeks out of the ENTIRE calendar where kids are in school for 5 consecutive days
Pathetic.

So much for the public input and all the money they wasted hiring a survey company (and the questions and answer choices were still poorly worded or didn't have a range of choices to select from).
Again, pathetic.

It's even less than that when you count the optional attendance "O" days....sadly

O days will be different next year. New content will be taught.

What is the point of an O day then?

The O days on the calendar are for staff to know for planning purposes since no special events will be allowed to be then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone wants different things, so there's no consensus to what people dislike.

Exactly, so some will like some aspects, while others hate it. The calendar represents that - and it always has.

The only thing I hate about the calendar is I wish the TWD were moved around to create more full weeks. That is something that could have been done. Next year Rosh Hashanah, Diwali and another holiday are on a weekend. Each year it will change. Everyone needs to relax. Loudoun and APS have less days in school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a working parent and don’t see it as an f u … it’s not like I have the summer off {{shrug}}.

Same. I'm a working parent and I actually think summers are TOO long. Specially for teenagers and working parents.

What are you talking about?

You don't have teens if you think summer is too long for teens. It is way to short.

Put in one summer program in June-July, and sports practices starting in August, teens often only end up with one or two weeks of unscheduled summer break.

All of those activities are optional. If you want them to have more unscheduled weeks, don’t schedule them!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why didn’t these angry parents comment during the comment period???

I did comment. I do not recall the option to vote against giving holidays off that are not operationally needed.

[Anonymous]

I swear, some of y’all just sit around looking for things to be pissed about. School is school. It’s designed to work for students, teachers, support staff. and admin. It isn’t your personal daycare center. It isn’t your personal babysitting service. You knew this when you decided to have children. And you made a choice. The state is not responsible for your children. You are. So do what the rest of us do. Figure it out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone wants different things, so there's no consensus to what people dislike.

Exactly, so some will like some aspects, while others hate it. The calendar represents that - and it always has.

The only thing I hate about the calendar is I wish the TWD were moved around to create more full weeks. That is something that could have been done. Next year Rosh Hashanah, Diwali and another holiday are on a weekend. Each year it will change. Everyone needs to relax. Loudoun and APS have less days in school.

But the TWD are tied to the end of the quarter, so they can’t really moved, unless you move the start date up a week. And the ones not tied to the quarter end are on Veterans Day and Indigenous Peoples Day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why didn’t these angry parents comment during the comment period???

I did comment. I do not recall the option to vote against giving holidays off that are not operationally needed.

Obviously they did care for your comments.