Explain ridiculously early 2023/24 start date?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just looked up pricing for Christmas break and spring break and both are beyond my budget. And the 3 day weekends really won't work for a real trip.

So that leaves August because I have a huge work event in July, but my kid does a high school sport so basically we can never go away.

So, take a less expensive vacation. Easy. Some of our best trips were short ones and ones that were not so far away. It doesn't require extravagance to have a good family vacation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm betting that all these people lobbying for start after Labor Day are the ones that want to take advantage of cheaper prices at the beach--because most schools start before Labor Day.
.

…and?

Maybe they aren’t as privileged as you to be able to take family vacations during winter break or spring break when the prices are so inflated?

No. Just don't take expensive vacations. We don't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AGREED!!!

But they did all those surveys and we have a lot of transplants in the NOVA region from the south who think school should end at memorial day and start again in mid-August. It does not make sense to anyone who lives here long term and realizes that the government basically shuts down in August - which has a ripple effect to private sector. We should have summer from mid-June until Labor Day, possibly the week before Labor if it's a particularly late one.

Although the real issue is that the school year is too long because they added tons of professional development days that the teachers don't even want, and they added lot of religious holidays to assuage their guilt of tying spring break to Easter (again, wanted on the surveys because it helps FCPS line up with other districts) and giving a "Christmas" break.

Labor day to mid/late June is the worst.

We end up with a month of zero learning from SOLs/AP exams in mid May to the end of the school year.

+1. Late August start is ideal. Now if we can just get them to separate Spring Break from Easter I'd be very happy.

I like to travel over Easter. I'd also like Good Friday off.

Sorry, the liberal School Board only allows non-Christian religious holidays. Christians need not apply.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Okay. Just found the survey results from last year.

35 percent of parents wanted two weeks before Labor Day.

43 percent wanted one week before Labor Day.

13 percent had no preference

9 percent wanted something else.

So clearly all of the Labor Day start people are a minority.

I participated in that survey and the one in the previous year. Starting before Labor Day was not part of the options. And in terms of responses, in all of the open questions, I wrote that I wanted schools to start after Labor Day. Because it was in the open-ended questions, I'm sure my response was not recorded.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There should be no school in July or August.

Let kids be kids FFS.

Speaking of letting kids be kids - we historically had 10 weeks of summer in FCPS. This summer we have 9, and next summer 9.5. I think it sucks to lose a week of summer, but obviously no one in charge cares what I think!

times have changed. Most families have two working parents. It is significantly more burdensome on families now to have to source and pay for camps than it was 20+ years ago. The 12 week summer just doesn't make any sense. Plus, many families simply cannot afford the backup child care that summer entails.

While I disagree with a lot of what the school board does, shortening summer is a move that I support. It's absurd to think that kids should be out for 10+ weeks. IMO, it should be no more than 3-5 weeks to modernize the system. Even that, I think, is a stretch for most working families.

3-5 weeks? That’s insane.

8-9 weeks - July & August - is minimum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:50% of kids in the US aren’t passing AP exams as it is so I really don’t see why we need to start a week or two earlier for them. College Board releases these scores every year. US kids do terrible on the exams.

Regardless, I don’t care when we start. But the goal needs to be out as early in June as possible. Once we pass the SOLs and Memorial Day, there isn’t meaningful learning happening in school. 3 weeks of school in august/September isn’t equivalent to 3 weeks of school in June. You can’t start new material or maintain good spirits from the kids trying to do stuff on June 16. So letting us go as early in June as feasible is better for everyone.

As someone who has proctored dozens of AP exams, half the kids shouldn’t be there. Every year I see kids draw pictures in the booklet rather than take the test, leave the written portion empty, complete the scantron without looking at the questions, etc.

Taking the test is optional. Why do they attend?

They’re so used to the system making their teachers pass them that they think a miracle is going to happen

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Okay. Just found the survey results from last year.

35 percent of parents wanted two weeks before Labor Day.

43 percent wanted one week before Labor Day.

13 percent had no preference

9 percent wanted something else.

So clearly all of the Labor Day start people are a minority.

I participated in that survey and the one in the previous year. Starting before Labor Day was not part of the options. And in terms of responses, in all of the open questions, I wrote that I wanted schools to start after Labor Day. Because it was in the open-ended questions, I'm sure my response was not recorded.

I am assuming Other means None of the above.. so after Labor Day would be that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just looked up pricing for Christmas break and spring break and both are beyond my budget. And the 3 day weekends really won't work for a real trip.

So that leaves August because I have a huge work event in July, but my kid does a high school sport so basically we can never go away.

Sorry, but you do realize many, many fcps families NEVER go on vacations because they cannot afford them. I would like to assume fcps creates schedules around students and teachers needs, not leisure prices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just looked up pricing for Christmas break and spring break and both are beyond my budget. And the 3 day weekends really won't work for a real trip.

So that leaves August because I have a huge work event in July, but my kid does a high school sport so basically we can never go away.

Sorry, but you do realize many, many fcps families NEVER go on vacations because they cannot afford them. I would like to assume fcps creates schedules around students and teachers needs, not leisure prices.

+1

Maybe OP should tell his/her boss to give her July off....

Or, do like one person I know did: she wanted her kids in band--but not marching band because she did not want to give up her August vacation. So, they did NO band. (They could have benefited from the social interaction of marching band.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I found the article where is discusses US schooling start times and start dates for students.

2 percent- Start last week of July
12 percent- Start 1st week of August
29 percent- second week of August
19 percent- Third week of Aug
14 percent- Last week of August
23 percent- After Labor Day

August start is normal for most of US.

Interesting - and still almost a quarter start after Labor Day.
What are the percentages based on though? Districts? Actual student numbers? Because if that 23% with a start after Labor Day is 23% of school districts and they are the giant school districts in the northeast than it could be a much higher percentage of actual students who start after Labor Day.
Needs more clarification to be useful.

No matter how you try to spin it, very few districts in the US start after labor day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just looked up pricing for Christmas break and spring break and both are beyond my budget. And the 3 day weekends really won't work for a real trip.

So that leaves August because I have a huge work event in July, but my kid does a high school sport so basically we can never go away.

Sorry, but you do realize many, many fcps families NEVER go on vacations because they cannot afford them. I would like to assume fcps creates schedules around students and teachers needs, not leisure prices.

DP
FCPS surveys everyone. Each person, each family is going to have their reason(s) for their preferences, like them or not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There should be no school in July or August.

Let kids be kids FFS.

You mean no school in June and July.

School starting in mid August is ideal.

Going to school in June is a waste of time and nice weather.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There should be no school in July or August.

Let kids be kids FFS.

You mean no school in June and July.

School starting in mid August is ideal.

Going to school in June is a waste of time and nice weather.

DP
August is a prime swimming pool month.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There should be no school in July or August.

Let kids be kids FFS.

You mean no school in June and July.

School starting in mid August is ideal.

Going to school in June is a waste of time and nice weather.

Once more. I taught. Kids are ready to get out in June and ready to go back in August.

And, to those saying all of Europe is on vacation in August: that is the worst time to travel there--except for the beautiful flower boxes in the windows. Stores/small businesses closed in many places. Traffic everywhere.

Best time to travel: September and October--so wait til your kids have graduated.

[Anonymous]

Yes it is true that many never go on vacation...but why should only the super rich who can pay premium prices be able to go? We can't even visit family over thanksgiving the flight prices are too high.

So yes, I suppose I can do a driving trip to visit family in august, but it would be nice if every once in awhile I can take my family to a resort in the off season (August).