FCPS Early Release Mondays

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When my kids were in FCPS grade school, all Mondays were half days. They were home by 12:30 every Monday. I'm a SAHM, so it didn't bother me. Sounds like they're heading back in that direction again.

That would be fine, but a lot of us gave up SACC because we didn't think we needed it for the next school year. There is only one early release day on next year's calendar, so we figured we could handle that, but now they're saying there will be seven more!!

OK, calm down. No need for two exclamation marks You’ll just opt to have your kids stay at school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The state should really have funded this mandate. Then they could have done it over the summer.

How are Arlington/alexandria/PWCPS handling it?

There is no way teachers are giving up their precious summer break for training, are you kidding me? All the teachers I know have posted Day 1 and 2 poolside selfies already this week!!!!

I meant extend the contract to come back early in August.

And actually a ton of teachers are doing (unpaid) training this summer. I’m going to AP summer institute next week with hundreds of my colleagues. There is elementary basal resource training at south county this week. The summer academy registration booked up within minutes.

If teachers were paid their regular salary to go to training, you’d have even more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's like the school board and the extremely top heavy administration don't actually care about kids actually learning.

They got rid of the old early release Mondays at parents' request but it did not help children or learning. They need to bring it back so that elementary school teachers would have proper planning time and less stress and overwork. That's what the administration should do if they care about kids actually learning.

If they had said it was for planning time, it would make more sense. If they gave teachers more resources so that they weren't always scrambling for youtube videos and downloaded worksheets, that would also make sense. But saying it's because these professional teachers need more professional development - that is a farce.

It’s for the training required for the Virginia Literacy Act, dingdong. Look it up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When my kids were in FCPS grade school, all Mondays were half days. They were home by 12:30 every Monday. I'm a SAHM, so it didn't bother me. Sounds like they're heading back in that direction again.

A few people pointed out that they were actually 2 hour early release days and not half days. Did your school end at 2:30?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The state should really have funded this mandate. Then they could have done it over the summer.

How are Arlington/alexandria/PWCPS handling it?

There is no way teachers are giving up their precious summer break for training, are you kidding me? All the teachers I know have posted Day 1 and 2 poolside selfies already this week!!!!

I meant extend the contract to come back early in August.

And actually a ton of teachers are doing (unpaid) training this summer. I’m going to AP summer institute next week with hundreds of my colleagues. There is elementary basal resource training at south county this week. The summer academy registration booked up within minutes.

If teachers were paid their regular salary to go to training, you’d have even more.

I’m also a teacher and I’ve been to the AAP summer institute before. It was my choice to go. Sometimes I left after lunch if there weren’t any more sessions I was interested in. I used a lot of those classes for teacher recertification, but I chose those classes. It my choice to go.

I’ve also attended academy courses which are primarily virtual. You probably also know that a lot of teachers take those trainings to get their bachelors plus or masters plus which results in a higher pay. That is why registration fills up within hours.

When that choice is taken away, and the county is forcing you to attend over 20 hours of training without pay, it simply won’t happen.

[Anonymous]

Is gatehouse trying to rile parents up? Why else send a Friday evening email with such poor communication?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:While they have added these one-a-month early release Mondays for the new curriculum training and other required meetings, they should add more for actual teacher planning time and collaboration if necessary.

Taking away early release Mondays 8 or 9 years ago was a mistake and caused problem. So they should return to that.

The mistake was not taking away early release.

Eqrly release is a terrible idea.

The mistake is extending the school year into late June.

There is nothing to teach. Kids are completely checked out. And teachers are burnt out.

Finish school the week after memorial day.

[Anonymous]

Get ready folks.

All of the school boards worst ideas get launched the first 3 to 5 weeks of summer vacation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FCPS totally sucks. It sucks for teachers - pay them some real money, it sucks for parents and mostly it sucks for kids. With the gigantic budget FCPS has, please do better.

THIS!!! School is not fun, they don’t learn, staff and teacher are disgruntled and take it out on the kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:While they have added these one-a-month early release Mondays for the new curriculum training and other required meetings, they should add more for actual teacher planning time and collaboration if necessary.

Taking away early release Mondays 8 or 9 years ago was a mistake and caused problem. So they should return to that.

The mistake was not taking away early release.

Eqrly release is a terrible idea.

The mistake is extending the school year into late June.

There is nothing to teach. Kids are completely checked out. And teachers are burnt out.

Finish school the week after memorial day.

+1 don’t inflame the poorly planned calendar you came up with post-pandemic to make up for learning loss with this BS. No one is learning anything after the SOLS. Don’t expect families to pick up the slack for FCPS lack of critical thinking, planning or communicating when it has been known that additional PD time was needed. Take a look at that huge $300 million plus budget and find a way to pay teachers for their PD time. Plenty of fat to cut at Gatehouse, I imagine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:While they have added these one-a-month early release Mondays for the new curriculum training and other required meetings, they should add more for actual teacher planning time and collaboration if necessary.

Taking away early release Mondays 8 or 9 years ago was a mistake and caused problem. So they should return to that.

The mistake was not taking away early release.

Eqrly release is a terrible idea.

The mistake is extending the school year into late June.

There is nothing to teach. Kids are completely checked out. And teachers are burnt out.

Finish school the week after memorial day.

+1 don’t inflame the poorly planned calendar you came up with post-pandemic to make up for learning loss with this BS. No one is learning anything after the SOLS. Don’t expect families to pick up the slack for FCPS lack of critical thinking, planning or communicating when it has been known that additional PD time was needed. Take a look at that huge $300 million plus budget and find a way to pay teachers for their PD time. Plenty of fat to cut at Gatehouse, I imagine.

No, not if you look.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The mistake is extending the school year into late June.
There is nothing to teach. Kids are completely checked out. And teachers are burnt out.
Finish school the week after memorial day.

Exactly this. There has been no teaching going on the past week and a half. Get rid of all these stupid religious holidays and finish the school year right after SOLs. Separate church and state.

[Anonymous]

I taught when we had early release Mondays and I got so much done on those afternoons. I had time to sit and work and get lessons ready and have meetings and attend trainings. This will make it so much easier for elementary teachers and will help with teacher retention. Kids can only benefit from this. And yes, on occasion I scheduled a medical appointment on a Monday afternoon for myself or my child, which was a lot better than trying to find a substitute and leaving the class with busywork if a qualified sub couldn’t be found.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'd rather just have 3-4 full days off. Easier for childcare, plus it's not like much learning happens on a half day anyway.

I agree. Half days are the worst. Just take a while Monday - if I have to take off work at least we could travel or do something fun.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I taught when we had early release Mondays and I got so much done on those afternoons. I had time to sit and work and get lessons ready and have meetings and attend trainings. This will make it so much easier for elementary teachers and will help with teacher retention. Kids can only benefit from this. And yes, on occasion I scheduled a medical appointment on a Monday afternoon for myself or my child, which was a lot better than trying to find a substitute and leaving the class with busywork if a qualified sub couldn’t be found.

Exactly this! Give teachers every Monday off. All day! It would be so much better for everyone. My hope is this step will prime the pump to do just that next year. Teachers need more planning time!