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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

+1, the goal has never been to please parents or work around their schedule - never has been and never will be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

They could have extended quarter 1 one week and moved one TWD to Monday of Election Day week and and then made ED a holiday. That would make the full week before election day. They could have made Columbus/Indigenous day a school day instead and moved the March workday to attach to the end of a quarter. I am a teacher and the teacher workdays at the end of each quarter are the most useful. I also think they should make certain TWD moveable so in the case of snow, we can get a day back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

+1, the goal has never been to please parents or work around their schedule - never has been and never will be.

I'll fix this for you:

+1, the goal has never been to do what works best for students - never has been and never will be

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

+1, the goal has never been to please parents or work around their schedule - never has been and never will be.

This is the only place I know that surveys parents on the calendar. We always just got the calendar and that was that!

[Anonymous]

This is a ridiculous calendar. I am so angry. We are just a. Couple years from going to a 4 day school week.

[Anonymous]

All these disrupted weeks are horrible for the kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All these disrupted weeks are horrible for the kids.

Why do people not see this? What could be more inequitable than a calendar that repeatedly disrupts educational momentum? Not only does it stress families and limit their ability to support their kids and the schools, but also disrupts routines that are essential for learning, especially for kids with executive function issues. Leaving so many blanks to be filled in by families creates an obvious advantage to families with the means to hire tutors, quality child care, and to provide other opportunities for their kids, yet this is never talked about. I don't get it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

+1, the goal has never been to please parents or work around their schedule - never has been and never will be.

And there are so many different types of working families. The calendar just is and now everyone has months to plan for off days.

[Anonymous]

It seems like the intentionally spread stuff out to minimize students taking time off school. Like why make Oct. 31st at PW day instead of pushing it back a week and having three days off that first full week of November?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All these disrupted weeks are horrible for the kids.

Why do people not see this? What could be more inequitable than a calendar that repeatedly disrupts educational momentum? Not only does it stress families and limit their ability to support their kids and the schools, but also disrupts routines that are essential for learning, especially for kids with executive function issues. Leaving so many blanks to be filled in by families creates an obvious advantage to families with the means to hire tutors, quality child care, and to provide other opportunities for their kids, yet this is never talked about. I don't get it.

They actually aren't. One, kids need a break; they're not small adults who enjoy the grind.

Secondly, in the first half of the year, there are only two non traditional holidays and four professional workdays PWs are also pretty standard. So everyone is really getting twisted up over Diwali and Yom kippur? Really?

It's parents who want to believe these days off are detrimental to kids, when kids know their mental health is greatly improved by not grinding every week...because THEY ARE KIDS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All these disrupted weeks are horrible for the kids.

Why do people not see this? What could be more inequitable than a calendar that repeatedly disrupts educational momentum? Not only does it stress families and limit their ability to support their kids and the schools, but also disrupts routines that are essential for learning, especially for kids with executive function issues. Leaving so many blanks to be filled in by families creates an obvious advantage to families with the means to hire tutors, quality child care, and to provide other opportunities for their kids, yet this is never talked about. I don't get it.

They actually aren't. One, kids need a break; they're not small adults who enjoy the grind.

Secondly, in the first half of the year, there are only two non traditional holidays and four professional workdays PWs are also pretty standard. So everyone is really getting twisted up over Diwali and Yom kippur? Really?

It's parents who want to believe these days off are detrimental to kids, when kids know their mental health is greatly improved by not grinding every week...because THEY ARE KIDS.

Well, I've raised a large family, so I can tell you that the stops and starts are really bad for kids. They don't wind up being relaxing breaks that benefit kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It seems like the intentionally spread stuff out to minimize students taking time off school. Like why make Oct. 31st at PW day instead of pushing it back a week and having three days off that first full week of November? [/quote


Because that's when the quarter ends and you can't move election and veterans days. I guess they could extend the quarter a week to satisfy, but that's would change everything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All these disrupted weeks are horrible for the kids.

Why do people not see this? What could be more inequitable than a calendar that repeatedly disrupts educational momentum? Not only does it stress families and limit their ability to support their kids and the schools, but also disrupts routines that are essential for learning, especially for kids with executive function issues. Leaving so many blanks to be filled in by families creates an obvious advantage to families with the means to hire tutors, quality child care, and to provide other opportunities for their kids, yet this is never talked about. I don't get it.

They actually aren't. One, kids need a break; they're not small adults who enjoy the grind.

Secondly, in the first half of the year, there are only two non traditional holidays and four professional workdays PWs are also pretty standard. So everyone is really getting twisted up over Diwali and Yom kippur? Really?

It's parents who want to believe these days off are detrimental to kids, when kids know their mental health is greatly improved by not grinding every week...because THEY ARE KIDS.

Well, I've raised a large family, so I can tell you that the stops and starts are really bad for kids. They don't wind up being relaxing breaks that benefit kids.

That may be true for your kids and the way you structure your life but that isn't really true for most kids. Just your large family and some other annoyed people on the internet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

Since you asked - I am annoyed about starting early and ending late.
I'm annoyed about too many off days off here and there and too few full weeks of M-F school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All these disrupted weeks are horrible for the kids.

Why do people not see this? What could be more inequitable than a calendar that repeatedly disrupts educational momentum? Not only does it stress families and limit their ability to support their kids and the schools, but also disrupts routines that are essential for learning, especially for kids with executive function issues. Leaving so many blanks to be filled in by families creates an obvious advantage to families with the means to hire tutors, quality child care, and to provide other opportunities for their kids, yet this is never talked about. I don't get it.

They actually aren't. One, kids need a break; they're not small adults who enjoy the grind.

Secondly, in the first half of the year, there are only two non traditional holidays and four professional workdays PWs are also pretty standard. So everyone is really getting twisted up over Diwali and Yom kippur? Really?

It's parents who want to believe these days off are detrimental to kids, when kids know their mental health is greatly improved by not grinding every week...because THEY ARE KIDS.

Well, I've raised a large family, so I can tell you that the stops and starts are really bad for kids. They don't wind up being relaxing breaks that benefit kids.

That may be true for your kids and the way you structure your life but that isn't really true for most kids. Just your large family and some other annoyed people on the internet.

Just we are clear - this is your opinion and it's no more right than anyone else's opinion.