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

[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.

Exactly, our family loves the breaks - we love them and they benefit our lifestyle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

If nothing else, they should have pushed it back 1 school day and made Halloween Monday the half day end of quarter and 11/1 the professional work day. The decision to give Halloween off and make Halloween night a school night seems like something done by people who haven't had younger kids in a long time. As an elementary parent, I'm fine with it. They can deal with my over tired and over sugared kid. Have fun!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Exactly, our family loves the breaks - we love them and they benefit our lifestyle.

How does a single day off in the middle of the week "benefit your lifestyle"?

[Anonymous]

Teachers need a longer break from the little vectors that they teach.

[Anonymous]

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

There was a comment period? I saw the calendar linked here that could be seen if you followed the correct board docs link to the right meeting attachments, but I don't recall it being shared and them asking for public input like they did last year with the different draft versions.

[Anonymous]

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

What comment period? There was a survey and then a schedule. And I don’t think they listened to the parents saying get rid of the O days, they seemed to do the exact opposite.

There isn’t one month without a day off of school. Call me crazy, but my school schedule in the 80’s and 90’s was never this disruptive.

Kids need routine. Every teacher I know says that kids thrive on routine. All of these weeks with days off and months with multiple weeks with days off back to back to back disrupts the kids routine. It makes it harder for them to learn. It makes it harder for the Teachers to string together lessons.

There is no reason to have Columbus day or Veterans Day off.

Hopefully they teach on the O days.

But this schedule is a joke. It is unnecessarily hard on working families and it is disruptive for students and Teachers.

[Anonymous]

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

Because they knew they would be ignored.

[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.

Let's be clear: There should ZERO religious holidays in the calendar.

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.

Or, you know, the whiny teachers could do professional development on their own time like the rest of the professional world.

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.

Again, there should NO religious holidays on the calendar.

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 length of the calendar year is fixed, but the School Board can certainly limit the vacations, teacher "work" days, worthless half days, O days, and every other day that distracts from the primary mission: educate students.

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]

@13:58

RE: point 1: so if Christmas fell on a weekday, and if winter break was decoupled from Christmas (similar to what we're debating about Easter), we should be in school? How do you account for the absences that will be pervasive among staff and students?

Re: point 3: So you're mad that FCPS prioritizes professional development for teachers? [I'm not here to debate the quality of PD programs that FCPS offers, and many of them are not on the prescribed PD days which would mean engaging in it on our non-contract time anyway.] Of course, I see your slam about "whiny teachers", so it's clear where the comment's energy is coming from.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Exactly, our family loves the breaks - we love them and they benefit our lifestyle.

How does a single day off in the middle of the week "benefit your lifestyle"?

I'm sure I would be fine with it too - if I didn't have to work.

[Anonymous]

Re: point 3: So you're mad that FCPS prioritizes professional development for teachers? [I'm not here to debate the quality of PD programs that FCPS offers, and many of them are not on the prescribed PD days which would mean engaging in it on our non-contract time anyway.] Of course, I see your slam about "whiny teachers", so it's clear where the comment's energy is coming from.

But, even some teachers are complaining--why? because they don't get to "work." They get "training" they don't need.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:@13:58

RE: point 1: so if Christmas fell on a weekday, and if winter break was decoupled from Christmas (similar to what we're debating about Easter), we should be in school? How do you account for the absences that will be pervasive among staff and students?

Re: point 3: So you're mad that FCPS prioritizes professional development for teachers? [I'm not here to debate the quality of PD programs that FCPS offers, and many of them are not on the prescribed PD days which would mean engaging in it on our non-contract time anyway.] Of course, I see your slam about "whiny teachers", so it's clear where the comment's energy is coming from.

If Christmas did not fall during an already existing break, there would be so many absences from teachers and students that the schools would have to shut down. There would be an operational reason to cancel school. However, there is no operational reason to shut down for any of the religious holidays or "O" days recently added to the calendar.

It's great that FCPS prioritizes PD. Do it during the summer, one of the endless breaks afforded to teachers, before or after school, or do it on your own time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Re: point 3: So you're mad that FCPS prioritizes professional development for teachers? [I'm not here to debate the quality of PD programs that FCPS offers, and many of them are not on the prescribed PD days which would mean engaging in it on our non-contract time anyway.] Of course, I see your slam about "whiny teachers", so it's clear where the comment's energy is coming from.

But, even some teachers are complaining--why? because they don't get to "work." They get "training" they don't need.

It's never explained what this training is for, who benefits, or the results. It's probably like most corporate training - a complete waste of time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:@13:58

RE: point 1: so if Christmas fell on a weekday, and if winter break was decoupled from Christmas (similar to what we're debating about Easter), we should be in school? How do you account for the absences that will be pervasive among staff and students?

Re: point 3: So you're mad that FCPS prioritizes professional development for teachers? [I'm not here to debate the quality of PD programs that FCPS offers, and many of them are not on the prescribed PD days which would mean engaging in it on our non-contract time anyway.] Of course, I see your slam about "whiny teachers", so it's clear where the comment's energy is coming from.

If Christmas did not fall during an already existing break, there would be so many absences from teachers and students that the schools would have to shut down. There would be an operational reason to cancel school. However, there is no operational reason to shut down for any of the religious holidays or "O" days recently added to the calendar.

It's great that FCPS prioritizes PD. Do it during the summer, one of the endless breaks afforded to teachers, before or after school, or do it on your own time.

Really? You would be fine with your employer requiring something and telling you to “do it on your own time”? If it is during the summer or any of the other times you suggested you would have to pay them for that time!

[Anonymous]

Yes, that's exactly what it is, OP! In fact, more than that, they specifically designed to be an F-U to you, personally!