Will voting out the school board make the school calendar sane again?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"longer" school year is made possible by lots of 4day weekends and days off for mental health, schoolwork, etc. and parents know years in advance for childcare. I truly don't see the reason for school board hatred, angst over this

The hatred is because it’s disrespectful.

Whether it was intentional or not, you’re entirely wrong about “years in advance”. The early dismissals starting in ‘24 were announced weeks before they started. The new day of the week for this awful program was announced in May. No one believes Reid or the board won’t make more changes to published calendars— fool us once, shame on you, fool us twice …

And so the hatred is because of the disrespect and sexism. FCPS’ casual assumption that women (its always women) couldn’t possibly have jobs so demanding that 39 days off PLUS early dismissals could possibly represent a hardship to the mothers they assume are home eating bonbons. And if they’re NOT sitting home surely they can fork out $1000 extra a month to cover childcare so teachers can “plan”. Meanwhile, no matter how long you know in advance no job is handing most workers 39 days off between September and June.

FCPS is going to need to answer to their constituents. Board members know people are angry.

I get that the early release days have caused frustration, but FCPS actually did announce the switch from Mondays to Wednesdays back in May for an August start. That’s several months of notice. And since schools are providing supervised care and transportation for students who need to stay until the regular dismissal time, families aren’t left scrambling for childcare on those days.

But I don’t think the intent was to disregard families or assume anything about working parents. FCPS is trying to balance instructional needs and teacher planning time, all while managing staffing and scheduling constraints. It’s not perfect, but this feels more like competing priorities than disrespect or sexism. Constructive feedback really does make a difference, especially when it comes from parents who want to help shape solutions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, next school year’s calendar does seem better - we start about a full week later on 8/24 but we still get out mid June (6/17). I feel like starting later is better for summer travel and the all important ( ) summer pool season. But getting out earlier is better for education and having less wasted time at the end of the school year. So I do wonder why they didn’t try to start the 26-27 SY on 8/17 and get out 6/10.

It needed to go in the other direction.

August school is productive and valuable.

June school is pointless, wasteful, and impinges upon university summer programs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, next school year’s calendar does seem better - we start about a full week later on 8/24 but we still get out mid June (6/17). I feel like starting later is better for summer travel and the all important ( ) summer pool season. But getting out earlier is better for education and having less wasted time at the end of the school year. So I do wonder why they didn’t try to start the 26-27 SY on 8/17 and get out 6/10.

How about we start after Labor Day and get out in early June like we used to?

FCPS teacher here. I started in 2011 when we started after Labor Day. We were in school through 3rd week of June. I know because my birthday is then. My fourth year teaching the 21st was the last day of school.

True. But this year we started August 18 and go til June 17

Personally, I like longer school years and shorter summers. I would LOVE a year-round school schedule with 9 weeks on and 3 weeks off with a 5 week summer. Perfection!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No but that doesn't mean we shouldn't vote them out anyway. There are PLENTY of reasons to do so.

And get MAGA? NOPE!

The very liberal left has become as crazy and extreme as MAGA. Pick your poison. This extremely left school board is terrible. A Republican school board (or at least some Republican board members) is looking better every day.

Republican is MAGA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, next school year’s calendar does seem better - we start about a full week later on 8/24 but we still get out mid June (6/17). I feel like starting later is better for summer travel and the all important ( ) summer pool season. But getting out earlier is better for education and having less wasted time at the end of the school year. So I do wonder why they didn’t try to start the 26-27 SY on 8/17 and get out 6/10.

It needed to go in the other direction.

August school is productive and valuable.

June school is pointless, wasteful, and impinges upon university summer programs.

retired teacher-not FCPS

Kids and teachers are ready to go back in August.
June, not so much. Swimming pools are open then. And, yes, they are open in August, but no longer novel.

With AP's and SOL's done--only a week or so to wind up is needed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's so insane about the school year calendar? I think it's great that we're observing religious holidays beyond the Christian ones.

We don't observe the Christian holidays.

Easter is on a sunday. So it is never observed by FCPS.

Christmas is a federal holdiay, on a week that every industry in our area including most of the federal government shuts down.

Christmas would be off no matter what, for secular reasons.

Spring break is tied to Easter. FCPS has said this. So yes, spring break is absolutely tied to a Christian holiday.

Easter is always on a Sunday. It will never be a school holiday.

Spring break always falls on Holy Week. That's a religious week for Christians.

Christian here. I would prefer it if spring break was separated from Easter. We are religious and observe Easter as well as Good Friday (which is night celebration so school would be fine on Good Friday). Because we celebrate Easter religiously in our church and with local family, we don’t travel over spring break. But my kids want and need a vacation. The calendar has all these random days off but not a week straight. We’d love to separate Easter from spring break so we could observe our religious holiday and also travel for spring break.

That being said, a lot of the religious holidays that students are getting off are dinner/after sundown/night holidays for the religions. There isn’t a need to have the entire school day off for them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's so insane about the school year calendar? I think it's great that we're observing religious holidays beyond the Christian ones.

We don't observe the Christian holidays.

Easter is on a sunday. So it is never observed by FCPS.

Christmas is a federal holdiay, on a week that every industry in our area including most of the federal government shuts down.

Christmas would be off no matter what, for secular reasons.

Spring break is tied to Easter. FCPS has said this. So yes, spring break is absolutely tied to a Christian holiday.

Easter is always on a Sunday. It will never be a school holiday.

Spring break always falls on Holy Week. That's a religious week for Christians.

Christian here. I would prefer it if spring break was separated from Easter. We are religious and observe Easter as well as Good Friday (which is night celebration so school would be fine on Good Friday). Because we celebrate Easter religiously in our church and with local family, we don’t travel over spring break. But my kids want and need a vacation. The calendar has all these random days off but not a week straight. We’d love to separate Easter from spring break so we could observe our religious holiday and also travel for spring break.

That being said, a lot of the religious holidays that students are getting off are dinner/after sundown/night holidays for the religions. There isn’t a need to have the entire school day off for them.

I am Christian. Every day should be a holy day. You don't need a week off of school and many "Christian" areas do not have a week off for Easter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's so insane about the school year calendar? I think it's great that we're observing religious holidays beyond the Christian ones.

We don't observe the Christian holidays.

Easter is on a sunday. So it is never observed by FCPS.

Christmas is a federal holdiay, on a week that every industry in our area including most of the federal government shuts down.

Christmas would be off no matter what, for secular reasons.

Spring break is tied to Easter. FCPS has said this. So yes, spring break is absolutely tied to a Christian holiday.

Easter is always on a Sunday. It will never be a school holiday.

Spring break always falls on Holy Week. That's a religious week for Christians.

Christian here. I would prefer it if spring break was separated from Easter. We are religious and observe Easter as well as Good Friday (which is night celebration so school would be fine on Good Friday). Because we celebrate Easter religiously in our church and with local family, we don’t travel over spring break. But my kids want and need a vacation. The calendar has all these random days off but not a week straight. We’d love to separate Easter from spring break so we could observe our religious holiday and also travel for spring break.

That being said, a lot of the religious holidays that students are getting off are dinner/after sundown/night holidays for the religions. There isn’t a need to have the entire school day off for them.

I am a Christian. When I wrote that spring break falls on Holy Week and that it's a religious week for Christians, my intent was not to say that FCPS should schedule student holidays on that week. Rather, my intent was to showcase that in fact, FCPS does align some student holidays around Christian holidays. (Someone had noted that FCPS did not schedule student holidays on Christian holy days, and implying that FCPS was favoring non-Christian holidays over Christian ones.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's so insane about the school year calendar? I think it's great that we're observing religious holidays beyond the Christian ones.

We don't observe the Christian holidays.

Easter is on a sunday. So it is never observed by FCPS.

Christmas is a federal holdiay, on a week that every industry in our area including most of the federal government shuts down.

Christmas would be off no matter what, for secular reasons.

Spring break is tied to Easter. FCPS has said this. So yes, spring break is absolutely tied to a Christian holiday.

Easter is always on a Sunday. It will never be a school holiday.

Spring break always falls on Holy Week. That's a religious week for Christians.

Christian here. I would prefer it if spring break was separated from Easter. We are religious and observe Easter as well as Good Friday (which is night celebration so school would be fine on Good Friday). Because we celebrate Easter religiously in our church and with local family, we don’t travel over spring break. But my kids want and need a vacation. The calendar has all these random days off but not a week straight. We’d love to separate Easter from spring break so we could observe our religious holiday and also travel for spring break.

That being said, a lot of the religious holidays that students are getting off are dinner/after sundown/night holidays for the religions. There isn’t a need to have the entire school day off for them.

I am a Christian. When I wrote that spring break falls on Holy Week and that it's a religious week for Christians, my intent was not to say that FCPS should schedule student holidays on that week. Rather, my intent was to showcase that in fact, FCPS does align some student holidays around Christian holidays. (Someone had noted that FCPS did not schedule student holidays on Christian holy days, and implying that FCPS was favoring non-Christian holidays over Christian ones.)

It was aligned with Easter because people used to go visit families then--just like Christmas.
Fairfax County has always had a large military presence (likely used to be a higher percentage.) It has also had tons of transplants.

Remember, Fairfax County used to be composed of Virginians and people who came to work here in the federal government and military families.. With the expansion of the federal workforce over the last decades and the influx of immigrants from other parts of the world, there has been a sea change in the community.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"longer" school year is made possible by lots of 4day weekends and days off for mental health, schoolwork, etc. and parents know years in advance for childcare. I truly don't see the reason for school board hatred, angst over this

The hatred is because it’s disrespectful.

Whether it was intentional or not, you’re entirely wrong about “years in advance”. The early dismissals starting in ‘24 were announced weeks before they started. The new day of the week for this awful program was announced in May. No one believes Reid or the board won’t make more changes to published calendars— fool us once, shame on you, fool us twice …

And so the hatred is because of the disrespect and sexism. FCPS’ casual assumption that women (its always women) couldn’t possibly have jobs so demanding that 39 days off PLUS early dismissals could possibly represent a hardship to the mothers they assume are home eating bonbons. And if they’re NOT sitting home surely they can fork out $1000 extra a month to cover childcare so teachers can “plan”. Meanwhile, no matter how long you know in advance no job is handing most workers 39 days off between September and June.

FCPS is going to need to answer to their constituents. Board members know people are angry.

I get that the early release days have caused frustration, but FCPS actually did announce the switch from Mondays to Wednesdays back in May for an August start. That’s several months of notice. And since schools are providing supervised care and transportation for students who need to stay until the regular dismissal time, families aren’t left scrambling for childcare on those days.

But I don’t think the intent was to disregard families or assume anything about working parents. FCPS is trying to balance instructional needs and teacher planning time, all while managing staffing and scheduling constraints. It’s not perfect, but this feels more like competing priorities than disrespect or sexism. Constructive feedback really does make a difference, especially when it comes from parents who want to help shape solutions.

Right— thats not “years”. Neither was announcing the beginning of these early release days after the end of the school year “years” of notice— particularly after releasing a calendar that bragged about the number of five-day weeks. Compounding that, the justification for the days was blamed on Richmond and announced as a one-year fix. No one has yet taken responsibility for that lie, which again, is why working parents feel so profoundly disrespected: we were lied to.

I’m interested in your perspective that it “feels” more like competing priorities than disrespect or sexism. Feels to whom? Because its not a secret in Fairfax or anywhere else that women do most of the childcare, so when FCPS put out instructions to drop everything and get your kid at 12, who is it you “felt” they were talking to? And if they didn’t consider the disparate impact of that decision, they would be acting against established best practices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, next school year’s calendar does seem better - we start about a full week later on 8/24 but we still get out mid June (6/17). I feel like starting later is better for summer travel and the all important ( ) summer pool season. But getting out earlier is better for education and having less wasted time at the end of the school year. So I do wonder why they didn’t try to start the 26-27 SY on 8/17 and get out 6/10.

How about we start after Labor Day and get out in early June like we used to?

In the 1980s the state passed a law, to help boost tourism (known as the Kings Dominion Law) that said schools had to start after Labor Day unless they got a waiver. In the 2000s/2010s more districts starting applying for waivers and getting them. I think they said it had to do with snow days - they called them more liberally and old calendars only had 3 built in meaning that without an earlier start, they risked having to eat into summer or spring break to make up the time.

What it really has to do with is maximizing the time before state testing to give schools on the line a better shot at passing.

Yes, "testing" was the justification for starting before Labor Day, so we could have more instructional time before the AP tests and SOLs.

Then the School Board showed it longer cared about that when it added all these additional days off before May, completely negating the benefit of starting early. So we start earlier, end later, and gain no benefits.

Equity and inclusion over a academics. Your school system is woke experiment, not an institution that values learning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's so insane about the school year calendar? I think it's great that we're observing religious holidays beyond the Christian ones.

We don't observe the Christian holidays.

Easter is on a sunday. So it is never observed by FCPS.

Christmas is a federal holdiay, on a week that every industry in our area including most of the federal government shuts down.

Christmas would be off no matter what, for secular reasons.

Spring break is tied to Easter. FCPS has said this. So yes, spring break is absolutely tied to a Christian holiday.

Easter is always on a Sunday. It will never be a school holiday.

Spring break always falls on Holy Week. That's a religious week for Christians.

Christian here. I would prefer it if spring break was separated from Easter. We are religious and observe Easter as well as Good Friday (which is night celebration so school would be fine on Good Friday). Because we celebrate Easter religiously in our church and with local family, we don’t travel over spring break. But my kids want and need a vacation. The calendar has all these random days off but not a week straight. We’d love to separate Easter from spring break so we could observe our religious holiday and also travel for spring break.

That being said, a lot of the religious holidays that students are getting off are dinner/after sundown/night holidays for the religions. There isn’t a need to have the entire school day off for them.

I am a Christian. When I wrote that spring break falls on Holy Week and that it's a religious week for Christians, my intent was not to say that FCPS should schedule student holidays on that week. Rather, my intent was to showcase that in fact, FCPS does align some student holidays around Christian holidays. (Someone had noted that FCPS did not schedule student holidays on Christian holy days, and implying that FCPS was favoring non-Christian holidays over Christian ones.)

Fcps didn't schedule for religious Christian holiday until the Orthodox holidays were added to the schedule a few years ago.

They didn't even mention the Christian holidays.

The first year and for a few years after that, FCPS sent weekly ramadan emails, yet ignored passover and lent, occuring at the exact same time.

Practicing Christians do not want spring break on Holy Week. That is some northern Virginia school district scheduling quirk, not something Christians ask for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's so insane about the school year calendar? I think it's great that we're observing religious holidays beyond the Christian ones.

We don't observe the Christian holidays.

Easter is on a sunday. So it is never observed by FCPS.

Christmas is a federal holdiay, on a week that every industry in our area including most of the federal government shuts down.

Christmas would be off no matter what, for secular reasons.

Spring break is tied to Easter. FCPS has said this. So yes, spring break is absolutely tied to a Christian holiday.

Easter is always on a Sunday. It will never be a school holiday.

Spring break always falls on Holy Week. That's a religious week for Christians.

Christian here. I would prefer it if spring break was separated from Easter. We are religious and observe Easter as well as Good Friday (which is night celebration so school would be fine on Good Friday). Because we celebrate Easter religiously in our church and with local family, we don’t travel over spring break. But my kids want and need a vacation. The calendar has all these random days off but not a week straight. We’d love to separate Easter from spring break so we could observe our religious holiday and also travel for spring break.

That being said, a lot of the religious holidays that students are getting off are dinner/after sundown/night holidays for the religions. There isn’t a need to have the entire school day off for them.

I am a Christian. When I wrote that spring break falls on Holy Week and that it's a religious week for Christians, my intent was not to say that FCPS should schedule student holidays on that week. Rather, my intent was to showcase that in fact, FCPS does align some student holidays around Christian holidays. (Someone had noted that FCPS did not schedule student holidays on Christian holy days, and implying that FCPS was favoring non-Christian holidays over Christian ones.)

Fcps didn't schedule for religious Christian holiday until the Orthodox holidays were added to the schedule a few years ago.

They didn't even mention the Christian holidays.

The first year and for a few years after that, FCPS sent weekly ramadan emails, yet ignored passover and lent, occuring at the exact same time.

Practicing Christians do not want spring break on Holy Week. That is some northern Virginia school district scheduling quirk, not something Christians ask for.

My Catholic high school didn’t put spring break with Homy Week because they sponsored international trips in Spring Break and didn’t want to interfere with Mass attendance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's so insane about the school year calendar? I think it's great that we're observing religious holidays beyond the Christian ones.

We don't observe the Christian holidays.

Easter is on a sunday. So it is never observed by FCPS.

Christmas is a federal holdiay, on a week that every industry in our area including most of the federal government shuts down.

Christmas would be off no matter what, for secular reasons.

Spring break is tied to Easter. FCPS has said this. So yes, spring break is absolutely tied to a Christian holiday.

Easter is always on a Sunday. It will never be a school holiday.

Spring break always falls on Holy Week. That's a religious week for Christians.

Christian here. I would prefer it if spring break was separated from Easter. We are religious and observe Easter as well as Good Friday (which is night celebration so school would be fine on Good Friday). Because we celebrate Easter religiously in our church and with local family, we don’t travel over spring break. But my kids want and need a vacation. The calendar has all these random days off but not a week straight. We’d love to separate Easter from spring break so we could observe our religious holiday and also travel for spring break.

That being said, a lot of the religious holidays that students are getting off are dinner/after sundown/night holidays for the religions. There isn’t a need to have the entire school day off for them.

I am a Christian. When I wrote that spring break falls on Holy Week and that it's a religious week for Christians, my intent was not to say that FCPS should schedule student holidays on that week. Rather, my intent was to showcase that in fact, FCPS does align some student holidays around Christian holidays. (Someone had noted that FCPS did not schedule student holidays on Christian holy days, and implying that FCPS was favoring non-Christian holidays over Christian ones.)

Fcps didn't schedule for religious Christian holiday until the Orthodox holidays were added to the schedule a few years ago.

They didn't even mention the Christian holidays.

The first year and for a few years after that, FCPS sent weekly ramadan emails, yet ignored passover and lent, occuring at the exact same time.

Practicing Christians do not want spring break on Holy Week. That is some northern Virginia school district scheduling quirk, not something Christians ask for.

My Catholic high school didn’t put spring break with Homy Week because they sponsored international trips in Spring Break and didn’t want to interfere with Mass attendance.

I grew up going to public school. Sounds like I missed out. 😞

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's so insane about the school year calendar? I think it's great that we're observing religious holidays beyond the Christian ones.

We don't observe the Christian holidays.

Easter is on a sunday. So it is never observed by FCPS.

Christmas is a federal holdiay, on a week that every industry in our area including most of the federal government shuts down.

Christmas would be off no matter what, for secular reasons.

It’s no coincidence that spring break always falls the week before Easter, or that winter break aligns with Christmas. The fact that many Christian holidays already fall on weekends, and are still widely observed, shows how deeply our western calendars are structured around Christian traditions. And I understand why; the country was founded on those roots. But centuries later, we’ve become a diverse population, and it’s time our schedules reflected that.

Winter break aligns with Christmas because Christmas is one of our original national holidays, where the entire nation closes, followed 7 days later by another major national holiday, new years, where everything in the country closes again.

Between the 9 days from Christmas Eve through New Years Day, there are 4 out of the 9 days closed for the federal holiday, plus at least 2 weekend days in the mix.

This means that even if we only took off 24th/25th and 31st/1st, there are only 3 possible days this week when school could occur, and no ine but you would show up.

Christmas is a national holiday because it’s rooted in Christianity. It was designated as such long before our population became as diverse as it is today. The argument that schools couldn’t possibly hold classes between Christmas and New Year’s doesn’t really hold up; we often have school or work days that fall between holidays at other times of the year. The reason we don’t during this stretch isn’t logistical. It’s cultural tradition. And that tradition reflects how our national calendar has historically centered around Christian observances.

I think Christmas is more a tradition and culture versus religious.
I don’t believe in god but still celebrate Christmas because it is fun. It is a federal holiday and like others of have country is shut down. Anyway - I’d be fine with the 24th-2nd off. I don’t need two weeks.

Most people won't show up on Dec 22nd/23rd even those who don't celebrate Christmas will make the break two weeks anyways. Salem City Virginia calendar has a two week break and ends on MAY 28! https://content.myconnectsuite.com/api/documents/fae640107bb948e59c1ffc043c580e4e