School Calendar 2023-2024

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The calendar is basically what we have now but they majorly screwed up with the teacher workdays. The "fixed" the calendar at the expense of the teachers. This is what they always do. We bear the burden of all their bad decisions.

Teachers don't need 3 or 4 workdays at the end of the year. There's nothing to do. I need the work days DURING the school year. You know...when I have work to do. We can't use those work days for planning for next year b/c a lot of us don't know what we're teaching next year. We can't use them for our online trainings (I think the estimate is that it's about two days worth of watching videos for the yearly mandatory trainings) because they don't count for next year unless done after July 1. We can't use them to grade papers, write IEPs, write narratives, write goals, update gradebooks, mark progress, etc because...we have no students at that point and the year is over. All of that's been done already. So the only thing left is for us to sit in more useless PD that no one asked for or needs. We need unencumbered work time DURING the school year. Period. And the school board is oblivious to that because most of them have never taught a day in their lives.

This relentless crusade for more 5 days weeks is exactly what another poster said...a direct response to the addition of the religious holidays. The SB needs to man up and just call a tell these parents tough crap. The religious days were added. It is was it is. And the work days DURING the year are needed as well. They should have balanced those out as best they could while not short changing either. But instead, we get this mess. The fact that there were so many no votes + reluctant yeses should have been clue #1 that there was still work to be done.

Well "teacher" don't blame parents, we aren't the ones who added unnecessary religious holidays to the calendar which made it impossible to have teacher workdays during the school year. Even parents who practice some of those religious holidays do not feel the need to stop school for observance.

+1

1. It wasn’t parents’ idea to invite religious leaders to the public school board table for a chat.

2. Why can’t they have a floating PW days to use on that August date or that June date?

[Anonymous]

Yes, I was so happy to see Veteran’s Day was a school day again until I realized it technically fell on Saturday so that is why it was not on the 23-24 calendar. I hope the next SB removes it, as it could recoup another 5–day week in 24-25 and 25-26 calendars.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The calendar is basically what we have now but they majorly screwed up with the teacher workdays. The "fixed" the calendar at the expense of the teachers. This is what they always do. We bear the burden of all their bad decisions.

Teachers don't need 3 or 4 workdays at the end of the year. There's nothing to do. I need the work days DURING the school year. You know...when I have work to do. We can't use those work days for planning for next year b/c a lot of us don't know what we're teaching next year. We can't use them for our online trainings (I think the estimate is that it's about two days worth of watching videos for the yearly mandatory trainings) because they don't count for next year unless done after July 1. We can't use them to grade papers, write IEPs, write narratives, write goals, update gradebooks, mark progress, etc because...we have no students at that point and the year is over. All of that's been done already. So the only thing left is for us to sit in more useless PD that no one asked for or needs. We need unencumbered work time DURING the school year. Period. And the school board is oblivious to that because most of them have never taught a day in their lives.

This relentless crusade for more 5 days weeks is exactly what another poster said...a direct response to the addition of the religious holidays. The SB needs to man up and just call a tell these parents tough crap. The religious days were added. It is was it is. And the work days DURING the year are needed as well. They should have balanced those out as best they could while not short changing either. But instead, we get this mess. The fact that there were so many no votes + reluctant yeses should have been clue #1 that there was still work to be done.

Prelim-Disclosure: not in FCPS but watched the meeting anyway to see how other locales do things

I agree. Teacher work days seem more appropriate during the year and, inherently, will 'chop' up a week. What I came to realize, mostly for myself and perhaps for others, wasn't so much that I want a 5-day week....but a "normal" week. Everyone knows the "work" week of Labor Day is only 4 days, that Thanksgiving is only 3- (or now 2-; I'm old enough to remember working the Friday after and have more than a few friends in retail who still 'work' it). And the week 'off' between Christmas and New Year's seems the norm. I would be more than OK with following Federal holidays (and maybe not even the birthdays or vet/memorial days) plus teacher workdays, esp at the end of a marking period. If you really want late-start, longish Winter Break, early end, it's got to be stripped down. Personally (and again, I'm not in FCPS), I prefer a bigger shift to more closely align with colleges (since they often make up the day-camp workforce): start mid-August, end in late May.

The real crux of it still seems to be the tug-of-war over religious observances which definitely are all over the place, calendar-wise. I can appreciate the concept of O-days, floating (individual) holidays, and/or liberal leave to cover those. Until the SB can settle that (and they may never come to a full agreement), calendars will continue to be problematic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they never got rid of early release Mondays, teachers wouldn’t need all these teacher workdays throughout the year. They really never should have done away with that.

No other school system in the country has half day Mondays. There is literally no reason we needed them. We can just do what every other school system in the country has done since the 80s.

Umm our friends in Falls Church City have half day most Wednesdays. It's not as uncommon as you think.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are O days?

They are religious holidays that aren't full days off school because the school board can't prove the school system needs these days off. It's a form of progressive virtue signaling.

It's what all the religious holidays should be: leniency for those who need it; school for everyone else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they never got rid of early release Mondays, teachers wouldn’t need all these teacher workdays throughout the year. They really never should have done away with that.

No other school system in the country has half day Mondays. There is literally no reason we needed them. We can just do what every other school system in the country has done since the 80s.

Umm our friends in Falls Church City have half day most Wednesdays. It's not as uncommon as you think.

Our kids go to an area private school and get out 1 hour early 1 day each week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The calendar is basically what we have now but they majorly screwed up with the teacher workdays. The "fixed" the calendar at the expense of the teachers. This is what they always do. We bear the burden of all their bad decisions.

Teachers don't need 3 or 4 workdays at the end of the year. There's nothing to do. I need the work days DURING the school year. You know...when I have work to do. We can't use those work days for planning for next year b/c a lot of us don't know what we're teaching next year. We can't use them for our online trainings (I think the estimate is that it's about two days worth of watching videos for the yearly mandatory trainings) because they don't count for next year unless done after July 1. We can't use them to grade papers, write IEPs, write narratives, write goals, update gradebooks, mark progress, etc because...we have no students at that point and the year is over. All of that's been done already. So the only thing left is for us to sit in more useless PD that no one asked for or needs. We need unencumbered work time DURING the school year. Period. And the school board is oblivious to that because most of them have never taught a day in their lives.

This relentless crusade for more 5 days weeks is exactly what another poster said...a direct response to the addition of the religious holidays. The SB needs to man up and just call a tell these parents tough crap. The religious days were added. It is was it is. And the work days DURING the year are needed as well. They should have balanced those out as best they could while not short changing either. But instead, we get this mess. The fact that there were so many no votes + reluctant yeses should have been clue #1 that there was still work to be done.

I agree. They are always speaking of supporting teachers, but giving those days at the end doesn't help grading during the year. But honestly, no teacher will work all those days at the end.

I think those PW days are essentially comp time days for what teachers will need to do on their own time during the year.

PPs are right: SB prioritized adding religious holidays. Maybe teachers can use the religious holidays to get their work done???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they never got rid of early release Mondays, teachers wouldn’t need all these teacher workdays throughout the year. They really never should have done away with that.

No other school system in the country has half day Mondays. There is literally no reason we needed them. We can just do what every other school system in the country has done since the 80s.

Umm our friends in Falls Church City have half day most Wednesdays. It's not as uncommon as you think.

I’d be okay with the return of 1/2 days, but I’d want them on Fridays. (ES parent who has other childcare arrangements) When 1/2 day Mondays were a thing, would SACC start early for those families enrolled?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The calendar is basically what we have now but they majorly screwed up with the teacher workdays. The "fixed" the calendar at the expense of the teachers. This is what they always do. We bear the burden of all their bad decisions.

Teachers don't need 3 or 4 workdays at the end of the year. There's nothing to do. I need the work days DURING the school year. You know...when I have work to do. We can't use those work days for planning for next year b/c a lot of us don't know what we're teaching next year. We can't use them for our online trainings (I think the estimate is that it's about two days worth of watching videos for the yearly mandatory trainings) because they don't count for next year unless done after July 1. We can't use them to grade papers, write IEPs, write narratives, write goals, update gradebooks, mark progress, etc because...we have no students at that point and the year is over. All of that's been done already. So the only thing left is for us to sit in more useless PD that no one asked for or needs. We need unencumbered work time DURING the school year. Period. And the school board is oblivious to that because most of them have never taught a day in their lives.

This relentless crusade for more 5 days weeks is exactly what another poster said...a direct response to the addition of the religious holidays. The SB needs to man up and just call a tell these parents tough crap. The religious days were added. It is was it is. And the work days DURING the year are needed as well. They should have balanced those out as best they could while not short changing either. But instead, we get this mess. The fact that there were so many no votes + reluctant yeses should have been clue #1 that there was still work to be done.

I agree. They are always speaking of supporting teachers, but giving those days at the end doesn't help grading during the year. But honestly, no teacher will work all those days at the end.

I think those PW days are essentially comp time days for what teachers will need to do on their own time during the year.

PPs are right: SB prioritized adding religious holidays. Maybe teachers can use the religious holidays to get their work done???

Yes they could feed two birds with one seed that way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The calendar is basically what we have now but they majorly screwed up with the teacher workdays. The "fixed" the calendar at the expense of the teachers. This is what they always do. We bear the burden of all their bad decisions.

Teachers don't need 3 or 4 workdays at the end of the year. There's nothing to do. I need the work days DURING the school year. You know...when I have work to do. We can't use those work days for planning for next year b/c a lot of us don't know what we're teaching next year. We can't use them for our online trainings (I think the estimate is that it's about two days worth of watching videos for the yearly mandatory trainings) because they don't count for next year unless done after July 1. We can't use them to grade papers, write IEPs, write narratives, write goals, update gradebooks, mark progress, etc because...we have no students at that point and the year is over. All of that's been done already. So the only thing left is for us to sit in more useless PD that no one asked for or needs. We need unencumbered work time DURING the school year. Period. And the school board is oblivious to that because most of them have never taught a day in their lives.

This relentless crusade for more 5 days weeks is exactly what another poster said...a direct response to the addition of the religious holidays. The SB needs to man up and just call a tell these parents tough crap. The religious days were added. It is was it is. And the work days DURING the year are needed as well. They should have balanced those out as best they could while not short changing either. But instead, we get this mess. The fact that there were so many no votes + reluctant yeses should have been clue #1 that there was still work to be done.

I agree. They are always speaking of supporting teachers, but giving those days at the end doesn't help grading during the year. But honestly, no teacher will work all those days at the end.

I think those PW days are essentially comp time days for what teachers will need to do on their own time during the year.

PPs are right: SB prioritized adding religious holidays. Maybe teachers can use the religious holidays to get their work done???

+1
And Megan was suggesting combining more TWDs with the holidays to address this. But if you are a teacher who does not celebrate the holiday you have off why not use just it for the grading / prep you need to do?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The calendar is basically what we have now but they majorly screwed up with the teacher workdays. The "fixed" the calendar at the expense of the teachers. This is what they always do. We bear the burden of all their bad decisions.

Teachers don't need 3 or 4 workdays at the end of the year. There's nothing to do. I need the work days DURING the school year. You know...when I have work to do. We can't use those work days for planning for next year b/c a lot of us don't know what we're teaching next year. We can't use them for our online trainings (I think the estimate is that it's about two days worth of watching videos for the yearly mandatory trainings) because they don't count for next year unless done after July 1. We can't use them to grade papers, write IEPs, write narratives, write goals, update gradebooks, mark progress, etc because...we have no students at that point and the year is over. All of that's been done already. So the only thing left is for us to sit in more useless PD that no one asked for or needs. We need unencumbered work time DURING the school year. Period. And the school board is oblivious to that because most of them have never taught a day in their lives.

This relentless crusade for more 5 days weeks is exactly what another poster said...a direct response to the addition of the religious holidays. The SB needs to man up and just call a tell these parents tough crap. The religious days were added. It is was it is. And the work days DURING the year are needed as well. They should have balanced those out as best they could while not short changing either. But instead, we get this mess. The fact that there were so many no votes + reluctant yeses should have been clue #1 that there was still work to be done.

I agree. They are always speaking of supporting teachers, but giving those days at the end doesn't help grading during the year. But honestly, no teacher will work all those days at the end.

I think those PW days are essentially comp time days for what teachers will need to do on their own time during the year.

PPs are right: SB prioritized adding religious holidays. Maybe teachers can use the religious holidays to get their work done???

+1
And Megan was suggesting combining more TWDs with the holidays to address this. But if you are a teacher who does not celebrate the holiday you have off why not use just it for the grading / prep you need to do?

It was at this point, I think, Cohen got offended (again) that teachers would have to choose between observing their holy day and doing professional development work. 🤷🏻‍♀️

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The calendar is basically what we have now but they majorly screwed up with the teacher workdays. The "fixed" the calendar at the expense of the teachers. This is what they always do. We bear the burden of all their bad decisions.

Teachers don't need 3 or 4 workdays at the end of the year. There's nothing to do. I need the work days DURING the school year. You know...when I have work to do. We can't use those work days for planning for next year b/c a lot of us don't know what we're teaching next year. We can't use them for our online trainings (I think the estimate is that it's about two days worth of watching videos for the yearly mandatory trainings) because they don't count for next year unless done after July 1. We can't use them to grade papers, write IEPs, write narratives, write goals, update gradebooks, mark progress, etc because...we have no students at that point and the year is over. All of that's been done already. So the only thing left is for us to sit in more useless PD that no one asked for or needs. We need unencumbered work time DURING the school year. Period. And the school board is oblivious to that because most of them have never taught a day in their lives.

This relentless crusade for more 5 days weeks is exactly what another poster said...a direct response to the addition of the religious holidays. The SB needs to man up and just call a tell these parents tough crap. The religious days were added. It is was it is. And the work days DURING the year are needed as well. They should have balanced those out as best they could while not short changing either. But instead, we get this mess. The fact that there were so many no votes + reluctant yeses should have been clue #1 that there was still work to be done.

I agree. They are always speaking of supporting teachers, but giving those days at the end doesn't help grading during the year. But honestly, no teacher will work all those days at the end.

I think those PW days are essentially comp time days for what teachers will need to do on their own time during the year.

PPs are right: SB prioritized adding religious holidays. Maybe teachers can use the religious holidays to get their work done???

+1
And Megan was suggesting combining more TWDs with the holidays to address this. But if you are a teacher who does not celebrate the holiday you have off why not use just it for the grading / prep you need to do?

It was at this point, I think, Cohen got offended (again) that teachers would have to choose between observing their holy day and doing professional development work. 🤷🏻‍♀️

That was Meren. The solution is 2 floating days so those that need the day OFF can take it still. But the vast majority of the staff do not need off on the religious holidays and it makes not sense to pretend they are all celebrating that day just because a small percentage are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The calendar is basically what we have now but they majorly screwed up with the teacher workdays. The "fixed" the calendar at the expense of the teachers. This is what they always do. We bear the burden of all their bad decisions.

Teachers don't need 3 or 4 workdays at the end of the year. There's nothing to do. I need the work days DURING the school year. You know...when I have work to do. We can't use those work days for planning for next year b/c a lot of us don't know what we're teaching next year. We can't use them for our online trainings (I think the estimate is that it's about two days worth of watching videos for the yearly mandatory trainings) because they don't count for next year unless done after July 1. We can't use them to grade papers, write IEPs, write narratives, write goals, update gradebooks, mark progress, etc because...we have no students at that point and the year is over. All of that's been done already. So the only thing left is for us to sit in more useless PD that no one asked for or needs. We need unencumbered work time DURING the school year. Period. And the school board is oblivious to that because most of them have never taught a day in their lives.

This relentless crusade for more 5 days weeks is exactly what another poster said...a direct response to the addition of the religious holidays. The SB needs to man up and just call a tell these parents tough crap. The religious days were added. It is was it is. And the work days DURING the year are needed as well. They should have balanced those out as best they could while not short changing either. But instead, we get this mess. The fact that there were so many no votes + reluctant yeses should have been clue #1 that there was still work to be done.

I agree. They are always speaking of supporting teachers, but giving those days at the end doesn't help grading during the year. But honestly, no teacher will work all those days at the end.

I think those PW days are essentially comp time days for what teachers will need to do on their own time during the year.

PPs are right: SB prioritized adding religious holidays. Maybe teachers can use the religious holidays to get their work done???

+1
And Megan was suggesting combining more TWDs with the holidays to address this. But if you are a teacher who does not celebrate the holiday you have off why not use just it for the grading / prep you need to do?

It was at this point, I think, Cohen got offended (again) that teachers would have to choose between observing their holy day and doing professional development work. 🤷🏻‍♀️

The number of teachers who would be affected by this on any given religious holiday must be extremely small, considering the different holidays are for different religions. Why we have to set policies and calendars for more than 150,000 people around situations that affect probably less than 10 individuals, is the entire problem with this school board.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The calendar is basically what we have now but they majorly screwed up with the teacher workdays. The "fixed" the calendar at the expense of the teachers. This is what they always do. We bear the burden of all their bad decisions.

Teachers don't need 3 or 4 workdays at the end of the year. There's nothing to do. I need the work days DURING the school year. You know...when I have work to do. We can't use those work days for planning for next year b/c a lot of us don't know what we're teaching next year. We can't use them for our online trainings (I think the estimate is that it's about two days worth of watching videos for the yearly mandatory trainings) because they don't count for next year unless done after July 1. We can't use them to grade papers, write IEPs, write narratives, write goals, update gradebooks, mark progress, etc because...we have no students at that point and the year is over. All of that's been done already. So the only thing left is for us to sit in more useless PD that no one asked for or needs. We need unencumbered work time DURING the school year. Period. And the school board is oblivious to that because most of them have never taught a day in their lives.

This relentless crusade for more 5 days weeks is exactly what another poster said...a direct response to the addition of the religious holidays. The SB needs to man up and just call a tell these parents tough crap. The religious days were added. It is was it is. And the work days DURING the year are needed as well. They should have balanced those out as best they could while not short changing either. But instead, we get this mess. The fact that there were so many no votes + reluctant yeses should have been clue #1 that there was still work to be done.

I agree. They are always speaking of supporting teachers, but giving those days at the end doesn't help grading during the year. But honestly, no teacher will work all those days at the end.

I think those PW days are essentially comp time days for what teachers will need to do on their own time during the year.

PPs are right: SB prioritized adding religious holidays. Maybe teachers can use the religious holidays to get their work done???

+1
And Megan was suggesting combining more TWDs with the holidays to address this. But if you are a teacher who does not celebrate the holiday you have off why not use just it for the grading / prep you need to do?

Because that's the equivalent of telling me to just "work on a saturday". I mean, yes, I will absolutely use that time to get work done because otherwise it doesn't get done, just like every weekend I grade for hours (and I actually took a sub day, today, using my own personal leave...to catch up on grading).

We are contracted to work 195 days. Saying "just work on the religious days" makes it 210 days or whatever. We aren't paid for that. If you want to extend the contract to make those work days, then staff deserves to be compensated since the expectation is they are working more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The calendar is basically what we have now but they majorly screwed up with the teacher workdays. The "fixed" the calendar at the expense of the teachers. This is what they always do. We bear the burden of all their bad decisions.

Teachers don't need 3 or 4 workdays at the end of the year. There's nothing to do. I need the work days DURING the school year. You know...when I have work to do. We can't use those work days for planning for next year b/c a lot of us don't know what we're teaching next year. We can't use them for our online trainings (I think the estimate is that it's about two days worth of watching videos for the yearly mandatory trainings) because they don't count for next year unless done after July 1. We can't use them to grade papers, write IEPs, write narratives, write goals, update gradebooks, mark progress, etc because...we have no students at that point and the year is over. All of that's been done already. So the only thing left is for us to sit in more useless PD that no one asked for or needs. We need unencumbered work time DURING the school year. Period. And the school board is oblivious to that because most of them have never taught a day in their lives.

This relentless crusade for more 5 days weeks is exactly what another poster said...a direct response to the addition of the religious holidays. The SB needs to man up and just call a tell these parents tough crap. The religious days were added. It is was it is. And the work days DURING the year are needed as well. They should have balanced those out as best they could while not short changing either. But instead, we get this mess. The fact that there were so many no votes + reluctant yeses should have been clue #1 that there was still work to be done.

I agree. They are always speaking of supporting teachers, but giving those days at the end doesn't help grading during the year. But honestly, no teacher will work all those days at the end.

I think those PW days are essentially comp time days for what teachers will need to do on their own time during the year.

PPs are right: SB prioritized adding religious holidays. Maybe teachers can use the religious holidays to get their work done???

+1
And Megan was suggesting combining more TWDs with the holidays to address this. But if you are a teacher who does not celebrate the holiday you have off why not use just it for the grading / prep you need to do?

Because that's the equivalent of telling me to just "work on a saturday". I mean, yes, I will absolutely use that time to get work done because otherwise it doesn't get done, just like every weekend I grade for hours (and I actually took a sub day, today, using my own personal leave...to catch up on grading).

We are contracted to work 195 days. Saying "just work on the religious days" makes it 210 days or whatever. We aren't paid for that. If you want to extend the contract to make those work days, then staff deserves to be compensated since the expectation is they are working more.

To clarify, I'm find making them official TWDs (part of our contract that we are paid for), I'm not okay with them being a holiday for staff and students and just expecting staff to work anyway.