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

[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.

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

Sounds like those two dates would be perfect teacher planning days. Schools can track attendance/call-outs and that will help determine how necessary those days are.

[Anonymous]

There is also primary elections happening June 16? If they closed for a special election will they close that day? Will they move the last day of school? Who will be coming back on Wed?

[Anonymous]

I am the OP. My child only started in FCPS in 2024. I am so confused about why people asked for this (as a poster indicated earlier). Is it a fact that the majority of people with a stake in the school calendar asked for it by way of survey responses? What am I missing?

[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.

Speak for your family yourself. My husband is i take equal days off to support school days off. Perhaps the casual sexism is in your own house. Hate when people claim this, when it really speaks to your own household.
(We also don't love taking all this random time off)

[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.

Speak for your family yourself. My husband is i take equal days off to support school days off. Perhaps the casual sexism is in your own house. Hate when people claim this, when it really speaks to your own household.
(We also don't love taking all this random time off)

***my husband and I take equal time off
(Is there no way to edit posts?)

[Anonymous]

Speak for your family yourself. My husband is i take equal days off to support school days off. Perhaps the casual sexism is in your own house. Hate when people claim this, when it really speaks to your own household.
(We also don't love taking all this random time off)

Yes. Because no one is a single mom or dad. No one has a DH who might be deployed for the military or might have a job with very limited time off. In fact, both parents may have very limited time off. Not every one has unlimited PTO.

[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.

Speak for your family yourself. My husband is i take equal days off to support school days off. Perhaps the casual sexism is in your own house. Hate when people claim this, when it really speaks to your own household.
(We also don't love taking all this random time off)

The statistics, which are widely available me, say your family is an anomaly. FCPS knows it’s the women whose time and money they are freeloading on. My husband's job comes with less annual leave than mine, and sure everyone would love if employers handed out 40 days (eight weeks!) of PTO from September to June but it doesn't happen.

[Anonymous]

25-26 was a terrible calendar but 26 onwards is a lot saner

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am the OP. My child only started in FCPS in 2024. I am so confused about why people asked for this (as a poster indicated earlier). Is it a fact that the majority of people with a stake in the school calendar asked for it by way of survey responses? What am I missing?

Nobody asked for this except for woke liberals. There was never a valid survey that sought input.

What's missing is sound rational school planning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Speak for your family yourself. My husband is i take equal days off to support school days off. Perhaps the casual sexism is in your own house. Hate when people claim this, when it really speaks to your own household.
(We also don't love taking all this random time off)

The statistics, which are widely available me, say your family is an anomaly. FCPS knows it’s the women whose time and money they are freeloading on. My husband's job comes with less annual leave than mine, and sure everyone would love if employers handed out 40 days (eight weeks!) of PTO from September to June but it doesn't happen.

Yeah, no - most people get nowhere near 40 days. Which is why my husband and I split childcare responsibilities and days off. That's a marriage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Speak for your family yourself. My husband is i take equal days off to support school days off. Perhaps the casual sexism is in your own house. Hate when people claim this, when it really speaks to your own household.
(We also don't love taking all this random time off)

The statistics, which are widely available me, say your family is an anomaly. FCPS knows it’s the women whose time and money they are freeloading on. My husband's job comes with less annual leave than mine, and sure everyone would love if employers handed out 40 days (eight weeks!) of PTO from September to June but it doesn't happen.

Yeah, no - most people get nowhere near 40 days. Which is why my husband and I split childcare responsibilities and days off. That's a marriage.

Some people are not able to split. Some men do more and some do less than their wives. And, some are single parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Speak for your family yourself. My husband is i take equal days off to support school days off. Perhaps the casual sexism is in your own house. Hate when people claim this, when it really speaks to your own household.
(We also don't love taking all this random time off)

The statistics, which are widely available me, say your family is an anomaly. FCPS knows it’s the women whose time and money they are freeloading on. My husband's job comes with less annual leave than mine, and sure everyone would love if employers handed out 40 days (eight weeks!) of PTO from September to June but it doesn't happen.

Yeah, no - most people get nowhere near 40 days. Which is why my husband and I split childcare responsibilities and days off. That's a marriage.

Some people are not able to split. Some men do more and some do less than their wives. And, some are single parents.

Yes. Thanks for stating the obvious

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Speak for your family yourself. My husband is i take equal days off to support school days off. Perhaps the casual sexism is in your own house. Hate when people claim this, when it really speaks to your own household.
(We also don't love taking all this random time off)

The statistics, which are widely available me, say your family is an anomaly. FCPS knows it’s the women whose time and money they are freeloading on. My husband's job comes with less annual leave than mine, and sure everyone would love if employers handed out 40 days (eight weeks!) of PTO from September to June but it doesn't happen.

Yeah, no - most people get nowhere near 40 days. Which is why my husband and I split childcare responsibilities and days off. That's a marriage.

And thats great for you— truly— but statistically insignificant. When FCPS sets this calendar they’re not saying oh well in an egalitarian marriage we’re only asking for 20 days off each person. They’ve got the data about hours of childcare work, and they’ve got the data about single parents, and they come to the conclusion that women can be out of the workplace to make sure teachers have “enough planning time”. That’s the assumption.

For as liberal as FCPS is, its a model that 100% assumes a SAHM, and hides behind disrespectful sound-bytes like “school isn’t childcare” and “you had years to plan!” and my favorite “why don’t you want to spend time with your kids!?” to attempt to shame women out of advocating for better. I think in COVID it worked because it was paired with a message of public safety but schools and teachers got greedy about what they could ask for, parents had enough, and now even the school board says it has to change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am the OP. My child only started in FCPS in 2024. I am so confused about why people asked for this (as a poster indicated earlier). Is it a fact that the majority of people with a stake in the school calendar asked for it by way of survey responses? What am I missing?

The surveys are poorly designed (or brilliantly designed, depending on how you look at it) to give the school board the answers they want. Most people want to keep a full 2 week winter break, a spring break tied to Easter (because it aligns us with other school districts who all do it too - important for teachers who work in one district and whose kids attend school in another), people are supportive of minority religions with large populations in the school getting their holidays off, people want federal holidays off like Veteran's Day and Columbus Day.

They ask all these questions individually, but never say what voting for the day off does to the overall schedule. So the polls they put out are basically meaningless and they just end up doing whatever they want. I believe they've also added a lot of teacher work days since the more reasonable calendar in the early 2010s.

It all adds up to a school year that goes from mid-August to mid-June.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Speak for your family yourself. My husband is i take equal days off to support school days off. Perhaps the casual sexism is in your own house. Hate when people claim this, when it really speaks to your own household.
(We also don't love taking all this random time off)

The statistics, which are widely available me, say your family is an anomaly. FCPS knows it’s the women whose time and money they are freeloading on. My husband's job comes with less annual leave than mine, and sure everyone would love if employers handed out 40 days (eight weeks!) of PTO from September to June but it doesn't happen.

Yeah, no - most people get nowhere near 40 days. Which is why my husband and I split childcare responsibilities and days off. That's a marriage.

And thats great for you— truly— but statistically insignificant. When FCPS sets this calendar they’re not saying oh well in an egalitarian marriage we’re only asking for 20 days off each person. They’ve got the data about hours of childcare work, and they’ve got the data about single parents, and they come to the conclusion that women can be out of the workplace to make sure teachers have “enough planning time”. That’s the assumption.

For as liberal as FCPS is, its a model that 100% assumes a SAHM, and hides behind disrespectful sound-bytes like “school isn’t childcare” and “you had years to plan!” and my favorite “why don’t you want to spend time with your kids!?” to attempt to shame women out of advocating for better. I think in COVID it worked because it was paired with a message of public safety but schools and teachers got greedy about what they could ask for, parents had enough, and now even the school board says it has to change.

No, no, no.
Work on your marriage and the split of duties if you are both working parents. Just hate how everything becomes an equality debate.
And yes, I hate the calendar also. At least make some of the days off on Monday or Friday so we can plan some long weekends.