Melanie Meren's FB post about the calendar

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This was an interesting exchange on her FB thread.

Comment - (name removed) "The 26/27 school year is only 6 months away! If changes are going to be made (despite months and months of debating these calendars during school board meetings), please do them as soon as possible."

Reply from Melanie Meren, Fairfax County School Board, Hunter Mill
"Agreed. Please know I’ve been asking the Superintendent about this for months, since it’s an operational matter. However, without any action forthcoming, I’ve taken it up as Governance Chair (policy work) to bring forth the topic. I’m working in coordination with Members Ricardy Anderson (Mason District) and Mateo Dunne (Mt Vernon), and the Governance Committee will take this up on March 17."

Strange to out Dr. Reid like this and basically call her non-responsive. She and Meren must have a terrible relationship.

Also interesting that this will be discussed on March 17th. Makes me hopeful something could come of this.

Meren has made statements that she is on the outs with Reid and other Board members.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Great to hear from high school parents whose kids can 1) stay home alone 2) for free 3) can study on their own 4) have no early release nonsense - how they love this calendar and how they don't care.

HS parent here - this calendar is awful. We don't love it and more importantly my kids have complained about it.

We need to get in a learning groove and this fractured calendar has been disastrous for that.

So no, it isn't HS parents that love it. We HATE it. We also hate that there are so many school days in June when we know very little learning will be happening after tests.

But AGAIN. You are looking at the calendar with a TON of snow days. Why are you all so unable to do the calendar by itself and not see past how much the snow days impacted the last few weeks?
Without snow days, the calendar would have been fine. It is the snow days which have blown off the track. And so all of you having a temper tantrum about it will whine to get change but when there are no snow days, you will pull your kids out for long weekends to go skiing or whatever.

Go count the number of weeks with a day off and tell me it’s fine. We are surprised when they string together three 5 day weeks now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Great to hear from high school parents whose kids can 1) stay home alone 2) for free 3) can study on their own 4) have no early release nonsense - how they love this calendar and how they don't care.

HS parent here - this calendar is awful. We don't love it and more importantly my kids have complained about it.

We need to get in a learning groove and this fractured calendar has been disastrous for that.

So no, it isn't HS parents that love it. We HATE it. We also hate that there are so many school days in June when we know very little learning will be happening after tests.

But AGAIN. You are looking at the calendar with a TON of snow days. Why are you all so unable to do the calendar by itself and not see past how much the snow days impacted the last few weeks?
Without snow days, the calendar would have been fine. It is the snow days which have blown off the track. And so all of you having a temper tantrum about it will whine to get change but when there are no snow days, you will pull your kids out for long weekends to go skiing or whatever.

Go count the number of weeks with a day off and tell me it’s fine. We are surprised when they string together three 5 day weeks now.

Sure thing. In the months of Jan Feb ( you started complaining in Feb) there were supposed to be 5 weeks of 5 days of school. This was out of 8 weeks. There were 2 weeks that had federal holidays and one with the traditional end of semester days off.
It is the SNOW that has given us very few full weeks of school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Great to hear from high school parents whose kids can 1) stay home alone 2) for free 3) can study on their own 4) have no early release nonsense - how they love this calendar and how they don't care.

HS parent here - this calendar is awful. We don't love it and more importantly my kids have complained about it.

We need to get in a learning groove and this fractured calendar has been disastrous for that.

So no, it isn't HS parents that love it. We HATE it. We also hate that there are so many school days in June when we know very little learning will be happening after tests.

But AGAIN. You are looking at the calendar with a TON of snow days. Why are you all so unable to do the calendar by itself and not see past how much the snow days impacted the last few weeks?
Without snow days, the calendar would have been fine. It is the snow days which have blown off the track. And so all of you having a temper tantrum about it will whine to get change but when there are no snow days, you will pull your kids out for long weekends to go skiing or whatever.

Go count the number of weeks with a day off and tell me it’s fine. We are surprised when they string together three 5 day weeks now.

Sure thing. In the months of Jan Feb ( you started complaining in Feb) there were supposed to be 5 weeks of 5 days of school. This was out of 8 weeks. There were 2 weeks that had federal holidays and one with the traditional end of semester days off.
It is the SNOW that has given us very few full weeks of school.

No one started complaining in February. This was raised as a Constance or complaint at board meetings this fall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Great to hear from high school parents whose kids can 1) stay home alone 2) for free 3) can study on their own 4) have no early release nonsense - how they love this calendar and how they don't care.

HS parent here - this calendar is awful. We don't love it and more importantly my kids have complained about it.

We need to get in a learning groove and this fractured calendar has been disastrous for that.

So no, it isn't HS parents that love it. We HATE it. We also hate that there are so many school days in June when we know very little learning will be happening after tests.

But AGAIN. You are looking at the calendar with a TON of snow days. Why are you all so unable to do the calendar by itself and not see past how much the snow days impacted the last few weeks?
Without snow days, the calendar would have been fine. It is the snow days which have blown off the track. And so all of you having a temper tantrum about it will whine to get change but when there are no snow days, you will pull your kids out for long weekends to go skiing or whatever.

Go count the number of weeks with a day off and tell me it’s fine. We are surprised when they string together three 5 day weeks now.

Sure thing. In the months of Jan Feb ( you started complaining in Feb) there were supposed to be 5 weeks of 5 days of school. This was out of 8 weeks. There were 2 weeks that had federal holidays and one with the traditional end of semester days off.
It is the SNOW that has given us very few full weeks of school.

No one started complaining in February. This was raised as a Constance or complaint at board meetings this fall.

It rose to fever pitch with the snow days. Yes, people got more incensed in February. AND you know and I know that 5/8 weeks is fine especially since many parents also had federal holidays off and only 1 week was for an FCPS reason (to get semester grades done).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, love the non-5 day weeks. They are great. Summer is such a pain to plan, and we (and most of our friends) much prefer a day here and there, rather than additional weeks in the summer.

I agree! We love the 4 day weeks! It really helps with the sleep for middle and high schoolers.

Time to be a parent. The entire school system doesn't operate around the needs of your special child.

And it doesn’t operate around your need for a 5 day week. As long as the kids get in the required hours of instructional time I do not care. I prefer the 4 day weeks and so do a lot of parents and teachers. Your whining isn’t going to change that. Time to be a parent and deal with it.

Good to know you don't care about learning.

And no teacher likes the calendar.

Teacher here. I can assure you that the vast majority of us LOVE the current calendar. Makes it incredibly easy to take mini weekend vacations with our families without taking a ton of, if any, leave.

We hope for snow days, cherish the random holidays, and almost all of us can tell you how few "full weeks" we have until spring break and the end of the year.

Here's to hoping it snows on Monday, so we only have two full weeks before spring break!

+1, I love all the days off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Great to hear from high school parents whose kids can 1) stay home alone 2) for free 3) can study on their own 4) have no early release nonsense - how they love this calendar and how they don't care.

HS parent here - this calendar is awful. We don't love it and more importantly my kids have complained about it.

We need to get in a learning groove and this fractured calendar has been disastrous for that.

So no, it isn't HS parents that love it. We HATE it. We also hate that there are so many school days in June when we know very little learning will be happening after tests.

But AGAIN. You are looking at the calendar with a TON of snow days. Why are you all so unable to do the calendar by itself and not see past how much the snow days impacted the last few weeks?
Without snow days, the calendar would have been fine. It is the snow days which have blown off the track. And so all of you having a temper tantrum about it will whine to get change but when there are no snow days, you will pull your kids out for long weekends to go skiing or whatever.

Go count the number of weeks with a day off and tell me it’s fine. We are surprised when they string together three 5 day weeks now.

Sure thing. In the months of Jan Feb ( you started complaining in Feb) there were supposed to be 5 weeks of 5 days of school. This was out of 8 weeks. There were 2 weeks that had federal holidays and one with the traditional end of semester days off.
It is the SNOW that has given us very few full weeks of school.

No one started complaining in February. This was raised as a Constance or complaint at board meetings this fall.

It rose to fever pitch with the snow days. Yes, people got more incensed in February. AND you know and I know that 5/8 weeks is fine especially since many parents also had federal holidays off and only 1 week was for an FCPS reason (to get semester grades done).

https://www.ffxnow.com/2025/09/30/shrinking-summer-breaks-a-growing-source-of-complaints-fairfax-school-board-says/

It was reported in media in September. Not a lot of snow days in September.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a HS teacher whose planning got cut by more than half this year thanks to IPR hall duty and additional required CTs and department meetings, those random days off are the only reason I’m staying afloat this year. I use every holiday and snow day to plan/grade.

If they disappear, they have to take something else off my plate. I can’t do it all with less time.

Everyone of those snow days and random days off is a tax of hundreds of thousands of dollars on the FCPS parent body. You are not presenting a good value proposition for keeping them.

As I said, if you want to take them back, advocate to take something else off my plate. Otherwise, you aren’t going to get graded feedback weekly, updated gradebooks weekly, tutoring with kids after school, videos of lessons posted for absent kids, etc, etc. That’s the first thing that’s going to slip because it’s the only thing I can control.

I need smaller classes, less courses taught, fewer number of preps (I teach 3 different HS math courses across 5 sections + advisory lessons). Otherwise it takes a lot of time to plan and grade and remediate 150 students. That time has to come somewhere.

But please don’t pretend that a day off in October costs families $$$ and a day off in June is free. We go to school 180 days - snow days, whether those school days are in August, February, or June.

No, a day off in June isn’t free, but cost about 2/3 of what a day off in October costs.

If you have problems with your employer, those are between you and your employer. Please feel free to advocate for fewer meetings or whatever makes you feel more satisfied. Or seek employment elsewhere.

Teacher planning days and early release cost Fairfax parents hundreds of thousands of dollars in childcare. They have had enough.

Parents may have had enough, but FCPS doesn’t care - so little to nothing will change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of my favorite things in life is watching people purposefully have kids then complaining about the scheduling/planning issues that come with having kids. Almost as if they were forced into parenthood.

Like sorry Karen, I guess no one warned you that having 3 kids while you and Chad both work 9-5s that can barely financially support the 5 of you financially may come with obstacles.

But I digress, much easier for parents to moan and complain than to adapt and overcome.

Imagine if FCPS adopted the (majority of) Colorado school schedule... 7.5 hour days, 4 days a week, 144 days a year.

HOW WOULD ANYONE SURVIVE?!

If it were standard and expected, people and the community would adapt. It's the uncertainty that is burdening people so much. If we all knew going into our children's school years that it would be M-TH or Monday Tuesday, Thursday Friday people would plan for that. Employers would all know and they would likewise plan around it the same way we all currently know that there is no school on Saturdays or Sundays.

There would be workplaces that gave the option to work Saturdays because some people could work that day and their spouse work the Friday or Wednesday that kids were off. There would be private supplemental daycare places, businesses that offer martial arts or academics that would be open those days. Parents might get together and form co-ops to support each other with that one day a week off with babysitting and homework supervision and social time.

Again, the uncertainty and it changing one year to the next is the issue.

There’s nothing uncertain about our current calendar. It’s been set for years, including the days off.

What day is the Muslim holiday that is only known when some random dude sees the Moon?

Not very respectful. It's not "some random dude".

There are two Muslim holidays observed by FCPS. Both follow the lunar calendar and yes, can vary based on when the local relgious leader (Imam) views the moon.

So the school calendar isn't set years in advance.

Thanks for playing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Great to hear from high school parents whose kids can 1) stay home alone 2) for free 3) can study on their own 4) have no early release nonsense - how they love this calendar and how they don't care.

HS parent here - this calendar is awful. We don't love it and more importantly my kids have complained about it.

We need to get in a learning groove and this fractured calendar has been disastrous for that.

So no, it isn't HS parents that love it. We HATE it. We also hate that there are so many school days in June when we know very little learning will be happening after tests.

But AGAIN. You are looking at the calendar with a TON of snow days. Why are you all so unable to do the calendar by itself and not see past how much the snow days impacted the last few weeks?
Without snow days, the calendar would have been fine. It is the snow days which have blown off the track. And so all of you having a temper tantrum about it will whine to get change but when there are no snow days, you will pull your kids out for long weekends to go skiing or whatever.

You are wrong. Statistics between 24-25 and 25-26 school years before you factor in snow closures:

In 2024-25 there were 33 scheduled days off between the first and last day of school. Over the year there were 17 incomplete weeks composed of:

- 1 week with a floating day off not connected to a weekend
- 8 weeks with 4 day weeks connected to a 3 or 4 day weekend.
- 5 weeks with 3 days or fewer.
- 3 full weeks off.

In 2025-26, there are 39 scheduled days off leaving 20 weeks in the calendar that are not 5 day weeks. Of those weeks:

- 4 with a floating days off not connected to a weekend
- 6 with 4 day weeks with a long weekend
- 7 with 3 days or fewer (not counting full weeks)
- 3 weeks off

It’s the start stop of only having 1-3 days in a row that’s been awful, especially on weeks where 3 hour releases are also scheduled. The next two calendars are similar to the 24-25 calendar, thankfully.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of my favorite things in life is watching people purposefully have kids then complaining about the scheduling/planning issues that come with having kids. Almost as if they were forced into parenthood.

Like sorry Karen, I guess no one warned you that having 3 kids while you and Chad both work 9-5s that can barely financially support the 5 of you financially may come with obstacles.

But I digress, much easier for parents to moan and complain than to adapt and overcome.

Imagine if FCPS adopted the (majority of) Colorado school schedule... 7.5 hour days, 4 days a week, 144 days a year.

HOW WOULD ANYONE SURVIVE?!

If it were standard and expected, people and the community would adapt. It's the uncertainty that is burdening people so much. If we all knew going into our children's school years that it would be M-TH or Monday Tuesday, Thursday Friday people would plan for that. Employers would all know and they would likewise plan around it the same way we all currently know that there is no school on Saturdays or Sundays.

There would be workplaces that gave the option to work Saturdays because some people could work that day and their spouse work the Friday or Wednesday that kids were off. There would be private supplemental daycare places, businesses that offer martial arts or academics that would be open those days. Parents might get together and form co-ops to support each other with that one day a week off with babysitting and homework supervision and social time.

Again, the uncertainty and it changing one year to the next is the issue.

There’s nothing uncertain about our current calendar. It’s been set for years, including the days off.

What day is the Muslim holiday that is only known when some random dude sees the Moon?

Not very respectful. It's not "some random dude".

There are two Muslim holidays observed by FCPS. Both follow the lunar calendar and yes, can vary based on when the local relgious leader (Imam) views the moon.

So the school calendar isn't set years in advance.

Thanks for playing.

They estimate the date Eid will fall years in advance and set that as the Holiday for closure. If Eid shifts they do not change to scheduled day off. They make the “real” Eid an O day. This has happened recently.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a HS teacher whose planning got cut by more than half this year thanks to IPR hall duty and additional required CTs and department meetings, those random days off are the only reason I’m staying afloat this year. I use every holiday and snow day to plan/grade.

If they disappear, they have to take something else off my plate. I can’t do it all with less time.

Everyone of those snow days and random days off is a tax of hundreds of thousands of dollars on the FCPS parent body. You are not presenting a good value proposition for keeping them.

As I said, if you want to take them back, advocate to take something else off my plate. Otherwise, you aren’t going to get graded feedback weekly, updated gradebooks weekly, tutoring with kids after school, videos of lessons posted for absent kids, etc, etc. That’s the first thing that’s going to slip because it’s the only thing I can control.

I need smaller classes, less courses taught, fewer number of preps (I teach 3 different HS math courses across 5 sections + advisory lessons). Otherwise it takes a lot of time to plan and grade and remediate 150 students. That time has to come somewhere.

But please don’t pretend that a day off in October costs families $$$ and a day off in June is free. We go to school 180 days - snow days, whether those school days are in August, February, or June.

No, a day off in June isn’t free, but cost about 2/3 of what a day off in October costs.

If you have problems with your employer, those are between you and your employer. Please feel free to advocate for fewer meetings or whatever makes you feel more satisfied. Or seek employment elsewhere.

Teacher planning days and early release cost Fairfax parents hundreds of thousands of dollars in childcare. They have had enough.

Parents may have had enough, but FCPS doesn’t care - so little to nothing will change.

FCPS is governed by an elected board, in a county where many supervisors are running on affordability platform. There is a revenue neutral way to save their constituents thousands of dollars, and campaign for higher office. They’re not going to miss the opportunity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Great to hear from high school parents whose kids can 1) stay home alone 2) for free 3) can study on their own 4) have no early release nonsense - how they love this calendar and how they don't care.

HS parent here - this calendar is awful. We don't love it and more importantly my kids have complained about it.

We need to get in a learning groove and this fractured calendar has been disastrous for that.

So no, it isn't HS parents that love it. We HATE it. We also hate that there are so many school days in June when we know very little learning will be happening after tests.

But AGAIN. You are looking at the calendar with a TON of snow days. Why are you all so unable to do the calendar by itself and not see past how much the snow days impacted the last few weeks?
Without snow days, the calendar would have been fine. It is the snow days which have blown off the track. And so all of you having a temper tantrum about it will whine to get change but when there are no snow days, you will pull your kids out for long weekends to go skiing or whatever.

Go count the number of weeks with a day off and tell me it’s fine. We are surprised when they string together three 5 day weeks now.

Sure thing. In the months of Jan Feb ( you started complaining in Feb) there were supposed to be 5 weeks of 5 days of school. This was out of 8 weeks. There were 2 weeks that had federal holidays and one with the traditional end of semester days off.
It is the SNOW that has given us very few full weeks of school.

Mmm, a well run school system would recognize the issue with weather closures in Jan/Feb and attempt to maximize instructional time before those months.

But FCPS is not a well run school system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of my favorite things in life is watching people purposefully have kids then complaining about the scheduling/planning issues that come with having kids. Almost as if they were forced into parenthood.

Like sorry Karen, I guess no one warned you that having 3 kids while you and Chad both work 9-5s that can barely financially support the 5 of you financially may come with obstacles.

But I digress, much easier for parents to moan and complain than to adapt and overcome.

Imagine if FCPS adopted the (majority of) Colorado school schedule... 7.5 hour days, 4 days a week, 144 days a year.

HOW WOULD ANYONE SURVIVE?!

If it were standard and expected, people and the community would adapt. It's the uncertainty that is burdening people so much. If we all knew going into our children's school years that it would be M-TH or Monday Tuesday, Thursday Friday people would plan for that. Employers would all know and they would likewise plan around it the same way we all currently know that there is no school on Saturdays or Sundays.

There would be workplaces that gave the option to work Saturdays because some people could work that day and their spouse work the Friday or Wednesday that kids were off. There would be private supplemental daycare places, businesses that offer martial arts or academics that would be open those days. Parents might get together and form co-ops to support each other with that one day a week off with babysitting and homework supervision and social time.

Again, the uncertainty and it changing one year to the next is the issue.

There’s nothing uncertain about our current calendar. It’s been set for years, including the days off.

What day is the Muslim holiday that is only known when some random dude sees the Moon?

Not very respectful. It's not "some random dude".

There are two Muslim holidays observed by FCPS. Both follow the lunar calendar and yes, can vary based on when the local relgious leader (Imam) views the moon.

So the school calendar isn't set years in advance.

Thanks for playing.

They estimate the date Eid will fall years in advance and set that as the Holiday for closure. If Eid shifts they do not change to scheduled day off. They make the “real” Eid an O day. This has happened recently.

Or just drop it (and all the other woke holidays) from the calendar and never worry about it again.

The simpler solution is usually better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, love the non-5 day weeks. They are great. Summer is such a pain to plan, and we (and most of our friends) much prefer a day here and there, rather than additional weeks in the summer.

I agree! We love the 4 day weeks! It really helps with the sleep for middle and high schoolers.

Time to be a parent. The entire school system doesn't operate around the needs of your special child.

And it doesn’t operate around your need for a 5 day week. As long as the kids get in the required hours of instructional time I do not care. I prefer the 4 day weeks and so do a lot of parents and teachers. Your whining isn’t going to change that. Time to be a parent and deal with it.

Good to know you don't care about learning.

And no teacher likes the calendar.

Teacher here. I can assure you that the vast majority of us LOVE the current calendar. Makes it incredibly easy to take mini weekend vacations with our families without taking a ton of, if any, leave.

We hope for snow days, cherish the random holidays, and almost all of us can tell you how few "full weeks" we have until spring break and the end of the year.

Here's to hoping it snows on Monday, so we only have two full weeks before spring break!

Teachers with this attitude are the reason people think the profession is a jobs program rather than for the benefit of students.

Making low to mid six-figures and only working 190 days a year (minus snow days ). There’s not much to complain about in this profession.

Vocal minority hates the calendar. The majority of teachers honestly just don’t care enough about the calendar to outwardly complain about it. They also enjoy an unexpected day off!