How DO we get the calendar changed?

[Anonymous]

One of the board members, I cannot remember which but it could have been Meren had the grace to say that no one has ever bothered to get official feedback from *parents* on early release they just get a memo from Reid about how great it was.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One of the board members, I cannot remember which but it could have been Meren had the grace to say that no one has ever bothered to get official feedback from *parents* on early release they just get a memo from Reid about how great it was.

Meren right now is the main driver of pointing out how bad the schedule is. Unfortunately I think the board is too fractured between people who are “gettable” in terms of changing the calendar and getting rid of the monthly early dismissals vs. those who will rubber stamp any days off and closures. And the calendar skeptics are in the minority.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is fd up beyond belief. I’m a democrat ready and willing to vote any way it takes to end this shit for school situation and our taxes aren’t cheap. Just tell me who to vote for or against. I’m done with the dicking around.

No incumbents. Vote against anyone currently on the board.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of the board members, I cannot remember which but it could have been Meren had the grace to say that no one has ever bothered to get official feedback from *parents* on early release they just get a memo from Reid about how great it was.

Meren right now is the main driver of pointing out how bad the schedule is. Unfortunately I think the board is too fractured between people who are “gettable” in terms of changing the calendar and getting rid of the monthly early dismissals vs. those who will rubber stamp any days off and closures. And the calendar skeptics are in the minority.

Have they checked the operational costs of running two sets of buses for impacted elementary schools? The staff they’re paying to babysit the remaining kids? The SACC days that were removed from other holidays to staff this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Now the school board is floating the idea of removing Veterans Day and IP Day next year and shifting early release to Fridays. At this point, it feels like they’re rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Families have slogged through a year of chopped‑up weeks, pointless closures, and “professional days” that seem to appear out of thin air - and this is the grand solution?

Let’s be honest: this isn’t meaningful reform. It’s tokenism dressed up as “responsiveness,” a quick political talking point they can wave around while avoiding the real conversation about how dysfunctional the calendar has become. Scrapping two holidays and shuffling early release to Fridays doesn’t fix anything. It’s cosmetic, short‑term, and designed to look like action without actually requiring any.

If they want credibility, they need to stop playing calendar whack‑a‑mole and address the structural mess they’ve created. Families deserve a school year that isn’t a patchwork of interruptions. Students deserve instructional time that isn’t constantly carved up. And the board needs to stop pretending that these tiny, performative tweaks count as leadership.

Yes, they are rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. And also, there was a reason they moved the elementary early release days from Mondays to Wednesdays: Too many staff took the Mondays off. Do they not expect that same problem with Fridays?

Stop the early release days all together. Those days are a total waste. Of the 4.5 hours - 1 hour is lunch and recess. Between morning mtg and transitions it is about an hour of learning and that is if the teacher uses it to teach. Not all do. It is a joke of a day.

Our school does “family time”. Which is a waste. At least cancel recess and specials and actually teach something in the 4.5 hours they have. Gah.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Now the school board is floating the idea of removing Veterans Day and IP Day next year and shifting early release to Fridays. At this point, it feels like they’re rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Families have slogged through a year of chopped‑up weeks, pointless closures, and “professional days” that seem to appear out of thin air - and this is the grand solution?

Let’s be honest: this isn’t meaningful reform. It’s tokenism dressed up as “responsiveness,” a quick political talking point they can wave around while avoiding the real conversation about how dysfunctional the calendar has become. Scrapping two holidays and shuffling early release to Fridays doesn’t fix anything. It’s cosmetic, short‑term, and designed to look like action without actually requiring any.

If they want credibility, they need to stop playing calendar whack‑a‑mole and address the structural mess they’ve created. Families deserve a school year that isn’t a patchwork of interruptions. Students deserve instructional time that isn’t constantly carved up. And the board needs to stop pretending that these tiny, performative tweaks count as leadership.

Yes, they are rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. And also, there was a reason they moved the elementary early release days from Mondays to Wednesdays: Too many staff took the Mondays off. Do they not expect that same problem with Fridays?

Stop the early release days all together. Those days are a total waste. Of the 4.5 hours - 1 hour is lunch and recess. Between morning mtg and transitions it is about an hour of learning and that is if the teacher uses it to teach. Not all do. It is a joke of a day.

Our school does “family time”. Which is a waste. At least cancel recess and specials and actually teach something in the 4.5 hours they have. Gah.

Where are you getting 4.5 hours? Our bell is at 8:15 and they’re dismissed at 11:55. Minus lunch it’s about a 3 hour day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is fd up beyond belief. I’m a democrat ready and willing to vote any way it takes to end this shit for school situation and our taxes aren’t cheap. Just tell me who to vote for or against. I’m done with the dicking around.

No incumbents. Vote against anyone currently on the board.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Now the school board is floating the idea of removing Veterans Day and IP Day next year and shifting early release to Fridays. At this point, it feels like they’re rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Families have slogged through a year of chopped‑up weeks, pointless closures, and “professional days” that seem to appear out of thin air - and this is the grand solution?

Let’s be honest: this isn’t meaningful reform. It’s tokenism dressed up as “responsiveness,” a quick political talking point they can wave around while avoiding the real conversation about how dysfunctional the calendar has become. Scrapping two holidays and shuffling early release to Fridays doesn’t fix anything. It’s cosmetic, short‑term, and designed to look like action without actually requiring any.

If they want credibility, they need to stop playing calendar whack‑a‑mole and address the structural mess they’ve created. Families deserve a school year that isn’t a patchwork of interruptions. Students deserve instructional time that isn’t constantly carved up. And the board needs to stop pretending that these tiny, performative tweaks count as leadership.

Yes, they are rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. And also, there was a reason they moved the elementary early release days from Mondays to Wednesdays: Too many staff took the Mondays off. Do they not expect that same problem with Fridays?

Stop the early release days all together. Those days are a total waste. Of the 4.5 hours - 1 hour is lunch and recess. Between morning mtg and transitions it is about an hour of learning and that is if the teacher uses it to teach. Not all do. It is a joke of a day.

Our school does “family time”. Which is a waste. At least cancel recess and specials and actually teach something in the 4.5 hours they have. Gah.

It really depends on the teacher and school how effective the time is. My kid who is in full time AAP at the center school still learns a significant amount on those days. My kid’s teachers create a special schedule on early release days to minimize impact to instruction time. But it’s a wasted day for my 2nd grader at the base school. The teacher while very kind is not effective in general. It doesn’t matter if it’s a full day or early release. I blame the poor leadership at the base school. Getting rid of early release teacher prep time will not solve the problem at our base school and would actually make it worse. I support the teacher prep time. FCCPS has even more Wednesday early releases and it seems to work for them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Now the school board is floating the idea of removing Veterans Day and IP Day next year and shifting early release to Fridays. At this point, it feels like they’re rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Families have slogged through a year of chopped‑up weeks, pointless closures, and “professional days” that seem to appear out of thin air - and this is the grand solution?

Let’s be honest: this isn’t meaningful reform. It’s tokenism dressed up as “responsiveness,” a quick political talking point they can wave around while avoiding the real conversation about how dysfunctional the calendar has become. Scrapping two holidays and shuffling early release to Fridays doesn’t fix anything. It’s cosmetic, short‑term, and designed to look like action without actually requiring any.

If they want credibility, they need to stop playing calendar whack‑a‑mole and address the structural mess they’ve created. Families deserve a school year that isn’t a patchwork of interruptions. Students deserve instructional time that isn’t constantly carved up. And the board needs to stop pretending that these tiny, performative tweaks count as leadership.

Let's be 100% clear here, what you want is to eliminate religious holidays and for teachers to do schoolwork at home on their own time. Just say that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Now the school board is floating the idea of removing Veterans Day and IP Day next year and shifting early release to Fridays. At this point, it feels like they’re rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Families have slogged through a year of chopped‑up weeks, pointless closures, and “professional days” that seem to appear out of thin air - and this is the grand solution?

Let’s be honest: this isn’t meaningful reform. It’s tokenism dressed up as “responsiveness,” a quick political talking point they can wave around while avoiding the real conversation about how dysfunctional the calendar has become. Scrapping two holidays and shuffling early release to Fridays doesn’t fix anything. It’s cosmetic, short‑term, and designed to look like action without actually requiring any.

If they want credibility, they need to stop playing calendar whack‑a‑mole and address the structural mess they’ve created. Families deserve a school year that isn’t a patchwork of interruptions. Students deserve instructional time that isn’t constantly carved up. And the board needs to stop pretending that these tiny, performative tweaks count as leadership.

Yes, they are rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. And also, there was a reason they moved the elementary early release days from Mondays to Wednesdays: Too many staff took the Mondays off. Do they not expect that same problem with Fridays?

Stop the early release days all together. Those days are a total waste. Of the 4.5 hours - 1 hour is lunch and recess. Between morning mtg and transitions it is about an hour of learning and that is if the teacher uses it to teach. Not all do. It is a joke of a day.

Our school does “family time”. Which is a waste. At least cancel recess and specials and actually teach something in the 4.5 hours they have. Gah.

It really depends on the teacher and school how effective the time is. My kid who is in full time AAP at the center school still learns a significant amount on those days. My kid’s teachers create a special schedule on early release days to minimize impact to instruction time. But it’s a wasted day for my 2nd grader at the base school. The teacher while very kind is not effective in general. It doesn’t matter if it’s a full day or early release. I blame the poor leadership at the base school. Getting rid of early release teacher prep time will not solve the problem at our base school and would actually make it worse. I support the teacher prep time. FCCPS has even more Wednesday early releases and it seems to work for them.

FCCPS has made other trade-off like having religious holidays with school in session instead of having them off entirely. We can’t just take their early release schedule without looking at the other operational choices that make it palatable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Now the school board is floating the idea of removing Veterans Day and IP Day next year and shifting early release to Fridays. At this point, it feels like they’re rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Families have slogged through a year of chopped‑up weeks, pointless closures, and “professional days” that seem to appear out of thin air - and this is the grand solution?

Let’s be honest: this isn’t meaningful reform. It’s tokenism dressed up as “responsiveness,” a quick political talking point they can wave around while avoiding the real conversation about how dysfunctional the calendar has become. Scrapping two holidays and shuffling early release to Fridays doesn’t fix anything. It’s cosmetic, short‑term, and designed to look like action without actually requiring any.

If they want credibility, they need to stop playing calendar whack‑a‑mole and address the structural mess they’ve created. Families deserve a school year that isn’t a patchwork of interruptions. Students deserve instructional time that isn’t constantly carved up. And the board needs to stop pretending that these tiny, performative tweaks count as leadership.

Yes, they are rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. And also, there was a reason they moved the elementary early release days from Mondays to Wednesdays: Too many staff took the Mondays off. Do they not expect that same problem with Fridays?

Stop the early release days all together. Those days are a total waste. Of the 4.5 hours - 1 hour is lunch and recess. Between morning mtg and transitions it is about an hour of learning and that is if the teacher uses it to teach. Not all do. It is a joke of a day.

Our school does “family time”. Which is a waste. At least cancel recess and specials and actually teach something in the 4.5 hours they have. Gah.

Yes at a minimum recess should be out of the schedule on these days. Also, at both the center and base school, the schools have adjusted so that all lunches every day will be done before the 3hr early release time. That means both schools have the first lunch time start 1 hr 15 min after the start of the school day. For the upper grades, they seem to be able to make this work, but my 2nd grader has that lunch time and it seems like the first hour of school largely gets wasted because between morning meeting and need for transition to lunch time the kids only have about 20-30 min for an actual lesson despite being 75 min of school time.

Like a different poster mentioned, our base school also uses the 3 hr early releases for specials, recess, lunch, and the independent work time.

It's also hard to understand why all this extra planning time is needed when the kids are now taking mostly* computer tests (no grading time required) and using the same packaged curriculum. If it felt like these days were accomplishing improvements in the classroom, I believe less parents would be upset.

*technically their weekly 5 word spelling tests are on paper.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Now the school board is floating the idea of removing Veterans Day and IP Day next year and shifting early release to Fridays. At this point, it feels like they’re rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Families have slogged through a year of chopped‑up weeks, pointless closures, and “professional days” that seem to appear out of thin air - and this is the grand solution?

Let’s be honest: this isn’t meaningful reform. It’s tokenism dressed up as “responsiveness,” a quick political talking point they can wave around while avoiding the real conversation about how dysfunctional the calendar has become. Scrapping two holidays and shuffling early release to Fridays doesn’t fix anything. It’s cosmetic, short‑term, and designed to look like action without actually requiring any.

If they want credibility, they need to stop playing calendar whack‑a‑mole and address the structural mess they’ve created. Families deserve a school year that isn’t a patchwork of interruptions. Students deserve instructional time that isn’t constantly carved up. And the board needs to stop pretending that these tiny, performative tweaks count as leadership.

Yes, they are rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. And also, there was a reason they moved the elementary early release days from Mondays to Wednesdays: Too many staff took the Mondays off. Do they not expect that same problem with Fridays?

Stop the early release days all together. Those days are a total waste. Of the 4.5 hours - 1 hour is lunch and recess. Between morning mtg and transitions it is about an hour of learning and that is if the teacher uses it to teach. Not all do. It is a joke of a day.

Our school does “family time”. Which is a waste. At least cancel recess and specials and actually teach something in the 4.5 hours they have. Gah.

It really depends on the teacher and school how effective the time is. My kid who is in full time AAP at the center school still learns a significant amount on those days. My kid’s teachers create a special schedule on early release days to minimize impact to instruction time. But it’s a wasted day for my 2nd grader at the base school. The teacher while very kind is not effective in general. It doesn’t matter if it’s a full day or early release. I blame the poor leadership at the base school. Getting rid of early release teacher prep time will not solve the problem at our base school and would actually make it worse. I support the teacher prep time. FCCPS has even more Wednesday early releases and it seems to work for them.

FCCPS has made other trade-off like having religious holidays with school in session instead of having them off entirely. We can’t just take their early release schedule without looking at the other operational choices that make it palatable.

FCCPS has something like 2700 students in the entire district. The city is 2 square miles and its population is 70% white. Surely you can see why a school with 177,000 students and majority minority demographics might balance cultural observances differently.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Now the school board is floating the idea of removing Veterans Day and IP Day next year and shifting early release to Fridays. At this point, it feels like they’re rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Families have slogged through a year of chopped‑up weeks, pointless closures, and “professional days” that seem to appear out of thin air - and this is the grand solution?

Let’s be honest: this isn’t meaningful reform. It’s tokenism dressed up as “responsiveness,” a quick political talking point they can wave around while avoiding the real conversation about how dysfunctional the calendar has become. Scrapping two holidays and shuffling early release to Fridays doesn’t fix anything. It’s cosmetic, short‑term, and designed to look like action without actually requiring any.

If they want credibility, they need to stop playing calendar whack‑a‑mole and address the structural mess they’ve created. Families deserve a school year that isn’t a patchwork of interruptions. Students deserve instructional time that isn’t constantly carved up. And the board needs to stop pretending that these tiny, performative tweaks count as leadership.

Yes, they are rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. And also, there was a reason they moved the elementary early release days from Mondays to Wednesdays: Too many staff took the Mondays off. Do they not expect that same problem with Fridays?

Stop the early release days all together. Those days are a total waste. Of the 4.5 hours - 1 hour is lunch and recess. Between morning mtg and transitions it is about an hour of learning and that is if the teacher uses it to teach. Not all do. It is a joke of a day.

Our school does “family time”. Which is a waste. At least cancel recess and specials and actually teach something in the 4.5 hours they have. Gah.

Yes at a minimum recess should be out of the schedule on these days. Also, at both the center and base school, the schools have adjusted so that all lunches every day will be done before the 3hr early release time. That means both schools have the first lunch time start 1 hr 15 min after the start of the school day. For the upper grades, they seem to be able to make this work, but my 2nd grader has that lunch time and it seems like the first hour of school largely gets wasted because between morning meeting and need for transition to lunch time the kids only have about 20-30 min for an actual lesson despite being 75 min of school time.

Like a different poster mentioned, our base school also uses the 3 hr early releases for specials, recess, lunch, and the independent work time.

It's also hard to understand why all this extra planning time is needed when the kids are now taking mostly* computer tests (no grading time required) and using the same packaged curriculum. If it felt like these days were accomplishing improvements in the classroom, I believe less parents would be upset.

*technically their weekly 5 word spelling tests are on paper.

My AAP kid has mainly paper assignments and tests. All of which get graded. The teacher writes meaningful comments on their projects and homework. Their teacher gives additional tests beyond the VA standards tests. Prep is definitely needed for that. I think the school leadership is the problem. This kid’s school seems to have high expectations of the teachers and gives them proper support. My other kid’s principal is disengaged and doesn’t know what’s going on in the classrooms. The teacher quality varies a ton. More ineffective than not. The school leadership doesn’t give the teachers adequate support. I’ve lobbied for this and given ideas because my kid’s education is affected. But they don’t do anything. We are waiting until my kid can hopefully switch schools. The good teachers and schools deserve prep time. The ineffective ones need bigger solutions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Now the school board is floating the idea of removing Veterans Day and IP Day next year and shifting early release to Fridays. At this point, it feels like they’re rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Families have slogged through a year of chopped‑up weeks, pointless closures, and “professional days” that seem to appear out of thin air - and this is the grand solution?

Let’s be honest: this isn’t meaningful reform. It’s tokenism dressed up as “responsiveness,” a quick political talking point they can wave around while avoiding the real conversation about how dysfunctional the calendar has become. Scrapping two holidays and shuffling early release to Fridays doesn’t fix anything. It’s cosmetic, short‑term, and designed to look like action without actually requiring any.

If they want credibility, they need to stop playing calendar whack‑a‑mole and address the structural mess they’ve created. Families deserve a school year that isn’t a patchwork of interruptions. Students deserve instructional time that isn’t constantly carved up. And the board needs to stop pretending that these tiny, performative tweaks count as leadership.

Yes, they are rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. And also, there was a reason they moved the elementary early release days from Mondays to Wednesdays: Too many staff took the Mondays off. Do they not expect that same problem with Fridays?

Stop the early release days all together. Those days are a total waste. Of the 4.5 hours - 1 hour is lunch and recess. Between morning mtg and transitions it is about an hour of learning and that is if the teacher uses it to teach. Not all do. It is a joke of a day.

Our school does “family time”. Which is a waste. At least cancel recess and specials and actually teach something in the 4.5 hours they have. Gah.

Yes at a minimum recess should be out of the schedule on these days. Also, at both the center and base school, the schools have adjusted so that all lunches every day will be done before the 3hr early release time. That means both schools have the first lunch time start 1 hr 15 min after the start of the school day. For the upper grades, they seem to be able to make this work, but my 2nd grader has that lunch time and it seems like the first hour of school largely gets wasted because between morning meeting and need for transition to lunch time the kids only have about 20-30 min for an actual lesson despite being 75 min of school time.

Like a different poster mentioned, our base school also uses the 3 hr early releases for specials, recess, lunch, and the independent work time.

It's also hard to understand why all this extra planning time is needed when the kids are now taking mostly* computer tests (no grading time required) and using the same packaged curriculum. If it felt like these days were accomplishing improvements in the classroom, I believe less parents would be upset.

*technically their weekly 5 word spelling tests are on paper.

My kid has no recess, no morning meeting and 30 min specials on ER days. Teacher shared that it is all content but shortened blocks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Now the school board is floating the idea of removing Veterans Day and IP Day next year and shifting early release to Fridays. At this point, it feels like they’re rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Families have slogged through a year of chopped‑up weeks, pointless closures, and “professional days” that seem to appear out of thin air - and this is the grand solution?

Let’s be honest: this isn’t meaningful reform. It’s tokenism dressed up as “responsiveness,” a quick political talking point they can wave around while avoiding the real conversation about how dysfunctional the calendar has become. Scrapping two holidays and shuffling early release to Fridays doesn’t fix anything. It’s cosmetic, short‑term, and designed to look like action without actually requiring any.

If they want credibility, they need to stop playing calendar whack‑a‑mole and address the structural mess they’ve created. Families deserve a school year that isn’t a patchwork of interruptions. Students deserve instructional time that isn’t constantly carved up. And the board needs to stop pretending that these tiny, performative tweaks count as leadership.

Yes, they are rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. And also, there was a reason they moved the elementary early release days from Mondays to Wednesdays: Too many staff took the Mondays off. Do they not expect that same problem with Fridays?

Stop the early release days all together. Those days are a total waste. Of the 4.5 hours - 1 hour is lunch and recess. Between morning mtg and transitions it is about an hour of learning and that is if the teacher uses it to teach. Not all do. It is a joke of a day.

Our school does “family time”. Which is a waste. At least cancel recess and specials and actually teach something in the 4.5 hours they have. Gah.

It really depends on the teacher and school how effective the time is. My kid who is in full time AAP at the center school still learns a significant amount on those days. My kid’s teachers create a special schedule on early release days to minimize impact to instruction time. But it’s a wasted day for my 2nd grader at the base school. The teacher while very kind is not effective in general. It doesn’t matter if it’s a full day or early release. I blame the poor leadership at the base school. Getting rid of early release teacher prep time will not solve the problem at our base school and would actually make it worse. I support the teacher prep time. FCCPS has even more Wednesday early releases and it seems to work for them.

FCCPS has made other trade-off like having religious holidays with school in session instead of having them off entirely. We can’t just take their early release schedule without looking at the other operational choices that make it palatable.

FCCPS has something like 2700 students in the entire district. The city is 2 square miles and its population is 70% white. Surely you can see why a school with 177,000 students and majority minority demographics might balance cultural observances differently.

What data support FCPS needing to handle cultural observances differently? Since when did planning a school calendar become an exercise in making everyone feel good? The only reason I can think of is for school board members to pander to certain groups whose votes they want when they go to run for office.

I can't get over the week of April 6. Off that Monday AND Friday, right after spring break? For Easter Monday? Come on. I am a cradle Catholic who grew up in an area with a ton of Catholics from various countries, and we never celebrated that. The number of people who do in FCPS must be super tiny.