2023-24 draft calendar scenarios to be reviewed

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Longer and frequent breaks is far better.

Kids get time.
Families can travel.

+1

It makes no sense to cram all vacations and breaks in 2-3 months. It's far better to spread it out. International families can travel and kids can get break.

Agree so much. I do appreciate that many have already planned their vacation for late August next year.... but I hope that if this is a reason to keep the later start for the coming year, we can take the time to address it sooner for future years.

How many people in MoCo actually have a "bought and paid for" vacation already for August 2023? I am guessing that is a small fraction of families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Longer and frequent breaks is far better.

Kids get time.
Families can travel.

+1

It makes no sense to cram all vacations and breaks in 2-3 months. It's far better to spread it out. International families can travel and kids can get break.

Agree so much. I do appreciate that many have already planned their vacation for late August next year.... but I hope that if this is a reason to keep the later start for the coming year, we can take the time to address it sooner for future years.

How many people in MoCo actually have a "bought and paid for" vacation already for August 2023? I am guessing that is a small fraction of families.

The problem is that many beach houses and cabins book up a year out. It's not that ours isn't refundable at this point, it's that I don't think we could reschedule the same place to a different week. We certainly wouldn't be able to in January when this is actually decided. This is literally the first year I've even booked a vacation that week, because we end up having to take time off anyway. My mistake, I just wasn't expecting MCPS to change the start/end weeks with only 6 months notice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Longer and frequent breaks is far better.

Kids get time.
Families can travel.

+1

It makes no sense to cram all vacations and breaks in 2-3 months. It's far better to spread it out. International families can travel and kids can get break.

Agree so much. I do appreciate that many have already planned their vacation for late August next year.... but I hope that if this is a reason to keep the later start for the coming year, we can take the time to address it sooner for future years.

How many people in MoCo actually have a "bought and paid for" vacation already for August 2023? I am guessing that is a small fraction of families.

The problem is that many beach houses and cabins book up a year out. It's not that ours isn't refundable at this point, it's that I don't think we could reschedule the same place to a different week. We certainly wouldn't be able to in January when this is actually decided. This is literally the first year I've even booked a vacation that week, because we end up having to take time off anyway. My mistake, I just wasn't expecting MCPS to change the start/end weeks with only 6 months notice.

The calendar should be finalized at the December 6 board meeting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Longer and frequent breaks is far better.

Kids get time.
Families can travel.

+1

It makes no sense to cram all vacations and breaks in 2-3 months. It's far better to spread it out. International families can travel and kids can get break.

Agree so much. I do appreciate that many have already planned their vacation for late August next year.... but I hope that if this is a reason to keep the later start for the coming year, we can take the time to address it sooner for future years.

How many people in MoCo actually have a "bought and paid for" vacation already for August 2023? I am guessing that is a small fraction of families.

The problem is that many beach houses and cabins book up a year out. It's not that ours isn't refundable at this point, it's that I don't think we could reschedule the same place to a different week. We certainly wouldn't be able to in January when this is actually decided. This is literally the first year I've even booked a vacation that week, because we end up having to take time off anyway. My mistake, I just wasn't expecting MCPS to change the start/end weeks with only 6 months notice.

Thatbis why I never book a beach house until after the calendar is finalized.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Longer and frequent breaks is far better.

Kids get time.
Families can travel.

+1

It makes no sense to cram all vacations and breaks in 2-3 months. It's far better to spread it out. International families can travel and kids can get break.

Agree so much. I do appreciate that many have already planned their vacation for late August next year.... but I hope that if this is a reason to keep the later start for the coming year, we can take the time to address it sooner for future years.

How many people in MoCo actually have a "bought and paid for" vacation already for August 2023? I am guessing that is a small fraction of families.

We don't have anything booked, but we do a week at a family camp where the fact that we've traditionally done a particular week matters for how likely we are to get a spot next year. For us, that week is what's usually the last week of school, so I voted against any earlier options. I don't want to risk losing the cabin for that week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Longer and frequent breaks is far better.

Kids get time.
Families can travel.

+1

It makes no sense to cram all vacations and breaks in 2-3 months. It's far better to spread it out. International families can travel and kids can get break.

Agree so much. I do appreciate that many have already planned their vacation for late August next year.... but I hope that if this is a reason to keep the later start for the coming year, we can take the time to address it sooner for future years.

How many people in MoCo actually have a "bought and paid for" vacation already for August 2023? I am guessing that is a small fraction of families.

The problem is that many beach houses and cabins book up a year out. It's not that ours isn't refundable at this point, it's that I don't think we could reschedule the same place to a different week. We certainly wouldn't be able to in January when this is actually decided. This is literally the first year I've even booked a vacation that week, because we end up having to take time off anyway. My mistake, I just wasn't expecting MCPS to change the start/end weeks with only 6 months notice.[/quote


Vacations are also dependent on when working parents can take time off work. When we moved MD in 2012 we learned quickly that everything seems to shit down for the entire month of August.

[Anonymous]

I voted for B. This 2 half days the week of thanksgiving is nonsense, and I didn’t see how having a 2 week winter break but short thanksgiving break justified such a later last day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Longer and frequent breaks is far better.

Kids get time.
Families can travel.

+1

It makes no sense to cram all vacations and breaks in 2-3 months. It's far better to spread it out. International families can travel and kids can get break.

Agree so much. I do appreciate that many have already planned their vacation for late August next year.... but I hope that if this is a reason to keep the later start for the coming year, we can take the time to address it sooner for future years.

How many people in MoCo actually have a "bought and paid for" vacation already for August 2023? I am guessing that is a small fraction of families.

I think you’d be surprised, plus camp schedules are already coming out. Our own extended family is waiting on us/this info for a group trip. People need to be able to plan. This is really late to be changing the weeks in any significant fashion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Shorter but spread out breaks will also help with learning loss. 3 months of no instruction hurts poor families the most because kids are not learning for such a long time.

Summer isn't three months, but I guess..congrats..there was an attempt.

Missed the raised point totally. 90 days, 75 days ... all are contributing to big learning loss for kids who don't have rich parents.

To improve the situation, make the break shorter and give regular and longer breaks rest of the year.

I would love a shift to year-round school, but with more advance notice. For older kids it affects important summer experiences of various kinds - jobs, internships, summer academic/musical programming.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I voted for B. This 2 half days the week of thanksgiving is nonsense, and I didn’t see how having a 2 week winter break but short thanksgiving break justified such a later last day.

Those two days are parent conferences for K-8.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I voted for B. This 2 half days the week of thanksgiving is nonsense, and I didn’t see how having a 2 week winter break but short thanksgiving break justified such a later last day.

Those two days are parent conferences for K-8.

And some high schools also.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Longer and frequent breaks is far better.

Kids get time.
Families can travel.

+1

It makes no sense to cram all vacations and breaks in 2-3 months. It's far better to spread it out. International families can travel and kids can get break.

Agree so much. I do appreciate that many have already planned their vacation for late August next year.... but I hope that if this is a reason to keep the later start for the coming year, we can take the time to address it sooner for future years.

How many people in MoCo actually have a "bought and paid for" vacation already for August 2023? I am guessing that is a small fraction of families.

It may be less than 1% of total school population.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Longer and frequent breaks is far better.

Kids get time.
Families can travel.

+1

It makes no sense to cram all vacations and breaks in 2-3 months. It's far better to spread it out. International families can travel and kids can get break.

Agree so much. I do appreciate that many have already planned their vacation for late August next year.... but I hope that if this is a reason to keep the later start for the coming year, we can take the time to address it sooner for future years.

How many people in MoCo actually have a "bought and paid for" vacation already for August 2023? I am guessing that is a small fraction of families.

It's probably not many people overall, but they are all vocal UMC folks that love to comment, so MCPS BOE will think "basically everyone" has paid for an expensive trip.

[Anonymous]

Option A. International families need longer winter break so they can travel to countries like India in the cooler months.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Longer and frequent breaks is far better.

Kids get time.
Families can travel.

+1

It makes no sense to cram all vacations and breaks in 2-3 months. It's far better to spread it out. International families can travel and kids can get break.

Agree so much. I do appreciate that many have already planned their vacation for late August next year.... but I hope that if this is a reason to keep the later start for the coming year, we can take the time to address it sooner for future years.

How many people in MoCo actually have a "bought and paid for" vacation already for August 2023? I am guessing that is a small fraction of families.

I think you’d be surprised, plus camp schedules are already coming out. Our own extended family is waiting on us/this info for a group trip. People need to be able to plan. This is really late to be changing the weeks in any significant fashion.

This is the standard timeframe for decisions about the next year's calendar. December is the deadline according to policy. During one year of the pandemic, they suspended the policy and delayed the decision until March, IIRC. But it's otherwise been decided in December.