Melanie Meren's FB post about the calendar

[Anonymous]

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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.

+2, we all do! You’d be hard pressed to find someone at my school who gets the snow day text and feels anything but happiness.

[Anonymous]

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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.

I can only speak to my personal experience as a special ed teacher, but I assure you, we need to be off school for Eid. We need our teachers, bus drivers, IAs and PHTAs in the building. It’s literally dangerous for some students to have so many trusted and essential people out at one time.

[Anonymous]

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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.

Nah- you just think a well run school system would agree with you. You have no metric to judge whether a school system is “well run” except your own opinion of whether it serves you well. We have LOTS of snow days built in. In the Boston area there are no snow days, but my friend’s kids were out of school several times this year. They will now be in school until June 27th to make up the days. They also had a week off in February for “break.” I prefer the way FCPS does it.

[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.

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.

Nah- you just think a well run school system would agree with you. You have no metric to judge whether a school system is “well run” except your own opinion of whether it serves you well. We have LOTS of snow days built in. In the Boston area there are no snow days, but my friend’s kids were out of school several times this year. They will now be in school until June 27th to make up the days. They also had a week off in February for “break.” I prefer the way FCPS does it.

… Who do you think a school system is supposed to serve if not the students and their families? A school system that doesn’t serve them well, isn’t well run.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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.

Nah- you just think a well run school system would agree with you. You have no metric to judge whether a school system is “well run” except your own opinion of whether it serves you well. We have LOTS of snow days built in. In the Boston area there are no snow days, but my friend’s kids were out of school several times this year. They will now be in school until June 27th to make up the days. They also had a week off in February for “break.” I prefer the way FCPS does it.

… Who do you think a school system is supposed to serve if not the students and their families? A school system that doesn’t serve them well, isn’t well run.

No, that is a selfish view. A well run school system has to serve the majority kids well, not one individual parent and their individual scheduling needs. It isn’t instagram or facebook. It is a school system. Greater good and all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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.

Nah- you just think a well run school system would agree with you. You have no metric to judge whether a school system is “well run” except your own opinion of whether it serves you well. We have LOTS of snow days built in. In the Boston area there are no snow days, but my friend’s kids were out of school several times this year. They will now be in school until June 27th to make up the days. They also had a week off in February for “break.” I prefer the way FCPS does it.

… Who do you think a school system is supposed to serve if not the students and their families? A school system that doesn’t serve them well, isn’t well run.

No, that is a selfish view. A well run school system has to serve the majority kids well, not one individual parent and their individual scheduling needs. It isn’t instagram or facebook. It is a school system. Greater good and all.

Sure, and the greater number of parents are saying is the schedule doesn't serve them. Early release was imposed on a lie. That vastly eroded trust. Now there is accountability.

[Anonymous]

My bottom line is simply to make the calendar available well in advance. I really appreciate that Dr. Reid provides a three-year calendar, I hate those days when it was February and we were still waiting for the new school year calendar. Please do NOT change the posted 26-27 calendar, just stop. Remember that no calendar will ever make everyone happy. We now have one for 26-27 and let us keep it. Go ahead and work on the 28-29 one if you must.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My bottom line is simply to make the calendar available well in advance. I really appreciate that Dr. Reid provides a three-year calendar, I hate those days when it was February and we were still waiting for the new school year calendar. Please do NOT change the posted 26-27 calendar, just stop. Remember that no calendar will ever make everyone happy. We now have one for 26-27 and let us keep it. Go ahead and work on the 28-29 one if you must.

But 26–27 isn’t posted. Unless you’re saying that it’s been determined that early release is over.

[Anonymous]

Typically high school families like additional days off, those students have demanding school work and are often sleep deprived. Elementary families not so much. Teachers also welcome those days off too as most of them are over-worked.

We end up having the same discussions every time, it is simply impossible to have a calendar that makes everyone happy!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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.

Nah- you just think a well run school system would agree with you. You have no metric to judge whether a school system is “well run” except your own opinion of whether it serves you well. We have LOTS of snow days built in. In the Boston area there are no snow days, but my friend’s kids were out of school several times this year. They will now be in school until June 27th to make up the days. They also had a week off in February for “break.” I prefer the way FCPS does it.

… Who do you think a school system is supposed to serve if not the students and their families? A school system that doesn’t serve them well, isn’t well run.

No, that is a selfish view. A well run school system has to serve the majority kids well, not one individual parent and their individual scheduling needs. It isn’t instagram or facebook. It is a school system. Greater good and all.

Sure, and the greater number of parents are saying is the schedule doesn't serve them. Early release was imposed on a lie. That vastly eroded trust. Now there is accountability.

Again, you are aiming weird unproven statements like “the greater number of parents”. As listed in what survey. You don’t have any real data except more people are complaining to the board and more people are complaining NOW as the snow days are interfering with the regular calendar making it FEEL like the calendar is horrible.
The calendar has been the same for years. It was set early this year. AS far as early release is concerned, they should move back to Mondays being short days for elementary. It only affects elementary students and there are programs for those parents who are inflexible situations.

Like I said, Boston schools will be in school until June 26 or 27tth because of snow days and they had a week last week before their latest snow storm as a built in holiday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My bottom line is simply to make the calendar available well in advance. I really appreciate that Dr. Reid provides a three-year calendar, I hate those days when it was February and we were still waiting for the new school year calendar. Please do NOT change the posted 26-27 calendar, just stop. Remember that no calendar will ever make everyone happy. We now have one for 26-27 and let us keep it. Go ahead and work on the 28-29 one if you must.

But 26–27 isn’t posted. Unless you’re saying that it’s been determined that early release is over.

26-27 is posted, google it and you will see it as the first link.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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.

Nah- you just think a well run school system would agree with you. You have no metric to judge whether a school system is “well run” except your own opinion of whether it serves you well. We have LOTS of snow days built in. In the Boston area there are no snow days, but my friend’s kids were out of school several times this year. They will now be in school until June 27th to make up the days. They also had a week off in February for “break.” I prefer the way FCPS does it.

… Who do you think a school system is supposed to serve if not the students and their families? A school system that doesn’t serve them well, isn’t well run.

No, that is a selfish view. A well run school system has to serve the majority kids well, not one individual parent and their individual scheduling needs. It isn’t instagram or facebook. It is a school system. Greater good and all.

Sure, and the greater number of parents are saying is the schedule doesn't serve them. Early release was imposed on a lie. That vastly eroded trust. Now there is accountability.

Again, you are aiming weird unproven statements like “the greater number of parents”. As listed in what survey. You don’t have any real data except more people are complaining to the board and more people are complaining NOW as the snow days are interfering with the regular calendar making it FEEL like the calendar is horrible.
The calendar has been the same for years. It was set early this year. AS far as early release is concerned, they should move back to Mondays being short days for elementary. It only affects elementary students and there are programs for those parents who are inflexible situations.

Like I said, Boston schools will be in school until June 26 or 27tth because of snow days and they had a week last week before their latest snow storm as a built in holiday.

This is a strange attempt at gaslighting. The board has been getting hammered on the calendar since September and before. Early release met intense opposition. Yes how Reid handles snowstorms doesn’t build confidence in her but, the disaster calendar complaints started long before the snow did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My bottom line is simply to make the calendar available well in advance. I really appreciate that Dr. Reid provides a three-year calendar, I hate those days when it was February and we were still waiting for the new school year calendar. Please do NOT change the posted 26-27 calendar, just stop. Remember that no calendar will ever make everyone happy. We now have one for 26-27 and let us keep it. Go ahead and work on the 28-29 one if you must.

But 26–27 isn’t posted. Unless you’re saying that it’s been determined that early release is over.

26-27 is posted, google it and you will see it as the first link.

No early release in 2026-27?!?

[Anonymous]

I’d be happy enough with the 26-27 calendar as is, as long as the dumb 3 hour early releases are going the way of the dodo. My kids’ ES has given up on any instruction on those days. They use them for class test makeups if a kid was sick and then spend the rest of the time for all the other kids on “team building activities” and playing games. Meanwhile SOL’s are sneaking up on us … only March, April, and maybe a week of May left to go and we have to get through spring break in there …

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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.

Nah- you just think a well run school system would agree with you. You have no metric to judge whether a school system is “well run” except your own opinion of whether it serves you well. We have LOTS of snow days built in. In the Boston area there are no snow days, but my friend’s kids were out of school several times this year. They will now be in school until June 27th to make up the days. They also had a week off in February for “break.” I prefer the way FCPS does it.

… Who do you think a school system is supposed to serve if not the students and their families? A school system that doesn’t serve them well, isn’t well run.

No, that is a selfish view. A well run school system has to serve the majority kids well, not one individual parent and their individual scheduling needs. It isn’t instagram or facebook. It is a school system. Greater good and all.

Sure, and the greater number of parents are saying is the schedule doesn't serve them. Early release was imposed on a lie. That vastly eroded trust. Now there is accountability.

Again, you are aiming weird unproven statements like “the greater number of parents”. As listed in what survey. You don’t have any real data except more people are complaining to the board and more people are complaining NOW as the snow days are interfering with the regular calendar making it FEEL like the calendar is horrible.
The calendar has been the same for years. It was set early this year. AS far as early release is concerned, they should move back to Mondays being short days for elementary. It only affects elementary students and there are programs for those parents who are inflexible situations.

Like I said, Boston schools will be in school until June 26 or 27tth because of snow days and they had a week last week before their latest snow storm as a built in holiday.

From a September board meeting:

“I’ve been receiving a lot of feedback from parents about the calendar — it’s been more than I’ve received in the last few years,” Anderson said.

That was about snow days?