Diwali peition

[Anonymous]

^^^whether or not Lunar New Year is a religious holiday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
What's your threshold? How many people have to celebrate a religious holiday for MCPS to close for it?

Certainly not for a few thousand kids. That isn't even close. You are talking maybe 2-4% at most of the entire MCPS population. Less than 2% of teachers/staff. Absences on non holidays are 2.5%. So there is absolutely no reason to close on these holidays. Yesterday my child's class had 2 kids absent for Lunar New Year. Again, not even close enough to close the entire district down for a day. The fact that you think you deserve it is the problem here.

The question is not, what shouldn't be the threshold? The question is, what should be the threshold?

Also, nobody is talking about "deserve". MCPS closes for some religious holidays but not for others. Which religious holidays should MCPS close for, and why?

The ones where they can not staff all the schools or it is state or federal mandated. This has been said countless times by countless people in multiple threads and in multiple posts. The state or federal government does not recognize Diwali. The percentages are so low at MCPS they can not even see a peak of percentages in absences on this holiday. They can also fully staff each and every school. ALL of those thing mean that this holiday should not be a day off for the entire school district and extend the school year another day. If the time ever comes that the states wants to recognize it as a required day off, or if the staff can not operate a school(s) or large percentages of over 20% are not in school, THEN come back and ask. Making a request for 2% of the school district? Come on already. It is getting so old.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

The ones where they can not staff all the schools or it is state or federal mandated. This has been said countless times by countless people in multiple threads and in multiple posts. The state or federal government does not recognize Diwali. The percentages are so low at MCPS they can not even see a peak of percentages in absences on this holiday. They can also fully staff each and every school. ALL of those thing mean that this holiday should not be a day off for the entire school district and extend the school year another day. If the time ever comes that the states wants to recognize it as a required day off, or if the staff can not operate a school(s) or large percentages of over 20% are not in school, THEN come back and ask. Making a request for 2% of the school district? Come on already. It is getting so old.

That's not a threshold. What threshold do you want? >20%? OK, let's say that if >20% of students or teachers are out, then the schools should close. Otherwise, the schools should stay open.

For which of these current MCPS closures would >20% of students or teachers be out, if there were school (in calendar-year order)?

Rosh Hashanah
Yom Kippur
Good Friday
Easter Monday

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
What's your threshold? How many people have to celebrate a religious holiday for MCPS to close for it?

Certainly not for a few thousand kids. That isn't even close. You are talking maybe 2-4% at most of the entire MCPS population. Less than 2% of teachers/staff. Absences on non holidays are 2.5%. So there is absolutely no reason to close on these holidays. Yesterday my child's class had 2 kids absent for Lunar New Year. Again, not even close enough to close the entire district down for a day. The fact that you think you deserve it is the problem here.

The question is not, what shouldn't be the threshold? The question is, what should be the threshold?

Also, nobody is talking about "deserve". MCPS closes for some religious holidays but not for others. Which religious holidays should MCPS close for, and why?

Well, they can open for ALL religious holidays with excused absence for Sidney's that wish to observe and paid leave for employees that wish to observe. After the first year, they would be able to figure out which holidays (if any) the schools should close for entirely due to lack of enough subs to keep the schools open those days.

[Anonymous]

For students * ^^^

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
What's your threshold? How many people have to celebrate a religious holiday for MCPS to close for it?

Certainly not for a few thousand kids. That isn't even close. You are talking maybe 2-4% at most of the entire MCPS population. Less than 2% of teachers/staff. Absences on non holidays are 2.5%. So there is absolutely no reason to close on these holidays. Yesterday my child's class had 2 kids absent for Lunar New Year. Again, not even close enough to close the entire district down for a day. The fact that you think you deserve it is the problem here.

The question is not, what shouldn't be the threshold? The question is, what should be the threshold?

Also, nobody is talking about "deserve". MCPS closes for some religious holidays but not for others. Which religious holidays should MCPS close for, and why?

The ones where they can not staff all the schools or it is state or federal mandated. This has been said countless times by countless people in multiple threads and in multiple posts. The state or federal government does not recognize Diwali. The percentages are so low at MCPS they can not even see a peak of percentages in absences on this holiday. They can also fully staff each and every school. ALL of those thing mean that this holiday should not be a day off for the entire school district and extend the school year another day. If the time ever comes that the states wants to recognize it as a required day off, or if the staff can not operate a school(s) or large percentages of over 20% are not in school, THEN come back and ask. Making a request for 2% of the school district? Come on already. It is getting so old.

+1,000

It is getting so old. You can give them info until you are blue in the face. They don't care if it is such a small amount. They are demanding we should change the calendar for them. They waste the school boards time too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The ones where they can not staff all the schools or it is state or federal mandated. This has been said countless times by countless people in multiple threads and in multiple posts. The state or federal government does not recognize Diwali. The percentages are so low at MCPS they can not even see a peak of percentages in absences on this holiday. They can also fully staff each and every school. ALL of those thing mean that this holiday should not be a day off for the entire school district and extend the school year another day. If the time ever comes that the states wants to recognize it as a required day off, or if the staff can not operate a school(s) or large percentages of over 20% are not in school, THEN come back and ask. Making a request for 2% of the school district? Come on already. It is getting so old.

That's not a threshold. What threshold do you want? >20%? OK, let's say that if >20% of students or teachers are out, then the schools should close. Otherwise, the schools should stay open.

For which of these current MCPS closures would >20% of students or teachers be out, if there were school (in calendar-year order)?

Rosh Hashanah
Yom Kippur
Good Friday
Easter Monday

All of them

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The ones where they can not staff all the schools or it is state or federal mandated. This has been said countless times by countless people in multiple threads and in multiple posts. The state or federal government does not recognize Diwali. The percentages are so low at MCPS they can not even see a peak of percentages in absences on this holiday. They can also fully staff each and every school. ALL of those thing mean that this holiday should not be a day off for the entire school district and extend the school year another day. If the time ever comes that the states wants to recognize it as a required day off, or if the staff can not operate a school(s) or large percentages of over 20% are not in school, THEN come back and ask. Making a request for 2% of the school district? Come on already. It is getting so old.

That's not a threshold. What threshold do you want? >20%? OK, let's say that if >20% of students or teachers are out, then the schools should close. Otherwise, the schools should stay open.

For which of these current MCPS closures would >20% of students or teachers be out, if there were school (in calendar-year order)?

Rosh Hashanah
Yom Kippur
Good Friday
Easter Monday

All of them

You think that more than 20% of students or teachers would be out for these holidays? Really? What do you base this opinion on? Easter Monday isn't even really a holiday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

+1,000

It is getting so old. You can give them info until you are blue in the face. They don't care if it is such a small amount. They are demanding we should change the calendar for them. They waste the school boards time too.

Who is "they" and who is "we"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

+1,000

It is getting so old. You can give them info until you are blue in the face. They don't care if it is such a small amount. They are demanding we should change the calendar for them. They waste the school boards time too.

Who is "they" and who is "we"?

"They" refer to the people who petitioned for this holiday and observe it. "We" refer to everyone else not included in the first category. Not pp btw.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

+1,000

It is getting so old. You can give them info until you are blue in the face. They don't care if it is such a small amount. They are demanding we should change the calendar for them. They waste the school boards time too.

Who is "they" and who is "we"?

"They" refer to the people who petitioned for this holiday and observe it. "We" refer to everyone else not included in the first category. Not pp btw.

But it's "their" calendar as well. It's the MCPS calendar, and MCPS includes people who celebrate Diwali as well as people who don't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

That's not a threshold. What threshold do you want? >20%? OK, let's say that if >20% of students or teachers are out, then the schools should close. Otherwise, the schools should stay open.

For which of these current MCPS closures would >20% of students or teachers be out, if there were school (in calendar-year order)?

Rosh Hashanah
Yom Kippur
Good Friday
Easter Monday

All of them

Let's examine those assumptions.

For the first two -- the MCPS student population is currently 37% white. Let's assume, for the purpose of calculation, that all Jews in Montgomery County, who are observant enough to stay home for the High Holy Days, are white. (I know that's not true, but it's close enough to true for this purpose.) In that case, at least 54% of white students (more than half) in MCPS would have to be Jews observant enough to stay out of school on the High Holy Days. Do you think that's accurate?

For the next two -- well, as far as I know, I've met one person in my whole life who didn't work/go to school/teach on Western Good Friday (she was Episcopalian). And I've never met anybody who didn't work/go to school/teach on Western Easter Monday, which for Western Christianity is just the day after Western Easter. So although I only have my own anecdotes to go on, I find it very very very very very hard to believe that 1 in 5 students (or teachers) in Montgomery County would stay home on either of those days, and especially on Easter Monday.

[Anonymous]

Do schools in India close for Christmas or recognize it on their calendar?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do schools in India close for Christmas or recognize it on their calendar?

Do you ever read through entire threads or just jump in with contrarian questions?

Yes. YES. YES. They do. That question has been asked multiple times. Multiple answers too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do schools in India close for Christmas or recognize it on their calendar?

The topic under discussion is the MCPS calendar. MCPS is in Montgomery County, which is in Maryland, which is in the US.