Has your ES announced any programs etc. for Early Release Mondays

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m just going to go ahead and predict this: After hearing from our principal at Back to School night about the 3 hour early releases for teacher training related to the new literacy curriculum … I believe that we will see the return of regularly scheduled half days in the not so distant future. Maybe not next school year … maybe not weekly as they were in the past … but they will happen. I would guess monthly or 2x a month/every other week. The principal was lamenting how they lost the half day Mondays and now the teachers have the same amount of work to get done but less non instructional time to do it.

I disagree with that principal. When we had early release Mondays (the students were in for more than half a day since we dismissed two hours early), we had shorter specials. Mondays were often taken up by meetings. Daily planning time was shorter and those were often used for team meetings. When early dismissals ended under Dr Garza they added time to specials. At the time, ES teachers were told we would have a minimum of 300 minutes a week of planning. A minimum of 240 would be used as protected teacher directed planning time and a minimum of 60 minutes as collaborative time. That’s the current policy. Unfortunately many schools schedule 120 minutes of collaborative meeting time each week which leaves only 180 as teacher directed.

There’s more to get done and there could be more time (although still not enough) if administrators allowed teachers to use needed.

[Anonymous]

It’s such a mess. I don’t know why the county has to let kids stay.

[Anonymous]

Our PTA was going to have “Kidscreate” in to provide an after school art activity. That’s what they shared but they announced yesterday that they are no longer able to offer it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our PTA was going to have “Kidscreate” in to provide an after school art activity. That’s what they shared but they announced yesterday that they are no longer able to offer it.

Because honestly no one wants to babysit other peoples kids-PTA included. This whole thing is a bad idea. I see more vacancies in FCPS' future. The staff is always picking up the pieces from the mess that Gatehouse makes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our PTA was going to have “Kidscreate” in to provide an after school art activity. That’s what they shared but they announced yesterday that they are no longer able to offer it.

Because honestly no one wants to babysit other peoples kids-PTA included. This whole thing is a bad idea. I see more vacancies in FCPS' future. The staff is always picking up the pieces from the mess that Gatehouse makes.

I believe Kidscreate is a kids art place and this activity was likely going to be offered for a fee. And according to other posts on here, paid after school activities at the school for the ER days were not allowed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our PTA was going to have “Kidscreate” in to provide an after school art activity. That’s what they shared but they announced yesterday that they are no longer able to offer it.

Because honestly no one wants to babysit other peoples kids-PTA included. This whole thing is a bad idea. I see more vacancies in FCPS' future. The staff is always picking up the pieces from the mess that Gatehouse makes.

I believe Kidscreate is a kids art place and this activity was likely going to be offered for a fee. And according to other posts on here, paid after school activities at the school for the ER days were not allowed.

It is, and they would have charged a fee, that’s correct. Overtime Athletics also charges a fee though, so I’m not sure why this would have been different.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The SACC thing has been a hot mess. I'm really pissed if its the case that SACC could have opened and FCPS said no that is dumb. That is that many more kids that they didn't need to find a place for. I have to refill out my survey as I said no I don't need care since I has originally told SACC would open. Also they changed around the November 25th date to a December date just recently for some pyramids. Someone should have figured out the Thanksgiving week issue right at the start. FCPS is a mess, the teachers don't even know if the PD is ready and will be helpful. Teachers have said for years that FCPS PD is bad. FCPS is so worried about equity so no paid programs and I guess this has now stretched to include SACC for these days.

Good lord. Why am I getting more information from DCUM than from FCPS? I see now that my kids school has changed the date on their website but there has been no announcement or attention drawn to this date change. I put the school calendar in my phone weeks ago. What a mess.

[Anonymous]

We were asked today to tell the teacher which bus our kids would be on THIS COMING MONDAY yet I still don’t know what they’re actually doing. My kiddo has an IEP and it would be helpful to know who’s going to be responsible for him, if he can be accommodated or not. Are they going to sit in the cafeteria for three hours? My husband and I alternate working from home so can manage if kids come home early, but they’ll be fighting or watching screens all afternoon so I thought some enrichment/social activity would be better than that. But if they’re just watching movies they may as well come home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We were asked today to tell the teacher which bus our kids would be on THIS COMING MONDAY yet I still don’t know what they’re actually doing. My kiddo has an IEP and it would be helpful to know who’s going to be responsible for him, if he can be accommodated or not. Are they going to sit in the cafeteria for three hours? My husband and I alternate working from home so can manage if kids come home early, but they’ll be fighting or watching screens all afternoon so I thought some enrichment/social activity would be better than that. But if they’re just watching movies they may as well come home.

It might be social like playing on the playground or games in the gym, but there won’t be enrichment.

[Anonymous]

At least SACC has announced that they will take afternoon SACC kids for the early release Mondays starting in October. That will help SACC families and lessen the number of kids that schools need to find places for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The SACC thing has been a hot mess. I'm really pissed if its the case that SACC could have opened and FCPS said no that is dumb. That is that many more kids that they didn't need to find a place for. I have to refill out my survey as I said no I don't need care since I has originally told SACC would open. Also they changed around the November 25th date to a December date just recently for some pyramids. Someone should have figured out the Thanksgiving week issue right at the start. FCPS is a mess, the teachers don't even know if the PD is ready and will be helpful. Teachers have said for years that FCPS PD is bad. FCPS is so worried about equity so no paid programs and I guess this has now stretched to include SACC for these days.

Good lord. Why am I getting more information from DCUM than from FCPS? I see now that my kids school has changed the date on their website but there has been no announcement or attention drawn to this date change. I put the school calendar in my phone weeks ago. What a mess.

I recommend subscribing to the calendar via an iCal feed directly from the school's website. That way you automatically get all these updates. Won't help you know what's happened but at least you can see them if you glance at your week?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Now there is even more confusion because the latest email said SACC would not be able to take the kids until the usual SACC start time at the end of the usual school day. And I think a lot of people assumed or were told that SACC would just start at 12:40 or whatever for those kids already in after school SACC. It’s going to be a mess.

SACC sent out an update yesterday. They will not be offering care for the September early release date, but will be covering the remaining days.

[Anonymous]

Shame on SACC. They have known about early releases for MONTHS and are just now saying we will watch your child, but not until October. What an unnecessary additional burden to schools. The SACC parent handbook says they will watch students when school is not in session. The fact that they couldn't get behind supporting student supervision is an example of poor SACC upper management in my opinion.

[Anonymous]

Is SACC charging extra for the extra coverage? Since they have to pay their staff more?

[Anonymous]

Is it county wide that there's no more option for the kids to stay at school on the early release Mondays?
Kids were able to stay for the first two Mondays, but for next week there's been no survey for who needs to stay and school newsletter only mentions early release and to plan accordingly.
Earlier/ direct communication about the change in course would have been helpful.