2026-2027 calendar updates

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone needs to fill out the survey and say as much and indicate you’re okay designating some of the religious holidays as makeup days.

I'm not super comfortable for this option, but I'm OK to short upcoming winter break or next spring break days, assuming that they give us enough ahead-of-time notice. Apparently MCPS is leaning toward a last-minute-notice pattern nowadays...

AT THIS POINT I prefer using holidays as a first choice and shortening spring and winter break as a second choice. In the future starting earlier is fine, especially if we can know when the prior school year will end at a reasonable time.

Everyone acting like childcare/camp is some 1 percent privilege is completely out of touch. I like in a solidly MC neighborhood in Rockville and basically every family I know with working parents has made a plan for how they will cover that week. For many it’s camp (and a half week is often the worst, because camps will cancel for the full week, so it’s extra hard to find child care for those handful of days) or they run and you have to pay for days you don’t use. I have a friend who is still scrambling to get a refund for a camp that was supposed to run the week after school ends this year, that was canceled before MSDE gave the waiver. The camp moved to a different week, and it’s not coming back. To make people do that again, for another week this same summer, is ridiculous. Many families in our neighborhood also fly overseas and either leave their kids with grandparents or stay the whole summer to get help with childcare. All of these things have been planned for and set up for months and are very expensive to change.

What about high school sports? Will they start even earlier? I don’t actually care about that but it’s just annoying to so many people.

I agree wholeheartedly with your comments on camps. It's not a privilege, it's a necessity in a HCOL area where almost every household needs dual incomes to survive. Especially considering WFH options are becoming increasingly rare. Do I want to pay thousands for camp every summer? No, but I do it because I have to work to put food on the table, a roof over our heads, and all the other myriad expenses that comes with life. At least it's tax deductible.

You may see it as a necessity in your high cost bubble, but you are out of touch. But most MCPS kids aren't in summer camps all summer--and very few are paying thousands every summer for camps. They can't afford it. And even for those with kids in camp-there aren't that many options available for the end of August--there are so many threads about the lack of options at for those last weeks in August because some school districts have already gone back to school earlier than MCPS (ex: FCPS).

Now let's compare the number of kids and staff in camp or traveling that week to the number of kids who need the after Diwali to be a day off.

Funny that you're picking on Diwali and not the 3 Jewish religious holidays built into the calendar. Feel free to advocate for getting rid of all the religious holidays and then we can keep the original August start date. But I'm glad MCPS is making efforts so we don't have the sh**show we did this year where kids got shortchanged on instructional days.

I think you missed the point where they said that the day off for Diwali is actually the day after and not the actual day of Diwali.

Instead of trading insults it would more useful for folks who actually celebrate Diwali to chime in on whether having school on the day off the actual holiday would be disruptive to their religious observance.

I picked Diwali because 1) the population who celebrate it is much smaller than the Jewish population and 2) the day designate to coordinate isn't even the holiday itself. That obviously makes it different if you take a second to think. I also wouldn't care if they designated the Jewish holidays, but if you're figuring out which ones should be on the chopping block for next year's calendar it obviously goes first in terms of the actual impact it would have on students and staff.

Really? I've never seen actual data on who celebrates which holidays in MCPS so it sounds like you're letting your religious biases substitute for actual fact (or your social circle is so narrow that you can't fathom other people celebrating non-Judeo Christian holidays.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://wjla.com/news/local/fairfax-county-calendar-academic-student-changes-holidays-veterans-early-release-parents-staff-changes-school-board-public-indigenous-peoples

Fairfax county fed up with how "long" their school year is.

Yet they have it. And they had an appropriate amount of snow days last year and didn't have to have their students miss out on 180 instructional days like MCPS does. You all can feel free to campaign to get rid of religious holidays from the school calendar, but there doesn't seem to be much momentum behind that. And since MSDE is now calling out MCPS on their crap planning with only 1 snow day built into the calenadar for the last 2 years, MCPS needs to make a change.

Any change makes people unhappy--this thread is proof--but I think what MCPS has proposed here with an earlier start date is a good thing.

Or again, MCPS could simply use the makeup days it already proposed and already approved. The problem is they are now admitting they had no intention to use those makeup days just like they didn't want to this year.

OR MCPS could not have so many unnecessary snow days and keep the calendar as-is.

[Anonymous]

They need to go back to the older schedules as they made it work in the past. We aren’t traveling or living a grand life but my teens committed to jobs and the expectation is they work August which cannot be done with sports, activities and work and school. They get no summer break with going back in early August.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://wjla.com/news/local/fairfax-county-calendar-academic-student-changes-holidays-veterans-early-release-parents-staff-changes-school-board-public-indigenous-peoples

Fairfax county fed up with how "long" their school year is.

Yet they have it. And they had an appropriate amount of snow days last year and didn't have to have their students miss out on 180 instructional days like MCPS does. You all can feel free to campaign to get rid of religious holidays from the school calendar, but there doesn't seem to be much momentum behind that. And since MSDE is now calling out MCPS on their crap planning with only 1 snow day built into the calenadar for the last 2 years, MCPS needs to make a change.

Any change makes people unhappy--this thread is proof--but I think what MCPS has proposed here with an earlier start date is a good thing.

Or again, MCPS could simply use the makeup days it already proposed and already approved. The problem is they are now admitting they had no intention to use those makeup days just like they didn't want to this year.

OR MCPS could not have so many unnecessary snow days and keep the calendar as-is.

If people cannot get safely to school they need them but they could go virtual.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://wjla.com/news/local/fairfax-county-calendar-academic-student-changes-holidays-veterans-early-release-parents-staff-changes-school-board-public-indigenous-peoples

Fairfax county fed up with how "long" their school year is.

Yet Virginia allows to count the number of instructional hours OR days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://wjla.com/news/local/fairfax-county-calendar-academic-student-changes-holidays-veterans-early-release-parents-staff-changes-school-board-public-indigenous-peoples

Fairfax county fed up with how "long" their school year is.

It's funny that you put "long" in quotes given the article isn't about the length of the school year in Fairfax, it is about the days off and the lack of 5 day school weeks. They are not fed up with having to start too early in August or end too late in June.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone needs to fill out the survey and say as much and indicate you’re okay designating some of the religious holidays as makeup days.

I'm not super comfortable for this option, but I'm OK to short upcoming winter break or next spring break days, assuming that they give us enough ahead-of-time notice. Apparently MCPS is leaning toward a last-minute-notice pattern nowadays...

AT THIS POINT I prefer using holidays as a first choice and shortening spring and winter break as a second choice. In the future starting earlier is fine, especially if we can know when the prior school year will end at a reasonable time.

Everyone acting like childcare/camp is some 1 percent privilege is completely out of touch. I like in a solidly MC neighborhood in Rockville and basically every family I know with working parents has made a plan for how they will cover that week. For many it’s camp (and a half week is often the worst, because camps will cancel for the full week, so it’s extra hard to find child care for those handful of days) or they run and you have to pay for days you don’t use. I have a friend who is still scrambling to get a refund for a camp that was supposed to run the week after school ends this year, that was canceled before MSDE gave the waiver. The camp moved to a different week, and it’s not coming back. To make people do that again, for another week this same summer, is ridiculous. Many families in our neighborhood also fly overseas and either leave their kids with grandparents or stay the whole summer to get help with childcare. All of these things have been planned for and set up for months and are very expensive to change.

What about high school sports? Will they start even earlier? I don’t actually care about that but it’s just annoying to so many people.

I agree wholeheartedly with your comments on camps. It's not a privilege, it's a necessity in a HCOL area where almost every household needs dual incomes to survive. Especially considering WFH options are becoming increasingly rare. Do I want to pay thousands for camp every summer? No, but I do it because I have to work to put food on the table, a roof over our heads, and all the other myriad expenses that comes with life. At least it's tax deductible.

You may see it as a necessity in your high cost bubble, but you are out of touch. But most MCPS kids aren't in summer camps all summer--and very few are paying thousands every summer for camps. They can't afford it. And even for those with kids in camp-there aren't that many options available for the end of August--there are so many threads about the lack of options at for those last weeks in August because some school districts have already gone back to school earlier than MCPS (ex: FCPS).

Oh stop. You are the one out of touch. Stop speaking for people who are not you and let folks speak for themselves. You might be surprised to learn they might not want to start a week earlier either and can form their own opinions without your pity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://wjla.com/news/local/fairfax-county-calendar-academic-student-changes-holidays-veterans-early-release-parents-staff-changes-school-board-public-indigenous-peoples

Fairfax county fed up with how "long" their school year is.

It's funny that you put "long" in quotes given the article isn't about the length of the school year in Fairfax, it is about the days off and the lack of 5 day school weeks. They are not fed up with having to start too early in August or end too late in June.

+1. Some people need to learn to read. FCPS isn’t perfect but it’s miles more competently managed in terms of scheduling than MCPS with its one allocated snow day even though they closed for a full week after a snow storm ended this year. I have no issue starting earlier in August. My kids aren’t in Hs yet but one day they will be and it’s good to start earlier for kids in AP and IB classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone needs to fill out the survey and say as much and indicate you’re okay designating some of the religious holidays as makeup days.

I'm not super comfortable for this option, but I'm OK to short upcoming winter break or next spring break days, assuming that they give us enough ahead-of-time notice. Apparently MCPS is leaning toward a last-minute-notice pattern nowadays...

AT THIS POINT I prefer using holidays as a first choice and shortening spring and winter break as a second choice. In the future starting earlier is fine, especially if we can know when the prior school year will end at a reasonable time.

Everyone acting like childcare/camp is some 1 percent privilege is completely out of touch. I like in a solidly MC neighborhood in Rockville and basically every family I know with working parents has made a plan for how they will cover that week. For many it’s camp (and a half week is often the worst, because camps will cancel for the full week, so it’s extra hard to find child care for those handful of days) or they run and you have to pay for days you don’t use. I have a friend who is still scrambling to get a refund for a camp that was supposed to run the week after school ends this year, that was canceled before MSDE gave the waiver. The camp moved to a different week, and it’s not coming back. To make people do that again, for another week this same summer, is ridiculous. Many families in our neighborhood also fly overseas and either leave their kids with grandparents or stay the whole summer to get help with childcare. All of these things have been planned for and set up for months and are very expensive to change.

What about high school sports? Will they start even earlier? I don’t actually care about that but it’s just annoying to so many people.

I agree wholeheartedly with your comments on camps. It's not a privilege, it's a necessity in a HCOL area where almost every household needs dual incomes to survive. Especially considering WFH options are becoming increasingly rare. Do I want to pay thousands for camp every summer? No, but I do it because I have to work to put food on the table, a roof over our heads, and all the other myriad expenses that comes with life. At least it's tax deductible.

You may see it as a necessity in your high cost bubble, but you are out of touch. But most MCPS kids aren't in summer camps all summer--and very few are paying thousands every summer for camps. They can't afford it. And even for those with kids in camp-there aren't that many options available for the end of August--there are so many threads about the lack of options at for those last weeks in August because some school districts have already gone back to school earlier than MCPS (ex: FCPS).

Now let's compare the number of kids and staff in camp or traveling that week to the number of kids who need the after Diwali to be a day off.

Funny that you're picking on Diwali and not the 3 Jewish religious holidays built into the calendar. Feel free to advocate for getting rid of all the religious holidays and then we can keep the original August start date. But I'm glad MCPS is making efforts so we don't have the sh**show we did this year where kids got shortchanged on instructional days.

I picked Diwali because 1) the population who celebrate it is much smaller than the Jewish population and 2) the day designate to coordinate isn't even the holiday itself. That obviously makes it different if you take a second to think. I also wouldn't care if they designated the Jewish holidays, but if you're figuring out which ones should be on the chopping block for next year's calendar it obviously goes first in terms of the actual impact it would have on students and staff.

Really? I've never seen actual data on who celebrates which holidays in MCPS so it sounds like you're letting your religious biases substitute for actual fact (or your social circle is so narrow that you can't fathom other people celebrating non-Judeo Christian holidays.)

Please, we can look at data on national origin and make a pretty solid estimate on the maximum number of people celebrating Diwali, given that Hinduism is not a universalizing religion.

[Anonymous]

They should start 1 week earlier and end 1 week earlier, BUT give us MORE than 2 weeks to digest this information for a start date that has long been published with vacation plans made etc. This should 100% be the norm going forward in 2027-2028.

[Anonymous]

The Maryland AG Fair is supposed to be during the new potential first week. Without that revenue, our taxes will probably go up even more. Who is going to the fair if kids are in school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Maryland AG Fair is supposed to be during the new potential first week. Without that revenue, our taxes will probably go up even more. Who is going to the fair if kids are in school?

The Ag Fair is not more important than having adequate instructional time. They can change the date of the Ag Fair if they really want kids there during the day

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://wjla.com/news/local/fairfax-county-calendar-academic-student-changes-holidays-veterans-early-release-parents-staff-changes-school-board-public-indigenous-peoples

Fairfax county fed up with how "long" their school year is.

It's funny that you put "long" in quotes given the article isn't about the length of the school year in Fairfax, it is about the days off and the lack of 5 day school weeks. They are not fed up with having to start too early in August or end too late in June.

+1. Some people need to learn to read. FCPS isn’t perfect but it’s miles more competently managed in terms of scheduling than MCPS with its one allocated snow day even though they closed for a full week after a snow storm ended this year. I have no issue starting earlier in August. My kids aren’t in Hs yet but one day they will be and it’s good to start earlier for kids in AP and IB classes.

+2. This. It will be harder this year because a minority of people have plans they can’t change but thereafter starting earlier in August should be a popular decision.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Maryland AG Fair is supposed to be during the new potential first week. Without that revenue, our taxes will probably go up even more. Who is going to the fair if kids are in school?

The Ag Fair is not more important than having adequate instructional time. They can change the date of the Ag Fair if they really want kids there during the day

Or MCPS can work with the makeup days it already proposed and actually use them. Making everyone change their vacation and camp plans and the county change the Ag Fair is simply not possible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Drop the religious holidays for this upcoming year, make them excused absences for those who observe, and then shorten the summer next year with the religious holidays restored if there's time for them. I'm all for a shorter summer to minimize the summer slide in general, but at this point, as folks have said, summers are planned out and the weeks out of school are accounted for with camps, parental time off, vacations, etc. It's a little late to be making such a big change.

Agree with all this. Also dropping religious holidays for a year would let us see what the impact is on staff/teacher/student attendance, since they are only supposed to be closing schools for operational reasons, not religious ones.