Earlier start date proposed for MCPS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My MIL who lives in New England can't believe that we don't get more days off. They start after Labor Day, are off for RH & YK, close for Columbus Day, Veterans Day AND Patriots Day, and also get a week-long February vacation in addition to winter break and spring break. There are more half days and at least as many Professional Days. They only get out a few days later than we do. Every year she asks for us to come visit her during February vacation and every year I have to tell her that doesn't exist here.

The parents here (or at least on DCUM) would flip with that kind of school schedule. I personally would love it. And yes, DH and I both WOH full time. How do states decide the minimum # of instructional days, and why is there so much of a difference among states?

Sorry this was off-topic for MD public schools, but it is interesting to see how other states schedule their calendars. Back on-topic, I do not think that MCPS should be rearranging the calendar for this religious holiday that doesn't seem to be presenting an operational issue. If it's truly an operational issue, then they should just close schools for staff and students and move the school year back by one day if they really need to be that rigid. One extra day off isn't going to prevent kids from getting into Harvard..

Have you compared to the schools in New England how long are their school days? My friends in MN told me they have less school days, but their school days are longer. So if count by hours, they have longer school year than ours. MCPS elementary schools only have 6hrs 25mins each day, the shortest school days I have ever heard.

Schools in New England (at least where my MIL lives) are run by township, not by county. So the school days are different in different towns. My MIL is a substitute teacher and the town she works in has school days that are comparable to ours. They start a little earlier and end a little earlier than my Tier 2 school. I know because she frequently calls me at 3:30 and is surprised when she gets my voicemail because her school day is over and mine is not. I'm also a teacher (home with a sick kid--I feel the need to clarify that on this board).

[Anonymous]

Spread the word. Here is the email address.
[e-mail]

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My MIL who lives in New England can't believe that we don't get more days off. They start after Labor Day, are off for RH & YK, close for Columbus Day, Veterans Day AND Patriots Day, and also get a week-long February vacation in addition to winter break and spring break. There are more half days and at least as many Professional Days. They only get out a few days later than we do. Every year she asks for us to come visit her during February vacation and every year I have to tell her that doesn't exist here.

The parents here (or at least on DCUM) would flip with that kind of school schedule. I personally would love it. And yes, DH and I both WOH full time. How do states decide the minimum # of instructional days, and why is there so much of a difference among states?

Sorry this was off-topic for MD public schools, but it is interesting to see how other states schedule their calendars. Back on-topic, I do not think that MCPS should be rearranging the calendar for this religious holiday that doesn't seem to be presenting an operational issue. If it's truly an operational issue, then they should just close schools for staff and students and move the school year back by one day if they really need to be that rigid. One extra day off isn't going to prevent kids from getting into Harvard..

Have you compared to the schools in New England how long are their school days? My friends in MN told me they have less school days, but their school days are longer. So if count by hours, they have longer school year than ours. MCPS elementary schools only have 6hrs 25mins each day, the shortest school days I have ever heard.

Schools in New England (at least where my MIL lives) are run by township, not by county. So the school days are different in different towns. My MIL is a substitute teacher and the town she works in has school days that are comparable to ours. They start a little earlier and end a little earlier than my Tier 2 school. I know because she frequently calls me at 3:30 and is surprised when she gets my voicemail because her school day is over and mine is not. I'm also a teacher (home with a sick kid--I feel the need to clarify that on this board).

Hi MCPS teacher - I am grateful that you posted the information for the community. Gotcha on the sick kid, and understand that you are not posting while on the clock at school!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My MIL who lives in New England can't believe that we don't get more days off. They start after Labor Day, are off for RH & YK, close for Columbus Day, Veterans Day AND Patriots Day, and also get a week-long February vacation in addition to winter break and spring break. There are more half days and at least as many Professional Days. They only get out a few days later than we do. Every year she asks for us to come visit her during February vacation and every year I have to tell her that doesn't exist here.

The parents here (or at least on DCUM) would flip with that kind of school schedule. I personally would love it. And yes, DH and I both WOH full time. How do states decide the minimum # of instructional days, and why is there so much of a difference among states?

Sorry this was off-topic for MD public schools, but it is interesting to see how other states schedule their calendars. Back on-topic, I do not think that MCPS should be rearranging the calendar for this religious holiday that doesn't seem to be presenting an operational issue. If it's truly an operational issue, then they should just close schools for staff and students and move the school year back by one day if they really need to be that rigid. One extra day off isn't going to prevent kids from getting into Harvard..

Have you compared to the schools in New England how long are their school days? My friends in MN told me they have less school days, but their school days are longer. So if count by hours, they have longer school year than ours. MCPS elementary schools only have 6hrs 25mins each day, the shortest school days I have ever heard.

Schools in New England (at least where my MIL lives) are run by township, not by county. So the school days are different in different towns. My MIL is a substitute teacher and the town she works in has school days that are comparable to ours. They start a little earlier and end a little earlier than my Tier 2 school. I know because she frequently calls me at 3:30 and is surprised when she gets my voicemail because her school day is over and mine is not. I'm also a teacher (home with a sick kid--I feel the need to clarify that on this board).

Also clarifying that my child attends a Tier 2 school and I don't teach for MCPS, but my school day is still not over at 3:30 when she's calling me. Sorry--my brain's all over the place today.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Camp $$ should be pretty refundable at this early date.

You shouldn't presume to know everything about every camp and family situation/plans. It is not too early to be buying tickets and making camp plans. In fact. that is what is required for the best rates and for a spot. It's probably true that refunds might be available for camps that are located in Montgomery Cty that very week but that doesn't cover all summer plans.

The calendar was first proposed over a year ago and MCPS has always opened one week before Labor Day. This is a significant change and there was not enough public notice[u].

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My MIL who lives in New England can't believe that we don't get more days off. They start after Labor Day, are off for RH & YK, close for Columbus Day, Veterans Day AND Patriots Day, and also get a week-long February vacation in addition to winter break and spring break. There are more half days and at least as many Professional Days. They only get out a few days later than we do. Every year she asks for us to come visit her during February vacation and every year I have to tell her that doesn't exist here.

The parents here (or at least on DCUM) would flip with that kind of school schedule. I personally would love it. And yes, DH and I both WOH full time. How do states decide the minimum # of instructional days, and why is there so much of a difference among states?

Sorry this was off-topic for MD public schools, but it is interesting to see how other states schedule their calendars. Back on-topic, I do not think that MCPS should be rearranging the calendar for this religious holiday that doesn't seem to be presenting an operational issue. If it's truly an operational issue, then they should just close schools for staff and students and move the school year back by one day if they really need to be that rigid. One extra day off isn't going to prevent kids from getting into Harvard..

Have you compared to the schools in New England how long are their school days? My friends in MN told me they have less school days, but their school days are longer. So if count by hours, they have longer school year than ours. MCPS elementary schools only have 6hrs 25mins each day, the shortest school days I have ever heard.

Schools in New England (at least where my MIL lives) are run by township, not by county. So the school days are different in different towns. My MIL is a substitute teacher and the town she works in has school days that are comparable to ours. They start a little earlier and end a little earlier than my Tier 2 school. I know because she frequently calls me at 3:30 and is surprised when she gets my voicemail because her school day is over and mine is not. I'm also a teacher (home with a sick kid--I feel the need to clarify that on this board).

Hi MCPS teacher - I am grateful that you posted the information for the community. Gotcha on the sick kid, and understand that you are not posting while on the clock at school!

I'm not the MCPS teacher that posted the info from MCEA, but I'm glad that person posted as well!

[Anonymous]

If anyone is interested, these are the results of the MCEA staff poll. Not sure it will have any impact, though. The BOE kind of does what it wants.

Looks like nobody wants to lose any spring break!

The polling options and results are as follows:

Option A:
Add an additional professional day to the calendar on September 12th. This would cost approximately $7 million dollars. By eliminating an instructional day in September, an additional instructional day would need to be added later in the school year. If it were added in June, it would push the last day of school to Friday, June 16th, with the final professional day then falling on Monday, June 19th.

Option B:
Alternately, an additional professional day could be added on September 12 at a cost of $7 million, and the lost instructional day could be added in on Monday April 10 – the first day of spring break.

Option C:
Alternately, a professional day could be created on September 12 at no cost by ‘swapping’ it for one of the existing end of marking period grading days guaranteed in the MCEA contract. (This would require an all-member vote to modify the contract). This would not require the addition of an instructional day in April or June, as the former grading day would become an instructional day

Option D:
Alternately, a professional day could be created on September 12 at no cost by moving one of the pre-service professional days to September 12, reducing the pre-service days to four. Under this option, pre-service days would still begin on Monday August 22, but the first day of school would be moved up to Friday August 26. The final day of school would remain as Thursday June 15.

Option E:
Alternately, a professional day could be created on September 12 at no cost by moving one of the pre-service professional days to September 12, reducing the pre-service days to four. Under this option – to avoid starting school on a Friday - pre-service days would be moved up to begin on Thursday, August 18 with the first day of school being moved up to Wednesday, August 24. The final student day of school would then be moved up to Wednesday, June 14.

Of the 2,670 responses to the poll, the percentage of members who selected each option as their first choice follows:
Option A – 24.6%
Option B – 8.8%
Option C – 23.0%
Option D – 18.3%
Option E – 25.3%

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Move it to a different week?

I am not going to detail everything but no, that isn't possible. MCSL runs a certain amount of weeks in the summer. My child then goes to sleepaway camp. The end of the summer is the only time for vacation. I had already put a lot of work into figuring out this schedule and this is the first year in the many years we've had kids in MCPS that the calendar has changed like this.

Your e-mail to the BOE will go like this:

Dear BOE,

I oppose starting school 3 days early next August, because then either my kid won't get to go to sleepaway camp or we won't get to take a family summer vacation.

Sincerely,

You

[Anonymous]

Option A is incorrect. Whoever put together the survey didn't have the correct last date of the original 2016-17 calendar. So did people who voted for Option A think that the last day of instruction with this option would really be on a Friday?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Move it to a different week?

I am not going to detail everything but no, that isn't possible. MCSL runs a certain amount of weeks in the summer. My child then goes to sleepaway camp. The end of the summer is the only time for vacation. I had already put a lot of work into figuring out this schedule and this is the first year in the many years we've had kids in MCPS that the calendar has changed like this.

Your e-mail to the BOE will go like this:

Dear BOE,

I oppose starting school 3 days early next August, because then either my kid won't get to go to sleepaway camp or we won't get to take a family summer vacation.

Sincerely,

You

Why do you care what my particular situation is? There can be a lot of different reasons why stakeholders need to have notice and an opportunity to comment.

I already wrote my email to the BOE.

[Anonymous]

What is the January 20 holiday? On the bright side, January 23rd is a professional day so at least some families get a 4 day weekend.

I assume MLK day is January 16.

[Anonymous]

Jan 20 holiday is for Inauguration Day.

Inauguration day became a holiday effectively immediately after the 2008 election. Barclay introduced the motion.

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/press/index.aspx?pagetype=showrelease&id=2437

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is the January 20 holiday? On the bright side, January 23rd is a professional day so at least some families get a 4 day weekend.

I assume MLK day is January 16.

Where do you see anything about January 20? I looked a few times and didn't see it.

[Anonymous]

^^^^ never mind

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If anyone is interested, these are the results of the MCEA staff poll. Not sure it will have any impact, though. The BOE kind of does what it wants.

Looks like nobody wants to lose any spring break!

The polling options and results are as follows:

Option A:
Add an additional professional day to the calendar on September 12th. This would cost approximately $7 million dollars. By eliminating an instructional day in September, an additional instructional day would need to be added later in the school year. If it were added in June, it would push the last day of school to Friday, June 16th, with the final professional day then falling on Monday, June 19th.

Option B:
Alternately, an additional professional day could be added on September 12 at a cost of $7 million, and the lost instructional day could be added in on Monday April 10 – the first day of spring break.

Option C:
Alternately, a professional day could be created on September 12 at no cost by ‘swapping’ it for one of the existing end of marking period grading days guaranteed in the MCEA contract. (This would require an all-member vote to modify the contract). This would not require the addition of an instructional day in April or June, as the former grading day would become an instructional day

Option D:
Alternately, a professional day could be created on September 12 at no cost by moving one of the pre-service professional days to September 12, reducing the pre-service days to four. Under this option, pre-service days would still begin on Monday August 22, but the first day of school would be moved up to Friday August 26. The final day of school would remain as Thursday June 15.

Option E:
Alternately, a professional day could be created on September 12 at no cost by moving one of the pre-service professional days to September 12, reducing the pre-service days to four. Under this option – to avoid starting school on a Friday - pre-service days would be moved up to begin on Thursday, August 18 with the first day of school being moved up to Wednesday, August 24. The final student day of school would then be moved up to Wednesday, June 14.

Of the 2,670 responses to the poll, the percentage of members who selected each option as their first choice follows:
Option A – 24.6%
Option B – 8.8%
Option C – 23.0%
Option D – 18.3%
Option E – 25.3%

Increasingly, MCPS teachers are working during Spring Break. My fiancé coaches a sports clinic that is staffed almost entirely by MCPS teachers/coaches. Some of the teachers are actually paras, young men a couple years out of college barely making anything as they work with the systems students with SNs. They can't afford to lose that seasonal job to someone else because MCPS screwed up the calendar.