FCPS Early Release Mondays

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids can stay at school until school gets out — so this is not going to put any parents behind in terms of care. I’m not sure what the big deal is.

People keep saying this but there is a big difference in "guaranteed childcare at no cost" and "if space allows and for $$$"

OK, so everyone here is an adult with three months notice. It’s not perfect, it’s not ideal, but there’s not much we can do about it. Plan for the worst and hope for something a little bit better than that

*two months

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a teacher, I wish the only PD ES got was this. If FCPS would stop piling on things and focused on one thing at a time, I feel like it could be done on SD days and TWD and maybe like 4 ER days instead of 7.

You “feel” like this could be done on TWD? Yeah, no.

Not what I said. I said if this was the only PD ES teachers got and they nixed dumb equity trainings and other BS we could also utilize Staff Development Days and TWD to have less ER. I would much rather have full days with my kids and less useless PD. This PD is required so they should cut out the unnecessary stuff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids can stay at school until school gets out — so this is not going to put any parents behind in terms of care. I’m not sure what the big deal is.

What about the instructional hours that are being taken away?

As long as the instructional hours still fall at equal to or more than 990 then there’s not a problem with the state.

Depends on how they count. According to my kids... there's no learning on early dismissal days and there's no learning when they have the regular once a week subs and there's no learning when they have subs for other reasons and there's no learning the week before Thanksgiving or the two weeks between Thanksgiving and winter break.....and there's no learning 4th quarter -- it's all sol review..and there's no learning after the sols....
So, I think it's ok for parents to ask the questions they are asking.

According to your kids…. You’re probably not getting the most accurate information. Education does not mean “new” instruction every day. Reviewing content for the SOL’s, reading a book, playing basketball in PE, all of those count towards the hours. Your child may not find it interesting or fun, but it still counts. Early release days are still 5 hours (at least) of a class day, do you think they’re just sitting around twiddling their thumbs?

More like Google and you-tube and computer games... because there is not enough time on early dismissal days...

How is there not enough time on early release days? 5 or so hours? That’s math, language arts, recess, lunch and specials. That a typical ER day at my school. Sometimes, specials or recess is switched out with science depending on the day.

There is, her kids are BS’ing her and she doesn’t realize it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a teacher, I wish the only PD ES got was this. If FCPS would stop piling on things and focused on one thing at a time, I feel like it could be done on SD days and TWD and maybe like 4 ER days instead of 7.

You “feel” like this could be done on TWD? Yeah, no.

Not what I said. I said if this was the only PD ES teachers got and they nixed dumb equity trainings and other BS we could also utilize Staff Development Days and TWD to have less ER. I would much rather have full days with my kids and less useless PD. This PD is required so they should cut out the unnecessary stuff.

DP
I agree, but I’d use the SD and SP days for the training. Leave the TW days as TW days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids can stay at school until school gets out — so this is not going to put any parents behind in terms of care. I’m not sure what the big deal is.

People keep saying this but there is a big difference in "guaranteed childcare at no cost" and "if space allows and for $$$"

OK, so everyone here is an adult with three months notice. It’s not perfect, it’s not ideal, but there’s not much we can do about it. Plan for the worst and hope for something a little bit better than that

*two months

Please check your sources before you try to correct me. The first day is September 16… Three months.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids can stay at school until school gets out — so this is not going to put any parents behind in terms of care. I’m not sure what the big deal is.

People keep saying this but there is a big difference in "guaranteed childcare at no cost" and "if space allows and for $$$"

OK, so everyone here is an adult with three months notice. It’s not perfect, it’s not ideal, but there’s not much we can do about it. Plan for the worst and hope for something a little bit better than that

*two months

Please check your sources before you try to correct me. The first day is September 16… Three months.

Sorry most of us need our care plans lined up before the school year actually starts (in two months).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids can stay at school until school gets out — so this is not going to put any parents behind in terms of care. I’m not sure what the big deal is.

People keep saying this but there is a big difference in "guaranteed childcare at no cost" and "if space allows and for $$$"

OK, so everyone here is an adult with three months notice. It’s not perfect, it’s not ideal, but there’s not much we can do about it. Plan for the worst and hope for something a little bit better than that

*two months

Please check your sources before you try to correct me. The first day is September 16… Three months.

Sorry most of us need our care plans lined up before the school year actually starts (in two months).

DP
Why would you need it lined up by the start of the school year when the early release date isn’t until September 16?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I taught when we had early release Mondays and I got so much done on those afternoons. I had time to sit and work and get lessons ready and have meetings and attend trainings. This will make it so much easier for elementary teachers and will help with teacher retention. Kids can only benefit from this. And yes, on occasion I scheduled a medical appointment on a Monday afternoon for myself or my child, which was a lot better than trying to find a substitute and leaving the class with busywork if a qualified sub couldn’t be found.

Exactly this! Give teachers every Monday off. All day! It would be so much better for everyone. My hope is this step will prime the pump to do just that next year. Teachers need more planning time!

I’m sure that is what the union will want. I can never forget when the union was requesting for return to school
during Covid. If we were unionized during Covid our kids would have never been in school.

There is no union and you know it. Always trying to stir up trouble in an election year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids can stay at school until school gets out — so this is not going to put any parents behind in terms of care. I’m not sure what the big deal is.

People keep saying this but there is a big difference in "guaranteed childcare at no cost" and "if space allows and for $$$"

OK, so everyone here is an adult with three months notice. It’s not perfect, it’s not ideal, but there’s not much we can do about it. Plan for the worst and hope for something a little bit better than that

*two months

Please check your sources before you try to correct me. The first day is September 16… Three months.

Sorry most of us need our care plans lined up before the school year actually starts (in two months).

DP
Why would you need it lined up by the start of the school year when the early release date isn’t until September 16?

Well, if this moves the needle on whether people use SACC (which several posters have said), we’ll need to get on waitlists now (probably too late). Private aftercare’s fill up at the start of the school year. If this is going to require $$$, some of us have to budget for that. If this is going to require taking time of work, most people can’t figure that out the day before we need it.

Please step outside your bubble for a moment. I get this won’t be hard of plenty of you. But some people don’t have au pairs, or family nearby, or don’t have kids old enough to just come home and figure it out. Some of us have two working parents. Some of us have work environments that don’t allow for a lot of leave (or don’t offer much in the first place). Some of us are teachers who are also parents to small kids and this will make things tricky.

And before anyone cites that email that vaguely references kids will be able to stay the full day, without knowing how that will work and what it will cost, it doesn’t make us feel better right now.

It’s great if this is not disruptive for you. Not everyone is in that boat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a reading specialist, we had to do the VLP modules this year- each one takes between 2-4 hours and there are nine of them. They are very time consuming. I do not think as parents you truly understand the scope of the shift in language arts- nor should you as that is why we have masters and doctorates in education. If it were as easy as "just teach them to read", our scores wouldn't be in the shitter. This is not a union issue, a pd company trying to make more money or teachers trying not to teach- this is an attempt to give teachers time to do their job so that everyone doesn't jump ship.

I have no issues with teachers getting the necessary time for teaching and planning. In fact I support it wholeheartedly.

My issues with this are (1) what horrible rollout and communication, (2) between these days and all of the religious and other holidays, the calendar is insane. So much for consistency and structure for the kids. I really miss the calendar I had growing up when we only got off federal holidays.

+1 and I say this as someone who celebrates one of the days off. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the old system when families could take the day off as an excused absence and teachers were not allowed to schedule tests on those days.

That said, you know that a lot of the days off are because TEACHERS take those days off and they couldn't find enough subs. The whole FCPS schedule is really built around convenience to teachers, even though they say it is about families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids can stay at school until school gets out — so this is not going to put any parents behind in terms of care. I’m not sure what the big deal is.

People keep saying this but there is a big difference in "guaranteed childcare at no cost" and "if space allows and for $$$"

OK, so everyone here is an adult with three months notice. It’s not perfect, it’s not ideal, but there’s not much we can do about it. Plan for the worst and hope for something a little bit better than that

*two months

Please check your sources before you try to correct me. The first day is September 16… Three months.

Sorry most of us need our care plans lined up before the school year actually starts (in two months).

DP
Why would you need it lined up by the start of the school year when the early release date isn’t until September 16?

Well, if this moves the needle on whether people use SACC (which several posters have said), we’ll need to get on waitlists now (probably too late). Private aftercare’s fill up at the start of the school year. If this is going to require $$$, some of us have to budget for that. If this is going to require taking time of work, most people can’t figure that out the day before we need it.

Please step outside your bubble for a moment. I get this won’t be hard of plenty of you. But some people don’t have au pairs, or family nearby, or don’t have kids old enough to just come home and figure it out. Some of us have two working parents. Some of us have work environments that don’t allow for a lot of leave (or don’t offer much in the first place). Some of us are teachers who are also parents to small kids and this will make things tricky.

And before anyone cites that email that vaguely references kids will be able to stay the full day, without knowing how that will work and what it will cost, it doesn’t make us feel better right now.

It’s great if this is not disruptive for you. Not everyone is in that boat.

How do low-income working parents deal with this if they have young kids?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids can stay at school until school gets out — so this is not going to put any parents behind in terms of care. I’m not sure what the big deal is.

What about the instructional hours that are being taken away?

As long as the instructional hours still fall at equal to or more than 990 then there’s not a problem with the state.

Depends on how they count. According to my kids... there's no learning on early dismissal days and there's no learning when they have the regular once a week subs and there's no learning when they have subs for other reasons and there's no learning the week before Thanksgiving or the two weeks between Thanksgiving and winter break.....and there's no learning 4th quarter -- it's all sol review..and there's no learning after the sols....
So, I think it's ok for parents to ask the questions they are asking.

According to your kids…. You’re probably not getting the most accurate information. Education does not mean “new” instruction every day. Reviewing content for the SOL’s, reading a book, playing basketball in PE, all of those count towards the hours. Your child may not find it interesting or fun, but it still counts. Early release days are still 5 hours (at least) of a class day, do you think they’re just sitting around twiddling their thumbs?

More like Google and you-tube and computer games... because there is not enough time on early dismissal days...

How is there not enough time on early release days? 5 or so hours? That’s math, language arts, recess, lunch and specials. That a typical ER day at my school. Sometimes, specials or recess is switched out with science depending on the day.

There is, her kids are BS’ing her and she doesn’t realize it

It must be easy for you to think that....but I don't think so. My mom friends kids tell their parents the same...
I just asked my big kid again and big said they never have time for lessons on early release days. Of all of the things big could lie about why would it be this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids can stay at school until school gets out — so this is not going to put any parents behind in terms of care. I’m not sure what the big deal is.

What about the instructional hours that are being taken away?

As long as the instructional hours still fall at equal to or more than 990 then there’s not a problem with the state.

Depends on how they count. According to my kids... there's no learning on early dismissal days and there's no learning when they have the regular once a week subs and there's no learning when they have subs for other reasons and there's no learning the week before Thanksgiving or the two weeks between Thanksgiving and winter break.....and there's no learning 4th quarter -- it's all sol review..and there's no learning after the sols....
So, I think it's ok for parents to ask the questions they are asking.

According to your kids…. You’re probably not getting the most accurate information. Education does not mean “new” instruction every day. Reviewing content for the SOL’s, reading a book, playing basketball in PE, all of those count towards the hours. Your child may not find it interesting or fun, but it still counts. Early release days are still 5 hours (at least) of a class day, do you think they’re just sitting around twiddling their thumbs?

More like Google and you-tube and computer games... because there is not enough time on early dismissal days...

How is there not enough time on early release days? 5 or so hours? That’s math, language arts, recess, lunch and specials. That a typical ER day at my school. Sometimes, specials or recess is switched out with science depending on the day.

There is, her kids are BS’ing her and she doesn’t realize it

It must be easy for you to think that....but I don't think so. My mom friends kids tell their parents the same...
I just asked my big kid again and big said they never have time for lessons on early release days. Of all of the things big could lie about why would it be this?

How is it that they don’t have time? It’s not like school is 45 minutes on those days. (ES Teacher)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I suspect this will harm the effort to move middle school start times due to the bus issue.

I do think this is why they are making it THREE hours instead off two.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids can stay at school until school gets out — so this is not going to put any parents behind in terms of care. I’m not sure what the big deal is.

People keep saying this but there is a big difference in "guaranteed childcare at no cost" and "if space allows and for $$$"

OK, so everyone here is an adult with three months notice. It’s not perfect, it’s not ideal, but there’s not much we can do about it. Plan for the worst and hope for something a little bit better than that

*two months

Please check your sources before you try to correct me. The first day is September 16… Three months.

Sorry most of us need our care plans lined up before the school year actually starts (in two months).

DP
Why would you need it lined up by the start of the school year when the early release date isn’t until September 16?

Well, if this moves the needle on whether people use SACC (which several posters have said), we’ll need to get on waitlists now (probably too late). Private aftercare’s fill up at the start of the school year. If this is going to require $$$, some of us have to budget for that. If this is going to require taking time of work, most people can’t figure that out the day before we need it.

Please step outside your bubble for a moment. I get this won’t be hard of plenty of you. But some people don’t have au pairs, or family nearby, or don’t have kids old enough to just come home and figure it out. Some of us have two working parents. Some of us have work environments that don’t allow for a lot of leave (or don’t offer much in the first place). Some of us are teachers who are also parents to small kids and this will make things tricky.

And before anyone cites that email that vaguely references kids will be able to stay the full day, without knowing how that will work and what it will cost, it doesn’t make us feel better right now.

It’s great if this is not disruptive for you. Not everyone is in that boat.

How do low-income working parents deal with this if they have young kids?

The kids go home and take care of themselves. 3rd graders caring for Kinder siblings.