2026-2027 calendar updates

[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.

I don't have a problem with starting earlier in August SY 2027-2028 and beyond. I DO have a problem with changing it for this coming school year, when people already have made plans. They need to go with one of the other options. And this woudl not be an issue if they had done the right thing when planning the calendar and built in a reasonable number of snow days into the calendar. If a few months ago they had considered starting a few days earlier, that would have been fine. It's too late now.

[Anonymous]

Was talking to a friend who works at a school. She says everyone at her school is furious about the idea of an early start this late in the game. Literally no one thinks it’s the best option.

There are no good options this year because the state decided to take action to stop MCPS from pulling their usual BS. This is a direct consequence of the disastrous way MCPS handled their snow days last year. So they need to deal with the consequences. If they can’t stomach the “look” of giving up holidays for one year they need shorten spring break and accept everyone is going to be mad at them. We all already are!!

[Anonymous]

It feels like MCPS is pretending this is much harder than it actually is. If they get rid of transition day, isn’t it just ONE holiday they need to add to the calendar? Or am I wrong. They also seem intent on making it confusing.

But if it’s 1 day, they could even ask for a waiver to have it be Easter Monday. Or do the Day After Diwali holiday. It’s not hard. They’re pretending like they’d be forced to often all kinds of religious minorities, and that’s just unthinkable.

[Anonymous]

I like the early start idea. It is the best option. I hope Taylor sticks with it. AP scores will go up across the county.

[Anonymous]

It’s only April. You have over 3 months notice. Trips get messed up for any number of reasons. People need to stop being so inflexible and just deal with it. You cannot go through life without being inconvenienced now and again

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s only April. You have over 3 months notice. Trips get messed up for any number of reasons. People need to stop being so inflexible and just deal with it. You cannot go through life without being inconvenienced now and again

Hi TT!

[Anonymous]

The terms for end of the quarter grade entry time should be renegotiated with the teachers union. We should eliminate the non instructional days for entering grades at the end of the first 3 quarters and replace them each with two early release days instead, with teachers working their normal hours. Releasing students 2.5 hours early each of the last two days of the quarter would give teachers 5 hours of paid time to enter grades — almost as much time as they gain from one non instructional day — but this way, they’d all be instructional days and teachers would work the same hours for the same pay as they do now. If we did that for the first 3 quarters, we’d have 3 more instructional days built into the calendar, and voila, there’s your 4 built in inclement weather days, without starting the year earlier or ending later.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The terms for end of the quarter grade entry time should be renegotiated with the teachers union. We should eliminate the non instructional days for entering grades at the end of the first 3 quarters and replace them each with two early release days instead, with teachers working their normal hours. Releasing students 2.5 hours early each of the last two days of the quarter would give teachers 5 hours of paid time to enter grades — almost as much time as they gain from one non instructional day — but this way, they’d all be instructional days and teachers would work the same hours for the same pay as they do now. If we did that for the first 3 quarters, we’d have 3 more instructional days built into the calendar, and voila, there’s your 4 built in inclement weather days, without starting the year earlier or ending later.

Either this or just get rid of the religious holidays. Parents and teachers have now built their summer schedules around MCPS. They cannot change this now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s only April. You have over 3 months notice. Trips get messed up for any number of reasons. People need to stop being so inflexible and just deal with it. You cannot go through life without being inconvenienced now and again

It’s not being “inflexible.” This possibility came out of nowhere and most people I know with international travel plans to visit grandparents bought their tickets months ago. No one waits till now to buy air tickets to Asia or Europe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I like the early start idea. It is the best option. I hope Taylor sticks with it. AP scores will go up across the county.

Nobody cares about this

[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.

Yes they don't like the early start and or late end as their year is almost two weeks longer than it used to be because of so many days off. Check the FCPS forum if you don't believe me.

[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.

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.

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YOU ARE WRONG. Fairfax County starts with 180 planned school days, HOWEVER emergency closures do NOT get made up unless they result in under 990 hours. In Virginia the law is 990 hours OR 180 days, while Maryland requires 1080 hours (1170 for HS) AND 180 days.

[Anonymous]

Here is the 2015-16 calendar. It started August 31 AND ended June 17. There was no Juneteenth at the time but it still ended in time if there was. The only flaws were the Day before Thanksgiving and December 23 (maybe all 3 days of Christmas week) but it kept summer intact and had FOUR freebie days for bad weather closings. They could turn the 1Q grading day into a half day to be off the day before Thanksgiving. If there is a 4th day turn the 3Q grading day into a half day like this year in lieu of December 23.
https://teacherquality.nctq.org/dmsView/Montgomery_2015-16_SchoolCalendar(1)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It feels like MCPS is pretending this is much harder than it actually is. If they get rid of transition day, isn’t it just ONE holiday they need to add to the calendar? Or am I wrong. They also seem intent on making it confusing.

But if it’s 1 day, they could even ask for a waiver to have it be Easter Monday. Or do the Day After Diwali holiday. It’s not hard. They’re pretending like they’d be forced to often all kinds of religious minorities, and that’s just unthinkable.

Next year Easter Monday is the week of spring break so it should either be President's Day or Good Friday. If GF is used make it half a day. They have no need to be closed on November 9 and frankly shouldn't be closed on April 22 with this 180 days and makeup day law. If makeup days weren't required they could keep April 22 and move the November 9 off day to the Friday before or Tuesday after President's Day or April 23 since Diwali is actually on November 8.

[Anonymous]

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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.

Mcps did a survey about this a few years ago because they gave off Yom Kippur/Rosh Hashanah but not the other holidays. I don't know if the respondent demographics have changed around lunar new year, Diwali, and Eid