2023 - 2024 school calendar

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If this proposed Virginia Bill passes that eliminates weather days, mandating all weather days have to be virtual school days, will this mean all of VA schools will re-do their calendars anyways because there will be no need for built in weather days?

We don’t have weather days built in, we have extended every day by a few minutes to somehow magically arrive at our snow days. There won’t be extra days off if there aren’t any snow days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Jewish community was very outspoken avout needing their holidays off. They said absence data didn’t demonstrate the full need because many of their kids went to school anyway because they didn’t want to miss instruction.

I’m Indian American and we do not need Diwali off! There’s nothing that needs to be done during the day on Diwali. When I was a kid, we just celebrated on the closest weekend. Wasn’t an issue at all. But there were reps from the Indian community on the calendar committee and they seem to have a different opinion.

Well, I am Indian American too, and I like celebrating on the day it is meant to be celebrated, not a random weekend day.

What do you do to celebrate Diwali? (I'm also an Indian-American)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait—all those “PW” days are not set aside for teachers—particularly ES teachers—to lesson plan?! Is this what I am hearing?

At the end of next week (W, TH and F) it sounds like I’ll be fortunate to only have the time after the early dismissal to do with as I wish. That’s not the case for TH and Friday.

ES Teacher

I’m so sorry. That is RIDICULOUS. Are you doing anything worthwhile toward maintains your credentials? Required annual trainings? Or are they inventing stuff to fill the calendar?

I really thought those days were added to HELP teachers with planning, grading, etc…

The majority of training that we use for the renewal of our license occurs the week before school starts in August. On these random teacher workdays and professional development days, half the time is normally spent in meetings. If there is a training, that we can use for our license renewal (not all can be), it’s one hour out of the 270 hours that we need.

[Anonymous]

I think all these calendars and the multitude of religious days off is ridiculous. I don't know why we have to start 2 weeks before Labor Day because the religious camps insist on having their religion dictate the school calendars. If you must celebrate YK or RH, go to a Jewish school. Diwali or Bohdi Day? I guess go to an Indian school, or learn to adapt. And now we have Eid and Ramadan off?

Let's see how many more groups we can accommodate so that we start in July and have 2 days off each week. This wokeness is out of control.

And you religious folk need to stop forcing your religious observances on the rest of us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think all these calendars and the multitude of religious days off is ridiculous. I don't know why we have to start 2 weeks before Labor Day because the religious camps insist on having their religion dictate the school calendars. If you must celebrate YK or RH, go to a Jewish school. Diwali or Bohdi Day? I guess go to an Indian school, or learn to adapt. And now we have Eid and Ramadan off?

Let's see how many more groups we can accommodate so that we start in July and have 2 days off each week. This wokeness is out of control.

And you religious folk need to stop forcing your religious observances on the rest of us.

I don’t think the issues are the religious days, but that they are not being swapped with other days. Honestly, no one would care if they exchanged the four days off with Columbus Day, Veteran’s Day, and two teacher workdays.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think all these calendars and the multitude of religious days off is ridiculous. I don't know why we have to start 2 weeks before Labor Day because the religious camps insist on having their religion dictate the school calendars. If you must celebrate YK or RH, go to a Jewish school. Diwali or Bohdi Day? I guess go to an Indian school, or learn to adapt. And now we have Eid and Ramadan off?

Let's see how many more groups we can accommodate so that we start in July and have 2 days off each week. This wokeness is out of control.

And you religious folk need to stop forcing your religious observances on the rest of us.

+1

[Anonymous]

You all understand that if we get rid of all of the extra holidays, the summer just gets longer. I’d rather have more breaks and less summer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why won't the school board admit that NOTHING happens instruction-wise after SOLs are administered, which is usually the first week of May. And then we are just doing nothing for 3-4 weeks, even after retakes. Such a waste of time, for the purpose filling out a calendar with days.

It's also frustrating that the schools essentially get locked down during SOLs - you can't use the library or other spaces, and this is frustrating when you have younger kids who don't even take the SOLs.

I teach at an ES and we most certainly continue with instruction past the SOL tests.

Look. You may but most don’t. Stop trying to dispute this. Most teachers don’t teach after the SOLs which is why so many are upset with the calendar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think all these calendars and the multitude of religious days off is ridiculous. I don't know why we have to start 2 weeks before Labor Day because the religious camps insist on having their religion dictate the school calendars. If you must celebrate YK or RH, go to a Jewish school. Diwali or Bohdi Day? I guess go to an Indian school, or learn to adapt. And now we have Eid and Ramadan off?

Let's see how many more groups we can accommodate so that we start in July and have 2 days off each week. This wokeness is out of control.

And you religious folk need to stop forcing your religious observances on the rest of us.

+1

This is an appalling attitude. Even if you don’t think religious holidays should result in school closures, telling minoritized groups to go elsewhere is disgusting. Opinions differ greatly and there is no calendar that will make everyone happy. It’s okay to disagree and debate, but maybe try to be a little more respectful in your discourse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If this proposed Virginia Bill passes that eliminates weather days, mandating all weather days have to be virtual school days, will this mean all of VA schools will re-do their calendars anyways because there will be no need for built in weather days?

Luckily with the Rs in there I don’t think it will pass. And I used to be D but the Ds have shown themselves to be the ones who lovel virtual.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why won't the school board admit that NOTHING happens instruction-wise after SOLs are administered, which is usually the first week of May. And then we are just doing nothing for 3-4 weeks, even after retakes. Such a waste of time, for the purpose filling out a calendar with days.

It's also frustrating that the schools essentially get locked down during SOLs - you can't use the library or other spaces, and this is frustrating when you have younger kids who don't even take the SOLs.

I teach at an ES and we most certainly continue with instruction past the SOL tests.

Look. You may but most don’t. Stop trying to dispute this. Most teachers don’t teach after the SOLs which is why so many are upset with the calendar.

You have know way of knowing that “most don’t”. I would bet the opposite. Thats a long time (up to a month or so) for elementary students and their teachers to go without instruction. They aren’t filling all of those days without teaching happening.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait—all those “PW” days are not set aside for teachers—particularly ES teachers—to lesson plan?! Is this what I am hearing?

At the end of next week (W, TH and F) it sounds like I’ll be fortunate to only have the time after the early dismissal to do with as I wish. That’s not the case for TH and Friday.

ES Teacher

I’m so sorry. That is RIDICULOUS. Are you doing anything worthwhile toward maintains your credentials? Required annual trainings? Or are they inventing stuff to fill the calendar?

I really thought those days were added to HELP teachers with planning, grading, etc…

We don’t have all the details yet. Thursday is a county-wide in service day. At our school we are told we have to choose from available PD that FCPS provides. We have a staff meeting on Friday, but I don’t know yet what we will go over. I believe we also have a training regarding the recent special education/compensatory services settlement.

There will be very little time for planning and grading or inputting student grades into SIS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think all these calendars and the multitude of religious days off is ridiculous. I don't know why we have to start 2 weeks before Labor Day because the religious camps insist on having their religion dictate the school calendars. If you must celebrate YK or RH, go to a Jewish school. Diwali or Bohdi Day? I guess go to an Indian school, or learn to adapt. And now we have Eid and Ramadan off?

Let's see how many more groups we can accommodate so that we start in July and have 2 days off each week. This wokeness is out of control.

And you religious folk need to stop forcing your religious observances on the rest of us.

+1

This is an appalling attitude. Even if you don’t think religious holidays should result in school closures, telling minoritized groups to go elsewhere is disgusting. Opinions differ greatly and there is no calendar that will make everyone happy. It’s okay to disagree and debate, but maybe try to be a little more respectful in your discourse.

Absolutely not. If religious groups insist on pushing their religious observances on us, I will insist that they go elsewhere. Can you for one second image that we were shutting school for white Mormons or Evangelicals? The tone on this board would be incredibly different. But for some reason, we're fine with inserting religion back into school - even when we've worked so hard to separate public sector from it - provided its minority groups. It's hypocritical, and I'm calling the left out on it. Get rid of the religious days, and stick to fed calendar only. You need a religious accommodation? You'll get an excused absence, or you can find a religiously based schools like most of the Catholics that I know.

[Anonymous]

Compleyely agree with 7:45!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think all these calendars and the multitude of religious days off is ridiculous. I don't know why we have to start 2 weeks before Labor Day because the religious camps insist on having their religion dictate the school calendars. If you must celebrate YK or RH, go to a Jewish school. Diwali or Bohdi Day? I guess go to an Indian school, or learn to adapt. And now we have Eid and Ramadan off?

Let's see how many more groups we can accommodate so that we start in July and have 2 days off each week. This wokeness is out of control.

And you religious folk need to stop forcing your religious observances on the rest of us.

+1

This is an appalling attitude. Even if you don’t think religious holidays should result in school closures, telling minoritized groups to go elsewhere is disgusting. Opinions differ greatly and there is no calendar that will make everyone happy. It’s okay to disagree and debate, but maybe try to be a little more respectful in your discourse.

So why do atheists have to tolerate their year being constantly disrupted by other people's religions? What about that group of people? I want a calendar that has breaks embedded in the year and that decision-making should be made based on what we know about productivity, mental health, and burnout across students and staff.