Melanie Meren's FB post about the calendar

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Anonymous wrote:Great to hear from high school parents whose kids can 1) stay home alone 2) for free 3) can study on their own 4) have no early release nonsense - how they love this calendar and how they don't care.

HS parent here - this calendar is awful. We don't love it and more importantly my kids have complained about it.

We need to get in a learning groove and this fractured calendar has been disastrous for that.

So no, it isn't HS parents that love it. We HATE it. We also hate that there are so many school days in June when we know very little learning will be happening after tests.

But AGAIN. You are looking at the calendar with a TON of snow days. Why are you all so unable to do the calendar by itself and not see past how much the snow days impacted the last few weeks?
Without snow days, the calendar would have been fine. It is the snow days which have blown off the track. And so all of you having a temper tantrum about it will whine to get change but when there are no snow days, you will pull your kids out for long weekends to go skiing or whatever.

Go count the number of weeks with a day off and tell me it’s fine. We are surprised when they string together three 5 day weeks now.

Sure thing. In the months of Jan Feb ( you started complaining in Feb) there were supposed to be 5 weeks of 5 days of school. This was out of 8 weeks. There were 2 weeks that had federal holidays and one with the traditional end of semester days off.
It is the SNOW that has given us very few full weeks of school.

Mmm, a well run school system would recognize the issue with weather closures in Jan/Feb and attempt to maximize instructional time before those months.

But FCPS is not a well run school system.

Nah- you just think a well run school system would agree with you. You have no metric to judge whether a school system is “well run” except your own opinion of whether it serves you well. We have LOTS of snow days built in. In the Boston area there are no snow days, but my friend’s kids were out of school several times this year. They will now be in school until June 27th to make up the days. They also had a week off in February for “break.” I prefer the way FCPS does it.

… Who do you think a school system is supposed to serve if not the students and their families? A school system that doesn’t serve them well, isn’t well run.

No, that is a selfish view. A well run school system has to serve the majority kids well, not one individual parent and their individual scheduling needs. It isn’t instagram or facebook. It is a school system. Greater good and all.

Sure, and the greater number of parents are saying is the schedule doesn't serve them. Early release was imposed on a lie. That vastly eroded trust. Now there is accountability.

Again, you are aiming weird unproven statements like “the greater number of parents”. As listed in what survey. You don’t have any real data except more people are complaining to the board and more people are complaining NOW as the snow days are interfering with the regular calendar making it FEEL like the calendar is horrible.
The calendar has been the same for years. It was set early this year. AS far as early release is concerned, they should move back to Mondays being short days for elementary. It only affects elementary students and there are programs for those parents who are inflexible situations.

Like I said, Boston schools will be in school until June 26 or 27tth because of snow days and they had a week last week before their latest snow storm as a built in holiday.

This is a strange attempt at gaslighting. The board has been getting hammered on the calendar since September and before. Early release met intense opposition. Yes how Reid handles snowstorms doesn’t build confidence in her but, the disaster calendar complaints started long before the snow did.

Well, I don’t mean to gaslight you and it is strange becuase that isn’t my intent.

My attempt is to point out out that the frustration you are feeling right now, in January February, is not really the calendar but due to the massive amounts of unusual snow and cold weather we have had lately. All I am trying to show is a different, less reactive, perspective.

The board was REALLY getting hammered about boundary changes. The calendar seems to have been a festering side issue with elementary parents upset that they have to have care for their kids. In the past, teenagers would handle this, but now you decide to pay camps. As a high school parent of a currently high performing student, I am happy about the days off as AP course work is intense. My upper elementary kid is fine also. I do have him do some extra math workbook pages at home on days off. It doesn’t take long and the workbook cost 15$ for the year.

That said, Meren is apparently a bit of an over-reactor herself:

https://www.fairfaxtimes.com/articles/fairfax_county/school-board-clerk-worked-from-home-amid-alleged-threats-from-school-board-member/article_de919f4a-f5b1-11ed-ab31-0fc4b8ac1977.html

There are demonstrably more planned days off this year than in years past. It is a point of fact that while there are the same number of instructional days, the calendar is a full week longer. I won’t deny that snow days have caused frustrations to boil over, but it’s disingenuous to call it an emotional response. The calendar is bad by design.

But sure, let’s throw out the “you hate taking care of your kids” argument because parents are complaining their kids can barely string together 3 days a week in a classroom.

It’s now gone from complaining about the lack of 5 day weeks to “barely stringing together 3 days a week”.

Without snow, there has been TWO 3-day weeks this entire year. Both in November.

And they say this isn’t an emotional response lol

What about the week in February? Off for President's Day and Off the day after. That is a 3 day school week.

I wouldn’t even engage the arguments that attempt to portray frustration with this year’s calendar as irrational. The board has decided to take it up. The angle Meren has chosen to approach it from is the high cost of childcare in this region, and so now is the time for proposals that lower the out-of-pocket cost to parents.

The Calendar has been frustrating for older kids who don't need child care too!

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I’d be happy enough with the 26-27 calendar as is, as long as the dumb 3 hour early releases are going the way of the dodo. My kids’ ES has given up on any instruction on those days. They use them for class test makeups if a kid was sick and then spend the rest of the time for all the other kids on “team building activities” and playing games. Meanwhile SOL’s are sneaking up on us … only March, April, and maybe a week of May left to go and we have to get through spring break in there …

My guess is, if they can get rid of the early release, Meren can declare victory. It’s an intensely unpopular policy.

Hopefully, they can draw some guidelines for commonsense reformed to the calendar going forward: TW/SD days only permitted on Monday or Friday, teacher training moved virtual and carried out to some extent during snow days, TW days layered on top of either federal or religious holidays, whichever makes more sense.

None of your ideas make sense and/or are feasible. Get real.

TW/PD on a Friday? Never going to happen. Fridays are not productive. No one ever schedules meetings for Friday afternoons. By then, teachers are exhausted.

Virtual teacher training on snow days. doesn’t make sense as teachers’ own children would be at home. A snow day means teachers are off period.

TW on a religious or federal holiday? I don’t think so.

From the perspective of a normal professional adult who is also a parent, professional expectations in 2026 include working five day weeks (even Friday!) teleworking in inclement weather (even if children are home) and not having every religious or federal holiday as PTO. I believe our teachers are professional adults who can adapt to higher professional expectations to save taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Sheeesh, what 19th century boss do you have?!

Professional expectations in 2026 also include unlimited PTO, full time remote work, and a focus on mental health outside of work. Sorry your company hasn’t gotten with the times of R.O.W.E.

Very few jobs offer unlimited PTO and full time remote work. I worked for a company with “unlimited PTO” and the people who took that literally ended up being counseled and then fired. Every contract has a number of hours that employees have to work, drop under that and you are gone. Any contract where you have deadlines or work in teams will have limits on the amount of PTO you can take.

Most of the world reverted to at least hybrid if not full time office after COVID. There are some remote jobs but they are hard to find.

The normal work environment is still 9-5 in the office. You can work to find something else but it isn’t easy.

A bunch of opinion based generalizations here.

“Very few jobs offer unlimited PTO”

In my sector, pharmaceuticals, it’s pretty common. In fact my last 3 companies (severance, merger, promotion) have all offered unlimited PTO. I’ve been approached by multiple competitors, none have any verbiage about contract hours etc. I work on a team and have deadlines, as long as my work is submitted by the deadline, they could care less when and where I do it. As professionals, we have the freedom and the ability to plan our meetings when it works for us.

I think there’s some confusion about what a ROWE workplace is. This may not be common in your sector unfortunately, but it’s very common in others. I’d encourage you to explore better opportunities where the company prioritizes your happiness and mental health as much as they do your work. They’re out there!

I have worked for pretty much every major Defense Contractor in the area. One offered unlimited PTO and they started that 3 years ago. Two people on my team were let go for abusing said policy within a year. You work in a sector that offers it but most don't. I promise you that the parents working retail jobs and house cleaning and other blue collar jobs were they are working for a company do not have remote work and unlimited PTO.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[i]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d be happy enough with the 26-27 calendar as is, as long as the dumb 3 hour early releases are going the way of the dodo. My kids’ ES has given up on any instruction on those days. They use them for class test makeups if a kid was sick and then spend the rest of the time for all the other kids on “team building activities” and playing games. Meanwhile SOL’s are sneaking up on us … only March, April, and maybe a week of May left to go and we have to get through spring break in there …

My guess is, if they can get rid of the early release, Meren can declare victory. It’s an intensely unpopular policy.

Hopefully, they can draw some guidelines for commonsense reformed to the calendar going forward: TW/SD days only permitted on Monday or Friday, teacher training moved virtual and carried out to some extent during snow days, TW days layered on top of either federal or religious holidays, whichever makes more sense.

None of your ideas make sense and/or are feasible. Get real.

TW/PD on a Friday? Never going to happen. Fridays are not productive. No one ever schedules meetings for Friday afternoons. By then, teachers are exhausted.

Virtual teacher training on snow days. doesn’t make sense as teachers’ own children would be at home. A snow day means teachers are off period.

TW on a religious or federal holiday? I don’t think so.

From the perspective of a normal professional adult who is also a parent, professional expectations in 2026 include working five day weeks (even Friday!) teleworking in inclement weather (even if children are home) and not having every religious or federal holiday as PTO. I believe our teachers are professional adults who can adapt to higher professional expectations to save taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Sheeesh, what 19th century boss do you have?!

Professional expectations in 2026 also include unlimited PTO, full time remote work, and a focus on mental health outside of work. Sorry your company hasn’t gotten with the times of R.O.W.E.

Very few jobs offer unlimited PTO and full time remote work. I worked for a company with “unlimited PTO” and the people who took that literally ended up being counseled and then fired. Every contract has a number of hours that employees have to work, drop under that and you are gone. Any contract where you have deadlines or work in teams will have limits on the amount of PTO you can take.

Most of the world reverted to at least hybrid if not full time office after COVID. There are some remote jobs but they are hard to find.

The normal work environment is still 9-5 in the office. You can work to find something else but it isn’t easy.

A bunch of opinion based generalizations here.

“Very few jobs offer unlimited PTO”

In my sector, pharmaceuticals, it’s pretty common. In fact my last 3 companies (severance, merger, promotion) have all offered unlimited PTO. I’ve been approached by multiple competitors, none have any verbiage about contract hours etc. I work on a team and have deadlines, as long as my work is submitted by the deadline, they could care less when and where I do it. As professionals, we have the freedom and the ability to plan our meetings when it works for us.

I think there’s some confusion about what a ROWE workplace is. This may not be common in your sector unfortunately, but it’s very common in others. I’d encourage you to explore better opportunities where the company prioritizes your happiness and mental health as much as they do your work. They’re out there!

I have worked for pretty much every major Defense Contractor in the area. One offered unlimited PTO and they started that 3 years ago. Two people on my team were let go for abusing said policy within a year. You work in a sector that offers it but most don't. I promise you that the parents working retail jobs and house cleaning and other blue collar jobs were they are working for a company do not have remote work and unlimited PTO.

Companies are switching to Unlimited PTO so they don’t have to pay out accrued PTO when people leave. Many do not see it as a “benefit.”

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Great to hear from high school parents whose kids can 1) stay home alone 2) for free 3) can study on their own 4) have no early release nonsense - how they love this calendar and how they don't care.

HS parent here - this calendar is awful. We don't love it and more importantly my kids have complained about it.

We need to get in a learning groove and this fractured calendar has been disastrous for that.

So no, it isn't HS parents that love it. We HATE it. We also hate that there are so many school days in June when we know very little learning will be happening after tests.

But AGAIN. You are looking at the calendar with a TON of snow days. Why are you all so unable to do the calendar by itself and not see past how much the snow days impacted the last few weeks?
Without snow days, the calendar would have been fine. It is the snow days which have blown off the track. And so all of you having a temper tantrum about it will whine to get change but when there are no snow days, you will pull your kids out for long weekends to go skiing or whatever.

Go count the number of weeks with a day off and tell me it’s fine. We are surprised when they string together three 5 day weeks now.

Sure thing. In the months of Jan Feb ( you started complaining in Feb) there were supposed to be 5 weeks of 5 days of school. This was out of 8 weeks. There were 2 weeks that had federal holidays and one with the traditional end of semester days off.
It is the SNOW that has given us very few full weeks of school.

Mmm, a well run school system would recognize the issue with weather closures in Jan/Feb and attempt to maximize instructional time before those months.

But FCPS is not a well run school system.

Nah- you just think a well run school system would agree with you. You have no metric to judge whether a school system is “well run” except your own opinion of whether it serves you well. We have LOTS of snow days built in. In the Boston area there are no snow days, but my friend’s kids were out of school several times this year. They will now be in school until June 27th to make up the days. They also had a week off in February for “break.” I prefer the way FCPS does it.

… Who do you think a school system is supposed to serve if not the students and their families? A school system that doesn’t serve them well, isn’t well run.

No, that is a selfish view. A well run school system has to serve the majority kids well, not one individual parent and their individual scheduling needs. It isn’t instagram or facebook. It is a school system. Greater good and all.

Sure, and the greater number of parents are saying is the schedule doesn't serve them. Early release was imposed on a lie. That vastly eroded trust. Now there is accountability.

Again, you are aiming weird unproven statements like “the greater number of parents”. As listed in what survey. You don’t have any real data except more people are complaining to the board and more people are complaining NOW as the snow days are interfering with the regular calendar making it FEEL like the calendar is horrible.
The calendar has been the same for years. It was set early this year. AS far as early release is concerned, they should move back to Mondays being short days for elementary. It only affects elementary students and there are programs for those parents who are inflexible situations.

Like I said, Boston schools will be in school until June 26 or 27tth because of snow days and they had a week last week before their latest snow storm as a built in holiday.

This is a strange attempt at gaslighting. The board has been getting hammered on the calendar since September and before. Early release met intense opposition. Yes how Reid handles snowstorms doesn’t build confidence in her but, the disaster calendar complaints started long before the snow did.

Well, I don’t mean to gaslight you and it is strange becuase that isn’t my intent.

My attempt is to point out out that the frustration you are feeling right now, in January February, is not really the calendar but due to the massive amounts of unusual snow and cold weather we have had lately. All I am trying to show is a different, less reactive, perspective.

The board was REALLY getting hammered about boundary changes. The calendar seems to have been a festering side issue with elementary parents upset that they have to have care for their kids. In the past, teenagers would handle this, but now you decide to pay camps. As a high school parent of a currently high performing student, I am happy about the days off as AP course work is intense. My upper elementary kid is fine also. I do have him do some extra math workbook pages at home on days off. It doesn’t take long and the workbook cost 15$ for the year.

That said, Meren is apparently a bit of an over-reactor herself:

https://www.fairfaxtimes.com/articles/fairfax_county/school-board-clerk-worked-from-home-amid-alleged-threats-from-school-board-member/article_de919f4a-f5b1-11ed-ab31-0fc4b8ac1977.html

There are demonstrably more planned days off this year than in years past. It is a point of fact that while there are the same number of instructional days, the calendar is a full week longer. I won’t deny that snow days have caused frustrations to boil over, but it’s disingenuous to call it an emotional response. The calendar is bad by design.

But sure, let’s throw out the “you hate taking care of your kids” argument because parents are complaining their kids can barely string together 3 days a week in a classroom.

It’s now gone from complaining about the lack of 5 day weeks to “barely stringing together 3 days a week”.

Without snow, there has been TWO 3-day weeks this entire year. Both in November.

And they say this isn’t an emotional response lol

What about the week in February? Off for President's Day and Off the day after. That is a 3 day school week.

I wouldn’t even engage the arguments that attempt to portray frustration with this year’s calendar as irrational. The board has decided to take it up. The angle Meren has chosen to approach it from is the high cost of childcare in this region, and so now is the time for proposals that lower the out-of-pocket cost to parents.

The Calendar has been frustrating for older kids who don't need child care too!

I know. But the angle being taken for a form is the angle of the childcare tax. This calendar imposes. Many of the things that could fix that — like the available public data showing that Mondays and Fridays have the lowest commuter levels— would also make for a better calendar for people who don’t need childcare. Restricting optional days off to Monday and Friday lowers the financial burden and makes more logistical sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Great to hear from high school parents whose kids can 1) stay home alone 2) for free 3) can study on their own 4) have no early release nonsense - how they love this calendar and how they don't care.

HS parent here - this calendar is awful. We don't love it and more importantly my kids have complained about it.

We need to get in a learning groove and this fractured calendar has been disastrous for that.

So no, it isn't HS parents that love it. We HATE it. We also hate that there are so many school days in June when we know very little learning will be happening after tests.

But AGAIN. You are looking at the calendar with a TON of snow days. Why are you all so unable to do the calendar by itself and not see past how much the snow days impacted the last few weeks?
Without snow days, the calendar would have been fine. It is the snow days which have blown off the track. And so all of you having a temper tantrum about it will whine to get change but when there are no snow days, you will pull your kids out for long weekends to go skiing or whatever.

Go count the number of weeks with a day off and tell me it’s fine. We are surprised when they string together three 5 day weeks now.

Sure thing. In the months of Jan Feb ( you started complaining in Feb) there were supposed to be 5 weeks of 5 days of school. This was out of 8 weeks. There were 2 weeks that had federal holidays and one with the traditional end of semester days off.
It is the SNOW that has given us very few full weeks of school.

Mmm, a well run school system would recognize the issue with weather closures in Jan/Feb and attempt to maximize instructional time before those months.

But FCPS is not a well run school system.

Nah- you just think a well run school system would agree with you. You have no metric to judge whether a school system is “well run” except your own opinion of whether it serves you well. We have LOTS of snow days built in. In the Boston area there are no snow days, but my friend’s kids were out of school several times this year. They will now be in school until June 27th to make up the days. They also had a week off in February for “break.” I prefer the way FCPS does it.

… Who do you think a school system is supposed to serve if not the students and their families? A school system that doesn’t serve them well, isn’t well run.

No, that is a selfish view. A well run school system has to serve the majority kids well, not one individual parent and their individual scheduling needs. It isn’t instagram or facebook. It is a school system. Greater good and all.

Sure, and the greater number of parents are saying is the schedule doesn't serve them. Early release was imposed on a lie. That vastly eroded trust. Now there is accountability.

Again, you are aiming weird unproven statements like “the greater number of parents”. As listed in what survey. You don’t have any real data except more people are complaining to the board and more people are complaining NOW as the snow days are interfering with the regular calendar making it FEEL like the calendar is horrible.
The calendar has been the same for years. It was set early this year. AS far as early release is concerned, they should move back to Mondays being short days for elementary. It only affects elementary students and there are programs for those parents who are inflexible situations.

Like I said, Boston schools will be in school until June 26 or 27tth because of snow days and they had a week last week before their latest snow storm as a built in holiday.

This is a strange attempt at gaslighting. The board has been getting hammered on the calendar since September and before. Early release met intense opposition. Yes how Reid handles snowstorms doesn’t build confidence in her but, the disaster calendar complaints started long before the snow did.

Well, I don’t mean to gaslight you and it is strange becuase that isn’t my intent.

My attempt is to point out out that the frustration you are feeling right now, in January February, is not really the calendar but due to the massive amounts of unusual snow and cold weather we have had lately. All I am trying to show is a different, less reactive, perspective.

The board was REALLY getting hammered about boundary changes. The calendar seems to have been a festering side issue with elementary parents upset that they have to have care for their kids. In the past, teenagers would handle this, but now you decide to pay camps. As a high school parent of a currently high performing student, I am happy about the days off as AP course work is intense. My upper elementary kid is fine also. I do have him do some extra math workbook pages at home on days off. It doesn’t take long and the workbook cost 15$ for the year.

That said, Meren is apparently a bit of an over-reactor herself:

https://www.fairfaxtimes.com/articles/fairfax_county/school-board-clerk-worked-from-home-amid-alleged-threats-from-school-board-member/article_de919f4a-f5b1-11ed-ab31-0fc4b8ac1977.html

There are demonstrably more planned days off this year than in years past. It is a point of fact that while there are the same number of instructional days, the calendar is a full week longer. I won’t deny that snow days have caused frustrations to boil over, but it’s disingenuous to call it an emotional response. The calendar is bad by design.

But sure, let’s throw out the “you hate taking care of your kids” argument because parents are complaining their kids can barely string together 3 days a week in a classroom.

It’s now gone from complaining about the lack of 5 day weeks to “barely stringing together 3 days a week”.

Without snow, there has been TWO 3-day weeks this entire year. Both in November.

And they say this isn’t an emotional response lol

When I say “string” I mean 3 days in a row. Weeks with only 3 consecutive days of school:

Sept 10-12*
Sept 24-26*
Sept 29-Oct 1*
Nov 5-7
Nov 12-14*
Nov 24-25 (2 days)
Jan 26-28 (cancelled due to snow)
Feb 18-20
Apr 7-9
May 28-29 (2 days)
Jun 15-17 (school ends)

* weeks with 4 days but only 3 consecutive days due to midweek closure.

So let’s do the math not counting Thanksgiving, snow days, and the last week of school (that no one shows up to and ends at 10am in HS)

Your data shows there are 8-weeks with 3 consecutive days. Out of 39 total weeks (not counting Thanksgiving and Last Week), that is 20%. Which means 80% of the time, FCPS is stringing together 3+ consecutive days.

If we use the same data (and don't count the same weeks of Thanksgiving & the Last Week) counting all the 4-day weeks with midweek holidays, there are only 4 weeks out of 39, or 10%. Which means 90% of the time, FCPS has school 4 days (or more) a week.

You’re really complaining about 90% of the time…?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Great to hear from high school parents whose kids can 1) stay home alone 2) for free 3) can study on their own 4) have no early release nonsense - how they love this calendar and how they don't care.

HS parent here - this calendar is awful. We don't love it and more importantly my kids have complained about it.

We need to get in a learning groove and this fractured calendar has been disastrous for that.

So no, it isn't HS parents that love it. We HATE it. We also hate that there are so many school days in June when we know very little learning will be happening after tests.

But AGAIN. You are looking at the calendar with a TON of snow days. Why are you all so unable to do the calendar by itself and not see past how much the snow days impacted the last few weeks?
Without snow days, the calendar would have been fine. It is the snow days which have blown off the track. And so all of you having a temper tantrum about it will whine to get change but when there are no snow days, you will pull your kids out for long weekends to go skiing or whatever.

Go count the number of weeks with a day off and tell me it’s fine. We are surprised when they string together three 5 day weeks now.

Sure thing. In the months of Jan Feb ( you started complaining in Feb) there were supposed to be 5 weeks of 5 days of school. This was out of 8 weeks. There were 2 weeks that had federal holidays and one with the traditional end of semester days off.
It is the SNOW that has given us very few full weeks of school.

Mmm, a well run school system would recognize the issue with weather closures in Jan/Feb and attempt to maximize instructional time before those months.

But FCPS is not a well run school system.

Nah- you just think a well run school system would agree with you. You have no metric to judge whether a school system is “well run” except your own opinion of whether it serves you well. We have LOTS of snow days built in. In the Boston area there are no snow days, but my friend’s kids were out of school several times this year. They will now be in school until June 27th to make up the days. They also had a week off in February for “break.” I prefer the way FCPS does it.

… Who do you think a school system is supposed to serve if not the students and their families? A school system that doesn’t serve them well, isn’t well run.

No, that is a selfish view. A well run school system has to serve the majority kids well, not one individual parent and their individual scheduling needs. It isn’t instagram or facebook. It is a school system. Greater good and all.

Sure, and the greater number of parents are saying is the schedule doesn't serve them. Early release was imposed on a lie. That vastly eroded trust. Now there is accountability.

Again, you are aiming weird unproven statements like “the greater number of parents”. As listed in what survey. You don’t have any real data except more people are complaining to the board and more people are complaining NOW as the snow days are interfering with the regular calendar making it FEEL like the calendar is horrible.
The calendar has been the same for years. It was set early this year. AS far as early release is concerned, they should move back to Mondays being short days for elementary. It only affects elementary students and there are programs for those parents who are inflexible situations.

Like I said, Boston schools will be in school until June 26 or 27tth because of snow days and they had a week last week before their latest snow storm as a built in holiday.

This is a strange attempt at gaslighting. The board has been getting hammered on the calendar since September and before. Early release met intense opposition. Yes how Reid handles snowstorms doesn’t build confidence in her but, the disaster calendar complaints started long before the snow did.

Well, I don’t mean to gaslight you and it is strange becuase that isn’t my intent.

My attempt is to point out out that the frustration you are feeling right now, in January February, is not really the calendar but due to the massive amounts of unusual snow and cold weather we have had lately. All I am trying to show is a different, less reactive, perspective.

The board was REALLY getting hammered about boundary changes. The calendar seems to have been a festering side issue with elementary parents upset that they have to have care for their kids. In the past, teenagers would handle this, but now you decide to pay camps. As a high school parent of a currently high performing student, I am happy about the days off as AP course work is intense. My upper elementary kid is fine also. I do have him do some extra math workbook pages at home on days off. It doesn’t take long and the workbook cost 15$ for the year.

That said, Meren is apparently a bit of an over-reactor herself:

https://www.fairfaxtimes.com/articles/fairfax_county/school-board-clerk-worked-from-home-amid-alleged-threats-from-school-board-member/article_de919f4a-f5b1-11ed-ab31-0fc4b8ac1977.html

There are demonstrably more planned days off this year than in years past. It is a point of fact that while there are the same number of instructional days, the calendar is a full week longer. I won’t deny that snow days have caused frustrations to boil over, but it’s disingenuous to call it an emotional response. The calendar is bad by design.

But sure, let’s throw out the “you hate taking care of your kids” argument because parents are complaining their kids can barely string together 3 days a week in a classroom.

It’s now gone from complaining about the lack of 5 day weeks to “barely stringing together 3 days a week”.

Without snow, there has been TWO 3-day weeks this entire year. Both in November.

And they say this isn’t an emotional response lol

When I say “string” I mean 3 days in a row. Weeks with only 3 consecutive days of school:

Sept 10-12*
Sept 24-26*
Sept 29-Oct 1*
Nov 5-7
Nov 12-14*
Nov 24-25 (2 days)
Jan 26-28 (cancelled due to snow)
Feb 18-20
Apr 7-9
May 28-29 (2 days)
Jun 15-17 (school ends)

* weeks with 4 days but only 3 consecutive days due to midweek closure.

So let’s do the math not counting Thanksgiving, snow days, and the last week of school (that no one shows up to and ends at 10am in HS)

Your data shows there are 8-weeks with 3 consecutive days. Out of 39 total weeks (not counting Thanksgiving and Last Week), that is 20%. Which means 80% of the time, FCPS is stringing together 3+ consecutive days.

If we use the same data (and don't count the same weeks of Thanksgiving & the Last Week) counting all the 4-day weeks with midweek holidays, there are only 4 weeks out of 39, or 10%. Which means 90% of the time, FCPS has school 4 days (or more) a week.

You’re really complaining about 90% of the time…?

Okay, let’s compromise. Of the 44 weeks this school year, we can throw out full weeks off and the last week of school. The 2 days before Thanksgiving count as instructional time, so I’m not sure why they don’t count to you… that makes 40 weeks.

5 day weeks - 24
4 day continuous- 6
4 day/3 continuous - 4
3 days - 4
2 days - 2

Weeks with 3 continuous days or fewer = 10 weeks. Which is 25% of the time.

Last year there were only 5 weeks with 3 continuous days or fewer. Next year there are 5 weeks. This year had a bad calendar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Great to hear from high school parents whose kids can 1) stay home alone 2) for free 3) can study on their own 4) have no early release nonsense - how they love this calendar and how they don't care.

HS parent here - this calendar is awful. We don't love it and more importantly my kids have complained about it.

We need to get in a learning groove and this fractured calendar has been disastrous for that.

So no, it isn't HS parents that love it. We HATE it. We also hate that there are so many school days in June when we know very little learning will be happening after tests.

But AGAIN. You are looking at the calendar with a TON of snow days. Why are you all so unable to do the calendar by itself and not see past how much the snow days impacted the last few weeks?
Without snow days, the calendar would have been fine. It is the snow days which have blown off the track. And so all of you having a temper tantrum about it will whine to get change but when there are no snow days, you will pull your kids out for long weekends to go skiing or whatever.

Go count the number of weeks with a day off and tell me it’s fine. We are surprised when they string together three 5 day weeks now.

Sure thing. In the months of Jan Feb ( you started complaining in Feb) there were supposed to be 5 weeks of 5 days of school. This was out of 8 weeks. There were 2 weeks that had federal holidays and one with the traditional end of semester days off.
It is the SNOW that has given us very few full weeks of school.

Mmm, a well run school system would recognize the issue with weather closures in Jan/Feb and attempt to maximize instructional time before those months.

But FCPS is not a well run school system.

Nah- you just think a well run school system would agree with you. You have no metric to judge whether a school system is “well run” except your own opinion of whether it serves you well. We have LOTS of snow days built in. In the Boston area there are no snow days, but my friend’s kids were out of school several times this year. They will now be in school until June 27th to make up the days. They also had a week off in February for “break.” I prefer the way FCPS does it.

… Who do you think a school system is supposed to serve if not the students and their families? A school system that doesn’t serve them well, isn’t well run.

No, that is a selfish view. A well run school system has to serve the majority kids well, not one individual parent and their individual scheduling needs. It isn’t instagram or facebook. It is a school system. Greater good and all.

Sure, and the greater number of parents are saying is the schedule doesn't serve them. Early release was imposed on a lie. That vastly eroded trust. Now there is accountability.

Again, you are aiming weird unproven statements like “the greater number of parents”. As listed in what survey. You don’t have any real data except more people are complaining to the board and more people are complaining NOW as the snow days are interfering with the regular calendar making it FEEL like the calendar is horrible.
The calendar has been the same for years. It was set early this year. AS far as early release is concerned, they should move back to Mondays being short days for elementary. It only affects elementary students and there are programs for those parents who are inflexible situations.

Like I said, Boston schools will be in school until June 26 or 27tth because of snow days and they had a week last week before their latest snow storm as a built in holiday.

This is a strange attempt at gaslighting. The board has been getting hammered on the calendar since September and before. Early release met intense opposition. Yes how Reid handles snowstorms doesn’t build confidence in her but, the disaster calendar complaints started long before the snow did.

Well, I don’t mean to gaslight you and it is strange becuase that isn’t my intent.

My attempt is to point out out that the frustration you are feeling right now, in January February, is not really the calendar but due to the massive amounts of unusual snow and cold weather we have had lately. All I am trying to show is a different, less reactive, perspective.

The board was REALLY getting hammered about boundary changes. The calendar seems to have been a festering side issue with elementary parents upset that they have to have care for their kids. In the past, teenagers would handle this, but now you decide to pay camps. As a high school parent of a currently high performing student, I am happy about the days off as AP course work is intense. My upper elementary kid is fine also. I do have him do some extra math workbook pages at home on days off. It doesn’t take long and the workbook cost 15$ for the year.

That said, Meren is apparently a bit of an over-reactor herself:

https://www.fairfaxtimes.com/articles/fairfax_county/school-board-clerk-worked-from-home-amid-alleged-threats-from-school-board-member/article_de919f4a-f5b1-11ed-ab31-0fc4b8ac1977.html

There are demonstrably more planned days off this year than in years past. It is a point of fact that while there are the same number of instructional days, the calendar is a full week longer. I won’t deny that snow days have caused frustrations to boil over, but it’s disingenuous to call it an emotional response. The calendar is bad by design.

But sure, let’s throw out the “you hate taking care of your kids” argument because parents are complaining their kids can barely string together 3 days a week in a classroom.

It’s now gone from complaining about the lack of 5 day weeks to “barely stringing together 3 days a week”.

Without snow, there has been TWO 3-day weeks this entire year. Both in November.

And they say this isn’t an emotional response lol

When I say “string” I mean 3 days in a row. Weeks with only 3 consecutive days of school:

Sept 10-12*
Sept 24-26*
Sept 29-Oct 1*
Nov 5-7
Nov 12-14*
Nov 24-25 (2 days)
Jan 26-28 (cancelled due to snow)
Feb 18-20
Apr 7-9
May 28-29 (2 days)
Jun 15-17 (school ends)

* weeks with 4 days but only 3 consecutive days due to midweek closure.

So let’s do the math not counting Thanksgiving, snow days, and the last week of school (that no one shows up to and ends at 10am in HS)

Your data shows there are 8-weeks with 3 consecutive days. Out of 39 total weeks (not counting Thanksgiving and Last Week), that is 20%. Which means 80% of the time, FCPS is stringing together 3+ consecutive days.

If we use the same data (and don't count the same weeks of Thanksgiving & the Last Week) counting all the 4-day weeks with midweek holidays, there are only 4 weeks out of 39, or 10%. Which means 90% of the time, FCPS has school 4 days (or more) a week.

You’re really complaining about 90% of the time…?

I can't believe anyone is defending this year's calendar. September and November were completely wasted. The 5 day Memorial Day is pointless. No idea why you excluding Thanksgiving in your calculations. Just give it up already.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[i]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d be happy enough with the 26-27 calendar as is, as long as the dumb 3 hour early releases are going the way of the dodo. My kids’ ES has given up on any instruction on those days. They use them for class test makeups if a kid was sick and then spend the rest of the time for all the other kids on “team building activities” and playing games. Meanwhile SOL’s are sneaking up on us … only March, April, and maybe a week of May left to go and we have to get through spring break in there …

My guess is, if they can get rid of the early release, Meren can declare victory. It’s an intensely unpopular policy.

Hopefully, they can draw some guidelines for commonsense reformed to the calendar going forward: TW/SD days only permitted on Monday or Friday, teacher training moved virtual and carried out to some extent during snow days, TW days layered on top of either federal or religious holidays, whichever makes more sense.

None of your ideas make sense and/or are feasible. Get real.

TW/PD on a Friday? Never going to happen. Fridays are not productive. No one ever schedules meetings for Friday afternoons. By then, teachers are exhausted.

Virtual teacher training on snow days. doesn’t make sense as teachers’ own children would be at home. A snow day means teachers are off period.

TW on a religious or federal holiday? I don’t think so.

From the perspective of a normal professional adult who is also a parent, professional expectations in 2026 include working five day weeks (even Friday!) teleworking in inclement weather (even if children are home) and not having every religious or federal holiday as PTO. I believe our teachers are professional adults who can adapt to higher professional expectations to save taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Sheeesh, what 19th century boss do you have?!

Professional expectations in 2026 also include unlimited PTO, full time remote work, and a focus on mental health outside of work. Sorry your company hasn’t gotten with the times of R.O.W.E.

Very few jobs offer unlimited PTO and full time remote work. I worked for a company with “unlimited PTO” and the people who took that literally ended up being counseled and then fired. Every contract has a number of hours that employees have to work, drop under that and you are gone. Any contract where you have deadlines or work in teams will have limits on the amount of PTO you can take.

Most of the world reverted to at least hybrid if not full time office after COVID. There are some remote jobs but they are hard to find.

The normal work environment is still 9-5 in the office. You can work to find something else but it isn’t easy.

A bunch of opinion based generalizations here.

“Very few jobs offer unlimited PTO”

In my sector, pharmaceuticals, it’s pretty common. In fact my last 3 companies (severance, merger, promotion) have all offered unlimited PTO. I’ve been approached by multiple competitors, none have any verbiage about contract hours etc. I work on a team and have deadlines, as long as my work is submitted by the deadline, they could care less when and where I do it. As professionals, we have the freedom and the ability to plan our meetings when it works for us.

I think there’s some confusion about what a ROWE workplace is. This may not be common in your sector unfortunately, but it’s very common in others. I’d encourage you to explore better opportunities where the company prioritizes your happiness and mental health as much as they do your work. They’re out there!

I have worked for pretty much every major Defense Contractor in the area. One offered unlimited PTO and they started that 3 years ago. Two people on my team were let go for abusing said policy within a year. You work in a sector that offers it but most don't. I promise you that the parents working retail jobs and house cleaning and other blue collar jobs were they are working for a company do not have remote work and unlimited PTO.

"This may not be common in your sector unfortunately"

Reading comprehension is key.

Obviously retail jobs and house cleaning and other blue collar jobs do not have remote work and unlimited PTO. McDonalds doesn't offer remote work either, shocker. Those aren't ROWE workplaces (mainly a corporate term), and most of them are not 9-5s either, everyone knows that...

As sure as we both are of that, I'm also sure that there are countless corporate accounting, marketing, and engineering jobs (white collar) that are remote with unlimited PTO. The median household income in Fairfax County (census.gov) is north of $150k with the average person making $70k+. Those aren't retail employees or house cleaners...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Great to hear from high school parents whose kids can 1) stay home alone 2) for free 3) can study on their own 4) have no early release nonsense - how they love this calendar and how they don't care.

HS parent here - this calendar is awful. We don't love it and more importantly my kids have complained about it.

We need to get in a learning groove and this fractured calendar has been disastrous for that.

So no, it isn't HS parents that love it. We HATE it. We also hate that there are so many school days in June when we know very little learning will be happening after tests.

But AGAIN. You are looking at the calendar with a TON of snow days. Why are you all so unable to do the calendar by itself and not see past how much the snow days impacted the last few weeks?
Without snow days, the calendar would have been fine. It is the snow days which have blown off the track. And so all of you having a temper tantrum about it will whine to get change but when there are no snow days, you will pull your kids out for long weekends to go skiing or whatever.

Go count the number of weeks with a day off and tell me it’s fine. We are surprised when they string together three 5 day weeks now.

Sure thing. In the months of Jan Feb ( you started complaining in Feb) there were supposed to be 5 weeks of 5 days of school. This was out of 8 weeks. There were 2 weeks that had federal holidays and one with the traditional end of semester days off.
It is the SNOW that has given us very few full weeks of school.

Mmm, a well run school system would recognize the issue with weather closures in Jan/Feb and attempt to maximize instructional time before those months.

But FCPS is not a well run school system.

Nah- you just think a well run school system would agree with you. You have no metric to judge whether a school system is “well run” except your own opinion of whether it serves you well. We have LOTS of snow days built in. In the Boston area there are no snow days, but my friend’s kids were out of school several times this year. They will now be in school until June 27th to make up the days. They also had a week off in February for “break.” I prefer the way FCPS does it.

… Who do you think a school system is supposed to serve if not the students and their families? A school system that doesn’t serve them well, isn’t well run.

No, that is a selfish view. A well run school system has to serve the majority kids well, not one individual parent and their individual scheduling needs. It isn’t instagram or facebook. It is a school system. Greater good and all.

Sure, and the greater number of parents are saying is the schedule doesn't serve them. Early release was imposed on a lie. That vastly eroded trust. Now there is accountability.

Again, you are aiming weird unproven statements like “the greater number of parents”. As listed in what survey. You don’t have any real data except more people are complaining to the board and more people are complaining NOW as the snow days are interfering with the regular calendar making it FEEL like the calendar is horrible.
The calendar has been the same for years. It was set early this year. AS far as early release is concerned, they should move back to Mondays being short days for elementary. It only affects elementary students and there are programs for those parents who are inflexible situations.

Like I said, Boston schools will be in school until June 26 or 27tth because of snow days and they had a week last week before their latest snow storm as a built in holiday.

This is a strange attempt at gaslighting. The board has been getting hammered on the calendar since September and before. Early release met intense opposition. Yes how Reid handles snowstorms doesn’t build confidence in her but, the disaster calendar complaints started long before the snow did.

Well, I don’t mean to gaslight you and it is strange becuase that isn’t my intent.

My attempt is to point out out that the frustration you are feeling right now, in January February, is not really the calendar but due to the massive amounts of unusual snow and cold weather we have had lately. All I am trying to show is a different, less reactive, perspective.

The board was REALLY getting hammered about boundary changes. The calendar seems to have been a festering side issue with elementary parents upset that they have to have care for their kids. In the past, teenagers would handle this, but now you decide to pay camps. As a high school parent of a currently high performing student, I am happy about the days off as AP course work is intense. My upper elementary kid is fine also. I do have him do some extra math workbook pages at home on days off. It doesn’t take long and the workbook cost 15$ for the year.

That said, Meren is apparently a bit of an over-reactor herself:

https://www.fairfaxtimes.com/articles/fairfax_county/school-board-clerk-worked-from-home-amid-alleged-threats-from-school-board-member/article_de919f4a-f5b1-11ed-ab31-0fc4b8ac1977.html

There are demonstrably more planned days off this year than in years past. It is a point of fact that while there are the same number of instructional days, the calendar is a full week longer. I won’t deny that snow days have caused frustrations to boil over, but it’s disingenuous to call it an emotional response. The calendar is bad by design.

But sure, let’s throw out the “you hate taking care of your kids” argument because parents are complaining their kids can barely string together 3 days a week in a classroom.

It’s now gone from complaining about the lack of 5 day weeks to “barely stringing together 3 days a week”.

Without snow, there has been TWO 3-day weeks this entire year. Both in November.

And they say this isn’t an emotional response lol

When I say “string” I mean 3 days in a row. Weeks with only 3 consecutive days of school:

Sept 10-12*
Sept 24-26*
Sept 29-Oct 1*
Nov 5-7
Nov 12-14*
Nov 24-25 (2 days)
Jan 26-28 (cancelled due to snow)
Feb 18-20
Apr 7-9
May 28-29 (2 days)
Jun 15-17 (school ends)

* weeks with 4 days but only 3 consecutive days due to midweek closure.

So let’s do the math not counting Thanksgiving, snow days, and the last week of school (that no one shows up to and ends at 10am in HS)

Your data shows there are 8-weeks with 3 consecutive days. Out of 39 total weeks (not counting Thanksgiving and Last Week), that is 20%. Which means 80% of the time, FCPS is stringing together 3+ consecutive days.

If we use the same data (and don't count the same weeks of Thanksgiving & the Last Week) counting all the 4-day weeks with midweek holidays, there are only 4 weeks out of 39, or 10%. Which means 90% of the time, FCPS has school 4 days (or more) a week.

You’re really complaining about 90% of the time…?

I can't believe anyone is defending this year's calendar. September and November were completely wasted. The 5 day Memorial Day is pointless. No idea why you excluding Thanksgiving in your calculations. Just give it up already.

Lets include Thanksgiving...

The math doesn't change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[i]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d be happy enough with the 26-27 calendar as is, as long as the dumb 3 hour early releases are going the way of the dodo. My kids’ ES has given up on any instruction on those days. They use them for class test makeups if a kid was sick and then spend the rest of the time for all the other kids on “team building activities” and playing games. Meanwhile SOL’s are sneaking up on us … only March, April, and maybe a week of May left to go and we have to get through spring break in there …

My guess is, if they can get rid of the early release, Meren can declare victory. It’s an intensely unpopular policy.

Hopefully, they can draw some guidelines for commonsense reformed to the calendar going forward: TW/SD days only permitted on Monday or Friday, teacher training moved virtual and carried out to some extent during snow days, TW days layered on top of either federal or religious holidays, whichever makes more sense.

None of your ideas make sense and/or are feasible. Get real.

TW/PD on a Friday? Never going to happen. Fridays are not productive. No one ever schedules meetings for Friday afternoons. By then, teachers are exhausted.

Virtual teacher training on snow days. doesn’t make sense as teachers’ own children would be at home. A snow day means teachers are off period.

TW on a religious or federal holiday? I don’t think so.

From the perspective of a normal professional adult who is also a parent, professional expectations in 2026 include working five day weeks (even Friday!) teleworking in inclement weather (even if children are home) and not having every religious or federal holiday as PTO. I believe our teachers are professional adults who can adapt to higher professional expectations to save taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Sheeesh, what 19th century boss do you have?!

Professional expectations in 2026 also include unlimited PTO, full time remote work, and a focus on mental health outside of work. Sorry your company hasn’t gotten with the times of R.O.W.E.

Very few jobs offer unlimited PTO and full time remote work. I worked for a company with “unlimited PTO” and the people who took that literally ended up being counseled and then fired. Every contract has a number of hours that employees have to work, drop under that and you are gone. Any contract where you have deadlines or work in teams will have limits on the amount of PTO you can take.

Most of the world reverted to at least hybrid if not full time office after COVID. There are some remote jobs but they are hard to find.

The normal work environment is still 9-5 in the office. You can work to find something else but it isn’t easy.

A bunch of opinion based generalizations here.

“Very few jobs offer unlimited PTO”

In my sector, pharmaceuticals, it’s pretty common. In fact my last 3 companies (severance, merger, promotion) have all offered unlimited PTO. I’ve been approached by multiple competitors, none have any verbiage about contract hours etc. I work on a team and have deadlines, as long as my work is submitted by the deadline, they could care less when and where I do it. As professionals, we have the freedom and the ability to plan our meetings when it works for us.

I think there’s some confusion about what a ROWE workplace is. This may not be common in your sector unfortunately, but it’s very common in others. I’d encourage you to explore better opportunities where the company prioritizes your happiness and mental health as much as they do your work. They’re out there!

I have worked for pretty much every major Defense Contractor in the area. One offered unlimited PTO and they started that 3 years ago. Two people on my team were let go for abusing said policy within a year. You work in a sector that offers it but most don't. I promise you that the parents working retail jobs and house cleaning and other blue collar jobs were they are working for a company do not have remote work and unlimited PTO.

Companies are switching to Unlimited PTO so they don’t have to pay out accrued PTO when people leave. Many do not see it as a “benefit.”

+1, it’s been shown in many organizations with unlimited PTO that employees actually take less PTO than when they had fixed PTO

[Anonymous]

No question that the inconsistent schedule in FCPS has a negative impact on working parents. While I think that should be considered and understood, there is a far more important impact with the inconsistent schedule:

The "main thing" is the impact that the inconsistent schedule has on learning.

As a teacher of young children, I know that this is not good.
As a parent, I know it is also not good for older kids. Yes, there is a lot of academic pressure on kids and a break is welcome--but, "hello" there are weekends and holiday breaks.

The FCPS schedule is insane. The frequent 3/4 day weeks are ridiculous.

Please, School Board, remember the purpose of the schools is to educate our kids. You seem to forget that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[i]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d be happy enough with the 26-27 calendar as is, as long as the dumb 3 hour early releases are going the way of the dodo. My kids’ ES has given up on any instruction on those days. They use them for class test makeups if a kid was sick and then spend the rest of the time for all the other kids on “team building activities” and playing games. Meanwhile SOL’s are sneaking up on us … only March, April, and maybe a week of May left to go and we have to get through spring break in there …

My guess is, if they can get rid of the early release, Meren can declare victory. It’s an intensely unpopular policy.

Hopefully, they can draw some guidelines for commonsense reformed to the calendar going forward: TW/SD days only permitted on Monday or Friday, teacher training moved virtual and carried out to some extent during snow days, TW days layered on top of either federal or religious holidays, whichever makes more sense.

None of your ideas make sense and/or are feasible. Get real.

TW/PD on a Friday? Never going to happen. Fridays are not productive. No one ever schedules meetings for Friday afternoons. By then, teachers are exhausted.

Virtual teacher training on snow days. doesn’t make sense as teachers’ own children would be at home. A snow day means teachers are off period.

TW on a religious or federal holiday? I don’t think so.

From the perspective of a normal professional adult who is also a parent, professional expectations in 2026 include working five day weeks (even Friday!) teleworking in inclement weather (even if children are home) and not having every religious or federal holiday as PTO. I believe our teachers are professional adults who can adapt to higher professional expectations to save taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Sheeesh, what 19th century boss do you have?!

Professional expectations in 2026 also include unlimited PTO, full time remote work, and a focus on mental health outside of work. Sorry your company hasn’t gotten with the times of R.O.W.E.

Very few jobs offer unlimited PTO and full time remote work. I worked for a company with “unlimited PTO” and the people who took that literally ended up being counseled and then fired. Every contract has a number of hours that employees have to work, drop under that and you are gone. Any contract where you have deadlines or work in teams will have limits on the amount of PTO you can take.

Most of the world reverted to at least hybrid if not full time office after COVID. There are some remote jobs but they are hard to find.

The normal work environment is still 9-5 in the office. You can work to find something else but it isn’t easy.

A bunch of opinion based generalizations here.

“Very few jobs offer unlimited PTO”

In my sector, pharmaceuticals, it’s pretty common. In fact my last 3 companies (severance, merger, promotion) have all offered unlimited PTO. I’ve been approached by multiple competitors, none have any verbiage about contract hours etc. I work on a team and have deadlines, as long as my work is submitted by the deadline, they could care less when and where I do it. As professionals, we have the freedom and the ability to plan our meetings when it works for us.

I think there’s some confusion about what a ROWE workplace is. This may not be common in your sector unfortunately, but it’s very common in others. I’d encourage you to explore better opportunities where the company prioritizes your happiness and mental health as much as they do your work. They’re out there!

I have worked for pretty much every major Defense Contractor in the area. One offered unlimited PTO and they started that 3 years ago. Two people on my team were let go for abusing said policy within a year. You work in a sector that offers it but most don't. I promise you that the parents working retail jobs and house cleaning and other blue collar jobs were they are working for a company do not have remote work and unlimited PTO.

"This may not be common in your sector unfortunately"

Reading comprehension is key.

Obviously retail jobs and house cleaning and other blue collar jobs do not have remote work and unlimited PTO. McDonalds doesn't offer remote work either, shocker. Those aren't ROWE workplaces (mainly a corporate term), and most of them are not 9-5s either, everyone knows that...

As sure as we both are of that, I'm also sure that there are countless corporate accounting, marketing, and engineering jobs (white collar) that are remote with unlimited PTO. The median household income in Fairfax County (census.gov) is north of $150k with the average person making $70k+. Those aren't retail employees or house cleaners...

Are you suggesting that FCPS is or should be an ROWE employer? I don’t see any value to our students in having teachers out of the classroom more than they already are, but, but that would have nothing to do with changes to the calendar and you should perhaps start a new thread advocating for such workplace benefits.

In the meantime, while discussing an important proposal aimed at addressing affordability, I would suggest you consider the following:

https://www.ffxnow.com/2025/10/03/number-of-jobless-fairfax-residents-up-nearly-28-over-2024-as-more-uncertainty-looms/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Great to hear from high school parents whose kids can 1) stay home alone 2) for free 3) can study on their own 4) have no early release nonsense - how they love this calendar and how they don't care.

HS parent here - this calendar is awful. We don't love it and more importantly my kids have complained about it.

We need to get in a learning groove and this fractured calendar has been disastrous for that.

So no, it isn't HS parents that love it. We HATE it. We also hate that there are so many school days in June when we know very little learning will be happening after tests.

But AGAIN. You are looking at the calendar with a TON of snow days. Why are you all so unable to do the calendar by itself and not see past how much the snow days impacted the last few weeks?
Without snow days, the calendar would have been fine. It is the snow days which have blown off the track. And so all of you having a temper tantrum about it will whine to get change but when there are no snow days, you will pull your kids out for long weekends to go skiing or whatever.

Go count the number of weeks with a day off and tell me it’s fine. We are surprised when they string together three 5 day weeks now.

Sure thing. In the months of Jan Feb ( you started complaining in Feb) there were supposed to be 5 weeks of 5 days of school. This was out of 8 weeks. There were 2 weeks that had federal holidays and one with the traditional end of semester days off.
It is the SNOW that has given us very few full weeks of school.

Mmm, a well run school system would recognize the issue with weather closures in Jan/Feb and attempt to maximize instructional time before those months.

But FCPS is not a well run school system.

Nah- you just think a well run school system would agree with you. You have no metric to judge whether a school system is “well run” except your own opinion of whether it serves you well. We have LOTS of snow days built in. In the Boston area there are no snow days, but my friend’s kids were out of school several times this year. They will now be in school until June 27th to make up the days. They also had a week off in February for “break.” I prefer the way FCPS does it.

… Who do you think a school system is supposed to serve if not the students and their families? A school system that doesn’t serve them well, isn’t well run.

No, that is a selfish view. A well run school system has to serve the majority kids well, not one individual parent and their individual scheduling needs. It isn’t instagram or facebook. It is a school system. Greater good and all.

Sure, and the greater number of parents are saying is the schedule doesn't serve them. Early release was imposed on a lie. That vastly eroded trust. Now there is accountability.

Again, you are aiming weird unproven statements like “the greater number of parents”. As listed in what survey. You don’t have any real data except more people are complaining to the board and more people are complaining NOW as the snow days are interfering with the regular calendar making it FEEL like the calendar is horrible.
The calendar has been the same for years. It was set early this year. AS far as early release is concerned, they should move back to Mondays being short days for elementary. It only affects elementary students and there are programs for those parents who are inflexible situations.

Like I said, Boston schools will be in school until June 26 or 27tth because of snow days and they had a week last week before their latest snow storm as a built in holiday.

This is a strange attempt at gaslighting. The board has been getting hammered on the calendar since September and before. Early release met intense opposition. Yes how Reid handles snowstorms doesn’t build confidence in her but, the disaster calendar complaints started long before the snow did.

Well, I don’t mean to gaslight you and it is strange becuase that isn’t my intent.

My attempt is to point out out that the frustration you are feeling right now, in January February, is not really the calendar but due to the massive amounts of unusual snow and cold weather we have had lately. All I am trying to show is a different, less reactive, perspective.

The board was REALLY getting hammered about boundary changes. The calendar seems to have been a festering side issue with elementary parents upset that they have to have care for their kids. In the past, teenagers would handle this, but now you decide to pay camps. As a high school parent of a currently high performing student, I am happy about the days off as AP course work is intense. My upper elementary kid is fine also. I do have him do some extra math workbook pages at home on days off. It doesn’t take long and the workbook cost 15$ for the year.

That said, Meren is apparently a bit of an over-reactor herself:

https://www.fairfaxtimes.com/articles/fairfax_county/school-board-clerk-worked-from-home-amid-alleged-threats-from-school-board-member/article_de919f4a-f5b1-11ed-ab31-0fc4b8ac1977.html

There are demonstrably more planned days off this year than in years past. It is a point of fact that while there are the same number of instructional days, the calendar is a full week longer. I won’t deny that snow days have caused frustrations to boil over, but it’s disingenuous to call it an emotional response. The calendar is bad by design.

But sure, let’s throw out the “you hate taking care of your kids” argument because parents are complaining their kids can barely string together 3 days a week in a classroom.

It’s now gone from complaining about the lack of 5 day weeks to “barely stringing together 3 days a week”.

Without snow, there has been TWO 3-day weeks this entire year. Both in November.

And they say this isn’t an emotional response lol

When I say “string” I mean 3 days in a row. Weeks with only 3 consecutive days of school:

Sept 10-12*
Sept 24-26*
Sept 29-Oct 1*
Nov 5-7
Nov 12-14*
Nov 24-25 (2 days)
Jan 26-28 (cancelled due to snow)
Feb 18-20
Apr 7-9
May 28-29 (2 days)
Jun 15-17 (school ends)

* weeks with 4 days but only 3 consecutive days due to midweek closure.

So let’s do the math not counting Thanksgiving, snow days, and the last week of school (that no one shows up to and ends at 10am in HS)

Your data shows there are 8-weeks with 3 consecutive days. Out of 39 total weeks (not counting Thanksgiving and Last Week), that is 20%. Which means 80% of the time, FCPS is stringing together 3+ consecutive days.

If we use the same data (and don't count the same weeks of Thanksgiving & the Last Week) counting all the 4-day weeks with midweek holidays, there are only 4 weeks out of 39, or 10%. Which means 90% of the time, FCPS has school 4 days (or more) a week.

You’re really complaining about 90% of the time…?

I can't believe anyone is defending this year's calendar. September and November were completely wasted. The 5 day Memorial Day is pointless. No idea why you excluding Thanksgiving in your calculations. Just give it up already.

Lets include Thanksgiving...

The math doesn't change.

Especially when you incorporate vague rounding to support your cherry picked analysis.

[Anonymous]

So for the calander supporters. What part of Meren’s statement:

“…costly childcare arrangements. In the 2025-26 school year alone, partial weeks occurred more than half the time, functioning as an informal “childcare tax” that falls hardest on our hourly-wage and most vulnerable households.”

Do you disagree with? What would you do to address this issue if not make changes to the calendar?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So for the calander supporters. What part of Meren’s statement:

“…costly childcare arrangements. In the 2025-26 school year alone, partial weeks occurred more than half the time, functioning as an informal “childcare tax” that falls hardest on our hourly-wage and most vulnerable households.”

Do you disagree with? What would you do to address this issue if not make changes to the calendar?

I do not support the 25-26 calendar, but struggle to see how the 26-27 calendar could be improved. It honors federal, religious, and cultural observances while also optimizing 4 and 5 day school weeks.

The only improvement would be to remove 3 hour early releases so that SACC families could get the 3 days of childcare back that were removed this year to staff the early release dates.