Creating a mock 2023-2024 FCPS Calendar

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And then school will end June 21st because of people insistence on an insanely long winter break.

Winter break is not the issue.

Most districts around the cohntry have 2 weeks winter break and 1 week spring break.

The issue in fcps is all of the stupid teacher work days.

+1

Yup. The teacher work days and overly inclusive holidays kill the FCPS calendar.

Arlington and FCC started a week later and get out the same day because they don't have all the insane teacher work days.

No! The teachers need those workdays. They need to get rid of holidays we never had before such as Jewish holidays, Diwali, Eid, etc. no need for them.

No other district has as many as FCPS. The PD is out of control

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And then school will end June 21st because of people insistence on an insanely long winter break.

Winter break is not the issue.

Most districts around the cohntry have 2 weeks winter break and 1 week spring break.

The issue in fcps is all of the stupid teacher work days.

+1

Yup. The teacher work days and overly inclusive holidays kill the FCPS calendar.

Arlington and FCC started a week later and get out the same day because they don't have all the insane teacher work days.

No! The teachers need those workdays. They need to get rid of holidays we never had before such as Jewish holidays, Diwali, Eid, etc. no need for them.

I don't know. The first half of all our TW days will be spent in meetings (that might be a school based decision).

I could really use a TW about two weeks before the end of the fourth quarter. One that falls right before the fourth quarter grades are due.

ES Teacher

[Anonymous]

Many school districts do not have federal holidays off. I think we should give schools back Indigenous People's Day, Veteran's Day, and MLK Day.

But people on here are going to be like "no, everyone who works in this region is Feds, and they get those holidays off and want to go out of town for a long weekend". This shouldn't be about people wanting to plan vacations, but it is.

*Personally I used to LOVE having veteran's day off. It was literally the only day in the entire school year that I had off and my kids didn't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Many school districts do not have federal holidays off. I think we should give schools back Indigenous People's Day, Veteran's Day, and MLK Day.

But people on here are going to be like "no, everyone who works in this region is Feds, and they get those holidays off and want to go out of town for a long weekend". This shouldn't be about people wanting to plan vacations, but it is.

*Personally I used to LOVE having veteran's day off. It was literally the only day in the entire school year that I had off and my kids didn't.

The fact that the region mostly DOES get off those days since they are federal holidays is WHY we have them. The addition of Veterans Day was silly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Many school districts do not have federal holidays off. I think we should give schools back Indigenous People's Day, Veteran's Day, and MLK Day.

But people on here are going to be like "no, everyone who works in this region is Feds, and they get those holidays off and want to go out of town for a long weekend". This shouldn't be about people wanting to plan vacations, but it is.

*Personally I used to LOVE having veteran's day off. It was literally the only day in the entire school year that I had off and my kids didn't.

Parents should have NO say in the calendar. They pull their kids all the time regardless. I have not had a full class of students since week 1 due to traveling. My teammates same thing. Parents can decide to pull their kids whenever, so it shouldn’t matter what the calendar looks like.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And then school will end June 21st because of people insistence on an insanely long winter break.

Winter break is not the issue.

Most districts around the cohntry have 2 weeks winter break and 1 week spring break.

The issue in fcps is all of the stupid teacher work days.

+1

Yup. The teacher work days and overly inclusive holidays kill the FCPS calendar.

Arlington and FCC started a week later and get out the same day because they don't have all the insane teacher work days.

No! The teachers need those workdays. They need to get rid of holidays we never had before such as Jewish holidays, Diwali, Eid, etc. no need for them.

Yeah! F_ everyone who's not white or Christian! WOOOOO!!!

We'll wait while you find an explicitly Christian school holiday on the calendar. I'll save you some time - there isn't one.

[Anonymous]

Truly curious, are there any stats (attendance numbers) that show students not coming to school on Eid, Diwali, XYZ holiday bc of religion in prior years before all these days off?
Is it a significant number?

Is the SB projecting and being woke about how many students actually are observing their respective religious holiday?

Is it like 5% of the student population who are Jewish and would miss school for Rosh if it wasnt for the day off, for example? And what percentage are Muslim or Christian.

And do any of these religious holidays really truly require kids not to go to school? My kids still went to school on Ash Wednesday, All Saints' Day, All Souls' Day, Immaculate Conception (and other Catholic holidays).



I'm not cin

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Truly curious, are there any stats (attendance numbers) that show students not coming to school on Eid, Diwali, XYZ holiday bc of religion in prior years before all these days off?
Is it a significant number?

Is the SB projecting and being woke about how many students actually are observing their respective religious holiday?

Is it like 5% of the student population who are Jewish and would miss school for Rosh if it wasnt for the day off, for example? And what percentage are Muslim or Christian.

And do any of these religious holidays really truly require kids not to go to school? My kids still went to school on Ash Wednesday, All Saints' Day, All Souls' Day, Immaculate Conception (and other Catholic holidays).



I'm not cin

There are no stats that show any need for these holidays. It's all about "equity".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Whoops, brainfarted on Q3 there, should be around day 135 not 145. So expect on Fri 29 Mar expect either early release or TW (with early release on 28th) to end Q3 leading into Spring Break.

I don't think they would put the TW on Mon 8 Apr coming out of Spring Break due to the Eid holiday on Wed and basically forcing an additional non-instructional day on Tue as a result.

A few other notes:

- I don't think a 1-week Winter Break is likely, though I could see them perhaps doing a partial week with early release on Wed 20 Dec?
- I could see them putting a non-instructional day on Mon 13 Nov to convert that into a 5-day weekend.
- The only way I see school ending a full week earlier in June is by starting a full week earlier in August... most stakeholders recognize the value of shortening the summer break (some vocal opponents, to be sure)... and we've essentially already moved to a 9-week summer break with the current 2022-23 calendar. I don't anticipate that reverting to a 10-week break... if anything I'd think we'd be more likely to move to an 8-week summer break at some point in the future and add a bit of a fall break after Q1 and/or some additional time off in the Feb/Mar period.

OP here, and yes, I have a very similar list to yours. I think it makes sense to have the Thursday/Friday before Christmas to be part of Winter Break, but not the whole week.

The end of Q3 timing is right before Easter, so it makes all the sense in the world to have Good Friday as a Q3 teacher workday and a student holiday.

I'm pretty sure Election Day will fall on Tuesday, Nov. 7th (first Tuesday, right?) rather than the 14th, so I'm not sure about Nov. 13th.

I personally prefer keeping the 9-week summer break with more days off during the school year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Truly curious, are there any stats (attendance numbers) that show students not coming to school on Eid, Diwali, XYZ holiday bc of religion in prior years before all these days off?
Is it a significant number?

Is the SB projecting and being woke about how many students actually are observing their respective religious holiday?

Is it like 5% of the student population who are Jewish and would miss school for Rosh if it wasnt for the day off, for example? And what percentage are Muslim or Christian.

And do any of these religious holidays really truly require kids not to go to school? My kids still went to school on Ash Wednesday, All Saints' Day, All Souls' Day, Immaculate Conception (and other Catholic holidays).



I'm not cin

There are no stats that show any need for these holidays. It's all about "equity".

The stats are publicly available on the FCPS website. They are also using these holidays to double as teacher workdays. Only three "extra" holidays will result in days off in 2023-24 (Yom Kippur, Orthodox Good Friday, and Eid).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And then school will end June 21st because of people insistence on an insanely long winter break.

Winter break is not the issue.

Most districts around the cohntry have 2 weeks winter break and 1 week spring break.

The issue in fcps is all of the stupid teacher work days.

+1

Yup. The teacher work days and overly inclusive holidays kill the FCPS calendar.

Arlington and FCC started a week later and get out the same day because they don't have all the insane teacher work days.

Why do you want a longer Summer Break?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Truly curious, are there any stats (attendance numbers) that show students not coming to school on Eid, Diwali, XYZ holiday bc of religion in prior years before all these days off?
Is it a significant number?

Is the SB projecting and being woke about how many students actually are observing their respective religious holiday?

Is it like 5% of the student population who are Jewish and would miss school for Rosh if it wasnt for the day off, for example? And what percentage are Muslim or Christian.

And do any of these religious holidays really truly require kids not to go to school? My kids still went to school on Ash Wednesday, All Saints' Day, All Souls' Day, Immaculate Conception (and other Catholic holidays).



I'm not cin

There are no stats that show any need for these holidays. It's all about "equity".

The stats are publicly available on the FCPS website. They are also using these holidays to double as teacher workdays. Only three "extra" holidays will result in days off in 2023-24 (Yom Kippur, Orthodox Good Friday, and Eid).

That's three too many religious holidays. And way too many teacher workdays, papering over religious holidays with made up teacher workdays isn't fooling anybody.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Truly curious, are there any stats (attendance numbers) that show students not coming to school on Eid, Diwali, XYZ holiday bc of religion in prior years before all these days off?
Is it a significant number?

Is the SB projecting and being woke about how many students actually are observing their respective religious holiday?

Is it like 5% of the student population who are Jewish and would miss school for Rosh if it wasnt for the day off, for example? And what percentage are Muslim or Christian.

And do any of these religious holidays really truly require kids not to go to school? My kids still went to school on Ash Wednesday, All Saints' Day, All Souls' Day, Immaculate Conception (and other Catholic holidays).



I'm not cin

Here you go: https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/CAZKS8528EFA/$file/Absence%20Data%20-%20Updated%20with%20Total%20Staff.pdf

[Anonymous]

There's nothing in the regulations that say Winter break has to be two weeks. It says that they will adjust the start/end date of the break to make sure there's not a week that has only one day of school in it. Given that Christmas is on a Monday, we will probably be in school until Friday the 22nd and then return on Tuesday, January 2. So a slightly shorter winter break this year. And then each subsequent year it will get a day longer until we end up back with a Monday Christmas again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Proposal: "Let's give overworked teachers a work day at the end of quarter to get caught up on grading, get set up for next Q's curriculum focus, etc. Oh, and on non-mandatory religious holidays that FCPS observes for students, we'll have the teachers still come in and use that time instead of giving them additional holidays."

Reasonable person #1: "I disagree with the school system observing religious holidays in the first place, even for just the students... but given that is the case, having the teachers work on those days to catch up / prepare is probably the best way to go."

Reasonable person #2: "Isn't there a way we could ease the teachers' ongoing workloads such that they can make the quarterly transitions without needing a day to reset? Then we could end the school year 3 whole days sooner, which I know isn't a lot, but is important to me because <reasons>."

DCUM Poster: "This whole conversation is 'stupid' or 'insane' and 'kills' the calendar... only my way of doing things make sense and that should be immediately obvious to everyone because I use hyperbolic language!"

Or they could use the additional religious holidays which they don't personally celebrate to catch up on their work.