School Calendar 2023-2024

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Was hoping for green; doesn't look like they're going to go that way. Why do we have to start TWO WEEKS before Labor Day?

Because EqUiTy and InCluSioN.

girl stop. that has nothing to do with starting before Labor Day. You are just pulling stuff out of your butt now.

Umm, this is exactly why they need to start two weeks before Labor Day. There's way too many explicitly religious holidays and teacher workdays covering for religious holidays.

[Anonymous]

Religion is ruining everything.

[Anonymous]

Is anyone concerned about the last week of school in the purple calendar? Isn’t it the one where there are actually holidays during the last week?! How stupid!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Given their report on the latest survey, it appears that only Blue and Purple are in the running, and Purple is the more likely of the two. I've never heard how purple gets away with only 177 days of school. Kind of ironic too b/c after the pandemic, we know many kids have fallen behind due to lack of adequate instructional time... yet, here we have our SB looking to lock in LESS instructional time??? They should be doing more time, right?

There are some very odd/undesirable aspects to these calendars in the end of Oct/into November and end of Mar/into April.

In Oct/Nov., you have two days off in the first week, two non-consecutive days off the next week, then a full week, then a week with three days off. In Mar./April, you have a full week off for Spring Break, then come back for 4.5 days, then another break with 3.5 days off (plus a weekend). It's essentially going to be like having a double spring break. Purple has the same issues.

Honestly, I've been an advocate for public school forever. But, I can't help get the message that the SB cares more about finding more days OFF than actually educating kids. I can see how these private-school voucher programs are gaining traction in a lot of states. Public schools are giving the impression that they care about a million things OTHER THAN education.

I have two more years to get through... then it's someone else's problem. I just hate to see the SB flushing the little bit of good reputation FCPS had down the drain.

If you look at 24-25 Blue and Purple Options, it's nuts. AT the end of Oct., kids go 1.5 days in the last week. The rest of the week is off. They supposedly come back to school for a Mon., then have Tues. off, three days back at school, then a 3-day weekend...

I mean, how can anyone take this seriously? This is NOT a calendar that anyone who cares about ACADEMIC learning would create.

Honestly, I think the schools could teach everything the kids need in a much shorter amount of time. There is a lot of fluff, and this slow bleeding of the start of the year into summer isn't at all about kids getting a better education, it is about school standing in for day care. I get that we need affordable day care but we could just have non-learning days for the parents who need the child care, and allow parents who are trying to find times to expose their kids to non-school experiences enough time to do that.

We could teach things quicker if everyone was on grade level for reading, everyone knew their math facts, everybody was fluent in English, etc. but these things don’t happen because students come in with different needs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These are the stupidest calendar options. If they made winter break a week and a half, then they could tie spring break to the end of the quarter. We are planning on taking two weeks off at spring break right now.

I have a friend who works with the school board (not a member). She said they thought they could tie spring break to the end of the quarter, and were all excited about it, and then realized that Eid was going to be in the middle of that one week so decided to leave everything where it was and tie the end of quarter workdays to Eid instead.

That’s stupid because it’s entirely possible that Eid will change.

[Anonymous]

Is the meeting tonight?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Religion is ruining everything.

Ain't that the truth! The repubs are forcing christian nationalism on us, and the dems are responding by pushing every other religion into public/secular things.

Those of us who are agnostic/atheist/no religious affiliation are getting screwed in the process!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These are the stupidest calendar options. If they made winter break a week and a half, then they could tie spring break to the end of the quarter. We are planning on taking two weeks off at spring break right now.

I have a friend who works with the school board (not a member). She said they thought they could tie spring break to the end of the quarter, and were all excited about it, and then realized that Eid was going to be in the middle of that one week so decided to leave everything where it was and tie the end of quarter workdays to Eid instead.

That’s stupid because it’s entirely possible that Eid will change.

Hunh? They were going to shift spring break so it did not align with the other districts? That is literally the only true operational alignment issue that exists.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Religion is ruining everything.

Ain't that the truth! The repubs are forcing christian nationalism on us, and the dems are responding by pushing every other religion into public/secular things.

Those of us who are agnostic/atheist/no religious affiliation are getting screwed in the process!

Please sue. Please.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The spring break mess is unbelievable. They should have taken a week from winter and made spring break 2.5 weeks.
But at this point I just want to know!

From pure vacation ability, would have loved to have elementary aged kids with next year calendars to do 2 week blowout vacations at spring break and other weeks as will be so easy to miss 2 days school and get week vacation— SO many will do this that— do feel bad for teachers who are trying to keep rhythm to classroom and if not SAHM/D, so much care coverage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These are the stupidest calendar options. If they made winter break a week and a half, then they could tie spring break to the end of the quarter. We are planning on taking two weeks off at spring break right now.

I have a friend who works with the school board (not a member). She said they thought they could tie spring break to the end of the quarter, and were all excited about it, and then realized that Eid was going to be in the middle of that one week so decided to leave everything where it was and tie the end of quarter workdays to Eid instead.

That’s stupid because it’s entirely possible that Eid will change.

Hunh? They were going to shift spring break so it did not align with the other districts? That is literally the only true operational alignment issue that exists.

This is not accurate and wasn’t considered. Spring break was fixed to align with Easter like neighboring jurisdictions. The one year they moved it away from Easter, it did not go over well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Religion is ruining everything.

Yep. In public school, which is supposed to be separate from religion.

[Anonymous]

Well I had a flight picked out that was leaving on the 16 and returning on the 23rd, but I was waiting for the purple or blue to be officially approved. And now the flight prices doubled. Thanks School Board.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is the meeting tonight?

Yes, meeting starts @ 7pm: https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.n...open&id=CGC4TM0CC409

Calendar vote is under "action items" section which isn't scheduled to start until 8:30pm...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well I had a flight picked out that was leaving on the 16 and returning on the 23rd, but I was waiting for the purple or blue to be officially approved. And now the flight prices doubled. Thanks School Board.

For August? You should have just booked it. Why not?