Melanie Meren's FB post about the calendar

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh yippee. She's "designing a framework." Because spending taxpayer funding on that sort of thing always works out so well for Fairfax County families.

So your elected official is acknowledging that constituents have an issue and is proposing a solution that cannot be resolved overnight. And you just want to keep complaining. Got it.

How long have you been around this system? How many times have you seen them do this? Because I feel like at this point it's a pattern - a school board member (thinking about his or her political career) theoretically "listens." They talk at meetings. There might be presentations. Surveys. Frameworks.

And then because they school board hears 6000 different perspectives they either do nothing or come up with a solution that makes no one happy.

It's not that I'm upset that she hears the concerns. It's that I'm upset because this is a pattern that has been around for years now and it never ends well. See the last calendar debate. See middle school start times. See the rudderless way they handled Covid. See the 3 hour early release days in elementary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here's the thing: if they create more 5-day school weeks the school year will start later and/or end sooner. Either scenario is fine with me, but childcare will be needed when school is not in session. That's the financial side of things. And with the amount of advanced notice families have had to get childcare lined up - calendars published years in advance - only emergencies and snow days are not known ahead of time for planning.

Good. Summer childcare is significantly less expensive than one-off midyear days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, love the non-5 day weeks. They are great. Summer is such a pain to plan, and we (and most of our friends) much prefer a day here and there, rather than additional weeks in the summer.

Now that I have somewhat older children (taking SOL’s and trying to get into Algebra in 7th etc.) I am actually pretty concerned and anxious about the relative lack of instructional time they get compared to other districts that have more full weeks. Aren’t you concerned that your kids are behind and being short-changed?

I fear this will only get worse as my kids get older. I can supplement now with upper elementary kids. I can’t teach a HS junior AP Calc or AP French or high school level cello. The HS block scheduling makes this even worse. Missing “a day” is like missing two days in one class. It all adds up very quickly.

They aren't getting less instructional time. It's just paced differently. In fact, in years that we don't use a lot of snow days (like last year), they actually get quite a bit more instructional time than surrounding districts. We build in enough hours to have something like 11 snow days. If they aren't used, that's bonus time. As opposed to, say Anne Arundel County, that only builds in 3-5 snow days.

The built in "days" aren't full days. They are hours of days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh yippee. She's "designing a framework." Because spending taxpayer funding on that sort of thing always works out so well for Fairfax County families.

I applaud anyone looking to address our school calendar shortcomings. However, that said, the only way to increase 5-day weeks (an inarguable laudable goal) is to EITHER reduce myriad of religious observance days OR reduce number of partial/full teacher workdays.

Does anyone really think they're going to agree to do that? Until/unless they make that commitment first (that those options are on the table), there's no reason to undertake yet another "study".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here's the thing: if they create more 5-day school weeks the school year will start later and/or end sooner. Either scenario is fine with me, but childcare will be needed when school is not in session. That's the financial side of things. And with the amount of advanced notice families have had to get childcare lined up - calendars published years in advance - only emergencies and snow days are not known ahead of time for planning.

Please stop this lie. Early release dates for ‘25-‘26 were only published in May of ‘25.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, love the non-5 day weeks. They are great. Summer is such a pain to plan, and we (and most of our friends) much prefer a day here and there, rather than additional weeks in the summer.

Now that I have somewhat older children (taking SOL’s and trying to get into Algebra in 7th etc.) I am actually pretty concerned and anxious about the relative lack of instructional time they get compared to other districts that have more full weeks. Aren’t you concerned that your kids are behind and being short-changed?

I fear this will only get worse as my kids get older. I can supplement now with upper elementary kids. I can’t teach a HS junior AP Calc or AP French or high school level cello. The HS block scheduling makes this even worse. Missing “a day” is like missing two days in one class. It all adds up very quickly.

No, I'm really not. The kids have a lot of HW in the older grades. They appreciate the downtime, or, for example, my DD had extra time yesterday to do a practice SAT that she would have needed to take on a weekend.

The AP Calc/French teachers adjust. They also know what's on the AP exam and focus attention properly. My kids go to a great school. I just really don't care if they are short a couple days of schools. The positive impact of the breaks far outweighs a missed class that impacts every other person at their school. If your kid is trying to get into algebra in 7th, your kid isn't at-risk either. Relax, it will be ok.

How about kindergarten who needs to get into the rhythm of it? First grade, second grade? All those kids need structure, routines, and repetition. They largely don't have homework too. And it's not a couple of days. This year is really something in terms of less than 5 days weeks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, love the non-5 day weeks. They are great. Summer is such a pain to plan, and we (and most of our friends) much prefer a day here and there, rather than additional weeks in the summer.

Now that I have somewhat older children (taking SOL’s and trying to get into Algebra in 7th etc.) I am actually pretty concerned and anxious about the relative lack of instructional time they get compared to other districts that have more full weeks. Aren’t you concerned that your kids are behind and being short-changed?

I fear this will only get worse as my kids get older. I can supplement now with upper elementary kids. I can’t teach a HS junior AP Calc or AP French or high school level cello. The HS block scheduling makes this even worse. Missing “a day” is like missing two days in one class. It all adds up very quickly.

No, I'm really not. The kids have a lot of HW in the older grades. They appreciate the downtime, or, for example, my DD had extra time yesterday to do a practice SAT that she would have needed to take on a weekend.

The AP Calc/French teachers adjust. They also know what's on the AP exam and focus attention properly. My kids go to a great school. I just really don't care if they are short a couple days of schools. The positive impact of the breaks far outweighs a missed class that impacts every other person at their school. If your kid is trying to get into algebra in 7th, your kid isn't at-risk either. Relax, it will be ok.

How about kindergarten who needs to get into the rhythm of it? First grade, second grade? All those kids need structure, routines, and repetition. They largely don't have homework too. And it's not a couple of days. This year is really something in terms of less than 5 days weeks.

And, they wonder why so many need tutoring and extra help.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for flagging this I just wrote my board member in support.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, love the non-5 day weeks. They are great. Summer is such a pain to plan, and we (and most of our friends) much prefer a day here and there, rather than additional weeks in the summer.

Now that I have somewhat older children (taking SOL’s and trying to get into Algebra in 7th etc.) I am actually pretty concerned and anxious about the relative lack of instructional time they get compared to other districts that have more full weeks. Aren’t you concerned that your kids are behind and being short-changed?

I fear this will only get worse as my kids get older. I can supplement now with upper elementary kids. I can’t teach a HS junior AP Calc or AP French or high school level cello. The HS block scheduling makes this even worse. Missing “a day” is like missing two days in one class. It all adds up very quickly.

They aren't getting less instructional time. It's just paced differently. In fact, in years that we don't use a lot of snow days (like last year), they actually get quite a bit more instructional time than surrounding districts. We build in enough hours to have something like 11 snow days. If they aren't used, that's bonus time. As opposed to, say Anne Arundel County, that only builds in 3-5 snow days.

It’s not about the snow days really, we can’t control the weather. I wish they weren’t so quick to close though.

But just as an example: the AP Calc exam is given on May 11 this year. The district where I grew up has 173 school days for students. 160 are before the AP test - not counting Memorial Day where they have a 3 day weekend.

FCPS has 179 school days for students (counting O days and early release days as full days, which is being generous). 154 of those days are before May 11. Again this is not counting the massive 5 day weekend for Memorial Day. The point is other districts get in a full week or more of instructional time before state and AP testing in May. And where I grew up still did 2 full weeks at winter break this year, 3 days at Thanksgiving, and the same spring break as us and aligned with Easter. It just feels like we’re putting learning at a disadvantage with this calendar. It’s too many days off, too much playing catch-up.

[Anonymous]

She wants to reopen discussion on the 2026-27 calendar?

I'm sorry, but that ship has already sailed. I do not see the school board doing the work to change what has already been decided and announced.

Best to focus efforts on the 2027-28 and beyond calendar process.

[Anonymous]

Isn't she the one who set up a private school pod for her kids during covid and did travel sports while crying that community spread was too high to open schools for the hoi polloi? Yeah, she sucks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:She wants to reopen discussion on the 2026-27 calendar?

I'm sorry, but that ship has already sailed. I do not see the school board doing the work to change what has already been decided and announced.

Best to focus efforts on the 2027-28 and beyond calendar process.

https://www.fcps.edu/system/files/forms/2025-04/2026-2027-standard-school-year-calendar.pdf

I would be more impressed by her if she actually had a proposal. Exactly what about the above would she change?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:She wants to reopen discussion on the 2026-27 calendar?

I'm sorry, but that ship has already sailed. I do not see the school board doing the work to change what has already been decided and announced.

Best to focus efforts on the 2027-28 and beyond calendar process.

No it hasn’t. They made changes to the ‘24 calendar in June of ‘24 and changes to the ‘25 calendar in May of ‘25. We have no information on ‘26 early release so there’s clearly time to make changes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Isn't she the one who set up a private school pod for her kids during covid and did travel sports while crying that community spread was too high to open schools for the hoi polloi? Yeah, she sucks.

YES

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Isn't she the one who set up a private school pod for her kids during covid and did travel sports while crying that community spread was too high to open schools for the hoi polloi? Yeah, she sucks.

So you were mad at her for keeping kids out of school, and now mad at her for trying to keep them in school? I truly don’t care if she’s second cousins to Lucifer no one else on the board is touching this problem.