LCPS year-round school

[Anonymous]

I’m in LCPS and every one has been talking about this. Everyone is in favor! I haven’t met anyone who disliked it.

My favorite parts-
-3 weeks off in fall, 3 weeks in Christmas, 3 weeks in spring.
-5 weeks of summer.

We’re a wealthy county and people love to take international vacations. Many people also have relatives overseas and this would give time to visit them. Cheaper plane tickets and less crowds at tourist places! 5 weeks is still a really long time for summer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It looks like they’re proposing starting the end of July and going to mid June. Would still have a 5 week summer.

It will never happen though. Look at the uproar when Fairfax tried to move their spring break—chaos, because it didn’t match other systems locally.

I don’t think most loudoun county teachers live in a different county or have kids in another county.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are they considering a year-round schedule that is 2 week breaks after each quarter with a short summer? Because I would resign from APS for that.

Yess!! It’s actually 3 week breaks after each quarter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When parents complain about all the random days off, most of us want these removed because we want a longer summer break, not a shorter one. But I’ve long thought the higher ups were trying to backdoor in year round school with these ridiculous schedules.

I don’t get how year round school works for high school kids. How can they do pre-college programs? Have a summer job? Take a summer class? Not to mention fun stuff like summer swim team for all ages.

Speak for yourself. We want less random days off because they’re hard to find camps. This is full weeks off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's time. Loudoun has been slowly building toward this for years.

I'm curious how they'll handle repairs and maintenance (our local MS is getting a new roof this summer, for example) but maybe spreading that work out over the year makes sense. Roofers work year round, right?

LCPS has broken with other districts before re schedules. I hope they do with this too.

I haven’t noticed them building towards this? There hasn’t been a week long fall vacation even. Other than the dreaded Halloween holiday. Kids refuse to travel over Halloween

[Anonymous]

Everyone I’ve spoken to- neighbors, friends and teacher have been extremely excited about this. I’m sure it would be great for recruitment. Teachers get so burnt out. This would give them consistent breaks between quarters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Everyone I’ve spoken to- neighbors, friends and teacher have been extremely excited about this. I’m sure it would be great for recruitment. Teachers get so burnt out. This would give them consistent breaks between quarters.

I might make it to retirement on this schedule

[Anonymous]

I don’t know that it’ll pass just yet, but they’re shifting the Overton window by getting people to at least consider it. Maybe another 1-2 years of acclimating to the idea and they could launch it for the 2030 school year. As a teacher, I see the benefits - right now, as Shernoff says, we have an ad hoc nearly-year round schedule without the benefit of the consistent chunks of time off between quarters. It’s just a hodge podge of inconvenient scattered days off that extend our school calendar interminably, disrupt consistent learning, and create childcare gaps for parents of younger kids. Each year we start earlier and stay in school later - it’s so maddening.

But I also know that families are very wedded to a traditional “longer summer” schedule and local businesses would have to adapt, which is something a massive local government entity has to consider. And those 2-3 week breaks still mean weeks of camps for the younger kids- though perhaps slightly easier to plan for and book than 1-2 days off here and there. Thats a not small financial consideration they will have to weigh. The high school parents who think summer jobs and internships are the primary consideration of the calendars will be lobbying hard in that direction.

There’s lots to consider. I wouldn’t mind more frequent real breaks, especially because the traditional summer months are getting less and less bearable in terms of spending time outdoors. More usable time throughout the year with “pressure valves” of 2/3 week breaks between quarters could be good for everyone. But again, I really think it’ll take a couple more years of earnest consideration to get people more willing to make the leap.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What?! FCPS teacher here. I will switch to LCPS if they decide to go to a year-round schedule!

Another teacher here. I would consider transferring to LCPS, too.

I love the idea of spreading work out. As it is, I cram all my work into 70 hour weeks, just to spend my summer months recovering. I’d love to have shorter breaks throughout. That sounds ideal!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What?! FCPS teacher here. I will switch to LCPS if they decide to go to a year-round schedule!

Another teacher here. I would consider transferring to LCPS, too.

I love the idea of spreading work out. As it is, I cram all my work into 70 hour weeks, just to spend my summer months recovering. I’d love to have shorter breaks throughout. That sounds ideal!

I’m not a teacher but I did major in education. I would consider finishing my licensing and working at a school like this. As a working professional I dream about weeks off like this (and it wouldn’t be less pay for me- about the same). The entire summer off never appealed to me. I’d already wanted to be a teacher but this schedule is just really tempting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It looks like they’re proposing starting the end of July and going to mid June. Would still have a 5 week summer.

It will never happen though. Look at the uproar when Fairfax tried to move their spring break—chaos, because it didn’t match other systems locally.

I don’t think most loudoun county teachers live in a different county or have kids in another county.

There are plenty who live in WV.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, but they are already used to schedules not aligning because Jefferson has a different schedule completely (not to mention a ton more snow days). FCPS ran into issues because so many teachers live in Arlington, Alexandria, Loudoun and Prince William. LCPS does have teachers in other localities, but nowhere near the large numbers. LCPS also has opposite schedules than FCPS for elementary school and high school. Almost everyone I have worked with who lived and worked between those districts decided to live and work in just one district when they had kids to avoid extended childcare.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m in LCPS and every one has been talking about this. Everyone is in favor! I haven’t met anyone who disliked it.

My favorite parts-
-3 weeks off in fall, 3 weeks in Christmas, 3 weeks in spring.
-5 weeks of summer.

We’re a wealthy county and people love to take international vacations. Many people also have relatives overseas and this would give time to visit them. Cheaper plane tickets and less crowds at tourist places! 5 weeks is still a really long time for summer.

You must have little kids. I have HS kids and everyone I know hates it. We are all in favor of the new option 7 that starts after Labor Day, Ends June 8 and gets rid of all the extra holidays.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m in LCPS and every one has been talking about this. Everyone is in favor! I haven’t met anyone who disliked it.

My favorite parts-
-3 weeks off in fall, 3 weeks in Christmas, 3 weeks in spring.
-5 weeks of summer.

We’re a wealthy county and people love to take international vacations. Many people also have relatives overseas and this would give time to visit them. Cheaper plane tickets and less crowds at tourist places! 5 weeks is still a really long time for summer.

You must have little kids. I have HS kids and everyone I know hates it. We are all in favor of the new option 7 that starts after Labor Day, Ends June 8 and gets rid of all the extra holidays.

It's interesting because any APS calendar discussion is largely HS parents saying how much they love the random days off so their kid can study ( I suspect it's a couple of people who don't like fighting to get their kid out the door)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m in LCPS and every one has been talking about this. Everyone is in favor! I haven’t met anyone who disliked it.

My favorite parts-
-3 weeks off in fall, 3 weeks in Christmas, 3 weeks in spring.
-5 weeks of summer.

We’re a wealthy county and people love to take international vacations. Many people also have relatives overseas and this would give time to visit them. Cheaper plane tickets and less crowds at tourist places! 5 weeks is still a really long time for summer.

You must have little kids. I have HS kids and everyone I know hates it. We are all in favor of the new option 7 that starts after Labor Day, Ends June 8 and gets rid of all the extra holidays.

It's interesting because any APS calendar discussion is largely HS parents saying how much they love the random days off so their kid can study ( I suspect it's a couple of people who don't like fighting to get their kid out the door)

Interesting. My (high achieving) teens want the school year as short as possible and want to attend as few days as possible after AP’s. They also want to make as much money as they can in the summer.

The new schedule won’t affect my older teen at all and will only affect my younger teen a couple years. I can’t wait to be done with K-12.