May/June attendance now optional?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a direct result of the ridiculous school calendar.

School should have been over last week. Continuing to stagger into June is idiotic. The people have spoken, will the School Board listen?

THIS! If you care about the quality of education, you need to be pushing for a school calendar that gets out earlier. MUCH earlier. First week of June at the very latest. They are literally just killing time at school to fill up the required hours now and that goes for all grades, even elementary. My 4th grader is turning in their laptops at the end of the day Thursday but they still have 3.5 days after that. What’s the point?!

Either you don't understand how 4th grade works or your child is at a really crappy school. My 4th grader's laptop stays at school, and is really only used for mandatory things (assessments, lexia, etc), so it wouldn't be a big deal at all if it got "turned in". I volunteered today and the teacher has the schedule for the next week written out, they have a LOT to finish up and are going to be doing school work up until the last day.

I will tell you right now Thursday is going to be the last day for anything. They do have a test that day. Then the computers get turned in for good and I don’t think are even in the classrooms anymore. The SBTS has to make sure everything is accounted for and check whose computer is busted and everything and it takes a long time. For kids in instrumental music their instruments were turned in late last week or early this week so there’s no more music specials either.

It’s going to be 3.5 days of watching movies, parties, and playing games. There’s a family picnic on Monday and a lot of kids are going to go home afterward. Even field day is today. It’s literally just fudging time at this point. We could have been done much earlier without a bunch of dragging out of the calendar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a direct result of the ridiculous school calendar.

School should have been over last week. Continuing to stagger into June is idiotic. The people have spoken, will the School Board listen?

THIS! If you care about the quality of education, you need to be pushing for a school calendar that gets out earlier. MUCH earlier. First week of June at the very latest. They are literally just killing time at school to fill up the required hours now and that goes for all grades, even elementary. My 4th grader is turning in their laptops at the end of the day Thursday but they still have 3.5 days after that. What’s the point?!

Its sad that turning in a laptop for a FOURTH GRADER marks the end of learning.

Why is that sad?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My tenth grader has had assignments, projects, tests, and labs up until today. Finals start tomorrow and I am thankful her finals schedule is more project based than test based this year.

I am this poster and my kid goes to Woodson…I am so confused by the large amount of complaints? Where are your kids in school that they have not been doing anything for a month?!?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a direct result of the ridiculous school calendar.

School should have been over last week. Continuing to stagger into June is idiotic. The people have spoken, will the School Board listen?

THIS! If you care about the quality of education, you need to be pushing for a school calendar that gets out earlier. MUCH earlier. First week of June at the very latest. They are literally just killing time at school to fill up the required hours now and that goes for all grades, even elementary. My 4th grader is turning in their laptops at the end of the day Thursday but they still have 3.5 days after that. What’s the point?!

Its sad that turning in a laptop for a FOURTH GRADER marks the end of learning.

Why is that sad?

Because very little work in fourth grade should be done on the laptop at all.

[Anonymous]

Point being that none of this should count towards the legal requirement of school time.

FCPS has turned to crap this year

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a direct result of the ridiculous school calendar.

School should have been over last week. Continuing to stagger into June is idiotic. The people have spoken, will the School Board listen?

THIS! If you care about the quality of education, you need to be pushing for a school calendar that gets out earlier. MUCH earlier. First week of June at the very latest. They are literally just killing time at school to fill up the required hours now and that goes for all grades, even elementary. My 4th grader is turning in their laptops at the end of the day Thursday but they still have 3.5 days after that. What’s the point?!

The last week of school has always been about filling time. It was like that in the 80's and 90's. We had half days during finals and then the last week back in the 80's. Kids take their finals, study for other finals, and then wait for Teachers to grade. The last bunch of days are more there so that kids who missed finals can retake them and for adminstrative tasks. You could change the calendar so we get out the week after Memorial day and the last week will be dead space. This has nothign to do with the screwed up claender and the timing of school ending and everything to do with finals and then down time because grades need to be completed and entered.

It is worse at HS because you hav more mixed classes and seniors have to be done before graduation which impacts the kids who are not seniors in the class.

My kid likes hanging out with friends before summer. They have some class parties. They socialize a bit. Kids who need to make up stuff make up their work. Teachers grade. It has always been this way.

No. It has not always been this way. Sure, the last few days have always seen lower attendance with families leaving early for vacations, etc. but OP said it has been going on for weeks, and I believe them. It is definitely true at my kids school. The end of the school year is too long and drawn out.

[Anonymous]

My DD has been skipping PE because of mean kids and a checked out teacher. I told her she can’t do that but she does it anyway and at this point I just hope it doesn’t bring down her grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 9th grader has finals this week and next week.

That sucks it would be great not to have to go next week. It would have been one thing if the school year began on August 25 but August 18-June 17 is horrible!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My tenth grader has had assignments, projects, tests, and labs up until today. Finals start tomorrow and I am thankful her finals schedule is more project based than test based this year.

I'm very sorry that everything is so late this year. This equivalent day (2nd Wednesday in June-7 fewer days after the first day of school) was the last day in 2024 and 25.

It's insane that the students don't get at least 10 weeks off and the teachers get less than 2 months. Can't blame me though (granted its hard for me to prove I made that thread) I warned people more than 2 years ago that the 25-26 calendar was horrific. Instead of demand to fix the calendar I got year round school people out of the closet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a direct result of the ridiculous school calendar.

School should have been over last week. Continuing to stagger into June is idiotic. The people have spoken, will the School Board listen?

THIS! If you care about the quality of education, you need to be pushing for a school calendar that gets out earlier. MUCH earlier. First week of June at the very latest. They are literally just killing time at school to fill up the required hours now and that goes for all grades, even elementary. My 4th grader is turning in their laptops at the end of the day Thursday but they still have 3.5 days after that. What’s the point?!

The last week of school has always been about filling time. It was like that in the 80's and 90's. We had half days during finals and then the last week back in the 80's. Kids take their finals, study for other finals, and then wait for Teachers to grade. The last bunch of days are more there so that kids who missed finals can retake them and for adminstrative tasks. You could change the calendar so we get out the week after Memorial day and the last week will be dead space. This has nothign to do with the screwed up claender and the timing of school ending and everything to do with finals and then down time because grades need to be completed and entered.

It is worse at HS because you hav more mixed classes and seniors have to be done before graduation which impacts the kids who are not seniors in the class.

My kid likes hanging out with friends before summer. They have some class parties. They socialize a bit. Kids who need to make up stuff make up their work. Teachers grade. It has always been this way.

It's not a week in FCPS.

It's a full month.

Ridiculous.

It has been a week for my kid. He has one more test tomorrow and is done with everything then.

My high school DC still has finals this Thursday through Monday.

It did seem like a big rush to cram everything in before Memorial Day (SOLs), and then mostly nothing until the finals this week.

[Anonymous]

This year reminds me of the calendar about 15 years ago. I was teaching 8th grade in FCPS. We had SIX full weeks of school after the SOLS. We had to cram most of the last quarter of material into just a few weeks so that kids knew the material for the SOL. Fortunately, my team was on board to do a bunch of projects that kept kids engaged, but it would have been very easy to not go that route.
The whole thing was nuts and it's one of the reasons that FCPS switched to starting before labor day. However, with so many additional holidays and teacher workdays starting before labor day no longer seems to mean an earlier end to the school year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a direct result of the ridiculous school calendar.

School should have been over last week. Continuing to stagger into June is idiotic. The people have spoken, will the School Board listen?

THIS! If you care about the quality of education, you need to be pushing for a school calendar that gets out earlier. MUCH earlier. First week of June at the very latest. They are literally just killing time at school to fill up the required hours now and that goes for all grades, even elementary. My 4th grader is turning in their laptops at the end of the day Thursday but they still have 3.5 days after that. What’s the point?!

Either you don't understand how 4th grade works or your child is at a really crappy school. My 4th grader's laptop stays at school, and is really only used for mandatory things (assessments, lexia, etc), so it wouldn't be a big deal at all if it got "turned in". I volunteered today and the teacher has the schedule for the next week written out, they have a LOT to finish up and are going to be doing school work up until the last day.

I will tell you right now Thursday is going to be the last day for anything. They do have a test that day. Then the computers get turned in for good and I don’t think are even in the classrooms anymore. The SBTS has to make sure everything is accounted for and check whose computer is busted and everything and it takes a long time. For kids in instrumental music their instruments were turned in late last week or early this week so there’s no more music specials either.

It’s going to be 3.5 days of watching movies, parties, and playing games. There’s a family picnic on Monday and a lot of kids are going to go home afterward. Even field day is today. It’s literally just fudging time at this point. We could have been done much earlier without a bunch of dragging out of the calendar.

3.5 days of not much is pretty normal. Was in the 90s. Still is. People on here are talking about the last few weeks, which is demonstrably different than a literal few days.

[Anonymous]

It has been a mix. My son's AP pre-calculus teacher is now teaching the first unit of calculus and giving daily graded assignments. She is teaching until the end, and there is a summative test during the finals slot for the class. Some of the other classes don't have much going on, and they move to half-days tomorrow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My tenth grader has had assignments, projects, tests, and labs up until today. Finals start tomorrow and I am thankful her finals schedule is more project based than test based this year.

I am this poster and my kid goes to Woodson…I am so confused by the large amount of complaints? Where are your kids in school that they have not been doing anything for a month?!?

+1
My kids are at Chantilly. They're still working through final exams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My tenth grader has had assignments, projects, tests, and labs up until today. Finals start tomorrow and I am thankful her finals schedule is more project based than test based this year.

I am this poster and my kid goes to Woodson…I am so confused by the large amount of complaints? Where are your kids in school that they have not been doing anything for a month?!?

+1
My kids are at Chantilly. They're still working through final exams.

We are at Chantilly too. Chantilly is old school and works until the bitter end. Pros and cons.