Explain ridiculously early 2023/24 start date?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Swim season and marching band are 9 weeks just on their own. NVSL is huge in this area. People want to go on vacation as a family. They need two weeks outside of swim and preseason high school activities to do so.

People are going to be like - swim is no reason to change the school calendar. Well guess what - there is no academic reason to change the school calendar either. The most academic reason anyone can come up with is AP tests & which affects such a small subset - I think it hardly justifies changing the calendar for 180,000. Those kids are the top of the top - they could study on their own before school starts if they really wanted to.

But summer recreational swim team does? I suspect there are a lot more AP students in school than summer swim team members. My neighborhood has an active swim team and I'm confident there are more AP students that live here.

NP here, I was curious so googled. NVSL has 19,000(!) kids participate and is the largest summer swim in the country. Considering that it pulls kids from K-12 I’m willing to argue it impacts more families schedules in the area than AP classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Summer is more like having only 2 months off now.

2 months is a long time though. Long time for working parents to find childcare, long time for teachers to go without paycheck, long time for kids to go without the structure of school and many students fall behind/regress academically and socially over summer break.

My teacher spouse in FCPS gets paid monthly for 11 months and says that is what all teachers get. July is the only month of no paycheck. When there was no school in August - I am not certain how it worked. When I was a teacher - I had a choice of getting paid 10 months or 12 months. When teachers get paychecks shouldn't matter for this conversation - they make the same amount either way.

That is not what all teachers get because I'm a teacher and that's not how it is for me. In our district we can choose to get paid either once monthly for 10 months of the year (when school is in session) or twice monthly for 10 months. There is no option to spread it out over the summer months. I realize I make the same amount whether it comes in 10 paychecks, 20 paychecks or whether it was spread out over the entire year and I got paychecks in the summer too. It's still kind of challenging to budget during the summer when I go 2 months without receiving a paycheck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Summer is more like having only 2 months off now.

2 months is a long time though. Long time for working parents to find childcare, long time for teachers to go without paycheck, long time for kids to go without the structure of school and many students fall behind/regress academically and socially over summer break.

Look, I’m a teacher and a parent and this whole “finding childcare for summer is hard” argument is ridiculous. School has ALWAYS been out for summer in the US. It is not a 365 day a year endeavor. You knew having kids, as did I and everyone else, that there are holidays, breaks, weekends, etc. and nobody can provide childcare for you on those days. Ludicrous to suggest this is some sort of new burden on parents.

Did anyone say it was a new burden? And just because something has been happening for a long time doesn't make it not a burden...finding and paying for childcare for the entire 10-12 weeks of summer IS a burden for many people.(and I'm a SAHM so this argument doesn't even apply to me)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hate it. One week before Labor Day is fine. Beyond that and you pretty much lose August as a vacation month. Same for June. Beyond 1.5 weeks takes away that month as a vacation month. Plus the water in the pools is colder then. With all the activities starting in August, it makes sense to have 8 weeks free of activities for families to actually have a break from school.

As a teacher, I hate having a short summer. Summer is the only time I can stop thinking about work. The three day weekends do nothing for me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Remember- AP, SAT, ACT tests are administered regardless of the start date of school.

So it benefits the kids to start earlier.

School start date has no impact on SAT/ACT tests, and if plenty of time to cover a one semester college course over two semesters of high where more time is already given than most colleges course.

Starting in August and getting out later than the first week of a June should simply never happen. There is no exercise other than the inability of the school board and administration to act responsibly.

I agree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:August 21 is not early

How about August 19, when the start day for 2024-2025 will be (two Mondays before Labor Day)?

Even better.

Too bad FCPS can't figure out how to end no later than the first week of June.

Arlington starts Aug 28 and ends about the same time we do. (I think we FCPS last Day is a Wednesday and Arlington is a Friday) So strange.

Only 9 weeks of summer vacation as opposed to 10-11 normal years( except those COVID years!)

6-8 weeks is ideal

Ugh, no thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:August 21 is not early

How about August 19, when the start day for 2024-2025 will be (two Mondays before Labor Day)?

Even better.

Too bad FCPS can't figure out how to end no later than the first week of June.

Arlington starts Aug 28 and ends about the same time we do. (I think we FCPS last Day is a Wednesday and Arlington is a Friday) So strange.

Only 9 weeks of summer vacation as opposed to 10-11 normal years( except those COVID years!)

6-8 weeks is ideal

Ugh, no thanks.

What point would there be? There’d be no teachers left, so the classes would be enormous. But keep doing what you’re doing to increase the teacher shortages 🥰

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Remember- AP, SAT, ACT tests are administered regardless of the start date of school.

So it benefits the kids to start earlier.

School start date has no impact on SAT/ACT tests, and if plenty of time to cover a one semester college course over two semesters of high where more time is already given than most colleges course.

Starting in August and getting out later than the first week of a June should simply never happen. There is no exercise other than the inability of the school board and administration to act responsibly.

I agree.

I agreed. Stop with the random days off during year and we don’t have to stay so late in June.

[Anonymous]

I seriously miss the calendar we had when our kids went to private school outside this area.

Here is GDS school calendar, which is very similar to the calendar we used to have. I’m dreading this 2023-2024 FCPS calendar. Seriously dreading it. Kids, parents, teachers — we all need to start the summer at Memorial Day or just after.

https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1689707139/gdsorg/cayenrtvr63kwh89hown/2023-24OverviewCalendar.pdf

[Anonymous]

I have never seen so many people get wound up about so little. Dreading the calendar? Losing a week of summer?

I don't mean to sound too flip or whatever, but it does sound like some of you need to get some real problems, or focus your angst on the problems you DO have, not the school calendar.

The kids do fine with this, they really do. And for those who shout out about the break in routine, there are those like my kid and his friends who thrive on the occasional breaks as a mental reset.

It's a utilitarian calendar, designed for the greatest number of people, not bespoke to each of us.

[Anonymous]

The early start date is wonderful. There is no reason to wait until September. None.

[Anonymous]

I’m loving the simplicity of National Presbyterian’s calendar! Wow!

https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1672929300/nps/p4j14aia0vs3orqcmpu5/2023-2024NPSMajorDatesCalendar.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m loving the simplicity of National Presbyterian’s calendar! Wow!

https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1672929300/nps/p4j14aia0vs3orqcmpu5/2023-2024NPSMajorDatesCalendar.pdf

Great calendar. Substitute the word “Fall” for the word “Thanksgiving” and the word “Winter” for the word “Christmas” to reduce possible offense to anyone and change the header and FCPS would be all set.

Yea, yea, the whole 195 day thing. Those days happen before September 5th and after June 5th. Teachers work hard and should be paid appropriately.

Middle management overhead should be cut by at least 50%.

Hire competent staff attorneys and stop relying on high priced legal talent when board/administration screws up or takes dumb positions.

Multiple problems solved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m loving the simplicity of National Presbyterian’s calendar! Wow!

https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1672929300/nps/p4j14aia0vs3orqcmpu5/2023-2024NPSMajorDatesCalendar.pdf

It’s a lot easier when you are a religious school and don’t have to accommodate more than one religion’s holidays.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m loving the simplicity of National Presbyterian’s calendar! Wow!

https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1672929300/nps/p4j14aia0vs3orqcmpu5/2023-2024NPSMajorDatesCalendar.pdf

It’s a lot easier when you are a religious school and don’t have to accommodate more than one religion’s holidays.

Nope. This is why the calendar is messed up - handing out holidays like they are “I love you” stickers rather than scheduling based on school logistics. Spring break (at any week) aligned with other districts next to us - a staffing necessity. Having X or Y holiday off that a small percentage of staff and kids take off for - not operationally needed.