2026-2027 calendar updates

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've worked in the system for over twenty years at the elementary level and here are my thoughts...

1) Nobody likes transition day except for Dr. Taylor. It's a waste of time and screws over the K, 6th, and 9th grade teachers.

2) I would be okay with having half-days for grading and reporting in MP 1 and 3. I do think our secondary counterparts need the full day at the end of MP 2 to prepare for their second semester classes.

3) SPED teachers need more IEP writing days given to them but that doesn't impact whether school is open or closed. There's already not enough time to handle the paperwork on our quarterly grading days.

4) When I did my admin program we were told we closed for Christian and Jewish holidays in order to be able to function as a school system. If we remained open, there wouldn't be enough staff to operate the building. While I appreciate the diversity in our county, I don't know what percentage of staff and students celebrate some of the recent holiday additions to our calendar. Perhaps allow everyone excused absences or leave that day.

I agree with this. They do not know if they need to close for operational reasons. Being open for religious holidays next year would let them collect data to determine whether there is an operational need to close moving forward -- another benefit of doing it.

That's a bad metric. Many will come to school because they feel they have to. It's not a real choice.

MCPS can accommodate different religions and not lengthen the school year by eliminating the transition day, having school on presidents day and keeping spring break to one week by eliminating the requirement to not have school on Easter Monday or Good Friday. It will require advocacy but they clearly can do this seeing as they get waivers from the state every year.

They have a choice - it's an excused absence. And if they show up despite the excused absence, then that's not an operational reason to close.

And I agree that the state should revise the law to remove the requirement to be open on Good Friday and Easter Monday, but that's not something that MCPS can do in this calendar.

They can't do it because they aren't interested and didn't try. As far as whether there is an "operational reason to close" on Eid, well when we as a society accept that Eid is a valid holiday and that Muslim communities belong here, then in many schools there absolutely would be an operational reason to close. So while the politicans sound annoying to you, they aren't wrong that this is about inclusivity.

When did we “as a society” decide to conform to the needs of a small minority?

We're not "confirming" we are accommodating diverse needs

We will never be able to include every religious or cultural group by honoring every holiday. Someone will always be shortchanged. So, why not base school closure decisions solely on data? The Jewish holidays were added decades ago when the absentee rate for those holidays exceeded 15% of students and staff. The populations whose holidays we have now added to the calendar simply do not reach those levels in MCPS and therefore do not impact operations in a way that makes having school difficult on those holidays. This is not racist or exclusive - in practical terms it just doesn't make sense to close a school system of our size to accommodate a very small percentage of people who are welcome and encouraged use excused absences to celebrate those holidays and who should absolutely be given maximum flexibility in making up missed work.

The demographics of our county have changed significantly in the last 10-15 years. We should not be relying on decades old data to make these decisions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've worked in the system for over twenty years at the elementary level and here are my thoughts...

1) Nobody likes transition day except for Dr. Taylor. It's a waste of time and screws over the K, 6th, and 9th grade teachers.

2) I would be okay with having half-days for grading and reporting in MP 1 and 3. I do think our secondary counterparts need the full day at the end of MP 2 to prepare for their second semester classes.

3) SPED teachers need more IEP writing days given to them but that doesn't impact whether school is open or closed. There's already not enough time to handle the paperwork on our quarterly grading days.

4) When I did my admin program we were told we closed for Christian and Jewish holidays in order to be able to function as a school system. If we remained open, there wouldn't be enough staff to operate the building. While I appreciate the diversity in our county, I don't know what percentage of staff and students celebrate some of the recent holiday additions to our calendar. Perhaps allow everyone excused absences or leave that day.

I agree with this. They do not know if they need to close for operational reasons. Being open for religious holidays next year would let them collect data to determine whether there is an operational need to close moving forward -- another benefit of doing it.

DP. True, but aren't they only considering marking the religious holidays as potential makeup days, not as school days from the outset?

I don't think so. They would do this instead of starting school early, so those are days they would actually be open.

No, on the survey they sent out Thursday, the option is written as "Identifying days of religious observance as inclement weather makeup days."

Well, that's not what they say in the presentation. These are the three options:

Given the scheduled non-instructional days, three options or combinations of options are possible to meet new requirements to add capacity to address inclement weather closures:

1. Open school on non-instructional days that also are religious observances; allow excused absences and minimize instructional conflicts.

2. Reduce the length of Winter Break and/or Spring Break.

3. Start the school year earlier in August.

https://go.boarddocs.com/mabe/mcpsmd/Board.nsf/files/DT7SZF751736/$file/Proposed%20Amendments%202026-2027%20SY%20Calendar%20PPT%20260416.pdf

The superintendent is recommending the worst of the three options.

They mean that in the event of inclement weather closures requiring makeup days, they could open school on non-instructional days that are also religious observances.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've worked in the system for over twenty years at the elementary level and here are my thoughts...

1) Nobody likes transition day except for Dr. Taylor. It's a waste of time and screws over the K, 6th, and 9th grade teachers.

2) I would be okay with having half-days for grading and reporting in MP 1 and 3. I do think our secondary counterparts need the full day at the end of MP 2 to prepare for their second semester classes.

3) SPED teachers need more IEP writing days given to them but that doesn't impact whether school is open or closed. There's already not enough time to handle the paperwork on our quarterly grading days.

4) When I did my admin program we were told we closed for Christian and Jewish holidays in order to be able to function as a school system. If we remained open, there wouldn't be enough staff to operate the building. While I appreciate the diversity in our county, I don't know what percentage of staff and students celebrate some of the recent holiday additions to our calendar. Perhaps allow everyone excused absences or leave that day.

I agree with this. They do not know if they need to close for operational reasons. Being open for religious holidays next year would let them collect data to determine whether there is an operational need to close moving forward -- another benefit of doing it.

DP. True, but aren't they only considering marking the religious holidays as potential makeup days, not as school days from the outset?

I don't think so. They would do this instead of starting school early, so those are days they would actually be open.

No, on the survey they sent out Thursday, the option is written as "Identifying days of religious observance as inclement weather makeup days."

Well, that's not what they say in the presentation. These are the three options:

Given the scheduled non-instructional days, three options or combinations of options are possible to meet new requirements to add capacity to address inclement weather closures:

1. Open school on non-instructional days that also are religious observances; allow excused absences and minimize instructional conflicts.

2. Reduce the length of Winter Break and/or Spring Break.

3. Start the school year earlier in August.

https://go.boarddocs.com/mabe/mcpsmd/Board.nsf/files/DT7SZF751736/$file/Proposed%20Amendments%202026-2027%20SY%20Calendar%20PPT%20260416.pdf

The superintendent is recommending the worst of the three options.

They mean that in the event of inclement weather closures requiring makeup days, they could open school on non-instructional days that are also religious observances.

That's not how I read it. The point is not to have to open school a week earlier. The way to do that is to open up on religious holidays instead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've worked in the system for over twenty years at the elementary level and here are my thoughts...

1) Nobody likes transition day except for Dr. Taylor. It's a waste of time and screws over the K, 6th, and 9th grade teachers.

2) I would be okay with having half-days for grading and reporting in MP 1 and 3. I do think our secondary counterparts need the full day at the end of MP 2 to prepare for their second semester classes.

3) SPED teachers need more IEP writing days given to them but that doesn't impact whether school is open or closed. There's already not enough time to handle the paperwork on our quarterly grading days.

4) When I did my admin program we were told we closed for Christian and Jewish holidays in order to be able to function as a school system. If we remained open, there wouldn't be enough staff to operate the building. While I appreciate the diversity in our county, I don't know what percentage of staff and students celebrate some of the recent holiday additions to our calendar. Perhaps allow everyone excused absences or leave that day.

I agree with this. They do not know if they need to close for operational reasons. Being open for religious holidays next year would let them collect data to determine whether there is an operational need to close moving forward -- another benefit of doing it.

DP. True, but aren't they only considering marking the religious holidays as potential makeup days, not as school days from the outset?

I don't think so. They would do this instead of starting school early, so those are days they would actually be open.

No, on the survey they sent out Thursday, the option is written as "Identifying days of religious observance as inclement weather makeup days."

Well, that's not what they say in the presentation. These are the three options:

Given the scheduled non-instructional days, three options or combinations of options are possible to meet new requirements to add capacity to address inclement weather closures:

1. Open school on non-instructional days that also are religious observances; allow excused absences and minimize instructional conflicts.

2. Reduce the length of Winter Break and/or Spring Break.

3. Start the school year earlier in August.

https://go.boarddocs.com/mabe/mcpsmd/Board.nsf/files/DT7SZF751736/$file/Proposed%20Amendments%202026-2027%20SY%20Calendar%20PPT%20260416.pdf

The superintendent is recommending the worst of the three options.

They mean that in the event of inclement weather closures requiring makeup days, they could open school on non-instructional days that are also religious observances.

That's not how I read it. The point is not to have to open school a week earlier. The way to do that is to open up on religious holidays instead.

But the survey said "Identifying days of religious observance as inclement weather makeup days."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:it is just too late to start school earlier for 2026! We are one of many families that has a nonrefundable trip already planned that week.

Then go on your trip and enjoy it. A few missed days of school is ok. They will probably placate families by making that first week excused absences if necessary

You know nothing about how the first week of school goes. Obviously. If the majority of students aren’t there the first week because they had planned vacations based on the calendar, guess what the second week looks like? A repeat of week 1. So no. No instructional time is gained by doing this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've worked in the system for over twenty years at the elementary level and here are my thoughts...

1) Nobody likes transition day except for Dr. Taylor. It's a waste of time and screws over the K, 6th, and 9th grade teachers.

2) I would be okay with having half-days for grading and reporting in MP 1 and 3. I do think our secondary counterparts need the full day at the end of MP 2 to prepare for their second semester classes.

3) SPED teachers need more IEP writing days given to them but that doesn't impact whether school is open or closed. There's already not enough time to handle the paperwork on our quarterly grading days.

4) When I did my admin program we were told we closed for Christian and Jewish holidays in order to be able to function as a school system. If we remained open, there wouldn't be enough staff to operate the building. While I appreciate the diversity in our county, I don't know what percentage of staff and students celebrate some of the recent holiday additions to our calendar. Perhaps allow everyone excused absences or leave that day.

I agree with this. They do not know if they need to close for operational reasons. Being open for religious holidays next year would let them collect data to determine whether there is an operational need to close moving forward -- another benefit of doing it.

That's a bad metric. Many will come to school because they feel they have to. It's not a real choice.

MCPS can accommodate different religions and not lengthen the school year by eliminating the transition day, having school on presidents day and keeping spring break to one week by eliminating the requirement to not have school on Easter Monday or Good Friday. It will require advocacy but they clearly can do this seeing as they get waivers from the state every year.

They have a choice - it's an excused absence. And if they show up despite the excused absence, then that's not an operational reason to close.

And I agree that the state should revise the law to remove the requirement to be open on Good Friday and Easter Monday, but that's not something that MCPS can do in this calendar.

They can't do it because they aren't interested and didn't try. As far as whether there is an "operational reason to close" on Eid, well when we as a society accept that Eid is a valid holiday and that Muslim communities belong here, then in many schools there absolutely would be an operational reason to close. So while the politicans sound annoying to you, they aren't wrong that this is about inclusivity.

When did we “as a society” decide to conform to the needs of a small minority?

We're not "confirming" we are accommodating diverse needs

We will never be able to include every religious or cultural group by honoring every holiday. Someone will always be shortchanged. So, why not base school closure decisions solely on data? The Jewish holidays were added decades ago when the absentee rate for those holidays exceeded 15% of students and staff. The populations whose holidays we have now added to the calendar simply do not reach those levels in MCPS and therefore do not impact operations in a way that makes having school difficult on those holidays. This is not racist or exclusive - in practical terms it just doesn't make sense to close a school system of our size to accommodate a very small percentage of people who are welcome and encouraged use excused absences to celebrate those holidays and who should absolutely be given maximum flexibility in making up missed work.

The demographics of our county have changed significantly in the last 10-15 years. We should not be relying on decades old data to make these decisions.

they need to access a new demographic survey. They can't issue a survey because everyone would be everything in order to keep the days off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:it is just too late to start school earlier for 2026! We are one of many families that has a nonrefundable trip already planned that week.

Then go on your trip and enjoy it. A few missed days of school is ok. They will probably placate families by making that first week excused absences if necessary

You know nothing about how the first week of school goes. Obviously. If the majority of students aren’t there the first week because they had planned vacations based on the calendar, guess what the second week looks like? A repeat of week 1. So no. No instructional time is gained by doing this.

The majority of students will be there for the first week. Do you think everyone in the county has already booked a non-refundable vacation in mid-August? Extremely unlikely

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:it is just too late to start school earlier for 2026! We are one of many families that has a nonrefundable trip already planned that week.

Then go on your trip and enjoy it. A few missed days of school is ok. They will probably placate families by making that first week excused absences if necessary

You know nothing about how the first week of school goes. Obviously. If the majority of students aren’t there the first week because they had planned vacations based on the calendar, guess what the second week looks like? A repeat of week 1. So no. No instructional time is gained by doing this.

The majority of students will be there for the first week. Do you think everyone in the county has already booked a non-refundable vacation in mid-August? Extremely unlikely

+1. My kids will be there. There are very few camps that week. I had taken a few days off that week to spend with them before they go back to school but the plans we have can be changed. It’s still 4 months away-most people can adjust.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:it is just too late to start school earlier for 2026! We are one of many families that has a nonrefundable trip already planned that week.

Then go on your trip and enjoy it. A few missed days of school is ok. They will probably placate families by making that first week excused absences if necessary

You know nothing about how the first week of school goes. Obviously. If the majority of students aren’t there the first week because they had planned vacations based on the calendar, guess what the second week looks like? A repeat of week 1. So no. No instructional time is gained by doing this.

The majority of students will be there for the first week. Do you think everyone in the county has already booked a non-refundable vacation in mid-August? Extremely unlikely

+1. My kids will be there. There are very few camps that week. I had taken a few days off that week to spend with them before they go back to school but the plans we have can be changed. It’s still 4 months away-most people can adjust.

Of course everyone can adjust. For some people it will cost money. For many they will miss things they planned and looked forward to. Will teachers that booked non-refundable trips show up? I guess we'll see.

And the question is to what end. To barely comply with a state mandate to end the school year before Juneteenth? What is the actual goal here? Do they care at all about how they have reduced scheduled instructional days over the years such that it seems every year they need to add useless makeup days at the end to comply with the state while teachers and families scrambled? They aren't changing anything that will actually fix that situation. They are just ensuring it keeps happening.

[Anonymous]

we always plan a trip that week specifically because there aren't camps as do many families at our school. I can't imagine everyone is going to be okay with making the choice to either eat the cost or miss the first week. it is simply too late to make this type of change for 4 months out. why can't they just reduce winter break by 2-3 days, cut easter monday, and maybe a planning day and then you're done?

[Anonymous]

Starting early is the best option. Summer is too long anyway. Fairfax county used to start after labor day and now they start around the 17th of August or so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've worked in the system for over twenty years at the elementary level and here are my thoughts...

1) Nobody likes transition day except for Dr. Taylor. It's a waste of time and screws over the K, 6th, and 9th grade teachers.

2) I would be okay with having half-days for grading and reporting in MP 1 and 3. I do think our secondary counterparts need the full day at the end of MP 2 to prepare for their second semester classes.

3) SPED teachers need more IEP writing days given to them but that doesn't impact whether school is open or closed. There's already not enough time to handle the paperwork on our quarterly grading days.

4) When I did my admin program we were told we closed for Christian and Jewish holidays in order to be able to function as a school system. If we remained open, there wouldn't be enough staff to operate the building. While I appreciate the diversity in our county, I don't know what percentage of staff and students celebrate some of the recent holiday additions to our calendar. Perhaps allow everyone excused absences or leave that day.

I agree with this. They do not know if they need to close for operational reasons. Being open for religious holidays next year would let them collect data to determine whether there is an operational need to close moving forward -- another benefit of doing it.

That's a bad metric. Many will come to school because they feel they have to. It's not a real choice.

MCPS can accommodate different religions and not lengthen the school year by eliminating the transition day, having school on presidents day and keeping spring break to one week by eliminating the requirement to not have school on Easter Monday or Good Friday. It will require advocacy but they clearly can do this seeing as they get waivers from the state every year.

They have a choice - it's an excused absence. And if they show up despite the excused absence, then that's not an operational reason to close.

And I agree that the state should revise the law to remove the requirement to be open on Good Friday and Easter Monday, but that's not something that MCPS can do in this calendar.

You aren’t very thoughtful. Excused absences pit a large burden on the child. My child has a 504 for medical issues and misses many classes already for medical treatments. These are all excused. He finds it hard to keep up with missed. It’s really difficult to make up missed assignments and exams, but it’s even harder to catch up on misses lessons. Despite the 504, his grades can suffer because of the snowball effect and limited time to make up for missed classes. Missing for religious holidays would further compound that. So even though all these would be excused absences, it essentially punishes the student.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:we always plan a trip that week specifically because there aren't camps as do many families at our school. I can't imagine everyone is going to be okay with making the choice to either eat the cost or miss the first week. it is simply too late to make this type of change for 4 months out. why can't they just reduce winter break by 2-3 days, cut easter monday, and maybe a planning day and then you're done?

Well there are a lot of families who have also planned their winter breaks. They can use the same argument. Especially immigrant families who do international travel over winter break since summer is too hot in their home country. Winter break is not long enough to begin with. Fairfax county gets 2 weeks of winter break.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've worked in the system for over twenty years at the elementary level and here are my thoughts...

1) Nobody likes transition day except for Dr. Taylor. It's a waste of time and screws over the K, 6th, and 9th grade teachers.

2) I would be okay with having half-days for grading and reporting in MP 1 and 3. I do think our secondary counterparts need the full day at the end of MP 2 to prepare for their second semester classes.

3) SPED teachers need more IEP writing days given to them but that doesn't impact whether school is open or closed. There's already not enough time to handle the paperwork on our quarterly grading days.

4) When I did my admin program we were told we closed for Christian and Jewish holidays in order to be able to function as a school system. If we remained open, there wouldn't be enough staff to operate the building. While I appreciate the diversity in our county, I don't know what percentage of staff and students celebrate some of the recent holiday additions to our calendar. Perhaps allow everyone excused absences or leave that day.

I agree with this. They do not know if they need to close for operational reasons. Being open for religious holidays next year would let them collect data to determine whether there is an operational need to close moving forward -- another benefit of doing it.

That's a bad metric. Many will come to school because they feel they have to. It's not a real choice.

MCPS can accommodate different religions and not lengthen the school year by eliminating the transition day, having school on presidents day and keeping spring break to one week by eliminating the requirement to not have school on Easter Monday or Good Friday. It will require advocacy but they clearly can do this seeing as they get waivers from the state every year.

They have a choice - it's an excused absence. And if they show up despite the excused absence, then that's not an operational reason to close.

And I agree that the state should revise the law to remove the requirement to be open on Good Friday and Easter Monday, but that's not something that MCPS can do in this calendar.

You aren’t very thoughtful. Excused absences pit a large burden on the child. My child has a 504 for medical issues and misses many classes already for medical treatments. These are all excused. He finds it hard to keep up with missed. It’s really difficult to make up missed assignments and exams, but it’s even harder to catch up on misses lessons. Despite the 504, his grades can suffer because of the snowball effect and limited time to make up for missed classes. Missing for religious holidays would further compound that. So even though all these would be excused absences, it essentially punishes the student.

Where is the line though? What percentage of students and teachers being out should trigger a day off? 2-3% is not a substantial enough population IMO.

What about your kid? It’s not equitable they have to miss because of their disability so should all of her classmates miss school any time she does? You might like that but if we implemented that it would mean we would never have school. It just doesn’t work. We need to find a way to help those catch up from excused absences in some other way, not just cancel school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The terms for end of the quarter grade entry time should be renegotiated with the teachers union. We should eliminate the non instructional days for entering grades at the end of the first 3 quarters and replace them each with two early release days instead, with teachers working their normal hours. Releasing students 2.5 hours early each of the last two days of the quarter would give teachers 5 hours of paid time to enter grades — almost as much time as they gain from one non instructional day — but this way, they’d all be instructional days and teachers would work the same hours for the same pay as they do now. If we did that for the first 3 quarters, we’d have 3 more instructional days built into the calendar, and voila, there’s your 4 built in inclement weather days, without starting the year earlier or ending later.

Anne Arundel county public schools calendar is allowed to have 177 days because they originally went this route for 180 days and people didn't like all the half days caused by the law. https://www.aacps.org/article/2490677

Actually, a special law was passed to let them count hours in AA.