Earlier start date proposed for MCPS

[Anonymous]

Little more detail but no date for review/decision.

Brian Edwards, the school system’s chief communications officer, said Tuesday the agenda item had been removed from the board’s meeting schedule. "The Board wanted to have more time to discuss the calendar and will schedule a meeting to do that soon," Edwards wrote in an email.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Little more detail but no date for review/decision.

Brian Edwards, the school system’s chief communications officer, said Tuesday the agenda item had been removed from the board’s meeting schedule. "The Board wanted to have more time to discuss the calendar and will schedule a meeting to do that soon," Edwards wrote in an email.

I hope this is announced to the public.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes - thanks to the OP!

I would not have known about this if I didn't see this post (and I follow them on twitter!). I was able to get my comments in under the wire last night with an acknowledgment this morning that they were received and shared.

It's ridiculous that they thought this can be passed through without any public input. It seems like a case of accommodating those that scream the loudest as opposed to having some thoughtful discussions with everyone that would be impacted by this decision. There are several much better alternatives that can be put in place until a formal decision is made and I suggested they make a decision, with input, and implement with the 2017 school year. It makes me lose what little faith I already had with the BOE decision making process.

+1 Thanks to the OP for bringing this up here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Little more detail but no date for review/decision.

Brian Edwards, the school system’s chief communications officer, said Tuesday the agenda item had been removed from the board’s meeting schedule. "The Board wanted to have more time to discuss the calendar and will schedule a meeting to do that soon," Edwards wrote in an email.

I hope this is announced to the public.

Press coverage: http://www.bethesdamagazine.com/Bethesda-Beat/

[Anonymous]

^^^whoops, here: http://www.bethesdamagazine.com/Bethesda-Beat/2015/Board-of-Education-Delays-Decision-on-Moving-Up-Start-of-2016-2017-School-Year/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How long does it take for the video of the meeting to be posted?

Video is posted now at http://mcpsmd.swagit.com/play/12082015-1560

Click on "Items 4 & 6." This part of the meeting lasts 90 seconds at the most. Basically, Durso says at a date TBD in December. And it was due to some "concerns" they want to re-evaluate and discuss internally before moving forward.

[Anonymous]

20:50 Thanks for reviewing. Too many complaints to accept the recommendation as written, I assume. BOE, too, did not have time to figure it out by Tuesday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If anyone is interested, these are the results of the MCEA staff poll. Not sure it will have any impact, though. The BOE kind of does what it wants.

Looks like nobody wants to lose any spring break!

The polling options and results are as follows:

Option A:
Add an additional professional day to the calendar on September 12th. This would cost approximately $7 million dollars. By eliminating an instructional day in September, an additional instructional day would need to be added later in the school year. If it were added in June, it would push the last day of school to Friday, June 16th, with the final professional day then falling on Monday, June 19th.

Option B:
Alternately, an additional professional day could be added on September 12 at a cost of $7 million, and the lost instructional day could be added in on Monday April 10 – the first day of spring break.

Option C:
Alternately, a professional day could be created on September 12 at no cost by ‘swapping’ it for one of the existing end of marking period grading days guaranteed in the MCEA contract. (This would require an all-member vote to modify the contract). This would not require the addition of an instructional day in April or June, as the former grading day would become an instructional day

Option D:
Alternately, a professional day could be created on September 12 at no cost by moving one of the pre-service professional days to September 12, reducing the pre-service days to four. Under this option, pre-service days would still begin on Monday August 22, but the first day of school would be moved up to Friday August 26. The final day of school would remain as Thursday June 15.

Option E:
Alternately, a professional day could be created on September 12 at no cost by moving one of the pre-service professional days to September 12, reducing the pre-service days to four. Under this option – to avoid starting school on a Friday - pre-service days would be moved up to begin on Thursday, August 18 with the first day of school being moved up to Wednesday, August 24. The final student day of school would then be moved up to Wednesday, June 14.

Of the 2,670 responses to the poll, the percentage of members who selected each option as their first choice follows:
Option A – 24.6%
Option B – 8.8%
Option C – 23.0%
Option D – 18.3%
Option E – 25.3%

Now that the Board has decided to reconsider are these still the only possible options available?
Has anyone been informed that Option A is worded incorrectly. The last planned day was Friday 6/16, adding 1 day would push the last day to Monday 6/19?
I assume there is no chance of them reversing course on granting the Muslim holy day as a day off.

[Anonymous]

Option D also states that the final day of school is Thursday the 15th.

[Anonymous]

Someone needs to send this survey to the Board and explain all of the errors in it.

[Anonymous]

Okay, the option E has most support 25.3% vs 24.6% for option A, so mcps recommended it to BOE. What about the STUDENTS and PARENTS?
Now, mcps gives a day off on one of the muslin holidays, and the Indian will ask a day off for their holiday, the Chinese New Year is observed but they can ask for a day off too, and who else needs a day off? Since American is not a melting pot any more, a salas bow needs to respect each ingredient!

[Anonymous]

Almost 75% of teachers preferred another option. And they were all bad options.

[Anonymous]

Interesting that Howard Country announced yesterday that they are considering ending the Jewish Holidays. They will just follow the state holidays. Maybe MCPS should follow. Just defer to the state..no arguments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Look at your calendar for the current year. We had Monday, 9/14/15 OFF this year. So, there won't be any real change next year with this holiday. Simmer down, folks.

Actually it IS a big deal, thanks to the Board of Education deciding that 9/12/16 is a holiday for students but a Professional Day for teachers. Teachers are PAID to work. Since they made this a Professional Day, a Professional Day had to be moved from elsewhere in the calendar or it would have cost $7 million in salary.

On 9/14/15 and every other Jewish holiday, schools were closed for students AND staff.

Simple solution would be to treat 9/12/16 like 9/14/15 and just close for everyone. But no, our Board of Education just can't keep from tripping all over themselves to make asinine decisions.

9/14/15 wasn't a Jewish holiday. It was a professional day.

Wrong! 9/14/15 was Rosh Hashana.

But it wasn't listed as a holiday. Remember, we got rid of all holidays. So now we will just have 2-3 days off in Sept/Oct for "professional days."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Okay, the option E has most support 25.3% vs 24.6% for option A, so mcps recommended it to BOE. What about the STUDENTS and PARENTS?
Now, mcps gives a day off on one of the muslin holidays, and the Indian will ask a day off for their holiday, the Chinese New Year is observed but they can ask for a day off too, and who else needs a day off? Since American is not a melting pot any more, a salas bow needs to respect each ingredient!

The Chinese Coalition has already started a fight to get Lunar New Year off. And to be honest with you, at this point there is no reason why they shouldn't get it. How can the BOA justify one minority holiday and not another and another and another. I remember reading from the BOA a few years ago, the only reason certain days off for ANY holiday were due to the amount of substitutes a school would need, and then AFTER that concern was a certain percentage the kids were absent. I would have to think there is less than 3-5% of teachers in MCPS that request off for Eid.