How to fit school days into Gov Larry Hogan's ridiculous policy on school start and stop dates

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would be greatly surprised if Hogan loses his bid for re-election. I'm already getting emails from friends for Maladeno fundraisers, *yawn*. I don't care about his agenda points, his message is weak. He is following the path blazed by Hillary Clinton of having a message that misses the mark for the majority of voters.

I certainly don't agree with everything that Hogan has done, but the actions of the MoCo BOE affect my children's education directly. For years we've been sitting by helplessly wondering who could step in to corral this out of control BOE.

It's not a difficult decision. Keep spring break, and take out the extra minority religious holidays. Solid weeks are much better for a child's education, which is actually the purpose of school. I think it is financially difficult for poor central American immigrants to plan and pay for three additional days of whole day childcare for holidays they don't celebrate anyway.

Montgomery County BOE will more than likely cut the spring break that the majority of parents would like to keep and try to blame Hogan. It's the BOE's choice in how to implement the governor's reasonable order so the backlash will fall on them.

Not a difficult decision? Maybe if you are in the majority religion, it works out great. For those in the minority, it actually often becomes a choice of celebrating your religion with family or going to school. To make matters worse, those in the majority have no clue or CARE (as is clearly the case with you) of how that may affect availability for homework assignments or studying. Clearly minority religions are of zero concern to you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of the calendars (the second one) has off for Spring Break and for the Jewish holidays. Why can't that one be used? I can't figure out what days it eliminates to get to 182.

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/calendar/proposed-calendar-2018-19.aspx

I like that one too.

No need for professional days during the school year. They can take place before school starts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:On an average, an Indian student in India gets an average of two whole years of extra schooling compared to American students by the time they graduate from high school. Imagine what an advantage it is for students to get an additional 700 days of instruction from K-12. No wonder US is falling behind.

(On average, an Indian student in India doesn't complete secondary school.)

You are correct. I am however not talking of every child in India. I am talking about the middle class and upper class students who may be a relatively small %age of all students in India, but are in high enough numbers to make a dent when they are hired by other countries because of their qualifications.

The culture of prioritizing education continues in this country among Indian-Americans students.

The culture of parents/workers needing those long breaks continues in this country among Indian-Americans so they can go back and visit India. So....would you still rather have no long breaks and just year-round school dotted with many holidays?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not a difficult decision? Maybe if you are in the majority religion, it works out great. For those in the minority, it actually often becomes a choice of celebrating your religion with family or going to school. To make matters worse, those in the majority have no clue or CARE (as is clearly the case with you) of how that may affect availability for homework assignments or studying. Clearly minority religions are of zero concern to you.

We take our kids out of school from time to time for family-specific occasions - a wedding, a funeral, etc. - and arrangements can always be made. Same can be done for the occasional "minority religion" observance, I'm sure. It's just like grown-ups do in the workplace, you know? Oh, wait, that would require us all to act like grown-ups now, wouldn't it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Add 15 minutes to each school day. That's 45 additional hours of school per year (equivalent to about 6 additional days of school). <drops mic.... walk away....>

That's what fcps did a few years ago when they got rid of half day Mondays. Except that extra 15 minutes was eaten up by bus dismissal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Easy solution: move the teacher "admin days" from during the school year to the summer.

The reason the union opposes it is that it cuts into the teachers' (paid) summer vacation.

Ridiculous suggestion from an ignorant parent. Teacher's professional days are used to prepare report cards and draw up lesson plans for the next quarter. How are you going to do that in the summer? Teachers don't get paid for not working during the summer. If they choose they can spread out their money over a twelve month period so they don't go without a check for two months in the summer.

This argument gets made over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again but parents don't care because they I hate it when they lose their free babysitting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I also don't think that the policy is ridiculous. Some people really get worked up about this. Move teacher PD days to the week before school starts. Limit Spring Break to 5 school days. If you think summer is too long and are worried about "brain drain" then have your kids do some worksheets during the summer and lots of reading.

Not all PD are training that can be moved to the week before school starts. Some are to allow for intensive grading and planning that can only occur at the end of a marking period. Although exams are gone, many new assessments still take days to evaluate well. More teachers will chose multiple choice tests rather than projects or essays if they only have the evenings to grade 150+ products before the end of the marking period deadline.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Add 15 minutes to each school day. That's 45 additional hours of school per year (equivalent to about 6 additional days of school). <drops mic.... walk away....>

That's what fcps did a few years ago when they got rid of half day Mondays. Except that extra 15 minutes was eaten up by bus dismissal.

MD only counts days not hours so lengthening the school day would not change anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would be greatly surprised if Hogan loses his bid for re-election. I'm already getting emails from friends for Maladeno fundraisers, *yawn*. I don't care about his agenda points, his message is weak. He is following the path blazed by Hillary Clinton of having a message that misses the mark for the majority of voters.

I certainly don't agree with everything that Hogan has done, but the actions of the MoCo BOE affect my children's education directly. For years we've been sitting by helplessly wondering who could step in to corral this out of control BOE.

It's not a difficult decision. Keep spring break, and take out the extra minority religious holidays. Solid weeks are much better for a child's education, which is actually the purpose of school. I think it is financially difficult for poor central American immigrants to plan and pay for three additional days of whole day childcare for holidays they don't celebrate anyway.

Montgomery County BOE will more than likely cut the spring break that the majority of parents would like to keep and try to blame Hogan. It's the BOE's choice in how to implement the governor's reasonable order so the backlash will fall on them.

Not a difficult decision? Maybe if you are in the majority religion, it works out great. For those in the minority, it actually often becomes a choice of celebrating your religion with family or going to school. To make matters worse, those in the majority have no clue or CARE (as is clearly the case with you) of how that may affect availability for homework assignments or studying. Clearly minority religions are of zero concern to you.

That is true. I don't care about minority religions and their observations. Mainly because how people choose to express their personal faith beliefs is a private matter, really none of my business, and honestly not the responsibility of the school system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:On an average, an Indian student in India gets an average of two whole years of extra schooling compared to American students by the time they graduate from high school. Imagine what an advantage it is for students to get an additional 700 days of instruction from K-12. No wonder US is falling behind.

(On average, an Indian student in India doesn't complete secondary school.)

You are correct. I am however not talking of every child in India. I am talking about the middle class and upper class students who may be a relatively small %age of all students in India, but are in high enough numbers to make a dent when they are hired by other countries because of their qualifications.

The culture of prioritizing education continues in this country among Indian-Americans students.

The culture of parents/workers needing those long breaks continues in this country among Indian-Americans so they can go back and visit India. So....would you still rather have no long breaks and just year-round school dotted with many holidays?

Oh no! I did not think of the long summer breaks that my kids spend in India. For sure let's have the USA schools have long summer breaks so that we can visit India. Since the airfare is very expensive lets make the summer break more than a month!!

No one is asking for year round school, but a month of break is more than enough after each academic year.

[Anonymous]

Funny how none of these union negotiation professional day Monday's existed before or for other states and school districts yet everything is fine.

Funny how random federal not national holidays are not dished out (mlk, prez day) in many companies, states and school districts and everything is fine.

Funny how vastly different the MCPS teacher and neighborhood composition is in 2017 versus 1950/60 yet certain small numbers segments aren't threatening various things. Again, other states and public and private school districts are fine.

Just pull your child if your high holiday is important to you or a 1-2 week vacation. Go to temple, church or fast, that is fine. But I bet that would make you think twice of taking off of work and going to the mall and movies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Funny how none of these union negotiation professional day Monday's existed before or for other states and school districts yet everything is fine.

Funny how random federal not national holidays are not dished out (mlk, prez day) in many companies, states and school districts and everything is fine.

Funny how vastly different the MCPS teacher and neighborhood composition is in 2017 versus 1950/60 yet certain small numbers segments aren't threatening various things. Again, other states and public and private school districts are fine.

Just pull your child if your high holiday is important to you or a 1-2 week vacation. Go to temple, church or fast, that is fine. But I bet that would make you think twice of taking off of work and going to the mall and movies.

Sad how nothing you've said makes sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would be greatly surprised if Hogan loses his bid for re-election. I'm already getting emails from friends for Maladeno fundraisers, *yawn*. I don't care about his agenda points, his message is weak. He is following the path blazed by Hillary Clinton of having a message that misses the mark for the majority of voters.

I certainly don't agree with everything that Hogan has done, but the actions of the MoCo BOE affect my children's education directly. For years we've been sitting by helplessly wondering who could step in to corral this out of control BOE.

It's not a difficult decision. Keep spring break, and take out the extra minority religious holidays. Solid weeks are much better for a child's education, which is actually the purpose of school. I think it is financially difficult for poor central American immigrants to plan and pay for three additional days of whole day childcare for holidays they don't celebrate anyway.

Montgomery County BOE will more than likely cut the spring break that the majority of parents would like to keep and try to blame Hogan. It's the BOE's choice in how to implement the governor's reasonable order so the backlash will fall on them.

Not a difficult decision? Maybe if you are in the majority religion, it works out great. For those in the minority, it actually often becomes a choice of celebrating your religion with family or going to school. To make matters worse, those in the majority have no clue or CARE (as is clearly the case with you) of how that may affect availability for homework assignments or studying. Clearly minority religions are of zero concern to you.

That is true. I don't care about minority religions and their observations. Mainly because how people choose to express their personal faith beliefs is a private matter, really none of my business, and honestly not the responsibility of the school system.

And yet you care about majority religion--or at least plurality? Is that because it's your religion?

[Anonymous]

I am surprised that the Chinese community has not come out to say that tvey want to put the Chinese New Year's day on the canlendar. Should MCPS do a survey to see how many students and teachers will be absebt if mcps opens on the religious holidays.
As for catering to minorities, if a holiday is only observed by one student, should mcps clise its door for him/her?

[Anonymous]

SQUEAKY WHEEL GETS THE GREASE!

Someone please post the backgrounds of the teacher and student bodies in terms of religion, religious or secular. Chinese, SE Asia, Muslim, Jewish, Christian, Atheist.

I'm also done with this 1950s and 1960s logic.