2023 - 2024 school calendar

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think all these calendars and the multitude of religious days off is ridiculous. I don't know why we have to start 2 weeks before Labor Day because the religious camps insist on having their religion dictate the school calendars. If you must celebrate YK or RH, go to a Jewish school. Diwali or Bohdi Day? I guess go to an Indian school, or learn to adapt. And now we have Eid and Ramadan off?

Let's see how many more groups we can accommodate so that we start in July and have 2 days off each week. This wokeness is out of control.

And you religious folk need to stop forcing your religious observances on the rest of us.

+1

This is an appalling attitude. Even if you don’t think religious holidays should result in school closures, telling minoritized groups to go elsewhere is disgusting. Opinions differ greatly and there is no calendar that will make everyone happy. It’s okay to disagree and debate, but maybe try to be a little more respectful in your discourse.

Absolutely not. If religious groups insist on pushing their religious observances on us, I will insist that they go elsewhere. Can you for one second image that we were shutting school for white Mormons or Evangelicals? The tone on this board would be incredibly different. But for some reason, we're fine with inserting religion back into school - even when we've worked so hard to separate public sector from it - provided its minority groups. It's hypocritical, and I'm calling the left out on it. Get rid of the religious days, and stick to fed calendar only. You need a religious accommodation? You'll get an excused absence, or you can find a religiously based schools like most of the Catholics that I know.

We have a two week Christmas break and spring break tied to Easter! Sure we don’t call it Christmas break or Easter break but that’s what it is. Otherwise winter break could be at the end of quarter in January and spring break would be at the end of third quarter. I’m with the atheist PP who wants no religious holidays at all but it’s really rich for Christians to take the longest breaks tied to their holidays and deny others the right to their holiday.

Can you please name one other school district, not private school, a school district that doesn’t give off the time between Christmas and New Year’s. FCPS is not about to be the first. They would lose every single teacher they have.

The point is the vitriolic PP used evangelicals and Mormons as examples of groups that aren’t getting special treatment but, hello, yes we get off for their holidays. I’m Jewish and I actually agree about not having all of the days off for all the different religious holidays because it’s just too much (I do think there should bug be tests or major activities on those days) but the OP’s attitude was really offensive and derogatory about other peoples’ religious observances. The Jewish holidays that were added to the calendar are the most important Jewish holidays of the year and this is a complicated issue for a lot of people that doesn’t mean we need to send our kids to a religious school because it’s something that’s been grappled with in the school calendar, and the same is true for the holidays of other major religions.

This is the problem. You only want your group's days off because they are the "most important days". But each group wants their most important days, too. So how many days do we end up adding? Cumulatively, there are too many days of religious observance and we cannot accommodate them all. So they all should go. Federal holidays only. If you need a religious accommodation or calendar based on religious observances, there are private school options but we should not utilize the public school calendar to create a religious calendar - which is exactly what has been done here. That's not vitriolic. That's basic logic.

I've posted this before but it bears repeating--in 2019 FCPS convened a group of faith leaders from across the county for a series of meetings that included looking at all the holidays. The group talked about how each holiday was observed and whether school impacted a student's ability to participate in the observance. Out of those meetings, and with the full support of all the faith leaders in the group, four holidays were recommended to become days off. That's where that list came from. While this group couldn't possible claim to have "official' powers to represent all members of their faith groups, they all felt comfortable with the list. So can we please stop this narrative that SOME groups are pushing their way to the front and leaving out other groups? Because it's simply not true and not how these holidays were selected.

Why should the public school system care about the input from any faith leader? The only consideration should be operational impact, which should be obvious from the attendance data for students and teachers.

Since FCPS successfully operated on these holidays for numerous years, tells me there is no real problem and this is somebody's woke agenda to make sure they "got theirs".

Back in the day, FC PS did submit data on these holidays saying that they were a burden for the school system because they had to find extra subs and students were absent and missing materials that had to be retired later on.

[Anonymous]

For every parent who says that their kids need to be in school five days a week for 36 weeks, there is also will Another parent who says that their kids thrive from more frequent breaks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think all these calendars and the multitude of religious days off is ridiculous. I don't know why we have to start 2 weeks before Labor Day because the religious camps insist on having their religion dictate the school calendars. If you must celebrate YK or RH, go to a Jewish school. Diwali or Bohdi Day? I guess go to an Indian school, or learn to adapt. And now we have Eid and Ramadan off?

Let's see how many more groups we can accommodate so that we start in July and have 2 days off each week. This wokeness is out of control.

And you religious folk need to stop forcing your religious observances on the rest of us.

+1

This is an appalling attitude. Even if you don’t think religious holidays should result in school closures, telling minoritized groups to go elsewhere is disgusting. Opinions differ greatly and there is no calendar that will make everyone happy. It’s okay to disagree and debate, but maybe try to be a little more respectful in your discourse.

Absolutely not. If religious groups insist on pushing their religious observances on us, I will insist that they go elsewhere. Can you for one second image that we were shutting school for white Mormons or Evangelicals? The tone on this board would be incredibly different. But for some reason, we're fine with inserting religion back into school - even when we've worked so hard to separate public sector from it - provided its minority groups. It's hypocritical, and I'm calling the left out on it. Get rid of the religious days, and stick to fed calendar only. You need a religious accommodation? You'll get an excused absence, or you can find a religiously based schools like most of the Catholics that I know.

We have a two week Christmas break and spring break tied to Easter! Sure we don’t call it Christmas break or Easter break but that’s what it is. Otherwise winter break could be at the end of quarter in January and spring break would be at the end of third quarter. I’m with the atheist PP who wants no religious holidays at all but it’s really rich for Christians to take the longest breaks tied to their holidays and deny others the right to their holiday.

Can you please name one other school district, not private school, a school district that doesn’t give off the time between Christmas and New Year’s. FCPS is not about to be the first. They would lose every single teacher they have.

The point is the vitriolic PP used evangelicals and Mormons as examples of groups that aren’t getting special treatment but, hello, yes we get off for their holidays. I’m Jewish and I actually agree about not having all of the days off for all the different religious holidays because it’s just too much (I do think there should bug be tests or major activities on those days) but the OP’s attitude was really offensive and derogatory about other peoples’ religious observances. The Jewish holidays that were added to the calendar are the most important Jewish holidays of the year and this is a complicated issue for a lot of people that doesn’t mean we need to send our kids to a religious school because it’s something that’s been grappled with in the school calendar, and the same is true for the holidays of other major religions.

This is the problem. You only want your group's days off because they are the "most important days". But each group wants their most important days, too. So how many days do we end up adding? Cumulatively, there are too many days of religious observance and we cannot accommodate them all. So they all should go. Federal holidays only. If you need a religious accommodation or calendar based on religious observances, there are private school options but we should not utilize the public school calendar to create a religious calendar - which is exactly what has been done here. That's not vitriolic. That's basic logic.

I've posted this before but it bears repeating--in 2019 FCPS convened a group of faith leaders from across the county for a series of meetings that included looking at all the holidays. The group talked about how each holiday was observed and whether school impacted a student's ability to participate in the observance. Out of those meetings, and with the full support of all the faith leaders in the group, four holidays were recommended to become days off. That's where that list came from. While this group couldn't possible claim to have "official' powers to represent all members of their faith groups, they all felt comfortable with the list. So can we please stop this narrative that SOME groups are pushing their way to the front and leaving out other groups? Because it's simply not true and not how these holidays were selected.

Why should the public school system care about the input from any faith leader? The only consideration should be operational impact, which should be obvious from the attendance data for students and teachers.

Since FCPS successfully operated on these holidays for numerous years, tells me there is no real problem and this is somebody's woke agenda to make sure they "got theirs".

Back in the day, FC PS did submit data on these holidays saying that they were a burden for the school system because they had to find extra subs and students were absent and missing materials that had to be retired later on.

The data doesn't support this. It's laughable what they are getting away with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For every parent who says that their kids need to be in school five days a week for 36 weeks, there is also will Another parent who says that their kids thrive from more frequent breaks.

8-9 4day weeks in the fall is excessive. There is no way to support that, and if that is what kids needs these days then the system is completely failing. Kids may not want to be in school but it is our job to create a system of uniformity for them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think all these calendars and the multitude of religious days off is ridiculous. I don't know why we have to start 2 weeks before Labor Day because the religious camps insist on having their religion dictate the school calendars. If you must celebrate YK or RH, go to a Jewish school. Diwali or Bohdi Day? I guess go to an Indian school, or learn to adapt. And now we have Eid and Ramadan off?

Let's see how many more groups we can accommodate so that we start in July and have 2 days off each week. This wokeness is out of control.

And you religious folk need to stop forcing your religious observances on the rest of us.

+1

This is an appalling attitude. Even if you don’t think religious holidays should result in school closures, telling minoritized groups to go elsewhere is disgusting. Opinions differ greatly and there is no calendar that will make everyone happy. It’s okay to disagree and debate, but maybe try to be a little more respectful in your discourse.

Absolutely not. If religious groups insist on pushing their religious observances on us, I will insist that they go elsewhere. Can you for one second image that we were shutting school for white Mormons or Evangelicals? The tone on this board would be incredibly different. But for some reason, we're fine with inserting religion back into school - even when we've worked so hard to separate public sector from it - provided its minority groups. It's hypocritical, and I'm calling the left out on it. Get rid of the religious days, and stick to fed calendar only. You need a religious accommodation? You'll get an excused absence, or you can find a religiously based schools like most of the Catholics that I know.

We have a two week Christmas break and spring break tied to Easter! Sure we don’t call it Christmas break or Easter break but that’s what it is. Otherwise winter break could be at the end of quarter in January and spring break would be at the end of third quarter. I’m with the atheist PP who wants no religious holidays at all but it’s really rich for Christians to take the longest breaks tied to their holidays and deny others the right to their holiday.

Can you please name one other school district, not private school, a school district that doesn’t give off the time between Christmas and New Year’s. FCPS is not about to be the first. They would lose every single teacher they have.

The point is the vitriolic PP used evangelicals and Mormons as examples of groups that aren’t getting special treatment but, hello, yes we get off for their holidays. I’m Jewish and I actually agree about not having all of the days off for all the different religious holidays because it’s just too much (I do think there should bug be tests or major activities on those days) but the OP’s attitude was really offensive and derogatory about other peoples’ religious observances. The Jewish holidays that were added to the calendar are the most important Jewish holidays of the year and this is a complicated issue for a lot of people that doesn’t mean we need to send our kids to a religious school because it’s something that’s been grappled with in the school calendar, and the same is true for the holidays of other major religions.

This is the problem. You only want your group's days off because they are the "most important days". But each group wants their most important days, too. So how many days do we end up adding? Cumulatively, there are too many days of religious observance and we cannot accommodate them all. So they all should go. Federal holidays only. If you need a religious accommodation or calendar based on religious observances, there are private school options but we should not utilize the public school calendar to create a religious calendar - which is exactly what has been done here. That's not vitriolic. That's basic logic.

I've posted this before but it bears repeating--in 2019 FCPS convened a group of faith leaders from across the county for a series of meetings that included looking at all the holidays. The group talked about how each holiday was observed and whether school impacted a student's ability to participate in the observance. Out of those meetings, and with the full support of all the faith leaders in the group, four holidays were recommended to become days off. That's where that list came from. While this group couldn't possible claim to have "official' powers to represent all members of their faith groups, they all felt comfortable with the list. So can we please stop this narrative that SOME groups are pushing their way to the front and leaving out other groups? Because it's simply not true and not how these holidays were selected.

Why should the public school system care about the input from any faith leader? The only consideration should be operational impact, which should be obvious from the attendance data for students and teachers.

Since FCPS successfully operated on these holidays for numerous years, tells me there is no real problem and this is somebody's woke agenda to make sure they "got theirs".

Back in the day, FC PS did submit data on these holidays saying that they were a burden for the school system because they had to find extra subs and students were absent and missing materials that had to be retired later on.

The data doesn't support this. It's laughable what they are getting away with.

they released the date. On the holidays - Diwali, RH, YK - the absences do not exceed regular days. It shows only 3% overall absence though doesn't indicate what the reason was for absence. It could've just been that some kids were out. Data does not support the extra holidays.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What I want to know is why Dia de los Muertos is now a holiday? are we just pulling stuff out of out *ss to include everyone?

Probably a gift to the teachers. Nobody wants to teach the day after Halloween (understandably).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What I want to know is why Dia de los Muertos is now a holiday? are we just pulling stuff out of out *ss to include everyone?

Yes. They are trying to grab lesser holiday they can pin on certain groups to camouflage the fact they are putting certain religious groups' holidays on the calendar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I want to know is why Dia de los Muertos is now a holiday? are we just pulling stuff out of out *ss to include everyone?

Probably a gift to the teachers. Nobody wants to teach the day after Halloween (understandably).

It’s not a holiday, it’s an O day. Still ridiculous because it’s not traditionally a day off even in Mexico. It’s just performative
BTW, calendar drafts show 10/30 and 10/31 both holidays so I don’t understand why the next day is O.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For every parent who says that their kids need to be in school five days a week for 36 weeks, there is also will Another parent who says that their kids thrive from more frequent breaks.

8-9 4day weeks in the fall is excessive. There is no way to support that, and if that is what kids needs these days then the system is completely failing. Kids may not want to be in school but it is our job to create a system of uniformity for them.

+1

I even know teachers who said it was excessive and very disruptive for students.

[Anonymous]

It's also really annoying that they keep shortening summer without giving us any more real breaks during the school year. A lot of people would like a shorter summer if they a few consolidated weeks off during the school year. But instead we get a million PD days and random religious/federal holidays.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I want to know is why Dia de los Muertos is now a holiday? are we just pulling stuff out of out *ss to include everyone?

Probably a gift to the teachers. Nobody wants to teach the day after Halloween (understandably).

Why not?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I want to know is why Dia de los Muertos is now a holiday? are we just pulling stuff out of out *ss to include everyone?

Probably a gift to the teachers. Nobody wants to teach the day after Halloween (understandably).

Why not?

Do you want to teach a bunch of sleep deprived, still hyped up from sugar and overly stimulated kids? I would guess the difficulty in focusing in ES is for different reason then MS and HS but it cannot be a fun day to try and teach.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I want to know is why Dia de los Muertos is now a holiday? are we just pulling stuff out of out *ss to include everyone?

Probably a gift to the teachers. Nobody wants to teach the day after Halloween (understandably).

Why not?

Do you want to teach a bunch of sleep deprived, still hyped up from sugar and overly stimulated kids? I would guess the difficulty in focusing in ES is for different reason then MS and HS but it cannot be a fun day to try and teach.

There needs to be a national movement to make Halloween the last Friday or Saturday of October. I know it was originally tied to All Saints Day, but most people don't know that or won't care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think all these calendars and the multitude of religious days off is ridiculous. I don't know why we have to start 2 weeks before Labor Day because the religious camps insist on having their religion dictate the school calendars. If you must celebrate YK or RH, go to a Jewish school. Diwali or Bohdi Day? I guess go to an Indian school, or learn to adapt. And now we have Eid and Ramadan off?

Let's see how many more groups we can accommodate so that we start in July and have 2 days off each week. This wokeness is out of control.

And you religious folk need to stop forcing your religious observances on the rest of us.

+1

This is an appalling attitude. Even if you don’t think religious holidays should result in school closures, telling minoritized groups to go elsewhere is disgusting. Opinions differ greatly and there is no calendar that will make everyone happy. It’s okay to disagree and debate, but maybe try to be a little more respectful in your discourse.

Absolutely not. If religious groups insist on pushing their religious observances on us, I will insist that they go elsewhere. Can you for one second image that we were shutting school for white Mormons or Evangelicals? The tone on this board would be incredibly different. But for some reason, we're fine with inserting religion back into school - even when we've worked so hard to separate public sector from it - provided its minority groups. It's hypocritical, and I'm calling the left out on it. Get rid of the religious days, and stick to fed calendar only. You need a religious accommodation? You'll get an excused absence, or you can find a religiously based schools like most of the Catholics that I know.

We have a two week Christmas break and spring break tied to Easter! Sure we don’t call it Christmas break or Easter break but that’s what it is. Otherwise winter break could be at the end of quarter in January and spring break would be at the end of third quarter. I’m with the atheist PP who wants no religious holidays at all but it’s really rich for Christians to take the longest breaks tied to their holidays and deny others the right to their holiday.

Can you please name one other school district, not private school, a school district that doesn’t give off the time between Christmas and New Year’s. FCPS is not about to be the first. They would lose every single teacher they have.

The point is the vitriolic PP used evangelicals and Mormons as examples of groups that aren’t getting special treatment but, hello, yes we get off for their holidays. I’m Jewish and I actually agree about not having all of the days off for all the different religious holidays because it’s just too much (I do think there should bug be tests or major activities on those days) but the OP’s attitude was really offensive and derogatory about other peoples’ religious observances. The Jewish holidays that were added to the calendar are the most important Jewish holidays of the year and this is a complicated issue for a lot of people that doesn’t mean we need to send our kids to a religious school because it’s something that’s been grappled with in the school calendar, and the same is true for the holidays of other major religions.

This is the problem. You only want your group's days off because they are the "most important days". But each group wants their most important days, too. So how many days do we end up adding? Cumulatively, there are too many days of religious observance and we cannot accommodate them all. So they all should go. Federal holidays only. If you need a religious accommodation or calendar based on religious observances, there are private school options but we should not utilize the public school calendar to create a religious calendar - which is exactly what has been done here. That's not vitriolic. That's basic logic.

I've posted this before but it bears repeating--in 2019 FCPS convened a group of faith leaders from across the county for a series of meetings that included looking at all the holidays. The group talked about how each holiday was observed and whether school impacted a student's ability to participate in the observance. Out of those meetings, and with the full support of all the faith leaders in the group, four holidays were recommended to become days off. That's where that list came from. While this group couldn't possible claim to have "official' powers to represent all members of their faith groups, they all felt comfortable with the list. So can we please stop this narrative that SOME groups are pushing their way to the front and leaving out other groups? Because it's simply not true and not how these holidays were selected.

So why do faith leaders get to decide my non-religious kid's public school calendar?

Exactly. It is a public school calendar and religion should not influence. Seperation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think all these calendars and the multitude of religious days off is ridiculous. I don't know why we have to start 2 weeks before Labor Day because the religious camps insist on having their religion dictate the school calendars. If you must celebrate YK or RH, go to a Jewish school. Diwali or Bohdi Day? I guess go to an Indian school, or learn to adapt. And now we have Eid and Ramadan off?

Let's see how many more groups we can accommodate so that we start in July and have 2 days off each week. This wokeness is out of control.

And you religious folk need to stop forcing your religious observances on the rest of us.

+1

This is an appalling attitude. Even if you don’t think religious holidays should result in school closures, telling minoritized groups to go elsewhere is disgusting. Opinions differ greatly and there is no calendar that will make everyone happy. It’s okay to disagree and debate, but maybe try to be a little more respectful in your discourse.

Absolutely not. If religious groups insist on pushing their religious observances on us, I will insist that they go elsewhere. Can you for one second image that we were shutting school for white Mormons or Evangelicals? The tone on this board would be incredibly different. But for some reason, we're fine with inserting religion back into school - even when we've worked so hard to separate public sector from it - provided its minority groups. It's hypocritical, and I'm calling the left out on it. Get rid of the religious days, and stick to fed calendar only. You need a religious accommodation? You'll get an excused absence, or you can find a religiously based schools like most of the Catholics that I know.

We have a two week Christmas break and spring break tied to Easter! Sure we don’t call it Christmas break or Easter break but that’s what it is. Otherwise winter break could be at the end of quarter in January and spring break would be at the end of third quarter. I’m with the atheist PP who wants no religious holidays at all but it’s really rich for Christians to take the longest breaks tied to their holidays and deny others the right to their holiday.

Can you please name one other school district, not private school, a school district that doesn’t give off the time between Christmas and New Year’s. FCPS is not about to be the first. They would lose every single teacher they have.

The point is the vitriolic PP used evangelicals and Mormons as examples of groups that aren’t getting special treatment but, hello, yes we get off for their holidays. I’m Jewish and I actually agree about not having all of the days off for all the different religious holidays because it’s just too much (I do think there should bug be tests or major activities on those days) but the OP’s attitude was really offensive and derogatory about other peoples’ religious observances. The Jewish holidays that were added to the calendar are the most important Jewish holidays of the year and this is a complicated issue for a lot of people that doesn’t mean we need to send our kids to a religious school because it’s something that’s been grappled with in the school calendar, and the same is true for the holidays of other major religions.

This is the problem. You only want your group's days off because they are the "most important days". But each group wants their most important days, too. So how many days do we end up adding? Cumulatively, there are too many days of religious observance and we cannot accommodate them all. So they all should go. Federal holidays only. If you need a religious accommodation or calendar based on religious observances, there are private school options but we should not utilize the public school calendar to create a religious calendar - which is exactly what has been done here. That's not vitriolic. That's basic logic.

I've posted this before but it bears repeating--in 2019 FCPS convened a group of faith leaders from across the county for a series of meetings that included looking at all the holidays. The group talked about how each holiday was observed and whether school impacted a student's ability to participate in the observance. Out of those meetings, and with the full support of all the faith leaders in the group, four holidays were recommended to become days off. That's where that list came from. While this group couldn't possible claim to have "official' powers to represent all members of their faith groups, they all felt comfortable with the list. So can we please stop this narrative that SOME groups are pushing their way to the front and leaving out other groups? Because it's simply not true and not how these holidays were selected.

Why should the public school system care about the input from any faith leader? The only consideration should be operational impact, which should be obvious from the attendance data for students and teachers.

Since FCPS successfully operated on these holidays for numerous years, tells me there is no real problem and this is somebody's woke agenda to make sure they "got theirs".

Back in the day, FC PS did submit data on these holidays saying that they were a burden for the school system because they had to find extra subs and students were absent and missing materials that had to be retired later on.

The data doesn't support this. It's laughable what they are getting away with.

they released the date. On the holidays - Diwali, RH, YK - the absences do not exceed regular days. It shows only 3% overall absence though doesn't indicate what the reason was for absence. It could've just been that some kids were out. Data does not support the extra holidays.

Do you have a link to the data? I haven't seen it yet. Thanks.