Earlier start date proposed for MCPS
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Anonymous
| Okay so now Hindu want Diwali off and Chinese want Lunar New Year off. So if the BOA (who made national headlines removing ALL religious holidays) will soon add those two days the 2017-2018 calendar, correct? The county with NO religious holidays will now have more off than any other county in the country. Honestly, embarrassing. |
Anonymous
+1. The state Department of Education mandates these days off for public schools in the state. I have no idea what other state departments might do. |
Anonymous
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Mandated days off per the State:
015 January 19 (Monday) Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Birthday (observed) February 16 (third Monday) Presidents' Day April 3-6 Good Friday through the day after Easter May 25 (Monday) Memorial Day November 26-27 (fourth Thursday & Friday) Thanksgiving Day & American Indian Heritage Day December 24-31 Christmas Eve through end of year |
Anonymous
This was cut and pasted from the Maryland State website. Not sure why it does not include Labor Day. |
Anonymous
The crazy reason is it would have cost $7 million dollars to give the teachers a paid holiday. What would you like to cut? Your understanding about holidays and teacher pay is faulty. Teachers are NOT paid for holidays, be it Presidents Day, Election Day, New Years, etc. They are paid for 195 days of work. Period. If the BoE simply made September 12 a holiday for all students and staff (i.e. not made it a Professional Day) and then just tacked a school day on at the end of the year, the cost would be ZERO. for some mysterious reason, the BoE wants a Professional Day on the 12th. That's a teacher work day so they get paid. The reason some of the options cost $7 million is because they add a teacher work day to the calendar. The fact that the BoE wants the 12th to be a Professional Day is absurd. They want to close schools so students who celebrate Eid can do so without missing school. How about Muslim teachers? The inconsistency of this proposal (closing on the 12th and making it a Professional Day) is mind-boggling! How are our BoE members so damn STUPID? |
Anonymous
What is BOA? As I said previously, allowing Eid to be a PD day is a slippery slope. I can't believe the BOE members who voted FOR this measure didn't have the mental capacity to see what this measure would lead to. |
Anonymous
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I thought that the reason a religious holiday warranted that the school be closed had to do with the absenteeism rate.
That seemed like a logical approach - pick a percentage and stick with it. If you observe a holiday and school is open, a teacher can request a substitute and the student can miss the day without penalty. No tests are given, they can be given a homework pack, it isn't the end of the world to skip a day of school. People do it to go to Disney all the time! The MCPS BOE is pretty weak and easily influenced and makes embarrassing decisions that they don't stick to. |
Anonymous
But the PP was right. It is NOT a state holiday. The Department of Education could make the change without dealing with the state. |
Anonymous
Not all schools start before Labor Day |
Anonymous
| Are they afraid of giving a threshold because they think people will abuse the policy by picking random days of school to miss to legitimize days off? |
Anonymous
Didn't they have a threshold prior to this year? I don't think there would be enough of a unified effort within MCPS to legitimize a "random day" off. Certainly the Day before Thanksgiving has higher than normal absenteeism. And that day isn't a holiday/day off/Day of PD. |
Anonymous
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I'm sure the day before and after any day off of school has a had higher absentee rate. As the Board correctly concluded, not so long ago, the right question is not absenteeism in isolation, but effect on operations. The fact that the BOE does not have the wherewithal to stick with it's own policy when a group asks nicely (again) bespeaks a bleak future.
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Anonymous
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This morning, I got a follow-up email in response to the message I sent BOE on Monday. I'm sure it's the same canned response they sent everyone.
It essentially said - BOE postponed the decision yesterday - BOE takes input very seriously - later this month, BOE will have weighed input from all key stakeholders and can make their decision then - BOE may not make decisions that are popular with everyone, but they want to listen... If you know someone who hasn't written yet, please encourage them to write. It isn't too late. |
Anonymous
| I got the same response. Main takeaway for me is that BOE thinks postponing will allow time for adequate input. This might be true if they publicize the meeting so this is a step in the right direction. I am still displeased though that they are potentially changing the start date of next year's calendar. I think that there should've been more lead time for such a change (for example, maybe they could consider now for 2017). I am also displeased that they are flip flopping on whether to close for Muslim holidays and that this one change is causing so many additional problems in the calendar (like in November and March). |
Anonymous
First, the state Department of Education IS the state. Second, it's state law that schools must close the Friday before Easter and from then through the Monday after Easter. The Department of Education can't change state law. Only the General Assembly can. http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/webmga/frmStatutesText.aspx?article=ged§ion=7-103&ext=html&session=2015RS&tab=subject5 So, if you don't want MCPS to close for religious holidays, contact your state legislators. |