2023 - 2024 school calendar

[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.

If they had 8-9 4-day weeks then it sounds like we basically have created a system of uniformity for them... now we just need to add a day off on the remaining ~4 weeks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Number of 5 day weeks for the three upcoming years, since DCUM cares about that:

Blue: 26, 27, 25
Orange: 26, 26, 26
Green: 25, 25, 24
Purple: 25, 26, 25

Is it same total # of weeks in all calendar versions?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Number of 5 day weeks for the three upcoming years, since DCUM cares about that:

Blue: 26, 27, 25
Orange: 26, 26, 26
Green: 25, 25, 24
Purple: 25, 26, 25

Is it same total # of weeks in all calendar versions?

Please ignore- found it mapped out on page 12 of pdf- link now working for me.

https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/CN2UZX7AB38F/$file/Calendar%20SB%202023.01.17%20final.pdf

[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.

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.

Ok, so let's play this out. There should then be school on 12/24, which is not a federal holiday, and a day off on 12/25, which is a federal holiday. Winter Break should come at the end of the second quarter, which is the most logical time to have it. And before anyone says, "most people celebrate Christmas so that's when winter break should be held," well, you all just said that religion should have no influence on the public school calendar. If you really believe that, you should have no issue with this plan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

If they had 8-9 4-day weeks then it sounds like we basically have created a system of uniformity for them... now we just need to add a day off on the remaining ~4 weeks.

Oh my dear. This right here is exactly what is wrong with FCPS school board and many of the parents. It's a race to the bottom. PP finds it acceptable - and actually uniform for the kids - to reduce schooling to 4 days a week. No wonder education in this country is so poor.

[Anonymous]

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.

+100

So you are in favor of moving winter break to after second quarter ends in January? You can have Christmas day and New Year's Day off since they are fed holidays, but that's it.

Why do you assume that Christmas is important to me?

Try to follow along. PPs were saying that only Federal Holidays should be days off. Christmas is a Federal holiday, and would be a day off under that logic, whether it is important to you or not.

[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.

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.

Ok, so let's play this out. There should then be school on 12/24, which is not a federal holiday, and a day off on 12/25, which is a federal holiday. Winter Break should come at the end of the second quarter, which is the most logical time to have it. And before anyone says, "most people celebrate Christmas so that's when winter break should be held," well, you all just said that religion should have no influence on the public school calendar. If you really believe that, you should have no issue with this plan.

I love the way that PPs pretend they don't live in this country or understand the culture. Are you new here? Never been to the western world? The entire country shuts down the entire week of Christmas. For staffing and logistics purposes, it makes sense for fcps to shut down. Heck, my employer shut down the office and gave everyone a holiday Christmas - NYE week. Why? That's the culture we live in. Don't like it? Move, I guess.

[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.

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.

Ok, so let's play this out. There should then be school on 12/24, which is not a federal holiday, and a day off on 12/25, which is a federal holiday. Winter Break should come at the end of the second quarter, which is the most logical time to have it. And before anyone says, "most people celebrate Christmas so that's when winter break should be held," well, you all just said that religion should have no influence on the public school calendar. If you really believe that, you should have no issue with this plan.

I love the way that PPs pretend they don't live in this country or understand the culture. Are you new here? Never been to the western world? The entire country shuts down the entire week of Christmas. For staffing and logistics purposes, it makes sense for fcps to shut down. Heck, my employer shut down the office and gave everyone a holiday Christmas - NYE week. Why? That's the culture we live in. Don't like it? Move, I guess.

You can't have it both ways and claim that you truly believe that religion has no place in public education. What you are really saying is the majority religion DOES have a place in influencing public education and minority religions don't. And yes, that's how this country works right now. But own that, don't try to and feign outrage at religion inserting itself into things like calendar decisions because of separation of church and state and then, at the same time, mock the idea that Christianity should be held to the same standard as other religions in terms of influence.

[Anonymous]

When does the calendar get finalized?

[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:

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.

Ok, so let's play this out. There should then be school on 12/24, which is not a federal holiday, and a day off on 12/25, which is a federal holiday. Winter Break should come at the end of the second quarter, which is the most logical time to have it. And before anyone says, "most people celebrate Christmas so that's when winter break should be held," well, you all just said that religion should have no influence on the public school calendar. If you really believe that, you should have no issue with this plan.

I love the way that PPs pretend they don't live in this country or understand the culture. Are you new here? Never been to the western world? The entire country shuts down the entire week of Christmas. For staffing and logistics purposes, it makes sense for fcps to shut down. Heck, my employer shut down the office and gave everyone a holiday Christmas - NYE week. Why? That's the culture we live in. Don't like it? Move, I guess.

You can't have it both ways and claim that you truly believe that religion has no place in public education. What you are really saying is the majority religion DOES have a place in influencing public education and minority religions don't. And yes, that's how this country works right now. But own that, don't try to and feign outrage at religion inserting itself into things like calendar decisions because of separation of church and state and then, at the same time, mock the idea that Christianity should be held to the same standard as other religions in terms of influence.

You sound ridiculous and, quite frankly, a little daft. IF you cannot understand that Christmas holds a cultural celebration in this country then there really is no use having a conversation with you. Christmas time is embedded in the culture whether celebrated secularly or religiously. If you cannot understand that, you are purposefully obtuse and willfully ignorant.

And yes, I can absolutely recognize that while stating that I do not want religion in schools. I do not want days off for epiphany, Yom Kippur, Diwali, Good Friday, or any other day. Too bad, so sad. IF you are hung up on your religious days, take your kids out of school. Christmas is a federal holiday and I"m sorry that you don't like that but it is. I suggest you petition the government to make Diwali a federal day off. Until that happens, I will petition my school board members to ensure that it is a regular school day. Because frankly the 20+ days of religious recognition that they have on their list is completely ridiculous, performative and anti-education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When does the calendar get finalized?

It was 2/9 but there was freaking chatter at the end of the meeting about delaying it!!!! NO!!!!!!!!!!!

[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:

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.

Ok, so let's play this out. There should then be school on 12/24, which is not a federal holiday, and a day off on 12/25, which is a federal holiday. Winter Break should come at the end of the second quarter, which is the most logical time to have it. And before anyone says, "most people celebrate Christmas so that's when winter break should be held," well, you all just said that religion should have no influence on the public school calendar. If you really believe that, you should have no issue with this plan.

I love the way that PPs pretend they don't live in this country or understand the culture. Are you new here? Never been to the western world? The entire country shuts down the entire week of Christmas. For staffing and logistics purposes, it makes sense for fcps to shut down. Heck, my employer shut down the office and gave everyone a holiday Christmas - NYE week. Why? That's the culture we live in. Don't like it? Move, I guess.

You can't have it both ways and claim that you truly believe that religion has no place in public education. What you are really saying is the majority religion DOES have a place in influencing public education and minority religions don't. And yes, that's how this country works right now. But own that, don't try to and feign outrage at religion inserting itself into things like calendar decisions because of separation of church and state and then, at the same time, mock the idea that Christianity should be held to the same standard as other religions in terms of influence.

You sound ridiculous and, quite frankly, a little daft. IF you cannot understand that Christmas holds a cultural celebration in this country then there really is no use having a conversation with you. Christmas time is embedded in the culture whether celebrated secularly or religiously. If you cannot understand that, you are purposefully obtuse and willfully ignorant.

And yes, I can absolutely recognize that while stating that I do not want religion in schools. I do not want days off for epiphany, Yom Kippur, Diwali, Good Friday, or any other day. Too bad, so sad. IF you are hung up on your religious days, take your kids out of school. Christmas is a federal holiday and I"m sorry that you don't like that but it is. I suggest you petition the government to make Diwali a federal day off. Until that happens, I will petition my school board members to ensure that it is a regular school day. Because frankly the 20+ days of religious recognition that they have on their list is completely ridiculous, performative and anti-education.

+100

I know several families who are not Christian but do a secular Christmas celebration in addition to their own religious holidays. For many (most?) people it’s not a religious holiday.

I would never move to a country with majority non-Christians and expect school off on “my” holidays that are not considered as such by that country’s government. I would recognize I am on the minority and deal with it. This isn’t persecution or discrimination. It’s a logistical thing.

[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:

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.

Ok, so let's play this out. There should then be school on 12/24, which is not a federal holiday, and a day off on 12/25, which is a federal holiday. Winter Break should come at the end of the second quarter, which is the most logical time to have it. And before anyone says, "most people celebrate Christmas so that's when winter break should be held," well, you all just said that religion should have no influence on the public school calendar. If you really believe that, you should have no issue with this plan.

I love the way that PPs pretend they don't live in this country or understand the culture. Are you new here? Never been to the western world? The entire country shuts down the entire week of Christmas. For staffing and logistics purposes, it makes sense for fcps to shut down. Heck, my employer shut down the office and gave everyone a holiday Christmas - NYE week. Why? That's the culture we live in. Don't like it? Move, I guess.

You can't have it both ways and claim that you truly believe that religion has no place in public education. What you are really saying is the majority religion DOES have a place in influencing public education and minority religions don't. And yes, that's how this country works right now. But own that, don't try to and feign outrage at religion inserting itself into things like calendar decisions because of separation of church and state and then, at the same time, mock the idea that Christianity should be held to the same standard as other religions in terms of influence.

You sound ridiculous and, quite frankly, a little daft. IF you cannot understand that Christmas holds a cultural celebration in this country then there really is no use having a conversation with you. Christmas time is embedded in the culture whether celebrated secularly or religiously. If you cannot understand that, you are purposefully obtuse and willfully ignorant.

And yes, I can absolutely recognize that while stating that I do not want religion in schools. I do not want days off for epiphany, Yom Kippur, Diwali, Good Friday, or any other day. Too bad, so sad. IF you are hung up on your religious days, take your kids out of school. Christmas is a federal holiday and I"m sorry that you don't like that but it is. I suggest you petition the government to make Diwali a federal day off. Until that happens, I will petition my school board members to ensure that it is a regular school day. Because frankly the 20+ days of religious recognition that they have on their list is completely ridiculous, performative and anti-education.

+100

I know several families who are not Christian but do a secular Christmas celebration in addition to their own religious holidays. For many (most?) people it’s not a religious holiday.

I would never move to a country with majority non-Christians and expect school off on “my” holidays that are not considered as such by that country’s government. I would recognize I am on the minority and deal with it. This isn’t persecution or discrimination. It’s a logistical thing.

I lived overseas in my 20s in a country where I was minority religion. I did not get "my" holidays off nor did I ask for them off. I took the same holidays as my co-workers and abided by those cultural norms. On Easter/Thanksgiving/4th of July, I got together with 2 American friends and we had small dinners on those days. We did not petition our employer to close shop so that a few workers could go celebrate. That would have been ludicrous.

[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.

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.

Ok, so let's play this out. There should then be school on 12/24, which is not a federal holiday, and a day off on 12/25, which is a federal holiday. Winter Break should come at the end of the second quarter, which is the most logical time to have it. And before anyone says, "most people celebrate Christmas so that's when winter break should be held," well, you all just said that religion should have no influence on the public school calendar. If you really believe that, you should have no issue with this plan.

You're being obtuse. It's also a) the end of the calendar year in which many non-school employees leave year ends and people are off work and want to travel/spend time with family. It is a natural time for a bread. 2) in years past, in all recent past, the government has either given the 24th off or let employees out early, and b) you're forgetting New Year's Day, a federal holiday. Again, this makes the time between Xmas and NYE reasonable to have off.

So as long as your so concerned with sticking to Federal holidays . . . there is this.

[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:

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.

Ok, so let's play this out. There should then be school on 12/24, which is not a federal holiday, and a day off on 12/25, which is a federal holiday. Winter Break should come at the end of the second quarter, which is the most logical time to have it. And before anyone says, "most people celebrate Christmas so that's when winter break should be held," well, you all just said that religion should have no influence on the public school calendar. If you really believe that, you should have no issue with this plan.

I love the way that PPs pretend they don't live in this country or understand the culture. Are you new here? Never been to the western world? The entire country shuts down the entire week of Christmas. For staffing and logistics purposes, it makes sense for fcps to shut down. Heck, my employer shut down the office and gave everyone a holiday Christmas - NYE week. Why? That's the culture we live in. Don't like it? Move, I guess.

You can't have it both ways and claim that you truly believe that religion has no place in public education. What you are really saying is the majority religion DOES have a place in influencing public education and minority religions don't. And yes, that's how this country works right now. But own that, don't try to and feign outrage at religion inserting itself into things like calendar decisions because of separation of church and state and then, at the same time, mock the idea that Christianity should be held to the same standard as other religions in terms of influence.

You sound ridiculous and, quite frankly, a little daft. IF you cannot understand that Christmas holds a cultural celebration in this country then there really is no use having a conversation with you. Christmas time is embedded in the culture whether celebrated secularly or religiously. If you cannot understand that, you are purposefully obtuse and willfully ignorant.

And yes, I can absolutely recognize that while stating that I do not want religion in schools. I do not want days off for epiphany, Yom Kippur, Diwali, Good Friday, or any other day. Too bad, so sad. IF you are hung up on your religious days, take your kids out of school. Christmas is a federal holiday and I"m sorry that you don't like that but it is. I suggest you petition the government to make Diwali a federal day off. Until that happens, I will petition my school board members to ensure that it is a regular school day. Because frankly the 20+ days of religious recognition that they have on their list is completely ridiculous, performative and anti-education.

+100

I know several families who are not Christian but do a secular Christmas celebration in addition to their own religious holidays. For many (most?) people it’s not a religious holiday.

I would never move to a country with majority non-Christians and expect school off on “my” holidays that are not considered as such by that country’s government. I would recognize I am on the minority and deal with it. This isn’t persecution or discrimination. It’s a logistical thing.

+100


I’m an atheist and I’m pretty sure we are the most outwardly christmassy people in the neighborhood.

Christmas is not only a secular holiday- all of the pomp and fun was originally German. Nordic cultures celebrated Yule, Ancient Rome celebrated “Saturnalia”, etc. The tree and garlands and mistletoe were all banned from early colonial days because it wasn’t a Christian tradition. That’s right folks: Christmas is really a hodge podge of cultural traditions because winter is freakin depressing.

Now fast forward to today: Christmas is a wonderful time of year with kids to slow down on work and school and give our families time to bond and return to a more relaxing time. And for the record: this happens in all cultures in the northern hemisphere in particular, this desire to have a winter/mid-year break.

I don’t think religion is bad and I would rather have us embrace all religious holidays by acknowledging them and having them placed in the calendar. But I also want to point out because of the holidays my kids are way less ignorant of world religions and cultures than I was at this age in ES. This is incredibly important for me as an atheist because I do want my kids to have exposure to religions to see them as a positive thing.

Finally: i do like the shorter winter break. It was nice when we had a two week break before Covid but some of us are trying to just keep our jobs here.