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Anonymous wrote:I’d be happy enough with the 26-27 calendar as is, as long as the dumb 3 hour early releases are going the way of the dodo. My kids’ ES has given up on any instruction on those days. They use them for class test makeups if a kid was sick and then spend the rest of the time for all the other kids on “team building activities” and playing games. Meanwhile SOL’s are sneaking up on us … only March, April, and maybe a week of May left to go and we have to get through spring break in there …
My guess is, if they can get rid of the early release, Meren can declare victory. It’s an intensely unpopular policy.
Hopefully, they can draw some guidelines for commonsense reformed to the calendar going forward:
TW/SD days only permitted on Monday or Friday, teacher training moved virtual and
carried out to some extent during snow days,
TW days layered on top of either federal or religious holidays, whichever makes more sense.
None of your ideas make sense and/or are feasible. Get real.
TW/PD on a Friday? Never going to happen. Fridays are not productive. No one ever schedules meetings for Friday afternoons. By then, teachers are exhausted.
Virtual teacher training on snow days. doesn’t make sense as teachers’ own children would be at home. A snow day means teachers are off period.
TW on a religious or federal holiday? I don’t think so.
From the perspective of a normal professional adult who is also a parent, professional expectations in 2026 include working five day weeks (even Friday!) teleworking in inclement weather (even if children are home) and not having every religious or federal holiday as PTO. I believe our teachers are professional adults who can adapt to higher professional expectations to save taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Sheeesh, what 19th century boss do you have?!
Professional expectations in 2026 also include unlimited PTO, full time remote work, and a focus on mental health outside of work. Sorry your company hasn’t gotten with the times of R.O.W.E.
Very few jobs offer unlimited PTO and full time remote work. I worked for a company with “unlimited PTO” and the people who took that literally ended up being counseled and then fired. Every contract has a number of hours that employees have to work, drop under that and you are gone. Any contract where you have deadlines or work in teams will have limits on the amount of PTO you can take.
Most of the world reverted to at least hybrid if not full time office after COVID. There are some remote jobs but they are hard to find.
The normal work environment is still 9-5 in the office. You can work to find something else but it isn’t easy.
A bunch of opinion based generalizations here.
“Very few jobs offer unlimited PTO”
In my sector, pharmaceuticals, it’s pretty common. In fact my last 3 companies (severance, merger, promotion) have all offered unlimited PTO. I’ve been approached by multiple competitors, none have any verbiage about contract hours etc. I work on a team and have deadlines, as long as my work is submitted by the deadline, they could care less when and where I do it. As professionals, we have the freedom and the ability to plan our meetings when it works for us.
I think there’s some confusion about what a ROWE workplace is. This may not be common in your sector unfortunately, but it’s very common in others. I’d encourage you to explore better opportunities where the company prioritizes your happiness and mental health as much as they do your work. They’re out there!
I have worked for pretty much every major Defense Contractor in the area. One offered unlimited PTO and they started that 3 years ago. Two people on my team were let go for abusing said policy within a year. You work in a sector that offers it but most don't. I promise you that the parents working retail jobs and house cleaning and other blue collar jobs were they are working for a company do not have remote work and unlimited PTO.
"This may not be common in your sector unfortunately"
Reading comprehension is key.
Obviously retail jobs and house cleaning and other blue collar jobs do not have remote work and unlimited PTO. McDonalds doesn't offer remote work either, shocker. Those aren't ROWE workplaces (mainly a corporate term), and most of them are not 9-5s either, everyone knows that...
As sure as we both are of that, I'm also sure that there are countless corporate accounting, marketing, and engineering jobs (white collar) that are remote with unlimited PTO. The median household income in Fairfax County (census.gov) is north of $150k with the average person making $70k+. Those aren't retail employees or house cleaners...
And most don't have unlimited PTO. Fed don't have unlimited PTO. State government officials don't have unlimited PTO. The vast majority of contracting companies don't have unlimited PTO. When the company I worked for that shifted to unlimited PTO did so, they flat out said they knew that very few companies offered this and they saw it as a potential element to help bring on sought after individuals. Then they started letting people go for abusing unlimited PTO because it does not align with their contract requirements.
So your argument is that a crappy school calendar is fine because there are a limited number of jobs that offer remote work and unlimited PTO so kids don't need to get used to going to school 5 days a work because they are going to have jobs that are 5 days a week? You are citing jobs that require college degrees in some advanced fields that is a small sub set of the population as your reference point for this idea that it is ok to have a school calendar that is a mess.
The calendar then is fine for training future engineers, accountants, pharmacy reps, and maybe lawyers who might find jobs that allow for remote work and unlimited PTO. What percentage of the population is that?
Observer of this back and forth, no dog in the fight, but curious nonetheless. Is your stance that children need to go to school five days a week because that is what prepares them for going to work five days a week?
My stance is that kids need consistency and repetition in order to learn material and need to be in school 5 days a week to build that base. I am not a fan of the A/B day model because I don't think that longer class periods and less reps help kids learn the material that they need to learn. The need for the structure shifts as you get older because the material that you are learning shifts but that really doesn't start to happen until sometime in HS and even then for more upper level classes. I have friends who teach ES, MS, and HS and they all say that the repeated short weeks are awful for class routine and learning. My friends who teach SPED classes really hate the schedule because it is even harder for kids with learning issues and emotional issues who need structure.
You also have the kids who count on the school to provide breakfast and lunch who benefit from school being open. And the parents who are working during school hours who can't afford child care who need school to be open. There are host of societal reasons for school to be open on a consistent schedule, whether we think that is the role of school or not, we need to acknowledge that schools have become a safe place that feeds kids for many kids.
I am guessing someone else mentioned that learning to attend school for 5 days helps with preparing for being in the workforce where you need to be at your job on a regular schedule, which led the the person who works remotely with unlimited PTO. I missed that linkage.
And, if teaching kids about working 5 days a week and needing to actually be at work is something that is important, they sure as heck are not learning it with this schedule.
What is your basis that
5 days a week is what builds the base of consistency and repetition? What is the educational basis that argues for 5 days? Also, what is the hour requirement for the 5 days? Is 6 hours too few? Is 8 hours too much?
Why not 4 days on and 3 days off? Or 6 days on and 1 day off?
What if it was 5 days a week, but only 4 hours a day?
Or 4 days a week, but 8 hours a day with classes everyday?
Or 3 days a week, 12 hours a day with 30 min mental breaks in between each class?
What if we had year round school with 4 two week breaks at the end of every quarter?
I'm just curious what it is about
5 day weeks that is the deciding factor of if students are getting the proper building blocks for learning?
5 days because the majority of the population has to work 5 days?
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