Explain ridiculously early 2023/24 start date?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wait until y'all see the 2025-2026 schedule. School starts August 18 and ends June 17.

We will be DONE with fcps and its calendar by then. Thank the Gods.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m loving the simplicity of National Presbyterian’s calendar! Wow!

https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1672929300/nps/p4j14aia0vs3orqcmpu5/2023-2024NPSMajorDatesCalendar.pdf

It’s a lot easier when you are a religious school and don’t have to accommodate more than one religion’s holidays.

The public school shouldn't be accommodating any religious holidays. And before someone drags up Christmas, it's far more than than a religious holiday in the US.

IOW, “I got mine. Screw everybody else.”

And don’t try to claim you don’t celebrate Christmas because it’s an anonymous message board. Nope. Sorry.

Not who you're responding to. But I celebrate Christmas in a secular way -no baby Jesus, nativity, church, etc. And sorry, it just IS different. It's cultural and ingrained, even celebrated by non-Christians in some ways. It just is. And there is the recognition that lots of places shut down, people travel etc. at this time of the year. So it is practical to close over the holidays (to include NY).

So you can drag up Christmas in some ridiculous attempt to show it is the same as other holidays . . . . but you just look foolish. It's different. An that will never change, ever. It just won't.

Maybe not, but the fact is, it is a deeply religious holiday for most people ho celebrate which is why we have it off. In a diverse area, is it really that terrible to give off holy days for other less "disruptive" religions? I mean, really?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait until y'all see the 2025-2026 schedule. School starts August 18 and ends June 17.

We will be DONE with fcps and its calendar by then. Thank the Gods.

Sigh. This is just how Mondays shift. It is essentially no different than June 16 and August 21. It's the same number of weeks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait until y'all see the 2025-2026 schedule. School starts August 18 and ends June 17.

We will be DONE with fcps and its calendar by then. Thank the Gods.

One can only hope that the next School Board will fix the calendar mess.

[Anonymous]

Thank god last year. Calendar is awful.

[Anonymous]

Do you think the new school board can fix the 2024-25 or 25-25 calendars? Or are we stuck with the next 3 years of crap!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can someone explain this to me? I’ve heard it’s because a group of parents complained that kids go too few teaching hours before AP exams compared to other states.

I know it’s not because of snow…because we’ve had none recently!

It’s also ridiculous in this area- given that August is recess.

If we started after Labor Day we’d go to the 4th of July because of all the breaks built in.

It’s the ridiculous number of workdays and random holiday. My older kids go to a VA private and start the Thursday after Labor Day. They finish the 2nd Thurs in June and have a long winter break and 2 week spring break. Guess what, they have their 100 day celebration before FCPS and they have more total school days. My youngest needs special ed, otherwise I’d yank her in a heartbeat

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Swim season and marching band are 9 weeks just on their own. NVSL is huge in this area. People want to go on vacation as a family. They need two weeks outside of swim and preseason high school activities to do so.

People are going to be like - swim is no reason to change the school calendar. Well guess what - there is no academic reason to change the school calendar either. The most academic reason anyone can come up with is AP tests & which affects such a small subset - I think it hardly justifies changing the calendar for 180,000. Those kids are the top of the top - they could study on their own before school starts if they really wanted to.

But summer recreational swim team does? I suspect there are a lot more AP students in school than summer swim team members. My neighborhood has an active swim team and I'm confident there are more AP students that live here.

NP here, I was curious so googled. NVSL has 19,000(!) kids participate and is the largest summer swim in the country. Considering that it pulls kids from K-12 I’m willing to argue it impacts more families schedules in the area than AP classes.

FCPS has 180,000 kids. NVSL pulls from how many counties in the area? So you are honestly arguing that we need the summer break set the way it is so that less then 10% of the County can participate in swim at private swim clubs in the NoVA area? Really?

Talk about a privileged, entitled position.

Ok but there is really no academic reason to start earlier either. The SOL were already back loaded as much as possible under the post-Labor Day start schedule.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Swim season and marching band are 9 weeks just on their own. NVSL is huge in this area. People want to go on vacation as a family. They need two weeks outside of swim and preseason high school activities to do so.

People are going to be like - swim is no reason to change the school calendar. Well guess what - there is no academic reason to change the school calendar either. The most academic reason anyone can come up with is AP tests & which affects such a small subset - I think it hardly justifies changing the calendar for 180,000. Those kids are the top of the top - they could study on their own before school starts if they really wanted to.

The academic reason is that there is learning loss when the summer vacation is too long, then time is wasted in the fall relearning.

That is not an academic reason. You can have the same length summer with whatever start date you pick. It is usually 9-10 weeks under any scenario so same learning loss.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Swim season and marching band are 9 weeks just on their own. NVSL is huge in this area. People want to go on vacation as a family. They need two weeks outside of swim and preseason high school activities to do so.

People are going to be like - swim is no reason to change the school calendar. Well guess what - there is no academic reason to change the school calendar either. The most academic reason anyone can come up with is AP tests & which affects such a small subset - I think it hardly justifies changing the calendar for 180,000. Those kids are the top of the top - they could study on their own before school starts if they really wanted to.

But summer recreational swim team does? I suspect there are a lot more AP students in school than summer swim team members. My neighborhood has an active swim team and I'm confident there are more AP students that live here.

No, just saying there's no articulable academic reason either. So at least admit that you all prefer your chosen start for personal reasons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can someone explain this to me? I’ve heard it’s because a group of parents complained that kids go too few teaching hours before AP exams compared to other states.

I know it’s not because of snow…because we’ve had none recently!

It’s also ridiculous in this area- given that August is recess.

If we started after Labor Day we’d go to the 4th of July because of all the breaks built in.

It’s the ridiculous number of workdays and random holiday. My older kids go to a VA private and start the Thursday after Labor Day. They finish the 2nd Thurs in June and have a long winter break and 2 week spring break. Guess what, they have their 100 day celebration before FCPS and they have more total school days. My youngest needs special ed, otherwise I’d yank her in a heartbeat

That sounds ideal.

[Anonymous]

Again. The majority of the US starts in August. So after Labor Day folks- it isn’t going to happen. The only reason it did years ago was due to the Kings Dominion law.

[Anonymous]

2025 also has random tuesdays off ugh

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m loving the simplicity of National Presbyterian’s calendar! Wow!

https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1672929300/nps/p4j14aia0vs3orqcmpu5/2023-2024NPSMajorDatesCalendar.pdf

It’s a lot easier when you are a religious school and don’t have to accommodate more than one religion’s holidays.

The public school shouldn't be accommodating any religious holidays. And before someone drags up Christmas, it's far more than than a religious holiday in the US.

So you think we should accommodate only Christian religious holidays?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m loving the simplicity of National Presbyterian’s calendar! Wow!

https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1672929300/nps/p4j14aia0vs3orqcmpu5/2023-2024NPSMajorDatesCalendar.pdf

It’s a lot easier when you are a religious school and don’t have to accommodate more than one religion’s holidays.

The public school shouldn't be accommodating any religious holidays. And before someone drags up Christmas, it's far more than than a religious holiday in the US.

IOW, “I got mine. Screw everybody else.”

And don’t try to claim you don’t celebrate Christmas because it’s an anonymous message board. Nope. Sorry.

Sure I celebrate Christmas. So do a lot of people. In fact, so many that the school system couldn't operate. It's also a federal holiday.

Now, why don't you provide any evidence that says the same for any Jewish or Muslim holiday in Fairfax County? Here's a hint: There is none.

Here’s a hint: It doesn’t matter. They are getting schools closed for their holidays and will continue to do so. Cope harder.