MCPS updated calendar is insane

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a teacher who already booked a vacation for the week of the 22nd. I never take days off, but I’ve put in for a sub and will leave board games and summer reading for my kids.

I wish the MCPS parents who perpetually complain could direct their vitriol at MSDE and the State Superintendent for being so unreasonable about giving waivers for extreme weather conditions.

Nah, it’s your union and MCPS that are completely inflexible. Stop blaming the state for the county’s issues.

The other county’s figured it out. MCPS put zero effort in, refused to use their 3 allocated snow make up days and just wants the state to sign a form for their incompetence.

The union is not asking teachers what they want and decides for them. Stop scapegoating teachers.

You might be right that a majority of teachers would prefer to teach April 15 than June 25, but if so, they should speak out to the BOE that the union is misrepresenting them. Not just for this year but in advocating for a more rational calendar going forward.

The situation is more complicated than you’re making it seem. The teachers’ union didn’t fight for *April 15th*, specifically; there’s nothing special about that date. Teachers needed more time for planning and grading, so their union fought for a paid, non instructional workday after each quarter. You’re thinking small: we need makeup days, so let’s get rid of April 15th, which isn’t anyone’s holiday. The union has to look at the bigger picture: we fought for this, so if we now say we’re happy to give it up, we’ll be ceding ground and the next time there’s pressure to find more instructional days, we could lose more paid grading and planning time, under the guise that we must not really need it. They can’t give back something they fought for and won because of the precedent it sets — even if, in this very specific circumstance, most of the teachers would rather use April 15th as a makeup day than June 25th.

There are 3 designated back up days. That is one. The decision was already made when calendar was approved. No idea why this is even a discussion.

+1 if days are indicated as possible make up days, they should be used. This is why the state is so annoyed w/MCPS. They make no effort to make up, just want the waiver.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a teacher who already booked a vacation for the week of the 22nd. I never take days off, but I’ve put in for a sub and will leave board games and summer reading for my kids.

I wish the MCPS parents who perpetually complain could direct their vitriol at MSDE and the State Superintendent for being so unreasonable about giving waivers for extreme weather conditions.

Nah, it’s your union and MCPS that are completely inflexible. Stop blaming the state for the county’s issues.

The other county’s figured it out. MCPS put zero effort in, refused to use their 3 allocated snow make up days and just wants the state to sign a form for their incompetence.

The union is not asking teachers what they want and decides for them. Stop scapegoating teachers.

You might be right that a majority of teachers would prefer to teach April 15 than June 25, but if so, they should speak out to the BOE that the union is misrepresenting them. Not just for this year but in advocating for a more rational calendar going forward.

The situation is more complicated than you’re making it seem. The teachers’ union didn’t fight for *April 15th*, specifically; there’s nothing special about that date. Teachers needed more time for planning and grading, so their union fought for a paid, non instructional workday after each quarter. You’re thinking small: we need makeup days, so let’s get rid of April 15th, which isn’t anyone’s holiday. The union has to look at the bigger picture: we fought for this, so if we now say we’re happy to give it up, we’ll be ceding ground and the next time there’s pressure to find more instructional days, we could lose more paid grading and planning time, under the guise that we must not really need it. They can’t give back something they fought for and won because of the precedent it sets — even if, in this very specific circumstance, most of the teachers would rather use April 15th as a makeup day than June 25th.

There are 3 designated back up days. That is one. The decision was already made when calendar was approved. No idea why this is even a discussion.

+1 if days are indicated as possible make up days, they should be used. This is why the state is so annoyed w/MCPS. They make no effort to make up, just want the waiver.

Totally. But the McPS union won’t give in on urging the April 15 makeup day (why they didn’t say anything before it was approved as a makeup day is beyond me) and there was enough pushback saying that Muslims were being targeted because their single holiday was the only one being used.

[Anonymous]

Capitol Weather Gang has predicted an 80 pct chance of closure tomorrow for McPS and 100 pct chance of 2 hour delay.

Guess those people who put in only 1 snow day in the calendar and don’t want to use the 3 makeup days and blocked the submission of a virtual learning plan for snow emergencies are looking more and more foolish now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a teacher who already booked a vacation for the week of the 22nd. I never take days off, but I’ve put in for a sub and will leave board games and summer reading for my kids.

I wish the MCPS parents who perpetually complain could direct their vitriol at MSDE and the State Superintendent for being so unreasonable about giving waivers for extreme weather conditions.

Nah, it’s your union and MCPS that are completely inflexible. Stop blaming the state for the county’s issues.

The other county’s figured it out. MCPS put zero effort in, refused to use their 3 allocated snow make up days and just wants the state to sign a form for their incompetence.

The union is not asking teachers what they want and decides for them. Stop scapegoating teachers.

It's your union. You pay them dues. Stop pretending they're an independent body that has nothing to do with its members (you.)

If you have an issue, take it up with the BOE yourself. Teachers are busying educating our kids.

Sure -stick your ostrich head in the sand and enjoy teaching til July this year. And make sure to tell your union rep thanks!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a teacher who already booked a vacation for the week of the 22nd. I never take days off, but I’ve put in for a sub and will leave board games and summer reading for my kids.

I wish the MCPS parents who perpetually complain could direct their vitriol at MSDE and the State Superintendent for being so unreasonable about giving waivers for extreme weather conditions.

Nah, it’s your union and MCPS that are completely inflexible. Stop blaming the state for the county’s issues.

The other county’s figured it out. MCPS put zero effort in, refused to use their 3 allocated snow make up days and just wants the state to sign a form for their incompetence.

The union is not asking teachers what they want and decides for them. Stop scapegoating teachers.

It's your union. You pay them dues. Stop pretending they're an independent body that has nothing to do with its members (you.)

You sound like you have the critical thinking skills of a 4 year old. Not all teachers pay dues. Just like all democracies, they aren't completely representative of everyone. Imagine how that works. I feel so sorry for you and your kids.

Do you vote in th Union elections? If not, you can’t really complain. If you do and you got outvoted, well that’s democracy. Have you even contacted your mcea delegate to express your viewpoint? If not, you really shouldn’t be complaining about the union.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a teacher who already booked a vacation for the week of the 22nd. I never take days off, but I’ve put in for a sub and will leave board games and summer reading for my kids.

I wish the MCPS parents who perpetually complain could direct their vitriol at MSDE and the State Superintendent for being so unreasonable about giving waivers for extreme weather conditions.

Nah, it’s your union and MCPS that are completely inflexible. Stop blaming the state for the county’s issues.

The other county’s figured it out. MCPS put zero effort in, refused to use their 3 allocated snow make up days and just wants the state to sign a form for their incompetence.

The union is not asking teachers what they want and decides for them. Stop scapegoating teachers.

You might be right that a majority of teachers would prefer to teach April 15 than June 25, but if so, they should speak out to the BOE that the union is misrepresenting them. Not just for this year but in advocating for a more rational calendar going forward.

The situation is more complicated than you’re making it seem. The teachers’ union didn’t fight for *April 15th*, specifically; there’s nothing special about that date. Teachers needed more time for planning and grading, so their union fought for a paid, non instructional workday after each quarter. You’re thinking small: we need makeup days, so let’s get rid of April 15th, which isn’t anyone’s holiday. The union has to look at the bigger picture: we fought for this, so if we now say we’re happy to give it up, we’ll be ceding ground and the next time there’s pressure to find more instructional days, we could lose more paid grading and planning time, under the guise that we must not really need it. They can’t give back something they fought for and won because of the precedent it sets — even if, in this very specific circumstance, most of the teachers would rather use April 15th as a makeup day than June 25th.

They wouldn't be ceding anything they didn't already cede by having MCPS designate April 15 a make-up day on the calendar. If they weren't willing to hold school that day, it shouldn't have been identified as a make-up day.

Exactly! And it could be a 1/2 day, and you could even make the 14th a 1/2 day too. I don’t see how it’s in the best interest of teachers for the union to be inflexible on this.

It doesn’t matter what the union says about this. McPS could have used it as a day without the union permission.

McPS should have done this — 4/15, Eid, and request state permission to use Easter Monday and then waive the rest. I can’t believe no one is sponsoring a bill to remove the requirement of having Easter Monday and Good Friday off— it is so stupid that this is a state mandate. Most of the Christians I know do not support this mandate. I personally hate having spring break tied to Easter.

I also really question how many Muslim famolies actually prefer the stupid extra days at the end of the year over having school on Eid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:By using religious holidays as contingency days, they are setting themselves up for problems. They either need to use non-religious days or plan to go til end of June.

If we only use non-religious days as the contingency plan, it would require using spring break as the contingency days. I am ok with that, but lots of people are not. The bottom line is that there is no way to fit in all the days that everyone wants to have off without going earlier at the start of the year or later at the end of the year. It is time to make some hard decisions for future years.

They could start earlier in the year and add more days into the calendar. And they could use the PD days like the end-of-quarter planning days, although some of these are already contingency days and MCPS refuses to use them too.

+1. Start one week earlier in August and build in an appropriate number of snow days into the calendar, instead of just 1 so we don’t have this calendar chaos and half assed extra half days in June each year.

That is stupid. Literally just stop giving so many snow days off. That Monday off was ridiculous when all other counties in MD went to school. And if they want to keep giving weeks off for inadequate snow removal, or a day off for flurries, they need to have virtual options set up and in place. It's not that hard but MCPS is the most privileged and laziest county in Maryland

There will always be MCPS staffers who howl that someone will DIE if they go to school while there is ice on the ground and that anyone who thinks schools should be open hate their children and want them dead. Better to open a week earlier in August and build in more snow days since the risk tolerance in this district is so low.

Don’t forget the people who scream “school is not daycare” and “learn to parent your children” every time someone suggests that schools should be open 4 days after a snow storm.

Don’t forget the parents who scream “I have to wooooorrrrkkk!! My street is fiiiiine. Open just my rich kid’s school so I don’t have to be a parent!”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It was an fing state of emergency for 2 if not 3 of those days! Wtf do they expect???

yet the Mall, five guys, starbucks, Cava was packed with kids for most of those days of kids who could not get to school.

Which is poor parenting. Luckily the people in charge of making school decisions were smarter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why on earth would June 23rd be off, if we have to go until the 25th?

State primary elections and county elections. A large number of schools are used as polling stations so they could not have students

This is maybe the dumbest part of this. The polling stations are in the gym; just cancel gym classes that day. That's what happened when I was a kid, we never had off for election day.

You're ok with 100s of adult strangers entering the building all day with kids in the building? That's a first for me

Every gym has a separate entrance area and internal doors guarding the rest of the school. Like be real

It was never going it happen. “Like be real.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From now on, instead of having a non instructional day after each of the first 3 quarters, we should just have two half days instead. Teachers get time for grading and planning and we add 3 more instructional days that way. Long planned half days are less disruptive than days tacked on to the end of the year.

The teacher's union won't like that because the teachers want to sleep in and grade in their jammies at home

You sound jealous. They’re hiring. You “already have a job?” Oh well. Now you have a new one. Enjoy your pay cut!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The bill allowing hours to count instead of days has now cleared the House Ways & Means Committee with an amendment to apply the provisions to *this* school year and will go to the floor for a vote.

When? This is really messed up.

I think it happened yesterday but not sure. I just know that got a unanimous vote from ways and means so will go to the floor for a vote. So all of this talk may be a mute point for this year, but real changes need to be made for next year. They need to amend the calendar before next school year starts.

Moot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who is sending their kids from June 22-25??? But with a day off on June 23? Who comes up with these idiotic decisions??

More to the point, where are they going to get the money to pay staff to work then. And don't start with that "they got paid with the snow days" bullshit. They're going to have to be paid. For Juneteenth, too.

MCPS employee here.... If I remember correctly, we got paid for make-up days last year. And this poster is correct. They probably will have to pay for Juneteenth and election day. Taylor said in the meeting that for each additional day that schools are open, it costs 2 million TAXPAYER dollars per day (that was his quote).

That depends on the type of employee. Make up days are part of the professional staff contracts.

Hourly workers get paid the make up days (ex: para educators), but they do not get paid if they do not work that day so they can't use leave and still get paid that day since they were paid the snow day. Salary workers (Ex: teachers) do not get paid for the make up days added on to the end of the school year. And it also impacts them starting their summer jobs. Teachers will be working into a new pay period without a paycheck and not able to go to the jobs many depend on to supplement their income.

If MCPS used the make up days in the calendar, teachers are paid those days since they were already professional days! I do not understand why MCPS will not use the days they agreed to and why they even pretend they will next year. At least stop labeling them if you have no intent on using them!

Teachers have already been paid for the make-up days.

Not how it works. Sorry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's 2018-2019: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://teacherquality.nctq.org/dmsView/0285_18_2018-19_SchoolCalendar&ved=2ahUKEwjQ7LaSmeiSAxVXFlkFHR48GuQQFnoECBAQAQ&usg=AOvVaw2Bv9-dJpYrnJ4juwux-MaD

Looks like they used to have half days for end of quarter grading/planning instead of full.

They need to go back to that.

Yes, we can't have BOTH full-day grading days and take off every single religious holiday. I don't care which we get rid of, but it has to be one.

Or you start one week earlier in August like FCPS dose, and which also has a lot of religious holidays built in (and 3 snow days, unlike stupid MCPS which only puts in 1). There are a lot of options here that are preferrable to this annual chaos around MCPS snow days.

Where I grew up we had 3 snow days. If they weren't used, school ended earlier. If there were more than 3 snow days, they were added on in June. There wasn't this drama and constantly shifting calendars like MCPS does.

I hate MCPS but FCPS goes by hours so they have a lot of flexibility in their schedule. They added 30min to every day about 10 years ago and didn't have to make up a week of snow days

Going by hours makes so much sense. Why don’t we do that?

Because the rest of the country does 180 days in school and because half the kids in MCPS can't read or do math at grade level. But if we're following FCPS as an example, can we start 1 week earlier in August than MCPS currently does like they do? FCPS has several snow days built into their calendar.

Actually only a few states ACTUALLY require 180 separate calendar days. Maryland is one so is New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts. Others allow a specific amount of hours to count as equivalent of 180 days.

NJ, CT and MA have among the highest performing states in education. I would rather my kids have 180 days like their residents than this hours BS. Also, NJ, CT and MA all have snow but seem to manage doing 180 days without all the chaos of MCPS.

They have later start times for HS and stricter cell phone rules but let’s conveniently ignore everything else and fixate on number of days in school. Sitting in school for extra days half asleep or on your phone helps no one

Sure it does. It helps lazy parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Grading and planning days are essential. You can get rid of them if you want but it will be to the detriment of students. Having the day off means we can carefully go through grades and make sure there are no mistakes. It also gives us a few hours to grade stuff. Finally it gives teachers time to reflect and do some planning for future lessons. Take it away and many of us will just hastily throw something together for planning purposes. Think of some of your kids teachers who you like and who do a good job. Good teaching doesn’t just happen. It takes a lot of planning and effort. And trying new things.

In HS there are 8 periods. Teachers have classes for 5-6 periods at most. The school day is exactly 7.5hrs.

Most salary employees work 9-10hrs a day. Many catch up at night too.

I think teachers do not get paid well enough and I would argue for more half days for grading. But full days off are not productive in my opinion. You just had 4 days off. There will be a long Spring Break in late March/early April. Being against April 15th is absolutely ridiculous. Could have made it half day easily.

When the teachers and MCPS are not flexible, why should the state be?

We may be at work for 7.5, but we are actively ON for 6 of those. This is not time to sit at a desk grading 170 papers or respond to 40 emails. We’re managing 30+ teenagers simultaneously, entertaining, presenting, and putting out fires. For that other 1.5 hours, we’re often called into meetings or covering other classes. So at the end of 7.5 hours, we are emotionally and physically exhausted and we haven’t even gotten a chance to start the other half of our job: planning and grading.

So I agree with the PP above who said that grading and planning time are essential. We rarely get time during our contracted work days to do it, so it’s almost all done on our off hours. And it represents half our job.

I’m not complaining. (I feel the need to write that because teacher explanations are almost always interpreted as complaints.) I’m pointing out the importance of keeping work days. They have an immeasurable impact on morale since they help us get caught up during actual work hours, and higher morale makes better teachers.

I'm a teacher, too. You know what's bad for morale? Going a whole extra week of school knowing there's not an extra paycheck for it.

And, yes, I know, we've already been paid for our time during the snow day, but that extra time takes away from our chance at supplemental income that many of us plan for. Or takes away from a needed break before starting ESY programs.

I also hate it when I am asked to do the job I was hired to do.

God, what a whiner you are. Embarrassing for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a teacher who already booked a vacation for the week of the 22nd. I never take days off, but I’ve put in for a sub and will leave board games and summer reading for my kids.

I wish the MCPS parents who perpetually complain could direct their vitriol at MSDE and the State Superintendent for being so unreasonable about giving waivers for extreme weather conditions.

Nah, it’s your union and MCPS that are completely inflexible. Stop blaming the state for the county’s issues.

The other county’s figured it out. MCPS put zero effort in, refused to use their 3 allocated snow make up days and just wants the state to sign a form for their incompetence.

The union is not asking teachers what they want and decides for them. Stop scapegoating teachers.

You might be right that a majority of teachers would prefer to teach April 15 than June 25, but if so, they should speak out to the BOE that the union is misrepresenting them. Not just for this year but in advocating for a more rational calendar going forward.

The situation is more complicated than you’re making it seem. The teachers’ union didn’t fight for *April 15th*, specifically; there’s nothing special about that date. Teachers needed more time for planning and grading, so their union fought for a paid, non instructional workday after each quarter. You’re thinking small: we need makeup days, so let’s get rid of April 15th, which isn’t anyone’s holiday. The union has to look at the bigger picture: we fought for this, so if we now say we’re happy to give it up, we’ll be ceding ground and the next time there’s pressure to find more instructional days, we could lose more paid grading and planning time, under the guise that we must not really need it. They can’t give back something they fought for and won because of the precedent it sets — even if, in this very specific circumstance, most of the teachers would rather use April 15th as a makeup day than June 25th.

There are 3 designated back up days. That is one. The decision was already made when calendar was approved. No idea why this is even a discussion.

+1. Yes. Don’t you love that MCPS management thinks it’s more important to stick to the union agreement than to stick to the calendar makeup days it submitted to the BoE that includes april 15?

And that neither the McPS union or management seem to be considering the needs of children falling further and further behind due to lack of instruction this year. Shameful.