How DO we get the calendar changed?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lunar new year never should have been given off.

20% of FCPS celebrates it as the biggest holiday of the year.

Not a religious day and not an American holiday. Get out of here

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They are absolutely ridiculous!

No one wants surveys. Just fix the silly calendar in a manner that minimizes all these fragmented weeks!

You can’t fix the calendar without getting rid of religious/cultural holidays in an extraordinarily diverse county. Constituents of those communities should have the say on whether those days are student holidays. If Indians are good with school on Diwali, great. If Jewish folks are good with only one of Rosh/Yom and Muslims are good with only one of the Eid’s, also great. But, no, you can’t have a bunch of white/black school board members simply stating that we aren’t going to observe the non-Christian holidays anymore because parents are annoyed that they have to find child care.

Some of the holidays recognized are for populations in the low single digits, where the numbers of student and staff taking off is less than an average stomach virus running through an elementary school

The days off should be based on pre O day attendance numbers, period. Pick a set number of absences, say 5%, and only give those holidays off. Give liberal make up options to those who practice smaller religious holidays where school is in session.

Stop putting teachers workdays on the cultural and religious holidays that have miniscule numbers of absences. I can shave off a full week plus one by just being practical. For example:

The Ds have a supermajority. FCPS needs to simply request that their friends in Richmond eliminate the mandated Kings Dominion Friday, a state forced holiday 10 days into the school year. Simply call Rachna and Laura Jane and make it happen.

Day of the Dead/All Saints Day is NOT a holiday celebrated in the US to the point of needing a day off school. Yes, it is a Holy Day of Obligation for Catholics, but there are almost hourly Mass options within 15-20 minutes of every FCPS resident, including evening options. Stop masking that religious/cultural holiday with an unnecessary teacher workday.

Eliminate Bohdi Day and Theravada. There are fewer than 10,000 Buddhists in all of Fairfax County, and not every sect celebrates both holidays Adherents to this fairh in FCPS is in the very low single digits. There is zero justification to not have the other 99% of FCPS students and teachers in school that day. Be generous with the make up policy for the handful of kids at each school that are practicing Buddhists.


Eliminate Orthodox Epiphany. There are only 3 orthodox churches in all of Fairfax County. The numbers do not justify giving Orthodox holidays off. Be liberal with the make up policies.

Remove Lunar New Year as a fake teachers workday. We do not celebrate Lunar New Year in the US like they do in Asia, not even us asian families. Lunar New Year should be a regular school day with regular assignment policies, no O day and no special accommodations.

Leave Eid, Rosh Hoshona, Diwali, etc. The populations ars smaller, but more significant than the 1%-2% of the Buddhist and Orthodox holidays, and non culturally significant nature of Day of the Dead and Lunar New Year, or the pointlessness of Kings Dominion Friday.


Easy and done.


https://www.thearda.com/us-religion/census/congregational-membership?y=2020&t=0&c=51059


https://www.oca.org/parishes/state/VA

Oh, so you just don’t like Teacher Workdays

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They are absolutely ridiculous!

No one wants surveys. Just fix the silly calendar in a manner that minimizes all these fragmented weeks!

You can’t fix the calendar without getting rid of religious/cultural holidays in an extraordinarily diverse county. Constituents of those communities should have the say on whether those days are student holidays. If Indians are good with school on Diwali, great. If Jewish folks are good with only one of Rosh/Yom and Muslims are good with only one of the Eid’s, also great. But, no, you can’t have a bunch of white/black school board members simply stating that we aren’t going to observe the non-Christian holidays anymore because parents are annoyed that they have to find child care.

Some of the holidays recognized are for populations in the low single digits, where the numbers of student and staff taking off is less than an average stomach virus running through an elementary school

The days off should be based on pre O day attendance numbers, period. Pick a set number of absences, say 5%, and only give those holidays off. Give liberal make up options to those who practice smaller religious holidays where school is in session.

Stop putting teachers workdays on the cultural and religious holidays that have miniscule numbers of absences. I can shave off a full week plus one by just being practical. For example:

The Ds have a supermajority. FCPS needs to simply request that their friends in Richmond eliminate the mandated Kings Dominion Friday, a state forced holiday 10 days into the school year. Simply call Rachna and Laura Jane and make it happen.

Day of the Dead/All Saints Day is NOT a holiday celebrated in the US to the point of needing a day off school. Yes, it is a Holy Day of Obligation for Catholics, but there are almost hourly Mass options within 15-20 minutes of every FCPS resident, including evening options. Stop masking that religious/cultural holiday with an unnecessary teacher workday.

Eliminate Bohdi Day and Theravada. There are fewer than 10,000 Buddhists in all of Fairfax County, and not every sect celebrates both holidays Adherents to this fairh in FCPS is in the very low single digits. There is zero justification to not have the other 99% of FCPS students and teachers in school that day. Be generous with the make up policy for the handful of kids at each school that are practicing Buddhists.


Eliminate Orthodox Epiphany. There are only 3 orthodox churches in all of Fairfax County. The numbers do not justify giving Orthodox holidays off. Be liberal with the make up policies.

Remove Lunar New Year as a fake teachers workday. We do not celebrate Lunar New Year in the US like they do in Asia, not even us asian families. Lunar New Year should be a regular school day with regular assignment policies, no O day and no special accommodations.

Leave Eid, Rosh Hoshona, Diwali, etc. The populations ars smaller, but more significant than the 1%-2% of the Buddhist and Orthodox holidays, and non culturally significant nature of Day of the Dead and Lunar New Year, or the pointlessness of Kings Dominion Friday.


Easy and done.


https://www.thearda.com/us-religion/census/congregational-membership?y=2020&t=0&c=51059


https://www.oca.org/parishes/state/VA

Oh, so you just don’t like Teacher Workdays

+1 teacher workdays aren’t going away and they will often be coupled with some of the lesser religious holidays to make everyone happy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They are absolutely ridiculous!

No one wants surveys. Just fix the silly calendar in a manner that minimizes all these fragmented weeks!

You can’t fix the calendar without getting rid of religious/cultural holidays in an extraordinarily diverse county. Constituents of those communities should have the say on whether those days are student holidays. If Indians are good with school on Diwali, great. If Jewish folks are good with only one of Rosh/Yom and Muslims are good with only one of the Eid’s, also great. But, no, you can’t have a bunch of white/black school board members simply stating that we aren’t going to observe the non-Christian holidays anymore because parents are annoyed that they have to find child care.

Some of the holidays recognized are for populations in the low single digits, where the numbers of student and staff taking off is less than an average stomach virus running through an elementary school

The days off should be based on pre O day attendance numbers, period. Pick a set number of absences, say 5%, and only give those holidays off. Give liberal make up options to those who practice smaller religious holidays where school is in session.

Stop putting teachers workdays on the cultural and religious holidays that have miniscule numbers of absences. I can shave off a full week plus one by just being practical. For example:

The Ds have a supermajority. FCPS needs to simply request that their friends in Richmond eliminate the mandated Kings Dominion Friday, a state forced holiday 10 days into the school year. Simply call Rachna and Laura Jane and make it happen.

Day of the Dead/All Saints Day is NOT a holiday celebrated in the US to the point of needing a day off school. Yes, it is a Holy Day of Obligation for Catholics, but there are almost hourly Mass options within 15-20 minutes of every FCPS resident, including evening options. Stop masking that religious/cultural holiday with an unnecessary teacher workday.

Eliminate Bohdi Day and Theravada. There are fewer than 10,000 Buddhists in all of Fairfax County, and not every sect celebrates both holidays Adherents to this fairh in FCPS is in the very low single digits. There is zero justification to not have the other 99% of FCPS students and teachers in school that day. Be generous with the make up policy for the handful of kids at each school that are practicing Buddhists.


Eliminate Orthodox Epiphany. There are only 3 orthodox churches in all of Fairfax County. The numbers do not justify giving Orthodox holidays off. Be liberal with the make up policies.

Remove Lunar New Year as a fake teachers workday. We do not celebrate Lunar New Year in the US like they do in Asia, not even us asian families. Lunar New Year should be a regular school day with regular assignment policies, no O day and no special accommodations.

Leave Eid, Rosh Hoshona, Diwali, etc. The populations ars smaller, but more significant than the 1%-2% of the Buddhist and Orthodox holidays, and non culturally significant nature of Day of the Dead and Lunar New Year, or the pointlessness of Kings Dominion Friday.


Easy and done.


https://www.thearda.com/us-religion/census/congregational-membership?y=2020&t=0&c=51059


https://www.oca.org/parishes/state/VA

Easy and done, except:

-You need stare legislation to remove King Dominion Friday, so that’s not for next year.
-All Saints Day is sandwiched between the end of quarter and Election Day and that day along with Indigenous People day is often used for parent teacher conferences.
-Lunar New Year is on a weekend next year and the following year it will be an instructional day.
-Next year there is school on Bodhi day.

At best you can get back Theravada New Year which is aligned with the end of the third quarter.

And lastly, put all elementary half day early releases on Fridays only. Make things easier for working families.

Nope. That will encourage less attendance all around. Also teachers are exhausted Fridays and don’t want Friday afternoon to plan. They want an earlier day in the week for maximum effect.

Early release Wednesdays have no bearing whatsoever on working families as childcare was provided. Duh.

The biggest issue with 3 hour early release Wednesdays was that it was often scheduled on weeks where there was already a day off (usually a Tuesday) or took place in the same week as another early release. We are in the first grouping of elementary schools. It happened to us in September after the special election, in October before the end of the quarter, in November after Veterans Day, and in February after Presidents Day. It created incredibly stilted weeks and the teachers seemed pretty frustrated with it as well. There needs to be more oversight on when these dates are placed to best serve everyone involved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They are absolutely ridiculous!

No one wants surveys. Just fix the silly calendar in a manner that minimizes all these fragmented weeks!

You can’t fix the calendar without getting rid of religious/cultural holidays in an extraordinarily diverse county. Constituents of those communities should have the say on whether those days are student holidays. If Indians are good with school on Diwali, great. If Jewish folks are good with only one of Rosh/Yom and Muslims are good with only one of the Eid’s, also great. But, no, you can’t have a bunch of white/black school board members simply stating that we aren’t going to observe the non-Christian holidays anymore because parents are annoyed that they have to find child care.

Some of the holidays recognized are for populations in the low single digits, where the numbers of student and staff taking off is less than an average stomach virus running through an elementary school

The days off should be based on pre O day attendance numbers, period. Pick a set number of absences, say 5%, and only give those holidays off. Give liberal make up options to those who practice smaller religious holidays where school is in session.

Stop putting teachers workdays on the cultural and religious holidays that have miniscule numbers of absences. I can shave off a full week plus one by just being practical. For example:

The Ds have a supermajority. FCPS needs to simply request that their friends in Richmond eliminate the mandated Kings Dominion Friday, a state forced holiday 10 days into the school year. Simply call Rachna and Laura Jane and make it happen.

Day of the Dead/All Saints Day is NOT a holiday celebrated in the US to the point of needing a day off school. Yes, it is a Holy Day of Obligation for Catholics, but there are almost hourly Mass options within 15-20 minutes of every FCPS resident, including evening options. Stop masking that religious/cultural holiday with an unnecessary teacher workday.

Eliminate Bohdi Day and Theravada. There are fewer than 10,000 Buddhists in all of Fairfax County, and not every sect celebrates both holidays Adherents to this fairh in FCPS is in the very low single digits. There is zero justification to not have the other 99% of FCPS students and teachers in school that day. Be generous with the make up policy for the handful of kids at each school that are practicing Buddhists.


Eliminate Orthodox Epiphany. There are only 3 orthodox churches in all of Fairfax County. The numbers do not justify giving Orthodox holidays off. Be liberal with the make up policies.

Remove Lunar New Year as a fake teachers workday. We do not celebrate Lunar New Year in the US like they do in Asia, not even us asian families. Lunar New Year should be a regular school day with regular assignment policies, no O day and no special accommodations.

Leave Eid, Rosh Hoshona, Diwali, etc. The populations ars smaller, but more significant than the 1%-2% of the Buddhist and Orthodox holidays, and non culturally significant nature of Day of the Dead and Lunar New Year, or the pointlessness of Kings Dominion Friday.


Easy and done.


https://www.thearda.com/us-religion/census/congregational-membership?y=2020&t=0&c=51059


https://www.oca.org/parishes/state/VA

Easy and done, except:

-You need stare legislation to remove King Dominion Friday, so that’s not for next year.
-All Saints Day is sandwiched between the end of quarter and Election Day and that day along with Indigenous People day is often used for parent teacher conferences.
-Lunar New Year is on a weekend next year and the following year it will be an instructional day.
-Next year there is school on Bodhi day.

At best you can get back Theravada New Year which is aligned with the end of the third quarter.

And lastly, put all elementary half day early releases on Fridays only. Make things easier for working families.

Nope. That will encourage less attendance all around. Also teachers are exhausted Fridays and don’t want Friday afternoon to plan. They want an earlier day in the week for maximum effect.

Early release Wednesdays have no bearing whatsoever on working families as childcare was provided. Duh.

The amount of teacher workdays and planning days are ridiculous. The elementary half days are even worse. FCPS has more calendar days off than any other large school system in the country. This one of the reasons private school attendance has doubled in FCPS. Duh

[Anonymous]

So now they took away Veterans Day and moved up the end of the year by one day. Wow. Big whoop.

I would prefer the day off in the middle of the week on November for the kids rather than one extra day in summer in June. This sucks.

Thanks elementary school parents. Hopefully karma will get you when your kids are in HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did anyone make it through last night’s school board meeting? I was only able to catch bits and pieces. I think it ended up with:

- Indigenous People Day will remain a TW day
- Reid is limited to 8 early releases for elementary school, including the standard and of quarter releases.
- Veterans Day will become an instructional day
- They’ll send out surveys for the 27-28 and 28-29 calendars. Drafts of those calendars will be released in July (although there’s already a 27-28 calendar floating around.)

The early release thing is still going to be problematic. Reid will probably get rid of end of quarter early releases for elementary students to support her 3 hour early release days.

Elementary teachers have been screwed re planning time

And elementary school students, who outnumber the teachers about 30 to 1, have been prioritized RE: instructional time. Since I believe schools should serve students and not teachers I’m OK with this trade-off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So now they took away Veterans Day and moved up the end of the year by one day. Wow. Big whoop.

I would prefer the day off in the middle of the week on November for the kids rather than one extra day in summer in June. This sucks.

Thanks elementary school parents. Hopefully karma will get you when your kids are in HS.

Thats all? What the heck? What happened to the early releases? For goodness sake.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They are absolutely ridiculous!

No one wants surveys. Just fix the silly calendar in a manner that minimizes all these fragmented weeks!

You can’t fix the calendar without getting rid of religious/cultural holidays in an extraordinarily diverse county. Constituents of those communities should have the say on whether those days are student holidays. If Indians are good with school on Diwali, great. If Jewish folks are good with only one of Rosh/Yom and Muslims are good with only one of the Eid’s, also great. But, no, you can’t have a bunch of white/black school board members simply stating that we aren’t going to observe the non-Christian holidays anymore because parents are annoyed that they have to find child care.

Some of the holidays recognized are for populations in the low single digits, where the numbers of student and staff taking off is less than an average stomach virus running through an elementary school

The days off should be based on pre O day attendance numbers, period. Pick a set number of absences, say 5%, and only give those holidays off. Give liberal make up options to those who practice smaller religious holidays where school is in session.

Stop putting teachers workdays on the cultural and religious holidays that have miniscule numbers of absences. I can shave off a full week plus one by just being practical. For example:

The Ds have a supermajority. FCPS needs to simply request that their friends in Richmond eliminate the mandated Kings Dominion Friday, a state forced holiday 10 days into the school year. Simply call Rachna and Laura Jane and make it happen.

Day of the Dead/All Saints Day is NOT a holiday celebrated in the US to the point of needing a day off school. Yes, it is a Holy Day of Obligation for Catholics, but there are almost hourly Mass options within 15-20 minutes of every FCPS resident, including evening options. Stop masking that religious/cultural holiday with an unnecessary teacher workday.

Eliminate Bohdi Day and Theravada. There are fewer than 10,000 Buddhists in all of Fairfax County, and not every sect celebrates both holidays Adherents to this fairh in FCPS is in the very low single digits. There is zero justification to not have the other 99% of FCPS students and teachers in school that day. Be generous with the make up policy for the handful of kids at each school that are practicing Buddhists.


Eliminate Orthodox Epiphany. There are only 3 orthodox churches in all of Fairfax County. The numbers do not justify giving Orthodox holidays off. Be liberal with the make up policies.

Remove Lunar New Year as a fake teachers workday. We do not celebrate Lunar New Year in the US like they do in Asia, not even us asian families. Lunar New Year should be a regular school day with regular assignment policies, no O day and no special accommodations.

Leave Eid, Rosh Hoshona, Diwali, etc. The populations ars smaller, but more significant than the 1%-2% of the Buddhist and Orthodox holidays, and non culturally significant nature of Day of the Dead and Lunar New Year, or the pointlessness of Kings Dominion Friday.


Easy and done.


https://www.thearda.com/us-religion/census/congregational-membership?y=2020&t=0&c=51059


https://www.oca.org/parishes/state/VA

Easy and done, except:

-You need stare legislation to remove King Dominion Friday, so that’s not for next year.
-All Saints Day is sandwiched between the end of quarter and Election Day and that day along with Indigenous People day is often used for parent teacher conferences.
-Lunar New Year is on a weekend next year and the following year it will be an instructional day.
-Next year there is school on Bodhi day.

At best you can get back Theravada New Year which is aligned with the end of the third quarter.

And lastly, put all elementary half day early releases on Fridays only. Make things easier for working families.

Nope. That will encourage less attendance all around. Also teachers are exhausted Fridays and don’t want Friday afternoon to plan. They want an earlier day in the week for maximum effect.

Early release Wednesdays have no bearing whatsoever on working families as childcare was provided. Duh.

The amount of teacher workdays and planning days are ridiculous. The elementary half days are even worse. FCPS has more calendar days off than any other large school system in the country. This one of the reasons private school attendance has doubled in FCPS. Duh

+1 there should be federal holidays, 1 teacher work day at the end of each quarter for grades, 2 staff development days per year not necessarily tied to the quarter end - minor federal holidays or Election Day can be used for these - and winter and spring breaks. And that’s it. No one was clamoring for school on Veterans Day. We need to end the mid week religious observances and the 2/3 hour early release days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did anyone make it through last night’s school board meeting? I was only able to catch bits and pieces. I think it ended up with:

- Indigenous People Day will remain a TW day
- Reid is limited to 8 early releases for elementary school, including the standard and of quarter releases.
- Veterans Day will become an instructional day
- They’ll send out surveys for the 27-28 and 28-29 calendars. Drafts of those calendars will be released in July (although there’s already a 27-28 calendar floating around.)

The early release thing is still going to be problematic. Reid will probably get rid of end of quarter early releases for elementary students to support her 3 hour early release days.

I didn't watch it - but I was HOPEFUL more would be done. This is such a nothing burger and doesn't solve any problems. These early releases are the WORST! WE went decades without them and were a better school system? Can they can not see this? Most school systems don't have this.

Nine week summers suck! There isn't time for kids to get part-time jobs, or visit colleges and do ANYTHING else. I am so annoyed by this board and I try vote them out every year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So now they took away Veterans Day and moved up the end of the year by one day. Wow. Big whoop.

I would prefer the day off in the middle of the week on November for the kids rather than one extra day in summer in June. This sucks.

Thanks elementary school parents. Hopefully karma will get you when your kids are in HS.

Thats all? What the heck? What happened to the early releases? For goodness sake.

That’s not all, but the high school students aren’t as impacted by the other change which is to limit early release to eight days per year.

[Anonymous]

I thought teachers worked 8 hour days and students were in school 7 hours a day. Meaning teachers had that time for planning. Obviously I'm sure it's not a full hour but I thought that was what it was for? Can someone tell me if this is accurate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So now they took away Veterans Day and moved up the end of the year by one day. Wow. Big whoop.

I would prefer the day off in the middle of the week on November for the kids rather than one extra day in summer in June. This sucks.

Thanks elementary school parents. Hopefully karma will get you when your kids are in HS.

Thats all? What the heck? What happened to the early releases? For goodness sake.

That’s not all, but the high school students aren’t as impacted by the other change which is to limit early release to eight days per year.

I count 10 early release days this year either 2 or 3 hour, not counting the one that they cancelled this month or the last day of school. So it’s not a huge change. They might just do away with the 2 hour early releases at the end of the quarters and call it a day and keep the 3 hour days, which are much more disruptive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is the solution to add ONE day. Why is the solution not to reconstruct the calendar. Compare the number of school planning, teacher workdays and staff development days and elem early releases with other districts. Why can they seem plan and grade and teach students with out so many of these days? We are an outlier and every excuse is made for why we don’t have kids in school consistently with reasonably placed off teacher work days and consistent number of summer weeks. Other districts do it.

Apparently next year’s calendar is already out there so they don’t want to do major changes that would affect people who made plans based on that calendar. But they’re planning to do broader changes for subsequent years.

The 27-28 calendar is already out too. It was a big accomplishment at the time, announcing the calendars three years in advance.

I get this and respect it. But we can see now that the calendar's don't work so we should fix them. It is not too late. We should fix things that are broken and this calendar is broken.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lunar new year never should have been given off.

The woke School Board needed an Asian holiday.

Most Asian parents want their kids in school. Ridiculous.