Anonymous wrote:There’s a lot of good stuff in the 2022 calendar that we should be bringing back. Using two federal holidays as SP days. Almost all TW days on Fridays.
Are you referencing 2021-2022 or 2022-2023?
Either way, neither calendar has more than half of the TW on Fridays once school began in August. Also, neither had two SP days on Federal holidays.
The 2021-2022 calendar had no SP days on federal holidays and the 2022-2023 calendar had one, a SP day on Veterans Day.
Anonymous wrote:As a HS teacher whose planning got cut by more than half this year thanks to IPR hall duty and additional required CTs and department meetings, those random days off are the only reason I’m staying afloat this year. I use every holiday and snow day to plan/grade.
If they disappear, they have to take something else off my plate. I can’t do it all with less time.
Everyone of those snow days and random days off is a tax of hundreds of thousands of dollars on the FCPS parent body. You are not presenting a good value proposition for keeping them.
You keep repeating this as if it’s the schools’ problem.
It 👏 is 👏 not. 👏
It is, however, the school board’s problem. They’re the ones who are meant to be responding to the concerns of their constituents.
ThEiR cOnStItUeNtS
You can keep regurgitating this over and over again, but the vocal minority arguing for it doesn't make things happen. FCPS cares about THEIR money, graduation rates, and test scores.
THEY. DO. NOT. CARE. that your PRIVATE childcare costs are causing you a burden. You emailed, they responded and told you what you wanted to hear as they politically have to to keep earning your vote.
The School Board has heard from many families regarding the lack of full, five-day school weeks this year and the significant burden this places on families who must navigate complex and often costly childcare arrangements. In the 2025-26 school year alone, partial weeks occurred more than half the time, functioning as an informal “childcare tax” that falls hardest on our hourly-wage and most vulnerable households.
Sounds like some of them care.
"Many families" could literally be 5 or it could be 5 million. You, as long as everyone else, has no idea.
I mean there are about 200 by-name responses to her Facebook post, but sure, it’s five. She was motivated by five people to take this up. That’s very rational.
HAHAHAHA this is all from a Facebook post?! With 200 comments?!
There's 183,000 students in FCPS. Let's lowball and say 100,000 families. 200 of them take the time out of their life to complain on social media. That's less than a half of a half of a percent.
Talk about a vocal minority.
You’re confused if you think I thought that was a meaningful number, I’m saying the idea that the school board is reacting to “five people” is silly.
The idea that the schoolboard has your best financial interest in mind or that they're even remotely responsible for the cost of child outside of school is silly.
Then why is it a school board member is pushing for lower childcare cost outside of school?
Affordability is a hot topic in the democratic party. The school board member is democratic. The school board member needs your votes.
If a bunch of people emailed and complained that FCPS new website color should be hot pink you can bet that one of the school board members would champion that cause. Why? Because it earns them votes.
Anonymous wrote:There’s a lot of good stuff in the 2022 calendar that we should be bringing back. Using two federal holidays as SP days. Almost all TW days on Fridays.
Are you referencing 2021-2022 or 2022-2023?
Either way, neither calendar has more than half of the TW on Fridays once school began in August. Also, neither had two SP days on Federal holidays.
The 2021-2022 calendar had no SP days on federal holidays and the 2022-2023 calendar had one, a SP day on Veterans Day.
2022-2023– October 10, 2022 was a federal holiday even if not one VA recognizes. Nov 11 2022 also a federal holiday.
5 school year TW days on either Monday or Friday, lowest commuting days in the region.
Yeah there’s still some midweek foolishness, but nothing like we have now. It’s a good place to start.
Anonymous wrote:As a HS teacher whose planning got cut by more than half this year thanks to IPR hall duty and additional required CTs and department meetings, those random days off are the only reason I’m staying afloat this year. I use every holiday and snow day to plan/grade.
If they disappear, they have to take something else off my plate. I can’t do it all with less time.
Everyone of those snow days and random days off is a tax of hundreds of thousands of dollars on the FCPS parent body. You are not presenting a good value proposition for keeping them.
You keep repeating this as if it’s the schools’ problem.
It 👏 is 👏 not. 👏
It is, however, the school board’s problem. They’re the ones who are meant to be responding to the concerns of their constituents.
ThEiR cOnStItUeNtS
You can keep regurgitating this over and over again, but the vocal minority arguing for it doesn't make things happen. FCPS cares about THEIR money, graduation rates, and test scores.
THEY. DO. NOT. CARE. that your PRIVATE childcare costs are causing you a burden. You emailed, they responded and told you what you wanted to hear as they politically have to to keep earning your vote.
The School Board has heard from many families regarding the lack of full, five-day school weeks this year and the significant burden this places on families who must navigate complex and often costly childcare arrangements. In the 2025-26 school year alone, partial weeks occurred more than half the time, functioning as an informal “childcare tax” that falls hardest on our hourly-wage and most vulnerable households.
Sounds like some of them care.
"Many families" could literally be 5 or it could be 5 million. You, as long as everyone else, has no idea.
I mean there are about 200 by-name responses to her Facebook post, but sure, it’s five. She was motivated by five people to take this up. That’s very rational.
HAHAHAHA this is all from a Facebook post?! With 200 comments?!
There's 183,000 students in FCPS. Let's lowball and say 100,000 families. 200 of them take the time out of their life to complain on social media. That's less than a half of a half of a percent.
Talk about a vocal minority.
You’re confused if you think I thought that was a meaningful number, I’m saying the idea that the school board is reacting to “five people” is silly.
The idea that the schoolboard has your best financial interest in mind or that they're even remotely responsible for the cost of child outside of school is silly.
Then why is it a school board member is pushing for lower childcare cost outside of school?
Affordability is a hot topic in the democratic party. The school board member is democratic. The school board member needs your votes.
If a bunch of people emailed and complained that FCPS new website color should be hot pink you can bet that one of the school board members would champion that cause. Why? Because it earns them votes.
Then let them make some easy changes and earn some votes.
Anonymous wrote:Sorry, love the non-5 day weeks. They are great. Summer is such a pain to plan, and we (and most of our friends) much prefer a day here and there, rather than additional weeks in the summer.
I agree! We love the 4 day weeks! It really helps with the sleep for middle and high schoolers.
Time to be a parent. The entire school system doesn't operate around the needs of your special child.
Right back at ya with the endless whining about days off at times you don’t like and early dismissals.
Good to know that you're against effective education.
Reference the data that shows that this is ineffective education. There's just as many that show that shorter weeks are highly effective.
Teaching kids to adapt to a varying schedule, what a horrible thing for them to learn.
Let's see, we probably have 50 -100 years of data that shows consistent 5 day schooling is effective and efficient.
I'm sure you have some evidence handy for random 3 day a week schooling, let's see it. Prove it.
I for one am far more interested in seeing your data from the 1920s and 1930s than their data for 3 day weeks.
Anonymous wrote:There’s a lot of good stuff in the 2022 calendar that we should be bringing back. Using two federal holidays as SP days. Almost all TW days on Fridays.
Are you referencing 2021-2022 or 2022-2023?
Either way, neither calendar has more than half of the TW on Fridays once school began in August. Also, neither had two SP days on Federal holidays.
The 2021-2022 calendar had no SP days on federal holidays and the 2022-2023 calendar had one, a SP day on Veterans Day.
2022-2023– October 10, 2022 was a federal holiday even if not one VA recognizes. Nov 11 2022 also a federal holiday.
5 school year TW days on either Monday or Friday, lowest commuting days in the region.
Yeah there’s still some midweek foolishness, but nothing like we have now. It’s a good place to start.
Ah, well FCPS is in Virginia and Virginia recognizes Indigenous People's Day, so no it was not a federal holiday.
Also, your post said "Fridays". Way to move the goalposts to Fridays AND Mondays once you were fact checked.
Anonymous wrote:As a HS teacher whose planning got cut by more than half this year thanks to IPR hall duty and additional required CTs and department meetings, those random days off are the only reason I’m staying afloat this year. I use every holiday and snow day to plan/grade.
If they disappear, they have to take something else off my plate. I can’t do it all with less time.
Everyone of those snow days and random days off is a tax of hundreds of thousands of dollars on the FCPS parent body. You are not presenting a good value proposition for keeping them.
You keep repeating this as if it’s the schools’ problem.
It 👏 is 👏 not. 👏
It is, however, the school board’s problem. They’re the ones who are meant to be responding to the concerns of their constituents.
ThEiR cOnStItUeNtS
You can keep regurgitating this over and over again, but the vocal minority arguing for it doesn't make things happen. FCPS cares about THEIR money, graduation rates, and test scores.
THEY. DO. NOT. CARE. that your PRIVATE childcare costs are causing you a burden. You emailed, they responded and told you what you wanted to hear as they politically have to to keep earning your vote.
The School Board has heard from many families regarding the lack of full, five-day school weeks this year and the significant burden this places on families who must navigate complex and often costly childcare arrangements. In the 2025-26 school year alone, partial weeks occurred more than half the time, functioning as an informal “childcare tax” that falls hardest on our hourly-wage and most vulnerable households.
Sounds like some of them care.
"Many families" could literally be 5 or it could be 5 million. You, as long as everyone else, has no idea.
I mean there are about 200 by-name responses to her Facebook post, but sure, it’s five. She was motivated by five people to take this up. That’s very rational.
HAHAHAHA this is all from a Facebook post?! With 200 comments?!
There's 183,000 students in FCPS. Let's lowball and say 100,000 families. 200 of them take the time out of their life to complain on social media. That's less than a half of a half of a percent.
Talk about a vocal minority.
You’re confused if you think I thought that was a meaningful number, I’m saying the idea that the school board is reacting to “five people” is silly.
The idea that the schoolboard has your best financial interest in mind or that they're even remotely responsible for the cost of child outside of school is silly.
Then why is it a school board member is pushing for lower childcare cost outside of school?
Affordability is a hot topic in the democratic party. The school board member is democratic. The school board member needs your votes.
If a bunch of people emailed and complained that FCPS new website color should be hot pink you can bet that one of the school board members would champion that cause. Why? Because it earns them votes.
Then let them make some easy changes and earn some votes.
Are you completely new to politics? They don't actually have to change anything. They just have to run on the idea that they will.
Anonymous wrote:Sorry, love the non-5 day weeks. They are great. Summer is such a pain to plan, and we (and most of our friends) much prefer a day here and there, rather than additional weeks in the summer.
I agree! We love the 4 day weeks! It really helps with the sleep for middle and high schoolers.
Time to be a parent. The entire school system doesn't operate around the needs of your special child.
Right back at ya with the endless whining about days off at times you don’t like and early dismissals.
Good to know that you're against effective education.
Reference the data that shows that this is ineffective education. There's just as many that show that shorter weeks are highly effective.
Teaching kids to adapt to a varying schedule, what a horrible thing for them to learn.
Let's see, we probably have 50 -100 years of data that shows consistent 5 day schooling is effective and efficient.
I'm sure you have some evidence handy for random 3 day a week schooling, let's see it. Prove it.
I for one am far more interested in seeing your data from the 1920s and 1930s than their data for 3 day weeks.
Have you ever used Google? You might want to try it.
Anonymous wrote:There’s a lot of good stuff in the 2022 calendar that we should be bringing back. Using two federal holidays as SP days. Almost all TW days on Fridays.
Are you referencing 2021-2022 or 2022-2023?
Either way, neither calendar has more than half of the TW on Fridays once school began in August. Also, neither had two SP days on Federal holidays.
The 2021-2022 calendar had no SP days on federal holidays and the 2022-2023 calendar had one, a SP day on Veterans Day.
2022-2023– October 10, 2022 was a federal holiday even if not one VA recognizes. Nov 11 2022 also a federal holiday.
5 school year TW days on either Monday or Friday, lowest commuting days in the region.
Yeah there’s still some midweek foolishness, but nothing like we have now. It’s a good place to start.
Ah, well FCPS is in Virginia and Virginia recognizes Indigenous People's Day, so no it was not a federal holiday.
Also, your post said "Fridays". Way to move the goalposts to Fridays AND Mondays once you were fact checked.
Virginia can decide what federal holidays it honors, it cannot decide what federal holidays exist. October 10, 2022 was a federal holiday no matter how hard you stomp your feet.
I think we have a lot to learn from the 2022 calendar.
A good choice consistant with historical would be to move the November 3 2026 SD day to Nov 11 and then make the TW day virtual and put it on Nov 25. Free five-day week.
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?
Bingo. Bravo. You’ve hit the nail on the head. That is the only reason they keep demanding 5 day weeks.
+1000, this board says the kids (per pediatricians) need “consistency”. Those findings aren’t referring to school as 5 days a week, those studies are referring to home life.
Ding ding ding. Someone else gets it. Your kid going to school one day a week, every week, is also consistency lol but no one is arguing for that. No one has made a single, legitimate, justification for why school must be a 5 day week every week. Just complaints that they as parents have to go to their job 5 days a week and it costs more for their kid to be in daycare (which again, is their financial responsibility. No one else's).
As a parent who hates this calendar, I will call your bluff. I would love to see a plan for 4-day week that created a day for homework or reading, or some time outside not on devices. I think you could even make a case for 3 days given how much bloat there is in the FCPS day. Great - let's try it! Make it the same 1-2 days every week and get rid of all the other random days off.
I went to FCPS in the days where ALL Mondays were half-days in ES for planning time. And that was fine because it was ALL of them - parents were able to set up long-term changes to their hours/schedule or find care because it was consistent. Club and activities planned meetings for Monday afternoons at the school. The haphazard nature of the schedule makes those types of community, common sense solutions impossible.
Anonymous wrote:A good choice consistant with historical would be to move the November 3 2026 SD day to Nov 11 and then make the TW day virtual and put it on Nov 25. Free five-day week.
November 3 is Election Day. The first quarter is timed so that Election Day falls within the standard post quarter work days.
Anonymous wrote:Sorry, love the non-5 day weeks. They are great. Summer is such a pain to plan, and we (and most of our friends) much prefer a day here and there, rather than additional weeks in the summer.
I agree! We love the 4 day weeks! It really helps with the sleep for middle and high schoolers.
Time to be a parent. The entire school system doesn't operate around the needs of your special child.
Right back at ya with the endless whining about days off at times you don’t like and early dismissals.
Good to know that you're against effective education.
Reference the data that shows that this is ineffective education. There's just as many that show that shorter weeks are highly effective.
Teaching kids to adapt to a varying schedule, what a horrible thing for them to learn.
Let's see, we probably have 50 -100 years of data that shows consistent 5 day schooling is effective and efficient.
I'm sure you have some evidence handy for random 3 day a week schooling, let's see it. Prove it.
I for one am far more interested in seeing your data from the 1920s and 1930s than their data for 3 day weeks.
Also the farming community who has always had inconsistent schooling for decades.
Anonymous wrote:A good choice consistant with historical would be to move the November 3 2026 SD day to Nov 11 and then make the TW day virtual and put it on Nov 25. Free five-day week.
November 3 is Election Day. The first quarter is timed so that Election Day falls within the standard post quarter work days.
But it isn’t required to have two days. The SP can still easily be placed on the 11th.
Anonymous wrote:There’s a lot of good stuff in the 2022 calendar that we should be bringing back. Using two federal holidays as SP days. Almost all TW days on Fridays.
Are you referencing 2021-2022 or 2022-2023?
Either way, neither calendar has more than half of the TW on Fridays once school began in August. Also, neither had two SP days on Federal holidays.
The 2021-2022 calendar had no SP days on federal holidays and the 2022-2023 calendar had one, a SP day on Veterans Day.
2022-2023– October 10, 2022 was a federal holiday even if not one VA recognizes. Nov 11 2022 also a federal holiday.
5 school year TW days on either Monday or Friday, lowest commuting days in the region.
Yeah there’s still some midweek foolishness, but nothing like we have now. It’s a good place to start.
Ah, well FCPS is in Virginia and Virginia recognizes Indigenous People's Day, so no it was not a federal holiday.
Also, your post said "Fridays". Way to move the goalposts to Fridays AND Mondays once you were fact checked.
Virginia can decide what federal holidays it honors, it cannot decide what federal holidays exist. October 10, 2022 was a federal holiday no matter how hard you stomp your feet.
I think we have a lot to learn from the 2022 calendar.
True, but FCPS's calendar (what we're discussing) is based off of the holidays Virginia recognizes no matter how much you hate progressive change, boomer.
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