How DO we get the calendar changed?

[Anonymous]

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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.

I’d love to have one added for the 4th quarter! I’ve been saying this for years

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

Students 6 hours and 45 minutes.
Teachers 7.5 hours (minimum)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The county, by its own admission posted on their website, is only supposed to give five religious holidays...both eids, yom Kippur, diwali, and Christmas. Six if you count Christmas eve.

But this year they added many others that are not on their official list of holidays as defined when we first went thru this a few years back to figure out which holidays had the greatest impact on attendance. Next year, they're back to the original five.

I have no idea why they decided to add in four new religious/cultural holidays with no feedback or data only to take them away the following year. This year's calendar was a bizarre anomaly. Without any changes at all next year's calendar already has two additional five day weeks compares to this year's.

This kneejerk reaction is typical of the school board.

They created this mess and are now complaining about it. As if they can't see that the addition of the religious holidays and early releases is the reason why we get out so late and why parents are complaining about consistency.

I couldn't care less about having the religious holidays or not and I don't care about the number of five day weeks. But I just can't stand the ignorance and them acting dumbfounded as if they have no idea how this happened.

They did not add any holidays. They aligned teacher contract days with some religious observances. There were the same number of contract days as any other year, but they placed more between the first and last day of school than usual, so parents noticed them more. They usually hold 6 contract days before the first day of school and 2-3 after the last day of school. This year there were 5 before and 1 after. With the added elections, we had 11 TW/SP/SD days between the first and last day of school when last year we had 6.

The number of teacher workdays before/after the school year didn't change much this year. What did change was using time banked for snow days as additional teacher workdays, such as with the two special election days and continuation of last year's early releases in elementary. Noticeable difference for parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:this really wouldn't be anyone's problem this school year if it weren't for the extra snow days that were put into effect.

we still have about 5-6 snow days remaining that will go unused.

if parents really cared about all these days off, then make sure your kids are in school every day and don't pull them out of classes!

This is illogical. When parents pull their kids for something, its with the kids benefit in mind. School closures on random Tuesdays are not meant to benefit students, nor does FCPS even pretend they are.

[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.

This is a complete lie.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can someone explain why kids are off today like I am 5?

A religious holiday celebrated by 3 or 4 parishes in Fairfax County, Orthodox Easter

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can someone explain why kids are off today like I am 5?

A religious holiday celebrated by 3 or 4 parishes in Fairfax County, Orthodox Easter

Easter is on Sunday. This is Good Friday. There is a large Ethiopian community who celebrates Easter this Sunday. What's strange is that Orthodox Christmas is an O day, not a day off, but Good Friday is. To me it's illogical..

[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.

I'm thrilled! Having days off in the middle of the week is incredibly disruptive. Having the last day of school being in the middle of the week is stupid. This fixes both of those problems.

It’s not disruptive at all to high schoolers - it’s welcome and they can complete all their tasks. And the problem of the last day of school being in the middle of the week is still not solved, you nitwit. The school year is ending on June 16, a Wednesday, and it was previously scheduled for a Thursday. lol. DUH

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can someone explain why kids are off today like I am 5?

A religious holiday celebrated by 3 or 4 parishes in Fairfax County, Orthodox Easter

Easter is on Sunday. This is Good Friday. There is a large Ethiopian community who celebrates Easter this Sunday. What's strange is that Orthodox Christmas is an O day, not a day off, but Good Friday is. To me it's illogical..

It is still less than 1% of the population of fairfax county.

Neither day should be off or an O day. Just hive liberal make up and absences to the handful of families that celebrate.

[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.

I'm thrilled! Having days off in the middle of the week is incredibly disruptive. Having the last day of school being in the middle of the week is stupid. This fixes both of those problems.

It’s not disruptive at all to high schoolers - it’s welcome and they can complete all their tasks. And the problem of the last day of school being in the middle of the week is still not solved, you nitwit. The school year is ending on June 16, a Wednesday, and it was previously scheduled for a Thursday. lol. DUH

Then advocate for early releases for high schoolers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can someone explain why kids are off today like I am 5?

A religious holiday celebrated by 3 or 4 parishes in Fairfax County, Orthodox Easter

Easter is on Sunday. This is Good Friday. There is a large Ethiopian community who celebrates Easter this Sunday. What's strange is that Orthodox Christmas is an O day, not a day off, but Good Friday is. To me it's illogical..

It is still less than 1% of the population of fairfax county.

Neither day should be off or an O day. Just hive liberal make up and absences to the handful of families that celebrate.

I think Orthodox Christmas should be an O day, have no opinion on the Good Friday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can someone explain why kids are off today like I am 5?

A religious holiday celebrated by 3 or 4 parishes in Fairfax County, Orthodox Easter

Easter is on Sunday. This is Good Friday. There is a large Ethiopian community who celebrates Easter this Sunday. What's strange is that Orthodox Christmas is an O day, not a day off, but Good Friday is. To me it's illogical..

It is still less than 1% of the population of fairfax county.

Neither day should be off or an O day. Just hive liberal make up and absences to the handful of families that celebrate.

I think Orthodox Christmas should be an O day, have no opinion on the Good Friday.

Why?

Why should the 99.2% of other non Orthodox fcps students not be allowed to have a normal school day for a holiday that so few FCPS families celebrate?

[Anonymous]

They will probably make Veterans Day an early release day now for elementary school. Haha.

[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.

I'm thrilled! Having days off in the middle of the week is incredibly disruptive. Having the last day of school being in the middle of the week is stupid. This fixes both of those problems.

It’s not disruptive at all to high schoolers - it’s welcome and they can complete all their tasks. And the problem of the last day of school being in the middle of the week is still not solved, you nitwit. The school year is ending on June 16, a Wednesday, and it was previously scheduled for a Thursday. lol. DUH

It's so cute when the 14 year olds come out and post on DCUM!!! Go to sleep, sweetie.

[Anonymous]

So do the 8 early release days include early release Wednesdays? Or will that be a totally different thing since it only applies to elementary schools? They have been so dumb.