2026-2027 calendar updates

[Anonymous]

Our family plan is to book summer vacation between 8/15 to 8/24. I have not booked yet, but my kids ate looking fowards to it. Can I book them now or not?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I've worked in the system for over twenty years at the elementary level and here are my thoughts...

1) Nobody likes transition day except for Dr. Taylor. It's a waste of time and screws over the K, 6th, and 9th grade teachers.

2) I would be okay with having half-days for grading and reporting in MP 1 and 3. I do think our secondary counterparts need the full day at the end of MP 2 to prepare for their second semester classes.

3) SPED teachers need more IEP writing days given to them but that doesn't impact whether school is open or closed. There's already not enough time to handle the paperwork on our quarterly grading days.

4) When I did my admin program we were told we closed for Christian and Jewish holidays in order to be able to function as a school system. If we remained open, there wouldn't be enough staff to operate the building. While I appreciate the diversity in our county, I don't know what percentage of staff and students celebrate some of the recent holiday additions to our calendar. Perhaps allow everyone excused absences or leave that day.

I agree with this. They do not know if they need to close for operational reasons. Being open for religious holidays next year would let them collect data to determine whether there is an operational need to close moving forward -- another benefit of doing it.

DP. True, but aren't they only considering marking the religious holidays as potential makeup days, not as school days from the outset?

I don't think so. They would do this instead of starting school early, so those are days they would actually be open.

No, on the survey they sent out Thursday, the option is written as "Identifying days of religious observance as inclement weather makeup days."

Well, that's not what they say in the presentation. These are the three options:

Given the scheduled non-instructional days, three options or combinations of options are possible to meet new requirements to add capacity to address inclement weather closures:

1. Open school on non-instructional days that also are religious observances; allow excused absences and minimize instructional conflicts.

2. Reduce the length of Winter Break and/or Spring Break.

3. Start the school year earlier in August.

https://go.boarddocs.com/mabe/mcpsmd/Board.nsf/files/DT7SZF751736/$file/Proposed%20Amendments%202026-2027%20SY%20Calendar%20PPT%20260416.pdf

The superintendent is recommending the worst of the three options.

They mean that in the event of inclement weather closures requiring makeup days, they could open school on non-instructional days that are also religious observances.

That's not how I read it. The point is not to have to open school a week earlier. The way to do that is to open up on religious holidays instead.

Instead of opening earlier, they could keep the start as it currently is and convert religious days to school days if needed if they have too many snow days.

Exactly. The calendar they already have works if they actually use the days they’ve designated

It seems crazy to me that they won't do this. This is a no-brainer. I can't believe the superintendent instead is recommending starting school a week earlier.

Because when they dared to use Eid this year, a day that was already designated as a makeup day in the calendar the approved, they got backlash from a small part of the community who cried equity to Council so now they’re scared to go by what they’ve already said they would do.

I don't care. At a certain point, our kids need to be in school. MCPS needs to grow a pair and stand up to the county council. And if they designate all religious holidays, not just Muslim ones, as potential makeup days, Muslim residents will not feel targeted.

I don’t either. The sarcasm in my post I guess was not apparent… this whole thing is stupid. Kids need to be in school. We can’t cater to every individuals need to be off

Exactly this. All religious holidays should be potential make-up days. When the last snow day is used and it snows again, the next snow make-up day should be used to make it up. The process that we will use should be communicated now and the potential dates should be listed. At that point, the days used simply depend on when it snows and how long our snow days last. This makes it less personal - this process should not be perceived as personal - it is an operational decision on the part of a very large organization.

Lot simpler to just start school one week earlier. I understand the superintendent’s logic

Not for next year it's not.

Why not? Because you would rather be on vacation?

DP here

Yes! I would rather go on the beach vacation I spent time planning and have been looking forward to.

The world doesn't revolve around your beach vacation, Jan. You have 4 months to make new plans, or your kids can skip out on the first days of school.

Well Marcia, some of us make plans with extended family and others would also be impacted by this change with nonrefundable deposits. We made these plans after the calendar came out because oh I don’t know, you think you can relay on the calendar!

You chose to be cheap and make plans with non-refundable deposits knowing that the MCPS schedule shifted quite a bit over the last two years--were you hiding under a rock when the date of the last day of school changed several times this year? and last year? Most MCPS parents are not like you.

If by “cheap” you mean don’t have thousands of dollars to spend to change this vacation with siblings and grandparents then sure.

We’ve had students in the system for a dozen years and they have NEVER changed the first day of school after the calendar is set.

I hope your vitriol makes you happy.

Not as happy as you insisting that the world revolve around your family's beach plans seems to make you. MCPS needs to start earlier in August if it wants to maintain its professional development days, teacher non-instructional days and many religious holidays. Next year is as good a time as any. You have 4 months to adjust.

And you think it’s just one person who has made plans?

What happens to teachers if they don’t show up for the first few days of preservice week? Can they use PTO for those?

Yes, let's shortchange 150,000+ kids out of 180 days of education because a few people have non-refundable beach week plans.

[Anonymous]

If TT can't figure out what everyone here is saying, he should be fired. Get rid of transition day, put back Nov 9 (not a religious day), and take 1 day off of either winter or spring break. As my teens would say "it's not that deep"!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So many of these posts show a real empathy gap. It’s very disheartening. We all want our kids to go to school and we all want to be able to spend time with our families and observing religious occasions. And we need a calendar that doesn’t change multiple times.

The real culprit here is MCPS and the board that doesn’t exercise oversight.

This is a post that illustrates why the current calendar doesn't work. You want your kid to go to school, yet you want vacation time and yet you want MCPS to "observe religious occasions" and not use the makeup days that are allocated. The current calendar didn't provide for enough days to do all these things, so MCPS started earlier next year (similar to FCPS which has a similar number of religious holidays built into its calendar, but has more snow days built in than MCPS's 1 snow day.)

You can't have everything. If you haven't noticed--the last 2 years of the MCPS calendar have been a mess, because it snows, MCPS stays closed for many days, and kids get shortchanged education because MCPS doesn't want to lose its non-instructional days/grading days, teacher development days or religious holidays.

The only ones who win are MCPS staffers who are getting their same salaries to teach our kids less due to all these snow days that aren't compensated for adequately in the calendar.

+1 This. I for one am happy that MCPS is actually trying to improve its scheduling for next year. What they have isn't working if you want to hit 180 days of instructional time.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I've worked in the system for over twenty years at the elementary level and here are my thoughts...

1) Nobody likes transition day except for Dr. Taylor. It's a waste of time and screws over the K, 6th, and 9th grade teachers.

2) I would be okay with having half-days for grading and reporting in MP 1 and 3. I do think our secondary counterparts need the full day at the end of MP 2 to prepare for their second semester classes.

3) SPED teachers need more IEP writing days given to them but that doesn't impact whether school is open or closed. There's already not enough time to handle the paperwork on our quarterly grading days.

4) When I did my admin program we were told we closed for Christian and Jewish holidays in order to be able to function as a school system. If we remained open, there wouldn't be enough staff to operate the building. While I appreciate the diversity in our county, I don't know what percentage of staff and students celebrate some of the recent holiday additions to our calendar. Perhaps allow everyone excused absences or leave that day.

I agree with this. They do not know if they need to close for operational reasons. Being open for religious holidays next year would let them collect data to determine whether there is an operational need to close moving forward -- another benefit of doing it.

DP. True, but aren't they only considering marking the religious holidays as potential makeup days, not as school days from the outset?

I don't think so. They would do this instead of starting school early, so those are days they would actually be open.

No, on the survey they sent out Thursday, the option is written as "Identifying days of religious observance as inclement weather makeup days."

Well, that's not what they say in the presentation. These are the three options:

Given the scheduled non-instructional days, three options or combinations of options are possible to meet new requirements to add capacity to address inclement weather closures:

1. Open school on non-instructional days that also are religious observances; allow excused absences and minimize instructional conflicts.

2. Reduce the length of Winter Break and/or Spring Break.

3. Start the school year earlier in August.

https://go.boarddocs.com/mabe/mcpsmd/Board.nsf/files/DT7SZF751736/$file/Proposed%20Amendments%202026-2027%20SY%20Calendar%20PPT%20260416.pdf

The superintendent is recommending the worst of the three options.

They mean that in the event of inclement weather closures requiring makeup days, they could open school on non-instructional days that are also religious observances.

That's not how I read it. The point is not to have to open school a week earlier. The way to do that is to open up on religious holidays instead.

Instead of opening earlier, they could keep the start as it currently is and convert religious days to school days if needed if they have too many snow days.

Exactly. The calendar they already have works if they actually use the days they’ve designated

It seems crazy to me that they won't do this. This is a no-brainer. I can't believe the superintendent instead is recommending starting school a week earlier.

Because when they dared to use Eid this year, a day that was already designated as a makeup day in the calendar the approved, they got backlash from a small part of the community who cried equity to Council so now they’re scared to go by what they’ve already said they would do.

I don't care. At a certain point, our kids need to be in school. MCPS needs to grow a pair and stand up to the county council. And if they designate all religious holidays, not just Muslim ones, as potential makeup days, Muslim residents will not feel targeted.

I don’t either. The sarcasm in my post I guess was not apparent… this whole thing is stupid. Kids need to be in school. We can’t cater to every individuals need to be off

Exactly this. All religious holidays should be potential make-up days. When the last snow day is used and it snows again, the next snow make-up day should be used to make it up. The process that we will use should be communicated now and the potential dates should be listed. At that point, the days used simply depend on when it snows and how long our snow days last. This makes it less personal - this process should not be perceived as personal - it is an operational decision on the part of a very large organization.

Lot simpler to just start school one week earlier. I understand the superintendent’s logic

Not for next year it's not.

Why not? Because you would rather be on vacation?

DP here

Yes! I would rather go on the beach vacation I spent time planning and have been looking forward to.

The world doesn't revolve around your beach vacation, Jan. You have 4 months to make new plans, or your kids can skip out on the first days of school.

Well Marcia, some of us make plans with extended family and others would also be impacted by this change with nonrefundable deposits. We made these plans after the calendar came out because oh I don’t know, you think you can relay on the calendar!

You chose to be cheap and make plans with non-refundable deposits knowing that the MCPS schedule shifted quite a bit over the last two years--were you hiding under a rock when the date of the last day of school changed several times this year? and last year? Most MCPS parents are not like you.

If by “cheap” you mean don’t have thousands of dollars to spend to change this vacation with siblings and grandparents then sure.

We’ve had students in the system for a dozen years and they have NEVER changed the first day of school after the calendar is set.

I hope your vitriol makes you happy.

Not as happy as you insisting that the world revolve around your family's beach plans seems to make you. MCPS needs to start earlier in August if it wants to maintain its professional development days, teacher non-instructional days and many religious holidays. Next year is as good a time as any. You have 4 months to adjust.

And you think it’s just one person who has made plans?

What happens to teachers if they don’t show up for the first few days of preservice week? Can they use PTO for those?

Yes, let's shortchange 150,000+ kids out of 180 days of education because a few people have non-refundable beach week plans.

What will you say when the survey shows what a wildly unpopular option this is?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our family plan is to book summer vacation between 8/15 to 8/24. I have not booked yet, but my kids ate looking fowards to it. Can I book them now or not?

The Board is going to rubber stamp this proposal and school will start 8/20. No vacation for you.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I've worked in the system for over twenty years at the elementary level and here are my thoughts...

1) Nobody likes transition day except for Dr. Taylor. It's a waste of time and screws over the K, 6th, and 9th grade teachers.

2) I would be okay with having half-days for grading and reporting in MP 1 and 3. I do think our secondary counterparts need the full day at the end of MP 2 to prepare for their second semester classes.

3) SPED teachers need more IEP writing days given to them but that doesn't impact whether school is open or closed. There's already not enough time to handle the paperwork on our quarterly grading days.

4) When I did my admin program we were told we closed for Christian and Jewish holidays in order to be able to function as a school system. If we remained open, there wouldn't be enough staff to operate the building. While I appreciate the diversity in our county, I don't know what percentage of staff and students celebrate some of the recent holiday additions to our calendar. Perhaps allow everyone excused absences or leave that day.

I agree with this. They do not know if they need to close for operational reasons. Being open for religious holidays next year would let them collect data to determine whether there is an operational need to close moving forward -- another benefit of doing it.

DP. True, but aren't they only considering marking the religious holidays as potential makeup days, not as school days from the outset?

I don't think so. They would do this instead of starting school early, so those are days they would actually be open.

No, on the survey they sent out Thursday, the option is written as "Identifying days of religious observance as inclement weather makeup days."

Well, that's not what they say in the presentation. These are the three options:

Given the scheduled non-instructional days, three options or combinations of options are possible to meet new requirements to add capacity to address inclement weather closures:

1. Open school on non-instructional days that also are religious observances; allow excused absences and minimize instructional conflicts.

2. Reduce the length of Winter Break and/or Spring Break.

3. Start the school year earlier in August.

https://go.boarddocs.com/mabe/mcpsmd/Board.nsf/files/DT7SZF751736/$file/Proposed%20Amendments%202026-2027%20SY%20Calendar%20PPT%20260416.pdf

The superintendent is recommending the worst of the three options.

They mean that in the event of inclement weather closures requiring makeup days, they could open school on non-instructional days that are also religious observances.

That's not how I read it. The point is not to have to open school a week earlier. The way to do that is to open up on religious holidays instead.

Instead of opening earlier, they could keep the start as it currently is and convert religious days to school days if needed if they have too many snow days.

Exactly. The calendar they already have works if they actually use the days they’ve designated

It seems crazy to me that they won't do this. This is a no-brainer. I can't believe the superintendent instead is recommending starting school a week earlier.

Because when they dared to use Eid this year, a day that was already designated as a makeup day in the calendar the approved, they got backlash from a small part of the community who cried equity to Council so now they’re scared to go by what they’ve already said they would do.

I don't care. At a certain point, our kids need to be in school. MCPS needs to grow a pair and stand up to the county council. And if they designate all religious holidays, not just Muslim ones, as potential makeup days, Muslim residents will not feel targeted.

I don’t either. The sarcasm in my post I guess was not apparent… this whole thing is stupid. Kids need to be in school. We can’t cater to every individuals need to be off

Exactly this. All religious holidays should be potential make-up days. When the last snow day is used and it snows again, the next snow make-up day should be used to make it up. The process that we will use should be communicated now and the potential dates should be listed. At that point, the days used simply depend on when it snows and how long our snow days last. This makes it less personal - this process should not be perceived as personal - it is an operational decision on the part of a very large organization.

Lot simpler to just start school one week earlier. I understand the superintendent’s logic

Not for next year it's not.

Why not? Because you would rather be on vacation?

DP here

Yes! I would rather go on the beach vacation I spent time planning and have been looking forward to.

The world doesn't revolve around your beach vacation, Jan. You have 4 months to make new plans, or your kids can skip out on the first days of school.

Well Marcia, some of us make plans with extended family and others would also be impacted by this change with nonrefundable deposits. We made these plans after the calendar came out because oh I don’t know, you think you can relay on the calendar!

You chose to be cheap and make plans with non-refundable deposits knowing that the MCPS schedule shifted quite a bit over the last two years--were you hiding under a rock when the date of the last day of school changed several times this year? and last year? Most MCPS parents are not like you.

If by “cheap” you mean don’t have thousands of dollars to spend to change this vacation with siblings and grandparents then sure.

We’ve had students in the system for a dozen years and they have NEVER changed the first day of school after the calendar is set.

I hope your vitriol makes you happy.

Not as happy as you insisting that the world revolve around your family's beach plans seems to make you. MCPS needs to start earlier in August if it wants to maintain its professional development days, teacher non-instructional days and many religious holidays. Next year is as good a time as any. You have 4 months to adjust.

And you think it’s just one person who has made plans?

What happens to teachers if they don’t show up for the first few days of preservice week? Can they use PTO for those?

Yes, let's shortchange 150,000+ kids out of 180 days of education because a few people have non-refundable beach week plans.

What will you say when the survey shows what a wildly unpopular option this is?

Very few people fill out those surveys, so I'm not sure what wildly unpopular feelings you think it's going to capture.

But I imagine MCPS staffers do disproportionately fill out those surveys so they can maintain the status quo of getting paid for more days than they're actually teaching for.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've worked in the system for over twenty years at the elementary level and here are my thoughts...

1) Nobody likes transition day except for Dr. Taylor. It's a waste of time and screws over the K, 6th, and 9th grade teachers.

2) I would be okay with having half-days for grading and reporting in MP 1 and 3. I do think our secondary counterparts need the full day at the end of MP 2 to prepare for their second semester classes.

3) SPED teachers need more IEP writing days given to them but that doesn't impact whether school is open or closed. There's already not enough time to handle the paperwork on our quarterly grading days.

4) When I did my admin program we were told we closed for Christian and Jewish holidays in order to be able to function as a school system. If we remained open, there wouldn't be enough staff to operate the building. While I appreciate the diversity in our county, I don't know what percentage of staff and students celebrate some of the recent holiday additions to our calendar. Perhaps allow everyone excused absences or leave that day.

I agree with this. They do not know if they need to close for operational reasons. Being open for religious holidays next year would let them collect data to determine whether there is an operational need to close moving forward -- another benefit of doing it.

DP. True, but aren't they only considering marking the religious holidays as potential makeup days, not as school days from the outset?

I don't think so. They would do this instead of starting school early, so those are days they would actually be open.

No, on the survey they sent out Thursday, the option is written as "Identifying days of religious observance as inclement weather makeup days."

Well, that's not what they say in the presentation. These are the three options:

Given the scheduled non-instructional days, three options or combinations of options are possible to meet new requirements to add capacity to address inclement weather closures:

1. Open school on non-instructional days that also are religious observances; allow excused absences and minimize instructional conflicts.

2. Reduce the length of Winter Break and/or Spring Break.

3. Start the school year earlier in August.

https://go.boarddocs.com/mabe/mcpsmd/Board.nsf/files/DT7SZF751736/$file/Proposed%20Amendments%202026-2027%20SY%20Calendar%20PPT%20260416.pdf

The superintendent is recommending the worst of the three options.

They mean that in the event of inclement weather closures requiring makeup days, they could open school on non-instructional days that are also religious observances.

That's not how I read it. The point is not to have to open school a week earlier. The way to do that is to open up on religious holidays instead.

Instead of opening earlier, they could keep the start as it currently is and convert religious days to school days if needed if they have too many snow days.

Exactly. The calendar they already have works if they actually use the days they’ve designated

It seems crazy to me that they won't do this. This is a no-brainer. I can't believe the superintendent instead is recommending starting school a week earlier.

Because when they dared to use Eid this year, a day that was already designated as a makeup day in the calendar the approved, they got backlash from a small part of the community who cried equity to Council so now they’re scared to go by what they’ve already said they would do.

I don't care. At a certain point, our kids need to be in school. MCPS needs to grow a pair and stand up to the county council. And if they designate all religious holidays, not just Muslim ones, as potential makeup days, Muslim residents will not feel targeted.

I don’t either. The sarcasm in my post I guess was not apparent… this whole thing is stupid. Kids need to be in school. We can’t cater to every individuals need to be off

Exactly this. All religious holidays should be potential make-up days. When the last snow day is used and it snows again, the next snow make-up day should be used to make it up. The process that we will use should be communicated now and the potential dates should be listed. At that point, the days used simply depend on when it snows and how long our snow days last. This makes it less personal - this process should not be perceived as personal - it is an operational decision on the part of a very large organization.

Lot simpler to just start school one week earlier. I understand the superintendent’s logic

Not for next year it's not.

Why not? Because you would rather be on vacation?

DP here

Yes! I would rather go on the beach vacation I spent time planning and have been looking forward to.

The world doesn't revolve around your beach vacation, Jan. You have 4 months to make new plans, or your kids can skip out on the first days of school.

Well Marcia, some of us make plans with extended family and others would also be impacted by this change with nonrefundable deposits. We made these plans after the calendar came out because oh I don’t know, you think you can relay on the calendar!

You chose to be cheap and make plans with non-refundable deposits knowing that the MCPS schedule shifted quite a bit over the last two years--were you hiding under a rock when the date of the last day of school changed several times this year? and last year? Most MCPS parents are not like you.

If by “cheap” you mean don’t have thousands of dollars to spend to change this vacation with siblings and grandparents then sure.

We’ve had students in the system for a dozen years and they have NEVER changed the first day of school after the calendar is set.

I hope your vitriol makes you happy.

Not as happy as you insisting that the world revolve around your family's beach plans seems to make you. MCPS needs to start earlier in August if it wants to maintain its professional development days, teacher non-instructional days and many religious holidays. Next year is as good a time as any. You have 4 months to adjust.

And you think it’s just one person who has made plans?

What happens to teachers if they don’t show up for the first few days of preservice week? Can they use PTO for those?

Yes, let's shortchange 150,000+ kids out of 180 days of education because a few people have non-refundable beach week plans. [/quote
Taylor's recommendation in no way increases the likelihood of having 180 days of school in a meaningful way and actually decreases it.. It lets them tack on make up days after the last day of school, which is useless and disruptive and not meaningful instruction. If the BOE rejects Taylor's recommendation, perhaps they will face more pressure to actually use the makeup days, and if not no waiver. Not sure what no waiver actually means but even if they don't have to provide the 3 days, it's not worse than then providing them after the last day of school, and at least it is less disruptive.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've worked in the system for over twenty years at the elementary level and here are my thoughts...

1) Nobody likes transition day except for Dr. Taylor. It's a waste of time and screws over the K, 6th, and 9th grade teachers.

2) I would be okay with having half-days for grading and reporting in MP 1 and 3. I do think our secondary counterparts need the full day at the end of MP 2 to prepare for their second semester classes.

3) SPED teachers need more IEP writing days given to them but that doesn't impact whether school is open or closed. There's already not enough time to handle the paperwork on our quarterly grading days.

4) When I did my admin program we were told we closed for Christian and Jewish holidays in order to be able to function as a school system. If we remained open, there wouldn't be enough staff to operate the building. While I appreciate the diversity in our county, I don't know what percentage of staff and students celebrate some of the recent holiday additions to our calendar. Perhaps allow everyone excused absences or leave that day.

I agree with this. They do not know if they need to close for operational reasons. Being open for religious holidays next year would let them collect data to determine whether there is an operational need to close moving forward -- another benefit of doing it.

DP. True, but aren't they only considering marking the religious holidays as potential makeup days, not as school days from the outset?

I don't think so. They would do this instead of starting school early, so those are days they would actually be open.

No, on the survey they sent out Thursday, the option is written as "Identifying days of religious observance as inclement weather makeup days."

Well, that's not what they say in the presentation. These are the three options:

Given the scheduled non-instructional days, three options or combinations of options are possible to meet new requirements to add capacity to address inclement weather closures:

1. Open school on non-instructional days that also are religious observances; allow excused absences and minimize instructional conflicts.

2. Reduce the length of Winter Break and/or Spring Break.

3. Start the school year earlier in August.

https://go.boarddocs.com/mabe/mcpsmd/Board.nsf/files/DT7SZF751736/$file/Proposed%20Amendments%202026-2027%20SY%20Calendar%20PPT%20260416.pdf

The superintendent is recommending the worst of the three options.

They mean that in the event of inclement weather closures requiring makeup days, they could open school on non-instructional days that are also religious observances.

That's not how I read it. The point is not to have to open school a week earlier. The way to do that is to open up on religious holidays instead.

Instead of opening earlier, they could keep the start as it currently is and convert religious days to school days if needed if they have too many snow days.

Exactly. The calendar they already have works if they actually use the days they’ve designated

It seems crazy to me that they won't do this. This is a no-brainer. I can't believe the superintendent instead is recommending starting school a week earlier.

Because when they dared to use Eid this year, a day that was already designated as a makeup day in the calendar the approved, they got backlash from a small part of the community who cried equity to Council so now they’re scared to go by what they’ve already said they would do.

I don't care. At a certain point, our kids need to be in school. MCPS needs to grow a pair and stand up to the county council. And if they designate all religious holidays, not just Muslim ones, as potential makeup days, Muslim residents will not feel targeted.

I don’t either. The sarcasm in my post I guess was not apparent… this whole thing is stupid. Kids need to be in school. We can’t cater to every individuals need to be off

Exactly this. All religious holidays should be potential make-up days. When the last snow day is used and it snows again, the next snow make-up day should be used to make it up. The process that we will use should be communicated now and the potential dates should be listed. At that point, the days used simply depend on when it snows and how long our snow days last. This makes it less personal - this process should not be perceived as personal - it is an operational decision on the part of a very large organization.

Lot simpler to just start school one week earlier. I understand the superintendent’s logic

Not for next year it's not.

Why not? Because you would rather be on vacation?

DP here

Yes! I would rather go on the beach vacation I spent time planning and have been looking forward to.

The world doesn't revolve around your beach vacation, Jan. You have 4 months to make new plans, or your kids can skip out on the first days of school.

Well Marcia, some of us make plans with extended family and others would also be impacted by this change with nonrefundable deposits. We made these plans after the calendar came out because oh I don’t know, you think you can relay on the calendar!

You chose to be cheap and make plans with non-refundable deposits knowing that the MCPS schedule shifted quite a bit over the last two years--were you hiding under a rock when the date of the last day of school changed several times this year? and last year? Most MCPS parents are not like you.

If by “cheap” you mean don’t have thousands of dollars to spend to change this vacation with siblings and grandparents then sure.

We’ve had students in the system for a dozen years and they have NEVER changed the first day of school after the calendar is set.

I hope your vitriol makes you happy.

Not as happy as you insisting that the world revolve around your family's beach plans seems to make you. MCPS needs to start earlier in August if it wants to maintain its professional development days, teacher non-instructional days and many religious holidays. Next year is as good a time as any. You have 4 months to adjust.

And you think it’s just one person who has made plans?

What happens to teachers if they don’t show up for the first few days of preservice week? Can they use PTO for those?

Yes, let's shortchange 150,000+ kids out of 180 days of education because a few people have non-refundable beach week plans.

What will you say when the survey shows what a wildly unpopular option this is?

DP. Will the results of the survey be shared? I hope so… I agree with you that I’d bet Taylor’s proposal will be very unpopular, but I hope we can find out for sure if that’s the case.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So many of these posts show a real empathy gap. It’s very disheartening. We all want our kids to go to school and we all want to be able to spend time with our families and observing religious occasions. And we need a calendar that doesn’t change multiple times.

The real culprit here is MCPS and the board that doesn’t exercise oversight.

This is a post that illustrates why the current calendar doesn't work. You want your kid to go to school, yet you want vacation time and yet you want MCPS to "observe religious occasions" and not use the makeup days that are allocated. The current calendar didn't provide for enough days to do all these things, so MCPS started earlier next year (similar to FCPS which has a similar number of religious holidays built into its calendar, but has more snow days built in than MCPS's 1 snow day.)

You can't have everything. If you haven't noticed--the last 2 years of the MCPS calendar have been a mess, because it snows, MCPS stays closed for many days, and kids get shortchanged education because MCPS doesn't want to lose its non-instructional days/grading days, teacher development days or religious holidays.

The only ones who win are MCPS staffers who are getting their same salaries to teach our kids less due to all these snow days that aren't compensated for adequately in the calendar.

+1 This. I for one am happy that MCPS is actually trying to improve its scheduling for next year. What they have isn't working if you want to hit 180 days of instructional time.

Taylor's recommendation in no way increases the likelihood of having 180 days of school in a meaningful way and actually decreases it.. It lets them tack on make up days after the last day of school, which is useless and disruptive and not meaningful instruction. If the BOE rejects Taylor's recommendation, perhaps they will face more pressure to actually use the makeup days, and if not no waiver. Not sure what no waiver actually means but even if they don't have to provide the 3 days, it's not worse than then providing them after the last day of school, and at least it is less disruptive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So many of these posts show a real empathy gap. It’s very disheartening. We all want our kids to go to school and we all want to be able to spend time with our families and observing religious occasions. And we need a calendar that doesn’t change multiple times.

The real culprit here is MCPS and the board that doesn’t exercise oversight.

This is a post that illustrates why the current calendar doesn't work. You want your kid to go to school, yet you want vacation time and yet you want MCPS to "observe religious occasions" and not use the makeup days that are allocated. The current calendar didn't provide for enough days to do all these things, so MCPS started earlier next year (similar to FCPS which has a similar number of religious holidays built into its calendar, but has more snow days built in than MCPS's 1 snow day.)

You can't have everything. If you haven't noticed--the last 2 years of the MCPS calendar have been a mess, because it snows, MCPS stays closed for many days, and kids get shortchanged education because MCPS doesn't want to lose its non-instructional days/grading days, teacher development days or religious holidays.

The only ones who win are MCPS staffers who are getting their same salaries to teach our kids less due to all these snow days that aren't compensated for adequately in the calendar.

+1 This. I for one am happy that MCPS is actually trying to improve its scheduling for next year. What they have isn't working if you want to hit 180 days of instructional time.

It really isn’t though. If we miss 8 days next year they still only have 3, built in at the end of the year when they’re meaningless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've worked in the system for over twenty years at the elementary level and here are my thoughts...

1) Nobody likes transition day except for Dr. Taylor. It's a waste of time and screws over the K, 6th, and 9th grade teachers.

2) I would be okay with having half-days for grading and reporting in MP 1 and 3. I do think our secondary counterparts need the full day at the end of MP 2 to prepare for their second semester classes.

3) SPED teachers need more IEP writing days given to them but that doesn't impact whether school is open or closed. There's already not enough time to handle the paperwork on our quarterly grading days.

4) When I did my admin program we were told we closed for Christian and Jewish holidays in order to be able to function as a school system. If we remained open, there wouldn't be enough staff to operate the building. While I appreciate the diversity in our county, I don't know what percentage of staff and students celebrate some of the recent holiday additions to our calendar. Perhaps allow everyone excused absences or leave that day.

I agree with this. They do not know if they need to close for operational reasons. Being open for religious holidays next year would let them collect data to determine whether there is an operational need to close moving forward -- another benefit of doing it.

DP. True, but aren't they only considering marking the religious holidays as potential makeup days, not as school days from the outset?

I don't think so. They would do this instead of starting school early, so those are days they would actually be open.

No, on the survey they sent out Thursday, the option is written as "Identifying days of religious observance as inclement weather makeup days."

Well, that's not what they say in the presentation. These are the three options:

Given the scheduled non-instructional days, three options or combinations of options are possible to meet new requirements to add capacity to address inclement weather closures:

1. Open school on non-instructional days that also are religious observances; allow excused absences and minimize instructional conflicts.

2. Reduce the length of Winter Break and/or Spring Break.

3. Start the school year earlier in August.

https://go.boarddocs.com/mabe/mcpsmd/Board.nsf/files/DT7SZF751736/$file/Proposed%20Amendments%202026-2027%20SY%20Calendar%20PPT%20260416.pdf

The superintendent is recommending the worst of the three options.

They mean that in the event of inclement weather closures requiring makeup days, they could open school on non-instructional days that are also religious observances.

That's not how I read it. The point is not to have to open school a week earlier. The way to do that is to open up on religious holidays instead.

Instead of opening earlier, they could keep the start as it currently is and convert religious days to school days if needed if they have too many snow days.

Exactly. The calendar they already have works if they actually use the days they’ve designated

It seems crazy to me that they won't do this. This is a no-brainer. I can't believe the superintendent instead is recommending starting school a week earlier.

Because when they dared to use Eid this year, a day that was already designated as a makeup day in the calendar the approved, they got backlash from a small part of the community who cried equity to Council so now they’re scared to go by what they’ve already said they would do.

I don't care. At a certain point, our kids need to be in school. MCPS needs to grow a pair and stand up to the county council. And if they designate all religious holidays, not just Muslim ones, as potential makeup days, Muslim residents will not feel targeted.

I don’t either. The sarcasm in my post I guess was not apparent… this whole thing is stupid. Kids need to be in school. We can’t cater to every individuals need to be off

Exactly this. All religious holidays should be potential make-up days. When the last snow day is used and it snows again, the next snow make-up day should be used to make it up. The process that we will use should be communicated now and the potential dates should be listed. At that point, the days used simply depend on when it snows and how long our snow days last. This makes it less personal - this process should not be perceived as personal - it is an operational decision on the part of a very large organization.

Lot simpler to just start school one week earlier. I understand the superintendent’s logic

Not for next year it's not.

Why not? Because you would rather be on vacation?

DP here

Yes! I would rather go on the beach vacation I spent time planning and have been looking forward to.

The world doesn't revolve around your beach vacation, Jan. You have 4 months to make new plans, or your kids can skip out on the first days of school.

Well Marcia, some of us make plans with extended family and others would also be impacted by this change with nonrefundable deposits. We made these plans after the calendar came out because oh I don’t know, you think you can relay on the calendar!

You chose to be cheap and make plans with non-refundable deposits knowing that the MCPS schedule shifted quite a bit over the last two years--were you hiding under a rock when the date of the last day of school changed several times this year? and last year? Most MCPS parents are not like you.

If by “cheap” you mean don’t have thousands of dollars to spend to change this vacation with siblings and grandparents then sure.

We’ve had students in the system for a dozen years and they have NEVER changed the first day of school after the calendar is set.

I hope your vitriol makes you happy.

Not as happy as you insisting that the world revolve around your family's beach plans seems to make you. MCPS needs to start earlier in August if it wants to maintain its professional development days, teacher non-instructional days and many religious holidays. Next year is as good a time as any. You have 4 months to adjust.

And you think it’s just one person who has made plans?

What happens to teachers if they don’t show up for the first few days of preservice week? Can they use PTO for those?

Yes, let's shortchange 150,000+ kids out of 180 days of education because a few people have non-refundable beach week plans.

What will you say when the survey shows what a wildly unpopular option this is?

You know what was wildly unpopular? The schedule for this 2025-2026 academic year where kids got shortchanged instructional time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've worked in the system for over twenty years at the elementary level and here are my thoughts...

1) Nobody likes transition day except for Dr. Taylor. It's a waste of time and screws over the K, 6th, and 9th grade teachers.

2) I would be okay with having half-days for grading and reporting in MP 1 and 3. I do think our secondary counterparts need the full day at the end of MP 2 to prepare for their second semester classes.

3) SPED teachers need more IEP writing days given to them but that doesn't impact whether school is open or closed. There's already not enough time to handle the paperwork on our quarterly grading days.

4) When I did my admin program we were told we closed for Christian and Jewish holidays in order to be able to function as a school system. If we remained open, there wouldn't be enough staff to operate the building. While I appreciate the diversity in our county, I don't know what percentage of staff and students celebrate some of the recent holiday additions to our calendar. Perhaps allow everyone excused absences or leave that day.

I agree with this. They do not know if they need to close for operational reasons. Being open for religious holidays next year would let them collect data to determine whether there is an operational need to close moving forward -- another benefit of doing it.

DP. True, but aren't they only considering marking the religious holidays as potential makeup days, not as school days from the outset?

I don't think so. They would do this instead of starting school early, so those are days they would actually be open.

No, on the survey they sent out Thursday, the option is written as "Identifying days of religious observance as inclement weather makeup days."

Well, that's not what they say in the presentation. These are the three options:

Given the scheduled non-instructional days, three options or combinations of options are possible to meet new requirements to add capacity to address inclement weather closures:

1. Open school on non-instructional days that also are religious observances; allow excused absences and minimize instructional conflicts.

2. Reduce the length of Winter Break and/or Spring Break.

3. Start the school year earlier in August.

https://go.boarddocs.com/mabe/mcpsmd/Board.nsf/files/DT7SZF751736/$file/Proposed%20Amendments%202026-2027%20SY%20Calendar%20PPT%20260416.pdf

The superintendent is recommending the worst of the three options.

They mean that in the event of inclement weather closures requiring makeup days, they could open school on non-instructional days that are also religious observances.

That's not how I read it. The point is not to have to open school a week earlier. The way to do that is to open up on religious holidays instead.

Instead of opening earlier, they could keep the start as it currently is and convert religious days to school days if needed if they have too many snow days.

Exactly. The calendar they already have works if they actually use the days they’ve designated

It seems crazy to me that they won't do this. This is a no-brainer. I can't believe the superintendent instead is recommending starting school a week earlier.

Because when they dared to use Eid this year, a day that was already designated as a makeup day in the calendar the approved, they got backlash from a small part of the community who cried equity to Council so now they’re scared to go by what they’ve already said they would do.

I don't care. At a certain point, our kids need to be in school. MCPS needs to grow a pair and stand up to the county council. And if they designate all religious holidays, not just Muslim ones, as potential makeup days, Muslim residents will not feel targeted.

I don’t either. The sarcasm in my post I guess was not apparent… this whole thing is stupid. Kids need to be in school. We can’t cater to every individuals need to be off

Exactly this. All religious holidays should be potential make-up days. When the last snow day is used and it snows again, the next snow make-up day should be used to make it up. The process that we will use should be communicated now and the potential dates should be listed. At that point, the days used simply depend on when it snows and how long our snow days last. This makes it less personal - this process should not be perceived as personal - it is an operational decision on the part of a very large organization.

Lot simpler to just start school one week earlier. I understand the superintendent’s logic

Not for next year it's not.

Why not? Because you would rather be on vacation?

DP here

Yes! I would rather go on the beach vacation I spent time planning and have been looking forward to.

The world doesn't revolve around your beach vacation, Jan. You have 4 months to make new plans, or your kids can skip out on the first days of school.

Well Marcia, some of us make plans with extended family and others would also be impacted by this change with nonrefundable deposits. We made these plans after the calendar came out because oh I don’t know, you think you can relay on the calendar!

You chose to be cheap and make plans with non-refundable deposits knowing that the MCPS schedule shifted quite a bit over the last two years--were you hiding under a rock when the date of the last day of school changed several times this year? and last year? Most MCPS parents are not like you.

If by “cheap” you mean don’t have thousands of dollars to spend to change this vacation with siblings and grandparents then sure.

We’ve had students in the system for a dozen years and they have NEVER changed the first day of school after the calendar is set.

I hope your vitriol makes you happy.

Not as happy as you insisting that the world revolve around your family's beach plans seems to make you. MCPS needs to start earlier in August if it wants to maintain its professional development days, teacher non-instructional days and many religious holidays. Next year is as good a time as any. You have 4 months to adjust.

And you think it’s just one person who has made plans?

What happens to teachers if they don’t show up for the first few days of preservice week? Can they use PTO for those?

Yes, let's shortchange 150,000+ kids out of 180 days of education because a few people have non-refundable beach week plans.

What will you say when the survey shows what a wildly unpopular option this is?

DP. Will the results of the survey be shared? I hope so… I agree with you that I’d bet Taylor’s proposal will be very unpopular, but I hope we can find out for sure if that’s the case.

If they’re not, hopefully someone requests the results under the state version of FOIA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So many of these posts show a real empathy gap. It’s very disheartening. We all want our kids to go to school and we all want to be able to spend time with our families and observing religious occasions. And we need a calendar that doesn’t change multiple times.

The real culprit here is MCPS and the board that doesn’t exercise oversight.

This is a post that illustrates why the current calendar doesn't work. You want your kid to go to school, yet you want vacation time and yet you want MCPS to "observe religious occasions" and not use the makeup days that are allocated. The current calendar didn't provide for enough days to do all these things, so MCPS started earlier next year (similar to FCPS which has a similar number of religious holidays built into its calendar, but has more snow days built in than MCPS's 1 snow day.)

You can't have everything. If you haven't noticed--the last 2 years of the MCPS calendar have been a mess, because it snows, MCPS stays closed for many days, and kids get shortchanged education because MCPS doesn't want to lose its non-instructional days/grading days, teacher development days or religious holidays.

The only ones who win are MCPS staffers who are getting their same salaries to teach our kids less due to all these snow days that aren't compensated for adequately in the calendar.

+1 This. I for one am happy that MCPS is actually trying to improve its scheduling for next year. What they have isn't working if you want to hit 180 days of instructional time.

Taylor's recommendation in no way increases the likelihood of having 180 days of school in a meaningful way and actually decreases it.. It lets them tack on make up days after the last day of school, which is useless and disruptive and not meaningful instruction. If the BOE rejects Taylor's recommendation, perhaps they will face more pressure to actually use the makeup days, and if not no waiver. Not sure what no waiver actually means but even if they don't have to provide the 3 days, it's not worse than then providing them after the last day of school, and at least it is less disruptive.

That's your opinion and I disagree. It is not better for MCPS to get a pass each year for putting together a crappy schedule and offering our kids only 177 days of instructional time because you have decided June makeup days are meaningless. At least they're getting them. If you want to send your kid to $$$ summer camp, go ahead and do so-not everyone has that option.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've worked in the system for over twenty years at the elementary level and here are my thoughts...

1) Nobody likes transition day except for Dr. Taylor. It's a waste of time and screws over the K, 6th, and 9th grade teachers.

2) I would be okay with having half-days for grading and reporting in MP 1 and 3. I do think our secondary counterparts need the full day at the end of MP 2 to prepare for their second semester classes.

3) SPED teachers need more IEP writing days given to them but that doesn't impact whether school is open or closed. There's already not enough time to handle the paperwork on our quarterly grading days.

4) When I did my admin program we were told we closed for Christian and Jewish holidays in order to be able to function as a school system. If we remained open, there wouldn't be enough staff to operate the building. While I appreciate the diversity in our county, I don't know what percentage of staff and students celebrate some of the recent holiday additions to our calendar. Perhaps allow everyone excused absences or leave that day.

I agree with this. They do not know if they need to close for operational reasons. Being open for religious holidays next year would let them collect data to determine whether there is an operational need to close moving forward -- another benefit of doing it.

DP. True, but aren't they only considering marking the religious holidays as potential makeup days, not as school days from the outset?

I don't think so. They would do this instead of starting school early, so those are days they would actually be open.

No, on the survey they sent out Thursday, the option is written as "Identifying days of religious observance as inclement weather makeup days."

Well, that's not what they say in the presentation. These are the three options:

Given the scheduled non-instructional days, three options or combinations of options are possible to meet new requirements to add capacity to address inclement weather closures:

1. Open school on non-instructional days that also are religious observances; allow excused absences and minimize instructional conflicts.

2. Reduce the length of Winter Break and/or Spring Break.

3. Start the school year earlier in August.

https://go.boarddocs.com/mabe/mcpsmd/Board.nsf/files/DT7SZF751736/$file/Proposed%20Amendments%202026-2027%20SY%20Calendar%20PPT%20260416.pdf

The superintendent is recommending the worst of the three options.

They mean that in the event of inclement weather closures requiring makeup days, they could open school on non-instructional days that are also religious observances.

That's not how I read it. The point is not to have to open school a week earlier. The way to do that is to open up on religious holidays instead.

Instead of opening earlier, they could keep the start as it currently is and convert religious days to school days if needed if they have too many snow days.

Exactly. The calendar they already have works if they actually use the days they’ve designated

It seems crazy to me that they won't do this. This is a no-brainer. I can't believe the superintendent instead is recommending starting school a week earlier.

Because when they dared to use Eid this year, a day that was already designated as a makeup day in the calendar the approved, they got backlash from a small part of the community who cried equity to Council so now they’re scared to go by what they’ve already said they would do.

I don't care. At a certain point, our kids need to be in school. MCPS needs to grow a pair and stand up to the county council. And if they designate all religious holidays, not just Muslim ones, as potential makeup days, Muslim residents will not feel targeted.

I don’t either. The sarcasm in my post I guess was not apparent… this whole thing is stupid. Kids need to be in school. We can’t cater to every individuals need to be off

Exactly this. All religious holidays should be potential make-up days. When the last snow day is used and it snows again, the next snow make-up day should be used to make it up. The process that we will use should be communicated now and the potential dates should be listed. At that point, the days used simply depend on when it snows and how long our snow days last. This makes it less personal - this process should not be perceived as personal - it is an operational decision on the part of a very large organization.

Lot simpler to just start school one week earlier. I understand the superintendent’s logic

Not for next year it's not.

Why not? Because you would rather be on vacation?

DP here

Yes! I would rather go on the beach vacation I spent time planning and have been looking forward to.

The world doesn't revolve around your beach vacation, Jan. You have 4 months to make new plans, or your kids can skip out on the first days of school.

Well Marcia, some of us make plans with extended family and others would also be impacted by this change with nonrefundable deposits. We made these plans after the calendar came out because oh I don’t know, you think you can relay on the calendar!

You chose to be cheap and make plans with non-refundable deposits knowing that the MCPS schedule shifted quite a bit over the last two years--were you hiding under a rock when the date of the last day of school changed several times this year? and last year? Most MCPS parents are not like you.

If by “cheap” you mean don’t have thousands of dollars to spend to change this vacation with siblings and grandparents then sure.

We’ve had students in the system for a dozen years and they have NEVER changed the first day of school after the calendar is set.

I hope your vitriol makes you happy.

Not as happy as you insisting that the world revolve around your family's beach plans seems to make you. MCPS needs to start earlier in August if it wants to maintain its professional development days, teacher non-instructional days and many religious holidays. Next year is as good a time as any. You have 4 months to adjust.

And you think it’s just one person who has made plans?

What happens to teachers if they don’t show up for the first few days of preservice week? Can they use PTO for those?

Yes, let's shortchange 150,000+ kids out of 180 days of education because a few people have non-refundable beach week plans.

What will you say when the survey shows what a wildly unpopular option this is?

You know what was wildly unpopular? The schedule for this 2025-2026 academic year where kids got shortchanged instructional time.

Don’t disagree there, but I think the majority would prefer fewer days off during the year to a shorter summer. We’ll see what the survey show, though.