MCPS updated calendar is insane

[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:So seniors and senior teachers are done 5 weeks earlier!

It would be a lot better for high school students to start a week earlier in August (build in a normal amount of snow days, and if not used can end early.)

Do you have high school kids? Sports and marching band start two weeks earlier.

So they can start earlier. Geez guys, I know change is hard but your kids will adapt better than you.

That means our kids get pretty much no summer and it's an issue with working jobs. Don't your teens work? Jobs expect them to keep working as the college kids go back. Oh wait, you are priviileged and your kids don't work.

Only kids 14+ have jobs. MCPS starts at age 5, so it doesn't seem like you're considering the greater good here. And even for those 14+, you are prioritizing a summer job over teens have a schedule that would give them 180 days of education that would equip them to be qualified for future jobs. That's your opinion. Many would disagree.

Yeah but it doesn't stop the AP crowd from trying to have the whole system designed around their schedule. Why should MCPS worry about AP testing when 80% of the students in the county aren't taking them?

I don't see anyone trying to design the "whole system" around the AP schedule. MCPS has a problem not planning for snow days when it builds its calendar. My kids aren't even in high school yet but it makes more sense to me to go back to actually building ~4 days into the calendar then tacking on useless half days in June. The latter benefits no one. Starting a few days earlier in August would provide an ADDITIONAL benefit for students taking AP classes while providing more schedule certianty during a year of average snowfall.

+1. This. My kids aren’t AP age yet, but even for my younger kids, I would rather they return to school earlier in August and get an additional week of learning in rather than have them lose a week of education due to this snow day mess and all these late June half days where people say most teachers are going to be absent.

+2. Same here, kids are also younger. But I seriously don't get the opposition to tacking on a couple extra days in August, building in snow days, and actually planning a rational schedule. In this context, what's good for AP classes is good for the rest of the students as well!

-1

It’s just not necessary to remove a week from summer (bc even a mid-week start would take away a week) when you can:
- convert transition day to a 1/2 day the week prior
- get rid of religious holidays (and provide excused absences) observed by less than 5% (includes Easter Monday - yes that means a state law change, but don’t see why that’s a heavy lift)
- convert grading full days to 2 half days

Doing all of the above would get something like 7-8 more days, but you could do some of them to get 3 snow days.
-

It's hard to take you seriously with statements like this. But I am curious which religous holidays you think are celebrated by less than 5%- maybe Eid and Diwali? Pretty positive that Easter and the Jewish holidays meet the 5% threshold.

How many grading days do teachers get? Teachers I know already do so much grading on their own time, taking away the few dedicated grading days is just crummy. Your kids would be fine going back a few days earlier.

- The legislature is already voting to change the law to remove the 180-day requirement; I don't see how Easter Monday has such a strong constituency that would prevent them from getting rid of that
- Yes, Eid and Diwali, and probably Lunar New year as far as legitimately needing time off to observe (it's not even religious)
- Grading days- yes, teachers need that time to grade, but 2 half days is the same amount of time as 1 fully day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The excused absences for religious holidays argument is kind of difficult because I don't think we can legally require families and students to state their religious beliefs. As a teacher I am pretty sure I can get in a lot of trouble if I asked students to prove they observed a religious holiday in order to get an excused absence or extension on an assignment.

For sure, it should be a no questions asked policy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The excused absences for religious holidays argument is kind of difficult because I don't think we can legally require families and students to state their religious beliefs. As a teacher I am pretty sure I can get in a lot of trouble if I asked students to prove they observed a religious holiday in order to get an excused absence or extension on an assignment.

For sure, it should be a no questions asked policy.

As a teacher, why should I schedule any instruction to be done on those days knowing that I will have to excuse and reteach it to an undetermined amount of students each time? You can try to tell me that I'm being lazy but show me anyone who is willing to do a job twice just for the hell of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The excused absences for religious holidays argument is kind of difficult because I don't think we can legally require families and students to state their religious beliefs. As a teacher I am pretty sure I can get in a lot of trouble if I asked students to prove they observed a religious holiday in order to get an excused absence or extension on an assignment.

Are there enough subs for the teachers who want off? That’s why they do it in the first place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The excused absences for religious holidays argument is kind of difficult because I don't think we can legally require families and students to state their religious beliefs. As a teacher I am pretty sure I can get in a lot of trouble if I asked students to prove they observed a religious holiday in order to get an excused absence or extension on an assignment.

Are there enough subs for the teachers who want off? That’s why they do it in the first place.

For Eid, Diwali, Easter Monday? Yes, I'd think so. The Jewish holidays perhaps not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The excused absences for religious holidays argument is kind of difficult because I don't think we can legally require families and students to state their religious beliefs. As a teacher I am pretty sure I can get in a lot of trouble if I asked students to prove they observed a religious holiday in order to get an excused absence or extension on an assignment.

For sure, it should be a no questions asked policy.

As a teacher, why should I schedule any instruction to be done on those days knowing that I will have to excuse and reteach it to an undetermined amount of students each time? You can try to tell me that I'm being lazy but show me anyone who is willing to do a job twice just for the hell of it.

You could hold a review session/Q&A session.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The excused absences for religious holidays argument is kind of difficult because I don't think we can legally require families and students to state their religious beliefs. As a teacher I am pretty sure I can get in a lot of trouble if I asked students to prove they observed a religious holiday in order to get an excused absence or extension on an assignment.

For sure, it should be a no questions asked policy.

As a teacher, why should I schedule any instruction to be done on those days knowing that I will have to excuse and reteach it to an undetermined amount of students each time? You can try to tell me that I'm being lazy but show me anyone who is willing to do a job twice just for the hell of it.

You could hold a review session/Q&A session.

That's basically what I already do. Any class that has more than 4 kids absent I typically halt instruction for the day and make it a catchup/review day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So seniors and senior teachers are done 5 weeks earlier!

It would be a lot better for high school students to start a week earlier in August (build in a normal amount of snow days, and if not used can end early.)

Do you have high school kids? Sports and marching band start two weeks earlier.

So they can start earlier. Geez guys, I know change is hard but your kids will adapt better than you.

That means our kids get pretty much no summer and it's an issue with working jobs. Don't your teens work? Jobs expect them to keep working as the college kids go back. Oh wait, you are priviileged and your kids don't work.

Only kids 14+ have jobs. MCPS starts at age 5, so it doesn't seem like you're considering the greater good here. And even for those 14+, you are prioritizing a summer job over teens have a schedule that would give them 180 days of education that would equip them to be qualified for future jobs. That's your opinion. Many would disagree.

Yeah but it doesn't stop the AP crowd from trying to have the whole system designed around their schedule. Why should MCPS worry about AP testing when 80% of the students in the county aren't taking them?

I don't see anyone trying to design the "whole system" around the AP schedule. MCPS has a problem not planning for snow days when it builds its calendar. My kids aren't even in high school yet but it makes more sense to me to go back to actually building ~4 days into the calendar then tacking on useless half days in June. The latter benefits no one. Starting a few days earlier in August would provide an ADDITIONAL benefit for students taking AP classes while providing more schedule certianty during a year of average snowfall.

The late start also stinks for kids who do fall sports, kids who are applying to college and want their fall semester grades in for RD applications, and little kids whose parents need to send them to camps for the last couple weeks of the summer. We are out of alignment with college schedules and with the majority of the country, and that stinks for everyone except those trying to rent property in August on the eastern shore.

I also think all the half days are pretty useless but the 180 day requirement forces us into that.

[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:So seniors and senior teachers are done 5 weeks earlier!

It would be a lot better for high school students to start a week earlier in August (build in a normal amount of snow days, and if not used can end early.)

Do you have high school kids? Sports and marching band start two weeks earlier.

So they can start earlier. Geez guys, I know change is hard but your kids will adapt better than you.

That means our kids get pretty much no summer and it's an issue with working jobs. Don't your teens work? Jobs expect them to keep working as the college kids go back. Oh wait, you are priviileged and your kids don't work.

Only kids 14+ have jobs. MCPS starts at age 5, so it doesn't seem like you're considering the greater good here. And even for those 14+, you are prioritizing a summer job over teens have a schedule that would give them 180 days of education that would equip them to be qualified for future jobs. That's your opinion. Many would disagree.

Yeah but it doesn't stop the AP crowd from trying to have the whole system designed around their schedule. Why should MCPS worry about AP testing when 80% of the students in the county aren't taking them?

I don't see anyone trying to design the "whole system" around the AP schedule. MCPS has a problem not planning for snow days when it builds its calendar. My kids aren't even in high school yet but it makes more sense to me to go back to actually building ~4 days into the calendar then tacking on useless half days in June. The latter benefits no one. Starting a few days earlier in August would provide an ADDITIONAL benefit for students taking AP classes while providing more schedule certianty during a year of average snowfall.

+1. This. My kids aren’t AP age yet, but even for my younger kids, I would rather they return to school earlier in August and get an additional week of learning in rather than have them lose a week of education due to this snow day mess and all these late June half days where people say most teachers are going to be absent.

+2. Same here, kids are also younger. But I seriously don't get the opposition to tacking on a couple extra days in August, building in snow days, and actually planning a rational schedule. In this context, what's good for AP classes is good for the rest of the students as well!

-1

It’s just not necessary to remove a week from summer (bc even a mid-week start would take away a week) when you can:
- convert transition day to a 1/2 day the week prior
- get rid of religious holidays (and provide excused absences) observed by less than 5% (includes Easter Monday - yes that means a state law change, but don’t see why that’s a heavy lift)
- convert grading full days to 2 half days

Doing all of the above would get something like 7-8 more days, but you could do some of them to get 3 snow days.
-

It's hard to take you seriously with statements like this. But I am curious which religous holidays you think are celebrated by less than 5%- maybe Eid and Diwali? Pretty positive that Easter and the Jewish holidays meet the 5% threshold.

How many grading days do teachers get? Teachers I know already do so much grading on their own time, taking away the few dedicated grading days is just crummy. Your kids would be fine going back a few days earlier.

I’m Catholic. Easter Monday is not a religious holiday. Even Good Friday should come off. It’s not a holy day of obligation, most people don’t observe those anyway, and services for GF don’t start until 3 pm anyway. It’s really dumb that these are state mandated holidays.

[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:So seniors and senior teachers are done 5 weeks earlier!

It would be a lot better for high school students to start a week earlier in August (build in a normal amount of snow days, and if not used can end early.)

Do you have high school kids? Sports and marching band start two weeks earlier.

So they can start earlier. Geez guys, I know change is hard but your kids will adapt better than you.

That means our kids get pretty much no summer and it's an issue with working jobs. Don't your teens work? Jobs expect them to keep working as the college kids go back. Oh wait, you are priviileged and your kids don't work.

Only kids 14+ have jobs. MCPS starts at age 5, so it doesn't seem like you're considering the greater good here. And even for those 14+, you are prioritizing a summer job over teens have a schedule that would give them 180 days of education that would equip them to be qualified for future jobs. That's your opinion. Many would disagree.

Yeah but it doesn't stop the AP crowd from trying to have the whole system designed around their schedule. Why should MCPS worry about AP testing when 80% of the students in the county aren't taking them?

I don't see anyone trying to design the "whole system" around the AP schedule. MCPS has a problem not planning for snow days when it builds its calendar. My kids aren't even in high school yet but it makes more sense to me to go back to actually building ~4 days into the calendar then tacking on useless half days in June. The latter benefits no one. Starting a few days earlier in August would provide an ADDITIONAL benefit for students taking AP classes while providing more schedule certianty during a year of average snowfall.

+1. This. My kids aren’t AP age yet, but even for my younger kids, I would rather they return to school earlier in August and get an additional week of learning in rather than have them lose a week of education due to this snow day mess and all these late June half days where people say most teachers are going to be absent.

+2. Same here, kids are also younger. But I seriously don't get the opposition to tacking on a couple extra days in August, building in snow days, and actually planning a rational schedule. In this context, what's good for AP classes is good for the rest of the students as well!

-1

It’s just not necessary to remove a week from summer (bc even a mid-week start would take away a week) when you can:
- convert transition day to a 1/2 day the week prior
- get rid of religious holidays (and provide excused absences) observed by less than 5% (includes Easter Monday - yes that means a state law change, but don’t see why that’s a heavy lift)
- convert grading full days to 2 half days

Doing all of the above would get something like 7-8 more days, but you could do some of them to get 3 snow days.
-

It's hard to take you seriously with statements like this. But I am curious which religous holidays you think are celebrated by less than 5%- maybe Eid and Diwali? Pretty positive that Easter and the Jewish holidays meet the 5% threshold.

How many grading days do teachers get? Teachers I know already do so much grading on their own time, taking away the few dedicated grading days is just crummy. Your kids would be fine going back a few days earlier.

I’m Catholic. Easter Monday is not a religious holiday. Even Good Friday should come off. It’s not a holy day of obligation, most people don’t observe those anyway, and services for GF don’t start until 3 pm anyway. It’s really dumb that these are state mandated holidays.

Interesting. Easter Monday is a public holiday pretty much everywhere in Europe, including the heavily Catholic countries.

Anyway, is there an actual proposal at the state level to get rid of the mandated day off? It seems pointless to argue about until there is.

[Anonymous]

100% agree Eater Monday law should be changed to allow school, and Good Friday too. Apparently a European thing and I wonder when and how this law passed. Seems like a relic. And I’m Catholic too. I asked family with rural conservative roots and they also hadn’t ever heard of having that Monday off. Is there something cultural that happens somewhere in Maryland?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The excused absences for religious holidays argument is kind of difficult because I don't think we can legally require families and students to state their religious beliefs. As a teacher I am pretty sure I can get in a lot of trouble if I asked students to prove they observed a religious holiday in order to get an excused absence or extension on an assignment.

For sure, it should be a no questions asked policy.

As a teacher, why should I schedule any instruction to be done on those days knowing that I will have to excuse and reteach it to an undetermined amount of students each time? You can try to tell me that I'm being lazy but show me anyone who is willing to do a job twice just for the hell of it.

For the hell of it? You’d be paid on both of those days to provide instruction. You’d be teaching a different set of students the second time, even if you’re teaching the same content.

[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:So seniors and senior teachers are done 5 weeks earlier!

It would be a lot better for high school students to start a week earlier in August (build in a normal amount of snow days, and if not used can end early.)

Do you have high school kids? Sports and marching band start two weeks earlier.

So they can start earlier. Geez guys, I know change is hard but your kids will adapt better than you.

That means our kids get pretty much no summer and it's an issue with working jobs. Don't your teens work? Jobs expect them to keep working as the college kids go back. Oh wait, you are priviileged and your kids don't work.

Only kids 14+ have jobs. MCPS starts at age 5, so it doesn't seem like you're considering the greater good here. And even for those 14+, you are prioritizing a summer job over teens have a schedule that would give them 180 days of education that would equip them to be qualified for future jobs. That's your opinion. Many would disagree.

Yeah but it doesn't stop the AP crowd from trying to have the whole system designed around their schedule. Why should MCPS worry about AP testing when 80% of the students in the county aren't taking them?

I don't see anyone trying to design the "whole system" around the AP schedule. MCPS has a problem not planning for snow days when it builds its calendar. My kids aren't even in high school yet but it makes more sense to me to go back to actually building ~4 days into the calendar then tacking on useless half days in June. The latter benefits no one. Starting a few days earlier in August would provide an ADDITIONAL benefit for students taking AP classes while providing more schedule certianty during a year of average snowfall.

+1. This. My kids aren’t AP age yet, but even for my younger kids, I would rather they return to school earlier in August and get an additional week of learning in rather than have them lose a week of education due to this snow day mess and all these late June half days where people say most teachers are going to be absent.

+2. Same here, kids are also younger. But I seriously don't get the opposition to tacking on a couple extra days in August, building in snow days, and actually planning a rational schedule. In this context, what's good for AP classes is good for the rest of the students as well!

-1

It’s just not necessary to remove a week from summer (bc even a mid-week start would take away a week) when you can:
- convert transition day to a 1/2 day the week prior
- get rid of religious holidays (and provide excused absences) observed by less than 5% (includes Easter Monday - yes that means a state law change, but don’t see why that’s a heavy lift)
- convert grading full days to 2 half days

Doing all of the above would get something like 7-8 more days, but you could do some of them to get 3 snow days.
-

It's hard to take you seriously with statements like this. But I am curious which religous holidays you think are celebrated by less than 5%- maybe Eid and Diwali? Pretty positive that Easter and the Jewish holidays meet the 5% threshold.

How many grading days do teachers get? Teachers I know already do so much grading on their own time, taking away the few dedicated grading days is just crummy. Your kids would be fine going back a few days earlier.

I’m Catholic. Easter Monday is not a religious holiday. Even Good Friday should come off. It’s not a holy day of obligation, most people don’t observe those anyway, and services for GF don’t start until 3 pm anyway. It’s really dumb that these are state mandated holidays.

I don’t majorly disagree or anything but our church has noon services for Good Friday (not Catholic, but Protestants observe Good Friday!). All churches are different.

[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:So seniors and senior teachers are done 5 weeks earlier!

It would be a lot better for high school students to start a week earlier in August (build in a normal amount of snow days, and if not used can end early.)

Do you have high school kids? Sports and marching band start two weeks earlier.

So they can start earlier. Geez guys, I know change is hard but your kids will adapt better than you.

That means our kids get pretty much no summer and it's an issue with working jobs. Don't your teens work? Jobs expect them to keep working as the college kids go back. Oh wait, you are priviileged and your kids don't work.

Only kids 14+ have jobs. MCPS starts at age 5, so it doesn't seem like you're considering the greater good here. And even for those 14+, you are prioritizing a summer job over teens have a schedule that would give them 180 days of education that would equip them to be qualified for future jobs. That's your opinion. Many would disagree.

Yeah but it doesn't stop the AP crowd from trying to have the whole system designed around their schedule. Why should MCPS worry about AP testing when 80% of the students in the county aren't taking them?

I don't see anyone trying to design the "whole system" around the AP schedule. MCPS has a problem not planning for snow days when it builds its calendar. My kids aren't even in high school yet but it makes more sense to me to go back to actually building ~4 days into the calendar then tacking on useless half days in June. The latter benefits no one. Starting a few days earlier in August would provide an ADDITIONAL benefit for students taking AP classes while providing more schedule certianty during a year of average snowfall.

+1. This. My kids aren’t AP age yet, but even for my younger kids, I would rather they return to school earlier in August and get an additional week of learning in rather than have them lose a week of education due to this snow day mess and all these late June half days where people say most teachers are going to be absent.

+2. Same here, kids are also younger. But I seriously don't get the opposition to tacking on a couple extra days in August, building in snow days, and actually planning a rational schedule. In this context, what's good for AP classes is good for the rest of the students as well!

-1

It’s just not necessary to remove a week from summer (bc even a mid-week start would take away a week) when you can:
- convert transition day to a 1/2 day the week prior
- get rid of religious holidays (and provide excused absences) observed by less than 5% (includes Easter Monday - yes that means a state law change, but don’t see why that’s a heavy lift)
- convert grading full days to 2 half days

Doing all of the above would get something like 7-8 more days, but you could do some of them to get 3 snow days.
-

It's hard to take you seriously with statements like this. :lol: But I am curious which religous holidays you think are celebrated by less than 5%- maybe Eid and Diwali? Pretty positive that Easter and the Jewish holidays meet the 5% threshold.

How many grading days do teachers get? Teachers I know already do so much grading on their own time, taking away the few dedicated grading days is just crummy. Your kids would be fine going back a few days earlier.

I’m Catholic. Easter Monday is not a religious holiday. Even Good Friday should come off. It’s not a holy day of obligation, most people don’t observe those anyway, and services for GF don’t start until 3 pm anyway. It’s really dumb that these are state mandated holidays.

Interesting. Easter Monday is a public holiday pretty much everywhere in Europe, including the heavily Catholic countries.

Anyway, is there an actual proposal at the state level to get rid of the mandated day off? It seems pointless to argue about until there is.

Easter Monday is a day most things in the UK are closed too. Is it really a Catholic thing? (I truly don’t know.)

[Anonymous]

This inspired me to go read up on Easter Monday lol. DH grew up in Chicago and says the Polish tradition of dumping water on eachother was very much a thing!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Monday

It is curious that MD is one of the few states that mandates the day off.