Presenting a mock 23-24 calendar based on DCUM's preference for 5-day weeks

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SOLs are complete in May (including retakes). We are in school till mid June.

Sure. I would be happy with an early August start and a beginning of June stop.
But also, consider some of the seniors who need to pass an SOL to graduate; they graduate at the beginning of June about 2 weeks before the end of school for everyone else.

How about we stop taking so many random days off during the school year. The reason we go so late and because of VA law for having 180 days. You all need to care that a good 14 of those days don't teach your kids anything. They're just there to satisfy this law.

But I (and many others) do not want a 3 month summer. Personally, I would prefer a fall break, a Thanksgiving break, a winter break, a spring break, and an 8 week summer.

3 month summer is basically 12 wks. We currently have a 10 week summer . Main thing is to have majority of school be actual school. Not 2 weeks in June when no school happens. just babysittting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SOLs are complete in May (including retakes). We are in school till mid June.

Sure. I would be happy with an early August start and a beginning of June stop.
But also, consider some of the seniors who need to pass an SOL to graduate; they graduate at the beginning of June about 2 weeks before the end of school for everyone else.

How about we stop taking so many random days off during the school year. The reason we go so late and because of VA law for having 180 days. You all need to care that a good 14 of those days don't teach your kids anything. They're just there to satisfy this law.

But I (and many others) do not want a 3 month summer. Personally, I would prefer a fall break, a Thanksgiving break, a winter break, a spring break, and an 8 week summer.

3 month summer is basically 12 wks. We currently have a 10 week summer . Main thing is to have majority of school be actual school. Not 2 weeks in June when no school happens. just babysittting.

The last week of school is not going to be academic heavy for kids because it is the last week of school. The kids are anticipating summer and the material for the year has been taught. The second to last week is mainly wrap up. I know my kid is ES is bringing home completed projects that week and taking his last tests for math and the like.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why Yom Kippur but not the other religious holidays?

The other religious holidays are on the weekend during the 2023/2024 school year. I believe the school board wants to keep these 5 days off:
Rosh Hashanah
Yom Kippur
Diwali
Christmas
Eid

Hopefully there is less drama with making the calendar.

Except spring break/Good Friday/Easter issues.

Spring break needs to coordinate with all the other northern Virginia districts, whether it includes Easter or not.

Having it on its own special week not coinciding with any of the surrounding districts was a nightmare for teachers and resulted in lots of subs the weel all the other districts had their spring break, so a wasted week for students.

I disagree. It wasn't a nightmare for many people. Inconvenient, yes. But so are lots of other factors.

Maybe your school was better off but the many emails from central office indicated a serious problem. Some teachers I know brought kids to school, and others had to sub in other classes during their planning periods. They won’t do that again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why Yom Kippur but not the other religious holidays?

The other religious holidays are on the weekend during the 2023/2024 school year. I believe the school board wants to keep these 5 days off:
Rosh Hashanah
Yom Kippur
Diwali
Christmas
Eid

Hopefully there is less drama with making the calendar.

Except spring break/Good Friday/Easter issues.

Spring break needs to coordinate with all the other northern Virginia districts, whether it includes Easter or not.

Having it on its own special week not coinciding with any of the surrounding districts was a nightmare for teachers and resulted in lots of subs the weel all the other districts had their spring break, so a wasted week for students.

I disagree. It wasn't a nightmare for many people. Inconvenient, yes. But so are lots of other factors.

Maybe your school was better off but the many emails from central office indicated a serious problem. Some teachers I know brought kids to school, and others had to sub in other classes during their planning periods. They won’t do that again.

This is why the community cannot significantly change the calendar -- no one will be able to agree on anything. I am an FCPS teacher. I would love for our spring break to continue to be fixed during the first week of April. It was not an issue this past year -- yes, people had to sub for one another, but we were paid for it! Yes, a very few people brought their kids to school, but that is really no different than other random days off that do not align. And certainly, there are plenty of community spring break camps that cover childcare.

I wish we could all agree on what is best, but we all have different opinions and priorities. So we have to just take what is given to us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is a lot of whining on DCUM about the number of "random" days off during the year, and the argument goes that this throws off regular routines and is difficult for working parents. I do not prescribe to this viewpoint as I think that scattered days off are better than a longer Summer Break, but I thought that I would conduct a "what-if" exercise.

This is what the school year could look like if 5-day weeks were prioritized, while staying within VA and traditional holiday guidelines. The big changes are dropping the newer holidays and aligning a Fall Break and the traditional Spring Break with the end of the quarter teacher activities. Teacher Workdays and Staff Development days would be consolidated to the end of the quarters.


Quarter 1: 47 days. Schools starts Monday, August 28th. Days off include: Sept. 1st/4th (state-mandated Labor Day weekend), Oct. 9th (Indigenous).

Fall Break: Monday, Nov. 6th - Friday, Nov. 10th. Overlaps with Election and Veteran's Day.

Quarter 2: 45 days, starting Monday, Nov. 13th. Days off include: 3-day Thanksgiving break, Winter Break Thursday 12/21 to Tuesday 1/2, MLK day Monday, Jan. 15th.

Q2 Break: Thurs, Feb 2nd and Fri., Feb 3rd.

Quarter 3: 44 days, starting Mon., Feb 5th. Days off include: Mon., Feb 19th (President's)

End of Q3 and Spring Break: Mon. Apr 8th to Fri. Apr 12th (overlaps with Eid, but divorced from Easter)

Quarter 4: 44 days, starting Mon. Apr 15th. Days off include: Mon May 27th (Memorial)

End of School Year on Friday, June 14th.


The end result is 29 weeks with a full 5-day school week. That is versus 23 weeks in the current 22-23 school calendar. It doesn't really provide any advantage to eliminate Indigenous/Presidents since the quarter ends would be more difficult to maneuver around and create additional shorter weeks.

NOPE. TWO FULL WEEKS FOR WINTER BREAK OR NOTHING.
Drop the November break. People would rather have the full two weeks at Christmas rather than some random week at the beginning of November.

Also, none of this matters unless you name the 194-days that teachers have to work. Which days do teachers also have off and which days do they have to work?

I would rather have a random week off in November than two weeks at the end of December. We'd probably be ablt to fly somewhere on the cheap, which is impossible at the end of December.

You and privileged friend from page 1 can get together to plan your flights to Bora Bora. The rest of us don’t have the luxury of jet setting and would have to either pay someone to watch our kids or take time off and hang out at home. I’d rather save my days off for the holidays.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why Yom Kippur but not the other religious holidays?

The other religious holidays are on the weekend during the 2023/2024 school year. I believe the school board wants to keep these 5 days off:
Rosh Hashanah
Yom Kippur
Diwali
Christmas
Eid

Hopefully there is less drama with making the calendar.

Except spring break/Good Friday/Easter issues.

Spring break needs to coordinate with all the other northern Virginia districts, whether it includes Easter or not.

Having it on its own special week not coinciding with any of the surrounding districts was a nightmare for teachers and resulted in lots of subs the weel all the other districts had their spring break, so a wasted week for students.

I disagree. It wasn't a nightmare for many people. Inconvenient, yes. But so are lots of other factors.

Maybe your school was better off but the many emails from central office indicated a serious problem. Some teachers I know brought kids to school, and others had to sub in other classes during their planning periods. They won’t do that again.

This is why the community cannot significantly change the calendar -- no one will be able to agree on anything. I am an FCPS teacher. I would love for our spring break to continue to be fixed during the first week of April. It was not an issue this past year -- yes, people had to sub for one another, but we were paid for it! Yes, a very few people brought their kids to school, but that is really no different than other random days off that do not align. And certainly, there are plenty of community spring break camps that cover childcare.

I wish we could all agree on what is best, but we all have different opinions and priorities. So we have to just take what is given to us.

Oh, I definitely agree and would also prefer the fixed Spring Break. I just don’t think they will stray from the neighboring districts after the reaction last year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, do you have a job?

I do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, do you have a job?

Yes. OP writes calendars for schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d love to see a calendar where we aren’t in school for weeks after SOLs and end of year exams and where 4 day school weeks are a rarity not the norm.

We need to have several weeks after SOLs to allow time for retakes. End of year exams are always the last week of school for high school.

Several weeks for retakes?! How about 1 week. Any kid not tested in that period doesn't get tested. Oh well - go with the good of the majority. In secondary only motivated students will particpate in learning after major tests. Let's get real.

[Anonymous]

Not sure where (if anywhere!!) to log this feeback but VGA for English and Math 3 times a year plus SOLs is absolulutely insane. Add in state Reading Inventory, FCPS No Red Ink, and "regular" assessments of what teachers are teaching in the classroom, and kids are being testing more days than they're learning.

It's insane. Go to SB meetings. Talk to then VA DOE.

[Anonymous]

Here's another idea...

Quarter 1 -- 46 days
- Begin on 31 July and end on 4 October
- 4 day Labor Day weekend
- 2 teacher work days plus a week break 9-13 October

Quarter 2 -- 44 days
- Begin on 16 October and end on 19 December
- Off on Election Day
- 2 teacher work days plus a two week semester break 25 Dec to 5 Jan

Quarter 3 -- 46 days
- Begin on 8 January and end on 13 March
- Off on MLK Day and Presidents Day
-2 teacher work days plus a week break 18-22 March

Quarter 4 -- 44 days
- Begin on 25 March and end on 23 May
- Early release for the last 2 days of school (1/2 teacher work days)
- 1 teacher work day on 24 May

9 week summer in June and July.

How about that schedule?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here's another idea...

Quarter 1 -- 46 days
- Begin on 31 July and end on 4 October
- 4 day Labor Day weekend
- 2 teacher work days plus a week break 9-13 October

Quarter 2 -- 44 days
- Begin on 16 October and end on 19 December
- Off on Election Day
- 2 teacher work days plus a two week semester break 25 Dec to 5 Jan

Quarter 3 -- 46 days
- Begin on 8 January and end on 13 March
- Off on MLK Day and Presidents Day
-2 teacher work days plus a week break 18-22 March

Quarter 4 -- 44 days
- Begin on 25 March and end on 23 May
- Early release for the last 2 days of school (1/2 teacher work days)
- 1 teacher work day on 24 May

9 week summer in June and July.

How about that schedule?

This is literally the worst schedule ever! No one wants to start in July (!!??!), why in the world would we need a break in Oct for a week?, spring break so early sucks for anyone not flying to a warm spot, Two half days ag end of year are bad, first week of Jan off is awful - if winter break must be two weeks the extra needs to be before Xmas not the week after New Years.

[Anonymous]

This calendar can't be good for anyone this year - let alone teachers who can't possibly be able what they're expected to teach, coupled with all the beginning of school testing. There were kids in our school whose iReady (which is adaptive) went on for nearly two weeks. That's just silly to keep the rest of the class waiting. Then there was a VA test as well.

We moved my older kid to Private this year and they started the day after Labor Day and have not had a day off yet. I'm not kidding. Not one. And we're DONE June 2. They will get a one week T'Giving break, two week Winter Break, MLK, President's Day, two week Spring Break and Memorial Day.

My other kid, still in FCPS, started two weeks earlier and ends two weeks later. It seems like a waste of a week to even have school this week - off Tuesday AND Friday? How can anyone get into a rhythm?

[Anonymous]

No one can get into a rhythm. This calendar is horrific and the people who put it together are hypocrites. I will never vote for them again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's another idea...

Quarter 1 -- 46 days
- Begin on 31 July and end on 4 October
- 4 day Labor Day weekend
- 2 teacher work days plus a week break 9-13 October

Quarter 2 -- 44 days
- Begin on 16 October and end on 19 December
- Off on Election Day
- 2 teacher work days plus a two week semester break 25 Dec to 5 Jan

Quarter 3 -- 46 days
- Begin on 8 January and end on 13 March
- Off on MLK Day and Presidents Day
-2 teacher work days plus a week break 18-22 March

Quarter 4 -- 44 days
- Begin on 25 March and end on 23 May
- Early release for the last 2 days of school (1/2 teacher work days)
- 1 teacher work day on 24 May

9 week summer in June and July.

How about that schedule?

This is literally the worst schedule ever! No one wants to start in July (!!??!), why in the world would we need a break in Oct for a week?, spring break so early sucks for anyone not flying to a warm spot, Two half days ag end of year are bad, first week of Jan off is awful - if winter break must be two weeks the extra needs to be before Xmas not the week after New Years.

The breaks are timed to the end of the quarters (1.5 weeks after Q1, 2.5 weeks after Q2, and 1.5 weeks after Q3). It definitely is a change, but it aligns the year so that the semester break can occur at the Xmas/NYears time frame. Plus, it gives breaks that will be more consistent with good weather given global warming in our area. Northern Va will likely have a climate like Georgia in another 10-20 years.