FCPS Early Release Mondays

[Anonymous]

There was a topic to discuss the possibility of 4 more days off of school because of the latest professional training that got added on a few weeks ago. This shouldn’t be a huge surprise.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Early release on Fri or late start Mondays are much better. Early release Mondays are the pits.

It sucks for parents, but this is the only way to get teachers to show up. Otherwise they'd just be taking long weekends.

You are so right. This encourages poor attendance. Parents will plan weekend trips on those Mondays of 3 hours.

That makes most sense. But sucks for parents so much. I wonder why they couldn't do full days, so we could at least plan a long weekend somewhere fun and educational.

We're going to take advantage and take long weekends. There will be NO learning on 3 hour early release days, none.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Early release on Fri or late start Mondays are much better. Early release Mondays are the pits.

It sucks for parents, but this is the only way to get teachers to show up. Otherwise they'd just be taking long weekends.

You are so right. This encourages poor attendance. Parents will plan weekend trips on those Mondays of 3 hours.

That makes most sense. But sucks for parents so much. I wonder why they couldn't do full days, so we could at least plan a long weekend somewhere fun and educational.

We're going to take advantage and take long weekends. There will be NO learning on 3 hour early release days, none.

I suppose you would have taken every Monday off when they were all early release a few years ago?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Enjoy the new Union BS

The state of VA is requiring a ton of PD. This has nothing to do with unions. Every district will need to make a plan to give their teachers time to complete this REQUIRED training.

All of this Professional Development for teachers is a farce. Why do teachers need so much more training than say, lawyers or doctors? What is it that they are learning to do when teaching elementary school children the **same things** year after year?

[Anonymous]

There is no justification not to make this Friday. If teachers seriously have absenteeism issues at a rate that makes that unworkable than fix *that* problem. Time away from school, fine, that should be prioritized to the convenience of parents who were not consulted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What the hell? Where was the public notice on this???

The OP said they got an email.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should go back to every Monday being an early release day and reduce the number of random full days they have off.

(We figured out childcare in that era, you can too.)

Seriously? This is such a stupid argument. The half day mondays were a problem for 2 working parents, which there are more of now than there were a decade ago.

Why can't we just have whole days at places in the calendar where they're chunked? two-three day mini breaks instead of one day a week for 6 weeks at a time or whatever nonsense we've had the last couple of years.

DP. No, the early release Mondays were not a problem for 2 working parents or for SAHPs. Aftercare, whether public or private, would cover them. Only WFH parents may have to be flexible, which they can do.

What a privileged remark. Aftercare isn’t free.

Aftercare at SACC is only $200/mo. If you can’t get in, local martial arts places are only $300 to $400/mo.

Ohhhh, only $400 per child? I can easily afford an extra $1000 per month for my 3 children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should go back to every Monday being an early release day and reduce the number of random full days they have off.

(We figured out childcare in that era, you can too.)

Seriously? This is such a stupid argument. The half day mondays were a problem for 2 working parents, which there are more of now than there were a decade ago.

Why can't we just have whole days at places in the calendar where they're chunked? two-three day mini breaks instead of one day a week for 6 weeks at a time or whatever nonsense we've had the last couple of years.

DP. No, the early release Mondays were not a problem for 2 working parents or for SAHPs. Aftercare, whether public or private, would cover them. Only WFH parents may have to be flexible, which they can do.

What a privileged remark. Aftercare isn’t free.

Aftercare at SACC is only $200/mo. If you can’t get in, local martial arts places are only $300 to $400/mo.

Aftercare is not school. If they’re really saying the kids didn’t need 21 instructional hours— which I would need to see data to believe— then take out four full school days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should go back to every Monday being an early release day and reduce the number of random full days they have off.

(We figured out childcare in that era, you can too.)

Seriously? This is such a stupid argument. The half day mondays were a problem for 2 working parents, which there are more of now than there were a decade ago.

Why can't we just have whole days at places in the calendar where they're chunked? two-three day mini breaks instead of one day a week for 6 weeks at a time or whatever nonsense we've had the last couple of years.

DP. No, the early release Mondays were not a problem for 2 working parents or for SAHPs. Aftercare, whether public or private, would cover them. Only WFH parents may have to be flexible, which they can do.

What a privileged remark. Aftercare isn’t free.

Aftercare at SACC is only $200/mo. If you can’t get in, local martial arts places are only $300 to $400/mo.

Aftercare is not school. If they’re really saying the kids didn’t need 21 instructional hours— which I would need to see data to believe— then take out four full school days.

The email clearly noted that the early releases only impact snow days, not instructional hours. Which makes sense. When they took away early release Mondays before, they added snow days, it didn't change the calendar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Enjoy the new Union BS

The state of VA is requiring a ton of PD. This has nothing to do with unions. Every district will need to make a plan to give their teachers time to complete this REQUIRED training.

All of this Professional Development for teachers is a farce. Why do teachers need so much more training than say, lawyers or doctors? What is it that they are learning to do when teaching elementary school children the **same things** year after year?

Huh? Lawyers and doctors have continuing education requirements.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should go back to every Monday being an early release day and reduce the number of random full days they have off.

(We figured out childcare in that era, you can too.)

Seriously? This is such a stupid argument. The half day mondays were a problem for 2 working parents, which there are more of now than there were a decade ago.

Why can't we just have whole days at places in the calendar where they're chunked? two-three day mini breaks instead of one day a week for 6 weeks at a time or whatever nonsense we've had the last couple of years.

DP. No, the early release Mondays were not a problem for 2 working parents or for SAHPs. Aftercare, whether public or private, would cover them. Only WFH parents may have to be flexible, which they can do.

What a privileged remark. Aftercare isn’t free.

Aftercare at SACC is only $200/mo. If you can’t get in, local martial arts places are only $300 to $400/mo.

SACC aftercare is $459/month per kid (for HHI > $132K).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Enjoy the new Union BS

The state of VA is requiring a ton of PD. This has nothing to do with unions. Every district will need to make a plan to give their teachers time to complete this REQUIRED training.

All of this Professional Development for teachers is a farce. Why do teachers need so much more training than say, lawyers or doctors? What is it that they are learning to do when teaching elementary school children the **same things** year after year?

Huh? Lawyers and doctors have continuing education requirements.

Not anywhere near as many days of continuing education as teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is no justification not to make this Friday. If teachers seriously have absenteeism issues at a rate that makes that unworkable than fix *that* problem. Time away from school, fine, that should be prioritized to the convenience of parents who were not consulted.

Why would Friday be different than Monday? Did you know that APS (which tbh does elementary school better than FCPS) has early release Wednesday? They didn't get rid of theirs when FCPS did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Enjoy the new Union BS

The state of VA is requiring a ton of PD. This has nothing to do with unions. Every district will need to make a plan to give their teachers time to complete this REQUIRED training.

All of this Professional Development for teachers is a farce. Why do teachers need so much more training than say, lawyers or doctors? What is it that they are learning to do when teaching elementary school children the **same things** year after year?

Huh? Lawyers and doctors have continuing education requirements.

Not anywhere near as many days of continuing education as teachers.

Lawyers need 12 hours each year, right? This FCPS change will provide 21 hours, in addition to the current PD hours.

[Anonymous]

This is tough for the single working mom, trying to keep everyone safe and learning.