MCPS extended through June 17

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has this been officially announced?

Nope.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dont take away March 31 was a workday for teachers and a much needed day

MCPS could theoretically take this day and make it into a half day, so it would count for the 180 days. They did this about 3 years ago.

I’d be cool with that.

Not me, as it’s supposed to be a religious holiday

What religious holiday on March 31?

Eid al-fitr

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has this been officially announced?

I heard this from my principal. I'm not the OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has this been officially announced?

I heard this from my principal. I'm not the OP.

Did they make it sound like the June 17th date was an official, definite decision but just not announced publicly yet?

(I assume the denial of the waiver is true, and agree that the 17th is the most likely added date, but trying to figure out if it's enough of a sure thing that I should make camp plans accordingly, or if it's still possible they might pick a different makeup day.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard the waiver for the snow days was not approved so school will now be until Tuesday, June 17. Will Monday and Tuesday both be half days now?

Howard County was denied roo. No surprise MCPS was also. I wish we would implement more half days as the last days. In MS and HS, the kids just want to use the last full days to run amok.

With that attitude coming from their teachers, of course they are.

It's a pity we didn't use the far better make-up days that we had in the calendar. Taylor really screwed up here.

It’s not Taylor’s fault. He has to work within the confines dictated by state law, staff employment contracts, and school board approval. He was hired into a situation where there were only two built-in snow days in the calendar and the dates named as potential make-up days for any additional closures were untenable for teachers. He didn’t make those decisions; he inherited them. We were unlikely to receive a waiver to avoid having to make up the last snow day, but there was no harm in asking for one. Since it wasn’t granted, he now has to decide which make-up day he will recommend to the school from a list of less-than-ideal options. Which stakeholders should he piss off?

Except next year he's making the problem even worse by only building one snow day into the calendar.

Is think he’s hamstrung by state law, employment contracts, and the school board’s historical expansion of days off coinciding with religious holidays. He can’t make the calendar work without starting school earlier or taking away a day off on a religious holiday or failing to build in snow days. I’d vote for starting school a week earlier, but by choosing to eliminate all but one snow day, he’s avoiding pissing off any one particular constituency or at least pissing off every constituency equally instead of picking just one. If he gets lucky and we have a mild winter, no one complains. I can’t blame the new guy for picking the path of least resistance.

He took away a day to add a transition day that never existed before — kids who were transitioning to a new secondary school went to school for a half day the week before school started, and ES kids had an open house to meet their teacher. That came directly from him. He is moving in the wrong direction.

The mistake here is that the transition day isn’t being counted as an instructional day, as it should be.

Not everyone is going, and it is optional. If they want it to count, everyone would go, in which case it wouldn’t be a transition day. They should just go back to the offering any transition day the week before school starts.
Starts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard the waiver for the snow days was not approved so school will now be until Tuesday, June 17. Will Monday and Tuesday both be half days now?

Howard County was denied roo. No surprise MCPS was also. I wish we would implement more half days as the last days. In MS and HS, the kids just want to use the last full days to run amok.

With that attitude coming from their teachers, of course they are.

It's a pity we didn't use the far better make-up days that we had in the calendar. Taylor really screwed up here.

It’s not Taylor’s fault. He has to work within the confines dictated by state law, staff employment contracts, and school board approval. He was hired into a situation where there were only two built-in snow days in the calendar and the dates named as potential make-up days for any additional closures were untenable for teachers. He didn’t make those decisions; he inherited them. We were unlikely to receive a waiver to avoid having to make up the last snow day, but there was no harm in asking for one. Since it wasn’t granted, he now has to decide which make-up day he will recommend to the school from a list of less-than-ideal options. Which stakeholders should he piss off?

Except next year he's making the problem even worse by only building one snow day into the calendar.

Is think he’s hamstrung by state law, employment contracts, and the school board’s historical expansion of days off coinciding with religious holidays. He can’t make the calendar work without starting school earlier or taking away a day off on a religious holiday or failing to build in snow days. I’d vote for starting school a week earlier, but by choosing to eliminate all but one snow day, he’s avoiding pissing off any one particular constituency or at least pissing off every constituency equally instead of picking just one. If he gets lucky and we have a mild winter, no one complains. I can’t blame the new guy for picking the path of least resistance.

He took away a day to add a transition day that never existed before — kids who were transitioning to a new secondary school went to school for a half day the week before school started, and ES kids had an open house to meet their teacher. That came directly from him. He is moving in the wrong direction.

The mistake here is that the transition day isn’t being counted as an instructional day, as it should be.

No instruction will be taking place. And only some of the students will be invited to attend.

There will be more instruction taking place on the transition day than on the last day of school, which they will count as an instructional day. It doesn’t matter that all students aren’t attending. We got to count instructional days when kindergartners didn’t attend because the kindergarten teachers were holding orientation for incoming kindergartners. We count instructional days when 5th and 8th graders have an all day cruise or picnic to celebrate their promotion. We count instructional days when seniors are finished, prior to their graduations. Everybody doesn’t have to be there.

Apparently the state doesn’t agree with you. MCPS argued that it should count, and were turned down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard the waiver for the snow days was not approved so school will now be until Tuesday, June 17. Will Monday and Tuesday both be half days now?

Howard County was denied roo. No surprise MCPS was also. I wish we would implement more half days as the last days. In MS and HS, the kids just want to use the last full days to run amok.

With that attitude coming from their teachers, of course they are.

It's a pity we didn't use the far better make-up days that we had in the calendar. Taylor really screwed up here.

It’s not Taylor’s fault. He has to work within the confines dictated by state law, staff employment contracts, and school board approval. He was hired into a situation where there were only two built-in snow days in the calendar and the dates named as potential make-up days for any additional closures were untenable for teachers. He didn’t make those decisions; he inherited them. We were unlikely to receive a waiver to avoid having to make up the last snow day, but there was no harm in asking for one. Since it wasn’t granted, he now has to decide which make-up day he will recommend to the school from a list of less-than-ideal options. Which stakeholders should he piss off?

Except next year he's making the problem even worse by only building one snow day into the calendar.

Is think he’s hamstrung by state law, employment contracts, and the school board’s historical expansion of days off coinciding with religious holidays. He can’t make the calendar work without starting school earlier or taking away a day off on a religious holiday or failing to build in snow days. I’d vote for starting school a week earlier, but by choosing to eliminate all but one snow day, he’s avoiding pissing off any one particular constituency or at least pissing off every constituency equally instead of picking just one. If he gets lucky and we have a mild winter, no one complains. I can’t blame the new guy for picking the path of least resistance.

He took away a day to add a transition day that never existed before — kids who were transitioning to a new secondary school went to school for a half day the week before school started, and ES kids had an open house to meet their teacher. That came directly from him. He is moving in the wrong direction.

The mistake here is that the transition day isn’t being counted as an instructional day, as it should be.

No instruction will be taking place. And only some of the students will be invited to attend.

There will be more instruction taking place on the transition day than on the last day of school, which they will count as an instructional day. It doesn’t matter that all students aren’t attending. We got to count instructional days when kindergartners didn’t attend because the kindergarten teachers were holding orientation for incoming kindergartners. We count instructional days when 5th and 8th graders have an all day cruise or picnic to celebrate their promotion. We count instructional days when seniors are finished, prior to their graduations. Everybody doesn’t have to be there.

Apparently the state doesn’t agree with you. MCPS argued that it should count, and were turned down.

I’d love to hear the state’s reasoning on counting the final (half) day of school as an instructional day.

[Anonymous]

I have a high schooler. Can they miss those 1.5 days for international travel or will that jeopardize grades? It would mean a 1.5 week trip instead of two weeks. Trying to buy our tix.

[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:I heard the waiver for the snow days was not approved so school will now be until Tuesday, June 17. Will Monday and Tuesday both be half days now?

Howard County was denied roo. No surprise MCPS was also. I wish we would implement more half days as the last days. In MS and HS, the kids just want to use the last full days to run amok.

With that attitude coming from their teachers, of course they are.

It's a pity we didn't use the far better make-up days that we had in the calendar. Taylor really screwed up here.

It’s not Taylor’s fault. He has to work within the confines dictated by state law, staff employment contracts, and school board approval. He was hired into a situation where there were only two built-in snow days in the calendar and the dates named as potential make-up days for any additional closures were untenable for teachers. He didn’t make those decisions; he inherited them. We were unlikely to receive a waiver to avoid having to make up the last snow day, but there was no harm in asking for one. Since it wasn’t granted, he now has to decide which make-up day he will recommend to the school from a list of less-than-ideal options. Which stakeholders should he piss off?

Except next year he's making the problem even worse by only building one snow day into the calendar.

Is think he’s hamstrung by state law, employment contracts, and the school board’s historical expansion of days off coinciding with religious holidays. He can’t make the calendar work without starting school earlier or taking away a day off on a religious holiday or failing to build in snow days. I’d vote for starting school a week earlier, but by choosing to eliminate all but one snow day, he’s avoiding pissing off any one particular constituency or at least pissing off every constituency equally instead of picking just one. If he gets lucky and we have a mild winter, no one complains. I can’t blame the new guy for picking the path of least resistance.

He took away a day to add a transition day that never existed before — kids who were transitioning to a new secondary school went to school for a half day the week before school started, and ES kids had an open house to meet their teacher. That came directly from him. He is moving in the wrong direction.

The mistake here is that the transition day isn’t being counted as an instructional day, as it should be.

No instruction will be taking place. And only some of the students will be invited to attend.

There will be more instruction taking place on the transition day than on the last day of school, which they will count as an instructional day. It doesn’t matter that all students aren’t attending. We got to count instructional days when kindergartners didn’t attend because the kindergarten teachers were holding orientation for incoming kindergartners. We count instructional days when 5th and 8th graders have an all day cruise or picnic to celebrate their promotion. We count instructional days when seniors are finished, prior to their graduations. Everybody doesn’t have to be there.

Apparently the state doesn’t agree with you. MCPS argued that it should count, and were turned down.

I’d love to hear the state’s reasoning on counting the final (half) day of school as an instructional day.

1) eveyrone is required to attend (even if they don't) 2) it includes lunch

The transition day would count if it was just a 1/2 day required for everyone. But it's not, so it doesn't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a high schooler. Can they miss those 1.5 days for international travel or will that jeopardize grades? It would mean a 1.5 week trip instead of two weeks. Trying to buy our tix.

I really doubt any work will be done. Just call kid in sick if you are worried.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a high schooler. Can they miss those 1.5 days for international travel or will that jeopardize grades? It would mean a 1.5 week trip instead of two weeks. Trying to buy our tix.

That will be teacher dependent. If your kid communicates the conflict well in advance and completes all work early, most teachers would allow it. It’s not like the days were planned and we know people travel.

-HS teacher

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't take away March 31 was a workday for teachers and a much needed day

They should "hold" school March 31 and June 6 and give those teachers (and students) that need those days off an excused absence. There should be no tests or new work those days. Sounds ridiculous right? BLAME Maryland law!
Virginia school year requirements (990 hours OR 180 days) are cake! Maryland requires 1080 hours AND 180 days. Then they can end on June 13 as originally scheduled.

They can't just give teachers a day off ha

Why not? If they need time to grade they should have the day off and it's an opportunity for substitute pay. Same goes for students who observe the Eid Al Fitr if it's still that day. Some sites say it's on Sunday, March 30 so I'm not sure what is correct.

[Anonymous]

This has happened before.

Kids tend to just not go.

Kids already signed up for camp go to camp.

Kids already scheduled to travel go on vacation.

And teachers will start making fetch happen two weeks out when they ask kids who plans to be absent the last days…fueling the early mass exodus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has this been officially announced?

I heard this from my principal. I'm not the OP.

Did they make it sound like the June 17th date was an official, definite decision but just not announced publicly yet?

(I assume the denial of the waiver is true, and agree that the 17th is the most likely added date, but trying to figure out if it's enough of a sure thing that I should make camp plans accordingly, or if it's still possible they might pick a different makeup day.)

Yes, if this has been decided, why haven't they made an announcement?

[Anonymous]

Any updates on this yet?