Calendar Survey

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's with that weird split spring break option?

I might be the only person who likes that idea, but I love having Easter and spring break be separate.

Not great for camps or travel. Though I guess camps would adjust to mcps dates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:With all the return to work mandates, I wish the No School for Students aligned with federal holidays. Would there be a huge outcry if Indigenous People's Day and Veterans Day were used for Professional Development or Grading/Planning? I'd prefer to have the kids home to take them to the museums.

I agree with this — whatever you want to call the date that is Oct 13 this year, I think it’s obnoxious that MCPS skips it and then has a 4 day weekend the next weekend.

I also find not observing Veterans Day to just be rude.

I agree. But we can’t dare skip a Jewish holiday in MoCo. They need to treat non-state or federal holidays the same for all religions. Notice how they handle Diwali and Eid compared to Jewish holidays.

It's about having enough subs available to cover.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:With all the return to work mandates, I wish the No School for Students aligned with federal holidays. Would there be a huge outcry if Indigenous People's Day and Veterans Day were used for Professional Development or Grading/Planning? I'd prefer to have the kids home to take them to the museums.

I agree with this — whatever you want to call the date that is Oct 13 this year, I think it’s obnoxious that MCPS skips it and then has a 4 day weekend the next weekend.

I also find not observing Veterans Day to just be rude.

I agree. But we can’t dare skip a Jewish holiday in MoCo. They need to treat non-state or federal holidays the same for all religions. Notice how they handle Diwali and Eid compared to Jewish holidays.

Schools are open on the 2nd day of Rosh Hashana, all weekdays of Sukkot, 2nd half of Passover most years, Shavuot, etc. It's only the 1st day of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur that is guaranteed off so plenty of Jewish holidays are skipped.

[Anonymous]

Many holidays are skipped. Do away with all of them and just give "mental" or whatever they call them breaks throughout the year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's with that weird split spring break option?

It is to accomodate Passover where families might have to travel to family and also it is very difficult to eat lunch at school on Passover - most school cafeterias do not have great non-bread entree options according to my child who has had to navigate that in the past.

That accommodation isn’t made for any other holidays/religions. Think Ramadan (which I know is much longer) or even Christmas where kids haven’t been getting out of school until Xmas eve.

MCPS is almost always closed on Dec. 23. This year is a rare exception.

Just wait until they see how many staff take off the 23 this year. Hope they learn from their mistake.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Many holidays are skipped. Do away with all of them and just give "mental" or whatever they call them breaks throughout the year.

Sounds good to me. This way we can end at Memorial Day and go back after Labor Day. Bring back summer!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's with that weird split spring break option?

I might be the only person who likes that idea, but I love having Easter and spring break be separate.

Not great for camps or travel. Though I guess camps would adjust to mcps dates.

Of course they would. MCPS used to start after Labor Day. Now it doesn't. There's no camps in the last week of August in the MoCo area that I've ever seen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Having several days off in late April isn't good for HS students preparing for AP/IB exams.

The option to start 3 weeks before Labor Day is good for HS students preparing for AP/IB exams. Lots of Southern/Western states do this so that the kids look better on test scores. Their students have been in school longer by the time they take the test.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's with that weird split spring break option?

It is to accomodate Passover where families might have to travel to family and also it is very difficult to eat lunch at school on Passover - most school cafeterias do not have great non-bread entree options according to my child who has had to navigate that in the past.

That accommodation isn’t made for any other holidays/religions. Think Ramadan (which I know is much longer) or even Christmas where kids haven’t been getting out of school until Xmas eve.

MCPS is almost always closed on Dec. 23. This year is a rare exception.

Just wait until they see how many staff take off the 23 this year. Hope they learn from their mistake.

They'll be voting on next year's calendar before Dec. 23 this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What's with that weird split spring break option?

It is to accomodate Passover where families might have to travel to family and also it is very difficult to eat lunch at school on Passover - most school cafeterias do not have great non-bread entree options according to my child who has had to navigate that in the past.

That accommodation isn’t made for any other holidays/religions. Think Ramadan (which I know is much longer) or even Christmas where kids haven’t been getting out of school until Xmas eve.

MCPS is almost always closed on Dec. 23. This year is a rare exception.

Just wait until they see how many staff take off the 23 this year. Hope they learn from their mistake.
--------------------------
Passover is 8 days so there will still be school on 3 days of Passover. As for Dec 23 the schools will be ghost towns that day. They started closing annually on Dec 23 in 2021 but appeared to have trouble this year based on all the other holidays combined with Maryland's 180 day and makeup day laws.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:With all the return to work mandates, I wish the No School for Students aligned with federal holidays. Would there be a huge outcry if Indigenous People's Day and Veterans Day were used for Professional Development or Grading/Planning? I'd prefer to have the kids home to take them to the museums.

I agree with this — whatever you want to call the date that is Oct 13 this year, I think it’s obnoxious that MCPS skips it and then has a 4 day weekend the next weekend.

I also find not observing Veterans Day to just be rude.

I agree. But we can’t dare skip a Jewish holiday in MoCo. They need to treat non-state or federal holidays the same for all religions. Notice how they handle Diwali and Eid compared to Jewish holidays.

This gets argued every year. The issue is that the number of staff members in MCPS who celebrate Jewish holidays and would take the day off to observe their holiday is so large that it would impact the running of schools. Students would be combined in classes with other classes, there would not be enough coverage, and instruction would be lost for the day for the vast majority of MCPS students due to the fact that every school has several teachers that would be out. There aren’t enough subs to cover all of the absences. In order to deal with that and not lose an instructional day the days are given off so that your child’s education isn’t lost on a day that they are in school learning nothing because their teachers are not there to instruct. It has nothing to do with MCPS actually observing any holiday, or caring more about any religion.

[Anonymous]

How about 4 school days instead of five. Shorter summer break - 6 weeks or so depending on how many days needed to reach the state required # of days if there are only 4 school days/week

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How about 4 school days instead of five. Shorter summer break - 6 weeks or so depending on how many days needed to reach the state required # of days if there are only 4 school days/week

No towards a short summer.
I wouldn't be opposed to a 4 day week but there would have to be about 144 days like other 4 day week schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's with that weird split spring break option?

It is to accomodate Passover where families might have to travel to family and also it is very difficult to eat lunch at school on Passover - most school cafeterias do not have great non-bread entree options according to my child who has had to navigate that in the past.

That accommodation isn’t made for any other holidays/religions. Think Ramadan (which I know is much longer) or even Christmas where kids haven’t been getting out of school until Xmas eve.

MCPS is almost always closed on Dec. 23. This year is a rare exception.

Just wait until they see how many staff take off the 23 this year. Hope they learn from their mistake.

AND it's not typically an early release day

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's with that weird split spring break option?

It is to accomodate Passover where families might have to travel to family and also it is very difficult to eat lunch at school on Passover - most school cafeterias do not have great non-bread entree options according to my child who has had to navigate that in the past.

That accommodation isn’t made for any other holidays/religions. Think Ramadan (which I know is much longer) or even Christmas where kids haven’t been getting out of school until Xmas eve.

MCPS is almost always closed on Dec. 23. This year is a rare exception.

Just wait until they see how many staff take off the 23 this year. Hope they learn from their mistake.

AND it's not typically an early release day

Weather it's a full day or short day most people aren't showing up.