MoCo Councilmembers who Don't Pay Attention to the School Calendar, Push Back on MCPS Using Established Make-Up Day
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Anonymous
no, that would be failing students yet another way. |
Anonymous
I call BS, it doesn’t fail students, yes it’s not as effective but kids are on screens all the time anyway. Did my kids play video games during virtual school, yes, but I stopped them when I could. Teachers can also require cameras on. It’s still better than dragging school into summer. |
Anonymous
The good Councilmembers of MoCo could have said something about how they are encouraging MCPS to prepare the "virtual learning for weather emergencies" plan, they promised to produce in 2024. It's ridiculous that their "best solution" is to apply for a waiver that just denies kids instructional time. |
Anonymous
This makes no sense. The alternative to Eid is June, not getting a waiver |
Anonymous
June is just half days, when videos are shown to kids while teachers clean out their classrooms. At least, that's what my two kids experienced last year. Teachers are done teaching, and it's particularly damaging for HS kids who need instructional time before June for AP and IB exams to compete with other kids nationally. |
Anonymous
That's not the issue. My child has a 1:1 to repeat instructions, sometimes act as a scribe, and to manage SIBs. How are they going to do that virtually? |
Anonymous
There's April 15, too. Although, we're going to need to use that to ask for the waiver. Presumably MCPS knows how to read regulations... |
Anonymous
Watch out, there are some people around here who will lecture you on planning travel when school is closed. |
Anonymous
There's a section in the virtual learning plan template for snow emergencies for the state of Maryland where each school district writes down how they will manage kids with special needs. If NYC which is 10x bigger than MCPS can manage a snow emergency virtual learning plan, and PG County which is way poorer than MCPS can manage a virtual learning plan, MCPS can too. |
Anonymous
| Public schools in Long Island only had 1 day off for this storm. Same storm. |
Anonymous
There was in the past (the data drove the Jewish holiday policies - the county didn't have sufficient substitutes to cover projected teacher absences), but MCPS demographics have changed so I don't know that it's current. I agree with previous PP that MCPS should calculate these numbers and make a policy based on them. |
Anonymous
Their school calendar policy does convey this idea, but there aren't any specific measures: Other Operational Needs and Educational Interests The Board may determine that schools should be closed at other times in furtherance of other educational interests or operational needs: a) For example, while each case must be evaluated independently, the likelihood of high absentee rates on any given day for staff and/or students, either districtwide or at a substantial portion of schools, may warrant closure of all schools if necessary to secure educational resources, promote safe school environments when it would otherwise be difficult and costly to identify and hire a sufficient number of substitute teachers, and/or avoid disruption to the delivery of effective and meaningful instruction. b) To close schools districtwide on any day other than those mandated by Maryland law, the district must establish that a school closure furthers a secular purpose, such as any of the operational needs or educational interests enumerated above. A student’s observance of a religious holiday is an excused absence under Maryland law. |
Anonymous
NYC public schools had zero days off. Monday was virtual (and unlike MCPS NYC has a virtual learning plan in place for weather emergencies), and then back to school on Tuesday. Long Island went back fast, but the district where I have family friends, they have built into their snow day policy that the first day is off, and then they automatically pivot to virtual if the roads aren't clear. It's not like they don't know how to do virtual after more than a year of COVID. They also told kids to make sure to bring their laptops home the Friday before the storm, unlike MCPS. |
Anonymous
+1 I think to reflexively say that there must be 3 Jewish holidays on the calendar because it's damaging to staffing should be something grounded in data. I saw some posts on one of the MoCo facebook sites that that there are a good number of Muslim MCPS staff members, perhaps not as many in teaching roles, but in facilities, bus drivers etc. It shouldn't just be that certain holidays are days off are because people think there are a lot of Jewish staff members and not a lot of Muslim staff members. That said, MCPS announced that Eid would be the makeup day on its calendar over a year ago. No one complained then (or if they did, they were overruled), it's stupid for the Councilmembers to come in now and try to overrule the process that occurred, in a way that shortchanges kids instructional time. |
Anonymous
Nobody wants that Monday after Easter. That's a dumb old state law that they are too lazy to change. Most people don't want spring break to line up with Easter, either, but we are also stuck with that due to the dumb state law that requires both Good Friday and Easter Monday off -- so they save a day by making spring break one of those two weeks. I think a lot of Christians would prefer that spring break NOT overlap with their major religious holiday, since it sets you up for an unpleasant duel between the religious/family obligations and actually taking a fun spring break. Closing the last week of the year doesn't have a lot to do with religion -- that's just the week that most people in the entire country take off work. |