Howard County Changes Calendar: Why can't MCPS also prioritize instruction?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If the only option on the table for MCPS to make up the time is to add to the end of the school year, it is not useful time and I support the legislative efforts!

yes, vacation is more important than instruction time. /s

The instruction is of little value in late June. Instruction in MCPS is actually intense for young minds, and there's a ton of stress on High Schoolers. Students are burned out by June 20!!!

Which is why they should make the half days to full days. Makes zero sense to extend the end of the year.

Technically, the way the rules are written, moving half days to full doesn't satisfy the 180 day requirement. I guess that's why they haven't done it.

I'm with you, though. Even if it doesn't actually help MCPS legally (in terms of meeting minimums), it's the right thing to do given that we've lost so much instructional time. In HS, half days mean each period is so short that it really stifles instruction.

Plus, even if all they cared about what meeting the legal minimums, it would be a show of good faith that might earn an exemption to making up the snow days in June.

If MCPS would have used the three mid-year make-up days in the calendar, and switched one or more half days to full days, MSDE would have almost certainly granted a waiver for the remaining days.

MCPS just didn't want to prioritize education. They wanted to prioritize time off.

January 26 was during the storm so March 20 and April 15 are the only days before mid-June that were labeled M and occurred afterwards. The M days in the fall are meaningless. February 17 and May 27 were not given an M designation.

The state provided waivers for President's Day and Easter Monday.

Is Easter Monday allowed statewide or only a waiver for Howard County?

I don't know - but if they allowed it for Howard, they would allow it for other school systems.

Good for Hoco. Shame on MoCo. If MoCo actually cared about giving kids instructional time they would have kept March 20 as a makeup day and asked for an Easter Monday waiver like HoCo did. Then MoCo would have been targeting both Christians and Muslims for cancellation of a holiday and there wouldn’t have been the backlash occurred because MoCo only cancelled March 20 but not April 15 which has no meaning to anyone other than accountants.

[Anonymous]

I'm a teacher and would be fine with having school on March 20th, Easter Monday, and making our grading day on April 15th an early release rather than a professional day. I love the diversity we have in our area but at some point, we cannot celebrate every single holiday. Many holidays that the calendar includes are due to staff reasons. As in, if we didn't close, we wouldn't have enough staff to cover all of the classes. I don't think we're at that point with Eid. Going this far into June is a waste of time. The kids are so zoned out once the weather changes and feel the end of the year approaching.

[Anonymous]

Doesn’t Howard County still have final exams? And I believe their cell phone rules are more strict than MCPS which is a good thing

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Doesn’t Howard County still have final exams? And I believe their cell phone rules are more strict than MCPS which is a good thing

Move to Howard County. Bye!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Doesn’t Howard County still have final exams? And I believe their cell phone rules are more strict than MCPS which is a good thing

Move to Howard County. Bye!

Maybe let the adults continue the conversation without your childish tantrums

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Doesn’t Howard County still have final exams? And I believe their cell phone rules are more strict than MCPS which is a good thing

Move to Howard County. Bye!

Thanks useless McPS staffer. Glad our tax dollars paid for you to sit home for 5 days and do nothing while the rest of the county went to work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a teacher and would be fine with having school on March 20th, Easter Monday, and making our grading day on April 15th an early release rather than a professional day. I love the diversity we have in our area but at some point, we cannot celebrate every single holiday. Many holidays that the calendar includes are due to staff reasons. As in, if we didn't close, we wouldn't have enough staff to cover all of the classes. I don't think we're at that point with Eid. Going this far into June is a waste of time. The kids are so zoned out once the weather changes and feel the end of the year approaching.

Apparently your teacher’s union was not fine to have your April 15 professional day be used as a makeup day. If you were fine with it, you could have advocated for it with your union rep, rather than shortchanging kids an education by 5 days this year

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a teacher and would be fine with having school on March 20th, Easter Monday, and making our grading day on April 15th an early release rather than a professional day. I love the diversity we have in our area but at some point, we cannot celebrate every single holiday. Many holidays that the calendar includes are due to staff reasons. As in, if we didn't close, we wouldn't have enough staff to cover all of the classes. I don't think we're at that point with Eid. Going this far into June is a waste of time. The kids are so zoned out once the weather changes and feel the end of the year approaching.

Apparently your teacher’s union was not fine to have your April 15 professional day be used as a makeup day. If you were fine with it, you could have advocated for it with your union rep, rather than shortchanging kids an education by 5 days this year

Why in the world would you lash out at a teacher like that, especially since the person was advocating for using the April 15 professional day? The things people say about teachers on this forum are often appalling. Individual teachers, and even the union, does not have a say in the calendar. Actually MCEA was advocating to use April 15 in this case, the board and superintendent refused to use make-up day during the school year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Doesn’t Howard County still have final exams? And I believe their cell phone rules are more strict than MCPS which is a good thing

Move to Howard County. Bye!

Thanks useless McPS staffer. Glad our tax dollars paid for you to sit home for 5 days and do nothing while the rest of the county went to work.

+1 These people are like MAGA cults who say, "Leave if you don't like the US", rather than listening and fixing the issues. These types of people are the problem with MCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Same parents here whining are the same that think it’s okay to pull their kid for a week for vacation in February because it’s cheaper. Just shut up.

I have never taken my kids out for vacation. They have actually made a comment to me asking how come we never did that.

I think it's shameful that MCPS is short changing kids' instruction time.

[Anonymous]

Education isn't about instructional minutes. Its about culture. Using the hundreds of hours we already have well. That's what MoCo needs to fix

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Education isn't about instructional minutes. Its about culture. Using the hundreds of hours we already have well. That's what MoCo needs to fix

You're not wrong, but the fewer hours there are, the more significant those changes would need to be. MCPS doesn't have a successful track record with those kinds of changes, either.

Simply holding the nationwide standard of 180 school days is apparently a stretch goal for MCPS. I think we need to start there before attempting more difficult changes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In light of the large number of snow days this year, the Howard County Board of Education made the responsible decision to adjust their calendar to prioritize instruction during the school year. They applied for a waiver to hold school on Easter Monday and converted some half days to full days (see attached link) so that they can make up the time and still end the school year by June 18. Why in the world can't the MCPS Board of Education do the same?

https://news.hcpss.org/news-posts/2026/02/board-approves-adjustments-to-2025-2026-school-year-calendar/

If we can’t have school on Eid when it was planned as a make up day all along, we definitely can’t have it on Easter Monday

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In light of the large number of snow days this year, the Howard County Board of Education made the responsible decision to adjust their calendar to prioritize instruction during the school year. They applied for a waiver to hold school on Easter Monday and converted some half days to full days (see attached link) so that they can make up the time and still end the school year by June 18. Why in the world can't the MCPS Board of Education do the same?

https://news.hcpss.org/news-posts/2026/02/board-approves-adjustments-to-2025-2026-school-year-calendar/

If we can’t have school on Eid when it was planned as a make up day all along, we definitely can’t have it on Easter Monday

+1 billion
For all the idiots asking for MCPS to have school on Easter Monday, how are you going to justify that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In light of the large number of snow days this year, the Howard County Board of Education made the responsible decision to adjust their calendar to prioritize instruction during the school year. They applied for a waiver to hold school on Easter Monday and converted some half days to full days (see attached link) so that they can make up the time and still end the school year by June 18. Why in the world can't the MCPS Board of Education do the same?

https://news.hcpss.org/news-posts/2026/02/board-approves-adjustments-to-2025-2026-school-year-calendar/

If we can’t have school on Eid when it was planned as a make up day all along, we definitely can’t have it on Easter Monday

+1 billion
For all the idiots asking for MCPS to have school on Easter Monday, how are you going to justify that?

I’m not Christian. Please enlighten me. Who celebrates Easter Monday and what is it that happens? I was under the impression that Easter is celebrated on Sunday.