How DO we get the calendar changed?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have had it with the FCPS calendar. The days off have gotten totally out off hand. At some point FCPS decided it need to celebrate EVERY possibly , religious and non religious holiday under the sun.
It is out of control.

Throw in all the weather delays and closing and kids are never in school. I know, I know, but they still meet their hours and are above the VA standard. Sure, who cares when it come to elementary, but HS teachers, especially, those teaching AP classes plan their year around having a certain number of days of school, and given that most AP exams are early May they already have a condensed timeline. Elementary parents come back to the conversation with your kid in in HS and school actually matters. Why not have a higher bar and if there aren't weather related closing we get more instruction.

Can you provide any actual data to support your points?

Are SOL scores lower overall?

High School students have already taken the Writing SOL or the Business Writing Work Keys exam. Are these scores lower than other years?

Are graduation rates declining?

Are FCPS students being accepted into colleges at a lower rate?

Are students being held back at a higher rate?

Are reading levels dropping overall?

Are AP scores lower than in previous years? My child's AP teacher told her that they will have 3-4 weeks of pure review before her upcoming AP exam.

The public school system is there to educate your child, not warehouse them at your convenience. If you can not PROVE (with statistics and data) that the calendar is having an detrimental effect on students ACADEMICALLY, there is no real argument to change the calendar outside of personal preference.

IEP kids aren't getting their services.
Is that not enough?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You need to write your school board members and then you need to engage them where they care which is politics.

All of the schoolboard members are liberal and many are progressive. This calendar is *not* progressive and disproportionately impacts lower-income and dual-working families. Women and hourly workers are supposed to be constituencies democrats care about. So raise the issue with local league of women voters, canvassers/fundraisers who are trying to get support for other democratic candidates (especially if you’ve donated before) and directly ask school board members how they are contributing to the affordability agenda with their calendar choices.

It is idiotic that this is how any of this works. But COVID created the idea for many Democrats that liberals don’t mind keeping kids out of school and now its course correction.

Have you confused school with being child care? You think its primary purpose is to warehouse children?

I think schools exist to provide a public good at public expense. Has taxpayers we have a right to assume the public will be provided efficiently and effectively, and not create undue burdens on the households they are intended to serve.

What undue burdens are they creating? The calendars are published a year in advance. No one can control the weather. There are no burdens, except for maybe people who suck at managing a household. Stop thinking of school as child care. It's not.

The undue burden is on STUDENTS!!! You need to stop. The calendar is a problem. Go away, you lazy troll.

What burden, objectively, is being placed on students? I'm talking a real cognitive effect, not your emotions and feelings of the calendar. But a real statistical effect that is negative effecting them academically. What can you actually prove with data that shows a burden that is having an effect on student's learning as a whole?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have had it with the FCPS calendar. The days off have gotten totally out off hand. At some point FCPS decided it need to celebrate EVERY possibly , religious and non religious holiday under the sun.
It is out of control.

Throw in all the weather delays and closing and kids are never in school. I know, I know, but they still meet their hours and are above the VA standard. Sure, who cares when it come to elementary, but HS teachers, especially, those teaching AP classes plan their year around having a certain number of days of school, and given that most AP exams are early May they already have a condensed timeline. Elementary parents come back to the conversation with your kid in in HS and school actually matters. Why not have a higher bar and if there aren't weather related closing we get more instruction.

Can you provide any actual data to support your points?

Are SOL scores lower overall?

High School students have already taken the Writing SOL or the Business Writing Work Keys exam. Are these scores lower than other years?

Are graduation rates declining?

Are FCPS students being accepted into colleges at a lower rate?

Are students being held back at a higher rate?

Are reading levels dropping overall?

Are AP scores lower than in previous years? My child's AP teacher told her that they will have 3-4 weeks of pure review before her upcoming AP exam.

The public school system is there to educate your child, not warehouse them at your convenience. If you can not PROVE (with statistics and data) that the calendar is having an detrimental effect on students ACADEMICALLY, there is no real argument to change the calendar outside of personal preference.

What is your obsession with "warehousing kids"? I don't want my kids "warehoused". I don't' want them "warehoused" in school until June 17 when teachers stop teaching in May all because we have to make the week of memorial day a 2 day week because of yet another religious holiday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Someone needs to get the Media involved!!!

I hope this is posted to be funny because it made me chuckle. But just in case it isn't because I know how stupid some DCUMs could be, if you haven't noticed, the media reports the school closings, delays, and early dismissals, so I'm pretty sure they are aware of these things.

Clearly you are the stupid one. The media can bring light to the overall effect this is having on families and students. In addition, the media certainly doesn't report all the other routine closures FCPS has nor does it report on how they close for every single religious holiday known to man!

If you're ok, you're not paying attention!

They don't report on those things because it's not news. Schools set their calendars and move along. The news has much bigger issues to report.

I think you’re wrong, the decline of Fairfax is system is news because it used to be among the best in the country.

It is in no one‘s interests for our school to be laughingstock. Most people’s largest asset is their home, and people buy in Fairfax because of the schools. I heard a pretty damning comment at a (private) pre-K orientation event: when asked how the local elementary was a mother shrugged and said it’s fine when it’s open.

No one accepts your premise that the schools are "declining."

Not true, especially for older residents who raised their kids here. My spouse graduated from FCPS as did many of his friends. The grandparents are horrified to see what FCP has become, with grandkids in second grade, not reading, weaker math skills, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You need to write your school board members and then you need to engage them where they care which is politics.

All of the schoolboard members are liberal and many are progressive. This calendar is *not* progressive and disproportionately impacts lower-income and dual-working families. Women and hourly workers are supposed to be constituencies democrats care about. So raise the issue with local league of women voters, canvassers/fundraisers who are trying to get support for other democratic candidates (especially if you’ve donated before) and directly ask school board members how they are contributing to the affordability agenda with their calendar choices.

It is idiotic that this is how any of this works. But COVID created the idea for many Democrats that liberals don’t mind keeping kids out of school and now its course correction.

Have you confused school with being child care? You think its primary purpose is to warehouse children?

I think schools exist to provide a public good at public expense. Has taxpayers we have a right to assume the public will be provided efficiently and effectively, and not create undue burdens on the households they are intended to serve.

What undue burdens are they creating? The calendars are published a year in advance. No one can control the weather. There are no burdens, except for maybe people who suck at managing a household. Stop thinking of school as child care. It's not.

The undue burden is on STUDENTS!!! You need to stop. The calendar is a problem. Go away, you lazy troll.

What burden, objectively, is being placed on students? I'm talking a real cognitive effect, not your emotions and feelings of the calendar. But a real statistical effect that is negative effecting them academically. What can you actually prove with data that shows a burden that is having an effect on student's learning as a whole?

No one here needs to do your googling for you. If you’re curious, just take a quick look at the relationship between declining household, income, and academic outputs. If you create a greater financial burden on students families, you lower their outcomes. This has been settled science since the 60s.

Conversely, show the academic benefit to a schedule like this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have had it with the FCPS calendar. The days off have gotten totally out off hand. At some point FCPS decided it need to celebrate EVERY possibly , religious and non religious holiday under the sun.
It is out of control.

Throw in all the weather delays and closing and kids are never in school. I know, I know, but they still meet their hours and are above the VA standard. Sure, who cares when it come to elementary, but HS teachers, especially, those teaching AP classes plan their year around having a certain number of days of school, and given that most AP exams are early May they already have a condensed timeline. Elementary parents come back to the conversation with your kid in in HS and school actually matters. Why not have a higher bar and if there aren't weather related closing we get more instruction.

Can you provide any actual data to support your points?

Are SOL scores lower overall?

High School students have already taken the Writing SOL or the Business Writing Work Keys exam. Are these scores lower than other years?

Are graduation rates declining?

Are FCPS students being accepted into colleges at a lower rate?

Are students being held back at a higher rate?

Are reading levels dropping overall?

Are AP scores lower than in previous years? My child's AP teacher told her that they will have 3-4 weeks of pure review before her upcoming AP exam.

The public school system is there to educate your child, not warehouse them at your convenience. If you can not PROVE (with statistics and data) that the calendar is having an detrimental effect on students ACADEMICALLY, there is no real argument to change the calendar outside of personal preference.

What is your obsession with "warehousing kids"? I don't want my kids "warehoused". I don't' want them "warehoused" in school until June 17 when teachers stop teaching in May all because we have to make the week of memorial day a 2 day week because of yet another religious holiday.

People like PP studiously ignore those of us who say we would a school year with a consistent schedule + a longer summer, because it goes against their simplistic argument that parents just want to warehouse their kids.

I am not sure why this person feels such a strong need to defend FCPS. It’s like any criticism of the school district threatens their identity in some way. That or they are a loser who gets their kicks from arguing with people on a message board. Pathetic either way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have had it with the FCPS calendar. The days off have gotten totally out off hand. At some point FCPS decided it need to celebrate EVERY possibly , religious and non religious holiday under the sun.
It is out of control.

Throw in all the weather delays and closing and kids are never in school. I know, I know, but they still meet their hours and are above the VA standard. Sure, who cares when it come to elementary, but HS teachers, especially, those teaching AP classes plan their year around having a certain number of days of school, and given that most AP exams are early May they already have a condensed timeline. Elementary parents come back to the conversation with your kid in in HS and school actually matters. Why not have a higher bar and if there aren't weather related closing we get more instruction.

Can you provide any actual data to support your points?

Are SOL scores lower overall?

High School students have already taken the Writing SOL or the Business Writing Work Keys exam. Are these scores lower than other years?

Are graduation rates declining?

Are FCPS students being accepted into colleges at a lower rate?

Are students being held back at a higher rate?

Are reading levels dropping overall?

Are AP scores lower than in previous years? My child's AP teacher told her that they will have 3-4 weeks of pure review before her upcoming AP exam.

The public school system is there to educate your child, not warehouse them at your convenience. If you can not PROVE (with statistics and data) that the calendar is having an detrimental effect on students ACADEMICALLY, there is no real argument to change the calendar outside of personal preference.

IEP kids aren't getting their services.
Is that not enough?

IEP student's get service by hours either by week or by month, per their IEP and FAPE. When in school, they are receiving their legally mandated number of service hours. If the student does not receive the legal amount of services, under section 504 of the rehabilitation act of 1973, they are entitled to compensatory services, which FCPS provides. This was quite common during COVID and is still ongoing today for applicable students.

Can you provide a specific example of a student not receiving their legally mandated weekly or monthly service hours while they are IN the school building or not receiving compensatory services due to them being out of the building? I'm sure a lawyer or advocate would have no problem getting, whatever example you may have, their owed services.

[Anonymous]

Sorry for the seemingly dumb question, but when we are discussing the calendar, are we talking about trying to remove days off during the school year and thus moving the last day up vs keeping the number of days off in the school year and keeping the later last day of school? Isn't that just a shell game? How is one better than the other...ACADEMICALLY. I know if has consequences for families that don't have someone that works from home but it seems like alot of people are saying the current calendar fails students academically. How does removing some of the days off and moving the last day up improve things? Thank you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sorry for the seemingly dumb question, but when we are discussing the calendar, are we talking about trying to remove days off during the school year and thus moving the last day up vs keeping the number of days off in the school year and keeping the later last day of school? Isn't that just a shell game? How is one better than the other...ACADEMICALLY. I know if has consequences for families that don't have someone that works from home but it seems like alot of people are saying the current calendar fails students academically. How does removing some of the days off and moving the last day up improve things? Thank you.

+1. This is a great point. If FCPS removes lets say 10 holidays, they'll just reduce them off the end of the school year. Under no circumstance would they extend it (would actually cost parents money via taxes to operate the school additional days). Parent's would still have to pay/be responsible for those 10 days. Robbing Peter to pay Paul.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You need to write your school board members and then you need to engage them where they care which is politics.

All of the schoolboard members are liberal and many are progressive. This calendar is *not* progressive and disproportionately impacts lower-income and dual-working families. Women and hourly workers are supposed to be constituencies democrats care about. So raise the issue with local league of women voters, canvassers/fundraisers who are trying to get support for other democratic candidates (especially if you’ve donated before) and directly ask school board members how they are contributing to the affordability agenda with their calendar choices.

It is idiotic that this is how any of this works. But COVID created the idea for many Democrats that liberals don’t mind keeping kids out of school and now its course correction.

Have you confused school with being child care? You think its primary purpose is to warehouse children?

I think schools exist to provide a public good at public expense. Has taxpayers we have a right to assume the public will be provided efficiently and effectively, and not create undue burdens on the households they are intended to serve.

What undue burdens are they creating? The calendars are published a year in advance. No one can control the weather. There are no burdens, except for maybe people who suck at managing a household. Stop thinking of school as child care. It's not.

The undue burden is on STUDENTS!!! You need to stop. The calendar is a problem. Go away, you lazy troll.

What burden, objectively, is being placed on students? I'm talking a real cognitive effect, not your emotions and feelings of the calendar. But a real statistical effect that is negative effecting them academically. What can you actually prove with data that shows a burden that is having an effect on student's learning as a whole?

No one here needs to do your googling for you. If you’re curious, just take a quick look at the relationship between declining household, income, and academic outputs. If you create a greater financial burden on students families, you lower their outcomes. This has been settled science since the 60s.

Conversely, show the academic benefit to a schedule like this?

To be clear, I never stated that their is an academic benefit. There are just countless people complaining that it is hurtful. Where is the actual proof of that besides their emotions and feelings?

The college acceptance rates, graduation rates, SOL scores, SAT scores, etc get released near the end of this year... we will both be able to see if the schedule is beneficial or hurtful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sorry for the seemingly dumb question, but when we are discussing the calendar, are we talking about trying to remove days off during the school year and thus moving the last day up vs keeping the number of days off in the school year and keeping the later last day of school? Isn't that just a shell game? How is one better than the other...ACADEMICALLY. I know if has consequences for families that don't have someone that works from home but it seems like alot of people are saying the current calendar fails students academically. How does removing some of the days off and moving the last day up improve things? Thank you.

It’s difficult to answer because everyone wants something different.

Some parents want school to end closer to Memorial Day because they don’t see the value of staying in school after exams. It also offsets childcare to a time of year when there are more college kids in town to support camps and other childcare services.

Others are fine with recognizing religious observances but want a calendar that supports consistent 4-5 day weeks so their younger kids can maintain some academic rhythm. The 2025-26 calendar was very bad for this, but the 2026-27 and 2027-28 calendars are much better.

So even the “fix the calendar” people are at odds.

[Anonymous]

So the real answer to the thread:

The Governance Committee will meet on Tuesday, March 17 at 3:00 p.m. and will review the school calendar.

So today, right now, you call and email your board members and you say you want to see them support revisions to the calendar. Be clear what you are looking for. Tell them you’re watching (or reviewing since it’s at 3pm) and this is a voting issue for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You need to write your school board members and then you need to engage them where they care which is politics.

All of the schoolboard members are liberal and many are progressive. This calendar is *not* progressive and disproportionately impacts lower-income and dual-working families. Women and hourly workers are supposed to be constituencies democrats care about. So raise the issue with local league of women voters, canvassers/fundraisers who are trying to get support for other democratic candidates (especially if you’ve donated before) and directly ask school board members how they are contributing to the affordability agenda with their calendar choices.

It is idiotic that this is how any of this works. But COVID created the idea for many Democrats that liberals don’t mind keeping kids out of school and now its course correction.

Have you confused school with being child care? You think its primary purpose is to warehouse children?

I think schools exist to provide a public good at public expense. Has taxpayers we have a right to assume the public will be provided efficiently and effectively, and not create undue burdens on the households they are intended to serve.

What undue burdens are they creating? The calendars are published a year in advance. No one can control the weather. There are no burdens, except for maybe people who suck at managing a household. Stop thinking of school as child care. It's not.

The undue burden is on STUDENTS!!! You need to stop. The calendar is a problem. Go away, you lazy troll.

What burden, objectively, is being placed on students? I'm talking a real cognitive effect, not your emotions and feelings of the calendar. But a real statistical effect that is negative effecting them academically. What can you actually prove with data that shows a burden that is having an effect on student's learning as a whole?

No one here needs to do your googling for you. If you’re curious, just take a quick look at the relationship between declining household, income, and academic outputs. If you create a greater financial burden on students families, you lower their outcomes. This has been settled science since the 60s.

Conversely, show the academic benefit to a schedule like this?

To be clear, I never stated that their is an academic benefit. There are just countless people complaining that it is hurtful. Where is the actual proof of that besides their emotions and feelings?

The college acceptance rates, graduation rates, SOL scores, SAT scores, etc get released near the end of this year... we will both be able to see if the schedule is beneficial or hurtful.

Lower income= worse outcomes. Settled science.

So taxing hourly workers hundreds of thousands of dollars this year in order to make sure we spend five days out at Memorial Day is, yes,
bad for students. Like so many things, it is especially bad for low income students, for whom the trade-offs are on things like healthcare, housing, and food and so who are more likely to have been left home unsupervised this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sorry for the seemingly dumb question, but when we are discussing the calendar, are we talking about trying to remove days off during the school year and thus moving the last day up vs keeping the number of days off in the school year and keeping the later last day of school? Isn't that just a shell game? How is one better than the other...ACADEMICALLY. I know if has consequences for families that don't have someone that works from home but it seems like alot of people are saying the current calendar fails students academically. How does removing some of the days off and moving the last day up improve things? Thank you.

It's been proven by many years of research that young kids do best academically and otherwise with a predictable, consistent schedule. They wake at the same time, arrive at school at the same time, and have the same learning routine consistently. This is how information is best reinforced and retained. My 3rd grader doesn't know if she's coming or going, constantly asking if there is school every day this week or not, or if she gets to come home early this day. It's disruptive to them psychologically and a barrier to learning at their best.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry for the seemingly dumb question, but when we are discussing the calendar, are we talking about trying to remove days off during the school year and thus moving the last day up vs keeping the number of days off in the school year and keeping the later last day of school? Isn't that just a shell game? How is one better than the other...ACADEMICALLY. I know if has consequences for families that don't have someone that works from home but it seems like alot of people are saying the current calendar fails students academically. How does removing some of the days off and moving the last day up improve things? Thank you.

It's been proven by many years of research that young kids do best academically and otherwise with a predictable, consistent schedule. They wake at the same time, arrive at school at the same time, and have the same learning routine consistently. This is how information is best reinforced and retained. My 3rd grader doesn't know if she's coming or going, constantly asking if there is school every day this week or not, or if she gets to come home early this day. It's disruptive to them psychologically and a barrier to learning at their best.

PP here again. Also, I have a high schooler as well as an elementary student, and while she certainly likes the extra sleep in days, we'd still prefer mostly 5-day weeks and a longer summer. First, there would be more meaningful learning before May when they have AP exams. After that time, most high school classes phone it in for the last few weeks. It's a waste of time. Also, she's found it difficult to find summer work during the very short summer, especially once you factor in a week or two that we spend at the beach. She wanted to do an internship this summer, but couldn't commit to the minimum time because FCPS summer is so short. Just seems better to have an efficient and effective school year and let families plan for summer when there are loads of camps for younger kids and learning and working opportunities for older kids, rather than have a very choppy stressful school year, then a short summer that makes it hard to have meaningful experiences.