DCPS 17-18 Draft Calendar Released

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids won't be back at school on the 21st. They will be back one week later. They will start on the 28th, like their cousins who live in MoCo, Minneapolis and Dallas. I know that's bad example, disrupts the class etc. But I do not care, if DCPS decides that mid-summer is a good time to go back to school.

Might want to check in with your family -- since MoCo goes back Sept 5 in 2017. Are you really going to have them miss 2 weeks of school?

Yours is a selfish decision.

Yes I know that MoCo starts 2 weeks later. They will not be late two weeks, just two weeks. Aug. 21 is still the middle of the summer.

Your kids will get 9 weeks off, same as its been the last few years. If you want more, move or go private.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids won't be back at school on the 21st. They will be back one week later. They will start on the 28th, like their cousins who live in MoCo, Minneapolis and Dallas. I know that's bad example, disrupts the class etc. But I do not care, if DCPS decides that mid-summer is a good time to go back to school.

Might want to check in with your family -- since MoCo goes back Sept 5 in 2017. Are you really going to have them miss 2 weeks of school?

Yours is a selfish decision.

Yes I know that MoCo starts 2 weeks later. They will not be late two weeks, just two weeks. Aug. 21 is still the middle of the summer.

Your kids will get 9 weeks off, same as its been the last few years. If you want more, move or go private.

I want a later start date, I will stay in DC and will continue attending public schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids won't be back at school on the 21st. They will be back one week later. They will start on the 28th, like their cousins who live in MoCo, Minneapolis and Dallas. I know that's bad example, disrupts the class etc. But I do not care, if DCPS decides that mid-summer is a good time to go back to school.

Might want to check in with your family -- since MoCo goes back Sept 5 in 2017. Are you really going to have them miss 2 weeks of school?

Yours is a selfish decision.

Yes I know that MoCo starts 2 weeks later. They will not be late two weeks, just two weeks. Aug. 21 is still the middle of the summer.

Your kids will get 9 weeks off, same as its been the last few years. If you want more, move or go private.

I want a later start date, I will stay in DC and will continue attending public schools.

Then you submit your comment and lobby DCPS in other ways (ask Gov Hogan for some pointers). But you shouldn't make your kids' teachers lives more difficult by opting out because you disagree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Apparently going to school on Fridays isn't necessary. I wish they would space the random days off together and create more long weekend or at least take some on Mondays. Classes and specials that only occur on Friday take a real hit when school is closed almost every Friday in the fall.

+1 The abundance of Fridays off has been my biggest gripe this year and I'm going to comment about it and hope others will too. Having One particular day that is often more than others really messes up schedules for things like specials. My child's arts programming is on Fridays every week and even though we have rented a costly instrument for her to play she rarely has the opportunity because of how many days they have missed. I don't so like to see the statistics on how many Fridays teachers miss because if they have professional development training and records days on Fridays I have to imagine that there is a lot of calling in sick going on.

[Anonymous]

I don't care much about Fridays off (it doesn't affect me much practically as our afterschool program is open on all of those days, so from a working parent perspective, it doesn't matter).

The long weekend over Memorial Day is stupid...why? End of school is in 2 weeks. Can we add those days to winter break?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't care much about Fridays off (it doesn't affect me much practically as our afterschool program is open on all of those days, so from a working parent perspective, it doesn't matter).

The long weekend over Memorial Day is stupid...why? End of school is in 2 weeks. Can we add those days to winter break?

I think I would mind the Fridays a little less if our aftercare was open. I get 20 days off a year. If I spend 14 of them on Fridays off, that leaves 6 to cover any sick days my kids have, plus the other school days off and not to mention the winter and spring breaks. That math doesn't add up. To cover all the days off school my husband and I would have to take all of our combined leave just on those days and pray neither of our kids or we needed to be home sick at all, ever or that one of us would need to go to the doctor or dentist ourselves and we would never have a day off all together. I used to take our kids back to the daycare they attended but the oldest aged out of that now. Getting a sitter is the only other option which gets very expensive, fast. We don't have family in the area that can cover random one off days. If the days were combined a bit more we might be able to get grandparents to plan their visits around 3 days off from school or something, which we will likely do for that weird Memorial Day cluster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't care much about Fridays off (it doesn't affect me much practically as our afterschool program is open on all of those days, so from a working parent perspective, it doesn't matter).

The long weekend over Memorial Day is stupid...why? End of school is in 2 weeks. Can we add those days to winter break?

I think I would mind the Fridays a little less if our aftercare was open. I get 20 days off a year. If I spend 14 of them on Fridays off, that leaves 6 to cover any sick days my kids have, plus the other school days off and not to mention the winter and spring breaks. That math doesn't add up. To cover all the days off school my husband and I would have to take all of our combined leave just on those days and pray neither of our kids or we needed to be home sick at all, ever or that one of us would need to go to the doctor or dentist ourselves and we would never have a day off all together. I used to take our kids back to the daycare they attended but the oldest aged out of that now. Getting a sitter is the only other option which gets very expensive, fast. We don't have family in the area that can cover random one off days. If the days were combined a bit more we might be able to get grandparents to plan their visits around 3 days off from school or something, which we will likely do for that weird Memorial Day cluster.

Work out swap days with friends - family A covers half the days off and family B does the other.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't care much about Fridays off (it doesn't affect me much practically as our afterschool program is open on all of those days, so from a working parent perspective, it doesn't matter).

The long weekend over Memorial Day is stupid...why? End of school is in 2 weeks. Can we add those days to winter break?

I think I would mind the Fridays a little less if our aftercare was open. I get 20 days off a year. If I spend 14 of them on Fridays off, that leaves 6 to cover any sick days my kids have, plus the other school days off and not to mention the winter and spring breaks. That math doesn't add up. To cover all the days off school my husband and I would have to take all of our combined leave just on those days and pray neither of our kids or we needed to be home sick at all, ever or that one of us would need to go to the doctor or dentist ourselves and we would never have a day off all together. I used to take our kids back to the daycare they attended but the oldest aged out of that now. Getting a sitter is the only other option which gets very expensive, fast. We don't have family in the area that can cover random one off days. If the days were combined a bit more we might be able to get grandparents to plan their visits around 3 days off from school or something, which we will likely do for that weird Memorial Day cluster.

your aftercare is not open at all on days off and spring/winter breaks? Sounds like maybe you should work with the PTA for better coverage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids won't be back at school on the 21st. They will be back one week later. They will start on the 28th, like their cousins who live in MoCo, Minneapolis and Dallas. I know that's bad example, disrupts the class etc. But I do not care, if DCPS decides that mid-summer is a good time to go back to school.

What? Why? You can't plan to be back for the first day of school?

Florida typically starts around this time - why not use that as your base?

And there are plenty of districts elsewhere in the country that start earlier than the 21st. Some even start the first week of August! Why does the first PP seem to think the day his or her nieces & nephew go back to school is the only acceptable one when the date of the first day of school in districts across the country has varied by quite a bit for longer than any of us have even been alive?

[Anonymous]

Is it really 14 Fridays off??? Yowsa

[Anonymous]

Do any schools with DCPS provided aftercare have coverage on days off? There is no coverage at my school on days off or half days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do any schools with DCPS provided aftercare have coverage on days off? There is no coverage at my school on days off or half days.

Nope

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids won't be back at school on the 21st. They will be back one week later. They will start on the 28th, like their cousins who live in MoCo, Minneapolis and Dallas. I know that's bad example, disrupts the class etc. But I do not care, if DCPS decides that mid-summer is a good time to go back to school.

What? Why? You can't plan to be back for the first day of school?

Florida typically starts around this time - why not use that as your base?

And there are plenty of districts elsewhere in the country that start earlier than the 21st. Some even start the first week of August! Why does the first PP seem to think the day his or her nieces & nephew go back to school is the only acceptable one when the date of the first day of school in districts across the country has varied by quite a bit for longer than any of us have even been alive?

But those school systems typically end by the end of May/beginning of June. DCPS has so many random days off that it cuts the summer short on both ends.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't care much about Fridays off (it doesn't affect me much practically as our afterschool program is open on all of those days, so from a working parent perspective, it doesn't matter).

The long weekend over Memorial Day is stupid...why? End of school is in 2 weeks. Can we add those days to winter break?

I think I would mind the Fridays a little less if our aftercare was open. I get 20 days off a year. If I spend 14 of them on Fridays off, that leaves 6 to cover any sick days my kids have, plus the other school days off and not to mention the winter and spring breaks. That math doesn't add up. To cover all the days off school my husband and I would have to take all of our combined leave just on those days and pray neither of our kids or we needed to be home sick at all, ever or that one of us would need to go to the doctor or dentist ourselves and we would never have a day off all together. I used to take our kids back to the daycare they attended but the oldest aged out of that now. Getting a sitter is the only other option which gets very expensive, fast. We don't have family in the area that can cover random one off days. If the days were combined a bit more we might be able to get grandparents to plan their visits around 3 days off from school or something, which we will likely do for that weird Memorial Day cluster.

your aftercare is not open at all on days off and spring/winter breaks? Sounds like maybe you should work with the PTA for better coverage.

Nope. Never open on any of those days. Used to be open on half days, but those were largely eliminated this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids won't be back at school on the 21st. They will be back one week later. They will start on the 28th, like their cousins who live in MoCo, Minneapolis and Dallas. I know that's bad example, disrupts the class etc. But I do not care, if DCPS decides that mid-summer is a good time to go back to school.

Might want to check in with your family -- since MoCo goes back Sept 5 in 2017. Are you really going to have them miss 2 weeks of school?

Yours is a selfish decision.

Yes I know that MoCo starts 2 weeks later. They will not be late two weeks, just two weeks. Aug. 21 is still the middle of the summer.

Your kids will get 9 weeks off, same as its been the last few years. If you want more, move or go private.

I want a later start date, I will stay in DC and will continue attending public schools.

In what universe is aug 21 the middle of the summer?