Hogan's Exec Order and the last day of school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The situation isn’t all on Hogan, MCPS has new days off such as for the Eid holiday. Between the late start, holidays and staff days, the MCPS calendar is a mess.

Maybe MCPS could start after all the religious hollidays in September so students can focus on learning. Just add one or two hours to each school day.

What you don’t like have three 4 day weeks in a row in Sept so the 7% Jewish population in MCPS can have 2 mid week holidays off, while 93% have to pay for daycare? Seems reasonable to me.

No, and I don't like paying for daycare on the state-mandated Good Friday and Easter Monday holidays, either. But here we are.

I presume you want school to be open on Christmas also?

You're comparing Christmas to the Monday after Easter.

We always get the whole week of Christmas off, so that's not so different from the school days before and after Easter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Exec Order says school has to end by June 15. Last spring, the legislature passed a law that allows the school year to extend beyond that if additional days are needed because of inclement weather (so, snow make-up days can go beyond June 15, but the regular calendar can't).

MCPS did not adjust the previously approved 2018-19 calendar (this year's) after the legislation passed, which is why we aren't currently adding on days after June 15. Perhaps this is because they didn't want to change it after the lengthy approval process. Other counties did adjust their calendars after the legislation passed, which is why some of them are going beyond June 15 this year.

Next year's MCPS calendar (2019-20) actually does have makeup days listed after June 15, going out to June 22, but the planned last day of school is scheduled for June 15: https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/calendar/0218.19ct_2019-20_SchoolYearCalendar_ADOPTED.pdf

If they had, DCUM would have complained: we've made plans, they need to stick with the calendar they already approved!

But since they didn't, DCUM is complaining: why didn't they adjust the calendar?!

They had time to adjust it before this school year began, just chose not to, although the calendar was published it was still early enough that most hadn't made plans or could still change plans. Personally I feel it was politically motivated and they wanted to have the least favorable calendar possible and place blame on Hogan, hoping it would influence people's votes in November.

I agree. The legislation passed last Spring allowing them to extend without a waiver. Frederick and Howard took advantage of that. MoCo could have too.. but didn't.

Does anyone know why they didn't?

One theory is it was to make Hogan look bad, since MCPS was pretty vocal about being against his order.

Another is MCPS is so slow-moving and rigid that making such a change later (even though the school year hadn't started) was too complicated.

I woudln't discount the second theory. Take today for example -- it's a long-planned early-release day, and as of last night, there was a change of late start due to snow. Now it would be pretty useless to have kids go to school 2 hours late, then get released 2.5 hours early.. might as well cancel school in that scenario.

What Frederick, which also had an early release day planned, announced last night that they'd do a 2- hour delayed start, but cancel the early release day and make it regular release time. MCPS said that was too "complicated" to do last minute due to contracts for use of the shcool facilities and so on.

So... MCPS can't manage to adapt while Frederick can...

That's what I think is going on. I don't think they all say it aloud, but it's the underlying issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The situation isn’t all on Hogan, MCPS has new days off such as for the Eid holiday. Between the late start, holidays and staff days, the MCPS calendar is a mess.

Maybe MCPS could start after all the religious hollidays in September so students can focus on learning. Just add one or two hours to each school day.

What you don’t like have three 4 day weeks in a row in Sept so the 7% Jewish population in MCPS can have 2 mid week holidays off, while 93% have to pay for daycare? Seems reasonable to me.

No, and I don't like paying for daycare on the state-mandated Good Friday and Easter Monday holidays, either. But here we are.

I presume you want school to be open on Christmas also?

You're comparing Christmas to the Monday after Easter.

We always get the whole week of Christmas off, so that's not so different from the school days before and after Easter.

Number of people who celebrate Christmas: lots

Number of people who celebrate The Monday After Easter: very few

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The situation isn’t all on Hogan, MCPS has new days off such as for the Eid holiday. Between the late start, holidays and staff days, the MCPS calendar is a mess.

Maybe MCPS could start after all the religious hollidays in September so students can focus on learning. Just add one or two hours to each school day.

What you don’t like have three 4 day weeks in a row in Sept so the 7% Jewish population in MCPS can have 2 mid week holidays off, while 93% have to pay for daycare? Seems reasonable to me.

1. Actually it's because MCPS can't find enough subs.

2. If you're paying for daycare for your middle-school or high-school kids, you're doing it wrong.

Yes because even though there is only 7% - there are 50% Jewish teachers and substitutes. LOL

Interesting. According to the survey,

In total, 37,400 respondents completed the survey and provided quality survey responses. The report includes results from 1,225 students, 27,177 parents, 8,155 staff members, and 843 community members.

According to MCPS:
There are 160,680 students, so 0.75% of students responded.
There are 24,246 staff, so 33.6% responded.

Of the 1/3 of staff who responded, about 15-17% said that they would take the Jewish holidays off.

When the survey came out, the county synagogues did a big push to make their congregants complete the survey. That 33.6% of the staff respondents is most probably going to have much more of the Jewish teacher subgroup than the 66.7% so that 15-17% is much more likely to be close to 5% of the total teaching population.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

According to MCPS:
There are 160,680 students, so 0.75% of students responded.
There are 24,246 staff, so 33.6% responded.

Of the 1/3 of staff who responded, about 15-17% said that they would take the Jewish holidays off.

When the survey came out, the county synagogues did a big push to make their congregants complete the survey. That 33.6% of the staff respondents is most probably going to have much more of the Jewish teacher subgroup than the 66.7% so that 15-17% is much more likely to be close to 5% of the total teaching population.

34% is a very high response rate for a survey like this.

I wonder how you know what the "county synagogues" did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

According to MCPS:
There are 160,680 students, so 0.75% of students responded.
There are 24,246 staff, so 33.6% responded.

Of the 1/3 of staff who responded, about 15-17% said that they would take the Jewish holidays off.

When the survey came out, the county synagogues did a big push to make their congregants complete the survey. That 33.6% of the staff respondents is most probably going to have much more of the Jewish teacher subgroup than the 66.7% so that 15-17% is much more likely to be close to 5% of the total teaching population.

34% is a very high response rate for a survey like this.

I wonder how you know what the "county synagogues" did.

I run an event once a week in one and saw posters and information posted. I have several friends who attend several different synagogues in the area. I know of at least 10 synagogues that were actively pushing their congregations to respond to the survey to "keep the Jewish holidays on the schedule."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

According to MCPS:
There are 160,680 students, so 0.75% of students responded.
There are 24,246 staff, so 33.6% responded.

Of the 1/3 of staff who responded, about 15-17% said that they would take the Jewish holidays off.

When the survey came out, the county synagogues did a big push to make their congregants complete the survey. That 33.6% of the staff respondents is most probably going to have much more of the Jewish teacher subgroup than the 66.7% so that 15-17% is much more likely to be close to 5% of the total teaching population.

34% is a very high response rate for a survey like this.

I wonder how you know what the "county synagogues" did.

I run an event once a week in one and saw posters and information posted. I have several friends who attend several different synagogues in the area. I know of at least 10 synagogues that were actively pushing their congregations to respond to the survey to "keep the Jewish holidays on the schedule."

So you're saying that the people who it affects actually cared enough to respond to the survey because it was important to them? And you want to find fault with that as though they did something wrong by expressing their opinion about the very thing that the survey was asking? And the people who didn't care enough to respond to the survey should somehow have their voices heard louder than the people who actually did respond? And we should assume that because people didn't respond to the survey, then they don't think that the Jewish holidays should be a day off for MCPS staff and students?

Wow, you really have an interesting line of thinking there....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I run an event once a week in one and saw posters and information posted. I have several friends who attend several different synagogues in the area. I know of at least 10 synagogues that were actively pushing their congregations to respond to the survey to "keep the Jewish holidays on the schedule."

How dare people respond to a public survey with their own opinions!

Or something.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

According to MCPS:
There are 160,680 students, so 0.75% of students responded.
There are 24,246 staff, so 33.6% responded.

Of the 1/3 of staff who responded, about 15-17% said that they would take the Jewish holidays off.

When the survey came out, the county synagogues did a big push to make their congregants complete the survey. That 33.6% of the staff respondents is most probably going to have much more of the Jewish teacher subgroup than the 66.7% so that 15-17% is much more likely to be close to 5% of the total teaching population.

34% is a very high response rate for a survey like this.

I wonder how you know what the "county synagogues" did.

I run an event once a week in one and saw posters and information posted. I have several friends who attend several different synagogues in the area. I know of at least 10 synagogues that were actively pushing their congregations to respond to the survey to "keep the Jewish holidays on the schedule."

So you're saying that the people who it affects actually cared enough to respond to the survey because it was important to them? And you want to find fault with that as though they did something wrong by expressing their opinion about the very thing that the survey was asking? And the people who didn't care enough to respond to the survey should somehow have their voices heard louder than the people who actually did respond? And we should assume that because people didn't respond to the survey, then they don't think that the Jewish holidays should be a day off for MCPS staff and students?

Wow, you really have an interesting line of thinking there....

No, you're making assumptions.

My only point was that the Jewish residents made it a point to go out and rally their support for keeping the Jewish holidays on the calendar. And since they did so, you can assume that a disproportionate number of Jewish teachers actually answered the survey. If 15-17% of those who responded said that they would take off for the Jewish holidays (1200-1300 out of 8155), it is likely to be a lower percentage of the total population that would take off the holidays in reality since those most affected would be much more likely to answer the survey. 15-17% of the total teaching population (24246) would be about 3600-4200 teachers. I think realistically it is more like about 1800-2000 staff out of 24000 or more like about 7-8% of the staff who would take off, rather than 15-17%. I think the majority of the Jewish staff were in the 1/3 of the staff who responded to the survey so it was not 15-17% of the total population that would likely be affected.

The comment at the top was the first time I had responded on this thread. I made no judgment for or against keeping the Jewish holidays on the schedule. I was only suggesting that the survey was more heavily weighted for the supporters of the Jewish holidays since they went out of their way to ask those affected to respond.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

According to MCPS:
There are 160,680 students, so 0.75% of students responded.
There are 24,246 staff, so 33.6% responded.

Of the 1/3 of staff who responded, about 15-17% said that they would take the Jewish holidays off.

When the survey came out, the county synagogues did a big push to make their congregants complete the survey. That 33.6% of the staff respondents is most probably going to have much more of the Jewish teacher subgroup than the 66.7% so that 15-17% is much more likely to be close to 5% of the total teaching population.

34% is a very high response rate for a survey like this.

I wonder how you know what the "county synagogues" did.

I run an event once a week in one and saw posters and information posted. I have several friends who attend several different synagogues in the area. I know of at least 10 synagogues that were actively pushing their congregations to respond to the survey to "keep the Jewish holidays on the schedule."

So you're saying that the people who it affects actually cared enough to respond to the survey because it was important to them? And you want to find fault with that as though they did something wrong by expressing their opinion about the very thing that the survey was asking? And the people who didn't care enough to respond to the survey should somehow have their voices heard louder than the people who actually did respond? And we should assume that because people didn't respond to the survey, then they don't think that the Jewish holidays should be a day off for MCPS staff and students?

Wow, you really have an interesting line of thinking there....

No, you're making assumptions.

My only point was that the Jewish residents made it a point to go out and rally their support for keeping the Jewish holidays on the calendar. And since they did so, you can assume that a disproportionate number of Jewish teachers actually answered the survey. If 15-17% of those who responded said that they would take off for the Jewish holidays (1200-1300 out of 8155), it is likely to be a lower percentage of the total population that would take off the holidays in reality since those most affected would be much more likely to answer the survey. 15-17% of the total teaching population (24246) would be about 3600-4200 teachers. I think realistically it is more like about 1800-2000 staff out of 24000 or more like about 7-8% of the staff who would take off, rather than 15-17%. I think the majority of the Jewish staff were in the 1/3 of the staff who responded to the survey so it was not 15-17% of the total population that would likely be affected.

The comment at the top was the first time I had responded on this thread. I made no judgment for or against keeping the Jewish holidays on the schedule. I was only suggesting that the survey was more heavily weighted for the supporters of the Jewish holidays since they went out of their way to ask those affected to respond.

I didn't realize that survey data is inaccurate and the only truly accurate data which decisions should be based upon is what you *think*. Let's make sure we keep that in mind for the next presidential election! What PP *thinks* is how the decision should be made!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

According to MCPS:
There are 160,680 students, so 0.75% of students responded.
There are 24,246 staff, so 33.6% responded.

Of the 1/3 of staff who responded, about 15-17% said that they would take the Jewish holidays off.

When the survey came out, the county synagogues did a big push to make their congregants complete the survey. That 33.6% of the staff respondents is most probably going to have much more of the Jewish teacher subgroup than the 66.7% so that 15-17% is much more likely to be close to 5% of the total teaching population.

34% is a very high response rate for a survey like this.

I wonder how you know what the "county synagogues" did.

No the PP, but it was up everywhere. It was a big to do in the Jewish community. I am positive every Jewish teacher filled that survey out who wanted those days off. I am positive many teachers who had no opinion or are too busy, didn’t bother. So we are looking at 15% of the 33% that did. So 5% of all teachers in MCPS being Jewish and wanting those days off.

Minimal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

According to MCPS:
There are 160,680 students, so 0.75% of students responded.
There are 24,246 staff, so 33.6% responded.

Of the 1/3 of staff who responded, about 15-17% said that they would take the Jewish holidays off.

When the survey came out, the county synagogues did a big push to make their congregants complete the survey. That 33.6% of the staff respondents is most probably going to have much more of the Jewish teacher subgroup than the 66.7% so that 15-17% is much more likely to be close to 5% of the total teaching population.

34% is a very high response rate for a survey like this.

I wonder how you know what the "county synagogues" did.

I run an event once a week in one and saw posters and information posted. I have several friends who attend several different synagogues in the area. I know of at least 10 synagogues that were actively pushing their congregations to respond to the survey to "keep the Jewish holidays on the schedule."

Translation: Some of my best friends are Jewish...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

No the PP, but it was up everywhere. It was a big to do in the Jewish community. I am positive every Jewish teacher filled that survey out who wanted those days off. I am positive many teachers who had no opinion or are too busy, didn’t bother. So we are looking at 15% of the 33% that did. So 5% of all teachers in MCPS being Jewish and wanting those days off.

Minimal.

No, you're doing the math wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

According to MCPS:
There are 160,680 students, so 0.75% of students responded.
There are 24,246 staff, so 33.6% responded.

Of the 1/3 of staff who responded, about 15-17% said that they would take the Jewish holidays off.

When the survey came out, the county synagogues did a big push to make their congregants complete the survey. That 33.6% of the staff respondents is most probably going to have much more of the Jewish teacher subgroup than the 66.7% so that 15-17% is much more likely to be close to 5% of the total teaching population.

34% is a very high response rate for a survey like this.

I wonder how you know what the "county synagogues" did.

No the PP, but it was up everywhere. It was a big to do in the Jewish community. I am positive every Jewish teacher filled that survey out who wanted those days off. I am positive many teachers who had no opinion or are too busy, didn’t bother. So we are looking at 15% of the 33% that did. So 5% of all teachers in MCPS being Jewish and wanting those days off.

Minimal.

Good God, get a hobby.

[Anonymous]

Simple solution - get rid of all the religious holidays.