APS Holiday 6/6

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Right now Memorial Day off and then they did teacher workday and then Wed off for Eid Al Adha. So next year if moves later instead of earlier and APS adds a day (as superintendent wanted to do this time originally as a no discussion item) will only have school Friday.

https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/sites/57/2024/01/2025-26-SCHOOL-YEAR-CALENDAR-FINAL.pdf

I think this is a good time to advocate for them to revise the pip. I’d like the religious holidays to go away completely (federal holidays only) because we can’t accommodate everyone and it’s already disruptive to the flow of the calendar and shortens summer vacation. That’s probably an unlikely goal but it’s reasonable to say your holiday doesn’t have a set date two years in advance sorry it doesn’t get included.

I want them to devise it at well. APS wants to be everything for everyone and it’s not practical.
This will happen again. Maybe doable with more foresight (they will block off 6 days going forward) but it seems the demands are just increasing.

It’s how they could address the bus driver last night to so humbly asked for just a day that is not currently on calendar to go to church for his religion

The Ethiopian/Eritrean staff and student population has been large at every school I have worked in or sent my kids to. I’d like to know why Islam is getting more preference over them.

What do you mean? Part of why Islam is getting a preference one would think (other than that it is one of the world’s major religions) is the fact we have had a very, very large influx of families recently from this exact region - who are Muslim, and often very devout - in fact all Muslims at the schools we know who veil their young girls are from that region. This region encompasses Somalia, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan, and some contested areas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:“Let’s get rid of all of the new religious holidays.”

Same Breath: “That Busdriver should get his day off too.”

Unserious people sowing discord. You got what you wanted. But let’s argue about a done deal for weeks anyway because none of us have a life.

Sounds like you don’t want any momentum to build around changing the policy to floating holidays.

I support the current religious holidays as days off for APS. And lol there's no momentum aside from your complaining on anon boards. Even Miranda said yesterday publicly that this vote wasn't a moratorium on changing the religious holiday policy.

Just wait until APS starts blocking off three consecutive days for each Eid as “possible” days off. Nothing will be allowed to be planned for those days and no one will know until a few weeks in advance which day will be off. Next year it’s the week after Memorial Day and if Eid moves it will be a one day week. People are gonna get sick of this pretty quick.

That’s precisely what was suggested at the meeting last night. Making sure that principals and PTAs knew they would not be able to schedule anything on the days before and after holidays that were dictated by the lunar calendar.

I don't understand the problem with telling schools not to schedule extra things on those few days. Can someone explain it to me?

Both occur at busy times of year and have an alternative (floating holiday/excused absence)

I think keeping those days clear is best. It would really sad for those kids who end up missing out on the end of year activities. It is also a tough position to put a teacher in if this is a holiday they observe and they've also been working with their kids to plan the end of school activity. Planning things a few days earlier or later doesn't seem as challenging to me, but I realize others might have a different view.

APS needs to get rid of all the religious holidays. But then have clear notices on calendars that events can't be scheduled on those days to respect people observing them.

So people say this but what would happen if we moved winter break to January and uncoupled it from Christmas. If kids had to go to school on Christmas eve. People would be outraged.

Do it. I’m ready. If we aren’t going to do a serious analysis of how many people celebrate each holiday and choose accordingly, make them all floaters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FCPS uncoupled spring break from Easter couple years ago and was disaster. So many teachers with kids in other school districts so where childcare issues and teachers taking vacation to be with their kids who were off on break and not enough subs for the week FCPS had school where other districts didn’t…. Only way works is if all districts did together- state or at least NOVA wide.

The majority of the country and private schools in the area do not couple spring break and Easter. Guess what Easter is determined by a full moon did you know that?

Yes, and we can and have reliably predicted Easter for centuries. The date is never moved last minute or celebrated on different days in different countries.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:“Let’s get rid of all of the new religious holidays.”

Same Breath: “That Busdriver should get his day off too.”

Unserious people sowing discord. You got what you wanted. But let’s argue about a done deal for weeks anyway because none of us have a life.

Sounds like you don’t want any momentum to build around changing the policy to floating holidays.

I support the current religious holidays as days off for APS. And lol there's no momentum aside from your complaining on anon boards. Even Miranda said yesterday publicly that this vote wasn't a moratorium on changing the religious holiday policy.

Just wait until APS starts blocking off three consecutive days for each Eid as “possible” days off. Nothing will be allowed to be planned for those days and no one will know until a few weeks in advance which day will be off. Next year it’s the week after Memorial Day and if Eid moves it will be a one day week. People are gonna get sick of this pretty quick.

That’s precisely what was suggested at the meeting last night. Making sure that principals and PTAs knew they would not be able to schedule anything on the days before and after holidays that were dictated by the lunar calendar.

I don't understand the problem with telling schools not to schedule extra things on those few days. Can someone explain it to me?

Both occur at busy times of year and have an alternative (floating holiday/excused absence)

I think keeping those days clear is best. It would really sad for those kids who end up missing out on the end of year activities. It is also a tough position to put a teacher in if this is a holiday they observe and they've also been working with their kids to plan the end of school activity. Planning things a few days earlier or later doesn't seem as challenging to me, but I realize others might have a different view.

APS needs to get rid of all the religious holidays. But then have clear notices on calendars that events can't be scheduled on those days to respect people observing them.

So people say this but what would happen if we moved winter break to January and uncoupled it from Christmas. If kids had to go to school on Christmas eve. People would be outraged.

They wouldn’t have to go to school because it would be an excused absence. But, there would be an enormous drop in attendance, making it impossible to have a school day.

I wonder if I moved to a majority Muslim country, could I expect their school systems to shut down for Christian holidays?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:“Let’s get rid of all of the new religious holidays.”

Same Breath: “That Busdriver should get his day off too.”

Unserious people sowing discord. You got what you wanted. But let’s argue about a done deal for weeks anyway because none of us have a life.

Sounds like you don’t want any momentum to build around changing the policy to floating holidays.

I support the current religious holidays as days off for APS. And lol there's no momentum aside from your complaining on anon boards. Even Miranda said yesterday publicly that this vote wasn't a moratorium on changing the religious holiday policy.

Just wait until APS starts blocking off three consecutive days for each Eid as “possible” days off. Nothing will be allowed to be planned for those days and no one will know until a few weeks in advance which day will be off. Next year it’s the week after Memorial Day and if Eid moves it will be a one day week. People are gonna get sick of this pretty quick.

That’s precisely what was suggested at the meeting last night. Making sure that principals and PTAs knew they would not be able to schedule anything on the days before and after holidays that were dictated by the lunar calendar.

I don't understand the problem with telling schools not to schedule extra things on those few days. Can someone explain it to me?

Both occur at busy times of year and have an alternative (floating holiday/excused absence)

I think keeping those days clear is best. It would really sad for those kids who end up missing out on the end of year activities. It is also a tough position to put a teacher in if this is a holiday they observe and they've also been working with their kids to plan the end of school activity. Planning things a few days earlier or later doesn't seem as challenging to me, but I realize others might have a different view.

APS needs to get rid of all the religious holidays. But then have clear notices on calendars that events can't be scheduled on those days to respect people observing them.

So people say this but what would happen if we moved winter break to January and uncoupled it from Christmas. If kids had to go to school on Christmas eve. People would be outraged.

They wouldn’t have to go to school because it would be an excused absence. But, there would be an enormous drop in attendance, making it impossible to have a school day.

I wonder if I moved to a majority Muslim country, could I expect their school systems to shut down for Christian holidays?

This. People are bending themselves in pretzels to make this make sense for such a small population. No one is trying to discriminate or say the holiday is not important. No one is saying they shouldn’t have excused absences or that there shouldn’t be test and projects due on the days of these holidays. We simply can’t have off school and make last-minute changes for every single holiday and cultural observance no matter skin tone, country of origin, religious background, etc. There has to be a level of reasonableness for all involved

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:“Let’s get rid of all of the new religious holidays.”

Same Breath: “That Busdriver should get his day off too.”

Unserious people sowing discord. You got what you wanted. But let’s argue about a done deal for weeks anyway because none of us have a life.

Sounds like you don’t want any momentum to build around changing the policy to floating holidays.

I support the current religious holidays as days off for APS. And lol there's no momentum aside from your complaining on anon boards. Even Miranda said yesterday publicly that this vote wasn't a moratorium on changing the religious holiday policy.

Just wait until APS starts blocking off three consecutive days for each Eid as “possible” days off. Nothing will be allowed to be planned for those days and no one will know until a few weeks in advance which day will be off. Next year it’s the week after Memorial Day and if Eid moves it will be a one day week. People are gonna get sick of this pretty quick.

That’s precisely what was suggested at the meeting last night. Making sure that principals and PTAs knew they would not be able to schedule anything on the days before and after holidays that were dictated by the lunar calendar.

I don't understand the problem with telling schools not to schedule extra things on those few days. Can someone explain it to me?

Both occur at busy times of year and have an alternative (floating holiday/excused absence)

I think keeping those days clear is best. It would really sad for those kids who end up missing out on the end of year activities. It is also a tough position to put a teacher in if this is a holiday they observe and they've also been working with their kids to plan the end of school activity. Planning things a few days earlier or later doesn't seem as challenging to me, but I realize others might have a different view.

APS needs to get rid of all the religious holidays. But then have clear notices on calendars that events can't be scheduled on those days to respect people observing them.

So people say this but what would happen if we moved winter break to January and uncoupled it from Christmas. If kids had to go to school on Christmas eve. People would be outraged.

Winter break largely aligns across the entire country (with a few days differing on the periphery) so it's a time when families can travel and get together, regardless of your religion. It's common and established part of American culture. My job is closed for those days. Congress is closed for that week. Etc. Winter break doesn't need to change because we choose to use excused absences for religious holidays.

Spring break is less aligned across the country so it's fine if it's no longer tied to Easter, IMO.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How many Muslim students are in APS?

It doesn’t matter how many Muslim students are in APS.

It also does not matter how many Christian or Jewish students are in APS.

Please just stop closing schools for religious holidays. Just give everyone the ability to have an excused absence to celebrate their own religious or cultural holidays and keep schools open.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:“Let’s get rid of all of the new religious holidays.”

Same Breath: “That Busdriver should get his day off too.”

Unserious people sowing discord. You got what you wanted. But let’s argue about a done deal for weeks anyway because none of us have a life.

Sounds like you don’t want any momentum to build around changing the policy to floating holidays.

I support the current religious holidays as days off for APS. And lol there's no momentum aside from your complaining on anon boards. Even Miranda said yesterday publicly that this vote wasn't a moratorium on changing the religious holiday policy.

Just wait until APS starts blocking off three consecutive days for each Eid as “possible” days off. Nothing will be allowed to be planned for those days and no one will know until a few weeks in advance which day will be off. Next year it’s the week after Memorial Day and if Eid moves it will be a one day week. People are gonna get sick of this pretty quick.

This is how I understood the plan moving forward, too. It will be six days blocked off (3 each) until basically last minute, if that combines with a weekend, and it will.. it’ll be long. I think overall attendance will be low on those ‘school’ days. It’ll be nice to know that nothing important will be scheduled around that time. I know what I will be doing with this plan.

[Anonymous]

Students start before Labor Day and end in late June because of the addition of these holidays. This is a public school system. We should have excused absences for everything except the most common federal holidays and move on.

Speaking of federal holidays, APS used to be open on Veteran's Day...why did that end ?

Happy to drop the tie of Spring Break to Easter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FCPS uncoupled spring break from Easter couple years ago and was disaster. So many teachers with kids in other school districts so where childcare issues and teachers taking vacation to be with their kids who were off on break and not enough subs for the week FCPS had school where other districts didn’t…. Only way works is if all districts did together- state or at least NOVA wide.

Isn’t Easter on Sunday???? Why would there be an issue for teachers and kids?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Students start before Labor Day and end in late June because of the addition of these holidays. This is a public school system. We should have excused absences for everything except the most common federal holidays and move on.

Speaking of federal holidays, APS used to be open on Veteran's Day...why did that end ?

Happy to drop the tie of Spring Break to Easter.

+1

[Anonymous]

Can someone save me from 32 pages of discussion and share what the final result was?

[Anonymous]

what was the vote?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think we should keep religious holidays. APS screwed up here by 1) allowing schools to plan end of year activities around a holiday that can move, and 2) NOT clearly commutation to parents that there could be a calendar change. The note from Duran on Wednesday didn’t even explain why the change was being proposed so late in the year.

Poor planning. Poor communicating.

I agree with your numbered points 1 and 2 completely. But I also think religious holidays (except the federal holiday of Christmas Day) need to go. The only way to respect everyone's religious traditions is to offer a certain number of excused absences. If they hold school on Christmas Eve (assuming that is even operationally possible), so be it, we can use an excused absence.

I think they should try this and see how many Muslims come to defend the rights of Christians to have their holiday off.

Why should they have to? When we have religious holidays for SOME people, yeah, of course others want to be included. I get that. But since we can't accomodate everyone and since some holidays can't be planned in advance, the religious holidays just need to go. Excused absences should be the accommodation for all.

I strongly disagree with the bolded. I think this is the kind of sentiment has been disproven again and again each time a hegemonic group learns they are better and stronger when they are inclusive. We just need to figure out how to make space for everyone. I'm not saying it will be easy every time, but I do think it is possible, and I think history supports this conclusion.

DP. So we are accommodating the Orthodox Christian bus driver who spoke last night? Are we accommodating families who celebrate Lunar New Year, but are told it’s just “cultural” and not religious, so too bad? No. We are not and cannot accommodate everyone by having days off. Unless you meant by having no religious holiday that isn’t a federal holiday off, and offering excused absences. We could do that.

Yes, I’ve wondered about that. Religion is always placed high above culture here, so I see the orthodox holidays coming before Lunar New Year on this trajectory. And shortly after, APS will throw their hands up and get rid of all of them as holidays. They will point to FFX, and avoid admitting how impractical it all was.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FCPS uncoupled spring break from Easter couple years ago and was disaster. So many teachers with kids in other school districts so where childcare issues and teachers taking vacation to be with their kids who were off on break and not enough subs for the week FCPS had school where other districts didn’t…. Only way works is if all districts did together- state or at least NOVA wide.

Isn’t Easter on Sunday???? Why would there be an issue for teachers and kids?

It is at least a 4 day holiday for Catholics, if you wanted to shorten it as much as possible - from Holy Friday to Easter Monday.