APS Holiday 6/6

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know if it was parents or common sense School Board Members. Remember, only two School Board Members voted to not close (Clark and Turner). That's the real difference maker. Three School Board members received all that advocacy and still did not oppose closing schools.

Absolutely! I had written the board (thank you, OP), but ran out of time to do anything else, and turned in live just at the right time - thanks to someone here, and it was nerve wrecking that they almost cancelled it all, instead of just having the affected students take an excused absence. Almost. It was so close. Had Duran at all planned to give parents their 50K (est.) expenses back, or had they all planned to wait to be sued, or what. They should have shot this down when it came up. In shock the staff wanted to obviously just do it, and do it quietly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know if it was parents or common sense School Board Members. Remember, only two School Board Members voted to not close (Clark and Turner). That's the real difference maker. Three School Board members received all that advocacy and still did not oppose closing schools.

Related note - if you are happy with the outcome take a minute to send a quick email thanking them for voting. They will definitely be hearing from the people who are unhappy.

Good idea, that’s true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am absolutely shocked parents were able to get the Arlington school board to vote against giving the most extreme accomodation in the name of inclusivity. I mean, you all still had to remain anonymous, but that's some serious progress.

The cost of closing school was concrete and high - cancelling a fully paid/nonrefundable field trip for hundreds of middle school kids, disrupting graduation scheduling for special needs kids, cancelling dances, possibly missing testing, causing childcare issues for already stressed feds, etc. Meanwhile, keeping school open just means some students and staff take an excused absence. It’s really not a contest for someone looking at it rationally. The troubling thing is that APS staff didn’t stop to think about the collateral impacts. At all. It was clear they did not even consider that their actions have downstream impacts.

This. This should have been a no brainer vote and Duran shouldn't have even suggested it. They are slaves to their own look at me extreme progressive tunnel vision and can't see past their egos to make rational decisions. This is the same issue as the mother raising the issue of a pool patron openly flashing a penis in the women's pool locker room in front of her kids and a Board member (who abstained last night from this vote) blowing her off. It is more important to some of them to a) protect certain people's rights even when there is clear evidence it is harming others and b) have it be abundantly clear to everyone in their echo chamber this is what they are doing.

It's nauseating. And before people harass me, no I'm not MAGA, anti-trans, or a Republican. I'm anti-showing your penis in the women's locker room and anti-canceling events that impact hundreds of kids when people who want to observe a religious holiday can simply take the day off or stay home.

But you’re happy enough to push the RWNJ talking points…

I am the poster you are responding to. I had to google RWNJ. Some of us don't live to exist in the vacuum of blind ideologues that occupy the internet. I'm just out here in the real world with actual people having independent thoughts to form opinions. Not checking in to be sure they're ok with the type of person who calls others "RWNJ". I'd like it if our elected officials could try this approach.

Good luck, but not gonna happen. Not in Arlington anyway.

I think there are more people tired of it than people realize. If Dems in Arlington didn’t hijack elections with their caucus process we might get some people capable of independent thought and not just reading from the approved script.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am absolutely shocked parents were able to get the Arlington school board to vote against giving the most extreme accomodation in the name of inclusivity. I mean, you all still had to remain anonymous, but that's some serious progress.

Many people emailed the SB.

I emailed the school board, using my real name.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought the Staff answers to the board questions and the Staff presentations were really disingenuous. I mean saying 'shriver principal said no problem to move graduation.' Well no problem in what sense? Sure you can find space for graduation to be on Thursday instead of Friday, but what about family members that are flying in Thursday night for the Friday graduation? Or other arrangements the families have made? Similarly the 'we will work to reschedule cancelled activities.' But you know you can't reschedule the Hershey music festival. You know the kids are excited for it and paid out of pocket.
This debacle, and the bus driver saying he wasn't allowed a day off for his orthodox holiday (I didn't even think he was asking for school to be closed, just that he personally be allowed to take the day off) should really have them rethinking this policy. But if anything they doubled down- saying they want to block multiple days for lunar holidays. Its crazytown.

I bet that principal felt pressured by the Super to say sure no problem. What is he supposed to say?

[Anonymous]

Odd that two board members abstained. At least take a position and vote, that's your job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Odd that two board members abstained. At least take a position and vote, that's your job.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Odd that two board members abstained. At least take a position and vote, that's your job.

+1

One is leaving. Let's replace the other one. We had 2 good candidates this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know if it was parents or common sense School Board Members. Remember, only two School Board Members voted to not close (Clark and Turner). That's the real difference maker. Three School Board members received all that advocacy and still did not oppose closing schools.

Two of them clearly agreed but were happy to let their colleagues do the dirty work. So pathetic.

My question is; why was this even considered ‘dirty work’? How did we get to that mindset from having none of these holidays on the calendar in 2021?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Odd that two board members abstained. At least take a position and vote, that's your job.

+1

One is leaving. Let's replace the other one. We had 2 good candidates this year.

I just lost a lot of respect for the two who wouldn't even vote. DO YOUR JOB or leave. Well I guess one IS leaving.

[Anonymous]

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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.

Too many people are at least nominally Christian, so this won't happen until the system is minority Christian.

Oh stop. It's not about Christianity at this point. America has a tradition of scheduling a winter holiday break between Christmas and New Years holidays. This holiday break applies across all Americans. Some celebrate Christmas, others go on vacation or get Chinese takeout and go to a movie. But it's a common holiday week across the country. It's a time for families to get together since pretty much everything shuts down, from schools to kid sports to many offices.

So no, the week for winter break wont change even if the country was no longer majority Christian. It's now part of American culture and aligned across the country.

Displaying the national flag used to be a universal part of American culture, too. Things can change and honestly, if a school system's population changes to the point where no one religion has a majority or the majority religion changes, it makes sense that the calendar changes too. Maybe every holiday gets 2 or 3 days or only one day with no tests or required group projects the day before or after.

https://time.com/5675803/america-flag-threat/
Still, he’s not a trailblazer as much as he’s a powerful spiritual co-signature for a pervasive ecosystem of long-simmering beliefs. That the only True Americans are white. (The rest? Guests.) That there’s such a thing as less American Americans. That the flag belongs only to the True Americans.


https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/03/nyregion/american-flag-politics-polarization.html
What was once a unifying symbol — there is a star on it for each state, after all — is now alienating to some, its stripes now fault lines between people who kneel while “The Star-Spangled Banner” plays and those for whom not pledging allegiance is an affront.
And it has made the celebration of the Fourth of July, of patriotic bunting and cakes with blueberries and strawberries arranged into Old Glory, into another cleft in a country that seems no longer quite so indivisible, under a flag threatening to fray.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/maryland-school-suspends-marine-hopeful-after-american-flag-law-controversy
The Baltimore County Public School system has allegedly suspended a high school student after he pushed his school to hang American flags in two of his classrooms that did not have flags displayed, as required by state law.
Parker Jensen, an 18-year-old Marine Corps enlistee, has since sued the school district, arguing he was wrongfully suspended for voicing his concerns about the flags at Towson High School, north of Baltimore. The flags were missing from two of his classrooms, and he approached the Baltimore Board of Education about the issue.
"He really thought there'd be something that could be resolved easily, and he was looking forward to finishing out his senior year," Jensen's attorney, Sarah Spitalnick, told Fox News Digital. "He's definitely discouraged that the school took this route in the way they retaliated and punished him. And it did… put a big damper on his senior year. At this point, he's still not allowed to go to prom. … He still has teachers that he knows do not like him. That could affect his grades and affect his ability to graduate."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am absolutely shocked parents were able to get the Arlington school board to vote against giving the most extreme accomodation in the name of inclusivity. I mean, you all still had to remain anonymous, but that's some serious progress.

The cost of closing school was concrete and high - cancelling a fully paid/nonrefundable field trip for hundreds of middle school kids, disrupting graduation scheduling for special needs kids, cancelling dances, possibly missing testing, causing childcare issues for already stressed feds, etc. Meanwhile, keeping school open just means some students and staff take an excused absence. It’s really not a contest for someone looking at it rationally. The troubling thing is that APS staff didn’t stop to think about the collateral impacts. At all. It was clear they did not even consider that their actions have downstream impacts.

This. This should have been a no brainer vote and Duran shouldn't have even suggested it. They are slaves to their own look at me extreme progressive tunnel vision and can't see past their egos to make rational decisions. This is the same issue as the mother raising the issue of a pool patron openly flashing a penis in the women's pool locker room in front of her kids and a Board member (who abstained last night from this vote) blowing her off. It is more important to some of them to a) protect certain people's rights even when there is clear evidence it is harming others and b) have it be abundantly clear to everyone in their echo chamber this is what they are doing.

It's nauseating. And before people harass me, no I'm not MAGA, anti-trans, or a Republican. I'm anti-showing your penis in the women's locker room and anti-canceling events that impact hundreds of kids when people who want to observe a religious holiday can simply take the day off or stay home.

But you’re happy enough to push the RWNJ talking points…

Dp. If not wanting my dd exposed to a penis in the women’s locker room makes me a RWNJ, then fine, I’m a RWNJ.

You can address the locker room issue without turning it into a transgender issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am absolutely shocked parents were able to get the Arlington school board to vote against giving the most extreme accomodation in the name of inclusivity. I mean, you all still had to remain anonymous, but that's some serious progress.

The cost of closing school was concrete and high - cancelling a fully paid/nonrefundable field trip for hundreds of middle school kids, disrupting graduation scheduling for special needs kids, cancelling dances, possibly missing testing, causing childcare issues for already stressed feds, etc. Meanwhile, keeping school open just means some students and staff take an excused absence. It’s really not a contest for someone looking at it rationally. The troubling thing is that APS staff didn’t stop to think about the collateral impacts. At all. It was clear they did not even consider that their actions have downstream impacts.

This. This should have been a no brainer vote and Duran shouldn't have even suggested it. They are slaves to their own look at me extreme progressive tunnel vision and can't see past their egos to make rational decisions. This is the same issue as the mother raising the issue of a pool patron openly flashing a penis in the women's pool locker room in front of her kids and a Board member (who abstained last night from this vote) blowing her off. It is more important to some of them to a) protect certain people's rights even when there is clear evidence it is harming others and b) have it be abundantly clear to everyone in their echo chamber this is what they are doing.

It's nauseating. And before people harass me, no I'm not MAGA, anti-trans, or a Republican. I'm anti-showing your penis in the women's locker room and anti-canceling events that impact hundreds of kids when people who want to observe a religious holiday can simply take the day off or stay home.

But you’re happy enough to push the RWNJ talking points…

Dp. If not wanting my dd exposed to a penis in the women’s locker room makes me a RWNJ, then fine, I’m a RWNJ.

You can address the locker room issue without turning it into a transgender issue.

No you can’t, when the policy is that the man was allowed to be there because he said he was transgender, and there are policies in place that support his presence because of that claim. https://wjla.com/news/local/virginia-school-policy-arlington-county-public-schools-acps-aps-parents-transgender-locker-room-bathroom-policy-safety-sex-offender-richard-kenneth-cox-washington-liberty-high-school-board-meeting-public-comments-parents-lgbtqia-lgbtq-rights

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am absolutely shocked parents were able to get the Arlington school board to vote against giving the most extreme accomodation in the name of inclusivity. I mean, you all still had to remain anonymous, but that's some serious progress.

The cost of closing school was concrete and high - cancelling a fully paid/nonrefundable field trip for hundreds of middle school kids, disrupting graduation scheduling for special needs kids, cancelling dances, possibly missing testing, causing childcare issues for already stressed feds, etc. Meanwhile, keeping school open just means some students and staff take an excused absence. It’s really not a contest for someone looking at it rationally. The troubling thing is that APS staff didn’t stop to think about the collateral impacts. At all. It was clear they did not even consider that their actions have downstream impacts.

This. This should have been a no brainer vote and Duran shouldn't have even suggested it. They are slaves to their own look at me extreme progressive tunnel vision and can't see past their egos to make rational decisions. This is the same issue as the mother raising the issue of a pool patron openly flashing a penis in the women's pool locker room in front of her kids and a Board member (who abstained last night from this vote) blowing her off. It is more important to some of them to a) protect certain people's rights even when there is clear evidence it is harming others and b) have it be abundantly clear to everyone in their echo chamber this is what they are doing.

It's nauseating. And before people harass me, no I'm not MAGA, anti-trans, or a Republican. I'm anti-showing your penis in the women's locker room and anti-canceling events that impact hundreds of kids when people who want to observe a religious holiday can simply take the day off or stay home.

But you’re happy enough to push the RWNJ talking points…

Dp. If not wanting my dd exposed to a penis in the women’s locker room makes me a RWNJ, then fine, I’m a RWNJ.

You can address the locker room issue without turning it into a transgender issue.

No you can’t, when the policy is that the man was allowed to be there because he said he was transgender, and there are policies in place that support his presence because of that claim. https://wjla.com/news/local/virginia-school-policy-arlington-county-public-schools-acps-aps-parents-transgender-locker-room-bathroom-policy-safety-sex-offender-richard-kenneth-cox-washington-liberty-high-school-board-meeting-public-comments-parents-lgbtqia-lgbtq-rights

The issue with that situation that is analogous to this situation is the school board member’s fear of being on the wrong side of the progressive talking points over rode any curiosity to figure out what was actually going on. Her primary lens that blinded her to the reality of the situation was supporting the transgender community at all costs. It’s not at all a transgender issue. It’s a politician issue. Get some balls to gather facts and have your own opinion and some common sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am absolutely shocked parents were able to get the Arlington school board to vote against giving the most extreme accomodation in the name of inclusivity. I mean, you all still had to remain anonymous, but that's some serious progress.

The cost of closing school was concrete and high - cancelling a fully paid/nonrefundable field trip for hundreds of middle school kids, disrupting graduation scheduling for special needs kids, cancelling dances, possibly missing testing, causing childcare issues for already stressed feds, etc. Meanwhile, keeping school open just means some students and staff take an excused absence. It’s really not a contest for someone looking at it rationally. The troubling thing is that APS staff didn’t stop to think about the collateral impacts. At all. It was clear they did not even consider that their actions have downstream impacts.

This. This should have been a no brainer vote and Duran shouldn't have even suggested it. They are slaves to their own look at me extreme progressive tunnel vision and can't see past their egos to make rational decisions. This is the same issue as the mother raising the issue of a pool patron openly flashing a penis in the women's pool locker room in front of her kids and a Board member (who abstained last night from this vote) blowing her off. It is more important to some of them to a) protect certain people's rights even when there is clear evidence it is harming others and b) have it be abundantly clear to everyone in their echo chamber this is what they are doing.

It's nauseating. And before people harass me, no I'm not MAGA, anti-trans, or a Republican. I'm anti-showing your penis in the women's locker room and anti-canceling events that impact hundreds of kids when people who want to observe a religious holiday can simply take the day off or stay home.

But you’re happy enough to push the RWNJ talking points…

Dp. If not wanting my dd exposed to a penis in the women’s locker room makes me a RWNJ, then fine, I’m a RWNJ.

You can address the locker room issue without turning it into a transgender issue.

No you can’t, when the policy is that the man was allowed to be there because he said he was transgender, and there are policies in place that support his presence because of that claim. https://wjla.com/news/local/virginia-school-policy-arlington-county-public-schools-acps-aps-parents-transgender-locker-room-bathroom-policy-safety-sex-offender-richard-kenneth-cox-washington-liberty-high-school-board-meeting-public-comments-parents-lgbtqia-lgbtq-rights

It was a case of the policy not making sense for the situation at hand and some judgement needing to be applied. Much like this school holiday situation. Sometimes policy misses the mark. This board member flopped hard for a second time. Good thing she is gone.