The legislature may end up reverting the makeup days...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can’t mcps use March 20, April 15 and May 27 and then end at the original end date?

Yup, but they don't want to. They also could have done president's day.

Yup. Leave it to McPS to pick the worst possible options for June makeup days. It’s like they’re actively trying to minimize the amount of instructional time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This sounds awful. So basically the Maryland legislature ok'ed MCPS kids getting only 175 days of instruction per year? Such a difference from Massachusetts which requires its school districts to schedule 185 days of school, to ensure that they get 180 with snow days.

But MCPS staff get more paid holidays, so I guess they're happy.

www.zillow.com

Feel free to look for real estate in Massachusetts.

Love it or leave it! I guess that’s what you say when you don’t want to be called out on not achieving standards for education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can’t mcps use March 20, April 15 and May 27 and then end at the original end date?

Yup, but they don't want to. They also could have done president's day.

Yup. Leave it to McPS to pick the worst possible options for June makeup days. It’s like they’re actively trying to minimize the amount of instructional time.

Many parents do not want any instructional time. They want school to be over. Different goals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can’t mcps use March 20, April 15 and May 27 and then end at the original end date?

Yup, but they don't want to. They also could have done president's day.

Yup. Leave it to McPS to pick the worst possible options for June makeup days. It’s like they’re actively trying to minimize the amount of instructional time.

Many parents do not want any instructional time. They want school to be over. Different goals.

We want real instructional time during the school year. Not half-assed half-days in late June that do nothing but check the boxes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This sounds awful. So basically the Maryland legislature ok'ed MCPS kids getting only 175 days of instruction per year? Such a difference from Massachusetts which requires its school districts to schedule 185 days of school, to ensure that they get 180 with snow days.

But MCPS staff get more paid holidays, so I guess they're happy.

A 175 day school year is just right. Not too short but it doesn't go on forever based on out of control situations like holidays and snow days. There a more religious holidays then 6+ years ago and some years have 5+ snow days. That said MC should replace the 1Q and 3Q grading days with multiple 1-1.5 hour early dismissals so not half days more like 3/4 days. If schools are closed 3 or more consecutive days because of a single emergency, the 3rd day onward should be virtual. If schools are closed (non-virtual) for 5 or more days, either Good Friday or Easter Monday (but not both) shall be allowed to be reclaimed. Schools should also be allowed to go virtual on election day since that is nobody's holiday.

Sure and let’s reduce McPS salaries accordingly to account for the fact that our kids don’t get 180 days of instructional time per year because you’ve decided it’s “just right” when the rest of America has 180 days. Because it is impossible that McPS could have included more than 1 snow day in the calendar (when neighboring Maryland school districts included 3), included makeup days in the calendar that it actually intended to use instead of these performative ones, and developed the virtual learning plan it promised to the BoE in 2024.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This sounds awful. So basically the Maryland legislature ok'ed MCPS kids getting only 175 days of instruction per year? Such a difference from Massachusetts which requires its school districts to schedule 185 days of school, to ensure that they get 180 with snow days.

But MCPS staff get more paid holidays, so I guess they're happy.

Anne Arundel County already passed this. Not even sure why other counties need to if one county was approved but sure keep up with your bs rhetoric when you don’t know what you’re talking about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why isn’t this for the whole state?

Because each county's delegation is responsible for drafting and sponsored legislation that serves its constituents.

Are you aware that there is a Montgomery County Delegation within the General Assembly? https://www.montgomerycountydelegation.com/

This is how state and local politics works.

I am so angry that our delegation thinks this is good. They are behind this clearly. They are letting the school district off the hook for doing competent planning.

Agreed. They are effectively cutting school minimums for our county only.

Anne Arundel County passed this already. Nice try.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This sounds awful. So basically the Maryland legislature ok'ed MCPS kids getting only 175 days of instruction per year? Such a difference from Massachusetts which requires its school districts to schedule 185 days of school, to ensure that they get 180 with snow days.

But MCPS staff get more paid holidays, so I guess they're happy.

Anne Arundel County already passed this. Not even sure why other counties need to if one county was approved but sure keep up with your bs rhetoric when you don’t know what you’re talking about.

Anne Arundel's was more limited and still a terrible idea. We should not be lowering standards for our county -- it's not like our students are doing well and don't need the time in school.

[Anonymous]

I have no skin in this game. I just logged in to say that there is no such thing as Easter Monday. Carry on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have no skin in this game. I just logged in to say that there is no such thing as Easter Monday. Carry on.

I don't celebrate Easter since I'm Jewish but here's what I found.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Monday
https://www.somatechnology.com/blog/monday-mood/the-significance-of-easter-monday/
https://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/us/easter-monday
https://www.officeholidays.com/holidays/easter-monday
https://www.ncpedia.org/easter-monday-holiday

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This sounds awful. So basically the Maryland legislature ok'ed MCPS kids getting only 175 days of instruction per year? Such a difference from Massachusetts which requires its school districts to schedule 185 days of school, to ensure that they get 180 with snow days.

But MCPS staff get more paid holidays, so I guess they're happy.

Exactly what do you think those children are learning in those last five hours of the last day before summer?

Zilch.

They aren't learning much because those days were not originally in the calendar and lots of teachers and students won't show up.

MCPS should have planned better. This proposed bill, even with the sunset.provision, sets a terrible precedent. It says to MCPS that they do not need to program the appropriate number of days into the school calendar because the General Assembly can sweep in and exempt them from the rules that every other district in the state is subject to. Sends a horrible message as literacy and math proficiency rates are in freefall.

They’re not learning anything in the last five hours of an original calendar day either.

I agree, there needs to be much better planning, but I don’t think we should kid ourselves that there’s any learning happening in the last week of an original school calendar even less so during make up days. My kids won’t be going their last day is the 18th.

By that standard we should just cancel the whole school year as every.time. we remove a week the week before it is "useless"

Right. Because that’s the exact same thing. 🙄

Do you not get the difference between a week that is planned in the original calendar and a make up week tacked on in the middle of the year? MCPS should include enough days in its calendar, and it didn't for two years in a row.

If the delegation wants to help, they should make MCPS go back to a 184 day calendar. But no - they are about letting MCPS abrogate its responsibility to educate.

In order to do that summer would be even shorter or breaks would be shortened or various holidays eliminated.

I mean yes. There are more days off during the year so they have to make the school year longer. Why they haven't done so already is beyond me.

It's already too long, this would make it a week longer even in mild winter years.
-------------------------------------
California has a 180 day law, however when emergencies happen days are forgiven there. While things are definately not perfect there it keeps all vacation weeks intact since they know people won't come.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This sounds awful. So basically the Maryland legislature ok'ed MCPS kids getting only 175 days of instruction per year? Such a difference from Massachusetts which requires its school districts to schedule 185 days of school, to ensure that they get 180 with snow days.

But MCPS staff get more paid holidays, so I guess they're happy.

Exactly what do you think those children are learning in those last five hours of the last day before summer?

Zilch.

They aren't learning much because those days were not originally in the calendar and lots of teachers and students won't show up.

MCPS should have planned better. This proposed bill, even with the sunset.provision, sets a terrible precedent. It says to MCPS that they do not need to program the appropriate number of days into the school calendar because the General Assembly can sweep in and exempt them from the rules that every other district in the state is subject to. Sends a horrible message as literacy and math proficiency rates are in freefall.

They’re not learning anything in the last five hours of an original calendar day either.

I agree, there needs to be much better planning, but I don’t think we should kid ourselves that there’s any learning happening in the last week of an original school calendar even less so during make up days. My kids won’t be going their last day is the 18th.

By that standard we should just cancel the whole school year as every.time. we remove a week the week before it is "useless"

Right. Because that’s the exact same thing. 🙄

Do you not get the difference between a week that is planned in the original calendar and a make up week tacked on in the middle of the year? MCPS should include enough days in its calendar, and it didn't for two years in a row.

If the delegation wants to help, they should make MCPS go back to a 184 day calendar. But no - they are about letting MCPS abrogate its responsibility to educate.

In order to do that summer would be even shorter or breaks would be shortened or various holidays eliminated.

I mean yes. There are more days off during the year so they have to make the school year longer. Why they haven't done so already is beyond me.

It's already too long, this would make it a week longer even in mild winter years.
-------------------------------------
California has a 180 day law, however when emergencies happen days are forgiven there. While things are definately not perfect there it keeps all vacation weeks intact since they know people won't come.

That’s not entirely accurate. There are no snow days in California. But there are forest fires and earthquakes obviously. Both LAUSD (5x the size of MCPS) and SF schools have virtual learning plans in place for emergencies.

So even for the closure days due to the recent CA fires which was far more catastrophic than any Maryland snowstorm, LA schools offered virtual learning resource options so Students had options to learn unlike our current snow closures in MCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This sounds awful. So basically the Maryland legislature ok'ed MCPS kids getting only 175 days of instruction per year? Such a difference from Massachusetts which requires its school districts to schedule 185 days of school, to ensure that they get 180 with snow days.

But MCPS staff get more paid holidays, so I guess they're happy.

Exactly what do you think those children are learning in those last five hours of the last day before summer?

Zilch.

They aren't learning much because those days were not originally in the calendar and lots of teachers and students won't show up.

MCPS should have planned better. This proposed bill, even with the sunset.provision, sets a terrible precedent. It says to MCPS that they do not need to program the appropriate number of days into the school calendar because the General Assembly can sweep in and exempt them from the rules that every other district in the state is subject to. Sends a horrible message as literacy and math proficiency rates are in freefall.

They’re not learning anything in the last five hours of an original calendar day either.

I agree, there needs to be much better planning, but I don’t think we should kid ourselves that there’s any learning happening in the last week of an original school calendar even less so during make up days. My kids won’t be going their last day is the 18th.

By that standard we should just cancel the whole school year as every.time. we remove a week the week before it is "useless"

Right. Because that’s the exact same thing. 🙄

Do you not get the difference between a week that is planned in the original calendar and a make up week tacked on in the middle of the year? MCPS should include enough days in its calendar, and it didn't for two years in a row.

If the delegation wants to help, they should make MCPS go back to a 184 day calendar. But no - they are about letting MCPS abrogate its responsibility to educate.

In order to do that summer would be even shorter or breaks would be shortened or various holidays eliminated.

I mean yes. There are more days off during the year so they have to make the school year longer. Why they haven't done so already is beyond me.

It's already too long, this would make it a week longer even in mild winter years.
-------------------------------------
California has a 180 day law, however when emergencies happen days are forgiven there. While things are definately not perfect there it keeps all vacation weeks intact since they know people won't come.

"We have too much school, that's why math and literacy proficiency rates are in freefall,".
-said nobody ever

[Anonymous]

Does MCPS not realize that nearly half their kids can’t read well and 2/3 aren’t proficient in grade level math? But sure, let’s reward MCPS staff with 5 extra vacation snow days for not putting more than 1 snow day in the calendar and refusing to use the 3 makeup days in the calendar.

On Tuesday, August 27, MCPS received test scores from the 2024 Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program (MCAP), which tests students’ math, reading and science skills, that show encouraging signs of growth and recovery and points to the fact that this trend may be starting to buck.

According to the recently-released MCAP testing data, the assessment saw around 55.3% of MCPS students achieve a rating of “proficient” in English Language Arts and 33.4% in mathematics. This marks a slight increase from the 54.4% and 32.8% of MCPS students who achieved the same rating of “proficient” in 2023 on the English Language Arts and mathematics tests, respectively. The county aims for constant improvement in academic performance, including a steeper increase in test scores. “We just need to accelerate [improvements], so we see a faster pace of growth,” MCPS Board of Education president Karla Silvestre said in an interview with Moco 360.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This sounds awful. So basically the Maryland legislature ok'ed MCPS kids getting only 175 days of instruction per year? Such a difference from Massachusetts which requires its school districts to schedule 185 days of school, to ensure that they get 180 with snow days.

But MCPS staff get more paid holidays, so I guess they're happy.

Exactly what do you think those children are learning in those last five hours of the last day before summer?

Zilch.

They aren't learning much because those days were not originally in the calendar and lots of teachers and students won't show up.

MCPS should have planned better. This proposed bill, even with the sunset.provision, sets a terrible precedent. It says to MCPS that they do not need to program the appropriate number of days into the school calendar because the General Assembly can sweep in and exempt them from the rules that every other district in the state is subject to. Sends a horrible message as literacy and math proficiency rates are in freefall.

They’re not learning anything in the last five hours of an original calendar day either.

I agree, there needs to be much better planning, but I don’t think we should kid ourselves that there’s any learning happening in the last week of an original school calendar even less so during make up days. My kids won’t be going their last day is the 18th.

By that standard we should just cancel the whole school year as every.time. we remove a week the week before it is "useless"

Right. Because that’s the exact same thing. 🙄

Do you not get the difference between a week that is planned in the original calendar and a make up week tacked on in the middle of the year? MCPS should include enough days in its calendar, and it didn't for two years in a row.

If the delegation wants to help, they should make MCPS go back to a 184 day calendar. But no - they are about letting MCPS abrogate its responsibility to educate.

In order to do that summer would be even shorter or breaks would be shortened or various holidays eliminated.

I mean yes. There are more days off during the year so they have to make the school year longer. Why they haven't done so already is beyond me.

It's already too long, this would make it a week longer even in mild winter years.
-------------------------------------
California has a 180 day law, however when emergencies happen days are forgiven there. While things are definately not perfect there it keeps all vacation weeks intact since they know people won't come.

That’s not entirely accurate. There are no snow days in California. But there are forest fires and earthquakes obviously. Both LAUSD (5x the size of MCPS) and SF schools have virtual learning plans in place for emergencies.

So even for the closure days due to the recent CA fires which was far more catastrophic than any Maryland snowstorm, LA schools offered virtual learning resource options so Students had options to learn unlike our current snow closures in MCPS.

What? Of course there are, in northern California.