2026-2027 calendar updates

[Anonymous]

I'm also an MCPS HS teacher and the staff who are teaching ESY are NOT HAPPY. Some are saying they won't do summer school if the first day moves earlier. These teachers would only have 1 week between the end of summer school and the beginning of pre-service. This calendar change may impact the staffing of ESY programs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm also an MCPS HS teacher and the staff who are teaching ESY are NOT HAPPY. Some are saying they won't do summer school if the first day moves earlier. These teachers would only have 1 week between the end of summer school and the beginning of pre-service. This calendar change may impact the staffing of ESY programs.

As angry as I am for parents and students, I feel much worse for teachers. This is way too late to be proposing a change like this.

[Anonymous]

I don't understand why Taylor has proposed this. Just the proposal is causing needless stress. When he could just.
1. Cancel the transition day
2. Have school on November 9
3. Make Eid al Adha a make up day and tell the Muslim community they will try to get state law changed on Good Friday/Easter Monday so they can take it off nexttime

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I am fine to start the school on 8/24, one day early. School may find more than usual kids absent if the school starts on 8/20.

Agree - just get rid of transition day.

Also they should convert the Wednesday before thanksgiving to a half day.

That’s two days right there.

And make Dec. 23rd a half day. Now you have your three days. Done.

But that would involve providing more instructional time than what is currently in the calendar. That's a big no-go for MCPS. They would rather wait for the snow days to happen and then spend weeks going back and forth about whether they will use makeup days and/or extend the school year while insisting they shouldn't have to do any of that and the state will grant a waiver.

Those three days could be in place instead of starting the year 3 school days earlier, and so they could end earlier as they wish to do. Still only 181 days.

That’s what i grew up with in NY state. Four snow days were scheduled. If it didn’t snow much, the school year ended earlier than expected. MCPS seems to want to do its scheduling to create the maximum uncertainty possible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm also an MCPS HS teacher and the staff who are teaching ESY are NOT HAPPY. Some are saying they won't do summer school if the first day moves earlier. These teachers would only have 1 week between the end of summer school and the beginning of pre-service. This calendar change may impact the staffing of ESY programs.

As angry as I am for parents and students, I feel much worse for teachers. This is way too late to be proposing a change like this.

And I’m angry for the 150k students who were shortchanged several instructional days this year because MCPS can’t get its act together to schedule properly and it’s teacher’s union fights every logical change to the schedule except those that result in waiving work days for its members.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm also an MCPS HS teacher and the staff who are teaching ESY are NOT HAPPY. Some are saying they won't do summer school if the first day moves earlier. These teachers would only have 1 week between the end of summer school and the beginning of pre-service. This calendar change may impact the staffing of ESY programs.

As angry as I am for parents and students, I feel much worse for teachers. This is way too late to be proposing a change like this.

And I’m angry for the 150k students who were shortchanged several instructional days this year because MCPS can’t get its act together to schedule properly and it’s teacher’s union fights every logical change to the schedule except those that result in waiving work days for its members.

Pretty sure those kids aren't upset about it so I would let it go before you burst a blood vessel in your brain

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm also an MCPS HS teacher and the staff who are teaching ESY are NOT HAPPY. Some are saying they won't do summer school if the first day moves earlier. These teachers would only have 1 week between the end of summer school and the beginning of pre-service. This calendar change may impact the staffing of ESY programs.

As angry as I am for parents and students, I feel much worse for teachers. This is way too late to be proposing a change like this.

And I’m angry for the 150k students who were shortchanged several instructional days this year because MCPS can’t get its act together to schedule properly and it’s teacher’s union fights every logical change to the schedule except those that result in waiving work days for its members.

Pretty sure those kids aren't upset about it so I would let it go before you burst a blood vessel in your brain

Pretty sure you don’t have a clue what thousands of kids want or need, you just want to get paid for not working at your MCPS job.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I've worked in the system for over twenty years at the elementary level and here are my thoughts...

1) Nobody likes transition day except for Dr. Taylor. It's a waste of time and screws over the K, 6th, and 9th grade teachers.

2) I would be okay with having half-days for grading and reporting in MP 1 and 3. I do think our secondary counterparts need the full day at the end of MP 2 to prepare for their second semester classes.

3) SPED teachers need more IEP writing days given to them but that doesn't impact whether school is open or closed. There's already not enough time to handle the paperwork on our quarterly grading days.

4) When I did my admin program we were told we closed for Christian and Jewish holidays in order to be able to function as a school system. If we remained open, there wouldn't be enough staff to operate the building. While I appreciate the diversity in our county, I don't know what percentage of staff and students celebrate some of the recent holiday additions to our calendar. Perhaps allow everyone excused absences or leave that day.

I agree with this. They do not know if they need to close for operational reasons. Being open for religious holidays next year would let them collect data to determine whether there is an operational need to close moving forward -- another benefit of doing it.

DP. True, but aren't they only considering marking the religious holidays as potential makeup days, not as school days from the outset?

I don't think so. They would do this instead of starting school early, so those are days they would actually be open.

No, on the survey they sent out Thursday, the option is written as "Identifying days of religious observance as inclement weather makeup days."

Well, that's not what they say in the presentation. These are the three options:

Given the scheduled non-instructional days, three options or combinations of options are possible to meet new requirements to add capacity to address inclement weather closures:

1. Open school on non-instructional days that also are religious observances; allow excused absences and minimize instructional conflicts.

2. Reduce the length of Winter Break and/or Spring Break.

3. Start the school year earlier in August.

https://go.boarddocs.com/mabe/mcpsmd/Board.nsf/files/DT7SZF751736/$file/Proposed%20Amendments%202026-2027%20SY%20Calendar%20PPT%20260416.pdf

The superintendent is recommending the worst of the three options.

They mean that in the event of inclement weather closures requiring makeup days, they could open school on non-instructional days that are also religious observances.

That's not how I read it. The point is not to have to open school a week earlier. The way to do that is to open up on religious holidays instead.

Instead of opening earlier, they could keep the start as it currently is and convert religious days to school days if needed if they have too many snow days.

Exactly. The calendar they already have works if they actually use the days they’ve designated

It seems crazy to me that they won't do this. This is a no-brainer. I can't believe the superintendent instead is recommending starting school a week earlier.

Because when they dared to use Eid this year, a day that was already designated as a makeup day in the calendar the approved, they got backlash from a small part of the community who cried equity to Council so now they’re scared to go by what they’ve already said they would do.

I don't care. At a certain point, our kids need to be in school. MCPS needs to grow a pair and stand up to the county council. And if they designate all religious holidays, not just Muslim ones, as potential makeup days, Muslim residents will not feel targeted.

I don’t either. The sarcasm in my post I guess was not apparent… this whole thing is stupid. Kids need to be in school. We can’t cater to every individuals need to be off

Exactly this. All religious holidays should be potential make-up days. When the last snow day is used and it snows again, the next snow make-up day should be used to make it up. The process that we will use should be communicated now and the potential dates should be listed. At that point, the days used simply depend on when it snows and how long our snow days last. This makes it less personal - this process should not be perceived as personal - it is an operational decision on the part of a very large organization.

Lot simpler to just start school one week earlier. I understand the superintendent’s logic

Not for next year it's not.

Why not? Because you would rather be on vacation?

DP here

Yes! I would rather go on the beach vacation I spent time planning and have been looking forward to.

The world doesn't revolve around your beach vacation, Jan. You have 4 months to make new plans, or your kids can skip out on the first days of school.

Well Marcia, some of us make plans with extended family and others would also be impacted by this change with nonrefundable deposits. We made these plans after the calendar came out because oh I don’t know, you think you can relay on the calendar!

You chose to be cheap and make plans with non-refundable deposits knowing that the MCPS schedule shifted quite a bit over the last two years--were you hiding under a rock when the date of the last day of school changed several times this year? and last year? Most MCPS parents are not like you.

If by “cheap” you mean don’t have thousands of dollars to spend to change this vacation with siblings and grandparents then sure.

We’ve had students in the system for a dozen years and they have NEVER changed the first day of school after the calendar is set.

I hope your vitriol makes you happy.

Not as happy as you insisting that the world revolve around your family's beach plans seems to make you. MCPS needs to start earlier in August if it wants to maintain its professional development days, teacher non-instructional days and many religious holidays. Next year is as good a time as any. You have 4 months to adjust.

And you think it’s just one person who has made plans?

What happens to teachers if they don’t show up for the first few days of preservice week? Can they use PTO for those?

Yes, let's shortchange 150,000+ kids out of 180 days of education because a few people have non-refundable beach week plans.

What will you say when the survey shows what a wildly unpopular option this is?

You know what was wildly unpopular? The schedule for this 2025-2026 academic year where kids got shortchanged instructional time.

+1 million. The only happy people this year were teachers who got an extra week of snow day holidays.

The people complaining on this thread sound like MCPS staffers who want to keep the status quo, so they don't have to work more than 177 days a year again next year.

-1. Starting earlier than already announced inconveniences everyone. Cutting into winter or spring break inconveniences everyone. Potentially using the indicated makeup days within the school year inconveniences a small minority, yes, but is ultimately better for learning because the makeup day would be closer to the missed day of instruction. Adding three days at the end of the year is never helpful, no matter which week in June it is.

Starting earlier in August doesn't inconvenience me. Not sure why you think you speak for "everyone." I'm happy to start earlier in August if it means my kids get 180 days of instructional time. Plenty of other parents feel similarly, particularly many of those with kids in high school who were disproportionately negatively impacted this year due to the loss of AP instructional time.

+1 The people I know with kids in AP classes are happy about this proposed change.

Nothing demonstrates how many kids are in AP classes they can't actual handle like parents worrying about a few days of instruction here and there. If your kid can't hack it without squeezing every drop of classroom time they can, then they're not cut out for the class.

Nothing like the empathy gap of some idiot implying kids in AP classes or their parents are dumb if they want to have the required instructional time they're supposed to be given to cover the curriculum. If you ftake that position, why should kids attend school at all? I guess they could just You Tube their AP classes and teach themselves.

Starting the school year earlier is a very good thing for the high school students who do IB or AP (which is about half of all of those enrolled in HS.) Has nothing to do with not being able to handle the class. It has to do with time to cover the material in the curriculum (which was shortened a lot this year due to all the snow days.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think that the kids should go back earlier. Unless you have a beach house or are a SAHP that last week of summer is tough to manage. I do not think the calendar should change for 2026 but it would be good to announce for 2027 now!

Uh, you do realize that if they start school a week earlier, the week before will still be hard to find camps. It will be no different than the current situation, just a week sooner.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think that the kids should go back earlier. Unless you have a beach house or are a SAHP that last week of summer is tough to manage. I do not think the calendar should change for 2026 but it would be good to announce for 2027 now!

Uh, you do realize that if they start school a week earlier, the week before will still be hard to find camps. It will be no different than the current situation, just a week sooner.

My understanding is that the difficulty finding camps the last week is largely due to college students being back at school and camps not being able to hire enough counselors to operate, so starting earlier would indeed help that.

(Camps in school buildings are not allowed to operate in the buildings the last week or two before school, so that would continue to be a factor no matter when the school year starts, but most camps are not located in school buildings so that's only a minor factor.)

[Anonymous]

Beg to differ about how many camps are located in school buildings.

[Anonymous]

If you fill out the survey more than once, are they able to decipher this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:I'm also an MCPS HS teacher and the staff who are teaching ESY are NOT HAPPY. Some are saying they won't do summer school if the first day moves earlier. These teachers would only have 1 week between the end of summer school and the beginning of pre-service. This calendar change may impact the staffing of ESY programs.

As angry as I am for parents and students, I feel much worse for teachers. This is way too late to be proposing a change like this.

And I’m angry for the 150k students who were shortchanged several instructional days this year because MCPS can’t get its act together to schedule properly and it’s teacher’s union fights every logical change to the schedule except those that result in waiving work days for its members.

Pretty sure those kids aren't upset about it so I would let it go before you burst a blood vessel in your brain

Pretty sure you don’t have a clue what thousands of kids want or need, you just want to get paid for not working at your MCPS job.

I'd wager they know more than you do and it has absolutely nothing to do with not wanting to do their job. Parents like you are insufferable. Your lizard brain reverts back to middle school name-calling when you don't get your way and just want to blame someone for your troubles, so you throw a temper tantrum and blame teachers. It's pathetic and prevalent in this community. Grow up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm also an MCPS HS teacher and the staff who are teaching ESY are NOT HAPPY. Some are saying they won't do summer school if the first day moves earlier. These teachers would only have 1 week between the end of summer school and the beginning of pre-service. This calendar change may impact the staffing of ESY programs.

As angry as I am for parents and students, I feel much worse for teachers. This is way too late to be proposing a change like this.

And I’m angry for the 150k students who were shortchanged several instructional days this year because MCPS can’t get its act together to schedule properly and it’s teacher’s union fights every logical change to the schedule except those that result in waiving work days for its members.

Pretty sure those kids aren't upset about it so I would let it go before you burst a blood vessel in your brain

Pretty sure you don’t have a clue what thousands of kids want or need, you just want to get paid for not working at your MCPS job.

I'd wager they know more than you do and it has absolutely nothing to do with not wanting to do their job. Parents like you are insufferable. Your lizard brain reverts back to middle school name-calling when you don't get your way and just want to blame someone for your troubles, so you throw a temper tantrum and blame teachers. It's pathetic and prevalent in this community. Grow up.

Curious to see which MCPS Central Office staffer you get accused of being.

[Anonymous]

I do wonder about the reading comp skills of the MCPS Central Office after looking at the MDSE info. It requires ending by Juneteenth, and either 6 built in makeup days if no virtual learning plan or 3 if a virtual learning plan is in place - TO BE ELIGiBLE FOR WAIVER of 180 days. So current 26-27 calendar ends by Juneteenth. MCPS has applied for virtual learning plan. They have 2 built in days before Juneteenth (3/9 and 6/17). They need 1 more built in day to be eligible for a waiver. This is SO simple. As many people have said ditch the transition day (or move only that day into the prior week) or cancel the Diwali day that is not Diwali. DONE. Nobody with camps, vacations or other important family time ore-planned in late Aug affected. Why are they thinking moving into the prior week is necessary or desirable at all? Do they just want to create chaos and upset everyone?