FCPS Early Release Mondays

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I wish they would have done this on Fridays so we could get a jump start on the weekend.

They probably don't want the teachers to leave early for the weekend

Wouldn’t the training be mandatory for teachers? Why should this be a problem?

Given most parents who telework do so on Fridays, and parents who would want more family time would benefit from early Friday’s, I really see no justification in not doing this Friday afternoons.

So telework Monday

Do people not understand that when workers are remote, they are still....wait for it....working? When I telework, I can't leave my house to go get my kid and then care for them all afternoon. Maybe you have a six year old who can entertain themselves for three hours, and a boss who doesn't care if you're actually working, but I have neither.

Look at the PPs:

*I wish they would have done this on Fridays so we could get a jump start on the weekend.

* Given most parents who telework do so on Fridays, and parents who would want more family time would benefit from early Friday’s [sic]

So you can use the at-school option.

Kids in a cafeteria overseen by subs? hopefully people complain to VDOE about inadequate staffing if that's the plan

They will need to support kids with IEPs just like a regular school day

I don’t think afterschool activities are covered with IEP’s

Its not an afterschool activity. They promised coverage by the school system until the regular dismissal time. They have to support special ed kids for that. Just like a field trip;

It’ll be more like SACC than a field trip (no SPED support required).

It seems like that will be an issue for VDOE and the courts

You can contact whom ever you like.

The child is not being denied access to the activities, the real question is do they require support to sit in the room and play games after school hours? This may be true with a physical disability.

Without you sharing more info, who can really know. Maybe you could offer some examples without being specific to your specific family. If a student with a reading goal, they may not get support based on the activities offered. The SPED teachers will be in the training, so I doubt their be academic activities beyond the tutoring interventions.

This is off topic, but FCPS does not have any written policies in place that require schools make field trips or after school activities fully available to students with disabilities.

I personally know of one child with a permanent physical challenge who the school would not allow to participate in a hike because it would they might fall. The child was given worksheets and left on the school bus with an aide during the field trip. Schools can choose to include children but are not required to do so as long as they offer another educational opportunity.

This will be case for the early release Mondays as well. Schools and PTAs can choose exclude or simply discourage the children with IEP.

These aren't under FCPS policies per se but under IDEA. They cannot flat-out deny the activity.
In your example, the parents may have decided to hold the student back for safety reasons.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I saw some people up thread are being told Scouts will offer programs. I'd like to see what that is.

Because:

Girl Scout Leaders are volunteers and most are working moms or SAHMs with other small children who would need child care. I love Girl SCouts and I'm a leader but I can't do afternoons.

I love Girl Scouts but like plenty of people wouldn’t trust BSA with my kids. This isn’t the kind of problem that volunteer-run organizations can be expected to solve since those volunteers are the same people scrambling for care for their kids next year.

I'm on the PPs, this will be on a school-to-school basis. Not every school will have the same activities based on staff, volunteers, etc. There may be some schools where one of the scout leaders is a SAHM.

So, like everything else in FCPS, the schools with well resourced PTAs with scores of SAHMs will give the kids a great experience and the poorer schools will pile the kids into the gym with a sub?

Maybe, details haven't come out yet.

The details should have been in place before this was rolled out. FCPS is trying to force parents to make alternate plans so there are fewer kids to stuff into a badly supervised cafeteria. Hopefully by next weeks meetings they’re ready with something less embarrassing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don’t most of you ‘work from home’ anyways? I don’t see how it’s so hard for you to pickup your kid early for 7 days in the entire school year!

You do know that even at the height of the pandemic only 30% of this area worked from home, right? And that was high for the United States as a whole. How privileged are you not to think of everyone who can't?

It's also true that 30% of people have access to a hybrid model - meaning that they could (possibly) work from home on those 7 days.

Here? Anyone working in a classified environment works in person full-time. Any doctor or nurse or medical field works in person full-time. Any restaurant or grocery works in person full time. Teachers work in person full-time. Heck, even the corporate lawyers I know in DC are in the office a minimum of 3 to 4 days a week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I saw some people up thread are being told Scouts will offer programs. I'd like to see what that is.

Because:

Girl Scout Leaders are volunteers and most are working moms or SAHMs with other small children who would need child care. I love Girl SCouts and I'm a leader but I can't do afternoons.

I love Girl Scouts but like plenty of people wouldn’t trust BSA with my kids. This isn’t the kind of problem that volunteer-run organizations can be expected to solve since those volunteers are the same people scrambling for care for their kids next year.

I'm on the PPs, this will be on a school-to-school basis. Not every school will have the same activities based on staff, volunteers, etc. There may be some schools where one of the scout leaders is a SAHM.

So, like everything else in FCPS, the schools with well resourced PTAs with scores of SAHMs will give the kids a great experience and the poorer schools will pile the kids into the gym with a sub?

Maybe, details haven't come out yet.

The details should have been in place before this was rolled out. FCPS is trying to force parents to make alternate plans so there are fewer kids to stuff into a badly supervised cafeteria. Hopefully by next weeks meetings they’re ready with something less embarrassing.

That is probably true, the original email asked parents to try to plan to pick up at the early dismissal as much as they could. (not the exact wording).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I saw some people up thread are being told Scouts will offer programs. I'd like to see what that is.

Because:

Girl Scout Leaders are volunteers and most are working moms or SAHMs with other small children who would need child care. I love Girl SCouts and I'm a leader but I can't do afternoons.

I love Girl Scouts but like plenty of people wouldn’t trust BSA with my kids. This isn’t the kind of problem that volunteer-run organizations can be expected to solve since those volunteers are the same people scrambling for care for their kids next year.

I'm on the PPs, this will be on a school-to-school basis. Not every school will have the same activities based on staff, volunteers, etc. There may be some schools where one of the scout leaders is a SAHM.

So, like everything else in FCPS, the schools with well resourced PTAs with scores of SAHMs will give the kids a great experience and the poorer schools will pile the kids into the gym with a sub?

Maybe, details haven't come out yet.

The details should have been in place before this was rolled out. FCPS is trying to force parents to make alternate plans so there are fewer kids to stuff into a badly supervised cafeteria. Hopefully by next weeks meetings they’re ready with something less embarrassing.

I wouldn't hold your breath for next week. How can they plan for something where they don't know how many kids are staying?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don’t most of you ‘work from home’ anyways? I don’t see how it’s so hard for you to pickup your kid early for 7 days in the entire school year!

You do know that even at the height of the pandemic only 30% of this area worked from home, right? And that was high for the United States as a whole. How privileged are you not to think of everyone who can't?

It's also true that 30% of people have access to a hybrid model - meaning that they could (possibly) work from home on those 7 days.

Here? Anyone working in a classified environment works in person full-time. Any doctor or nurse or medical field works in person full-time. Any restaurant or grocery works in person full time. Teachers work in person full-time. Heck, even the corporate lawyers I know in DC are in the office a minimum of 3 to 4 days a week.

But a lot of those professions you listed (nurse, restaurant, grocery, etc) can plan for shift change for those days.
I also think you severely underestimate the kids who come home to an empty house.

[Anonymous]

They are just putting it back to the way it was in the 90s. Relax people. Unfortunately, we also have to account for many more religious days than we did.

The teachers need the time.

[Anonymous]

I'm emailing Dr. Reid and I encourage everyone else who has an issue with this to do the same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm emailing Dr. Reid and I encourage everyone else who has an issue with this to do the same.

This whole idea/plan was weighed against other ideas. They already know parents are going to be happy. Of course, they predicted that. But they also had to weigh it against extending the school year, further into June, which they also knew wouldn’t make parents happy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don’t most of you ‘work from home’ anyways? I don’t see how it’s so hard for you to pickup your kid early for 7 days in the entire school year!

You do know that even at the height of the pandemic only 30% of this area worked from home, right? And that was high for the United States as a whole. How privileged are you not to think of everyone who can't?

It's also true that 30% of people have access to a hybrid model - meaning that they could (possibly) work from home on those 7 days.

Here? Anyone working in a classified environment works in person full-time. Any doctor or nurse or medical field works in person full-time. Any restaurant or grocery works in person full time. Teachers work in person full-time. Heck, even the corporate lawyers I know in DC are in the office a minimum of 3 to 4 days a week.

Most work from home employees or hybrid jobs have specific policies that children must be in child care or supervised by another adult. You cannot do both.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm emailing Dr. Reid and I encourage everyone else who has an issue with this to do the same.

This whole idea/plan was weighed against other ideas. They already know parents are going to be happy. Of course, they predicted that. But they also had to weigh it against extending the school year, further into June, which they also knew wouldn’t make parents happy.

Sorry meant, we’re not going to be happy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don’t most of you ‘work from home’ anyways? I don’t see how it’s so hard for you to pickup your kid early for 7 days in the entire school year!

You do know that even at the height of the pandemic only 30% of this area worked from home, right? And that was high for the United States as a whole. How privileged are you not to think of everyone who can't?

It's also true that 30% of people have access to a hybrid model - meaning that they could (possibly) work from home on those 7 days.

Here? Anyone working in a classified environment works in person full-time. Any doctor or nurse or medical field works in person full-time. Any restaurant or grocery works in person full time. Teachers work in person full-time. Heck, even the corporate lawyers I know in DC are in the office a minimum of 3 to 4 days a week.

But a lot of those professions you listed (nurse, restaurant, grocery, etc) can plan for shift change for those days.
I also think you severely underestimate the kids who come home to an empty house.

I think you severely underestimate the kids coming home to an empty house. Anyone who works hourly will lose money. Housecleaners, mechanics, bus drivers, waiters, personal trainers - all the support staff that you don't actually see also happen to send their kids to FCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm emailing Dr. Reid and I encourage everyone else who has an issue with this to do the same.

This whole idea/plan was weighed against other ideas. They already know parents are going to be happy. Of course, they predicted that. But they also had to weigh it against extending the school year, further into June, which they also knew wouldn’t make parents happy.

Sorry meant, we’re not going to be happy.

This country has a serious problem with deprioritizing education. It's not like this in the rest of the world.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm emailing Dr. Reid and I encourage everyone else who has an issue with this to do the same.

She’s not elected and not accountable to parents. I would suggest reaching out to your school board members and letting them know you will vote for members in November who support children being in classrooms not cafeterias.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm emailing Dr. Reid and I encourage everyone else who has an issue with this to do the same.

This whole idea/plan was weighed against other ideas. They already know parents are going to be happy. Of course, they predicted that. But they also had to weigh it against extending the school year, further into June, which they also knew wouldn’t make parents happy.

Loudoun managed to change course when parents expressed their views. Why is Fairfax unable to do the same?

November already only had one 5 day week. Take Mon-Weds of Thanksgiving week and there’s your hours. Let parents vote or weigh in before saying “they’ll adjust” as one board member did.