The number of student holidays is insane.

[Anonymous]

Everybody is complaining about how early FCPS is starting.

The only reason: The idiot school board that larded up the calendar with so many holidays it's impossible to even find a whole continuous week of school.

We could easily start after Labor Day and end in May. Vote these morons out at the next opportunity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a teacher I prefer as many 5 day weeks as possible.

The one that’s frustrating is Halloween weekend. And then Election Day Wednesday. What happened to the 4 day teacher work day to do conferences? We do some Halloween and some the next week on a Wednesday? So weird.

That 4 day weekend has been around forever.

Yes! Why did they get rid of that Monday as a day off?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Everybody is complaining about how early FCPS is starting.

The only reason: The idiot school board that larded up the calendar with so many holidays it's impossible to even find a whole continuous week of school.

We could easily start after Labor Day and end in May. Vote these morons out at the next opportunity.

Yeah, because what DCUM wants is 12-15 week summer. NOT.

[Anonymous]

Let's get down to specifics. Review the holiday list here. Which dates would you get rid of and why?

https://www.fcps.edu/calendars/standard-school-year-calendar

[Anonymous]

They should have increased the number of days to more than 180 because kids are ridiculously behind in their learning thanks to covid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Way too many random days off! I much prefer longer breaks than this nonsense. Give us a proper fall break and a proper winter break and just stop with the random days off. STOP. Get to teaching, FCPS.

FCPS is a government run organization. It is a collective which means it doesn’t bow to your individualized schedule.

You can rule your smartphone and Siri, but you don’t rule FCPS. Understand that not everything can be customized to you and your life will be much less stressful.

It's bowing to individualized wishes with this schedule. I give a sh-- about any of these holidays. I wish you well. Take the day off if you must and catch up like everyone else does when they are out. Why do my kids need a day off b/c you celebrate (insert holiday)? And end up having to end school a few weeks before July 4 because of it?

+100

Anyone who sees nothing wrong with the upcoming calendar has tremendous issues of laziness. You won't convince me otherwise.

It’s an anonymous forum. No one really cares what you think.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They should have increased the number of days to more than 180 because kids are ridiculously behind in their learning thanks to covid.

That costs more money; no one would approve the budget because property taxes would go up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a teacher I prefer as many 5 day weeks as possible.

The one that’s frustrating is Halloween weekend. And then Election Day Wednesday. What happened to the 4 day teacher work day to do conferences? We do some Halloween and some the next week on a Wednesday? So weird.

That 4 day weekend has been around forever.

Yes, I’m a parent and that was one of the breaks that I liked because it was a 4 or 5 day weekend to actually go somewhere. Now it’s randomly split up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Everybody is complaining about how early FCPS is starting.

The only reason: The idiot school board that larded up the calendar with so many holidays it's impossible to even find a whole continuous week of school.

We could easily start after Labor Day and end in May. Vote these morons out at the next opportunity.

Um most people do not want THAT long of a summer and no school starts after Labor Day and ends at Memorial Day. I grew up starting after Labor Day and we ended 3rd week of June.

[Anonymous]

There were ways to add more Full Weeks. I had a few suggestions I sent the SB and clearly they did not listen. -Teacher

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There were ways to add more Full Weeks. I had a few suggestions I sent the SB and clearly they did not listen. -Teacher

Haha like they would ever listen to us teachers!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Let's get down to specifics. Review the holiday list here. Which dates would you get rid of and why?

https://www.fcps.edu/calendars/standard-school-year-calendar

Get rid of:
- 26 Sep (Rosh Hashanah) -- not needed as holiday
- 5 Oct (Yom Kippur) -- not needed as holiday
- 10 Oct (Indigenous Peoples') -- not needed as holiday
- 24 Oct (Diwali) -- not needed as holiday
- 31 Oct (Halloween) -- not needed as holiday
- 11 Nov (Veterans) -- not needed as holiday
- 3 Mar -- not needed as holiday
- 14 Apr (Orthodox Good Friday) -- not needed as holiday (they should time spring break to be at the end of the quarter and include a teacher workday on the Friday before or Monday after)
- 21 Apr (Eid) -- not needed as holiday


Add in:
- Week long "fall break" at the middle or end of Oct (best to be timed at the end of the quarter)


Keep:
- 4-day Labor Day break
- Election Day
- The 2 week winter break
- The 3-day Thanksgiving break
- The holiday for MLK
- The 4-day holiday at the semester's end in January
- The holiday for President's Day
- Spring break (best to be timed at the end of the quarter and move the end-of-quarter teacher workday to the Friday before Spring Break or the Monday after)
- Memorial Day

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let's get down to specifics. Review the holiday list here. Which dates would you get rid of and why?

https://www.fcps.edu/calendars/standard-school-year-calendar

Get rid of:
- 26 Sep (Rosh Hashanah) -- not needed as holiday
- 5 Oct (Yom Kippur) -- not needed as holiday
- 10 Oct (Indigenous Peoples') -- not needed as holiday
- 24 Oct (Diwali) -- not needed as holiday
- 31 Oct (Halloween) -- not needed as holiday
- 11 Nov (Veterans) -- not needed as holiday
- 3 Mar -- not needed as holiday
- 14 Apr (Orthodox Good Friday) -- not needed as holiday (they should time spring break to be at the end of the quarter and include a teacher workday on the Friday before or Monday after)
- 21 Apr (Eid) -- not needed as holiday


Add in:
- Week long "fall break" at the middle or end of Oct (best to be timed at the end of the quarter)


Keep:
- 4-day Labor Day break
- Election Day
- The 2 week winter break
- The 3-day Thanksgiving break
- The holiday for MLK
- The 4-day holiday at the semester's end in January
- The holiday for President's Day
- Spring break (best to be timed at the end of the quarter and move the end-of-quarter teacher workday to the Friday before Spring Break or the Monday after)
- Memorial Day

I would be very happy with that. Now we are going to see a ton of posts on why we are culturally insensitive and why every group needs it's special day off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let's get down to specifics. Review the holiday list here. Which dates would you get rid of and why?

https://www.fcps.edu/calendars/standard-school-year-calendar

Get rid of:
- 26 Sep (Rosh Hashanah) -- not needed as holiday
- 5 Oct (Yom Kippur) -- not needed as holiday
- 10 Oct (Indigenous Peoples') -- not needed as holiday
- 24 Oct (Diwali) -- not needed as holiday
- 31 Oct (Halloween) -- not needed as holiday
- 11 Nov (Veterans) -- not needed as holiday
- 3 Mar -- not needed as holiday
- 14 Apr (Orthodox Good Friday) -- not needed as holiday (they should time spring break to be at the end of the quarter and include a teacher workday on the Friday before or Monday after)
- 21 Apr (Eid) -- not needed as holiday


Add in:
- Week long "fall break" at the middle or end of Oct (best to be timed at the end of the quarter)


Keep:
- 4-day Labor Day break
- Election Day
- The 2 week winter break
- The 3-day Thanksgiving break
- The holiday for MLK
- The 4-day holiday at the semester's end in January
- The holiday for President's Day
- Spring break (best to be timed at the end of the quarter and move the end-of-quarter teacher workday to the Friday before Spring Break or the Monday after)
- Memorial Day

As a Jewish Teacher, I am thrilled to have the holidays off. With that being said, I agree with the following:
Indigenous Day should be a school day, Veteran’s Day should be a school day cause it always was. They should end Q1 by Election Day and make that Monday/Tuesday a TW day like they have in the past. Get rid of March 3 day. Doing this would add three more FULL weeks. With that being said, several holidays will be on weekends next school year.

[Anonymous]

It's unpatriotic to have Veterans' Day a school day. It's a federal holiday.

Agree with the above list on cutting out theses extraneous holidays (although some are disguised as "teacher development " days).