Why does FCPS have all these random days of week off???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There have been a million calendar threads. Parents were surveyed. Clearly you didn’t want what others did.

The parent survey counts for nothing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What was the reason for Friday being off?

State law. Labor day must be a 4 day weekend to appease the tourism lobby.

It is to generate tax dollars for the state in Worcester County (Ocean City).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d love to move winter break to not coincide with Christmas. Travel would be so much cheaper. Give the kids the 25th as the federal holiday but move the two weeks to early January instead.

I would love this too!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There have been a million calendar threads. Parents were surveyed. Clearly you didn’t want what others did.

The parent survey counts for nothing.

OP here. I’m fairly certain I filled out a calendar survey and I am 100% certain the current school calendar does not reflect what I wanted.

I do remember I did not mind an earlier start for an earlier end date. Nowhere did I vote for an earlier start date AND a later end date.

I definitely did not vote for all these one off days off sprinkled all over the calendar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There have been a million calendar threads. Parents were surveyed. Clearly you didn’t want what others did.

The parent survey counts for nothing.

OP here. I’m fairly certain I filled out a calendar survey and I am 100% certain the current school calendar does not reflect what I wanted.

I do remember I did not mind an earlier start for an earlier end date. Nowhere did I vote for an earlier start date AND a later end date.

I definitely did not vote for all these one off days off sprinkled all over the calendar.

They surveyed teachers too and teachers main concern was that the calendar was aligned with surrounding jurisdictions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh please excuse us for being Jewish, Hindu, and Muslim. PLEASE excuse us for not demanding one week off for our largest holiday and then another two week holiday for another big holiday like Christians do. EXCUSE US.

#ignorantwhitechristianskindofsuck

If you need religious holidays off, go to a religious schools. Keep religious calendar out of public schools. Xmas is a federal holiday so part of fed calendar. All other Christian holidays are Sundays and not a school day off. And the gripe about Xmas is silly. 75% of the country celebrates it. That’s an overwhelming majority so we should rightly plan around staffing and student shortages.

Having Eid, Diwali and high holidays off is ridiculous. Fed holidays and only fed days should be observed

Then give kids ONE DAY OFF FOR CHRISTMAS like federal government workers get. Like Jews are getting for Rosh Hoshanah, Hindus are getting for Diwali, Muslims are getting for Eid. I'm sure the Hindu Indian immigrants would love to take two weeks to visit their families for their actual holiday rather than having to do it in December because that's when the Christian holiday is.

Then don't move to a country where 75%+ of the country celebrates Christmas if you don't like it. I mean, this isn't rocket science. Indian Hindus and Muslims knew this before they moved. In fact, I don't think any immigrants who move to this country believe that the culture should shift to minimize Christmas (which is honestly the biggest holiday in this country both culturally and religiously) just because some immigrants who move here don't celebrate. You must not live with or know any recent immigrants. I am married to one and actually work in immigration. The idea that we have to incorporate every single holiday for each religious, ethnic, immigrant, and/or minority group is just too much. We cannot celebrate them all without losing complete efficiency. Immigrants adapt to our calendar. Done.

[Anonymous]

I would love to see the survey results because most of the people I know responded that they didn't want a ton of religious holidays, they didn't want Veteran's Day as a student holiday, they wanted a one week Winter Break, and they wanted to reduce the numbers of weeks with days off. My sample size is small, obviously, but I know of very few people who wanted this abomination of a calendar.

Ideally, we would have some 4 day weekends, if not actual breaks, at the end of each quarter so that Teachers have time to finish grading and entering grades. Include Teacher work days that are actual work days and not a bunch of BS meetings that none of the Teachers I know think are useful in any way where Teachers can actually get work done but not the crazy number that FCPS has.

I think they conduct the survey, write questions in a way that is impossible for parents to actually say what they want so that they can create a huge mess that pisses off everyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What was the reason for Friday being off?

Fri, Nov. 11 is Veterans Day. We have that full day off for the first time.

That used to be the only day that DH and I could have the day off while the kids went to school!

I just don't understand why they couldn't consolidate some of these days off. Why is Monday Oct. 31 a day off, but then the next Monday is a school day and then Election Day is off? And then that Friday is off for Veteran's Day? Insanity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would love to see the survey results because most of the people I know responded that they didn't want a ton of religious holidays, they didn't want Veteran's Day as a student holiday, they wanted a one week Winter Break, and they wanted to reduce the numbers of weeks with days off. My sample size is small, obviously, but I know of very few people who wanted this abomination of a calendar.

Ideally, we would have some 4 day weekends, if not actual breaks, at the end of each quarter so that Teachers have time to finish grading and entering grades. Include Teacher work days that are actual work days and not a bunch of BS meetings that none of the Teachers I know think are useful in any way where Teachers can actually get work done but not the crazy number that FCPS has.

I think they conduct the survey, write questions in a way that is impossible for parents to actually say what they want so that they can create a huge mess that pisses off everyone.

Your sample group matches mine. I don't know of anyone who likes the current calendar with random days off. It is just another hurdle thrown to working parents. How are we supposed to find childcare for all these random days? Or does FCPS assume that all the parents will remain working from home indefinitely? Public schools are supposed to serve the public. We fund them for that purpose.

[Anonymous]

So who can we contact to discuss the calendar issue? The school board members? The superintendent? I always do the survey but it doesn't really ask about "O" days or the placing of teacher work days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So who can we contact to discuss the calendar issue? The school board members? The superintendent? I always do the survey but it doesn't really ask about "O" days or the placing of teacher work days.

It is the school board. You have to send emails, show up to meetings, and vote these current members out. Sadly, the terms are not up for another 2 years but they'll vote on another calendar next year so we should make it a point to attend meetings to let them know how upset most working parents are with this. Having only 4 full weeks in the entire fall is ridiculous. How are we supposed to work with this???

[Anonymous]

For those who haven't seen the survey results:
https://www.fcps.edu/calendars/how-fcps-develops-its-school-year-calendar/2022-23-school-year-calendar-survey-highlights

Also, the survey is only one of many things considered when putting the calendar together:
https://www.fcps.edu/calendars/how-fcps-develops-its-school-year-calendar

That Labor Day Friday off? That's state law:
https://doe.virginia.gov/boe/pre-labor-day_waiver/index.shtml

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So who can we contact to discuss the calendar issue? The school board members? The superintendent? I always do the survey but it doesn't really ask about "O" days or the placing of teacher work days.

It is the school board. You have to send emails, show up to meetings, and vote these current members out. Sadly, the terms are not up for another 2 years but they'll vote on another calendar next year so we should make it a point to attend meetings to let them know how upset most working parents are with this. Having only 4 full weeks in the entire fall is ridiculous. How are we supposed to work with this???

It’s actually 5 full weeks. Two in September, and 3 in December. And no one is focused in a December as is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There have been a million calendar threads. Parents were surveyed. Clearly you didn’t want what others did.

The parent survey counts for nothing.

OP here. I’m fairly certain I filled out a calendar survey and I am 100% certain the current school calendar does not reflect what I wanted.

I do remember I did not mind an earlier start for an earlier end date. Nowhere did I vote for an earlier start date AND a later end date.

I definitely did not vote for all these one off days off sprinkled all over the calendar.

They surveyed teachers too and teachers main concern was that the calendar was aligned with surrounding jurisdictions.

It would have been useful to see how that varied for spring break alignment vs other days. I think the lack of spring break alignment was a much bigger deal than the religious days not aligning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There have been a million calendar threads. Parents were surveyed. Clearly you didn’t want what others did.

The parent survey counts for nothing.

OP here. I’m fairly certain I filled out a calendar survey and I am 100% certain the current school calendar does not reflect what I wanted.

I do remember I did not mind an earlier start for an earlier end date. Nowhere did I vote for an earlier start date AND a later end date.

I definitely did not vote for all these one off days off sprinkled all over the calendar.

+1 this exactly.