Presenting a mock 23-24 calendar based on DCUM's preference for 5-day weeks

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's another idea...

Quarter 1 -- 46 days
- Begin on 31 July and end on 4 October
- 4 day Labor Day weekend
- 2 teacher work days plus a week break 9-13 October

Quarter 2 -- 44 days
- Begin on 16 October and end on 19 December
- Off on Election Day
- 2 teacher work days plus a two week semester break 25 Dec to 5 Jan

Quarter 3 -- 46 days
- Begin on 8 January and end on 13 March
- Off on MLK Day and Presidents Day
-2 teacher work days plus a week break 18-22 March

Quarter 4 -- 44 days
- Begin on 25 March and end on 23 May
- Early release for the last 2 days of school (1/2 teacher work days)
- 1 teacher work day on 24 May

9 week summer in June and July.

How about that schedule?

This is literally the worst schedule ever! No one wants to start in July (!!??!), why in the world would we need a break in Oct for a week?, spring break so early sucks for anyone not flying to a warm spot, Two half days ag end of year are bad, first week of Jan off is awful - if winter break must be two weeks the extra needs to be before Xmas not the week after New Years.

The breaks are timed to the end of the quarters (1.5 weeks after Q1, 2.5 weeks after Q2, and 1.5 weeks after Q3). It definitely is a change, but it aligns the year so that the semester break can occur at the Xmas/NYears time frame. Plus, it gives breaks that will be more consistent with good weather given global warming in our area. Northern Va will likely have a climate like Georgia in another 10-20 years.

Who is enjoying all of those weeks off during the school year? Nice weather? Week long camps for a good percentage of the kids. I agree with the other poster, this is the worst of everything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's another idea...

Quarter 1 -- 46 days
- Begin on 31 July and end on 4 October
- 4 day Labor Day weekend
- 2 teacher work days plus a week break 9-13 October

Quarter 2 -- 44 days
- Begin on 16 October and end on 19 December
- Off on Election Day
- 2 teacher work days plus a two week semester break 25 Dec to 5 Jan

Quarter 3 -- 46 days
- Begin on 8 January and end on 13 March
- Off on MLK Day and Presidents Day
-2 teacher work days plus a week break 18-22 March

Quarter 4 -- 44 days
- Begin on 25 March and end on 23 May
- Early release for the last 2 days of school (1/2 teacher work days)
- 1 teacher work day on 24 May

9 week summer in June and July.

How about that schedule?

This is literally the worst schedule ever! No one wants to start in July (!!??!), why in the world would we need a break in Oct for a week?, spring break so early sucks for anyone not flying to a warm spot, Two half days ag end of year are bad, first week of Jan off is awful - if winter break must be two weeks the extra needs to be before Xmas not the week after New Years.

The breaks are timed to the end of the quarters (1.5 weeks after Q1, 2.5 weeks after Q2, and 1.5 weeks after Q3). It definitely is a change, but it aligns the year so that the semester break can occur at the Xmas/NYears time frame. Plus, it gives breaks that will be more consistent with good weather given global warming in our area. Northern Va will likely have a climate like Georgia in another 10-20 years.

Who is enjoying all of those weeks off during the school year? Nice weather? Week long camps for a good percentage of the kids. I agree with the other poster, this is the worst of everything.

Because Summer Camp is so much better? I like the breaks at the end of the quarter. Cheaper time to travel to different places and visit family. Less learning loss because the breaks are shorter. Enough time to recharge your batteries and relax.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's another idea...

Quarter 1 -- 46 days
- Begin on 31 July and end on 4 October
- 4 day Labor Day weekend
- 2 teacher work days plus a week break 9-13 October

Quarter 2 -- 44 days
- Begin on 16 October and end on 19 December
- Off on Election Day
- 2 teacher work days plus a two week semester break 25 Dec to 5 Jan

Quarter 3 -- 46 days
- Begin on 8 January and end on 13 March
- Off on MLK Day and Presidents Day
-2 teacher work days plus a week break 18-22 March

Quarter 4 -- 44 days
- Begin on 25 March and end on 23 May
- Early release for the last 2 days of school (1/2 teacher work days)
- 1 teacher work day on 24 May

9 week summer in June and July.

How about that schedule?

This is literally the worst schedule ever! No one wants to start in July (!!??!), why in the world would we need a break in Oct for a week?, spring break so early sucks for anyone not flying to a warm spot, Two half days ag end of year are bad, first week of Jan off is awful - if winter break must be two weeks the extra needs to be before Xmas not the week after New Years.

The breaks are timed to the end of the quarters (1.5 weeks after Q1, 2.5 weeks after Q2, and 1.5 weeks after Q3). It definitely is a change, but it aligns the year so that the semester break can occur at the Xmas/NYears time frame. Plus, it gives breaks that will be more consistent with good weather given global warming in our area. Northern Va will likely have a climate like Georgia in another 10-20 years.

Who is enjoying all of those weeks off during the school year? Nice weather? Week long camps for a good percentage of the kids. I agree with the other poster, this is the worst of everything.

Because Summer Camp is so much better? I like the breaks at the end of the quarter. Cheaper time to travel to different places and visit family. Less learning loss because the breaks are shorter. Enough time to recharge your batteries and relax.

+1 Summer camps can get so HOT. I would much rather my kid be able to attend camps in October, January, and March. Different things for different seasons!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SOLs are complete in May (including retakes). We are in school till mid June.

Sure. I would be happy with an early August start and a beginning of June stop.
But also, consider some of the seniors who need to pass an SOL to graduate; they graduate at the beginning of June about 2 weeks before the end of school for everyone else.

How about we stop taking so many random days off during the school year. The reason we go so late and because of VA law for having 180 days. You all need to care that a good 14 of those days don't teach your kids anything. They're just there to satisfy this law.

But I (and many others) do not want a 3 month summer. Personally, I would prefer a fall break, a Thanksgiving break, a winter break, a spring break, and an 8 week summer.

I would prefer year round school with a 2 week break at the end of each quarter. I don't think the fall needs a fall break leading into a Thanksgiving break (I am assuming you mean more then the 2 days off right now) leading into winter break 5 weeks after Thanksgiving.

My ideal would be to build a calendar were you have 2 weeks off after the end of quarters and the second quarter ending at winter break. But most people seem to think that the idea of a shorter summer break in favor of a series of 2 weeks breaks is somehow threatening because they have to have a long summer break. (shrugs)

I think FCPS would be fine with the calendar if they choose either Federal Holidays off or Religious/Diversity days off but not both.

Realistically, if the school year calendars don't line up with college calendars, then all of those 2-week breaks will be a nightmare for working parents. Summer camps and swimming pools are largely staffed by college kids or recent graduates who get a long summer break, and those people don't get all those 2-week breaks. Consider a typical working family with 4 weeks of leave (if they combine it). How will they cover 8 weeks if there are no 2-week camps (which would be a nightmare to operate & staff--not to mention that kids like mine who need a couple of weeks to settle into a new routine would always be off their rockers)? We have more generous leave than 2 weeks each and are still barely able to make it work now with winter break and spring break if we want to have any time left over for a family vacation in the summer. We have to be super strategic with our leave *and* use 8-9 weeks of summer camp.

[Anonymous]

How do they staff camps during April spring breaks when college kids are at college? Miraculously, they do so with local workers and high school kids. Also, all regular childcare places like Kindercare, Sparkle, Chesterbrook, etc will provide daycare for all of the elementary kids. It would work fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How do they staff camps during April spring breaks when college kids are at college? Miraculously, they do so with local workers and high school kids. Also, all regular childcare places like Kindercare, Sparkle, Chesterbrook, etc will provide daycare for all of the elementary kids. It would work fine.

Lovely wishful thinking there. More families take at least part of spring break off since it's just a week vs. multiple months as in summer. That dampens the need for camps that week. Also the type of camp people may be ok with for just a few days or at most a week may not be the same type of spot they'd be comfortable using for weeks on end. Regular childcare places do not magically have enough staffing to cover a huge surge of ES kids and those kids will also be super bored if they are over 1st grade since daycares are not really set up for them on a weeks long basis.

Unless college schedules shift to match we do NOT have enough workers to cover child care on a schedule that doesn't concentrate most of the time off over an extended summer break (aligning mostly with college break).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do they staff camps during April spring breaks when college kids are at college? Miraculously, they do so with local workers and high school kids. Also, all regular childcare places like Kindercare, Sparkle, Chesterbrook, etc will provide daycare for all of the elementary kids. It would work fine.

Lovely wishful thinking there. More families take at least part of spring break off since it's just a week vs. multiple months as in summer. That dampens the need for camps that week. Also the type of camp people may be ok with for just a few days or at most a week may not be the same type of spot they'd be comfortable using for weeks on end. Regular childcare places do not magically have enough staffing to cover a huge surge of ES kids and those kids will also be super bored if they are over 1st grade since daycares are not really set up for them on a weeks long basis.

Unless college schedules shift to match we do NOT have enough workers to cover child care on a schedule that doesn't concentrate most of the time off over an extended summer break (aligning mostly with college break).

Kindercare and other childcare places (and SACC) wouldn't cover a surge. They would just provide care for their regular clients, right? If working parents cobble together care for all of these current random days off, then working parents can continue to cobble together care for week-long breaks. 180 days of school is 180 days of school. We are not creating more days off of school... we are just bunching them together.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do they staff camps during April spring breaks when college kids are at college? Miraculously, they do so with local workers and high school kids. Also, all regular childcare places like Kindercare, Sparkle, Chesterbrook, etc will provide daycare for all of the elementary kids. It would work fine.

Lovely wishful thinking there. More families take at least part of spring break off since it's just a week vs. multiple months as in summer. That dampens the need for camps that week. Also the type of camp people may be ok with for just a few days or at most a week may not be the same type of spot they'd be comfortable using for weeks on end. Regular childcare places do not magically have enough staffing to cover a huge surge of ES kids and those kids will also be super bored if they are over 1st grade since daycares are not really set up for them on a weeks long basis.

Unless college schedules shift to match we do NOT have enough workers to cover child care on a schedule that doesn't concentrate most of the time off over an extended summer break (aligning mostly with college break).

Kindercare and other childcare places (and SACC) wouldn't cover a surge. They would just provide care for their regular clients, right? If working parents cobble together care for all of these current random days off, then working parents can continue to cobble together care for week-long breaks. 180 days of school is 180 days of school. We are not creating more days off of school... we are just bunching them together.

Seriously asking: what part of “there are more options in summer due to college kid workers” do you not understand? The options that exist across the summer do not exist on these random days.

[Anonymous]

^^^ So wouldn't having several week long breaks be better than the random days off that are occurring now in FCPS? What do you currently do for childcare?

[Anonymous]

Who’s moving to a 4 day workweek?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^^ So wouldn't having several week long breaks be better than the random days off that are occurring now in FCPS? What do you currently do for childcare?

???
No.

There.are.not.many.options.outside.of.summer.

Right now we manage the random days since my kids are older. Before we used to try to scramble and find a college kid to pay for the day and then just take off if we could not get coverage. In the summer it was way easier since there are many many camp options, college kids available to hire for weeks at a time, teachers looking for some extra $ in the summer, etc. none of that is available in the non-summer times (outside of perhaps winter break)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How do they staff camps during April spring breaks when college kids are at college? Miraculously, they do so with local workers and high school kids. Also, all regular childcare places like Kindercare, Sparkle, Chesterbrook, etc will provide daycare for all of the elementary kids. It would work fine.

Teachers and other school staff who typically work in the summer

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^^ So wouldn't having several week long breaks be better than the random days off that are occurring now in FCPS? What do you currently do for childcare?

???
No.

There.are.not.many.options.outside.of.summer.

Right now we manage the random days since my kids are older. Before we used to try to scramble and find a college kid to pay for the day and then just take off if we could not get coverage. In the summer it was way easier since there are many many camp options, college kids available to hire for weeks at a time, teachers looking for some extra $ in the summer, etc. none of that is available in the non-summer times (outside of perhaps winter break)

As someone still with elementary school kids, you’re behind the times.

There are lots of spring break and winter break camps. Also, we can plan to be off work well in advance and actually take real vacation instead of trying to fit five days of work into four every week for a month in the fall. This schedule is horrible.

[Anonymous]

We have not found it difficult to find camps for DS on the random days off or week long breaks. I strongly suspect that all those places offering day camps for President's Day would put together week long camps. The gyms and TKD places and community centers and the like will run their camps and it will be just fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is a lot of whining on DCUM about the number of "random" days off during the year, and the argument goes that this throws off regular routines and is difficult for working parents. I do not prescribe to this viewpoint as I think that scattered days off are better than a longer Summer Break, but I thought that I would conduct a "what-if" exercise.

This is what the school year could look like if 5-day weeks were prioritized, while staying within VA and traditional holiday guidelines. The big changes are dropping the newer holidays and aligning a Fall Break and the traditional Spring Break with the end of the quarter teacher activities. Teacher Workdays and Staff Development days would be consolidated to the end of the quarters.


Quarter 1: 47 days. Schools starts Monday, August 28th. Days off include: Sept. 1st/4th (state-mandated Labor Day weekend), Oct. 9th (Indigenous).

Fall Break: Monday, Nov. 6th - Friday, Nov. 10th. Overlaps with Election and Veteran's Day.

Quarter 2: 45 days, starting Monday, Nov. 13th. Days off include: 3-day Thanksgiving break, Winter Break Thursday 12/21 to Tuesday 1/2, MLK day Monday, Jan. 15th.

Q2 Break: Thurs, Feb 2nd and Fri., Feb 3rd.

Quarter 3: 44 days, starting Mon., Feb 5th. Days off include: Mon., Feb 19th (President's)

End of Q3 and Spring Break: Mon. Apr 8th to Fri. Apr 12th (overlaps with Eid, but divorced from Easter)

Quarter 4: 44 days, starting Mon. Apr 15th. Days off include: Mon May 27th (Memorial)

End of School Year on Friday, June 14th.


The end result is 29 weeks with a full 5-day school week. That is versus 23 weeks in the current 22-23 school calendar. It doesn't really provide any advantage to eliminate Indigenous/Presidents since the quarter ends would be more difficult to maneuver around and create additional shorter weeks.

NOPE. TWO FULL WEEKS FOR WINTER BREAK OR NOTHING.
Drop the November break. People would rather have the full two weeks at Christmas rather than some random week at the beginning of November.

Also, none of this matters unless you name the 194-days that teachers have to work. Which days do teachers also have off and which days do they have to work?

I would rather have a random week off in November than two weeks at the end of December. We'd probably be ablt to fly somewhere on the cheap, which is impossible at the end of December.

You and privileged friend from page 1 can get together to plan your flights to Bora Bora. The rest of us don’t have the luxury of jet setting and would have to either pay someone to watch our kids or take time off and hang out at home. I’d rather save my days off for the holidays.

This. DCUM is not normal world. It skews uber wealthy and privileged. The rest of the world works, and we’re tied to business world hours. Having a calendar that matches normal operations would be welcome.