Calendar survey

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m not thrilled with the extra religious holidays added to the calendar; these first 3 months have been “choppy,” at best. If we continue with them, however, let’s swap them out and not take off for Indigenous Peoples’ Day, Veteran’s Day, and shave 3 days off the winter break. We are off a FULL week of school before before we even get near the Christmas holiday this year.

Or how about FCPS goes back to being a secular public school that just teaches our kids? Keep the fixed week spring break and allow excused absences for students to observe their respective religious days like they always did. There is no purpose to keep extending the school year into June! The important school days need to happen in the beginning of the school year when the testing and assessments are being administered (at least at the ES level). After Memorial Day learning is wrapping up, they are having fun, parties, watching movies, etc…. We don’t need an extra week of that in June.

I mean, this would make sense. Of course, the irony is that there's a huge contingent of fed workers in this area who would be off on the federal holidays and would then need to take days off for the religious holidays that their kids are out. So, of course, FCPS would go for the most difficult option for parents. Because equity.

I wouldn't mind having a day off from work where I could send my kids to school.

Just for the record, as a teacher I have greatly disliked the extra work days so far. I don’t need all of that time and I hate leaving my kids when they have no school.

What grade do you teach?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m not thrilled with the extra religious holidays added to the calendar; these first 3 months have been “choppy,” at best. If we continue with them, however, let’s swap them out and not take off for Indigenous Peoples’ Day, Veteran’s Day, and shave 3 days off the winter break. We are off a FULL week of school before before we even get near the Christmas holiday this year.

Or how about FCPS goes back to being a secular public school that just teaches our kids? Keep the fixed week spring break and allow excused absences for students to observe their respective religious days like they always did. There is no purpose to keep extending the school year into June! The important school days need to happen in the beginning of the school year when the testing and assessments are being administered (at least at the ES level). After Memorial Day learning is wrapping up, they are having fun, parties, watching movies, etc…. We don’t need an extra week of that in June.

I mean, this would make sense. Of course, the irony is that there's a huge contingent of fed workers in this area who would be off on the federal holidays and would then need to take days off for the religious holidays that their kids are out. So, of course, FCPS would go for the most difficult option for parents. Because equity.

I wouldn't mind having a day off from work where I could send my kids to school.

Just for the record, as a teacher I have greatly disliked the extra work days so far. I don’t need all of that time and I hate leaving my kids when they have no school.

Which level do you teach? (ES, MS or HS?)

Elementary

It depends on the teacher. I teach ES and love the days off.

[Anonymous]

I let them have it in the comment section of the survey. The calendar this year has been awful. I can’t believe this SB created such a mess and now we have to fix it. Kids need to be in school. Enough of the random days off. No one cares! We want kids in school.

[Anonymous]

I think most people are unhappy with all of the TWD on top of the new days off. The following holidays fall on a weekend next year: Rosh Hashanah, Diwali, Lunar NY. My proposed calendar was as follows:

Start Date Aug 21
Friday and Monday of Labor Day off
Yom Kippur(Mon- Sept 25)off or TWD
Teacher Workdays on Mon Nov 6 and 7 (Election Day)
Thanksgiving W/Th/Fri
Winter Break Dec 23- Jan 7
Martin Luther King Day off
2 TWD at End of Q2
Spring Break-First Week of April
Eid- TWD or off
Memorial Day off
Last Day June 14

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought starting in August would help us get our earlier in June and it doesn't. Now we also have all these random days off and religious holidays built in, in addition to 14 snow days that we don't get back if we dont use them. Why do we have spring break at the end of april when we get out in June. How is it this impossible for adults to work out a calendar?

Why do you want to be out earlier in June?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought starting in August would help us get our earlier in June and it doesn't. Now we also have all these random days off and religious holidays built in, in addition to 14 snow days that we don't get back if we dont use them. Why do we have spring break at the end of april when we get out in June. How is it this impossible for adults to work out a calendar?

Why do you want to be out earlier in June?

I too am curious. It seems to me like parents have an odd longing for summer and then like to come back and complain about summer slide and teachers like to complain about how it takes weeks to ramp up to the previous level.

[Anonymous]

4 day weeks and get rid of the random holidays .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:4 day weeks and get rid of the random holidays .

Preach!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought starting in August would help us get our earlier in June and it doesn't. Now we also have all these random days off and religious holidays built in, in addition to 14 snow days that we don't get back if we dont use them. Why do we have spring break at the end of april when we get out in June. How is it this impossible for adults to work out a calendar?

Why do you want to be out earlier in June?

I too am curious. It seems to me like parents have an odd longing for summer and then like to come back and complain about summer slide and teachers like to complain about how it takes weeks to ramp up to the previous level.

I think that there is a percentage of families that want 9-10 weeks of summer, or longer, and are miffed at the idea of a shorter break. The ones complaining that summer is too short tend to be the summer swim team families, the travel to Europe or Asia and spend 8 weeks families, and the wed to 8 weeks of sleep away summer camp families.

The 2 working parents families would be fine with a shorter summer because it is less expensive to travel at other times of the years and they find camps for their kids any ways.

There is a subset of the SAHP crowd that want a shorter summer because they can't afford camps and travel or swim clubs and 9-10 weeks home with their kids 24/7 is hard.

I suspect that there are more people in the shorten summer and have longer breaks during the school year camp but we don't have as much money to lobby the SB with and don't scream nearly as loudly as the swim team parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These "planning days" remain a mystery to me.

Right now ES teachers work seven hours - 830 to 330.

So that's 5 hours a week - that could be used for "planning". Why can't they do their planning then?

How much does "planning" really change, year to year?

If there are 180 days of instruction then that's 36 five-day weeks which leaves 16 more weeks in the year. Why can't "planning" occur in those other weeks?

Really?? That’s news to me. So I can start coming to work at 8:30 from now on? And I get to leave earlier too? This is all news to me

Correct. It's 7.5 hours, not 7.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought starting in August would help us get our earlier in June and it doesn't. Now we also have all these random days off and religious holidays built in, in addition to 14 snow days that we don't get back if we dont use them. Why do we have spring break at the end of april when we get out in June. How is it this impossible for adults to work out a calendar?

Why do you want to be out earlier in June?

I too am curious. It seems to me like parents have an odd longing for summer and then like to come back and complain about summer slide and teachers like to complain about how it takes weeks to ramp up to the previous level.

I don't complain about the slide. I like summer, the slower pace, vacations, and family time. I despise useless days off to prolong the year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think most people are unhappy with all of the TWD on top of the new days off. The following holidays fall on a weekend next year: Rosh Hashanah, Diwali, Lunar NY. My proposed calendar was as follows:

Start Date Aug 21
Friday and Monday of Labor Day off
Yom Kippur(Mon- Sept 25)off or TWD
Teacher Workdays on Mon Nov 6 and 7 (Election Day)
Thanksgiving W/Th/Fri
Winter Break Dec 23- Jan 7
Martin Luther King Day off
2 TWD at End of Q2
Spring Break-First Week of April
Eid- TWD or off
Memorial Day off
Last Day June 14

I like most of this but I'd say have their last day before winter/Xmas break be Wednesday Dec 20th and then return on Wednesday Jan 3. It's 13 days, but close enough to 2 weeks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think most people are unhappy with all of the TWD on top of the new days off. The following holidays fall on a weekend next year: Rosh Hashanah, Diwali, Lunar NY. My proposed calendar was as follows:

Start Date Aug 21
Friday and Monday of Labor Day off
Yom Kippur(Mon- Sept 25)off or TWD
Teacher Workdays on Mon Nov 6 and 7 (Election Day)
Thanksgiving W/Th/Fri
Winter Break Dec 23- Jan 7
Martin Luther King Day off
2 TWD at End of Q2
Spring Break-First Week of April
Eid- TWD or off
Memorial Day off
Last Day June 14

I like most of this but I'd say have their last day before winter/Xmas break be Wednesday Dec 20th and then return on Wednesday Jan 3. It's 13 days, but close enough to 2 weeks.

The issue is also full weeks. I don’t see the winter break changing. Too many people traveling to home countries.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think most people are unhappy with all of the TWD on top of the new days off. The following holidays fall on a weekend next year: Rosh Hashanah, Diwali, Lunar NY. My proposed calendar was as follows:

Start Date Aug 21
Friday and Monday of Labor Day off
Yom Kippur(Mon- Sept 25)off or TWD
Teacher Workdays on Mon Nov 6 and 7 (Election Day)
Thanksgiving W/Th/Fri
Winter Break Dec 23- Jan 7
Martin Luther King Day off
2 TWD at End of Q2
Spring Break-First Week of April
Eid- TWD or off
Memorial Day off
Last Day June 14

I like most of this but I'd say have their last day before winter/Xmas break be Wednesday Dec 20th and then return on Wednesday Jan 3. It's 13 days, but close enough to 2 weeks.

The issue is also full weeks. I don’t see the winter break changing. Too many people traveling to home countries.

The winter break always changed based on Christmas. With Christmas on Sunday we really could be there until the 23 and back on the 2nd. It used to happen. Christmas being on Wednesday was the only way to get 2 weeks.

But 2 weeks is here to stay. That was one thing the previous “less crazy” school board wanted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think most people are unhappy with all of the TWD on top of the new days off. The following holidays fall on a weekend next year: Rosh Hashanah, Diwali, Lunar NY. My proposed calendar was as follows:

Start Date Aug 21
Friday and Monday of Labor Day off
Yom Kippur(Mon- Sept 25)off or TWD
Teacher Workdays on Mon Nov 6 and 7 (Election Day)
Thanksgiving W/Th/Fri
Winter Break Dec 23- Jan 7
Martin Luther King Day off
2 TWD at End of Q2
Spring Break-First Week of April
Eid- TWD or off
Memorial Day off
Last Day June 14

TWD for all the additional religious days. It's so many days off already.
How many snow days are built in? I haven't even factored in all the days in Jan/Feb that the kids will be out of school bc FCPS closed for flurries.