MCPS seeking waiver yet again!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For people suggesting Feb 16 -- this is not an option under Maryland law, which prohibits school on Presidents' Day, as well as others (MLK Day, Good Friday & Easter Monday, Dec 24-Jan 1, T-giving and day after, Labor Day, Memorial Day, and statewide primary & general election days).

https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/policy/pdf/ida.pdf

Laws can be changed

MSDE approved letting districts open on President's Day this year already because of the snow. It was an option, just one MCPS chose not to use.

MCPS once opened on Easter Monday as a make up day too. Might have been 10 years ago?

My kiddo is a senior in college and I recall this happening when they were in about 4th grade. So 12 years ago, I guess.

Yes, 2014. MCPS used 10 snow days. Made up the 4 built-in days, used 2 make up days (including the state allowed Easter Monday), and then got a waiver for 4 days.

[Anonymous]

Why have the requirements of you are going to consistently waive them?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why have the requirements of you are going to consistently waive them?

B/C Some emergency conditions are beyond everyone's control.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How feasible would it be to pivot snow days to virtual professional learning for teachers?

That would not really gain you anything. The pushback isn't that teachers are getting less professional days, it's having school on a holiday that was designed to overlap with the professional day. (And then the other possible makeup days are teacher grading days which there is generally pushback on taking away, but those happen at specific times between marking periods.)

Teachers can catch up on grading on snow days.

That's like telling kids to use snow days to catch up on homework that hasn't been assigned yet and requires knowledge of content that hasn't yet been taught

No, I am a teacher and everyone has a backlog of grading that they don’t need to save for a “professional” day at the end of the quarter. And you’re right, there are a lot of kids with missing assignments that they could have done during their first week long break.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How feasible would it be to pivot snow days to virtual professional learning for teachers?

That would not really gain you anything. The pushback isn't that teachers are getting less professional days, it's having school on a holiday that was designed to overlap with the professional day. (And then the other possible makeup days are teacher grading days which there is generally pushback on taking away, but those happen at specific times between marking periods.)

Teachers can catch up on grading on snow days.

That's like telling kids to use snow days to catch up on homework that hasn't been assigned yet and requires knowledge of content that hasn't yet been taught

No, I am a teacher and everyone has a backlog of grading that they don’t need to save for a “professional” day at the end of the quarter. And you’re right, there are a lot of kids with missing assignments that they could have done during their first week long break.

My kid could not do any new work that week because the Canvas was not open

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was the one who insisted that MCPS will get a waiver and there will be no make up days.. JUne 19th is going to be off (juneteenth), so it makes no sense to add more fluff days after june 19th just to say they added make up days..

The requirement exists to ensure that school systems provide the right amount of instructional time. The reason we are looking at extending the school year is because of MCPS's poor and disingenuous planning. Could be avoided by baking in 3 snows days into the calendar and including 3 make up days in March, April and May that they are actually willing to use.

March ✓ April possibly on the 15th
May doesn't have any off days besides Memorial Day and the 2nd Eid holiday so unless you want that day (in which Muslim's heads will explode if they hear both days were taken) there is no place.
The 180 day requirement came based on the logics of it being approximately half the calendar days in a year. It is doable with little or no religious hoalidays and cancelations. Once those sprout the year gets longer and longer. States like Florida, Georgia and Virginia have "180 days" in their law but allow credit based on a specific number of hours even if less than 180 calendar days are used to get there.

Plenty of time in the summer if you plan for it. It obviously doesn't work if you tack on half days at the end. Make it part of the calendar from the beginning

Also stop blaming the Muslims who have 2 days and now possibly not even that

Who said I'm blaming Muslims? When the post said have 3 makeup days in March, April, May. Between required off days and spring break these are the only 3 such days. It's either those 3 days or it's not possible to get them.

Saying "Muslim's heads will explode" is very disrespectful. They spent a lot of time advocating for their two days and one of them gets taken away so quickly.

MCPS should advocate for eliminating the requirement to have Easter Monday and Good Friday off. Come on, those can be observed without missing school. President's Day should be a scheduled makeup day and MCPS should plan to use it on short notice. Move Spring Break to the end of term and have one day of Spring break designated as the grading day.

Absolutely agree with Easter Monday, and I'm a Sunday School teacher! You can argue that Good Friday should be off because a lot of people will miss school that day, but Easter Monday is not a religious holiday. I've lived in multiple states and Maryland is the only one wiht this weird Easter Monday thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why have the requirements of you are going to consistently waive them?

B/C Some emergency conditions are beyond everyone's control.

A snow storm in the winter is not an emergency.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why have the requirements of you are going to consistently waive them?

B/C Some emergency conditions are beyond everyone's control.

A snow storm in the winter is not an emergency.

This snow storm dumped ice, which made it exceptionally hard to clear.

[Anonymous]

I've been lurking on this thread for quite some time..... Does anyone HONESTLY think that by kids missing 4 days of school this semester, that they are going to fall behind or be at a disadvantage? This was a HIGHLY unusual situation that happens once every 10 years. No, it wasn't a blizzard, but the type of precipitation that fell, coupled with the extreme low temps made this very difficult. That being said..... If snow days are a MUST.... adding at the end of the year is no different than skipping the make up days altogether.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've been lurking on this thread for quite some time..... Does anyone HONESTLY think that by kids missing 4 days of school this semester, that they are going to fall behind or be at a disadvantage? This was a HIGHLY unusual situation that happens once every 10 years. No, it wasn't a blizzard, but the type of precipitation that fell, coupled with the extreme low temps made this very difficult. That being said..... If snow days are a MUST.... adding at the end of the year is no different than skipping the make up days altogether.

The nature of this particular storm itself was unusual but MCPS has 3-5 snow days almost every year (whether in one storm or combined.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Added instruction on March 20th, June 18th. The rest they will seek waiver. Why not Feb 16th and 17th? Why always short change the kids MCPS? We pay your salary Taylor, would you accept not getting your goods after you pay for them? You do one meaningless study after another to justify your fat salary, but fail to teach the kids. Disgraceful.

You Mad Mommies of MoCo are beyond ridiculous. "We pay your salary."

Shut up, you dumb <untofawhore>

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was the one who insisted that MCPS will get a waiver and there will be no make up days.. JUne 19th is going to be off (juneteenth), so it makes no sense to add more fluff days after june 19th just to say they added make up days..

The requirement exists to ensure that school systems provide the right amount of instructional time. The reason we are looking at extending the school year is because of MCPS's poor and disingenuous planning. Could be avoided by baking in 3 snows days into the calendar and including 3 make up days in March, April and May that they are actually willing to use.

March ✓ April possibly on the 15th
May doesn't have any off days besides Memorial Day and the 2nd Eid holiday so unless you want that day (in which Muslim's heads will explode if they hear both days were taken) there is no place.
The 180 day requirement came based on the logics of it being approximately half the calendar days in a year. It is doable with little or no religious hoalidays and cancelations. Once those sprout the year gets longer and longer. States like Florida, Georgia and Virginia have "180 days" in their law but allow credit based on a specific number of hours even if less than 180 calendar days are used to get there.

Plenty of time in the summer if you plan for it. It obviously doesn't work if you tack on half days at the end. Make it part of the calendar from the beginning

Also stop blaming the Muslims who have 2 days and now possibly not even that

Who said I'm blaming Muslims? When the post said have 3 makeup days in March, April, May. Between required off days and spring break these are the only 3 such days. It's either those 3 days or it's not possible to get them.

Saying "Muslim's heads will explode" is very disrespectful. They spent a lot of time advocating for their two days and one of them gets taken away so quickly.

MCPS should advocate for eliminating the requirement to have Easter Monday and Good Friday off. Come on, those can be observed without missing school. President's Day should be a scheduled makeup day and MCPS should plan to use it on short notice. Move Spring Break to the end of term and have one day of Spring break designated as the grading day.

Absolutely agree with Easter Monday, and I'm a Sunday School teacher! You can argue that Good Friday should be off because a lot of people will miss school that day, but Easter Monday is not a religious holiday. I've lived in multiple states and Maryland is the only one wiht this weird Easter Monday thing.

I wholeheartedly agree that we should use Easter Monday as a make-up day. Signed - someone who celebrates Easter and does not understand why it is a state holiday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was the one who insisted that MCPS will get a waiver and there will be no make up days.. JUne 19th is going to be off (juneteenth), so it makes no sense to add more fluff days after june 19th just to say they added make up days..

The requirement exists to ensure that school systems provide the right amount of instructional time. The reason we are looking at extending the school year is because of MCPS's poor and disingenuous planning. Could be avoided by baking in 3 snows days into the calendar and including 3 make up days in March, April and May that they are actually willing to use.

March ✓ April possibly on the 15th
May doesn't have any off days besides Memorial Day and the 2nd Eid holiday so unless you want that day (in which Muslim's heads will explode if they hear both days were taken) there is no place.
The 180 day requirement came based on the logics of it being approximately half the calendar days in a year. It is doable with little or no religious hoalidays and cancelations. Once those sprout the year gets longer and longer. States like Florida, Georgia and Virginia have "180 days" in their law but allow credit based on a specific number of hours even if less than 180 calendar days are used to get there.

Plenty of time in the summer if you plan for it. It obviously doesn't work if you tack on half days at the end. Make it part of the calendar from the beginning

Also stop blaming the Muslims who have 2 days and now possibly not even that

Who said I'm blaming Muslims? When the post said have 3 makeup days in March, April, May. Between required off days and spring break these are the only 3 such days. It's either those 3 days or it's not possible to get them.

Saying "Muslim's heads will explode" is very disrespectful. They spent a lot of time advocating for their two days and one of them gets taken away so quickly.

MCPS should advocate for eliminating the requirement to have Easter Monday and Good Friday off. Come on, those can be observed without missing school. President's Day should be a scheduled makeup day and MCPS should plan to use it on short notice. Move Spring Break to the end of term and have one day of Spring break designated as the grading day.

Absolutely agree with Easter Monday, and I'm a Sunday School teacher! You can argue that Good Friday should be off because a lot of people will miss school that day, but Easter Monday is not a religious holiday. I've lived in multiple states and Maryland is the only one wiht this weird Easter Monday thing.

I wholeheartedly agree that we should use Easter Monday as a make-up day. Signed - someone who celebrates Easter and does not understand why it is a state holiday.

+1 same, and also agree
And it would be a painless makeup day to add this year if the state would waive the requirement to have it off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why have the requirements of you are going to consistently waive them?

B/C Some emergency conditions are beyond everyone's control.

Every other year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've been lurking on this thread for quite some time..... Does anyone HONESTLY think that by kids missing 4 days of school this semester, that they are going to fall behind or be at a disadvantage? This was a HIGHLY unusual situation that happens once every 10 years. No, it wasn't a blizzard, but the type of precipitation that fell, coupled with the extreme low temps made this very difficult. That being said..... If snow days are a MUST.... adding at the end of the year is no different than skipping the make up days altogether.

No, but MCPS parents are insane. Imagine some of these people finding out some states only require 160 days (and that *gasp* includes AP students!), etc.