Melanie Meren's FB post about the calendar

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a waste of time on her part. The calendar debate happened three years ago.

She voted to approve the 2026-27 calendar BTW. She really has no business trying to take up everyone's time with a "framework" now.

Again, if they're serious or willing to reconsider both # of religious observance days AND # of full/partial teacher workdays, I don't care about their past or have any desire to re-litigate.

I care about someone having courage to correct obvious deficiencies now and going forward...

But she doesn't have the courage or leadership to propose anything substantive. Her FB post is, at its core, just a compliant.

Yup. She says she’s “collaborating” and “drafting,” but doesn’t own anything - no specific deliverable, vote date, or measurable target. There are no concrete steps.

She also is not building the coalition that she will need. This kind of stunt just makes other school board members and FCPS leadership angry.

Classic low-commitment language. A statement of concern isn’t the same as leadership.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's the thing: if they create more 5-day school weeks the school year will start later and/or end sooner. Either scenario is fine with me, but childcare will be needed when school is not in session. That's the financial side of things. And with the amount of advanced notice families have had to get childcare lined up - calendars published years in advance - only emergencies and snow days are not known ahead of time for planning.

Please stop this lie. Early release dates for ‘25-‘26 were only published in May of ‘25.

4 months wasn't enough time to plan for them?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's the thing: if they create more 5-day school weeks the school year will start later and/or end sooner. Either scenario is fine with me, but childcare will be needed when school is not in session. That's the financial side of things. And with the amount of advanced notice families have had to get childcare lined up - calendars published years in advance - only emergencies and snow days are not known ahead of time for planning.

Please stop this lie. Early release dates for ‘25-‘26 were only published in May of ‘25.

4 months wasn't enough time to plan for them?

So, let's get this straight: You think you can line up childcare for a half day or odd day a year ahead of time?

[Anonymous]

Early releases aren’t factored into FCPS definition of a 5 day week, so the gaps due to 3 hour early releases aren’t accounted for in the first place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:She wants to reopen discussion on the 2026-27 calendar?

I'm sorry, but that ship has already sailed. I do not see the school board doing the work to change what has already been decided and announced.

Best to focus efforts on the 2027-28 and beyond calendar process.

https://www.fcps.edu/system/files/forms/2025-04/2026-2027-standard-school-year-calendar.pdf

I would be more impressed by her if she actually had a proposal. Exactly what about the above would she change?

It’s not hard to do on paper. The following changes make the most sense:

Cancel the Yom Kippur holiday on Monday, 9/21, and change it to an O day, allowing flexibility for staff and students as needed.
Cancel Veterans Day on Wednesday, 11/11. FCPS used to have school on this holiday, and having school that week would help avoid a mid-week disruption.
Move the teacher workday from Monday, 2/1, to Thursday, 1/28. That date is already an early release day, so the total number of days off stays the same, but it creates an additional full five-day school week.
Cancel Presidents Day.
Eid al-Fitr is currently scheduled for 4/10 and Eid al-Adha for 5/17; both dates can shift. Change both to O days to allow flexibility if needed.

These changes would eliminate six scheduled days off and give students six additional full weeks of uninterrupted instruction. Summer break could then begin on June 10.

The only one of these that will not p!ss a large group of parents/teachers off is moving the teacher workday from Monday, 2/1, to Thursday, 1/28. ANY of the other changes will have a group that will push back.

The 2026-27 calendar is set

When did we become so scared of pissing people off that we started prioritizing education last?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:She wants to reopen discussion on the 2026-27 calendar?

I'm sorry, but that ship has already sailed. I do not see the school board doing the work to change what has already been decided and announced.

Best to focus efforts on the 2027-28 and beyond calendar process.

https://www.fcps.edu/system/files/forms/2025-04/2026-2027-standard-school-year-calendar.pdf

I would be more impressed by her if she actually had a proposal. Exactly what about the above would she change?

It’s not hard to do on paper. The following changes make the most sense:

Cancel the Yom Kippur holiday on Monday, 9/21, and change it to an O day, allowing flexibility for staff and students as needed.
Cancel Veterans Day on Wednesday, 11/11. FCPS used to have school on this holiday, and having school that week would help avoid a mid-week disruption.
Move the teacher workday from Monday, 2/1, to Thursday, 1/28. That date is already an early release day, so the total number of days off stays the same, but it creates an additional full five-day school week.
Cancel Presidents Day.
Eid al-Fitr is currently scheduled for 4/10 and Eid al-Adha for 5/17; both dates can shift. Change both to O days to allow flexibility if needed.

These changes would eliminate six scheduled days off and give students six additional full weeks of uninterrupted instruction. Summer break could then begin on June 10.

This is actually good except for Presidents Day. That is a federal holiday. Not taking that.

Also, in January, make Wed,1/27 the 2-hour early release for end of quarter and then make the 28th a teacher workday followed by the 29th as a the county in-service day. Teachers need a dedicated day for grades. The county does need a dedicated day during the year for professional trainings and updates. That would free up the following week to be 5 consecutive days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, love the non-5 day weeks. They are great. Summer is such a pain to plan, and we (and most of our friends) much prefer a day here and there, rather than additional weeks in the summer.

You are a 2-parent working household with kids in early elementary with that take?

Yes!! Random days off are covered by SACC and martial arts camp and included in the monthly fee. Summer camps are CRAZY expensive. Adding more weeks of summer is a bigger financial burden.

I think it's the working parents who flex hours and don't pay for daily childcare to extend the school day who must be complaining. We've always paid for before and after care.

This isn’t the case anymore. SACC stopped covering multiple holidays this year. Previously they were only closed for county holidays but this year they closed for some additional FCPS holidays too. There’s speculation that it’s due to the 3 hour early releases which they now have to staff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is no ~180 day school calendar that is "good" or "right" across all populations.

5-day weeks mean longer breaks. Longer breaks mean learning loss, particularly a longer summer break. Those longer breaks also require expensive childcare - moreso when you don't have college students in town to staff cheap camps.

Shorter weeks mean less consistency, but for middle and HS students, provide a welcome break to catch up on work, or take a mental health day throughout the semester/year. In some cases, it is harder to find childcare for these one-off days - if you already have your child enrolled in before/after care, these days are often included in that or are available for an extra fee.

Snow days: regardless of the calendar there will be snow days if it snows or is icy. There will be more snow days than most parents think is reasonable if the weather on their street isn't too bad. The sooner you surrender to the fact that these snow days will happen, the happier you will be. And no, there is no way for FCPS to only close some schools/pyramids etc. or delay opening for MS and HS and not elementary schools.

The school calendar debate will continue forever because there is no right answer. For those of you with elementary school kids, hang in there - once they hit middle school, so many of the school calendar issues are no longer a big deal.

They could unleash early release days on elementary, so it's possible to treat different levels differently. how about middle and high school students get their extra time off, and elementary gets consistency they need.

Okay - draft that calendar.

Okay - pay me consultant fees.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, love the non-5 day weeks. They are great. Summer is such a pain to plan, and we (and most of our friends) much prefer a day here and there, rather than additional weeks in the summer.

Now that I have somewhat older children (taking SOL’s and trying to get into Algebra in 7th etc.) I am actually pretty concerned and anxious about the relative lack of instructional time they get compared to other districts that have more full weeks. Aren’t you concerned that your kids are behind and being short-changed?

I fear this will only get worse as my kids get older. I can supplement now with upper elementary kids. I can’t teach a HS junior AP Calc or AP French or high school level cello. The HS block scheduling makes this even worse. Missing “a day” is like missing two days in one class. It all adds up very quickly.

Seriously. So many of these kids who love all the days off are going to have a real rude awakening once they get to college and/or the working world.

How do you figure? In college, it's common to have 2 hours of classes and then the rest of the day off.

Working world, yes. College- only rude awakening there is if they have to take 101 survey class at 8 am Fri

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, love the non-5 day weeks. They are great. Summer is such a pain to plan, and we (and most of our friends) much prefer a day here and there, rather than additional weeks in the summer.

Now that I have somewhat older children (taking SOL’s and trying to get into Algebra in 7th etc.) I am actually pretty concerned and anxious about the relative lack of instructional time they get compared to other districts that have more full weeks. Aren’t you concerned that your kids are behind and being short-changed?

I fear this will only get worse as my kids get older. I can supplement now with upper elementary kids. I can’t teach a HS junior AP Calc or AP French or high school level cello. The HS block scheduling makes this even worse. Missing “a day” is like missing two days in one class. It all adds up very quickly.

They aren't getting less instructional time. It's just paced differently. In fact, in years that we don't use a lot of snow days (like last year), they actually get quite a bit more instructional time than surrounding districts. We build in enough hours to have something like 11 snow days. If they aren't used, that's bonus time. As opposed to, say Anne Arundel County, that only builds in 3-5 snow days.

It’s not about the snow days really, we can’t control the weather. I wish they weren’t so quick to close though.

But just as an example: the AP Calc exam is given on May 11 this year. The district where I grew up has 173 school days for students. 160 are before the AP test - not counting Memorial Day where they have a 3 day weekend.

FCPS has 179 school days for students (counting O days and early release days as full days, which is being generous). 154 of those days are before May 11. Again this is not counting the massive 5 day weekend for Memorial Day. The point is other districts get in a full week or more of instructional time before state and AP testing in May. And where I grew up still did 2 full weeks at winter break this year, 3 days at Thanksgiving, and the same spring break as us and aligned with Easter. It just feels like we’re putting learning at a disadvantage with this calendar. It’s too many days off, too much playing catch-up.

The 5 day memorial is ideal for HS taking AP so they can study. By time hit May it’s no longer about teacher instruction anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, love the non-5 day weeks. They are great. Summer is such a pain to plan, and we (and most of our friends) much prefer a day here and there, rather than additional weeks in the summer.

Now that I have somewhat older children (taking SOL’s and trying to get into Algebra in 7th etc.) I am actually pretty concerned and anxious about the relative lack of instructional time they get compared to other districts that have more full weeks. Aren’t you concerned that your kids are behind and being short-changed?

I fear this will only get worse as my kids get older. I can supplement now with upper elementary kids. I can’t teach a HS junior AP Calc or AP French or high school level cello. The HS block scheduling makes this even worse. Missing “a day” is like missing two days in one class. It all adds up very quickly.

They aren't getting less instructional time. It's just paced differently. In fact, in years that we don't use a lot of snow days (like last year), they actually get quite a bit more instructional time than surrounding districts. We build in enough hours to have something like 11 snow days. If they aren't used, that's bonus time. As opposed to, say Anne Arundel County, that only builds in 3-5 snow days.

It’s not about the snow days really, we can’t control the weather. I wish they weren’t so quick to close though.

But just as an example: the AP Calc exam is given on May 11 this year. The district where I grew up has 173 school days for students. 160 are before the AP test - not counting Memorial Day where they have a 3 day weekend.

FCPS has 179 school days for students (counting O days and early release days as full days, which is being generous). 154 of those days are before May 11. Again this is not counting the massive 5 day weekend for Memorial Day. The point is other districts get in a full week or more of instructional time before state and AP testing in May. And where I grew up still did 2 full weeks at winter break this year, 3 days at Thanksgiving, and the same spring break as us and aligned with Easter. It just feels like we’re putting learning at a disadvantage with this calendar. It’s too many days off, too much playing catch-up.

This is the best argument. We should be able to start two weeks before Labor Day (like we already are) and have our kids have the right amount of instruction to take AP tests, SOLs, etc. in May.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:She wants to reopen discussion on the 2026-27 calendar?

I'm sorry, but that ship has already sailed. I do not see the school board doing the work to change what has already been decided and announced.

Best to focus efforts on the 2027-28 and beyond calendar process.

https://www.fcps.edu/system/files/forms/2025-04/2026-2027-standard-school-year-calendar.pdf

I would be more impressed by her if she actually had a proposal. Exactly what about the above would she change?

It’s not hard to do on paper. The following changes make the most sense:

Cancel the Yom Kippur holiday on Monday, 9/21, and change it to an O day, allowing flexibility for staff and students as needed.
Cancel Veterans Day on Wednesday, 11/11. FCPS used to have school on this holiday, and having school that week would help avoid a mid-week disruption.
Move the teacher workday from Monday, 2/1, to Thursday, 1/28. That date is already an early release day, so the total number of days off stays the same, but it creates an additional full five-day school week.
Cancel Presidents Day.
Eid al-Fitr is currently scheduled for 4/10 and Eid al-Adha for 5/17; both dates can shift. Change both to O days to allow flexibility if needed.

These changes would eliminate six scheduled days off and give students six additional full weeks of uninterrupted instruction. Summer break could then begin on June 10.

The only one of these that will not p!ss a large group of parents/teachers off is moving the teacher workday from Monday, 2/1, to Thursday, 1/28. ANY of the other changes will have a group that will push back.

The 2026-27 calendar is set

When did we become so scared of pissing people off that we started prioritizing education last?

Since the school board became a stepping stone to political office.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, love the non-5 day weeks. They are great. Summer is such a pain to plan, and we (and most of our friends) much prefer a day here and there, rather than additional weeks in the summer.

But they are not great for consistent instruction. You know, the purpose of schools.

Exactly. How can children learn with all these break and inconsistencies! My kid just had an early release after a 4 day weekend. IT was a joke. Kids thought it was a joke. They forget what they were taught 5 days ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, love the non-5 day weeks. They are great. Summer is such a pain to plan, and we (and most of our friends) much prefer a day here and there, rather than additional weeks in the summer.

Now that I have somewhat older children (taking SOL’s and trying to get into Algebra in 7th etc.) I am actually pretty concerned and anxious about the relative lack of instructional time they get compared to other districts that have more full weeks. Aren’t you concerned that your kids are behind and being short-changed?

I fear this will only get worse as my kids get older. I can supplement now with upper elementary kids. I can’t teach a HS junior AP Calc or AP French or high school level cello. The HS block scheduling makes this even worse. Missing “a day” is like missing two days in one class. It all adds up very quickly.

They aren't getting less instructional time. It's just paced differently. In fact, in years that we don't use a lot of snow days (like last year), they actually get quite a bit more instructional time than surrounding districts. We build in enough hours to have something like 11 snow days. If they aren't used, that's bonus time. As opposed to, say Anne Arundel County, that only builds in 3-5 snow days.

It’s not about the snow days really, we can’t control the weather. I wish they weren’t so quick to close though.

But just as an example: the AP Calc exam is given on May 11 this year. The district where I grew up has 173 school days for students. 160 are before the AP test - not counting Memorial Day where they have a 3 day weekend.

FCPS has 179 school days for students (counting O days and early release days as full days, which is being generous). 154 of those days are before May 11. Again this is not counting the massive 5 day weekend for Memorial Day. The point is other districts get in a full week or more of instructional time before state and AP testing in May. And where I grew up still did 2 full weeks at winter break this year, 3 days at Thanksgiving, and the same spring break as us and aligned with Easter. It just feels like we’re putting learning at a disadvantage with this calendar. It’s too many days off, too much playing catch-up.

The 5 day memorial is ideal for HS taking AP so they can study. By time hit May it’s no longer about teacher instruction anyway.

Most if not all tests are done before Memorial Day. A lot of districts are done at MD weekend, and a lot are done basically right after - May 29 this year or sometime the first week of June.

By the way, if you don’t count the O days where no new material is supposed to be taught, we go from 154 days before May 11 to 149. That’s 11 fewer days than other districts with a normal calendar - now we’re at a little over 2 full weeks less instruction. Doesn’t that concern anyone else?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, love the non-5 day weeks. They are great. Summer is such a pain to plan, and we (and most of our friends) much prefer a day here and there, rather than additional weeks in the summer.

Now that I have somewhat older children (taking SOL’s and trying to get into Algebra in 7th etc.) I am actually pretty concerned and anxious about the relative lack of instructional time they get compared to other districts that have more full weeks. Aren’t you concerned that your kids are behind and being short-changed?

I fear this will only get worse as my kids get older. I can supplement now with upper elementary kids. I can’t teach a HS junior AP Calc or AP French or high school level cello. The HS block scheduling makes this even worse. Missing “a day” is like missing two days in one class. It all adds up very quickly.

They aren't getting less instructional time. It's just paced differently. In fact, in years that we don't use a lot of snow days (like last year), they actually get quite a bit more instructional time than surrounding districts. We build in enough hours to have something like 11 snow days. If they aren't used, that's bonus time. As opposed to, say Anne Arundel County, that only builds in 3-5 snow days.

It’s not about the snow days really, we can’t control the weather. I wish they weren’t so quick to close though.

But just as an example: the AP Calc exam is given on May 11 this year. The district where I grew up has 173 school days for students. 160 are before the AP test - not counting Memorial Day where they have a 3 day weekend.

FCPS has 179 school days for students (counting O days and early release days as full days, which is being generous). 154 of those days are before May 11. Again this is not counting the massive 5 day weekend for Memorial Day. The point is other districts get in a full week or more of instructional time before state and AP testing in May. And where I grew up still did 2 full weeks at winter break this year, 3 days at Thanksgiving, and the same spring break as us and aligned with Easter. It just feels like we’re putting learning at a disadvantage with this calendar. It’s too many days off, too much playing catch-up.

The 5 day memorial is ideal for HS taking AP so they can study. By time hit May it’s no longer about teacher instruction anyway.

Most if not all tests are done before Memorial Day. A lot of districts are done at MD weekend, and a lot are done basically right after - May 29 this year or sometime the first week of June.

By the way, if you don’t count the O days where no new material is supposed to be taught, we go from 154 days before May 11 to 149. That’s 11 fewer days than other districts with a normal calendar - now we’re at a little over 2 full weeks less instruction. Doesn’t that concern anyone else?

Me! Please send these thoughts to the board!