latest calendar survey

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:i really hope the masses select eliminate all the religious holidays. it’s ridiculous how many we have off and how long the school year is. so many districts in Va are done or finishing before us and they all started after us

I would be shocked if that is even offered as an option, it has not been an option the last few years. I have written that they need to go away or the Federal holidays need to go away in the comments section ebcause it is not covered in the survey itself.

None of it matters, the small percentage of the population that wants all the days off will take the survey and encourage their friends to take the survey. Most of the county that doesn't pay attention to their emails won't even look at the survey. The Board will point to the small percentage of people who took the survey who are very invested in having their religious day off or who love all the days off as evidence that people want them.

The survey doesn't matter. I'll still do it but I doubt it will make any impact.

I guess I am eating crow. The survey was short and actually allowed people to rank order things in a way that you could express your feelings on the breaks. I went with Two week winter break, one week spring break, day off before Thanksgiving, Federal Holidays, Religious Holidays. And I put prioritizing 5 day weeks as my top priority. I wish there was room for comments but the survey actually addressed the issues most people seem to have.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Vote no on long winter break
Vote no on random religious holidays
Vote no on early release days
Vote no on 4 day school weeks

Vote yes on getting out earlier in the year.

I will vote yes on a long winter break.
I will vote yes on 4-day school weeks.

I will vote no on ES early-release days, but yes on end-of-quarter and end-of-year early release days.

I will vote no on random religious holidays even though my religion "benefits" from a few of the religious holidays.

There wasn't an option to vote no on ES early release days, which is what I really wanted. Those need to go. They are so disruptive and having them mid-week is even worse.

The board thinks they “solved” this with limiting to eight. Be in touch to tell them it isn’t sufficient.

They limited it to four, not eight. The lack of ES planning time has been a problem since Garza got rid of half day Mondays. People cheered that but nothing was built in to replace that time. Reid snuck these random and disruptive early release days in because of the new state training a couple of years ago and then just sneakily kept scheduling them. The board didn’t call her on it.

They limited it to 8 and specifically applied that limit to ES. This would include any combination of 3 hour early releases and end of quarter early releases. Reid did not sound attached to end of quarter early releases, especially not for every quarter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Vote no on long winter break
Vote no on random religious holidays
Vote no on early release days
Vote no on 4 day school weeks

Vote yes on getting out earlier in the year.

I will vote yes on a long winter break.
I will vote yes on 4-day school weeks.

I will vote no on ES early-release days, but yes on end-of-quarter and end-of-year early release days.

I will vote no on random religious holidays even though my religion "benefits" from a few of the religious holidays.

There wasn't an option to vote no on ES early release days, which is what I really wanted. Those need to go. They are so disruptive and having them mid-week is even worse.

The board thinks they “solved” this with limiting to eight. Be in touch to tell them it isn’t sufficient.

They limited it to four, not eight. The lack of ES planning time has been a problem since Garza got rid of half day Mondays. People cheered that but nothing was built in to replace that time. Reid snuck these random and disruptive early release days in because of the new state training a couple of years ago and then just sneakily kept scheduling them. The board didn’t call her on it.

They limited it to 8 and specifically applied that limit to ES. This would include any combination of 3 hour early releases and end of quarter early releases. Reid did not sound attached to end of quarter early releases, especially not for every quarter.

The end of quarter early releases can go too as far as I’m concerned.

Having a teacher work day at the end of each quarter is normal. Tacking a staff development or school planning/meeting day onto one of the quarter ends is also normal, or using a minor federal holiday as a school planning day like Columbus Day. But having a teacher work day and a school planning day AND a 2 hour early release at the end of every quarter is more than most districts get by a lot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where's the survey link?

If you are a parent of a FCPS kid you got it today already. If not, you shouldn't be taking it.

If you should have received it and didn’t (for example, if you have a rising kindergarten student) go on the FCPS website and there is an email you can use to have it sent to you.

[Anonymous]

FCPS will still want to keep some of the religious holidays for optics reasons, so I predict they will use those days as well as minor federal holidays to place TW/SP days.

[Anonymous]

I was dissatisfied with the survey. I want to take a survey about how dumb the survey was.

There is nowhere to express any thoughts.

People overwhelmingly want a shorter school year, longer summer break, and much fewer days off for any reason during the year. And an end to half days/early releases. There was no way to express that.

[Anonymous]

I like that survey better than previous ones. It forces people to make a choice at the expense of other options, which is the reality of the situation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We love the 2 week winter break even though we don't travel. We plan ahead for the time off and then spend family time and decompress from the craziness of events and functions and school work and winter sports from Thanksgiving to Christmas. Voting to keep it!

I personally don’t see this changing. Too many people already extend winter break to go to their home countries. The kast time they did this survey mist parents wanted to keep 2 weeks as well as teachers. I don’t think that data will change much. I do think they need to lower all the random days off and/or reallocate some of the TWD to the religious holidays instead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was dissatisfied with the survey. I want to take a survey about how dumb the survey was.

There is nowhere to express any thoughts.

People overwhelmingly want a shorter school year, longer summer break, and much fewer days off for any reason during the year. And an end to half days/early releases. There was no way to express that.

Speak for yourself. I don't want a longer summer break. Coordinating summer camps is hellish and expensive for working parents who don't have summers off

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just took it. I was surprised how short it was AND surprised we got to actually vote on getting rid of the religious holidays. I did note that Christmas was included in the list of religious holidays so hope that doesn't confuse people since obviously we aren't going to be going to school on xmas since no one would be there.

Same with day before Thanksgiving. I don't think that question is based in reality either.

Setting days off years in advance to movable sun holidays that don’t actually become solidified until a religious leader determines the actual day is a fool’s errand. Let me know what people celebrate their religious holiday early because FCPS put it on the calendar. Zero. And they will still take their actual day off of school! Make this make sense! It doesn’t and FCPS should not be scheduling these as holidays.

I would love to give Eid off for Muslims, but you're right that it's not realistic given that it can't be calculated in advance. This point doesn't apply to Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, or Diwali though.

Nobody ever asked for Diwali off. Go ask your kids' Hindu classmates' parents. Most are likely absolutely fine with their kids going to school on Diwali. In fact, they probably prefer it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was dissatisfied with the survey. I want to take a survey about how dumb the survey was.

There is nowhere to express any thoughts.

People overwhelmingly want a shorter school year, longer summer break, and much fewer days off for any reason during the year. And an end to half days/early releases. There was no way to express that.

Speak for yourself. I don't want a longer summer break. Coordinating summer camps is hellish and expensive for working parents who don't have summers off

You know some momma is going to come on here and say "school isn't childcare. it's your fault for choosing to work. we do just fine on one income."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Vote no on long winter break
Vote no on random religious holidays
Vote no on early release days
Vote no on 4 day school weeks

Vote yes on getting out earlier in the year.

I will vote yes on a long winter break.
I will vote yes on 4-day school weeks.

I will vote no on ES early-release days, but yes on end-of-quarter and end-of-year early release days.

I will vote no on random religious holidays even though my religion "benefits" from a few of the religious holidays.

There wasn't an option to vote no on ES early release days, which is what I really wanted. Those need to go. They are so disruptive and having them mid-week is even worse.

The board thinks they “solved” this with limiting to eight. Be in touch to tell them it isn’t sufficient.

They limited it to four, not eight. The lack of ES planning time has been a problem since Garza got rid of half day Mondays. People cheered that but nothing was built in to replace that time. Reid snuck these random and disruptive early release days in because of the new state training a couple of years ago and then just sneakily kept scheduling them. The board didn’t call her on it.

They limited it to 8 and specifically applied that limit to ES. This would include any combination of 3 hour early releases and end of quarter early releases. Reid did not sound attached to end of quarter early releases, especially not for every quarter.

The end of quarter early releases can go too as far as I’m concerned.

Having a teacher work day at the end of each quarter is normal. Tacking a staff development or school planning/meeting day onto one of the quarter ends is also normal, or using a minor federal holiday as a school planning day like Columbus Day. But having a teacher work day and a school planning day AND a 2 hour early release at the end of every quarter is more than most districts get by a lot.

A few years ago, they eliminated ALL early release days because of parent feedback, and then they brought them back in full force. It's like they make a change to address one aspect of the feedback and immediately forget all prior years' feedback. I wish there had been a space to share my thoughts. I personally would rather have a full day off than several early release days. Everyone can be more productive that way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FCPS will still want to keep some of the religious holidays for optics reasons, so I predict they will use those days as well as minor federal holidays to place TW/SP days.

This would be fine!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was dissatisfied with the survey. I want to take a survey about how dumb the survey was.

There is nowhere to express any thoughts.

People overwhelmingly want a shorter school year, longer summer break, and much fewer days off for any reason during the year. And an end to half days/early releases. There was no way to express that.

Agree.
I don't know anyone who thinks this school year schedule is good. they started really early and are finishing SO late.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was dissatisfied with the survey. I want to take a survey about how dumb the survey was.

There is nowhere to express any thoughts.

People overwhelmingly want a shorter school year, longer summer break, and much fewer days off for any reason during the year. And an end to half days/early releases. There was no way to express that.

Speak for yourself. I don't want a longer summer break. Coordinating summer camps is hellish and expensive for working parents who don't have summers off

How is that worse than coordinating care for random days off?