FCPS Early Release Mondays

[Anonymous]

This is one of the reasons people go private. This plan sounds ludicrous and would never happen there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is one of the reasons people go private. This plan sounds ludicrous and would never happen there.

There’s so much irony in this because you’re right: this would never happen in private because in private school, nobody has to be formally educated in how to do things like teach kids to read. There’s no such thing as licensure requirements to ensure that teachers meet a minimum competency to educate. You just need a bachelor’s degree and a job application. There’d never be any such thing as 32 *additional hours* of literacy training all teachers at a private would ever be required to do. But yeah, private is definitely better

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is one of the reasons people go private. This plan sounds ludicrous and would never happen there.

Again, looking through FCPS ubiquitous Equity Lens ™️ once again certain students from a certain demographic will indeed be unintentionally “left behind” - while the more savvy parents will have the flexibility to make suitable arrangements for their DC upon these sporadic early closings, other parents will not and will instead rely upon the school arrangements that will be subpar.

The school will usher the have-nots into the cafeteria or gym where they’ll stare at screens, eat donated snacks of Cheetos and chips, maybe go out to the playground where most will just sit on benches waiting for parent pick up.

This is the reality. There is very little actual learning taking place in FCPS, most especially in ES. The joke is on us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is one of the reasons people go private. This plan sounds ludicrous and would never happen there.

There’s so much irony in this because you’re right: this would never happen in private because in private school, nobody has to be formally educated in how to do things like teach kids to read. There’s no such thing as licensure requirements to ensure that teachers meet a minimum competency to educate. You just need a bachelor’s degree and a job application. There’d never be any such thing as 32 *additional hours* of literacy training all teachers at a private would ever be required to do. But yeah, private is definitely better

I know families that love private and I know quite a few that went private and just came back to FCPS because they weren’t impressed. PP should go private and see if it works for her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is one of the reasons people go private. This plan sounds ludicrous and would never happen there.

These are VDOE trainings. Are private schools required to follow this? I’m genuinely asking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is one of the reasons people go private. This plan sounds ludicrous and would never happen there.

Again, looking through FCPS ubiquitous Equity Lens ™️ once again certain students from a certain demographic will indeed be unintentionally “left behind” - while the more savvy parents will have the flexibility to make suitable arrangements for their DC upon these sporadic early closings, other parents will not and will instead rely upon the school arrangements that will be subpar.

The school will usher the have-nots into the cafeteria or gym where they’ll stare at screens, eat donated snacks of Cheetos and chips, maybe go out to the playground where most will just sit on benches waiting for parent pick up.

This is the reality. There is very little actual learning taking place in FCPS, most especially in ES. The joke is on us.

Inequality in some form will always exist. Economic inequality will continue to grow and become a greater issue in the future. I admire FCPS intentions, but as the PP said it is a reality.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is one of the reasons people go private. This plan sounds ludicrous and would never happen there.

These are VDOE trainings. Are private schools required to follow this? I’m genuinely asking.

No, only public schools need to adhere to the VDOE.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I think doing the training Monday-Wednesday of Thanksgiving week is a great solution. MKe those days k-12 teacher workdays/training days, no need to close early on Mondags.

Those 3 days still aren’t enough to complete the entire training, and they’ll run into issues with staff that already has travel plans for that Wednesday, since it’s currently a holiday.

Clearly, changing the expected instructional schedule is not an issue with FCPS so this should be no biggie. If its ok to close early unexpectedly a whole bunch of days, switching a day off to a work day months from now shouldn't be an issue.

The difference is the current plan doesn’t change the employee calendar. Employees already planned on working those days. That’s not the case for the day before Thanksgiving.

Well, parents already planned on working all of these Monday afternoons. So I guess there will need to be some shared pain. Since we’re in this “together” right?

FCPS is the employer. They need to make time to provide their employees with this training. They made a decision. FCPS is not your employer.

Correct— FCPS is a service provider. And they are changing the terms of those services on the backs of one group (parents) to the benefit of another group (teachers/staff) while shortchanging a third group (students).

The only way in which they are held responsible for this decision is if voters hold their school board representatives accountable in November. Which should be easy since it will be after two disastrous early-releases are already behind us. I am writing my board members to say I will be eagerly seeking his proposals to keep children in the classroom.

Service providers change their terms and conditions ALL time without asking their customers.

And when their customers object, they are held responsible. Loudoun’s entire board got voted out. Why do you think they were so careful about parent engagement when they were confronted with the exact same mandate Fairfax is flailing with.

Then we’ll see if this school board gets voted out because of it. And who said FCPS is flailing…the parents maybe, but not the school district.

I thought the same thing. I'm a teacher and I think they could fit the training in some of the already scheduled SP or SD days, but they made a decision and sent out the notice.

Another teacher. I think most ES would be fine with using SD and SP days for this. But only if this was it. Get rid of everything else not required snd focus on this for ES. Also make sure CLTS are limited to 1 so teachers get required planning time. Simple solution. I don’t like ER plan. Too disruptive to kids.

Elementary teachers would love to go down to one CLT a week, but that has been a request that FCPS has not been willing to compromise. We would all love it….but it is highly unlikely.

At the beginning of the SY Dr Reid told principals they needed to adhere to the policy as written, which means ES are supposed to have a minimum of 240 minutes of unencumbered teacher directed planning time a week. Of course many principals ignored that or tried to work around it unless people at the school pushed them to change it. Perhaps this is something that can be contractual through collective bargaining.

The problem is that the 2 CLT’s are supposed to also leave time for those 240 hours because we are supposed to count the 20 minutes at the beginning of the day and the 10 minutes at the end as planning time. One of the big issues, of course, is that we don’t get the 10 minutes at the end of the day because children are still being dismissed (and often beyond). We also get that time taken away for the other ad-hoc meetings that arise.

You don’t have to have 2 CLTs. It’s a minimum of 60 minutes. Yes, you can have 2 if you still have the 240. They are not supposed to count the time before and after school. Who told you that? The planning time has to be during the instructional day. Read the policy:

ELEMENTARY TEACHING ASSIGNMENTS (Grades K-6)
Elementary teachers engaged in the responsibilities associated with their position on a full- time basis shall be allowed 300 minutes of planning time per week or 600 minutes over a 2-week period. Within that time, a minimum of 60 minutes of collaborative planning time and 240 minutes of teacher-directed planning times per week or 120 minutes of collaborative planning time and 480 minutes of teacher-directed planning times over a 2- week period will be provided.
Classroom planning time is provided during art, physical education, music, and/or other instructional programming. Other certified personnel without direct classroom responsibilities may also be assigned in a manner that provides planning time. Such assignments may only exceed 10 hours per week per position with the approval of the region assistant superintendent.

I’m not sure how familiar you are with this topic. I’m not sure if you’re a parent or a teacher, but FCPS has themselves come out and said that the regulation does not say “exclusively” to those times/specials. That is how they’ve allowed for a classroom monitors to watch students during recess (not a special) and counted other times toward the 240.

I’m an ES teacher. Recess is different from the time before and after school. Recess is considered “other instructional programming”. The time before and after school is not.

I agree with you - but what I’m saying are there are many schools out there that have been told it’s ok. Which is why there is a problem.

I agree with you too on that. Staff could push back harder. It could also be something that is put into a negotiated contract instead of just a SB policy that might be interpreted differently from one school to another.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is one of the reasons people go private. This plan sounds ludicrous and would never happen there.

Again, looking through FCPS ubiquitous Equity Lens ™️ once again certain students from a certain demographic will indeed be unintentionally “left behind” - while the more savvy parents will have the flexibility to make suitable arrangements for their DC upon these sporadic early closings, other parents will not and will instead rely upon the school arrangements that will be subpar.

The school will usher the have-nots into the cafeteria or gym where they’ll stare at screens, eat donated snacks of Cheetos and chips, maybe go out to the playground where most will just sit on benches waiting for parent pick up.

This is the reality. There is very little actual learning taking place in FCPS, most especially in ES. The joke is on us.

This is so true.

[Anonymous]

Early release Mondays were very popular with teachers. I hope they stay. If they've fixed the childcare issue even better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is one of the reasons people go private. This plan sounds ludicrous and would never happen there.

There’s so much irony in this because you’re right: this would never happen in private because in private school, nobody has to be formally educated in how to do things like teach kids to read. There’s no such thing as licensure requirements to ensure that teachers meet a minimum competency to educate. You just need a bachelor’s degree and a job application. There’d never be any such thing as 32 *additional hours* of literacy training all teachers at a private would ever be required to do. But yeah, private is definitely better

OK but you know what? This totally depends on the private.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is one of the reasons people go private. This plan sounds ludicrous and would never happen there.

There’s so much irony in this because you’re right: this would never happen in private because in private school, nobody has to be formally educated in how to do things like teach kids to read. There’s no such thing as licensure requirements to ensure that teachers meet a minimum competency to educate. You just need a bachelor’s degree and a job application. There’d never be any such thing as 32 *additional hours* of literacy training all teachers at a private would ever be required to do. But yeah, private is definitely better

OK but you know what? This totally depends on the private.

DP, that can also be true. I hear that ones that cost $30-40K a year can be quite good.

[Anonymous]

My solution. Is have a fall break for kids and do the training then

[Anonymous]

No learning happens on three hour early release days.

Everyone would be better off if they just closed for a few days for the training. Extended fall break, start school a few days later, whatever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is one of the reasons people go private. This plan sounds ludicrous and would never happen there.

There’s so much irony in this because you’re right: this would never happen in private because in private school, nobody has to be formally educated in how to do things like teach kids to read. There’s no such thing as licensure requirements to ensure that teachers meet a minimum competency to educate. You just need a bachelor’s degree and a job application. There’d never be any such thing as 32 *additional hours* of literacy training all teachers at a private would ever be required to do. But yeah, private is definitely better

OK but you know what? This totally depends on the private.

DP, that can also be true. I hear that ones that cost $30-40K a year can be quite good.

It is also true that many privates have been teaching phonics for decades and never stopped. I went to an incredibly cheap-o church school in early elementary in the '90s that used phonics and it was all the teachers had ever taught. They didn't have to be taught how to teach it mid-career because it's what they'd always done. Science of reading isn't new, just (justifiably) trendy.