How DO we get the calendar changed?

[Anonymous]

This isn’t a longer vs shorter summer topic, it is a fight over whether school should be off for religious holidays and whether teachers should get workdays.

[Anonymous]

Gosh I would love a two week break between quarters to recharge/reset and travel to places that aren’t enjoyable during peak summer. I would happily do a 6 week summer to accomplish that.

Not going to lie, I don’t really care if summer swim or sleep away camp is so transformative, you can have a 5 week season instead of 7 weeks and get 5/7 transformed. Get the other 2/7 transformed in October.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This isn’t a longer vs shorter summer topic, it is a fight over whether school should be off for religious holidays and whether teachers should get workdays.

All students and staff should get 3 floating holidays they can use for religion, spaghetti monsters, nature worship, family time, college visits, whatever. School recognizes nothing.

Any work missed on those floating holidays is make up-able within 1 week. Done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Gosh I would love a two week break between quarters to recharge/reset and travel to places that aren’t enjoyable during peak summer. I would happily do a 6 week summer to accomplish that.

Not going to lie, I don’t really care if summer swim or sleep away camp is so transformative, you can have a 5 week season instead of 7 weeks and get 5/7 transformed. Get the other 2/7 transformed in October.

This isn’t whats up for debate in Fairfax (though it may be in Loudoun). Fairfax is only presently considering focusing on five day school weeks which means a longer summer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[twitter]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

What's wrong with the calendar? It's good to have more days off to give both families and teachers a breather from the miserable daily grind. As a parent, I don't understand why parents of older kids who do not need babysitting (I get it when parents need daycare) want more school days.

My other concern is teachers unavailability to timely grade tests/assignments and post for parental review as is. Even with all the days dedicated to having teachers catch up on this work, they don't have ability to do this already, grades can be lagging weeks, which makes it difficult for the parents to assess when their child needs help. There is already little to no communications between schools/teachers and parents when kids aren't doing well or fail before things get worse (due to delayed posting of progress) that it's impossible to catch up or do anything. So, no, I don't want more schools days, more assignments, more prolonged busy work for my kids and myself as a working parent. I want to also have more days for kids to catch up on assignments, on sleep, or to simply decompress, hang out with friends beyond organized activities, etc.

I get it that a lot of parents want longer or around-the-year school situation where kids are out of their hair daily, but this also heavily penalizes families who do not need this and don't want their kids to be punished for absences.

And for this whole thing with more days of school to work, we seriously need to have more teachers, fewer kids per class, to allow teacher to spend time to grade, assess who needs help, provide help to the kids who fail or underperform, provide extra challenges for kids who overachieve and are bored, etc. have ability to contact parents when needed, etc.

You misunderstand. Many parents want kids in schools 5 days a week because all of these 3 or 4 day weeks extend the school year and make summer break shorter.

Exactly. A longer summer provides opportunities for high achieving high school students to do the summer enrichment programs and still start practice for fall sports and have some downtime. A Tuesday at home in Chantilly is a waste compared to a week in New Haven.

Ok, for the 1% the longer summer break is better. For everyone else, there is significant learning loss over the summer.

It’s way more than “the 1%”. Its every student with any value or interest outside the limits of FCPS offering. For example:

1. International students for whom the summer is the only opportunity to see family/immerse in language
2. Serious athletes especially in non-school programs like ballet and ice skating
3. Serious musicians doing summer conservatory programs
4. Families who send their kids to religiously affiliated camps — this is a big deal for a lot of Jewish families in the NE

And I don’t dispute that there may be learning loss. Parents can make a choice to send their kids to summer school if learning loss is their #1 concern. But for many, many Fairfax families, learning loss is an acceptable tradeoff to meet the needs that aren’t met in school .

Those are wants vs needs

There’s no “need” to be off on a random March Tuesday in order to limit families summer activities. Kids who need more school in the summer can sign up for summer school, but most kids don’t need it.

Gosh, it must be hard to be you. All that free summer time and money to spend on your kids lessons, camps and vacations, yet you are still miserable because the world isn’t meeting your perceived “needs.”

Look, if your kid is so significantly behind that they need a shorter summer to stay on track, I’m sympathetic. That must be hard. But most families have things they prioritize outside school— language, arts, sports, culture, even just family time. Public school cannot, and isn’t intended to, replace those things.

DP. I like having our outside priorities year-round, not crammed into summer months.

I’d much rather have a shorter summer and have more extended breaks spread throughout the school year.

My kid can still have her summer job, maybe lasting 7 weeks instead of 9. And then we can have a family vacation in October or February, when we don’t have to take her out of her job just to travel during the crowded summer months.

You, PP, don’t speak for all of us.[b] Bring on the shorter summer!

You don’t speak for all of us either. Some us want a longer summer and fewer disrupted weeks during the school year.

Great! So we agree.

So let’s stop with the “most people feel…” this and the “all high schoolers need…” that.

No solution is going to make everybody happy because we are all invested in our own interests, like the poster who keeps bringing up prestigious summer internships that impact like .003% of high schoolers.

Most people do want long summers. Thats why there was such outcry this year, including from teachers. Absolutely no one got up and said 25-26 was a good calendar for students or families.

Look… the loudest voices don’t always represent the bigger group.

And my point remains. No solution is going to please everybody because most people are fixated on their own interests.

I posted above about summer brain drain and how much time is wasted every school year reviewing the prior year’s material. I was met with comments about vacations and swim team, etc.

Let’s not pretend that people’s interests represent what’s best for the majority of students. It’s what’s best for them: their kids, their schedules, their preferences.

Summer swim quite literally changed my life. It’s how I fell in love with the sport and got a full ride to a very good university. The year round swim teams cannot replicate the magic of summer league. It’s hard to explain if you aren’t familiar with it. I am sure that other experiences that kids have over a 8 or 9 week summer are equally formative… 6 week sleep away camps being just one example. It would be a real shame to dramatically modify or get rid of these things just so kids can sit in public school buildings most of the year. And no, you can’t recreate a lot of these opportunities during a 5 week summer or shorter breaks throughout the year.

It feels like people who don’t have the means to create a good summer for their children want to get rid of it for everyone else, so they don’t have to feel bad.

6-week sleep away camps? That’s a less than 1% problem. Maybe 0.1%.

Now you’re posting from a place of deep ignorance. Even kids in foster care are eligible for aid (and sometimes free) summer sleepaway camp.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

What's wrong with the calendar? It's good to have more days off to give both families and teachers a breather from the miserable daily grind. As a parent, I don't understand why parents of older kids who do not need babysitting (I get it when parents need daycare) want more school days.

My other concern is teachers unavailability to timely grade tests/assignments and post for parental review as is. Even with all the days dedicated to having teachers catch up on this work, they don't have ability to do this already, grades can be lagging weeks, which makes it difficult for the parents to assess when their child needs help. There is already little to no communications between schools/teachers and parents when kids aren't doing well or fail before things get worse (due to delayed posting of progress) that it's impossible to catch up or do anything. So, no, I don't want more schools days, more assignments, more prolonged busy work for my kids and myself as a working parent. I want to also have more days for kids to catch up on assignments, on sleep, or to simply decompress, hang out with friends beyond organized activities, etc.

I get it that a lot of parents want longer or around-the-year school situation where kids are out of their hair daily, but this also heavily penalizes families who do not need this and don't want their kids to be punished for absences.

And for this whole thing with more days of school to work, we seriously need to have more teachers, fewer kids per class, to allow teacher to spend time to grade, assess who needs help, provide help to the kids who fail or underperform, provide extra challenges for kids who overachieve and are bored, etc. have ability to contact parents when needed, etc.

You misunderstand. Many parents want kids in schools 5 days a week because all of these 3 or 4 day weeks extend the school year and make summer break shorter.

Exactly. A longer summer provides opportunities for high achieving high school students to do the summer enrichment programs and still start practice for fall sports and have some downtime. A Tuesday at home in Chantilly is a waste compared to a week in New Haven.

Ok, for the 1% the longer summer break is better. For everyone else, there is significant learning loss over the summer.

It’s way more than “the 1%”. Its every student with any value or interest outside the limits of FCPS offering. For example:

1. International students for whom the summer is the only opportunity to see family/immerse in language
2. Serious athletes especially in non-school programs like ballet and ice skating
3. Serious musicians doing summer conservatory programs
4. Families who send their kids to religiously affiliated camps — this is a big deal for a lot of Jewish families in the NE

And I don’t dispute that there may be learning loss. Parents can make a choice to send their kids to summer school if learning loss is their #1 concern. But for many, many Fairfax families, learning loss is an acceptable tradeoff to meet the needs that aren’t met in school .

Those are wants vs needs

There’s no “need” to be off on a random March Tuesday in order to limit families summer activities. Kids who need more school in the summer can sign up for summer school, but most kids don’t need it.

Gosh, it must be hard to be you. All that free summer time and money to spend on your kids lessons, camps and vacations, yet you are still miserable because the world isn’t meeting your perceived “needs.”

Look, if your kid is so significantly behind that they need a shorter summer to stay on track, I’m sympathetic. That must be hard. But most families have things they prioritize outside school— language, arts, sports, culture, even just family time. Public school cannot, and isn’t intended to, replace those things.

DP. I like having our outside priorities year-round, not crammed into summer months.

I’d much rather have a shorter summer and have more extended breaks spread throughout the school year.

My kid can still have her summer job, maybe lasting 7 weeks instead of 9. And then we can have a family vacation in October or February, when we don’t have to take her out of her job just to travel during the crowded summer months.

You, PP, don’t speak for all of us.[b] Bring on the shorter summer!

You don’t speak for all of us either. Some us want a longer summer and fewer disrupted weeks during the school year.

Great! So we agree.

So let’s stop with the “most people feel…” this and the “all high schoolers need…” that.

No solution is going to make everybody happy because we are all invested in our own interests, like the poster who keeps bringing up prestigious summer internships that impact like .003% of high schoolers.

Most people do want long summers. Thats why there was such outcry this year, including from teachers. Absolutely no one got up and said 25-26 was a good calendar for students or families.

Look… the loudest voices don’t always represent the bigger group.

And my point remains. No solution is going to please everybody because most people are fixated on their own interests.

I posted above about summer brain drain and how much time is wasted every school year reviewing the prior year’s material. I was met with comments about vacations and swim team, etc.

Let’s not pretend that people’s interests represent what’s best for the majority of students. It’s what’s best for them: their kids, their schedules, their preferences.

Sure, but silence is deafening.

At any point Reid could have gotten up and said this is actually a beneficial schedule and here’s why. Parents who supposedly love the schedule could have written their school board rep. The student rep on the board could have said hey this was great for us.

And yet…none of that happened.

People who are happy generally don’t write in and contact people to say that. Only the complainers email. We didn’t even know the school rep was collecting feedback on the calendar. My child’s feedback is that they like the shorter weeks and felt they were beneficial for keeping up and catching up on sleep.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

What's wrong with the calendar? It's good to have more days off to give both families and teachers a breather from the miserable daily grind. As a parent, I don't understand why parents of older kids who do not need babysitting (I get it when parents need daycare) want more school days.

My other concern is teachers unavailability to timely grade tests/assignments and post for parental review as is. Even with all the days dedicated to having teachers catch up on this work, they don't have ability to do this already, grades can be lagging weeks, which makes it difficult for the parents to assess when their child needs help. There is already little to no communications between schools/teachers and parents when kids aren't doing well or fail before things get worse (due to delayed posting of progress) that it's impossible to catch up or do anything. So, no, I don't want more schools days, more assignments, more prolonged busy work for my kids and myself as a working parent. I want to also have more days for kids to catch up on assignments, on sleep, or to simply decompress, hang out with friends beyond organized activities, etc.

I get it that a lot of parents want longer or around-the-year school situation where kids are out of their hair daily, but this also heavily penalizes families who do not need this and don't want their kids to be punished for absences.

And for this whole thing with more days of school to work, we seriously need to have more teachers, fewer kids per class, to allow teacher to spend time to grade, assess who needs help, provide help to the kids who fail or underperform, provide extra challenges for kids who overachieve and are bored, etc. have ability to contact parents when needed, etc.

You misunderstand. Many parents want kids in schools 5 days a week because all of these 3 or 4 day weeks extend the school year and make summer break shorter.

Exactly. A longer summer provides opportunities for high achieving high school students to do the summer enrichment programs and still start practice for fall sports and have some downtime. A Tuesday at home in Chantilly is a waste compared to a week in New Haven.

Ok, for the 1% the longer summer break is better. For everyone else, there is significant learning loss over the summer.

It’s way more than “the 1%”. Its every student with any value or interest outside the limits of FCPS offering. For example:

1. International students for whom the summer is the only opportunity to see family/immerse in language
2. Serious athletes especially in non-school programs like ballet and ice skating
3. Serious musicians doing summer conservatory programs
4. Families who send their kids to religiously affiliated camps — this is a big deal for a lot of Jewish families in the NE

And I don’t dispute that there may be learning loss. Parents can make a choice to send their kids to summer school if learning loss is their #1 concern. But for many, many Fairfax families, learning loss is an acceptable tradeoff to meet the needs that aren’t met in school .

Those are wants vs needs

There’s no “need” to be off on a random March Tuesday in order to limit families summer activities. Kids who need more school in the summer can sign up for summer school, but most kids don’t need it.

Gosh, it must be hard to be you. All that free summer time and money to spend on your kids lessons, camps and vacations, yet you are still miserable because the world isn’t meeting your perceived “needs.”

Look, if your kid is so significantly behind that they need a shorter summer to stay on track, I’m sympathetic. That must be hard. But most families have things they prioritize outside school— language, arts, sports, culture, even just family time. Public school cannot, and isn’t intended to, replace those things.

DP. I like having our outside priorities year-round, not crammed into summer months.

I’d much rather have a shorter summer and have more extended breaks spread throughout the school year.

My kid can still have her summer job, maybe lasting 7 weeks instead of 9. And then we can have a family vacation in October or February, when we don’t have to take her out of her job just to travel during the crowded summer months.

You, PP, don’t speak for all of us.[b] Bring on the shorter summer!

You don’t speak for all of us either. Some us want a longer summer and fewer disrupted weeks during the school year.

Great! So we agree.

So let’s stop with the “most people feel…” this and the “all high schoolers need…” that.

No solution is going to make everybody happy because we are all invested in our own interests, like the poster who keeps bringing up prestigious summer internships that impact like .003% of high schoolers.

Most people do want long summers. Thats why there was such outcry this year, including from teachers. Absolutely no one got up and said 25-26 was a good calendar for students or families.

Look… the loudest voices don’t always represent the bigger group.

And my point remains. No solution is going to please everybody because most people are fixated on their own interests.

I posted above about summer brain drain and how much time is wasted every school year reviewing the prior year’s material. I was met with comments about vacations and swim team, etc.

Let’s not pretend that people’s interests represent what’s best for the majority of students. It’s what’s best for them: their kids, their schedules, their preferences.

Sure, but silence is deafening.

At any point Reid could have gotten up and said this is actually a beneficial schedule and here’s why. Parents who supposedly love the schedule could have written their school board rep. The student rep on the board could have said hey this was great for us.

And yet…none of that happened.

People who are happy generally don’t write in and contact people to say that. Only the complainers email. We didn’t even know the school rep was collecting feedback on the calendar. My child’s feedback is that they like the shorter weeks and felt they were beneficial for keeping up and catching up on sleep.

People who think their kid is dramatically positively impacted by something and then hear it is going to change write in. This has been in media, social media, and board minutes for months now. If that sleep was so important to many kids, their parents would have been writing in as well.

And, again, the architect of the whole thing didn't even have a defense of it on educational grounds. She apparently just hopes no one would ask.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[twitter]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

What's wrong with the calendar? It's good to have more days off to give both families and teachers a breather from the miserable daily grind. As a parent, I don't understand why parents of older kids who do not need babysitting (I get it when parents need daycare) want more school days.

My other concern is teachers unavailability to timely grade tests/assignments and post for parental review as is. Even with all the days dedicated to having teachers catch up on this work, they don't have ability to do this already, grades can be lagging weeks, which makes it difficult for the parents to assess when their child needs help. There is already little to no communications between schools/teachers and parents when kids aren't doing well or fail before things get worse (due to delayed posting of progress) that it's impossible to catch up or do anything. So, no, I don't want more schools days, more assignments, more prolonged busy work for my kids and myself as a working parent. I want to also have more days for kids to catch up on assignments, on sleep, or to simply decompress, hang out with friends beyond organized activities, etc.

I get it that a lot of parents want longer or around-the-year school situation where kids are out of their hair daily, but this also heavily penalizes families who do not need this and don't want their kids to be punished for absences.

And for this whole thing with more days of school to work, we seriously need to have more teachers, fewer kids per class, to allow teacher to spend time to grade, assess who needs help, provide help to the kids who fail or underperform, provide extra challenges for kids who overachieve and are bored, etc. have ability to contact parents when needed, etc.

You misunderstand. Many parents want kids in schools 5 days a week because all of these 3 or 4 day weeks extend the school year and make summer break shorter.

Exactly. A longer summer provides opportunities for high achieving high school students to do the summer enrichment programs and still start practice for fall sports and have some downtime. A Tuesday at home in Chantilly is a waste compared to a week in New Haven.

Ok, for the 1% the longer summer break is better. For everyone else, there is significant learning loss over the summer.

It’s way more than “the 1%”. Its every student with any value or interest outside the limits of FCPS offering. For example:

1. International students for whom the summer is the only opportunity to see family/immerse in language
2. Serious athletes especially in non-school programs like ballet and ice skating
3. Serious musicians doing summer conservatory programs
4. Families who send their kids to religiously affiliated camps — this is a big deal for a lot of Jewish families in the NE

And I don’t dispute that there may be learning loss. Parents can make a choice to send their kids to summer school if learning loss is their #1 concern. But for many, many Fairfax families, learning loss is an acceptable tradeoff to meet the needs that aren’t met in school .

Those are wants vs needs

There’s no “need” to be off on a random March Tuesday in order to limit families summer activities. Kids who need more school in the summer can sign up for summer school, but most kids don’t need it.

Gosh, it must be hard to be you. All that free summer time and money to spend on your kids lessons, camps and vacations, yet you are still miserable because the world isn’t meeting your perceived “needs.”

Look, if your kid is so significantly behind that they need a shorter summer to stay on track, I’m sympathetic. That must be hard. But most families have things they prioritize outside school— language, arts, sports, culture, even just family time. Public school cannot, and isn’t intended to, replace those things.

DP. I like having our outside priorities year-round, not crammed into summer months.

I’d much rather have a shorter summer and have more extended breaks spread throughout the school year.

My kid can still have her summer job, maybe lasting 7 weeks instead of 9. And then we can have a family vacation in October or February, when we don’t have to take her out of her job just to travel during the crowded summer months.

You, PP, don’t speak for all of us. Bring on the shorter summer!

You don’t speak for all of us either. Some us want a longer summer and fewer disrupted weeks during the school year.

Great! So we agree.

So let’s stop with the “most people feel…” this and the “all high schoolers need…” that.

No solution is going to make everybody happy because we are all invested in our own interests, like the poster who keeps bringing up prestigious summer internships that impact like .003% of high schoolers.

Most people do want long summers. Thats why there was such outcry this year, including from teachers. Absolutely no one got up and said 25-26 was a good calendar for students or families.

Look… the loudest voices don’t always represent the bigger group.

And my point remains. No solution is going to please everybody because most people are fixated on their own interests.

I posted above about summer brain drain and how much time is wasted every school year reviewing the prior year’s material. I was met with comments about vacations and swim team, etc.

Let’s not pretend that people’s interests represent what’s best for the majority of students. It’s what’s best for them: their kids, their schedules, their preferences.

Summer swim quite literally changed my life. It’s how I fell in love with the sport and got a full ride to a very good university. The year round swim teams cannot replicate the magic of summer league. It’s hard to explain if you aren’t familiar with it. I am sure that other experiences that kids have over a 8 or 9 week summer are equally formative… 6 week sleep away camps being just one example. It would be a real shame to dramatically modify or get rid of these things just so kids can sit in public school buildings most of the year. And no, you can’t recreate a lot of these opportunities during a 5 week summer or shorter breaks throughout the year.

[b]It feels like people who don’t have the means to create a good summer for their children want to get rid of it for everyone else, so they don’t have to feel bad.

If this is true its sad because it’s unnecessary. Girl Scout/Boy Scout camps are affordable and theres So Much financial aid out there for summer programs— way more aid than exists for random April Tuesdays.

I want shorter summers and more breaks. I think the human brain consolidates learning during shorter breaks and there is less bullying behavior (this is proven and is the one thing that is different between shorter and longer summers) when kids aren’t exhausted and get breaks. I also LOVE swim team.

But, swim teams END IN JULY. The pool is done at the beginning of August. If you shift the swim team schedule by a week or two, they will still have the exact same amount of time for swim team.

You can pull your kid out of school a few days early if they MUST. DO. A camp at a particular weekend.

WHy is a 6 week summer camp more magical than a 4 week one? I couldn’t tell you except I think people are getting stuck in nostalgia and “the way things should be”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[twitter]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

What's wrong with the calendar? It's good to have more days off to give both families and teachers a breather from the miserable daily grind. As a parent, I don't understand why parents of older kids who do not need babysitting (I get it when parents need daycare) want more school days.

My other concern is teachers unavailability to timely grade tests/assignments and post for parental review as is. Even with all the days dedicated to having teachers catch up on this work, they don't have ability to do this already, grades can be lagging weeks, which makes it difficult for the parents to assess when their child needs help. There is already little to no communications between schools/teachers and parents when kids aren't doing well or fail before things get worse (due to delayed posting of progress) that it's impossible to catch up or do anything. So, no, I don't want more schools days, more assignments, more prolonged busy work for my kids and myself as a working parent. I want to also have more days for kids to catch up on assignments, on sleep, or to simply decompress, hang out with friends beyond organized activities, etc.

I get it that a lot of parents want longer or around-the-year school situation where kids are out of their hair daily, but this also heavily penalizes families who do not need this and don't want their kids to be punished for absences.

And for this whole thing with more days of school to work, we seriously need to have more teachers, fewer kids per class, to allow teacher to spend time to grade, assess who needs help, provide help to the kids who fail or underperform, provide extra challenges for kids who overachieve and are bored, etc. have ability to contact parents when needed, etc.

You misunderstand. Many parents want kids in schools 5 days a week because all of these 3 or 4 day weeks extend the school year and make summer break shorter.

Exactly. A longer summer provides opportunities for high achieving high school students to do the summer enrichment programs and still start practice for fall sports and have some downtime. A Tuesday at home in Chantilly is a waste compared to a week in New Haven.

Ok, for the 1% the longer summer break is better. For everyone else, there is significant learning loss over the summer.

It’s way more than “the 1%”. Its every student with any value or interest outside the limits of FCPS offering. For example:

1. International students for whom the summer is the only opportunity to see family/immerse in language
2. Serious athletes especially in non-school programs like ballet and ice skating
3. Serious musicians doing summer conservatory programs
4. Families who send their kids to religiously affiliated camps — this is a big deal for a lot of Jewish families in the NE

And I don’t dispute that there may be learning loss. Parents can make a choice to send their kids to summer school if learning loss is their #1 concern. But for many, many Fairfax families, learning loss is an acceptable tradeoff to meet the needs that aren’t met in school .

Those are wants vs needs

There’s no “need” to be off on a random March Tuesday in order to limit families summer activities. Kids who need more school in the summer can sign up for summer school, but most kids don’t need it.

Gosh, it must be hard to be you. All that free summer time and money to spend on your kids lessons, camps and vacations, yet you are still miserable because the world isn’t meeting your perceived “needs.”

Look, if your kid is so significantly behind that they need a shorter summer to stay on track, I’m sympathetic. That must be hard. But most families have things they prioritize outside school— language, arts, sports, culture, even just family time. Public school cannot, and isn’t intended to, replace those things.

DP. I like having our outside priorities year-round, not crammed into summer months.

I’d much rather have a shorter summer and have more extended breaks spread throughout the school year.

My kid can still have her summer job, maybe lasting 7 weeks instead of 9. And then we can have a family vacation in October or February, when we don’t have to take her out of her job just to travel during the crowded summer months.

You, PP, don’t speak for all of us.[b] Bring on the shorter summer!

You don’t speak for all of us either. Some us want a longer summer and fewer disrupted weeks during the school year.

Great! So we agree.

So let’s stop with the “most people feel…” this and the “all high schoolers need…” that.

No solution is going to make everybody happy because we are all invested in our own interests, like the poster who keeps bringing up prestigious summer internships that impact like .003% of high schoolers.

Most people do want long summers. Thats why there was such outcry this year, including from teachers. Absolutely no one got up and said 25-26 was a good calendar for students or families.

Look… the loudest voices don’t always represent the bigger group.

And my point remains. No solution is going to please everybody because most people are fixated on their own interests.

I posted above about summer brain drain and how much time is wasted every school year reviewing the prior year’s material. I was met with comments about vacations and swim team, etc.

Let’s not pretend that people’s interests represent what’s best for the majority of students. It’s what’s best for them: their kids, their schedules, their preferences.

Summer swim quite literally changed my life. It’s how I fell in love with the sport and got a full ride to a very good university. The year round swim teams cannot replicate the magic of summer league. It’s hard to explain if you aren’t familiar with it. I am sure that other experiences that kids have over a 8 or 9 week summer are equally formative… 6 week sleep away camps being just one example. It would be a real shame to dramatically modify or get rid of these things just so kids can sit in public school buildings most of the year. And no, you can’t recreate a lot of these opportunities during a 5 week summer or shorter breaks throughout the year.

It feels like people who don’t have the means to create a good summer for their children want to get rid of it for everyone else, so they don’t have to feel bad.

6-week sleep away camps? That’s a less than 1% problem. Maybe 0.1%.

Now you’re posting from a place of deep ignorance. Even kids in foster care are eligible for aid (and sometimes free) summer sleepaway camp.

DP but sleep away camp is a like T10 colleges. It works great for very low income and the 5%-ers. For the missing middle, our kids don’t go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[twitter]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

What's wrong with the calendar? It's good to have more days off to give both families and teachers a breather from the miserable daily grind. As a parent, I don't understand why parents of older kids who do not need babysitting (I get it when parents need daycare) want more school days.

My other concern is teachers unavailability to timely grade tests/assignments and post for parental review as is. Even with all the days dedicated to having teachers catch up on this work, they don't have ability to do this already, grades can be lagging weeks, which makes it difficult for the parents to assess when their child needs help. There is already little to no communications between schools/teachers and parents when kids aren't doing well or fail before things get worse (due to delayed posting of progress) that it's impossible to catch up or do anything. So, no, I don't want more schools days, more assignments, more prolonged busy work for my kids and myself as a working parent. I want to also have more days for kids to catch up on assignments, on sleep, or to simply decompress, hang out with friends beyond organized activities, etc.

I get it that a lot of parents want longer or around-the-year school situation where kids are out of their hair daily, but this also heavily penalizes families who do not need this and don't want their kids to be punished for absences.

And for this whole thing with more days of school to work, we seriously need to have more teachers, fewer kids per class, to allow teacher to spend time to grade, assess who needs help, provide help to the kids who fail or underperform, provide extra challenges for kids who overachieve and are bored, etc. have ability to contact parents when needed, etc.

You misunderstand. Many parents want kids in schools 5 days a week because all of these 3 or 4 day weeks extend the school year and make summer break shorter.

Exactly. A longer summer provides opportunities for high achieving high school students to do the summer enrichment programs and still start practice for fall sports and have some downtime. A Tuesday at home in Chantilly is a waste compared to a week in New Haven.

Ok, for the 1% the longer summer break is better. For everyone else, there is significant learning loss over the summer.

It’s way more than “the 1%”. Its every student with any value or interest outside the limits of FCPS offering. For example:

1. International students for whom the summer is the only opportunity to see family/immerse in language
2. Serious athletes especially in non-school programs like ballet and ice skating
3. Serious musicians doing summer conservatory programs
4. Families who send their kids to religiously affiliated camps — this is a big deal for a lot of Jewish families in the NE

And I don’t dispute that there may be learning loss. Parents can make a choice to send their kids to summer school if learning loss is their #1 concern. But for many, many Fairfax families, learning loss is an acceptable tradeoff to meet the needs that aren’t met in school .

Those are wants vs needs

There’s no “need” to be off on a random March Tuesday in order to limit families summer activities. Kids who need more school in the summer can sign up for summer school, but most kids don’t need it.

Gosh, it must be hard to be you. All that free summer time and money to spend on your kids lessons, camps and vacations, yet you are still miserable because the world isn’t meeting your perceived “needs.”

Look, if your kid is so significantly behind that they need a shorter summer to stay on track, I’m sympathetic. That must be hard. But most families have things they prioritize outside school— language, arts, sports, culture, even just family time. Public school cannot, and isn’t intended to, replace those things.

DP. I like having our outside priorities year-round, not crammed into summer months.

I’d much rather have a shorter summer and have more extended breaks spread throughout the school year.

My kid can still have her summer job, maybe lasting 7 weeks instead of 9. And then we can have a family vacation in October or February, when we don’t have to take her out of her job just to travel during the crowded summer months.

You, PP, don’t speak for all of us. Bring on the shorter summer!

You don’t speak for all of us either. Some us want a longer summer and fewer disrupted weeks during the school year.

Great! So we agree.

So let’s stop with the “most people feel…” this and the “all high schoolers need…” that.

No solution is going to make everybody happy because we are all invested in our own interests, like the poster who keeps bringing up prestigious summer internships that impact like .003% of high schoolers.

Most people do want long summers. Thats why there was such outcry this year, including from teachers. Absolutely no one got up and said 25-26 was a good calendar for students or families.

Look… the loudest voices don’t always represent the bigger group.

And my point remains. No solution is going to please everybody because most people are fixated on their own interests.

I posted above about summer brain drain and how much time is wasted every school year reviewing the prior year’s material. I was met with comments about vacations and swim team, etc.

Let’s not pretend that people’s interests represent what’s best for the majority of students. It’s what’s best for them: their kids, their schedules, their preferences.

Summer swim quite literally changed my life. It’s how I fell in love with the sport and got a full ride to a very good university. The year round swim teams cannot replicate the magic of summer league. It’s hard to explain if you aren’t familiar with it. I am sure that other experiences that kids have over a 8 or 9 week summer are equally formative… 6 week sleep away camps being just one example. It would be a real shame to dramatically modify or get rid of these things just so kids can sit in public school buildings most of the year. And no, you can’t recreate a lot of these opportunities during a 5 week summer or shorter breaks throughout the year.

[b]It feels like people who don’t have the means to create a good summer for their children want to get rid of it for everyone else, so they don’t have to feel bad.

If this is true its sad because it’s unnecessary. Girl Scout/Boy Scout camps are affordable and theres So Much financial aid out there for summer programs— way more aid than exists for random April Tuesdays.

I want shorter summers and more breaks. I think the human brain consolidates learning during shorter breaks and there is less bullying behavior (this is proven and is the one thing that is different between shorter and longer summers) when kids aren’t exhausted and get breaks. I also LOVE swim team.

But, swim teams END IN JULY. The pool is done at the beginning of August. If you shift the swim team schedule by a week or two, they will still have the exact same amount of time for swim team.

You can pull your kid out of school a few days early if they MUST. DO. A camp at a particular weekend.

WHy is a 6 week summer camp more magical than a 4 week one? I couldn’t tell you except I think people are getting stuck in nostalgia and “the way things should be”

Because theres nothing replacing that other two weeks. The camp runs six-eight weeks. Yeah we can pull all the FCPS kids early. But you’re not giving them two more weeks outside (or in language, or doing music, or with family if parents only can afford to travel once) elsewhere in the year— those programs don’t exist. You’re just taking things away from kids to serve adults. Maybe not kids you care about, but you’re still taking it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

What's wrong with the calendar? It's good to have more days off to give both families and teachers a breather from the miserable daily grind. As a parent, I don't understand why parents of older kids who do not need babysitting (I get it when parents need daycare) want more school days.

My other concern is teachers unavailability to timely grade tests/assignments and post for parental review as is. Even with all the days dedicated to having teachers catch up on this work, they don't have ability to do this already, grades can be lagging weeks, which makes it difficult for the parents to assess when their child needs help. There is already little to no communications between schools/teachers and parents when kids aren't doing well or fail before things get worse (due to delayed posting of progress) that it's impossible to catch up or do anything. So, no, I don't want more schools days, more assignments, more prolonged busy work for my kids and myself as a working parent. I want to also have more days for kids to catch up on assignments, on sleep, or to simply decompress, hang out with friends beyond organized activities, etc.

I get it that a lot of parents want longer or around-the-year school situation where kids are out of their hair daily, but this also heavily penalizes families who do not need this and don't want their kids to be punished for absences.

And for this whole thing with more days of school to work, we seriously need to have more teachers, fewer kids per class, to allow teacher to spend time to grade, assess who needs help, provide help to the kids who fail or underperform, provide extra challenges for kids who overachieve and are bored, etc. have ability to contact parents when needed, etc.

You misunderstand. Many parents want kids in schools 5 days a week because all of these 3 or 4 day weeks extend the school year and make summer break shorter.

Exactly. A longer summer provides opportunities for high achieving high school students to do the summer enrichment programs and still start practice for fall sports and have some downtime. A Tuesday at home in Chantilly is a waste compared to a week in New Haven.

Ok, for the 1% the longer summer break is better. For everyone else, there is significant learning loss over the summer.

It’s way more than “the 1%”. Its every student with any value or interest outside the limits of FCPS offering. For example:

1. International students for whom the summer is the only opportunity to see family/immerse in language
2. Serious athletes especially in non-school programs like ballet and ice skating
3. Serious musicians doing summer conservatory programs
4. Families who send their kids to religiously affiliated camps — this is a big deal for a lot of Jewish families in the NE

And I don’t dispute that there may be learning loss. Parents can make a choice to send their kids to summer school if learning loss is their #1 concern. But for many, many Fairfax families, learning loss is an acceptable tradeoff to meet the needs that aren’t met in school .

Those are wants vs needs

There’s no “need” to be off on a random March Tuesday in order to limit families summer activities. Kids who need more school in the summer can sign up for summer school, but most kids don’t need it.

Gosh, it must be hard to be you. All that free summer time and money to spend on your kids lessons, camps and vacations, yet you are still miserable because the world isn’t meeting your perceived “needs.”

Look, if your kid is so significantly behind that they need a shorter summer to stay on track, I’m sympathetic. That must be hard. But most families have things they prioritize outside school— language, arts, sports, culture, even just family time. Public school cannot, and isn’t intended to, replace those things.

DP. I like having our outside priorities year-round, not crammed into summer months.

I’d much rather have a shorter summer and have more extended breaks spread throughout the school year.

My kid can still have her summer job, maybe lasting 7 weeks instead of 9. And then we can have a family vacation in October or February, when we don’t have to take her out of her job just to travel during the crowded summer months.

You, PP, don’t speak for all of us.[b] Bring on the shorter summer!

You don’t speak for all of us either. Some us want a longer summer and fewer disrupted weeks during the school year.

Great! So we agree.

So let’s stop with the “most people feel…” this and the “all high schoolers need…” that.

No solution is going to make everybody happy because we are all invested in our own interests, like the poster who keeps bringing up prestigious summer internships that impact like .003% of high schoolers.

Most people do want long summers. Thats why there was such outcry this year, including from teachers. Absolutely no one got up and said 25-26 was a good calendar for students or families.

Look… the loudest voices don’t always represent the bigger group.

And my point remains. No solution is going to please everybody because most people are fixated on their own interests.

I posted above about summer brain drain and how much time is wasted every school year reviewing the prior year’s material. I was met with comments about vacations and swim team, etc.

Let’s not pretend that people’s interests represent what’s best for the majority of students. It’s what’s best for them: their kids, their schedules, their preferences.

Sure, but silence is deafening.

At any point Reid could have gotten up and said this is actually a beneficial schedule and here’s why. Parents who supposedly love the schedule could have written their school board rep. The student rep on the board could have said hey this was great for us.

And yet…none of that happened.

People who are happy generally don’t write in and contact people to say that. Only the complainers email. We didn’t even know the school rep was collecting feedback on the calendar. My child’s feedback is that they like the shorter weeks and felt they were beneficial for keeping up and catching up on sleep.

People who think their kid is dramatically positively impacted by something and then hear it is going to change write in. This has been in media, social media, and board minutes for months now. If that sleep was so important to many kids, their parents would have been writing in as well.

And, again, the architect of the whole thing didn't even have a defense of it on educational grounds. She apparently just hopes no one would ask.

We haven’t heard that anything is changing and based on the board meeting it looks like that is true. Teachers like shorter weeks because it builds in planning time once a week which is what they need and used to have on early release Mondays.

[Anonymous]

My child was able to do a lot more full length practice tests for the AP exams this year due to the breaks. My child thinks they got a 5 on them. We are happy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

What's wrong with the calendar? It's good to have more days off to give both families and teachers a breather from the miserable daily grind. As a parent, I don't understand why parents of older kids who do not need babysitting (I get it when parents need daycare) want more school days.

My other concern is teachers unavailability to timely grade tests/assignments and post for parental review as is. Even with all the days dedicated to having teachers catch up on this work, they don't have ability to do this already, grades can be lagging weeks, which makes it difficult for the parents to assess when their child needs help. There is already little to no communications between schools/teachers and parents when kids aren't doing well or fail before things get worse (due to delayed posting of progress) that it's impossible to catch up or do anything. So, no, I don't want more schools days, more assignments, more prolonged busy work for my kids and myself as a working parent. I want to also have more days for kids to catch up on assignments, on sleep, or to simply decompress, hang out with friends beyond organized activities, etc.

I get it that a lot of parents want longer or around-the-year school situation where kids are out of their hair daily, but this also heavily penalizes families who do not need this and don't want their kids to be punished for absences.

And for this whole thing with more days of school to work, we seriously need to have more teachers, fewer kids per class, to allow teacher to spend time to grade, assess who needs help, provide help to the kids who fail or underperform, provide extra challenges for kids who overachieve and are bored, etc. have ability to contact parents when needed, etc.

You misunderstand. Many parents want kids in schools 5 days a week because all of these 3 or 4 day weeks extend the school year and make summer break shorter.

Exactly. A longer summer provides opportunities for high achieving high school students to do the summer enrichment programs and still start practice for fall sports and have some downtime. A Tuesday at home in Chantilly is a waste compared to a week in New Haven.

Ok, for the 1% the longer summer break is better. For everyone else, there is significant learning loss over the summer.

It’s way more than “the 1%”. Its every student with any value or interest outside the limits of FCPS offering. For example:

1. International students for whom the summer is the only opportunity to see family/immerse in language
2. Serious athletes especially in non-school programs like ballet and ice skating
3. Serious musicians doing summer conservatory programs
4. Families who send their kids to religiously affiliated camps — this is a big deal for a lot of Jewish families in the NE

And I don’t dispute that there may be learning loss. Parents can make a choice to send their kids to summer school if learning loss is their #1 concern. But for many, many Fairfax families, learning loss is an acceptable tradeoff to meet the needs that aren’t met in school .

Those are wants vs needs

There’s no “need” to be off on a random March Tuesday in order to limit families summer activities. Kids who need more school in the summer can sign up for summer school, but most kids don’t need it.

Gosh, it must be hard to be you. All that free summer time and money to spend on your kids lessons, camps and vacations, yet you are still miserable because the world isn’t meeting your perceived “needs.”

Look, if your kid is so significantly behind that they need a shorter summer to stay on track, I’m sympathetic. That must be hard. But most families have things they prioritize outside school— language, arts, sports, culture, even just family time. Public school cannot, and isn’t intended to, replace those things.

DP. I like having our outside priorities year-round, not crammed into summer months.

I’d much rather have a shorter summer and have more extended breaks spread throughout the school year.

My kid can still have her summer job, maybe lasting 7 weeks instead of 9. And then we can have a family vacation in October or February, when we don’t have to take her out of her job just to travel during the crowded summer months.

You, PP, don’t speak for all of us.[b] Bring on the shorter summer!

You don’t speak for all of us either. Some us want a longer summer and fewer disrupted weeks during the school year.

Great! So we agree.

So let’s stop with the “most people feel…” this and the “all high schoolers need…” that.

No solution is going to make everybody happy because we are all invested in our own interests, like the poster who keeps bringing up prestigious summer internships that impact like .003% of high schoolers.

Most people do want long summers. Thats why there was such outcry this year, including from teachers. Absolutely no one got up and said 25-26 was a good calendar for students or families.

Look… the loudest voices don’t always represent the bigger group.

And my point remains. No solution is going to please everybody because most people are fixated on their own interests.

I posted above about summer brain drain and how much time is wasted every school year reviewing the prior year’s material. I was met with comments about vacations and swim team, etc.

Let’s not pretend that people’s interests represent what’s best for the majority of students. It’s what’s best for them: their kids, their schedules, their preferences.

Sure, but silence is deafening.

At any point Reid could have gotten up and said this is actually a beneficial schedule and here’s why. Parents who supposedly love the schedule could have written their school board rep. The student rep on the board could have said hey this was great for us.

And yet…none of that happened.

People who are happy generally don’t write in and contact people to say that. Only the complainers email. We didn’t even know the school rep was collecting feedback on the calendar. My child’s feedback is that they like the shorter weeks and felt they were beneficial for keeping up and catching up on sleep.

People who think their kid is dramatically positively impacted by something and then hear it is going to change write in. This has been in media, social media, and board minutes for months now. If that sleep was so important to many kids, their parents would have been writing in as well.

And, again, the architect of the whole thing didn't even have a defense of it on educational grounds. She apparently just hopes no one would ask.

We haven’t heard that anything is changing and based on the board meeting it looks like that is true. Teachers like shorter weeks because it builds in planning time once a week which is what they need and used to have on early release Mondays.

Some teachers. Some teachers like their summers.

At least one more five day week was added for ‘26 and early dismissal has been limited (though not enough) so the trend line is the other way

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[twitter]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

What's wrong with the calendar? It's good to have more days off to give both families and teachers a breather from the miserable daily grind. As a parent, I don't understand why parents of older kids who do not need babysitting (I get it when parents need daycare) want more school days.

My other concern is teachers unavailability to timely grade tests/assignments and post for parental review as is. Even with all the days dedicated to having teachers catch up on this work, they don't have ability to do this already, grades can be lagging weeks, which makes it difficult for the parents to assess when their child needs help. There is already little to no communications between schools/teachers and parents when kids aren't doing well or fail before things get worse (due to delayed posting of progress) that it's impossible to catch up or do anything. So, no, I don't want more schools days, more assignments, more prolonged busy work for my kids and myself as a working parent. I want to also have more days for kids to catch up on assignments, on sleep, or to simply decompress, hang out with friends beyond organized activities, etc.

I get it that a lot of parents want longer or around-the-year school situation where kids are out of their hair daily, but this also heavily penalizes families who do not need this and don't want their kids to be punished for absences.

And for this whole thing with more days of school to work, we seriously need to have more teachers, fewer kids per class, to allow teacher to spend time to grade, assess who needs help, provide help to the kids who fail or underperform, provide extra challenges for kids who overachieve and are bored, etc. have ability to contact parents when needed, etc.

You misunderstand. Many parents want kids in schools 5 days a week because all of these 3 or 4 day weeks extend the school year and make summer break shorter.

Exactly. A longer summer provides opportunities for high achieving high school students to do the summer enrichment programs and still start practice for fall sports and have some downtime. A Tuesday at home in Chantilly is a waste compared to a week in New Haven.

Ok, for the 1% the longer summer break is better. For everyone else, there is significant learning loss over the summer.

It’s way more than “the 1%”. Its every student with any value or interest outside the limits of FCPS offering. For example:

1. International students for whom the summer is the only opportunity to see family/immerse in language
2. Serious athletes especially in non-school programs like ballet and ice skating
3. Serious musicians doing summer conservatory programs
4. Families who send their kids to religiously affiliated camps — this is a big deal for a lot of Jewish families in the NE

And I don’t dispute that there may be learning loss. Parents can make a choice to send their kids to summer school if learning loss is their #1 concern. But for many, many Fairfax families, learning loss is an acceptable tradeoff to meet the needs that aren’t met in school .

Those are wants vs needs

There’s no “need” to be off on a random March Tuesday in order to limit families summer activities. Kids who need more school in the summer can sign up for summer school, but most kids don’t need it.

Gosh, it must be hard to be you. All that free summer time and money to spend on your kids lessons, camps and vacations, yet you are still miserable because the world isn’t meeting your perceived “needs.”

Look, if your kid is so significantly behind that they need a shorter summer to stay on track, I’m sympathetic. That must be hard. But most families have things they prioritize outside school— language, arts, sports, culture, even just family time. Public school cannot, and isn’t intended to, replace those things.

DP. I like having our outside priorities year-round, not crammed into summer months.

I’d much rather have a shorter summer and have more extended breaks spread throughout the school year.

My kid can still have her summer job, maybe lasting 7 weeks instead of 9. And then we can have a family vacation in October or February, when we don’t have to take her out of her job just to travel during the crowded summer months.

You, PP, don’t speak for all of us. Bring on the shorter summer!

You don’t speak for all of us either. Some us want a longer summer and fewer disrupted weeks during the school year.

Great! So we agree.

So let’s stop with the “most people feel…” this and the “all high schoolers need…” that.

No solution is going to make everybody happy because we are all invested in our own interests, like the poster who keeps bringing up prestigious summer internships that impact like .003% of high schoolers.

Most people do want long summers. Thats why there was such outcry this year, including from teachers. Absolutely no one got up and said 25-26 was a good calendar for students or families.

Look… the loudest voices don’t always represent the bigger group.

And my point remains. No solution is going to please everybody because most people are fixated on their own interests.

I posted above about summer brain drain and how much time is wasted every school year reviewing the prior year’s material. I was met with comments about vacations and swim team, etc.

Let’s not pretend that people’s interests represent what’s best for the majority of students. It’s what’s best for them: their kids, their schedules, their preferences.

Summer swim quite literally changed my life. It’s how I fell in love with the sport and got a full ride to a very good university. The year round swim teams cannot replicate the magic of summer league. It’s hard to explain if you aren’t familiar with it. I am sure that other experiences that kids have over a 8 or 9 week summer are equally formative… 6 week sleep away camps being just one example. It would be a real shame to dramatically modify or get rid of these things just so kids can sit in public school buildings most of the year. And no, you can’t recreate a lot of these opportunities during a 5 week summer or shorter breaks throughout the year.

[b]It feels like people who don’t have the means to create a good summer for their children want to get rid of it for everyone else, so they don’t have to feel bad.

If this is true its sad because it’s unnecessary. Girl Scout/Boy Scout camps are affordable and theres So Much financial aid out there for summer programs— way more aid than exists for random April Tuesdays.

I want shorter summers and more breaks. I think the human brain consolidates learning during shorter breaks and there is less bullying behavior (this is proven and is the one thing that is different between shorter and longer summers) when kids aren’t exhausted and get breaks. I also LOVE swim team.

But, swim teams END IN JULY. The pool is done at the beginning of August. If you shift the swim team schedule by a week or two, they will still have the exact same amount of time for swim team.

You can pull your kid out of school a few days early if they MUST. DO. A camp at a particular weekend.

WHy is a 6 week summer camp more magical than a 4 week one? I couldn’t tell you except I think people are getting stuck in nostalgia and “the way things should be”

Maybe yours, ours is very busy in August especially as the older swim team kids are available to give lessons after the swim season.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

What's wrong with the calendar? It's good to have more days off to give both families and teachers a breather from the miserable daily grind. As a parent, I don't understand why parents of older kids who do not need babysitting (I get it when parents need daycare) want more school days.

My other concern is teachers unavailability to timely grade tests/assignments and post for parental review as is. Even with all the days dedicated to having teachers catch up on this work, they don't have ability to do this already, grades can be lagging weeks, which makes it difficult for the parents to assess when their child needs help. There is already little to no communications between schools/teachers and parents when kids aren't doing well or fail before things get worse (due to delayed posting of progress) that it's impossible to catch up or do anything. So, no, I don't want more schools days, more assignments, more prolonged busy work for my kids and myself as a working parent. I want to also have more days for kids to catch up on assignments, on sleep, or to simply decompress, hang out with friends beyond organized activities, etc.

I get it that a lot of parents want longer or around-the-year school situation where kids are out of their hair daily, but this also heavily penalizes families who do not need this and don't want their kids to be punished for absences.

And for this whole thing with more days of school to work, we seriously need to have more teachers, fewer kids per class, to allow teacher to spend time to grade, assess who needs help, provide help to the kids who fail or underperform, provide extra challenges for kids who overachieve and are bored, etc. have ability to contact parents when needed, etc.

You misunderstand. Many parents want kids in schools 5 days a week because all of these 3 or 4 day weeks extend the school year and make summer break shorter.

Exactly. A longer summer provides opportunities for high achieving high school students to do the summer enrichment programs and still start practice for fall sports and have some downtime. A Tuesday at home in Chantilly is a waste compared to a week in New Haven.

Ok, for the 1% the longer summer break is better. For everyone else, there is significant learning loss over the summer.

It’s way more than “the 1%”. Its every student with any value or interest outside the limits of FCPS offering. For example:

1. International students for whom the summer is the only opportunity to see family/immerse in language
2. Serious athletes especially in non-school programs like ballet and ice skating
3. Serious musicians doing summer conservatory programs
4. Families who send their kids to religiously affiliated camps — this is a big deal for a lot of Jewish families in the NE

And I don’t dispute that there may be learning loss. Parents can make a choice to send their kids to summer school if learning loss is their #1 concern. But for many, many Fairfax families, learning loss is an acceptable tradeoff to meet the needs that aren’t met in school .

Those are wants vs needs

There’s no “need” to be off on a random March Tuesday in order to limit families summer activities. Kids who need more school in the summer can sign up for summer school, but most kids don’t need it.

Gosh, it must be hard to be you. All that free summer time and money to spend on your kids lessons, camps and vacations, yet you are still miserable because the world isn’t meeting your perceived “needs.”

Look, if your kid is so significantly behind that they need a shorter summer to stay on track, I’m sympathetic. That must be hard. But most families have things they prioritize outside school— language, arts, sports, culture, even just family time. Public school cannot, and isn’t intended to, replace those things.

DP. I like having our outside priorities year-round, not crammed into summer months.

I’d much rather have a shorter summer and have more extended breaks spread throughout the school year.

My kid can still have her summer job, maybe lasting 7 weeks instead of 9. And then we can have a family vacation in October or February, when we don’t have to take her out of her job just to travel during the crowded summer months.

You, PP, don’t speak for all of us.[b] Bring on the shorter summer!

You don’t speak for all of us either. Some us want a longer summer and fewer disrupted weeks during the school year.

Great! So we agree.

So let’s stop with the “most people feel…” this and the “all high schoolers need…” that.

No solution is going to make everybody happy because we are all invested in our own interests, like the poster who keeps bringing up prestigious summer internships that impact like .003% of high schoolers.

Most people do want long summers. Thats why there was such outcry this year, including from teachers. Absolutely no one got up and said 25-26 was a good calendar for students or families.

Look… the loudest voices don’t always represent the bigger group.

And my point remains. No solution is going to please everybody because most people are fixated on their own interests.

I posted above about summer brain drain and how much time is wasted every school year reviewing the prior year’s material. I was met with comments about vacations and swim team, etc.

Let’s not pretend that people’s interests represent what’s best for the majority of students. It’s what’s best for them: their kids, their schedules, their preferences.

Sure, but silence is deafening.

At any point Reid could have gotten up and said this is actually a beneficial schedule and here’s why. Parents who supposedly love the schedule could have written their school board rep. The student rep on the board could have said hey this was great for us.

And yet…none of that happened.

People who are happy generally don’t write in and contact people to say that. Only the complainers email. We didn’t even know the school rep was collecting feedback on the calendar. My child’s feedback is that they like the shorter weeks and felt they were beneficial for keeping up and catching up on sleep.

People who think their kid is dramatically positively impacted by something and then hear it is going to change write in. This has been in media, social media, and board minutes for months now. If that sleep was so important to many kids, their parents would have been writing in as well.

And, again, the architect of the whole thing didn't even have a defense of it on educational grounds. She apparently just hopes no one would ask.

We haven’t heard that anything is changing and based on the board meeting it looks like that is true. Teachers like shorter weeks because it builds in planning time once a week which is what they need and used to have on early release Mondays.

Some teachers. Some teachers like their summers.

At least one more five day week was added for ‘26 and early dismissal has been limited (though not enough) so the trend line is the other way

One more 5 day week is nothing. It’s the week they added Veterans Day back too. Which is right before a holiday break so no biggie. We can handle one more.