2026-2027 calendar updates

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Who knows what they will do. Maybe MCEA is calling Taylor's bluff which I support. If your kid misses the first two days of school, it will be fine, hardly catastrophic if not ideal. I assume it will be worse for the teachers to have kids slowly streaming in the first 3 days of school. Seems like this will mean starting off with 2 fewer days of actual instruction. If teachers miss 3 days of preservice, I feel for them and hope they don't lose leave days because of it. Taylor and the BOE have done a lot of stupid things, this is one on a very long list of them.

Of course they will have to take leave if they don’t show up for work.

That sucks because in order to show up many will have to lose money on travel that has been booked or other jobs. I don't know about you but I think that's a 5h!tty way to treat my kid's wonderful teachers.

I hope teachers are pushing MCPS to choose another option, and for the union to negotiate to allow makeups as 1/2 days on grading and reporting. Otherwise they will need to show up as early as Aug 10th.

MCEA told teachers there is nothing they can do except fill out the survey, unfortunately. I agree that they could be doing more to push Taylor and the board. But they didn't even poll teachers.

MCEA has no input on the calendar.

They have impact on the grading days. That’s what TT is targeting. He wants MCEA to relent on that contract requirement.

Teachers need those days for grading and reporting. Better to get rid of a few PD days, and make the day before Thanksgiving and 12/23 early release days, and get rid of transition day.

Better yet, people need to advocate for counting hours of instruction or (not and) days.

In reality MCPS never utilizes the feedback from its surveys. They’ve already made the decision regarding the calendar.

PD is required by state law. If we have a snow day, teachers should use that to catch up on grading and allow the next grading to be a makeup day.

I’m very against getting rid of the days requirement

And if the snow day falls two weeks into the marking period?

Use the snow day to get ahead on planning. Then you have more time for grading later on. It's not that hard. A day without school that you are being paid for should be used productively and replace the day you would have had for that planning/grading.

I'm not a teacher but I have a young child and don't get a lot done on most snow days since they also close child care on those days.

Then like everyone else, teachers should have to take PTO or a sick day to cover the childcare on those days. Why are teachers the exception here and expect they don't have to work when being paid to do so on a snow day? I also have to work and have an elementary student. If I can't work, I have to take PTO.

That's ridiculous. Teachers have so little flexibility in the first place. I don't support this at all. Especially given workloads for teachers like for many professionals vary throughout the year. Working on a snow day in February is simply not going to make up for losing a grading day in April. Stop embarrassing yourself.

Then start advocating for TT and MCPS to use the holidays they've already designated as makeup days. Truly, those are the only two options.

No, there are multiple options. Some are more realistic than others. TT is recommending the worst option in hopes of getting teachers to give up their grading and planning days, which I do not support for the reasons I have already discussed.

The designated makeup days in the approved 2026-27 calendar are:
October 16 2026 - obviously not helpful
November 2 2026 - obviously not helpful
March 9 - aligns with Eid al Adha
April 16 - aligns with Eid al Fitr
June 17, 21, 22 and 23 - all occur after the last day of school and three of them they can't use now because they are after Juneteenth (they wouldn't have used them anyway, as we all know)

The only designated makeup days on the calendar that occur after snow days are reasonably likely to happen and occur before the last day of school are both on Muslim holidays.

I totally understand that many if not most families are fine with using both Eids to make up snow days, but the BOE will never approve that. MCPS needs buy in from the Muslim community and they certainly can't get that by only using their holidays as makeup days.

You have your dates wrong.

Eid Al-fitr is March 9.
Eid Al-adha is May 17

Every Muslim family I know is super into education. I wish a community of them would come forward and say -- look, we'd rather you use these days as makeup days rather than mess up everybody's plans, and upset the teachers so much.
The state rule requiring a 4-day weekend for easter is ridiculous and should absolutely be changed, but for some dumb reason no one got that through Annapolis this year. Maybe this will be the push to get it done next year.

I personally think school holidays for religious holidays are dumb. I grew up in a religious family where we regularly took the day off school, or left early/went in late, due to mandatory observance rules. It was fine. We just made it up. Schools are flexible about that. I honestly don't believe many parents really care that much about having it off....I suspect it was a few squeaky wheels that felt disrespected this year.

Enjoy your bubble. Many families have issues with the day being excused, but not closed. Students need to make up work. Students who missed days for other reasons around then will have even more trouble making up work. It's actually quite a problem because many families will opt to send the children to school to avoid those issues.

But again, a school system cannot cater to each individual's need to be out of school. Up thread many pages ago there was a mom of a kid who often has to be out for a medical issue. The school can't stop teaching because her kid is out. The population of kids that will be out for many of these holidays is extremely, extremely tiny in MCPS. If its a choice about moving the start date earlier, when people already have paid for trips and camps (many MORE people than will be affected by having a holiday as a potential makeup day -- not even a definitive day of school) and designating a makeup day for a holiday a few people celebrate, I choose the latter.

[Anonymous]

A public school is also not legally allowed to close solely for a religious holiday. There needs to be an operational impact or other justification.

https://pluralism.org/school-holidays-prayers

Now, I would argue that MD's "schools must be closed on Easter Monday" law is Unconstitutional on that basis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A public school is also not legally allowed to close solely for a religious holiday. There needs to be an operational impact or other justification.

https://pluralism.org/school-holidays-prayers

Now, I would argue that MD's "schools must be closed on Easter Monday" law is Unconstitutional on that basis.

I am a Christian who celebrates Easter and I agree with you.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who knows what they will do. Maybe MCEA is calling Taylor's bluff which I support. If your kid misses the first two days of school, it will be fine, hardly catastrophic if not ideal. I assume it will be worse for the teachers to have kids slowly streaming in the first 3 days of school. Seems like this will mean starting off with 2 fewer days of actual instruction. If teachers miss 3 days of preservice, I feel for them and hope they don't lose leave days because of it. Taylor and the BOE have done a lot of stupid things, this is one on a very long list of them.

Of course they will have to take leave if they don’t show up for work.

That sucks because in order to show up many will have to lose money on travel that has been booked or other jobs. I don't know about you but I think that's a 5h!tty way to treat my kid's wonderful teachers.

I hope teachers are pushing MCPS to choose another option, and for the union to negotiate to allow makeups as 1/2 days on grading and reporting. Otherwise they will need to show up as early as Aug 10th.

MCEA told teachers there is nothing they can do except fill out the survey, unfortunately. I agree that they could be doing more to push Taylor and the board. But they didn't even poll teachers.

MCEA has no input on the calendar.

They have impact on the grading days. That’s what TT is targeting. He wants MCEA to relent on that contract requirement.

Teachers need those days for grading and reporting. Better to get rid of a few PD days, and make the day before Thanksgiving and 12/23 early release days, and get rid of transition day.

Better yet, people need to advocate for counting hours of instruction or (not and) days.

In reality MCPS never utilizes the feedback from its surveys. They’ve already made the decision regarding the calendar.

PD is required by state law. If we have a snow day, teachers should use that to catch up on grading and allow the next grading to be a makeup day.

I’m very against getting rid of the days requirement

And if the snow day falls two weeks into the marking period?

Use the snow day to get ahead on planning. Then you have more time for grading later on. It's not that hard. A day without school that you are being paid for should be used productively and replace the day you would have had for that planning/grading.

I'm not a teacher but I have a young child and don't get a lot done on most snow days since they also close child care on those days.

Then like everyone else, teachers should have to take PTO or a sick day to cover the childcare on those days. Why are teachers the exception here and expect they don't have to work when being paid to do so on a snow day? I also have to work and have an elementary student. If I can't work, I have to take PTO.

That's ridiculous. Teachers have so little flexibility in the first place. I don't support this at all. Especially given workloads for teachers like for many professionals vary throughout the year. Working on a snow day in February is simply not going to make up for losing a grading day in April. Stop embarrassing yourself.

Then start advocating for TT and MCPS to use the holidays they've already designated as makeup days. Truly, those are the only two options.

No, there are multiple options. Some are more realistic than others. TT is recommending the worst option in hopes of getting teachers to give up their grading and planning days, which I do not support for the reasons I have already discussed.

The designated makeup days in the approved 2026-27 calendar are:
October 16 2026 - obviously not helpful
November 2 2026 - obviously not helpful
March 9 - aligns with Eid al Adha
April 16 - aligns with Eid al Fitr
June 17, 21, 22 and 23 - all occur after the last day of school and three of them they can't use now because they are after Juneteenth (they wouldn't have used them anyway, as we all know)

The only designated makeup days on the calendar that occur after snow days are reasonably likely to happen and occur before the last day of school are both on Muslim holidays.

I totally understand that many if not most families are fine with using both Eids to make up snow days, but the BOE will never approve that. MCPS needs buy in from the Muslim community and they certainly can't get that by only using their holidays as makeup days.

You have your dates wrong.

Eid Al-fitr is March 9.
Eid Al-adha is May 17

Every Muslim family I know is super into education. I wish a community of them would come forward and say -- look, we'd rather you use these days as makeup days rather than mess up everybody's plans, and upset the teachers so much.
The state rule requiring a 4-day weekend for easter is ridiculous and should absolutely be changed, but for some dumb reason no one got that through Annapolis this year. Maybe this will be the push to get it done next year.

I personally think school holidays for religious holidays are dumb. I grew up in a religious family where we regularly took the day off school, or left early/went in late, due to mandatory observance rules. It was fine. We just made it up. Schools are flexible about that. I honestly don't believe many parents really care that much about having it off....I suspect it was a few squeaky wheels that felt disrespected this year.

Enjoy your bubble. Many families have issues with the day being excused, but not closed. Students need to make up work. Students who missed days for other reasons around then will have even more trouble making up work. It's actually quite a problem because many families will opt to send the children to school to avoid those issues.

But again, a school system cannot cater to each individual's need to be out of school. Up thread many pages ago there was a mom of a kid who often has to be out for a medical issue. The school can't stop teaching because her kid is out. The population of kids that will be out for many of these holidays is extremely, extremely tiny in MCPS. If its a choice about moving the start date earlier, when people already have paid for trips and camps (many MORE people than will be affected by having a holiday as a potential makeup day -- not even a definitive day of school) and designating a makeup day for a holiday a few people celebrate, I choose the latter.

For sure they really screwed up by designing a bad 26-27 calendar and trying to fix it so late. They should work to be flexible because changing then calendar again is terrible. However , for future years, they should do it right.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who knows what they will do. Maybe MCEA is calling Taylor's bluff which I support. If your kid misses the first two days of school, it will be fine, hardly catastrophic if not ideal. I assume it will be worse for the teachers to have kids slowly streaming in the first 3 days of school. Seems like this will mean starting off with 2 fewer days of actual instruction. If teachers miss 3 days of preservice, I feel for them and hope they don't lose leave days because of it. Taylor and the BOE have done a lot of stupid things, this is one on a very long list of them.

Of course they will have to take leave if they don’t show up for work.

That sucks because in order to show up many will have to lose money on travel that has been booked or other jobs. I don't know about you but I think that's a 5h!tty way to treat my kid's wonderful teachers.

I hope teachers are pushing MCPS to choose another option, and for the union to negotiate to allow makeups as 1/2 days on grading and reporting. Otherwise they will need to show up as early as Aug 10th.

MCEA told teachers there is nothing they can do except fill out the survey, unfortunately. I agree that they could be doing more to push Taylor and the board. But they didn't even poll teachers.

MCEA has no input on the calendar.

They have impact on the grading days. That’s what TT is targeting. He wants MCEA to relent on that contract requirement.

Teachers need those days for grading and reporting. Better to get rid of a few PD days, and make the day before Thanksgiving and 12/23 early release days, and get rid of transition day.

Better yet, people need to advocate for counting hours of instruction or (not and) days.

In reality MCPS never utilizes the feedback from its surveys. They’ve already made the decision regarding the calendar.

PD is required by state law. If we have a snow day, teachers should use that to catch up on grading and allow the next grading to be a makeup day.

I’m very against getting rid of the days requirement

And if the snow day falls two weeks into the marking period?

Use the snow day to get ahead on planning. Then you have more time for grading later on. It's not that hard. A day without school that you are being paid for should be used productively and replace the day you would have had for that planning/grading.

I'm not a teacher but I have a young child and don't get a lot done on most snow days since they also close child care on those days.

Then like everyone else, teachers should have to take PTO or a sick day to cover the childcare on those days. Why are teachers the exception here and expect they don't have to work when being paid to do so on a snow day? I also have to work and have an elementary student. If I can't work, I have to take PTO.

That's ridiculous. Teachers have so little flexibility in the first place. I don't support this at all. Especially given workloads for teachers like for many professionals vary throughout the year. Working on a snow day in February is simply not going to make up for losing a grading day in April. Stop embarrassing yourself.

Then start advocating for TT and MCPS to use the holidays they've already designated as makeup days. Truly, those are the only two options.

No, there are multiple options. Some are more realistic than others. TT is recommending the worst option in hopes of getting teachers to give up their grading and planning days, which I do not support for the reasons I have already discussed.

The designated makeup days in the approved 2026-27 calendar are:
October 16 2026 - obviously not helpful
November 2 2026 - obviously not helpful
March 9 - aligns with Eid al Adha
April 16 - aligns with Eid al Fitr
June 17, 21, 22 and 23 - all occur after the last day of school and three of them they can't use now because they are after Juneteenth (they wouldn't have used them anyway, as we all know)

The only designated makeup days on the calendar that occur after snow days are reasonably likely to happen and occur before the last day of school are both on Muslim holidays.

I totally understand that many if not most families are fine with using both Eids to make up snow days, but the BOE will never approve that. MCPS needs buy in from the Muslim community and they certainly can't get that by only using their holidays as makeup days.

You have your dates wrong.

Eid Al-fitr is March 9.
Eid Al-adha is May 17

Every Muslim family I know is super into education. I wish a community of them would come forward and say -- look, we'd rather you use these days as makeup days rather than mess up everybody's plans, and upset the teachers so much.
The state rule requiring a 4-day weekend for easter is ridiculous and should absolutely be changed, but for some dumb reason no one got that through Annapolis this year. Maybe this will be the push to get it done next year.

I personally think school holidays for religious holidays are dumb. I grew up in a religious family where we regularly took the day off school, or left early/went in late, due to mandatory observance rules. It was fine. We just made it up. Schools are flexible about that. I honestly don't believe many parents really care that much about having it off....I suspect it was a few squeaky wheels that felt disrespected this year.

Enjoy your bubble. Many families have issues with the day being excused, but not closed. Students need to make up work. Students who missed days for other reasons around then will have even more trouble making up work. It's actually quite a problem because many families will opt to send the children to school to avoid those issues.

But again, a school system cannot cater to each individual's need to be out of school. Up thread many pages ago there was a mom of a kid who often has to be out for a medical issue. The school can't stop teaching because her kid is out. The population of kids that will be out for many of these holidays is extremely, extremely tiny in MCPS. If its a choice about moving the start date earlier, when people already have paid for trips and camps (many MORE people than will be affected by having a holiday as a potential makeup day -- not even a definitive day of school) and designating a makeup day for a holiday a few people celebrate, I choose the latter.

It is not up to you. It doesn't matter how many people post this on DCUM. The BOE will not approve it.

The BOE has approved bad calendars for 2024-25, 2025-26 and 2026-27. And it's not because they scheduled non instructional days on Eid. It's because they have progressively reduced the number of instructional days for different reasons and for multiple religious groups without adding other instructional days to make up for it. And the makeup days they are willing to use fall at the end of the school year, often into the following week during which staff and students have camps, travel and other jobs planned. This is simply not workable, and it's not the fault of the Muslim community. It is on TT and the BOE.

[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:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who knows what they will do. Maybe MCEA is calling Taylor's bluff which I support. If your kid misses the first two days of school, it will be fine, hardly catastrophic if not ideal. I assume it will be worse for the teachers to have kids slowly streaming in the first 3 days of school. Seems like this will mean starting off with 2 fewer days of actual instruction. If teachers miss 3 days of preservice, I feel for them and hope they don't lose leave days because of it. Taylor and the BOE have done a lot of stupid things, this is one on a very long list of them.

Of course they will have to take leave if they don’t show up for work.

That sucks because in order to show up many will have to lose money on travel that has been booked or other jobs. I don't know about you but I think that's a 5h!tty way to treat my kid's wonderful teachers.

I hope teachers are pushing MCPS to choose another option, and for the union to negotiate to allow makeups as 1/2 days on grading and reporting. Otherwise they will need to show up as early as Aug 10th.

MCEA told teachers there is nothing they can do except fill out the survey, unfortunately. I agree that they could be doing more to push Taylor and the board. But they didn't even poll teachers.

MCEA has no input on the calendar.

They have impact on the grading days. That’s what TT is targeting. He wants MCEA to relent on that contract requirement.

Teachers need those days for grading and reporting. Better to get rid of a few PD days, and make the day before Thanksgiving and 12/23 early release days, and get rid of transition day.

Better yet, people need to advocate for counting hours of instruction or (not and) days.

In reality MCPS never utilizes the feedback from its surveys. They’ve already made the decision regarding the calendar.

PD is required by state law. If we have a snow day, teachers should use that to catch up on grading and allow the next grading to be a makeup day.

I’m very against getting rid of the days requirement

And if the snow day falls two weeks into the marking period?

Use the snow day to get ahead on planning. Then you have more time for grading later on. It's not that hard. A day without school that you are being paid for should be used productively and replace the day you would have had for that planning/grading.

I'm not a teacher but I have a young child and don't get a lot done on most snow days since they also close child care on those days.

Then like everyone else, teachers should have to take PTO or a sick day to cover the childcare on those days. Why are teachers the exception here and expect they don't have to work when being paid to do so on a snow day? I also have to work and have an elementary student. If I can't work, I have to take PTO.

That's ridiculous. Teachers have so little flexibility in the first place. I don't support this at all. Especially given workloads for teachers like for many professionals vary throughout the year. Working on a snow day in February is simply not going to make up for losing a grading day in April. Stop embarrassing yourself.

Then start advocating for TT and MCPS to use the holidays they've already designated as makeup days. Truly, those are the only two options.

No, there are multiple options. Some are more realistic than others. TT is recommending the worst option in hopes of getting teachers to give up their grading and planning days, which I do not support for the reasons I have already discussed.

The designated makeup days in the approved 2026-27 calendar are:
October 16 2026 - obviously not helpful
November 2 2026 - obviously not helpful
March 9 - aligns with Eid al Adha
April 16 - aligns with Eid al Fitr
June 17, 21, 22 and 23 - all occur after the last day of school and three of them they can't use now because they are after Juneteenth (they wouldn't have used them anyway, as we all know)

The only designated makeup days on the calendar that occur after snow days are reasonably likely to happen and occur before the last day of school are both on Muslim holidays.

I totally understand that many if not most families are fine with using both Eids to make up snow days, but the BOE will never approve that. MCPS needs buy in from the Muslim community and they certainly can't get that by only using their holidays as makeup days.

You have your dates wrong.

Eid Al-fitr is March 9.
Eid Al-adha is May 17

Every Muslim family I know is super into education. I wish a community of them would come forward and say -- look, we'd rather you use these days as makeup days rather than mess up everybody's plans, and upset the teachers so much.
The state rule requiring a 4-day weekend for easter is ridiculous and should absolutely be changed, but for some dumb reason no one got that through Annapolis this year. Maybe this will be the push to get it done next year.

I personally think school holidays for religious holidays are dumb. I grew up in a religious family where we regularly took the day off school, or left early/went in late, due to mandatory observance rules. It was fine. We just made it up. Schools are flexible about that. I honestly don't believe many parents really care that much about having it off....I suspect it was a few squeaky wheels that felt disrespected this year.

Enjoy your bubble. Many families have issues with the day being excused, but not closed. Students need to make up work. Students who missed days for other reasons around then will have even more trouble making up work. It's actually quite a problem because many families will opt to send the children to school to avoid those issues.

But again, a school system cannot cater to each individual's need to be out of school. Up thread many pages ago there was a mom of a kid who often has to be out for a medical issue. The school can't stop teaching because her kid is out. The population of kids that will be out for many of these holidays is extremely, extremely tiny in MCPS. If its a choice about moving the start date earlier, when people already have paid for trips and camps (many MORE people than will be affected by having a holiday as a potential makeup day -- not even a definitive day of school) and designating a makeup day for a holiday a few people celebrate, I choose the latter.

It is not up to you. It doesn't matter how many people post this on DCUM. The BOE will not approve it.

The BOE has approved bad calendars for 2024-25, 2025-26 and 2026-27. And it's not because they scheduled non instructional days on Eid. It's because they have progressively reduced the number of instructional days for different reasons and for multiple religious groups without adding other instructional days to make up for it. And the makeup days they are willing to use fall at the end of the school year, often into the following week during which staff and students have camps, travel and other jobs planned. This is simply not workable, and it's not the fault of the Muslim community. It is on TT and the BOE.

I mean, they literally sent out a survey asking people whether they preferred removing holidays or the last week of summer. So, sure, it's ultimately up the BoE, but they're elected by "us" and are pretending to get input from "us", so it seems fine for "us" to discuss it on a public forum.

[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:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who knows what they will do. Maybe MCEA is calling Taylor's bluff which I support. If your kid misses the first two days of school, it will be fine, hardly catastrophic if not ideal. I assume it will be worse for the teachers to have kids slowly streaming in the first 3 days of school. Seems like this will mean starting off with 2 fewer days of actual instruction. If teachers miss 3 days of preservice, I feel for them and hope they don't lose leave days because of it. Taylor and the BOE have done a lot of stupid things, this is one on a very long list of them.

Of course they will have to take leave if they don’t show up for work.

That sucks because in order to show up many will have to lose money on travel that has been booked or other jobs. I don't know about you but I think that's a 5h!tty way to treat my kid's wonderful teachers.

I hope teachers are pushing MCPS to choose another option, and for the union to negotiate to allow makeups as 1/2 days on grading and reporting. Otherwise they will need to show up as early as Aug 10th.

MCEA told teachers there is nothing they can do except fill out the survey, unfortunately. I agree that they could be doing more to push Taylor and the board. But they didn't even poll teachers.

MCEA has no input on the calendar.

They have impact on the grading days. That’s what TT is targeting. He wants MCEA to relent on that contract requirement.

Teachers need those days for grading and reporting. Better to get rid of a few PD days, and make the day before Thanksgiving and 12/23 early release days, and get rid of transition day.

Better yet, people need to advocate for counting hours of instruction or (not and) days.

In reality MCPS never utilizes the feedback from its surveys. They’ve already made the decision regarding the calendar.

PD is required by state law. If we have a snow day, teachers should use that to catch up on grading and allow the next grading to be a makeup day.

I’m very against getting rid of the days requirement

And if the snow day falls two weeks into the marking period?

Use the snow day to get ahead on planning. Then you have more time for grading later on. It's not that hard. A day without school that you are being paid for should be used productively and replace the day you would have had for that planning/grading.

I'm not a teacher but I have a young child and don't get a lot done on most snow days since they also close child care on those days.

Then like everyone else, teachers should have to take PTO or a sick day to cover the childcare on those days. Why are teachers the exception here and expect they don't have to work when being paid to do so on a snow day? I also have to work and have an elementary student. If I can't work, I have to take PTO.

That's ridiculous. Teachers have so little flexibility in the first place. I don't support this at all. Especially given workloads for teachers like for many professionals vary throughout the year. Working on a snow day in February is simply not going to make up for losing a grading day in April. Stop embarrassing yourself.

Then start advocating for TT and MCPS to use the holidays they've already designated as makeup days. Truly, those are the only two options.

No, there are multiple options. Some are more realistic than others. TT is recommending the worst option in hopes of getting teachers to give up their grading and planning days, which I do not support for the reasons I have already discussed.

The designated makeup days in the approved 2026-27 calendar are:
October 16 2026 - obviously not helpful
November 2 2026 - obviously not helpful
March 9 - aligns with Eid al Adha
April 16 - aligns with Eid al Fitr
June 17, 21, 22 and 23 - all occur after the last day of school and three of them they can't use now because they are after Juneteenth (they wouldn't have used them anyway, as we all know)

The only designated makeup days on the calendar that occur after snow days are reasonably likely to happen and occur before the last day of school are both on Muslim holidays.

I totally understand that many if not most families are fine with using both Eids to make up snow days, but the BOE will never approve that. MCPS needs buy in from the Muslim community and they certainly can't get that by only using their holidays as makeup days.

You have your dates wrong.

Eid Al-fitr is March 9.
Eid Al-adha is May 17

Every Muslim family I know is super into education. I wish a community of them would come forward and say -- look, we'd rather you use these days as makeup days rather than mess up everybody's plans, and upset the teachers so much.
The state rule requiring a 4-day weekend for easter is ridiculous and should absolutely be changed, but for some dumb reason no one got that through Annapolis this year. Maybe this will be the push to get it done next year.

I personally think school holidays for religious holidays are dumb. I grew up in a religious family where we regularly took the day off school, or left early/went in late, due to mandatory observance rules. It was fine. We just made it up. Schools are flexible about that. I honestly don't believe many parents really care that much about having it off....I suspect it was a few squeaky wheels that felt disrespected this year.

Enjoy your bubble. Many families have issues with the day being excused, but not closed. Students need to make up work. Students who missed days for other reasons around then will have even more trouble making up work. It's actually quite a problem because many families will opt to send the children to school to avoid those issues.

But again, a school system cannot cater to each individual's need to be out of school. Up thread many pages ago there was a mom of a kid who often has to be out for a medical issue. The school can't stop teaching because her kid is out. The population of kids that will be out for many of these holidays is extremely, extremely tiny in MCPS. If its a choice about moving the start date earlier, when people already have paid for trips and camps (many MORE people than will be affected by having a holiday as a potential makeup day -- not even a definitive day of school) and designating a makeup day for a holiday a few people celebrate, I choose the latter.

It is not up to you. It doesn't matter how many people post this on DCUM. The BOE will not approve it.

The BOE has approved bad calendars for 2024-25, 2025-26 and 2026-27. And it's not because they scheduled non instructional days on Eid. It's because they have progressively reduced the number of instructional days for different reasons and for multiple religious groups without adding other instructional days to make up for it. And the makeup days they are willing to use fall at the end of the school year, often into the following week during which staff and students have camps, travel and other jobs planned. This is simply not workable, and it's not the fault of the Muslim community. It is on TT and the BOE.

I mean, they literally sent out a survey asking people whether they preferred removing holidays or the last week of summer. So, sure, it's ultimately up the BoE, but they're elected by "us" and are pretending to get input from "us", so it seems fine for "us" to discuss it on a public forum.

And yet, even when the survey results no doubtedly say that we prefer using the holidays than starting school early, they'll still say "oh well" and do it anyway. And that is exactly why this board needs to go.

[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:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who knows what they will do. Maybe MCEA is calling Taylor's bluff which I support. If your kid misses the first two days of school, it will be fine, hardly catastrophic if not ideal. I assume it will be worse for the teachers to have kids slowly streaming in the first 3 days of school. Seems like this will mean starting off with 2 fewer days of actual instruction. If teachers miss 3 days of preservice, I feel for them and hope they don't lose leave days because of it. Taylor and the BOE have done a lot of stupid things, this is one on a very long list of them.

Of course they will have to take leave if they don’t show up for work.

That sucks because in order to show up many will have to lose money on travel that has been booked or other jobs. I don't know about you but I think that's a 5h!tty way to treat my kid's wonderful teachers.

I hope teachers are pushing MCPS to choose another option, and for the union to negotiate to allow makeups as 1/2 days on grading and reporting. Otherwise they will need to show up as early as Aug 10th.

MCEA told teachers there is nothing they can do except fill out the survey, unfortunately. I agree that they could be doing more to push Taylor and the board. But they didn't even poll teachers.

MCEA has no input on the calendar.

They have impact on the grading days. That’s what TT is targeting. He wants MCEA to relent on that contract requirement.

Teachers need those days for grading and reporting. Better to get rid of a few PD days, and make the day before Thanksgiving and 12/23 early release days, and get rid of transition day.

Better yet, people need to advocate for counting hours of instruction or (not and) days.

In reality MCPS never utilizes the feedback from its surveys. They’ve already made the decision regarding the calendar.

PD is required by state law. If we have a snow day, teachers should use that to catch up on grading and allow the next grading to be a makeup day.

I’m very against getting rid of the days requirement

And if the snow day falls two weeks into the marking period?

Use the snow day to get ahead on planning. Then you have more time for grading later on. It's not that hard. A day without school that you are being paid for should be used productively and replace the day you would have had for that planning/grading.

I'm not a teacher but I have a young child and don't get a lot done on most snow days since they also close child care on those days.

Then like everyone else, teachers should have to take PTO or a sick day to cover the childcare on those days. Why are teachers the exception here and expect they don't have to work when being paid to do so on a snow day? I also have to work and have an elementary student. If I can't work, I have to take PTO.

That's ridiculous. Teachers have so little flexibility in the first place. I don't support this at all. Especially given workloads for teachers like for many professionals vary throughout the year. Working on a snow day in February is simply not going to make up for losing a grading day in April. Stop embarrassing yourself.

Then start advocating for TT and MCPS to use the holidays they've already designated as makeup days. Truly, those are the only two options.

No, there are multiple options. Some are more realistic than others. TT is recommending the worst option in hopes of getting teachers to give up their grading and planning days, which I do not support for the reasons I have already discussed.

The designated makeup days in the approved 2026-27 calendar are:
October 16 2026 - obviously not helpful
November 2 2026 - obviously not helpful
March 9 - aligns with Eid al Adha
April 16 - aligns with Eid al Fitr
June 17, 21, 22 and 23 - all occur after the last day of school and three of them they can't use now because they are after Juneteenth (they wouldn't have used them anyway, as we all know)

The only designated makeup days on the calendar that occur after snow days are reasonably likely to happen and occur before the last day of school are both on Muslim holidays.

I totally understand that many if not most families are fine with using both Eids to make up snow days, but the BOE will never approve that. MCPS needs buy in from the Muslim community and they certainly can't get that by only using their holidays as makeup days.

You have your dates wrong.

Eid Al-fitr is March 9.
Eid Al-adha is May 17

Every Muslim family I know is super into education. I wish a community of them would come forward and say -- look, we'd rather you use these days as makeup days rather than mess up everybody's plans, and upset the teachers so much.
The state rule requiring a 4-day weekend for easter is ridiculous and should absolutely be changed, but for some dumb reason no one got that through Annapolis this year. Maybe this will be the push to get it done next year.

I personally think school holidays for religious holidays are dumb. I grew up in a religious family where we regularly took the day off school, or left early/went in late, due to mandatory observance rules. It was fine. We just made it up. Schools are flexible about that. I honestly don't believe many parents really care that much about having it off....I suspect it was a few squeaky wheels that felt disrespected this year.

Enjoy your bubble. Many families have issues with the day being excused, but not closed. Students need to make up work. Students who missed days for other reasons around then will have even more trouble making up work. It's actually quite a problem because many families will opt to send the children to school to avoid those issues.

But again, a school system cannot cater to each individual's need to be out of school. Up thread many pages ago there was a mom of a kid who often has to be out for a medical issue. The school can't stop teaching because her kid is out. The population of kids that will be out for many of these holidays is extremely, extremely tiny in MCPS. If its a choice about moving the start date earlier, when people already have paid for trips and camps (many MORE people than will be affected by having a holiday as a potential makeup day -- not even a definitive day of school) and designating a makeup day for a holiday a few people celebrate, I choose the latter.

It is not up to you. It doesn't matter how many people post this on DCUM. The BOE will not approve it.

The BOE has approved bad calendars for 2024-25, 2025-26 and 2026-27. And it's not because they scheduled non instructional days on Eid. It's because they have progressively reduced the number of instructional days for different reasons and for multiple religious groups without adding other instructional days to make up for it. And the makeup days they are willing to use fall at the end of the school year, often into the following week during which staff and students have camps, travel and other jobs planned. This is simply not workable, and it's not the fault of the Muslim community. It is on TT and the BOE.

I mean, they literally sent out a survey asking people whether they preferred removing holidays or the last week of summer. So, sure, it's ultimately up the BoE, but they're elected by "us" and are pretending to get input from "us", so it seems fine for "us" to discuss it on a public forum.

Nobody said you can't discuss it.

Survey responses are not votes. They are tools for MCPS to use to justify whatever decision they deem to be in their best interest.

You can scream about how stupid it is to not have school on Eid. Feel free to continue posting on it. But you and I both know it's not a solution. Not only because the BOE won't use it, but also because only one of the Eids is a designated makeup day. They need three days before the scheduled last day of school that they can actually use. Even if you INSIST they can actually use the one Eid day, that's still only one day. They need more days besides Eid. And if they do use Eid as one of the days, they will never use the other Eid as the second day. The NEED to look at the transition day and November 9 and also try to get the law changed on President's Day, Good Friday and Easter Monday for future years. That is, if they want to stop causing mass chaos every year (I think TT loves the chaos so...)

[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:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who knows what they will do. Maybe MCEA is calling Taylor's bluff which I support. If your kid misses the first two days of school, it will be fine, hardly catastrophic if not ideal. I assume it will be worse for the teachers to have kids slowly streaming in the first 3 days of school. Seems like this will mean starting off with 2 fewer days of actual instruction. If teachers miss 3 days of preservice, I feel for them and hope they don't lose leave days because of it. Taylor and the BOE have done a lot of stupid things, this is one on a very long list of them.

Of course they will have to take leave if they don’t show up for work.

That sucks because in order to show up many will have to lose money on travel that has been booked or other jobs. I don't know about you but I think that's a 5h!tty way to treat my kid's wonderful teachers.

I hope teachers are pushing MCPS to choose another option, and for the union to negotiate to allow makeups as 1/2 days on grading and reporting. Otherwise they will need to show up as early as Aug 10th.

MCEA told teachers there is nothing they can do except fill out the survey, unfortunately. I agree that they could be doing more to push Taylor and the board. But they didn't even poll teachers.

MCEA has no input on the calendar.

They have impact on the grading days. That’s what TT is targeting. He wants MCEA to relent on that contract requirement.

Teachers need those days for grading and reporting. Better to get rid of a few PD days, and make the day before Thanksgiving and 12/23 early release days, and get rid of transition day.

Better yet, people need to advocate for counting hours of instruction or (not and) days.

In reality MCPS never utilizes the feedback from its surveys. They’ve already made the decision regarding the calendar.

PD is required by state law. If we have a snow day, teachers should use that to catch up on grading and allow the next grading to be a makeup day.

I’m very against getting rid of the days requirement

And if the snow day falls two weeks into the marking period?

Use the snow day to get ahead on planning. Then you have more time for grading later on. It's not that hard. A day without school that you are being paid for should be used productively and replace the day you would have had for that planning/grading.

I'm not a teacher but I have a young child and don't get a lot done on most snow days since they also close child care on those days.

Then like everyone else, teachers should have to take PTO or a sick day to cover the childcare on those days. Why are teachers the exception here and expect they don't have to work when being paid to do so on a snow day? I also have to work and have an elementary student. If I can't work, I have to take PTO.

That's ridiculous. Teachers have so little flexibility in the first place. I don't support this at all. Especially given workloads for teachers like for many professionals vary throughout the year. Working on a snow day in February is simply not going to make up for losing a grading day in April. Stop embarrassing yourself.

Then start advocating for TT and MCPS to use the holidays they've already designated as makeup days. Truly, those are the only two options.

No, there are multiple options. Some are more realistic than others. TT is recommending the worst option in hopes of getting teachers to give up their grading and planning days, which I do not support for the reasons I have already discussed.

The designated makeup days in the approved 2026-27 calendar are:
October 16 2026 - obviously not helpful
November 2 2026 - obviously not helpful
March 9 - aligns with Eid al Adha
April 16 - aligns with Eid al Fitr
June 17, 21, 22 and 23 - all occur after the last day of school and three of them they can't use now because they are after Juneteenth (they wouldn't have used them anyway, as we all know)

The only designated makeup days on the calendar that occur after snow days are reasonably likely to happen and occur before the last day of school are both on Muslim holidays.

I totally understand that many if not most families are fine with using both Eids to make up snow days, but the BOE will never approve that. MCPS needs buy in from the Muslim community and they certainly can't get that by only using their holidays as makeup days.

You have your dates wrong.

Eid Al-fitr is March 9.
Eid Al-adha is May 17

Every Muslim family I know is super into education. I wish a community of them would come forward and say -- look, we'd rather you use these days as makeup days rather than mess up everybody's plans, and upset the teachers so much.
The state rule requiring a 4-day weekend for easter is ridiculous and should absolutely be changed, but for some dumb reason no one got that through Annapolis this year. Maybe this will be the push to get it done next year.

I personally think school holidays for religious holidays are dumb. I grew up in a religious family where we regularly took the day off school, or left early/went in late, due to mandatory observance rules. It was fine. We just made it up. Schools are flexible about that. I honestly don't believe many parents really care that much about having it off....I suspect it was a few squeaky wheels that felt disrespected this year.

Enjoy your bubble. Many families have issues with the day being excused, but not closed. Students need to make up work. Students who missed days for other reasons around then will have even more trouble making up work. It's actually quite a problem because many families will opt to send the children to school to avoid those issues.

But again, a school system cannot cater to each individual's need to be out of school. Up thread many pages ago there was a mom of a kid who often has to be out for a medical issue. The school can't stop teaching because her kid is out. The population of kids that will be out for many of these holidays is extremely, extremely tiny in MCPS. If its a choice about moving the start date earlier, when people already have paid for trips and camps (many MORE people than will be affected by having a holiday as a potential makeup day -- not even a definitive day of school) and designating a makeup day for a holiday a few people celebrate, I choose the latter.

It is not up to you. It doesn't matter how many people post this on DCUM. The BOE will not approve it.

The BOE has approved bad calendars for 2024-25, 2025-26 and 2026-27. And it's not because they scheduled non instructional days on Eid. It's because they have progressively reduced the number of instructional days for different reasons and for multiple religious groups without adding other instructional days to make up for it. And the makeup days they are willing to use fall at the end of the school year, often into the following week during which staff and students have camps, travel and other jobs planned. This is simply not workable, and it's not the fault of the Muslim community. It is on TT and the BOE.

I mean, they literally sent out a survey asking people whether they preferred removing holidays or the last week of summer. So, sure, it's ultimately up the BoE, but they're elected by "us" and are pretending to get input from "us", so it seems fine for "us" to discuss it on a public forum.

Nobody said you can't discuss it.

Survey responses are not votes. They are tools for MCPS to use to justify whatever decision they deem to be in their best interest.

You can scream about how stupid it is to not have school on Eid. Feel free to continue posting on it. But you and I both know it's not a solution. Not only because the BOE won't use it, but also because only one of the Eids is a designated makeup day. They need three days before the scheduled last day of school that they can actually use. Even if you INSIST they can actually use the one Eid day, that's still only one day. They need more days besides Eid. And if they do use Eid as one of the days, they will never use the other Eid as the second day. The NEED to look at the transition day and November 9 and also try to get the law changed on President's Day, Good Friday and Easter Monday for future years. That is, if they want to stop causing mass chaos every year (I think TT loves the chaos so...)

This isn't about Eid specifically! This is about them using the days they've ALREADY DESIGNATED which includes Eid but is not exclusive to Eid.

[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:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who knows what they will do. Maybe MCEA is calling Taylor's bluff which I support. If your kid misses the first two days of school, it will be fine, hardly catastrophic if not ideal. I assume it will be worse for the teachers to have kids slowly streaming in the first 3 days of school. Seems like this will mean starting off with 2 fewer days of actual instruction. If teachers miss 3 days of preservice, I feel for them and hope they don't lose leave days because of it. Taylor and the BOE have done a lot of stupid things, this is one on a very long list of them.

Of course they will have to take leave if they don’t show up for work.

That sucks because in order to show up many will have to lose money on travel that has been booked or other jobs. I don't know about you but I think that's a 5h!tty way to treat my kid's wonderful teachers.

I hope teachers are pushing MCPS to choose another option, and for the union to negotiate to allow makeups as 1/2 days on grading and reporting. Otherwise they will need to show up as early as Aug 10th.

MCEA told teachers there is nothing they can do except fill out the survey, unfortunately. I agree that they could be doing more to push Taylor and the board. But they didn't even poll teachers.

MCEA has no input on the calendar.

They have impact on the grading days. That’s what TT is targeting. He wants MCEA to relent on that contract requirement.

Teachers need those days for grading and reporting. Better to get rid of a few PD days, and make the day before Thanksgiving and 12/23 early release days, and get rid of transition day.

Better yet, people need to advocate for counting hours of instruction or (not and) days.

In reality MCPS never utilizes the feedback from its surveys. They’ve already made the decision regarding the calendar.

PD is required by state law. If we have a snow day, teachers should use that to catch up on grading and allow the next grading to be a makeup day.

I’m very against getting rid of the days requirement

And if the snow day falls two weeks into the marking period?

Use the snow day to get ahead on planning. Then you have more time for grading later on. It's not that hard. A day without school that you are being paid for should be used productively and replace the day you would have had for that planning/grading.

I'm not a teacher but I have a young child and don't get a lot done on most snow days since they also close child care on those days.

Then like everyone else, teachers should have to take PTO or a sick day to cover the childcare on those days. Why are teachers the exception here and expect they don't have to work when being paid to do so on a snow day? I also have to work and have an elementary student. If I can't work, I have to take PTO.

That's ridiculous. Teachers have so little flexibility in the first place. I don't support this at all. Especially given workloads for teachers like for many professionals vary throughout the year. Working on a snow day in February is simply not going to make up for losing a grading day in April. Stop embarrassing yourself.

Then start advocating for TT and MCPS to use the holidays they've already designated as makeup days. Truly, those are the only two options.

No, there are multiple options. Some are more realistic than others. TT is recommending the worst option in hopes of getting teachers to give up their grading and planning days, which I do not support for the reasons I have already discussed.

The designated makeup days in the approved 2026-27 calendar are:
October 16 2026 - obviously not helpful
November 2 2026 - obviously not helpful
March 9 - aligns with Eid al Adha
April 16 - aligns with Eid al Fitr
June 17, 21, 22 and 23 - all occur after the last day of school and three of them they can't use now because they are after Juneteenth (they wouldn't have used them anyway, as we all know)

The only designated makeup days on the calendar that occur after snow days are reasonably likely to happen and occur before the last day of school are both on Muslim holidays.

I totally understand that many if not most families are fine with using both Eids to make up snow days, but the BOE will never approve that. MCPS needs buy in from the Muslim community and they certainly can't get that by only using their holidays as makeup days.

You have your dates wrong.

Eid Al-fitr is March 9.
Eid Al-adha is May 17

Every Muslim family I know is super into education. I wish a community of them would come forward and say -- look, we'd rather you use these days as makeup days rather than mess up everybody's plans, and upset the teachers so much.
The state rule requiring a 4-day weekend for easter is ridiculous and should absolutely be changed, but for some dumb reason no one got that through Annapolis this year. Maybe this will be the push to get it done next year.

I personally think school holidays for religious holidays are dumb. I grew up in a religious family where we regularly took the day off school, or left early/went in late, due to mandatory observance rules. It was fine. We just made it up. Schools are flexible about that. I honestly don't believe many parents really care that much about having it off....I suspect it was a few squeaky wheels that felt disrespected this year.

Enjoy your bubble. Many families have issues with the day being excused, but not closed. Students need to make up work. Students who missed days for other reasons around then will have even more trouble making up work. It's actually quite a problem because many families will opt to send the children to school to avoid those issues.

But again, a school system cannot cater to each individual's need to be out of school. Up thread many pages ago there was a mom of a kid who often has to be out for a medical issue. The school can't stop teaching because her kid is out. The population of kids that will be out for many of these holidays is extremely, extremely tiny in MCPS. If its a choice about moving the start date earlier, when people already have paid for trips and camps (many MORE people than will be affected by having a holiday as a potential makeup day -- not even a definitive day of school) and designating a makeup day for a holiday a few people celebrate, I choose the latter.

It is not up to you. It doesn't matter how many people post this on DCUM. The BOE will not approve it.

The BOE has approved bad calendars for 2024-25, 2025-26 and 2026-27. And it's not because they scheduled non instructional days on Eid. It's because they have progressively reduced the number of instructional days for different reasons and for multiple religious groups without adding other instructional days to make up for it. And the makeup days they are willing to use fall at the end of the school year, often into the following week during which staff and students have camps, travel and other jobs planned. This is simply not workable, and it's not the fault of the Muslim community. It is on TT and the BOE.

I mean, they literally sent out a survey asking people whether they preferred removing holidays or the last week of summer. So, sure, it's ultimately up the BoE, but they're elected by "us" and are pretending to get input from "us", so it seems fine for "us" to discuss it on a public forum.

Nobody said you can't discuss it.

Survey responses are not votes. They are tools for MCPS to use to justify whatever decision they deem to be in their best interest.

You can scream about how stupid it is to not have school on Eid. Feel free to continue posting on it. But you and I both know it's not a solution. Not only because the BOE won't use it, but also because only one of the Eids is a designated makeup day. They need three days before the scheduled last day of school that they can actually use. Even if you INSIST they can actually use the one Eid day, that's still only one day. They need more days besides Eid. And if they do use Eid as one of the days, they will never use the other Eid as the second day. The NEED to look at the transition day and November 9 and also try to get the law changed on President's Day, Good Friday and Easter Monday for future years. That is, if they want to stop causing mass chaos every year (I think TT loves the chaos so...)

This isn't about Eid specifically! This is about them using the days they've ALREADY DESIGNATED which includes Eid but is not exclusive to Eid.

Which other days that they have ALREADY DESIGNATED do you propose they use either as planned instructional day or as a makeup day?

[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:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who knows what they will do. Maybe MCEA is calling Taylor's bluff which I support. If your kid misses the first two days of school, it will be fine, hardly catastrophic if not ideal. I assume it will be worse for the teachers to have kids slowly streaming in the first 3 days of school. Seems like this will mean starting off with 2 fewer days of actual instruction. If teachers miss 3 days of preservice, I feel for them and hope they don't lose leave days because of it. Taylor and the BOE have done a lot of stupid things, this is one on a very long list of them.

Of course they will have to take leave if they don’t show up for work.

That sucks because in order to show up many will have to lose money on travel that has been booked or other jobs. I don't know about you but I think that's a 5h!tty way to treat my kid's wonderful teachers.

I hope teachers are pushing MCPS to choose another option, and for the union to negotiate to allow makeups as 1/2 days on grading and reporting. Otherwise they will need to show up as early as Aug 10th.

MCEA told teachers there is nothing they can do except fill out the survey, unfortunately. I agree that they could be doing more to push Taylor and the board. But they didn't even poll teachers.

MCEA has no input on the calendar.

They have impact on the grading days. That’s what TT is targeting. He wants MCEA to relent on that contract requirement.

Teachers need those days for grading and reporting. Better to get rid of a few PD days, and make the day before Thanksgiving and 12/23 early release days, and get rid of transition day.

Better yet, people need to advocate for counting hours of instruction or (not and) days.

In reality MCPS never utilizes the feedback from its surveys. They’ve already made the decision regarding the calendar.

PD is required by state law. If we have a snow day, teachers should use that to catch up on grading and allow the next grading to be a makeup day.

I’m very against getting rid of the days requirement

And if the snow day falls two weeks into the marking period?

Use the snow day to get ahead on planning. Then you have more time for grading later on. It's not that hard. A day without school that you are being paid for should be used productively and replace the day you would have had for that planning/grading.

I'm not a teacher but I have a young child and don't get a lot done on most snow days since they also close child care on those days.

Then like everyone else, teachers should have to take PTO or a sick day to cover the childcare on those days. Why are teachers the exception here and expect they don't have to work when being paid to do so on a snow day? I also have to work and have an elementary student. If I can't work, I have to take PTO.

That's ridiculous. Teachers have so little flexibility in the first place. I don't support this at all. Especially given workloads for teachers like for many professionals vary throughout the year. Working on a snow day in February is simply not going to make up for losing a grading day in April. Stop embarrassing yourself.

Then start advocating for TT and MCPS to use the holidays they've already designated as makeup days. Truly, those are the only two options.

No, there are multiple options. Some are more realistic than others. TT is recommending the worst option in hopes of getting teachers to give up their grading and planning days, which I do not support for the reasons I have already discussed.

The designated makeup days in the approved 2026-27 calendar are:
October 16 2026 - obviously not helpful
November 2 2026 - obviously not helpful
March 9 - aligns with Eid al Adha
April 16 - aligns with Eid al Fitr
June 17, 21, 22 and 23 - all occur after the last day of school and three of them they can't use now because they are after Juneteenth (they wouldn't have used them anyway, as we all know)

The only designated makeup days on the calendar that occur after snow days are reasonably likely to happen and occur before the last day of school are both on Muslim holidays.

I totally understand that many if not most families are fine with using both Eids to make up snow days, but the BOE will never approve that. MCPS needs buy in from the Muslim community and they certainly can't get that by only using their holidays as makeup days.

You have your dates wrong.

Eid Al-fitr is March 9.
Eid Al-adha is May 17

Every Muslim family I know is super into education. I wish a community of them would come forward and say -- look, we'd rather you use these days as makeup days rather than mess up everybody's plans, and upset the teachers so much.
The state rule requiring a 4-day weekend for easter is ridiculous and should absolutely be changed, but for some dumb reason no one got that through Annapolis this year. Maybe this will be the push to get it done next year.

I personally think school holidays for religious holidays are dumb. I grew up in a religious family where we regularly took the day off school, or left early/went in late, due to mandatory observance rules. It was fine. We just made it up. Schools are flexible about that. I honestly don't believe many parents really care that much about having it off....I suspect it was a few squeaky wheels that felt disrespected this year.

Enjoy your bubble. Many families have issues with the day being excused, but not closed. Students need to make up work. Students who missed days for other reasons around then will have even more trouble making up work. It's actually quite a problem because many families will opt to send the children to school to avoid those issues.

But again, a school system cannot cater to each individual's need to be out of school. Up thread many pages ago there was a mom of a kid who often has to be out for a medical issue. The school can't stop teaching because her kid is out. The population of kids that will be out for many of these holidays is extremely, extremely tiny in MCPS. If its a choice about moving the start date earlier, when people already have paid for trips and camps (many MORE people than will be affected by having a holiday as a potential makeup day -- not even a definitive day of school) and designating a makeup day for a holiday a few people celebrate, I choose the latter.

It is not up to you. It doesn't matter how many people post this on DCUM. The BOE will not approve it.

The BOE has approved bad calendars for 2024-25, 2025-26 and 2026-27. And it's not because they scheduled non instructional days on Eid. It's because they have progressively reduced the number of instructional days for different reasons and for multiple religious groups without adding other instructional days to make up for it. And the makeup days they are willing to use fall at the end of the school year, often into the following week during which staff and students have camps, travel and other jobs planned. This is simply not workable, and it's not the fault of the Muslim community. It is on TT and the BOE.

I mean, they literally sent out a survey asking people whether they preferred removing holidays or the last week of summer. So, sure, it's ultimately up the BoE, but they're elected by "us" and are pretending to get input from "us", so it seems fine for "us" to discuss it on a public forum.

Nobody said you can't discuss it.

Survey responses are not votes. They are tools for MCPS to use to justify whatever decision they deem to be in their best interest.

You can scream about how stupid it is to not have school on Eid. Feel free to continue posting on it. But you and I both know it's not a solution. Not only because the BOE won't use it, but also because only one of the Eids is a designated makeup day. They need three days before the scheduled last day of school that they can actually use. Even if you INSIST they can actually use the one Eid day, that's still only one day. They need more days besides Eid. And if they do use Eid as one of the days, they will never use the other Eid as the second day. The NEED to look at the transition day and November 9 and also try to get the law changed on President's Day, Good Friday and Easter Monday for future years. That is, if they want to stop causing mass chaos every year (I think TT loves the chaos so...)

This isn't about Eid specifically! This is about them using the days they've ALREADY DESIGNATED which includes Eid but is not exclusive to Eid.

Which other days that they have ALREADY DESIGNATED do you propose they use either as planned instructional day or as a makeup day?

They have 3 designated after winter break: March 9, June 17, and April 16 which seems to be a misprint, but I would say should be April 22 which is non-instruction for Passover. There, done. We have the 3 makeup days we need before Juneteenth.

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Anonymous wrote:Who knows what they will do. Maybe MCEA is calling Taylor's bluff which I support. If your kid misses the first two days of school, it will be fine, hardly catastrophic if not ideal. I assume it will be worse for the teachers to have kids slowly streaming in the first 3 days of school. Seems like this will mean starting off with 2 fewer days of actual instruction. If teachers miss 3 days of preservice, I feel for them and hope they don't lose leave days because of it. Taylor and the BOE have done a lot of stupid things, this is one on a very long list of them.

Of course they will have to take leave if they don’t show up for work.

That sucks because in order to show up many will have to lose money on travel that has been booked or other jobs. I don't know about you but I think that's a 5h!tty way to treat my kid's wonderful teachers.

I hope teachers are pushing MCPS to choose another option, and for the union to negotiate to allow makeups as 1/2 days on grading and reporting. Otherwise they will need to show up as early as Aug 10th.

MCEA told teachers there is nothing they can do except fill out the survey, unfortunately. I agree that they could be doing more to push Taylor and the board. But they didn't even poll teachers.

MCEA has no input on the calendar.

They have impact on the grading days. That’s what TT is targeting. He wants MCEA to relent on that contract requirement.

Teachers need those days for grading and reporting. Better to get rid of a few PD days, and make the day before Thanksgiving and 12/23 early release days, and get rid of transition day.

Better yet, people need to advocate for counting hours of instruction or (not and) days.

In reality MCPS never utilizes the feedback from its surveys. They’ve already made the decision regarding the calendar.

PD is required by state law. If we have a snow day, teachers should use that to catch up on grading and allow the next grading to be a makeup day.

I’m very against getting rid of the days requirement

And if the snow day falls two weeks into the marking period?

Use the snow day to get ahead on planning. Then you have more time for grading later on. It's not that hard. A day without school that you are being paid for should be used productively and replace the day you would have had for that planning/grading.

I'm not a teacher but I have a young child and don't get a lot done on most snow days since they also close child care on those days.

Then like everyone else, teachers should have to take PTO or a sick day to cover the childcare on those days. Why are teachers the exception here and expect they don't have to work when being paid to do so on a snow day? I also have to work and have an elementary student. If I can't work, I have to take PTO.

That's ridiculous. Teachers have so little flexibility in the first place. I don't support this at all. Especially given workloads for teachers like for many professionals vary throughout the year. Working on a snow day in February is simply not going to make up for losing a grading day in April. Stop embarrassing yourself.

Then start advocating for TT and MCPS to use the holidays they've already designated as makeup days. Truly, those are the only two options.

No, there are multiple options. Some are more realistic than others. TT is recommending the worst option in hopes of getting teachers to give up their grading and planning days, which I do not support for the reasons I have already discussed.

The designated makeup days in the approved 2026-27 calendar are:
October 16 2026 - obviously not helpful
November 2 2026 - obviously not helpful
March 9 - aligns with Eid al Adha
April 16 - aligns with Eid al Fitr
June 17, 21, 22 and 23 - all occur after the last day of school and three of them they can't use now because they are after Juneteenth (they wouldn't have used them anyway, as we all know)

The only designated makeup days on the calendar that occur after snow days are reasonably likely to happen and occur before the last day of school are both on Muslim holidays.

I totally understand that many if not most families are fine with using both Eids to make up snow days, but the BOE will never approve that. MCPS needs buy in from the Muslim community and they certainly can't get that by only using their holidays as makeup days.

You have your dates wrong.

Eid Al-fitr is March 9.
Eid Al-adha is May 17

Every Muslim family I know is super into education. I wish a community of them would come forward and say -- look, we'd rather you use these days as makeup days rather than mess up everybody's plans, and upset the teachers so much.
The state rule requiring a 4-day weekend for easter is ridiculous and should absolutely be changed, but for some dumb reason no one got that through Annapolis this year. Maybe this will be the push to get it done next year.

I personally think school holidays for religious holidays are dumb. I grew up in a religious family where we regularly took the day off school, or left early/went in late, due to mandatory observance rules. It was fine. We just made it up. Schools are flexible about that. I honestly don't believe many parents really care that much about having it off....I suspect it was a few squeaky wheels that felt disrespected this year.

Enjoy your bubble. Many families have issues with the day being excused, but not closed. Students need to make up work. Students who missed days for other reasons around then will have even more trouble making up work. It's actually quite a problem because many families will opt to send the children to school to avoid those issues.

But again, a school system cannot cater to each individual's need to be out of school. Up thread many pages ago there was a mom of a kid who often has to be out for a medical issue. The school can't stop teaching because her kid is out. The population of kids that will be out for many of these holidays is extremely, extremely tiny in MCPS. If its a choice about moving the start date earlier, when people already have paid for trips and camps (many MORE people than will be affected by having a holiday as a potential makeup day -- not even a definitive day of school) and designating a makeup day for a holiday a few people celebrate, I choose the latter.

It is not up to you. It doesn't matter how many people post this on DCUM. The BOE will not approve it.

The BOE has approved bad calendars for 2024-25, 2025-26 and 2026-27. And it's not because they scheduled non instructional days on Eid. It's because they have progressively reduced the number of instructional days for different reasons and for multiple religious groups without adding other instructional days to make up for it. And the makeup days they are willing to use fall at the end of the school year, often into the following week during which staff and students have camps, travel and other jobs planned. This is simply not workable, and it's not the fault of the Muslim community. It is on TT and the BOE.

I mean, they literally sent out a survey asking people whether they preferred removing holidays or the last week of summer. So, sure, it's ultimately up the BoE, but they're elected by "us" and are pretending to get input from "us", so it seems fine for "us" to discuss it on a public forum.

Nobody said you can't discuss it.

Survey responses are not votes. They are tools for MCPS to use to justify whatever decision they deem to be in their best interest.

You can scream about how stupid it is to not have school on Eid. Feel free to continue posting on it. But you and I both know it's not a solution. Not only because the BOE won't use it, but also because only one of the Eids is a designated makeup day. They need three days before the scheduled last day of school that they can actually use. Even if you INSIST they can actually use the one Eid day, that's still only one day. They need more days besides Eid. And if they do use Eid as one of the days, they will never use the other Eid as the second day. The NEED to look at the transition day and November 9 and also try to get the law changed on President's Day, Good Friday and Easter Monday for future years. That is, if they want to stop causing mass chaos every year (I think TT loves the chaos so...)

This isn't about Eid specifically! This is about them using the days they've ALREADY DESIGNATED which includes Eid but is not exclusive to Eid.

Which other days that they have ALREADY DESIGNATED do you propose they use either as planned instructional day or as a makeup day?

They have 3 designated after winter break: March 9, June 17, and April 16 which seems to be a misprint, but I would say should be April 22 which is non-instruction for Passover. There, done. We have the 3 makeup days we need before Juneteenth.

My guess is the April 16 day is the grading day and is probably unusable due to it being in the collective bargaining agreement with the teachers, unless they cave again like they did this year. But I think it is unlikely they will use it especially if it is also Passover.

[Anonymous]

Also note June 17 occurs after the last day of school. It is before Juneteenth though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Also note June 17 occurs after the last day of school. It is before Juneteenth though.

And completes that week. No one is going to be mad about that day. They will if school goes into the next week... It's perfectly fine to use.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also note June 17 occurs after the last day of school. It is before Juneteenth though.

And completes that week. No one is going to be mad about that day. They will if school goes into the next week... It's perfectly fine to use.

I agree with you. That's one day. Do you think they will actually use March 9 as a makeup day? Be serious.