LCPS School closed for a week

[Anonymous]

I was just reading about Dewali because I don’t celebrate it and didn’t know what it was. The important time to pray is apparently in the evening on the 3rd day. It’s 5 days long snd the 3rd day is on the 4th this year. No idea why the kids/ teachers can’t be in school during the day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is going on that week that they need so many subs?

According to my neighbor, who is a teacher, because of the weird way the days off fell that week, tons of teachers requested the whole week off.

Yes, but the were told they couldn’t have those two days off (3rd and 5th.) Why leave was granted I have no idea, it wasn’t supposed to be.

No. We recently got an email that so many people had already requested those days AND subs wouldn’t pick them up that *new* leave requests for those dates wouldn’t be approved. But ultimately they couldn’t staff it. Subs don’t work high volume days either. And you actually can’t just deny everyone leave. It’s a benefit of your job.

Eh, I think the teachers ultimately screwed themselves here. It will just become harder and harder in the future. My friend who teaches in HS said a bunch of his coworkers deliberately took leave AFTER the email as a F-U to admin. Very mature.

It’s our leave, we can do whatever we want with it.

I hope when you need an ER doctor there is one working instead of them all saying "it's our leave, we can do whatever we want with it."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was just reading about Dewali because I don’t celebrate it and didn’t know what it was. The important time to pray is apparently in the evening on the 3rd day. It’s 5 days long snd the 3rd day is on the 4th this year. No idea why the kids/ teachers can’t be in school during the day.

Virtual signaling? Staff wanting more random days off? Who knows...

[Anonymous]

I find the notion that you can just take your PTO days anytime you want without your boss needing to ok or reject them based on coverage needs crazy.

It is a standing rule at my office- a very staff friendly spot to work and generally pretty flexible - that each team needs coverage (perhaps aside from days that are DEAD like 12/31 and 12/24). So teams cannot all take the same days off. If they applied for big overlapping chunks it would get rejected

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was just reading about Dewali because I don’t celebrate it and didn’t know what it was. The important time to pray is apparently in the evening on the 3rd day. It’s 5 days long snd the 3rd day is on the 4th this year. No idea why the kids/ teachers can’t be in school during the day.

I think there are many reasons to criticize the removal of Nov 3 and 5 as in-school days, most significantly the fact that I think we as staff members should be expected to be at work on the days before and after holidays, since out employee handbook specifically mentions this. I see no reason to critique the inclusion of a holiday that many of our students and their families celebrate.

[Anonymous]

This underlines the need for year round school calendars (With regular breaks throughout the year rather than summers off)

[Anonymous]

I've been with FCPS for almost 30 years and I've always had the understanding that personal leave had to be approved and therefore denied if the leave couldn't be supported. I usually know months in advance if I will need coverage and can arrange it without a problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was just reading about Dewali because I don’t celebrate it and didn’t know what it was. The important time to pray is apparently in the evening on the 3rd day. It’s 5 days long snd the 3rd day is on the 4th this year. No idea why the kids/ teachers can’t be in school during the day.

There is a lot of prep that goes into Diwali. I could explain but you’re too ignorant to care. If you are angry your kids are missing school so other kids can celebrate a holiday that’s meaningful to them, let me know how happy you’d be if school was held on Christmas Eve. After all, Christmas is the next day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've been with FCPS for almost 30 years and I've always had the understanding that personal leave had to be approved and therefore denied if the leave couldn't be supported. I usually know months in advance if I will need coverage and can arrange it without a problem.

We all know that’s in place to prevent people from doing things like taking a month off. Some of my colleagues have 220+ days banked and could technically “take off” an entire year with those days. A one off personal day isn’t going to get denied and if it does guess what, you just wake up sick and call in. You’re all so weird with this “well I let my employer dictate every single thing I do and I would never ever inconvenience my job.” It’s a JOB. It doesn’t care about you or love you back or honor any single sacrifice you make. Take a day. I swear those schools and offices will still function.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was just reading about Dewali because I don’t celebrate it and didn’t know what it was. The important time to pray is apparently in the evening on the 3rd day. It’s 5 days long snd the 3rd day is on the 4th this year. No idea why the kids/ teachers can’t be in school during the day.

There is a lot of prep that goes into Diwali. I could explain but you’re too ignorant to care. If you are angry your kids are missing school so other kids can celebrate a holiday that’s meaningful to them, let me know how happy you’d be if school was held on Christmas Eve. After all, Christmas is the next day.

Mike drop.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was just reading about Dewali because I don’t celebrate it and didn’t know what it was. The important time to pray is apparently in the evening on the 3rd day. It’s 5 days long snd the 3rd day is on the 4th this year. No idea why the kids/ teachers can’t be in school during the day.

There is a lot of prep that goes into Diwali. I could explain but you’re too ignorant to care. If you are angry your kids are missing school so other kids can celebrate a holiday that’s meaningful to them, let me know how happy you’d be if school was held on Christmas Eve. After all, Christmas is the next day.

Mike drop.

what % of kids in lcps celebrate Dewali? And of those how many have parents taking the day off work to prepare?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was just reading about Dewali because I don’t celebrate it and didn’t know what it was. The important time to pray is apparently in the evening on the 3rd day. It’s 5 days long snd the 3rd day is on the 4th this year. No idea why the kids/ teachers can’t be in school during the day.

There is a lot of prep that goes into Diwali. I could explain but you’re too ignorant to care. If you are angry your kids are missing school so other kids can celebrate a holiday that’s meaningful to them, let me know how happy you’d be if school was held on Christmas Eve. After all, Christmas is the next day.

Mike drop.

what % of kids in lcps celebrate Dewali? And of those how many have parents taking the day off work to prepare?

Stfu. It’s a holiday whether you celebrate it or not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been with FCPS for almost 30 years and I've always had the understanding that personal leave had to be approved and therefore denied if the leave couldn't be supported. I usually know months in advance if I will need coverage and can arrange it without a problem.

We all know that’s in place to prevent people from doing things like taking a month off. Some of my colleagues have 220+ days banked and could technically “take off” an entire year with those days. A one off personal day isn’t going to get denied and if it does guess what, you just wake up sick and call in. You’re all so weird with this “well I let my employer dictate every single thing I do and I would never ever inconvenience my job.” It’s a JOB. It doesn’t care about you or love you back or honor any single sacrifice you make. Take a day. I swear those schools and offices will still function.

PP here. Oh, I agree with you. I wouldn’t hesitate to use a day (I have over 1300 hours saved up). I’m just saying it’s known that personal leave can be denied if it negatively affects the school program.

I don’t know what happens with unused LCPS leave when a teacher retires or otherwise leaves the district, but in FCPS newer teachers completely forfeit all unused leave. For me, my unused leave is at least calculated into the retirement formula. That’s not the case for newer hires. There’s really no reason to keep more than about 20 days of leave since that’s how much one has to use before short term disability kicks in. Many younger teachers use all of there leave each year, which is fine by me. I make sure I use at least my 5 personal days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been with FCPS for almost 30 years and I've always had the understanding that personal leave had to be approved and therefore denied if the leave couldn't be supported. I usually know months in advance if I will need coverage and can arrange it without a problem.

We all know that’s in place to prevent people from doing things like taking a month off. Some of my colleagues have 220+ days banked and could technically “take off” an entire year with those days. A one off personal day isn’t going to get denied and if it does guess what, you just wake up sick and call in. You’re all so weird with this “well I let my employer dictate every single thing I do and I would never ever inconvenience my job.” It’s a JOB. It doesn’t care about you or love you back or honor any single sacrifice you make. Take a day. I swear those schools and offices will still function.

But clearly they don’t. 82k kids are staying home from school so you can “take a day.” They are not still functioning.

[Anonymous]

When do you think they will announce the plan for the week of Thanksgiving? I can see this exact same issue coming up then. Parents need time to plan!