Practical question re today's closure

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s about staffing. There are too many Jewish staff members for the system to be able to function.

+1 I live in Howard County, where, like Montgomery County, there is a movement to be more inclusive in recognizing holidays from different religions and cultures. However, the days off for the fall Jewish holidays have been around for a long time and were originally adopted due to staffing issues.

I don’t think it’s about staffing at all. Baltimore county schools, which has the highest Jewish population in Maryland, just gives students the day off for Yom Kippur. School employees must go into work, or take the day off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The number of teachers and subs who observe the Jewish holidays make it impossible to staff schools on those days. And then there are the number of Jewish students, who absolutely deserve days off for these holy days!

A few years back, there was a movement to make these school days. I'm Catholic and it really made me angry. Why the heck is Easter Monday a state holiday when Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur could be school days?? It didn't make any sense. I'm very happy to have the system close so these families can observe their holy days.

Ok, then make sure that they also close the schools for all the Muslim and Hindu religious holidays. That would only be fair.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's about inclusivity. We recognize Christmas and Easter as major holidays in the US, while jewish people sit around bored waiting for them to be over. You can allow us these two days.

I’m Christian. I can celebrate Christmas with family at night or a weekend.

I hate the scattered days off for holidays all year.

Why can’t mcps give us one odd week so we can go on vacation.
Booking at thanksgiving, Christmas or Easter is a real pain.

I know it's so inconvenient for you!

Yes, the entire school district’s calendar should be built around PP’s preferred travel schedule. She’s so very, very important.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's about inclusivity. We recognize Christmas and Easter as major holidays in the US, while jewish people sit around bored waiting for them to be over. You can allow us these two days.

How about extending that consideration to other religions?

So many different religions. Pretty soon we will have no school days left.

And yet no matter how religious days they give off, the number of school days will still be the same, and yet you’ll still complain.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Professional days, as the name suggests, are not holidays.

What professional activities occur? Most teachers use these as vacation days.

Wow. Please stop embarrassing yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The number of teachers and subs who observe the Jewish holidays make it impossible to staff schools on those days. And then there are the number of Jewish students, who absolutely deserve days off for these holy days!

A few years back, there was a movement to make these school days. I'm Catholic and it really made me angry. Why the heck is Easter Monday a state holiday when Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur could be school days?? It didn't make any sense. I'm very happy to have the system close so these families can observe their holy days.

Ok, then make sure that they also close the schools for all the Muslim and Hindu religious holidays. That would only be fair.

Sounds good.

(see how your cute little attempt at a mic drop moment failed?)

[Anonymous]

This is not about Jewish holidays in particular, but I don’t understand how it is decided which federal holidays to observe. I just realized that Columbus Day and Veteran’s Day aren’t observed by MCPS. Given how many federal workers we have here, this seems strange to not try to align the calendar with the federal one.

[Anonymous]

Moco schools hav closed for Rosh Hoshana and Yom Kippur for over 60 years. Move on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is not about Jewish holidays in particular, but I don’t understand how it is decided which federal holidays to observe. I just realized that Columbus Day and Veteran’s Day aren’t observed by MCPS. Given how many federal workers we have here, this seems strange to not try to align the calendar with the federal one.

They've basically never had those probably bc of the fall Jewish holidays. It hasn't been an issue.

How the decision gets made became a subject of controversy about 10-15 years ago, when other religious groups asked for some criteria to determine school closings for their holidays. Mcps basically couldn't provide details bc the decision to close for the Jewish holidays was made so long ago. Eventually they started not identifying holidays but closing schools or having professional days on some.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s about staffing. There are too many Jewish staff members for the system to be able to function.

This is why schools are closed. It is absolutely a staffing issue.

What percentage of staff's are Jewish in entire MCPS? Have MCPS published this data?

It’s a large percentage of teachers and substitute teachers. Kids too.

It is illegal to request this information

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The number of teachers and subs who observe the Jewish holidays make it impossible to staff schools on those days. And then there are the number of Jewish students, who absolutely deserve days off for these holy days!

A few years back, there was a movement to make these school days. I'm Catholic and it really made me angry. Why the heck is Easter Monday a state holiday when Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur could be school days?? It didn't make any sense. I'm very happy to have the system close so these families can observe their holy days.

Ok, then make sure that they also close the schools for all the Muslim and Hindu religious holidays. That would only be fair.

They close for Eud and Diwali.

[Anonymous]

Eid*

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is not about Jewish holidays in particular, but I don’t understand how it is decided which federal holidays to observe. I just realized that Columbus Day and Veteran’s Day aren’t observed by MCPS. Given how many federal workers we have here, this seems strange to not try to align the calendar with the federal one.

They've basically never had those probably bc of the fall Jewish holidays. It hasn't been an issue.

How the decision gets made became a subject of controversy about 10-15 years ago, when other religious groups asked for some criteria to determine school closings for their holidays. Mcps basically couldn't provide details bc the decision to close for the Jewish holidays was made so long ago. Eventually they started not identifying holidays but closing schools or having professional days on some.

Not closing on Columbus Day is just irritating — it’s not just the feds who don’t work on that day. I am fine with the religious holidays being observed but would also like to have time off as a family. Yes I realize they can only take so many days off in Sept/Oct…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s about staffing. There are too many Jewish staff members for the system to be able to function.

+1 I live in Howard County, where, like Montgomery County, there is a movement to be more inclusive in recognizing holidays from different religions and cultures. However, the days off for the fall Jewish holidays have been around for a long time and were originally adopted due to staffing issues.

I don’t think it’s about staffing at all. Baltimore county schools, which has the highest Jewish population in Maryland, just gives students the day off for Yom Kippur. School employees must go into work, or take the day off.

You’re not too bright, are ya? Staffing at schools is an issue when students are there because there are no subs. I’m sure if a teacher had to take a day off for a holiday that students aren’t there for, it’s no big deal because no one is worried about sun coverage. See how that works? Use your brain. It’s definitely a staffing issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The number of teachers and subs who observe the Jewish holidays make it impossible to staff schools on those days. And then there are the number of Jewish students, who absolutely deserve days off for these holy days!

A few years back, there was a movement to make these school days. I'm Catholic and it really made me angry. Why the heck is Easter Monday a state holiday when Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur could be school days?? It didn't make any sense. I'm very happy to have the system close so these families can observe their holy days.

Ok, then make sure that they also close the schools for all the Muslim and Hindu religious holidays. That would only be fair.

They close for Eud and Diwali.

Yep. Possibly also Chinese New Year? Not sure. But all of this is hardly a secret.

If it's so very inconvenient, you can always move to another county that doesn't close for anything but the traditional Christian holidays. Personally, we picked this area in part because of the recognition for Jewish holidays. It wasn't that way where I grew up and every year I had to take off for both days of Rosh Hashanah, for Yom Kippur, not eat anything at the school Easter parties that always fell during Passover. It was fine and I assumed that's how it was everywhere, so imagine my excitement when we were house-hunting and saw that MoCo gives off for some of the Jewish holidays.

This was 15 years ago by the way and we didn't even have kids yet so the information was very obvious even then.