President's Day makeup day?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why can’t mcps hold school over zoom this Wed and Thursday?

Lack of forewarning to families so some students don’t have a device at home.

That's one of many reasons, and probably the least significant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It says in the calendar that “if school is disrupted by three or more days dates identified as possible make up days are … March 20th, April 15th, June 18th,June 22nd-26th.”
Match 20th is currently listed as off for professional day for staff.

Per the other thread, March 20 is Eid. MCPS may avoid using that day for that reason….

Then why list it as an option for their make up plan in the first place?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would love it as I’m stressed about losing all this time for my HS kids with APs but I also realize it’s unlikely to happen.
I wish the state would get rid of the dumb rule about Good Friday and Easter Monday. I’m Catholic and I think it is dumb to mandate schools have these days off. The only religious days off should be because too many teachers will call out absent due to daytime religious obligations. That was historically th case with him kipper and rosy hashanah. I don’t know any Catholics that take off Good Friday or any Asians that take off lunar new year or any Muslims that take off Ramadan. I work with people of all stripes and the only people I know who take off are the Jews for the high holidays as they spend all day in temple.

I'm Asian and I always either take Lunar new year day off or visit my kids' school (when they were in ESs) to celebrate this holiday together. Kids absolutely love dragon dance or lion dance, cutting window decorations, folding origami and receiving lucky money pockets. My Indian neighbors always host gigantic parties and women wearing sari on Diwali. I'd say you are a bit ignorant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why can’t mcps hold school over zoom this Wed and Thursday?

Lack of forewarning to families so some students don’t have a device at home.

We only knew this storm was coming for over a week ahead of time 🙄

And DCUM was pretty insistent that people were fools for preparing. Even the day beforehand, posters insisted everyone would be able to resume their normal routines on Monday.

You are making things up. Maybe I don’t spend as much time on DCUM as you do, but everyone I knew took this storm warning seriously. If you went to many grocery store, shelves were empty, if you went to a hardware store-shovels and salt were in short supply.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It says in the calendar that “if school is disrupted by three or more days dates identified as possible make up days are … March 20th, April 15th, June 18th,June 22nd-26th.”
Match 20th is currently listed as off for professional day for staff.

Per the other thread, March 20 is Eid. MCPS may avoid using that day for that reason….

Then why list it as an option for their make up plan in the first place?

Oh I 100% agree with you… but it shows that MCPS is likely disingenuous with this calendar…

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But there are two days off that week. Presidents’ Day and Tuesday is also a day off for teacher development or something.


So McPS is going to use both of them to get back the snow days?

Tuesday is Lunar new year. If you want to respect religious holidays, you should respect lunar new year too.

They do, that's why it wasn't marked as a designated makeup day.

Asians didn't lobby much for Lunar New Year as a day off.

Teachers lobbied hard for additional teacher development days/grading days to be added into the schedule, and it was easier to add those in if you could say a certain ethnic group or religion was asking for additional days off to be on par with the Christians and the Jews.

Feb 17 is not a professional development or grading day. There's no school for students and teachers.

Tuesday Feb 17 is a non-instructional day. Why would they have Monday Feb 16 President's Day as a school day, but not have Feb 17 as an instructional day?

I don’t understand this. Why is it possible to designate a federal holiday as a makeup day but not the day after?

Yeah this is super weird. Also if we are going to go on a Federal holiday I think Juneteenth is one that I’d pick, not President’s Day, since I think finding teacher coverage for a major holiday in less than a month is going to be problematic.

Juneteenth is June 19. How much teaching do you think is going to go on at the end of marking period 4? Days should be added earlier if McPS is serious about instruction.

None, but you are wildly unrealistic if you think meaningful instruction will/can/should be conducted on President’s Day given the extreme lack of advance notice and the precedent that the day has always been off for everyone since the dawn of time. Don’t be like those posters who insist you shouldn’t plan a vacation the week after school ends in case it is extended, etc. President’s Day is a Federal holiday that has never been and is still not designated as a make up day. If they somehow negotiate to use this day, which is a long shot, it’ll be a throwaway day, not a meaningful instruction day.

Very few people take trips over Presidents' Day. Attendance would be fine. Certainly far higher than the days late in June, and probably much higher than days adjacent to major holiday breaks.

How on earth could you possibly know this information?

Wow... You really don't know?

I'd love to know your HHI and zip code...

You are making up statistics. My HHI and zipcode are irrelevant. We aren’t traveling that weekend but to boldly say very few people take trips that weekend is really extra. Flight data and AAA road data says otherwise.

The median household income of families with kids at seven MCPS high schools is under $100k. Another eight have median HHIs under $150k.

It's not just the cost of the trip- it is also the cost of
missing work during any trip.

You are remarkably out of touch.

If you think having a HHI under $150k makes you so poor that you can’t travel, you are the one out of touch. That’s more than every teacher in the district!

*Household* income. Do you think there are a lot of families living off a single teacher's income taking Presidents' Day vacations?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why can’t mcps hold school over zoom this Wed and Thursday?

Lack of forewarning to families so some students don’t have a device at home.

We only knew this storm was coming for over a week ahead of time 🙄

And DCUM was pretty insistent that people were fools for preparing. Even the day beforehand, posters insisted everyone would be able to resume their normal routines on Monday.

You are making things up. Maybe I don’t spend as much time on DCUM as you do, but everyone I knew took this storm warning seriously. If you went to many grocery store, shelves were empty, if you went to a hardware store-shovels and salt were in short supply.

MCPS should have taken it seriously too and made sure kids took their Chromebooks home (my kids always have theirs with them, but I guess other schools differ.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why can’t mcps hold school over zoom this Wed and Thursday?

Lack of forewarning to families so some students don’t have a device at home.

We only knew this storm was coming for over a week ahead of time 🙄

And DCUM was pretty insistent that people were fools for preparing. Even the day beforehand, posters insisted everyone would be able to resume their normal routines on Monday.

You are making things up. Maybe I don’t spend as much time on DCUM as you do, but everyone I knew took this storm warning seriously. If you went to many grocery store, shelves were empty, if you went to a hardware store-shovels and salt were in short supply.

MCPS should have taken it seriously too and made sure kids took their Chromebooks home (my kids always have theirs with them, but I guess other schools differ.)

At least in elementary we have to ask to take a Chromebook home. We have computers at home though so virtual would work just fine regardless….

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why can’t mcps hold school over zoom this Wed and Thursday?

Lack of forewarning to families so some students don’t have a device at home.

We only knew this storm was coming for over a week ahead of time 🙄

And DCUM was pretty insistent that people were fools for preparing. Even the day beforehand, posters insisted everyone would be able to resume their normal routines on Monday.

You are making things up. Maybe I don’t spend as much time on DCUM as you do, but everyone I knew took this storm warning seriously. If you went to many grocery store, shelves were empty, if you went to a hardware store-shovels and salt were in short supply.

+1. I question anyone who makes any statements about what “DCUM says” because there are thousands of posters but there were literally dozens of threads of how to prepare, what to buy in advance, what to cook, what to do if you lost power, experiences from past storms etc.

This storm wasn’t a surprise and MCPS should have done more to plan for a long closure like we’re having now, including virtual learning. That they didn’t means that they didn’t want to do so because it’s easier to do nothing and have kids lose instructional time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why can’t mcps hold school over zoom this Wed and Thursday?

Lack of forewarning to families so some students don’t have a device at home.

+1 This was not a freak unexpected storm. A message should have gone out from central offices to tell schools to distribute Chromebooks to students who don’t have them at least for MS, HS and upper elementary school students who use them regularly.

My kids have their Chromebooks with them…they could have been learning this week.

That's not why MCPS couldn't do virtual.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why can’t mcps hold school over zoom this Wed and Thursday?

Lack of forewarning to families so some students don’t have a device at home.

We only knew this storm was coming for over a week ahead of time 🙄

And DCUM was pretty insistent that people were fools for preparing. Even the day beforehand, posters insisted everyone would be able to resume their normal routines on Monday.

You are making things up. Maybe I don’t spend as much time on DCUM as you do, but everyone I knew took this storm warning seriously. If you went to many grocery store, shelves were empty, if you went to a hardware store-shovels and salt were in short supply.

+1. I question anyone who makes any statements about what “DCUM says” because there are thousands of posters but there were literally dozens of threads of how to prepare, what to buy in advance, what to cook, what to do if you lost power, experiences from past storms etc.

This storm wasn’t a surprise and MCPS should have done more to plan for a long closure like we’re having now, including virtual learning. That they didn’t means that they didn’t want to do so because it’s easier to do nothing and have kids lose instructional time.

We don't need to lose instructional time. We can add real make-up days to the year. We don't need to wait until the end of June, nor do they need to be half days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why can’t mcps hold school over zoom this Wed and Thursday?

Lack of forewarning to families so some students don’t have a device at home.

We only knew this storm was coming for over a week ahead of time 🙄

And DCUM was pretty insistent that people were fools for preparing. Even the day beforehand, posters insisted everyone would be able to resume their normal routines on Monday.

You are making things up. Maybe I don’t spend as much time on DCUM as you do, but everyone I knew took this storm warning seriously. If you went to many grocery store, shelves were empty, if you went to a hardware store-shovels and salt were in short supply.

+1. I question anyone who makes any statements about what “DCUM says” because there are thousands of posters but there were literally dozens of threads of how to prepare, what to buy in advance, what to cook, what to do if you lost power, experiences from past storms etc.

This storm wasn’t a surprise and MCPS should have done more to plan for a long closure like we’re having now, including virtual learning. That they didn’t means that they didn’t want to do so because it’s easier to do nothing and have kids lose instructional time.

We don't need to lose instructional time. We can add real make-up days to the year. We don't need to wait until the end of June, nor do they need to be half days.

+1 And I think there will be far fewer absences on 3/20 or 4/15 than 6/24-27. And those who do have family/holiday/travel plans can have an excused absence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would love it as I’m stressed about losing all this time for my HS kids with APs but I also realize it’s unlikely to happen.
I wish the state would get rid of the dumb rule about Good Friday and Easter Monday. I’m Catholic and I think it is dumb to mandate schools have these days off. The only religious days off should be because too many teachers will call out absent due to daytime religious obligations. That was historically th case with him kipper and rosy hashanah. I don’t know any Catholics that take off Good Friday or any Asians that take off lunar new year or any Muslims that take off Ramadan. I work with people of all stripes and the only people I know who take off are the Jews for the high holidays as they spend all day in temple.

Nothing is preventing your student from learning on his or her own. My DD basically taught herself AP Environmental Science during COVID because the online classes sucked so bad. She got a 5 on the exam. Any self-motivated student can work at their own pace to supplement classroom learning. It's good practice for college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Im traveling that weekend so will have to get a sub if they make it a school day

And then MCPS will say they can't open school because not enough staff...just like these snow days. Or they could act more responsibly and add snow days to the calendar like a normal school district.

Other school districts do not give days off for Jewish holidays, Diwali, Eid etc.. so they have more leeway. MCPS for God knows what reason won’t start earlier than the last week of August, and give all these religious holidays and must end by mid June. How on earth can they add more snow days??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why can’t mcps hold school over zoom this Wed and Thursday?

Lack of forewarning to families so some students don’t have a device at home.

This storm was quite well predicted and anticipated.