The response to MoCo's calendar change shows why the FCPS religious holidays will never go away

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here is a straightforward calendar from a state/metropolitan area with a diverse population https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1756930407/mplsk12mnus/ge5clwh0shgydwvthwbs/SYCalendar-English-2026-27.pdf

Put it out there and if people don’t like it there is always private school, home school, or excused absences.

Oh look, this year Minneapolis is also closed Monday/Tuesday for Presidents Day weekend and is giving 3 days off for Memorial Day due to Eid.

https://www.centerschool.org/about/mps-calendar-2025-2026

I'm a native Minnesotan and for whatever reason, we always had one of the lowest number of school days required. Started after Labor Day, ended the first week of June. Looks like only Colorado is lower

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here is a straightforward calendar from a state/metropolitan area with a diverse population https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1756930407/mplsk12mnus/ge5clwh0shgydwvthwbs/SYCalendar-English-2026-27.pdf

Put it out there and if people don’t like it there is always private school, home school, or excused absences.

The people who don’t like it will be the teachers/their advocates who will describe such a calendar as indecent conditions. Look at all the five-day weeks in school.

I’m a teacher and I have no problem with that calendar. I’m a little surprised it’s being held up as a great example considering it only has 168 instructional days, but the 5 day weeks certainly don’t bother me.

I’d actually advocate for a shorter summer and more school days. Why 168? Why 180? I don’t need three months for summer and, frankly, I have to spend the first month each year getting kids back up to speed. Change it to 200 and just pay me for the extra weeks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here is a straightforward calendar from a state/metropolitan area with a diverse population https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1756930407/mplsk12mnus/ge5clwh0shgydwvthwbs/SYCalendar-English-2026-27.pdf

Put it out there and if people don’t like it there is always private school, home school, or excused absences.

Read the fine print. That calendar is 168 instructional days. FCPS schedules 179-180. FCPS could get away with scheduling fewer days, as they only need 165-ish to meet the 990 requirement, but then we’d be tacking days at the end of the year to makeup snow days.

We schedule a lot of snow days due to one really harsh winter back in I think 2009-2010. We usually don’t need that many. Even this year, a bad winter, they used 4 snow days + I think 6-7 2 hour delays, so roughly 6 days total. Many districts in the north budget 5 snow days before needing to extend the calendar or cut into spring break. With the fact that we usually start earlier than Minneapolis (before Labor Day) it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to extend the school year by a day or two at the end if needed.

Between Labor Day and the end of the school year, Minneapolis has nearly the same number of holidays and teacher work days as FCPS for the 2026-27 school year. 31 vs 32 days. FCPS goes on longer because they schedule 180 days rather than 168. That’s the difference.

“Between labor day” does a lot of work when school starts in the second week of September.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here is a straightforward calendar from a state/metropolitan area with a diverse population https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1756930407/mplsk12mnus/ge5clwh0shgydwvthwbs/SYCalendar-English-2026-27.pdf

Put it out there and if people don’t like it there is always private school, home school, or excused absences.

Read the fine print. That calendar is 168 instructional days. FCPS schedules 179-180. FCPS could get away with scheduling fewer days, as they only need 165-ish to meet the 990 requirement, but then we’d be tacking days at the end of the year to makeup snow days.

We schedule a lot of snow days due to one really harsh winter back in I think 2009-2010. We usually don’t need that many. Even this year, a bad winter, they used 4 snow days + I think 6-7 2 hour delays, so roughly 6 days total. Many districts in the north budget 5 snow days before needing to extend the calendar or cut into spring break. With the fact that we usually start earlier than Minneapolis (before Labor Day) it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to extend the school year by a day or two at the end if needed.

Between Labor Day and the end of the school year, Minneapolis has nearly the same number of holidays and teacher work days as FCPS for the 2026-27 school year. 31 vs 32 days. FCPS goes on longer because they schedule 180 days rather than 168. That’s the difference.

“Between labor day” does a lot of work when school starts in the second week of September.

FCPS schedules 179-180 instructional days. Minneapolis schedules 168. Please take the Minneapolis calendar and add 12 days to it. 10 days from August 24-Sept 4 (assuming they don’t have to close the Friday before Labor Day) and then the remaining 2 days you can tack onto the end. Now compare it to the FCPS calendar for 2026-27 school year. They’d end 2 days before us.

The issue has less to do with religious holidays and more to do with Virginia’s requirement of 180 days or 990 instructional hours. FCPS uses hours but still schedules for meeting 180 days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here is a straightforward calendar from a state/metropolitan area with a diverse population https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1756930407/mplsk12mnus/ge5clwh0shgydwvthwbs/SYCalendar-English-2026-27.pdf

Put it out there and if people don’t like it there is always private school, home school, or excused absences.

Read the fine print. That calendar is 168 instructional days. FCPS schedules 179-180. FCPS could get away with scheduling fewer days, as they only need 165-ish to meet the 990 requirement, but then we’d be tacking days at the end of the year to makeup snow days.

We schedule a lot of snow days due to one really harsh winter back in I think 2009-2010. We usually don’t need that many. Even this year, a bad winter, they used 4 snow days + I think 6-7 2 hour delays, so roughly 6 days total. Many districts in the north budget 5 snow days before needing to extend the calendar or cut into spring break. With the fact that we usually start earlier than Minneapolis (before Labor Day) it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to extend the school year by a day or two at the end if needed.

Between Labor Day and the end of the school year, Minneapolis has nearly the same number of holidays and teacher work days as FCPS for the 2026-27 school year. 31 vs 32 days. FCPS goes on longer because they schedule 180 days rather than 168. That’s the difference.

“Between labor day” does a lot of work when school starts in the second week of September.

FCPS schedules 179-180 instructional days. Minneapolis schedules 168. Please take the Minneapolis calendar and add 12 days to it. 10 days from August 24-Sept 4 (assuming they don’t have to close the Friday before Labor Day) and then the remaining 2 days you can tack onto the end. Now compare it to the FCPS calendar for 2026-27 school year. They’d end 2 days before us.

The issue has less to do with religious holidays and more to do with Virginia’s requirement of 180 days or 990 instructional hours. FCPS uses hours but still schedules for meeting 180 days.

It has a lot to do with the religious/cultural holidays. Your statement is simply nonsense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here is a straightforward calendar from a state/metropolitan area with a diverse population https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1756930407/mplsk12mnus/ge5clwh0shgydwvthwbs/SYCalendar-English-2026-27.pdf

Put it out there and if people don’t like it there is always private school, home school, or excused absences.

The people who don’t like it will be the teachers/their advocates who will describe such a calendar as indecent conditions. Look at all the five-day weeks in school.

I think it is terrible because the summer is waaaay too long. Do you really want 3 full months off? That is very bad for most kids.

You are free to register your kid(s) for summer classes if you believe that to be needed.

NP: I’m not worried about my own kids. I do plenty with them over the summer (as a teacher, I have time to do so!) I’m worried about my students who inevitably regress 3-6 months in ability after a summer of YouTube, requiring intense remediation on my end every fall. I’m worried about some of my children’s classmates who fall in the same category, who will need the teacher’s attention to catch up, limiting the focus my own child can get. I’m worried about the overall level of behaviors that are brutal every August/September as the TikTok/youtube/minecraft addiction goes through 8 hours of withdrawals.

Unless you can tell me every child has enriching summer experiences, a long summer isn’t beneficial to society as a whole.

It would be possible for the county to offer programming to families that qualify for the need.

This concern shouldn't be our guiding factor in calendars. We shouldn't have to cater to the lowest denominator.

[Anonymous]

The best way to do this is to pick a % representation and say if x% of our population over the past 3 years (combined student and staff) celebrates this religion, then we take the holiday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here is a straightforward calendar from a state/metropolitan area with a diverse population https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1756930407/mplsk12mnus/ge5clwh0shgydwvthwbs/SYCalendar-English-2026-27.pdf

Put it out there and if people don’t like it there is always private school, home school, or excused absences.

Read the fine print. That calendar is 168 instructional days. FCPS schedules 179-180. FCPS could get away with scheduling fewer days, as they only need 165-ish to meet the 990 requirement, but then we’d be tacking days at the end of the year to makeup snow days.

We schedule a lot of snow days due to one really harsh winter back in I think 2009-2010. We usually don’t need that many. Even this year, a bad winter, they used 4 snow days + I think 6-7 2 hour delays, so roughly 6 days total. Many districts in the north budget 5 snow days before needing to extend the calendar or cut into spring break. With the fact that we usually start earlier than Minneapolis (before Labor Day) it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to extend the school year by a day or two at the end if needed.

Between Labor Day and the end of the school year, Minneapolis has nearly the same number of holidays and teacher work days as FCPS for the 2026-27 school year. 31 vs 32 days. FCPS goes on longer because they schedule 180 days rather than 168. That’s the difference.

“Between labor day” does a lot of work when school starts in the second week of September.

FCPS schedules 179-180 instructional days. Minneapolis schedules 168. Please take the Minneapolis calendar and add 12 days to it. 10 days from August 24-Sept 4 (assuming they don’t have to close the Friday before Labor Day) and then the remaining 2 days you can tack onto the end. Now compare it to the FCPS calendar for 2026-27 school year. They’d end 2 days before us.

The issue has less to do with religious holidays and more to do with Virginia’s requirement of 180 days or 990 instructional hours. FCPS uses hours but still schedules for meeting 180 days.

The Minneapolis calendar offers far more 5 day weeks and without a slew of early release days it is possible to fit 990 instructional hours in a 168 day calendar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The best way to do this is to pick a % representation and say if x% of our population over the past 3 years (combined student and staff) celebrates this religion, then we take the holiday.

That's exactly what they did 4ish years ago. They labeled every religious holiday as an "O day" and told us we couldn't test or teach new material. By the 2nd one the kids realized they were free skip days and attendance plummeted. The school board had their data to show over x% of students celebrated the holiday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The best way to do this is to pick a % representation and say if x% of our population over the past 3 years (combined student and staff) celebrates this religion, then we take the holiday.

No, we should go by operational justification.

There is no operational reason for any of these religious or cultural holidays.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here is a straightforward calendar from a state/metropolitan area with a diverse population https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1756930407/mplsk12mnus/ge5clwh0shgydwvthwbs/SYCalendar-English-2026-27.pdf

Put it out there and if people don’t like it there is always private school, home school, or excused absences.

The people who don’t like it will be the teachers/their advocates who will describe such a calendar as indecent conditions. Look at all the five-day weeks in school.

I think it is terrible because the summer is waaaay too long. Do you really want 3 full months off? That is very bad for most kids.

You are free to register your kid(s) for summer classes if you believe that to be needed.

NP: I’m not worried about my own kids. I do plenty with them over the summer (as a teacher, I have time to do so!) I’m worried about my students who inevitably regress 3-6 months in ability after a summer of YouTube, requiring intense remediation on my end every fall. I’m worried about some of my children’s classmates who fall in the same category, who will need the teacher’s attention to catch up, limiting the focus my own child can get. I’m worried about the overall level of behaviors that are brutal every August/September as the TikTok/youtube/minecraft addiction goes through 8 hours of withdrawals.

Unless you can tell me every child has enriching summer experiences, a long summer isn’t beneficial to society as a whole.

It would be possible for the county to offer programming to families that qualify for the need.

This concern shouldn't be our guiding factor in calendars. We shouldn't have to cater to the lowest denominator.

With what money? They already claim they can't fund what currently exists. There's no way more will be added.

There is zero academic value to a long summer, over 5-6 weeks. The reality is the only reason we have a long summer is the beach lobby (and to a much lesser extent, swim team families). It's not because it's better for the kids' learning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here is a straightforward calendar from a state/metropolitan area with a diverse population https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1756930407/mplsk12mnus/ge5clwh0shgydwvthwbs/SYCalendar-English-2026-27.pdf

Put it out there and if people don’t like it there is always private school, home school, or excused absences.

Read the fine print. That calendar is 168 instructional days. FCPS schedules 179-180. FCPS could get away with scheduling fewer days, as they only need 165-ish to meet the 990 requirement, but then we’d be tacking days at the end of the year to makeup snow days.

We schedule a lot of snow days due to one really harsh winter back in I think 2009-2010. We usually don’t need that many. Even this year, a bad winter, they used 4 snow days + I think 6-7 2 hour delays, so roughly 6 days total. Many districts in the north budget 5 snow days before needing to extend the calendar or cut into spring break. With the fact that we usually start earlier than Minneapolis (before Labor Day) it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to extend the school year by a day or two at the end if needed.

Between Labor Day and the end of the school year, Minneapolis has nearly the same number of holidays and teacher work days as FCPS for the 2026-27 school year. 31 vs 32 days. FCPS goes on longer because they schedule 180 days rather than 168. That’s the difference.

“Between labor day” does a lot of work when school starts in the second week of September.

FCPS schedules 179-180 instructional days. Minneapolis schedules 168. Please take the Minneapolis calendar and add 12 days to it. 10 days from August 24-Sept 4 (assuming they don’t have to close the Friday before Labor Day) and then the remaining 2 days you can tack onto the end. Now compare it to the FCPS calendar for 2026-27 school year. They’d end 2 days before us.

The issue has less to do with religious holidays and more to do with Virginia’s requirement of 180 days or 990 instructional hours. FCPS uses hours but still schedules for meeting 180 days.

The Minneapolis calendar offers far more 5 day weeks and without a slew of early release days it is possible to fit 990 instructional hours in a 168 day calendar.

That’s kind of my point. FCPS schedules 180 days because that’s the state requirement. Then it decides, actually, we only need 990 hours, so they declare a dozen snow days and cram in a bunch of early releases. That part has nothing to do with religious and cultural observances.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The best way to do this is to pick a % representation and say if x% of our population over the past 3 years (combined student and staff) celebrates this religion, then we take the holiday.

No, we should go by operational justification.

There is no operational reason for any of these religious or cultural holidays.

Except there are schools with large Muslim populations and no new content would be taught if 1/3 of a grade level is out. There is also a large Muslim teaching population.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here is a straightforward calendar from a state/metropolitan area with a diverse population https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1756930407/mplsk12mnus/ge5clwh0shgydwvthwbs/SYCalendar-English-2026-27.pdf

Put it out there and if people don’t like it there is always private school, home school, or excused absences.

The people who don’t like it will be the teachers/their advocates who will describe such a calendar as indecent conditions. Look at all the five-day weeks in school.

I’m a teacher and I have no problem with that calendar. I’m a little surprised it’s being held up as a great example considering it only has 168 instructional days, but the 5 day weeks certainly don’t bother me.

I’d actually advocate for a shorter summer and more school days. Why 168? Why 180? I don’t need three months for summer and, frankly, I have to spend the first month each year getting kids back up to speed. Change it to 200 and just pay me for the extra weeks.

The last teacher day is June 18 and they return August 14. The calendar would have to change a lot to get to a 3 month summer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here is a straightforward calendar from a state/metropolitan area with a diverse population https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1756930407/mplsk12mnus/ge5clwh0shgydwvthwbs/SYCalendar-English-2026-27.pdf

Put it out there and if people don’t like it there is always private school, home school, or excused absences.

The people who don’t like it will be the teachers/their advocates who will describe such a calendar as indecent conditions. Look at all the five-day weeks in school.

I think it is terrible because the summer is waaaay too long. Do you really want 3 full months off? That is very bad for most kids.

You are free to register your kid(s) for summer classes if you believe that to be needed.

NP: I’m not worried about my own kids. I do plenty with them over the summer (as a teacher, I have time to do so!) I’m worried about my students who inevitably regress 3-6 months in ability after a summer of YouTube, requiring intense remediation on my end every fall. I’m worried about some of my children’s classmates who fall in the same category, who will need the teacher’s attention to catch up, limiting the focus my own child can get. I’m worried about the overall level of behaviors that are brutal every August/September as the TikTok/youtube/minecraft addiction goes through 8 hours of withdrawals.

Unless you can tell me every child has enriching summer experiences, a long summer isn’t beneficial to society as a whole.

It would be possible for the county to offer programming to families that qualify for the need.

This concern shouldn't be our guiding factor in calendars. We shouldn't have to cater to the lowest denominator.

With what money? They already claim they can't fund what currently exists. There's no way more will be added.

There is zero academic value to a long summer, over 5-6 weeks. The reality is the only reason we have a long summer is the beach lobby (and to a much lesser extent, swim team families). It's not because it's better for the kids' learning.

Honestly I do think the reason that the school year is so long is because FCPS wants something closer to a year round schedule without the implications of actually doing a year round schedule. Even year-round districts still have 4-6 weeks in the summer (either roughly Memorial Day-July 4th or July 4th-mid August) and FCPS is getting somewhat close to that in our shorter summer calendar years.