MCPS updated calendar is insane

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Who is sending their kids from June 22-25??? But with a day off on June 23? Who comes up with these idiotic decisions??

More to the point, where are they going to get the money to pay staff to work then. And don't start with that "they got paid with the snow days" bullshit. They're going to have to be paid. For Juneteenth, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who is sending their kids from June 22-25??? But with a day off on June 23? Who comes up with these idiotic decisions??

More to the point, where are they going to get the money to pay staff to work then. And don't start with that "they got paid with the snow days" bullshit. They're going to have to be paid. For Juneteenth, too.

MCPS employee here.... If I remember correctly, we got paid for make-up days last year. And this poster is correct. They probably will have to pay for Juneteenth and election day. Taylor said in the meeting that for each additional day that schools are open, it costs 2 million TAXPAYER dollars per day (that was his quote).

[Anonymous]

March 20 and April 15 are not planned as religious holidays, are workdays for teachers, and are literally listed as "Designated Make-up Day" in their own calendar:
https://publisher.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/pdf/2025-2026%20Traditional%20and%20Innovative%20School%20Year%20Calendars.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Zero chance school will EVER start a week earlier than it already does.... UNLESS it ENDS a week earlier. Teachers unions are very strong and teachers DO NOT want to come back a week earlier. I'm trying to figure out how when Hogan was in office, we managed to start after Labor Day and end by June 15 while still going 180 days??? I think the BOE and Taylor need to review the old calendars from those 8 years.

Good idea. If someone wants to look at this 2021-22 calendar and figure out where the extra days came from, here it is:

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/siteassets/schools/middle-schools/s-w/tildenms/uploadedfiles/back-to-school-info/school-year-calendar-2021-2022.pdf

Although this one is not after Labor Day - it's Aug 30 - June 15.

[Anonymous]

Here's 2018-2019: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://teacherquality.nctq.org/dmsView/0285_18_2018-19_SchoolCalendar&ved=2ahUKEwjQ7LaSmeiSAxVXFlkFHR48GuQQFnoECBAQAQ&usg=AOvVaw2Bv9-dJpYrnJ4juwux-MaD

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Zero chance school will EVER start a week earlier than it already does.... UNLESS it ENDS a week earlier. Teachers unions are very strong and teachers DO NOT want to come back a week earlier. I'm trying to figure out how when Hogan was in office, we managed to start after Labor Day and end by June 15 while still going 180 days??? I think the BOE and Taylor need to review the old calendars from those 8 years.

Good idea. If someone wants to look at this 2021-22 calendar and figure out where the extra days came from, here it is:

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/siteassets/schools/middle-schools/s-w/tildenms/uploadedfiles/back-to-school-info/school-year-calendar-2021-2022.pdf

Although this one is not after Labor Day - it's Aug 30 - June 15.

Quick glance: No transition day, no Weds before Thanksgiving, no Eid x2, no lunar new year, no Diwali, one of the Jewish holidays fell on a weekend, no Election Day, no Juneteenth?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here's 2018-2019: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://teacherquality.nctq.org/dmsView/0285_18_2018-19_SchoolCalendar&ved=2ahUKEwjQ7LaSmeiSAxVXFlkFHR48GuQQFnoECBAQAQ&usg=AOvVaw2Bv9-dJpYrnJ4juwux-MaD

Looks like they used to have half days for end of quarter grading/planning instead of full.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here's 2018-2019: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://teacherquality.nctq.org/dmsView/0285_18_2018-19_SchoolCalendar&ved=2ahUKEwjQ7LaSmeiSAxVXFlkFHR48GuQQFnoECBAQAQ&usg=AOvVaw2Bv9-dJpYrnJ4juwux-MaD

Really short spring break?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:March 20 and April 15 are not planned as religious holidays, are workdays for teachers, and are literally listed as "Designated Make-up Day" in their own calendar:
https://publisher.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/pdf/2025-2026%20Traditional%20and%20Innovative%20School%20Year%20Calendars.pdf

They are religious holidays. That is their purpose.

[Anonymous]

I don't know anyone who will show up. It's not like there's going to be any teaching going on.

- 15 years as an MCPS parent.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:By using religious holidays as contingency days, they are setting themselves up for problems. They either need to use non-religious days or plan to go til end of June.

If we only use non-religious days as the contingency plan, it would require using spring break as the contingency days. I am ok with that, but lots of people are not. The bottom line is that there is no way to fit in all the days that everyone wants to have off without going earlier at the start of the year or later at the end of the year. It is time to make some hard decisions for future years.

They could start earlier in the year and add more days into the calendar. And they could use the PD days like the end-of-quarter planning days, although some of these are already contingency days and MCPS refuses to use them too.

I guarantee the county would be upset if schools opened up while the Agricultural Fair is in session. They invest a TON of money into the fair and the fairgrounds and if everyone is in school they will lose a ton

So what? MCPS is not the county gov't.

They do not work independently of each other for the most part.

Sure they do. I was required to go to jury duty on the Thursday after the Sunday storm. County offices were open. Just not MCPS. If MCPS wants to be special, it shouldn’t care about the ag fair…

The issue is many of us couldn't get there safely but they could have done virtual.

No they couldn’t have. Because MCPS did not submit the virtual learning for weather emergency plan to the state of Maryland that it promised to do in 2024, like Baltimore and Anne Arundel counties did. MCPS is the slacker school district.

+1

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:By using religious holidays as contingency days, they are setting themselves up for problems. They either need to use non-religious days or plan to go til end of June.

If we only use non-religious days as the contingency plan, it would require using spring break as the contingency days. I am ok with that, but lots of people are not. The bottom line is that there is no way to fit in all the days that everyone wants to have off without going earlier at the start of the year or later at the end of the year. It is time to make some hard decisions for future years.

They could start earlier in the year and add more days into the calendar. And they could use the PD days like the end-of-quarter planning days, although some of these are already contingency days and MCPS refuses to use them too.

I guarantee the county would be upset if schools opened up while the Agricultural Fair is in session. They invest a TON of money into the fair and the fairgrounds and if everyone is in school they will lose a ton

So what? MCPS is not the county gov't.

They do not work independently of each other for the most part.

Sure they do. I was required to go to jury duty on the Thursday after the Sunday storm. County offices were open. Just not MCPS. If MCPS wants to be special, it shouldn’t care about the ag fair…

The issue is many of us couldn't get there safely but they could have done virtual.

No they couldn’t have. Because MCPS did not submit the virtual learning for weather emergency plan to the state of Maryland that it promised to do in 2024, like Baltimore and Anne Arundel counties did. MCPS is the slacker school district.

+1

We can thank the parents and staff who had a fit about virtual saying it is bad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:By using religious holidays as contingency days, they are setting themselves up for problems. They either need to use non-religious days or plan to go til end of June.

If we only use non-religious days as the contingency plan, it would require using spring break as the contingency days. I am ok with that, but lots of people are not. The bottom line is that there is no way to fit in all the days that everyone wants to have off without going earlier at the start of the year or later at the end of the year. It is time to make some hard decisions for future years.

They could start earlier in the year and add more days into the calendar. And they could use the PD days like the end-of-quarter planning days, although some of these are already contingency days and MCPS refuses to use them too.

+1. Start one week earlier in August and build in an appropriate number of snow days into the calendar, instead of just 1 so we don’t have this calendar chaos and half assed extra half days in June each year.

That is stupid. Literally just stop giving so many snow days off. That Monday off was ridiculous when all other counties in MD went to school. And if they want to keep giving weeks off for inadequate snow removal, or a day off for flurries, they need to have virtual options set up and in place. It's not that hard but MCPS is the most privileged and laziest county in Maryland

I’m so over all of these religious holidays. If you want off for them, take them. The only one we should be off for is Christmas since 94% of Americans celebrate. Easter Monday is completely made up. And honestly, Presidents’ Day? Labor Day. No one “celebrates” these. I rather tie kids have a summer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know anyone who will show up. It's not like there's going to be any teaching going on.

- 15 years as an MCPS parent.

Lots of kids show up because it may be the only two guaranteed meals they get those days.

A lot of our high FARMS schools see high attendance on those make up days for those reasons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:March 20 and April 15 are not planned as religious holidays, are workdays for teachers, and are literally listed as "Designated Make-up Day" in their own calendar:
https://publisher.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/pdf/2025-2026%20Traditional%20and%20Innovative%20School%20Year%20Calendars.pdf

They are religious holidays. That is their purpose.

Not April 15th. That's the grading and planning day at the end of MP3.