latest calendar survey

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Vote no on long winter break
Vote no on random religious holidays
Vote no on early release days
Vote no on 4 day school weeks

Vote yes on getting out earlier in the year.

I will vote yes on a long winter break.
I will vote yes on 4-day school weeks.

I will vote no on ES early-release days, but yes on end-of-quarter and end-of-year early release days.

I will vote no on random religious holidays even though my religion "benefits" from a few of the religious holidays.

There wasn't an option to vote no on ES early release days, which is what I really wanted. Those need to go. They are so disruptive and having them mid-week is even worse.

The board thinks they “solved” this with limiting to eight. Be in touch to tell them it isn’t sufficient.

They limited it to four, not eight. The lack of ES planning time has been a problem since Garza got rid of half day Mondays. People cheered that but nothing was built in to replace that time. Reid snuck these random and disruptive early release days in because of the new state training a couple of years ago and then just sneakily kept scheduling them. The board didn’t call her on it.

They limited it to 8 and specifically applied that limit to ES. This would include any combination of 3 hour early releases and end of quarter early releases. Reid did not sound attached to end of quarter early releases, especially not for every quarter.

The end of quarter early releases can go too as far as I’m concerned.

Having a teacher work day at the end of each quarter is normal. Tacking a staff development or school planning/meeting day onto one of the quarter ends is also normal, or using a minor federal holiday as a school planning day like Columbus Day. But having a teacher work day and a school planning day AND a 2 hour early release at the end of every quarter is more than most districts get by a lot.

A few years ago, they eliminated ALL early release days because of parent feedback, and then they brought them back in full force. It's like they make a change to address one aspect of the feedback and immediately forget all prior years' feedback. I wish there had been a space to share my thoughts. I personally would rather have a full day off than several early release days. Everyone can be more productive that way.

I wonder if, perhaps - hear me out - the teacher's union is the problem...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just took it. I was surprised how short it was AND surprised we got to actually vote on getting rid of the religious holidays. I did note that Christmas was included in the list of religious holidays so hope that doesn't confuse people since obviously we aren't going to be going to school on xmas since no one would be there.

Same with day before Thanksgiving. I don't think that question is based in reality either.

Setting days off years in advance to movable sun holidays that don’t actually become solidified until a religious leader determines the actual day is a fool’s errand. Let me know what people celebrate their religious holiday early because FCPS put it on the calendar. Zero. And they will still take their actual day off of school! Make this make sense! It doesn’t and FCPS should not be scheduling these as holidays.

When I was in FCPS I believe the day before Thanksgiving was a half day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was dissatisfied with the survey. I want to take a survey about how dumb the survey was.

There is nowhere to express any thoughts.

People overwhelmingly want a shorter school year, longer summer break, and much fewer days off for any reason during the year. And an end to half days/early releases. There was no way to express that.

Speak for yourself. I don't want a longer summer break. Coordinating summer camps is hellish and expensive for working parents who don't have summers off

How is that worse than coordinating care for random days off?

+1

Camp schedule/sign up can be a pain but at least once you’re signed up its not early release and random Tuesday off every week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was dissatisfied with the survey. I want to take a survey about how dumb the survey was.

There is nowhere to express any thoughts.

People overwhelmingly want a shorter school year, longer summer break, and much fewer days off for any reason during the year. And an end to half days/early releases. There was no way to express that.

Speak for yourself. I don't want a longer summer break. Coordinating summer camps is hellish and expensive for working parents who don't have summers off

My kids are at a school with a 12 week summer break. I find it easier to coordinate summer camps than I did to work around random days off when they were in FCPS. With a camp it's week by week.

I will agree it's expensive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was dissatisfied with the survey. I want to take a survey about how dumb the survey was.

There is nowhere to express any thoughts.

People overwhelmingly want a shorter school year, longer summer break, and much fewer days off for any reason during the year. And an end to half days/early releases. There was no way to express that.

Speak for yourself. I don't want a longer summer break. Coordinating summer camps is hellish and expensive for working parents who don't have summers off

You know some momma is going to come on here and say "school isn't childcare. it's your fault for choosing to work. we do just fine on one income."

I bet they don't want longer summers either. Sahm's always complain about how hard summer is and can't wait to get their kids back to school

[Anonymous]

I would rather have full days off versus these early releases. Early release days just mean our kids aren’t doing anything. It is an excuse to watch a movie.

There was no place in the survey to give Thai feedback.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was dissatisfied with the survey. I want to take a survey about how dumb the survey was.

There is nowhere to express any thoughts.

People overwhelmingly want a shorter school year, longer summer break, and much fewer days off for any reason during the year. And an end to half days/early releases. There was no way to express that.

Speak for yourself. I don't want a longer summer break. Coordinating summer camps is hellish and expensive for working parents who don't have summers off

How is that worse than coordinating care for random days off?

I don't have lower elementary kids anymore...they can handle themselves for a few hours, but not for weeks

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hope it asks us to vote on a year-round school option! 9 weeks on, 2 weeks off, and an 8.5 week summer. (Plus, Labor Day, Memorial Day, and 3 days at Thanksgiving.)

no one wants this.

Actually, quite a few people do want this.

Yeah, but then you're going to moan and complain about "these inbetween breaks are sooooo hard to find childcare for."

You think you want this, but you don't want this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was dissatisfied with the survey. I want to take a survey about how dumb the survey was.

There is nowhere to express any thoughts.

People overwhelmingly want a shorter school year, longer summer break, and much fewer days off for any reason during the year. And an end to half days/early releases. There was no way to express that.

+100

I think it's all lip service to say "We offered a chance for feedback from parents."

[Anonymous]

I'm a fed. Teacher work days on federal holidays works best for me since I'm already off. The other random days either require me to burn leave or pay $$$ for some camp. I hate it.

[Anonymous]

Anyone had enough of this year and aren't going to school after today? It feels like the year should be done by now.

[Anonymous]

In after Labor Day out right after Memorial Day. 2 weeks between fall and spring, fall break and spring break with appropriate federal holidays off. Many places do it, FCPS can as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In after Labor Day out right after Memorial Day. 2 weeks between fall and spring, fall break and spring break with appropriate federal holidays off. Many places do it, FCPS can as well.

They have never done this. Even when we had the same exact calendar every year, religious holidays only if they were also federal holidays (ex: Christmas), a shorter winter break, a shorter Thanksgiving, and all that back in the late 90s we still got out mid-June.

[Anonymous]

I like how they lumped in Christmas with the other holidays for that option about removing religious holidays. They clearly did that so people afraid that they'd have school on Christmas wouldn't rank that option at the bottom. I hope no one is fooled by this. They aren't going to have school on Christmas no matter what happens to the other holidays.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In after Labor Day out right after Memorial Day. 2 weeks between fall and spring, fall break and spring break with appropriate federal holidays off. Many places do it, FCPS can as well.

Except there is a law in Va about hours or days- and that system doesn’t have enough of either.