FCPS Calendar C Option?

[Anonymous]

Winter break just HAPPENS to ALWAYS straddle the solar-calendar-based holiday. Such a coincidence. I apologize, those of us who celebrate lunar-calendar-based New Year holidays should just shut up and be grateful you allow us to live amongst you and send our children to your schools. We apologize for asking for our culture and our children to be treated with respect. Please forgive us.

Basically this.
It is a thing THE ENTIRE WORLD OVER to build your school/work holidays around the holidays that the biggest share of your population celebrates. By far the biggest share of our country celebrates Christmas and celebrates New Years on 1/1. And so the work and school calendars naturally reflect that.

Not giving everyone off for every holiday that a relatively small % of the population celebrates does not mean they are not respected, it just means that it does not impact that vast majority of the population and so the vast majority of the population does not need to have a mandatory holiday from school/work.

Fight for more consistency re: make-up's on religious holidays and how FCPS can best support that. But there are tons and tons of holidays, we can't keep adding a day for all on when they impact a very small % of the school system.

Frankly I like C best but mostly because I hate that the kids have those back to back holiday breaks right after starting school & labor day - it makes the start of the year so choppy. I'm fine with divorcing spring break from Easter but also don't want it in March; not everyone can travel for it - the weather's better in early April and it's a better spacing since we already get a few days off in Jan & Feb to break up the LONG spring stretch.

[Anonymous]

Spring break in March seems silly - the weather can still be bad in March. Hell, we've had snowstorms in March before!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just saw that on today's SB meeting, they added a new calendar C option that removes the new 4 religious holidays? It also moves spring break to a fixed week.

https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/BXTJNC4DF7C7/$file/2020-12-03%20SB%20Work%20Session%20Calendar%20Presentation%20Final.pdf

At this point I'd rather they just settle on something and keep it roughly the same from year to year.

Good, those explicitly religious holidays should not be in the school calendar.

Agreed. Schools should be in session during all explicitly religious holidays. Just make sure that when your child misses tests or other assignments on Christmas or Easter, you are prepared to contact the school to advocate for them EVERY YEAR because the law says observing a religious holiday means they should not be penalized.

Well, Easter is always on a Sunday, and I'm not aware of any public school that's open on Sundays.

As for Christmas, FCPS doesn't have a Christmas holiday. It has a 2 week Winter Break.

A winter break that just HAPPENS to ALWAYS straddle the Christmas holiday. Such a coincidence. I apologize, those of us who celebrate non-Christian holidays should just shut up and be grateful you allow us to live amongst you and send our children to your schools. We apologize for asking for our faith and our children to be treated with respect. Please forgive us.

AND New Year's Day too!

Winter break just HAPPENS to ALWAYS straddle the solar-calendar-based holiday. Such a coincidence. I apologize, those of us who celebrate lunar-calendar-based New Year holidays should just shut up and be grateful you allow us to live amongst you and send our children to your schools. We apologize for asking for our culture and our children to be treated with respect. Please forgive us.

HAHAHA!

[Anonymous]

There are also businesses to consider. Many businesses like to work in sync across the DC area. This is why winter break usually isn't that big a deal to companies both providing services during Christmas or taking a break during this time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The other issue is if they adopt Calendar C it will not match Loudoun, PW or Arlington. So staff will have different breaks than there kids. All of the calendars should align.

Why must we align? Parks& Rec have camps during spring brk.

I totally disagree with aligning with other districts. If we stagger, we get better travel deals from local airports.

This. I don't give a shit what other districts are doing. It sucks if you work/have a kid in different districts. But, you know what, that is the plight of all working parents. Sorry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just saw that on today's SB meeting, they added a new calendar C option that removes the new 4 religious holidays? It also moves spring break to a fixed week.

https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/BXTJNC4DF7C7/$file/2020-12-03%20SB%20Work%20Session%20Calendar%20Presentation%20Final.pdf

At this point I'd rather they just settle on something and keep it roughly the same from year to year.

Good, those explicitly religious holidays should not be in the school calendar.

Agreed. Schools should be in session during all explicitly religious holidays. Just make sure that when your child misses tests or other assignments on Christmas or Easter, you are prepared to contact the school to advocate for them EVERY YEAR because the law says observing a religious holiday means they should not be penalized.

Well, Easter is always on a Sunday, and I'm not aware of any public school that's open on Sundays.

As for Christmas, FCPS doesn't have a Christmas holiday. It has a 2 week Winter Break.

A winter break that just HAPPENS to ALWAYS straddle the Christmas holiday. Such a coincidence. I apologize, those of us who celebrate non-Christian holidays should just shut up and be grateful you allow us to live amongst you and send our children to your schools. We apologize for asking for our faith and our children to be treated with respect. Please forgive us.

Yes, please shut up. If your faith is only validated by a school calendar, you should probably re-evaluate your faith.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought the 2021-2022 calendar was already set.

You posted this without reading the first page?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Good, I really don’t understand why Spring break always fall doing the holly week.

Agree, but who wants Spring Break in mid-March? April is so much better weather wise, whether you're travelling somewhere south to the beach or just staying home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Winter break just HAPPENS to ALWAYS straddle the solar-calendar-based holiday. Such a coincidence. I apologize, those of us who celebrate lunar-calendar-based New Year holidays should just shut up and be grateful you allow us to live amongst you and send our children to your schools. We apologize for asking for our culture and our children to be treated with respect. Please forgive us.

Basically this.
It is a thing THE ENTIRE WORLD OVER to build your school/work holidays around the holidays that the biggest share of your population celebrates. By far the biggest share of our country celebrates Christmas and celebrates New Years on 1/1. And so the work and school calendars naturally reflect that.

Not giving everyone off for every holiday that a relatively small % of the population celebrates does not mean they are not respected, it just means that it does not impact that vast majority of the population and so the vast majority of the population does not need to have a mandatory holiday from school/work.

Fight for more consistency re: make-up's on religious holidays and how FCPS can best support that. But there are tons and tons of holidays, we can't keep adding a day for all on when they impact a very small % of the school system.

Frankly I like C best but mostly because I hate that the kids have those back to back holiday breaks right after starting school & labor day - it makes the start of the year so choppy. I'm fine with divorcing spring break from Easter but also don't want it in March; not everyone can travel for it - the weather's better in early April and it's a better spacing since we already get a few days off in Jan & Feb to break up the LONG spring stretch.

IT IS ALSO A THING that there is no set time or length to do this among countries in the world.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring_break

I've always thought spring break was totally unnecessary for any grade. What, the excuse is that students need a "mental break"?

[Anonymous]

Does the school board understand that businesses count on a similar timeframe each year school will be in session from year to year? It's very difficult to maintain a business when they keep changing things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Spring break in March seems silly - the weather can still be bad in March. Hell, we've had snowstorms in March before!

Do you realize that almost ALL colleges have spring break in March? Usually early March...like first or second week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Spring break in March seems silly - the weather can still be bad in March. Hell, we've had snowstorms in March before!

Do you realize that almost ALL colleges have spring break in March? Usually early March...like first or second week.

Yes. But they are also done for the year in May.

FCPS needs to continue to do spring break around the Easter week. It doesn’t conflict with colleges and more often than not, it’s in April which is better weather.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Spring break in March seems silly - the weather can still be bad in March. Hell, we've had snowstorms in March before!

Do you realize that almost ALL colleges have spring break in March? Usually early March...like first or second week.

Yes. But they are also done for the year in May.

FCPS needs to continue to do spring break around the Easter week. It doesn’t conflict with colleges and more often than not, it’s in April which is better weather.

Do you realize Easter is in March sometimes?

Fixed week. March or April. Don’t care - what I do care about is finally being able to afford to travel somewhere during spring break.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m always thinking ahead, guys - my husband wanted to teach in a high needs school somewhere I told him he could find that in FCPS and he had to teach here to be on the same schedule as our kids

Doesn’t everyone realize that’s a possibility if you’re not in the same district as your kids?

That sounds like a personal family problem and not something that should be considered when making a schedule that's best for 180,000 kids.

This! I also know plenty of people who teach at private schools or community colleges and have different breaks from their public school kids. You just deal with it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought the 2021-2022 calendar was already set.

You posted this without reading the first page?

I read it. Just read it again. I don’t see anything that says it was already voted on and approved last year, which is what I thought was the case. The SB had been approving calendars well in advance of this in recent years.