Although I strongly suspect that MCPS monitors this board, I hope that everyone who is opposed to the calendar shift has written in to the Board of Education to express their opinion, as well as has completed the survey.
Anonymous wrote:Who knows what they will do. Maybe MCEA is calling Taylor's bluff which I support. If your kid misses the first two days of school, it will be fine, hardly catastrophic if not ideal. I assume it will be worse for the teachers to have kids slowly streaming in the first 3 days of school. Seems like this will mean starting off with 2 fewer days of actual instruction. If teachers miss 3 days of preservice, I feel for them and hope they don't lose leave days because of it. Taylor and the BOE have done a lot of stupid things, this is one on a very long list of them.
Of course they will have to take leave if they don’t show up for work.
That sucks because in order to show up many will have to lose money on travel that has been booked or other jobs. I don't know about you but I think that's a 5h!tty way to treat my kid's wonderful teachers.
I hope teachers are pushing MCPS to choose another option, and for the union to negotiate to allow makeups as 1/2 days on grading and reporting. Otherwise they will need to show up as early as Aug 10th.
MCEA told teachers there is nothing they can do except fill out the survey, unfortunately. I agree that they could be doing more to push Taylor and the board. But they didn't even poll teachers.
MCEA has no input on the calendar.
They have impact on the grading days. That’s what TT is targeting. He wants MCEA to relent on that contract requirement.
Teachers need those days for grading and reporting. Better to get rid of a few PD days, and make the day before Thanksgiving and 12/23 early release days, and get rid of transition day.
Better yet, people need to advocate for counting hours of instruction or (not and) days.
In reality MCPS never utilizes the feedback from its surveys. They’ve already made the decision regarding the calendar.
PD is required by state law. If we have a snow day, teachers should use that to catch up on grading and allow the next grading to be a makeup day.
I’m very against getting rid of the days requirement
And if the snow day falls two weeks into the marking period?
Use the snow day to get ahead on planning. Then you have more time for grading later on. It's not that hard. A day without school that you are being paid for should be used productively and replace the day you would have had for that planning/grading.
I'm not a teacher but I have a young child and don't get a lot done on most snow days since they also close child care on those days.
Then like everyone else, teachers should have to take PTO or a sick day to cover the childcare on those days. Why are teachers the exception here and expect they don't have to work when being paid to do so on a snow day? I also have to work and have an elementary student. If I can't work, I have to take PTO.
That's ridiculous. Teachers have so little flexibility in the first place. I don't support this at all. Especially given workloads for teachers like for many professionals vary throughout the year. Working on a snow day in February is simply not going to make up for losing a grading day in April. Stop embarrassing yourself.
Then start advocating for TT and MCPS to use the holidays they've already designated as makeup days. Truly, those are the only two options.
No, there are multiple options. Some are more realistic than others. TT is recommending the worst option in hopes of getting teachers to give up their grading and planning days, which I do not support for the reasons I have already discussed.
The designated makeup days in the approved 2026-27 calendar are:
October 16 2026 - obviously not helpful
November 2 2026 - obviously not helpful
March 9 - aligns with Eid al Adha
April 16 - aligns with Eid al Fitr
June 17, 21, 22 and 23 - all occur after the last day of school and three of them they can't use now because they are after Juneteenth (they wouldn't have used them anyway, as we all know)
The only designated makeup days on the calendar that occur after snow days are reasonably likely to happen and occur before the last day of school are both on Muslim holidays.
I totally understand that many if not most families are fine with using both Eids to make up snow days, but the BOE will never approve that. MCPS needs buy in from the Muslim community and they certainly can't get that by only using their holidays as makeup days.
You have your dates wrong.
Eid Al-fitr is March 9.
Eid Al-adha is May 17
Every Muslim family I know is super into education. I wish a community of them would come forward and say -- look, we'd rather you use these days as makeup days rather than mess up everybody's plans, and upset the teachers so much.
The state rule requiring a 4-day weekend for easter is ridiculous and should absolutely be changed, but for some dumb reason no one got that through Annapolis this year. Maybe this will be the push to get it done next year.
I personally think school holidays for religious holidays are dumb. I grew up in a religious family where we regularly took the day off school, or left early/went in late, due to mandatory observance rules. It was fine. We just made it up. Schools are flexible about that. I honestly don't believe many parents really care that much about having it off....I suspect it was a few squeaky wheels that felt disrespected this year.
Enjoy your bubble. Many families have issues with the day being excused, but not closed. Students need to make up work. Students who missed days for other reasons around then will have even more trouble making up work. It's actually quite a problem because many families will opt to send the children to school to avoid those issues.
But again, a school system cannot cater to each individual's need to be out of school. Up thread many pages ago there was a mom of a kid who often has to be out for a medical issue. The school can't stop teaching because her kid is out. The population of kids that will be out for many of these holidays is extremely, extremely tiny in MCPS. If its a choice about moving the start date earlier, when people already have paid for trips and camps (many MORE people than will be affected by having a holiday as a potential makeup day -- not even a definitive day of school) and designating a makeup day for a holiday a few people celebrate, I choose the latter.
It is not up to you. It doesn't matter how many people post this on DCUM. The BOE will not approve it.
The BOE has approved bad calendars for 2024-25, 2025-26 and 2026-27. And it's not because they scheduled non instructional days on Eid. It's because they have progressively reduced the number of instructional days for different reasons and for multiple religious groups without adding other instructional days to make up for it. And the makeup days they are willing to use fall at the end of the school year, often into the following week during which staff and students have camps, travel and other jobs planned. This is simply not workable, and it's not the fault of the Muslim community. It is on TT and the BOE.
I mean, they literally sent out a survey asking people whether they preferred removing holidays or the last week of summer. So, sure, it's ultimately up the BoE, but they're elected by "us" and are pretending to get input from "us", so it seems fine for "us" to discuss it on a public forum.
Nobody said you can't discuss it.
Survey responses are not votes. They are tools for MCPS to use to justify whatever decision they deem to be in their best interest.
You can scream about how stupid it is to not have school on Eid. Feel free to continue posting on it. But you and I both know it's not a solution. Not only because the BOE won't use it, but also because only one of the Eids is a designated makeup day. They need three days before the scheduled last day of school that they can actually use. Even if you INSIST they can actually use the one Eid day, that's still only one day. They need more days besides Eid. And if they do use Eid as one of the days, they will never use the other Eid as the second day. The NEED to look at the transition day and November 9 and also try to get the law changed on President's Day, Good Friday and Easter Monday for future years. That is, if they want to stop causing mass chaos every year (I think TT loves the chaos so...)
This isn't about Eid specifically! This is about them using the days they've ALREADY DESIGNATED which includes Eid but is not exclusive to Eid.
Which other days that they have ALREADY DESIGNATED do you propose they use either as planned instructional day or as a makeup day?
They have 3 designated after winter break: March 9, June 17, and April 16 which seems to be a misprint, but I would say should be April 22 which is non-instruction for Passover. There, done. We have the 3 makeup days we need before Juneteenth.
My guess is the April 16 day is the grading day and is probably unusable due to it being in the collective bargaining agreement with the teachers, unless they cave again like they did this year. But I think it is unlikely they will use it especially if it is also Passover.
April 16, 2027 does not align with Passover.
April 22, which is currently no school for teachers or students, does. Use that day as the makeup
April 22 is not a designated makeup day
But it should be.
Exactly. Passover Seders are in the evening, and if people were planning to travel for them... well at least they have almost 1 year's notice instead of < 4 months!
Ok. Good luck with that.
I assume you are the same negative nelly who has been posting the last several pages... so what is your solution then?
Have school on
Transition Day
November 9
End the school year two days earlier than planned
Which isn't even one of the options. They've already passed a compliant calendar. They don't even have to make any changes to it. They just have to be willing to use it.
But they aren't willing to use it. Which is why they need to change it. It is on TT for proposing the most disruptive option.
And TT is not willing to give up Transition Day. And even though November 9 isn't actually Diwali, its perceived to have the same issues as using Eid and Passover.
The BOE can overrule TT. As far as November 9, it is Diwali, just not the main day. It does not have the same issue as using Eid.
I think we both know the likelihood of them doing what you're proposing and the likelihood of them using any holiday throughout the year as either an instructional or makeup day are about the same. Slim to none. They're going to rubber stamp the earlier start and its going to cause chaos. Completely unnecessary chaos.
The new state guidelines require school to be over by Juneteenth--so no more MCPS trying to extend the school year til June 22 next year if there are snow days and MCPS continues on its trajectory of refusing to use its designated makeup days as it did this year.
So yes, you have to start earlier in August--it's not going to be chaos. It's going to be a lot of grumbling by teachers this year, and then people will get used to it.
It's not a state requirement. They only need to do it if they want to be eligible for a waiver to avoid having to make up snow days. If they're willing to actually make up snow days (which IMO they should be) then they don't need to change a thing.
Given that MCPS opted not to use its makeup days this year and did get a waiver to shortchange kids 3 days of instructional time, the requirement to end school by Juneteenth seems fairly relevant.
What do you mean?
The point is the state is not actually going to penalize MCPS. They broke their own rules to grant a waiver this year.
Sure, and told MCPS explicitly to not rely on extending the year beyond Juneteenth again. So MCPS' solution is to not actually use the within-year makeup days, its to move the year so they can still tack on days at the end. It's utter BS.
Which is why it makes sense to start earlier in August since MCPS refuses to use its own designated makeup days. Of course you can wish that MCPS would get rid of transition day, Diwali, or teacher grading days or whatever. But it's not happening. No one is proposing those things.
So instead we're disrupting the entire county... teachers, parents, students, the Ag Fair... and tacking on three earlier days that many kids will still not attend just to save face when it comes to "equity"
This reminds me of the Hogan era when we couldn't start school before Labor Day because the Eastern shore would be "disrupted." Your precious Ag fair will survive even if the school year starts earlier, just like the Eastern shore survived the start of school in August.
And tacking on extra school days isn't "equity"--it's a requirement so that MCPS school kids aren't shortchanged relative to other kids in the state and country, as occurred this year.
The equity piece is about making sure every group no matter how small a population gets their holidays off. It’s not workable.
As for your other points, fine if the calendar is preplanned. Changing it after it’s already approved serves no one.
No one preplanned losing so many days due to the snow day closings this year. Parents, students and teachers had to roll with the changes. That MCPS requested a waiver to not have the required number of instructional days was also not preplanned.
Yet somehow, when MCPS tries to adjust its calendar for next year to learn from the lessons from the scheduling fiasco this 2025-2026, they can't do that 4 months in advance because it's not "preplanned."
You realize that this fix truly isn’t fixing what you think it is. They’re not extending the year by 3 days. They’re just shifting everything earlier. If we have more than 3 days of closures this year again we’re in the same spot as we were last year. Just with having disrupted everyone’s end of summer
You realize that MCPS can't keep pulling the same BS year after a year of asking the state to waive the required number of days. Maryland told MCPS not to request a waiver again this year, and not to tack on a bunch of days in late June. I don't know how you think MCPS gets to 180 days next year other than by using your magical powers to ensure it doesn't snow next year (keeping in mind that MCPS likes to close for freezing rain and severe cold too.)
Again, this “fix” only allows them to use the three days after the new end of year before Juneteenth and bypass the other makeup days it identified. The only change is now they’re before Juneteenth at the expense of everyone’s 2026 summer plans. If we have 4 days of snow or cold, MCPS gets its waiver and we have 179 days. There’s no guarantee of 180 days with this proposal. Quite the opposite actually. They’re doing this precisely so they can get a waiver.
Did you miss the part this year where MCPS tried to extend the school year til June 22 to make 180 days happen? They got a waiver this year to avoid doing that, but the state told Maryland not to do this again next year. So yes, your summer plans may get screwed up because they need to start earlier in August. Take it up with your union, but MCPS can't create 180 days of instructional time out of thin air.
Again, take a look at the calendar of literally any other school system in Maryland. Aug 24 - June 18 offers much more than enough time for 180 instructional days.
Unlike other school districts, MCPS did not use all of its scheduled spring makeup days, secure waivers of otherwise mandatory state holidays, or have the school board approve a virtual learning plan as a last resort for multi-day closures. MCPS is the "dog ate my homework" school district.
+1 Since 2016, MCPS has reduced scheduled school days from 184 to 181. This year, only half of the 18 weeks before January were full five-day weeks. At the same time, MCPS scheduled nearly all contingency days in the fall and early winter—when they are unlikely to be used—or in late June, after testing ends and attendance declines.
+2 What strikes me is that MCPS still has so few snow days built into its calendar compared to other Maryland school districts (just 1 while others have 3 or 4 according to the article below) when it didn't bother to do a virtual learning plan for bad weather days. What did they expect to happen? Carroll County builds builds its calendar so that it will remove days at the end of the year if snow days go unused--why can't MCPS do that rather than not building in snow days and causing chaos each year about when the school year ends in June?
Anonymous wrote:Who knows what they will do. Maybe MCEA is calling Taylor's bluff which I support. If your kid misses the first two days of school, it will be fine, hardly catastrophic if not ideal. I assume it will be worse for the teachers to have kids slowly streaming in the first 3 days of school. Seems like this will mean starting off with 2 fewer days of actual instruction. If teachers miss 3 days of preservice, I feel for them and hope they don't lose leave days because of it. Taylor and the BOE have done a lot of stupid things, this is one on a very long list of them.
Of course they will have to take leave if they don’t show up for work.
That sucks because in order to show up many will have to lose money on travel that has been booked or other jobs. I don't know about you but I think that's a 5h!tty way to treat my kid's wonderful teachers.
I hope teachers are pushing MCPS to choose another option, and for the union to negotiate to allow makeups as 1/2 days on grading and reporting. Otherwise they will need to show up as early as Aug 10th.
MCEA told teachers there is nothing they can do except fill out the survey, unfortunately. I agree that they could be doing more to push Taylor and the board. But they didn't even poll teachers.
MCEA has no input on the calendar.
They have impact on the grading days. That’s what TT is targeting. He wants MCEA to relent on that contract requirement.
Teachers need those days for grading and reporting. Better to get rid of a few PD days, and make the day before Thanksgiving and 12/23 early release days, and get rid of transition day.
Better yet, people need to advocate for counting hours of instruction or (not and) days.
In reality MCPS never utilizes the feedback from its surveys. They’ve already made the decision regarding the calendar.
PD is required by state law. If we have a snow day, teachers should use that to catch up on grading and allow the next grading to be a makeup day.
I’m very against getting rid of the days requirement
And if the snow day falls two weeks into the marking period?
Use the snow day to get ahead on planning. Then you have more time for grading later on. It's not that hard. A day without school that you are being paid for should be used productively and replace the day you would have had for that planning/grading.
I'm not a teacher but I have a young child and don't get a lot done on most snow days since they also close child care on those days.
Then like everyone else, teachers should have to take PTO or a sick day to cover the childcare on those days. Why are teachers the exception here and expect they don't have to work when being paid to do so on a snow day? I also have to work and have an elementary student. If I can't work, I have to take PTO.
That's ridiculous. Teachers have so little flexibility in the first place. I don't support this at all. Especially given workloads for teachers like for many professionals vary throughout the year. Working on a snow day in February is simply not going to make up for losing a grading day in April. Stop embarrassing yourself.
Then start advocating for TT and MCPS to use the holidays they've already designated as makeup days. Truly, those are the only two options.
No, there are multiple options. Some are more realistic than others. TT is recommending the worst option in hopes of getting teachers to give up their grading and planning days, which I do not support for the reasons I have already discussed.
The designated makeup days in the approved 2026-27 calendar are:
October 16 2026 - obviously not helpful
November 2 2026 - obviously not helpful
March 9 - aligns with Eid al Adha
April 16 - aligns with Eid al Fitr
June 17, 21, 22 and 23 - all occur after the last day of school and three of them they can't use now because they are after Juneteenth (they wouldn't have used them anyway, as we all know)
The only designated makeup days on the calendar that occur after snow days are reasonably likely to happen and occur before the last day of school are both on Muslim holidays.
I totally understand that many if not most families are fine with using both Eids to make up snow days, but the BOE will never approve that. MCPS needs buy in from the Muslim community and they certainly can't get that by only using their holidays as makeup days.
You have your dates wrong.
Eid Al-fitr is March 9.
Eid Al-adha is May 17
Every Muslim family I know is super into education. I wish a community of them would come forward and say -- look, we'd rather you use these days as makeup days rather than mess up everybody's plans, and upset the teachers so much.
The state rule requiring a 4-day weekend for easter is ridiculous and should absolutely be changed, but for some dumb reason no one got that through Annapolis this year. Maybe this will be the push to get it done next year.
I personally think school holidays for religious holidays are dumb. I grew up in a religious family where we regularly took the day off school, or left early/went in late, due to mandatory observance rules. It was fine. We just made it up. Schools are flexible about that. I honestly don't believe many parents really care that much about having it off....I suspect it was a few squeaky wheels that felt disrespected this year.
Enjoy your bubble. Many families have issues with the day being excused, but not closed. Students need to make up work. Students who missed days for other reasons around then will have even more trouble making up work. It's actually quite a problem because many families will opt to send the children to school to avoid those issues.
But again, a school system cannot cater to each individual's need to be out of school. Up thread many pages ago there was a mom of a kid who often has to be out for a medical issue. The school can't stop teaching because her kid is out. The population of kids that will be out for many of these holidays is extremely, extremely tiny in MCPS. If its a choice about moving the start date earlier, when people already have paid for trips and camps (many MORE people than will be affected by having a holiday as a potential makeup day -- not even a definitive day of school) and designating a makeup day for a holiday a few people celebrate, I choose the latter.
It is not up to you. It doesn't matter how many people post this on DCUM. The BOE will not approve it.
The BOE has approved bad calendars for 2024-25, 2025-26 and 2026-27. And it's not because they scheduled non instructional days on Eid. It's because they have progressively reduced the number of instructional days for different reasons and for multiple religious groups without adding other instructional days to make up for it. And the makeup days they are willing to use fall at the end of the school year, often into the following week during which staff and students have camps, travel and other jobs planned. This is simply not workable, and it's not the fault of the Muslim community. It is on TT and the BOE.
I mean, they literally sent out a survey asking people whether they preferred removing holidays or the last week of summer. So, sure, it's ultimately up the BoE, but they're elected by "us" and are pretending to get input from "us", so it seems fine for "us" to discuss it on a public forum.
Nobody said you can't discuss it.
Survey responses are not votes. They are tools for MCPS to use to justify whatever decision they deem to be in their best interest.
You can scream about how stupid it is to not have school on Eid. Feel free to continue posting on it. But you and I both know it's not a solution. Not only because the BOE won't use it, but also because only one of the Eids is a designated makeup day. They need three days before the scheduled last day of school that they can actually use. Even if you INSIST they can actually use the one Eid day, that's still only one day. They need more days besides Eid. And if they do use Eid as one of the days, they will never use the other Eid as the second day. The NEED to look at the transition day and November 9 and also try to get the law changed on President's Day, Good Friday and Easter Monday for future years. That is, if they want to stop causing mass chaos every year (I think TT loves the chaos so...)
This isn't about Eid specifically! This is about them using the days they've ALREADY DESIGNATED which includes Eid but is not exclusive to Eid.
Which other days that they have ALREADY DESIGNATED do you propose they use either as planned instructional day or as a makeup day?
They have 3 designated after winter break: March 9, June 17, and April 16 which seems to be a misprint, but I would say should be April 22 which is non-instruction for Passover. There, done. We have the 3 makeup days we need before Juneteenth.
My guess is the April 16 day is the grading day and is probably unusable due to it being in the collective bargaining agreement with the teachers, unless they cave again like they did this year. But I think it is unlikely they will use it especially if it is also Passover.
April 16, 2027 does not align with Passover.
April 22, which is currently no school for teachers or students, does. Use that day as the makeup
April 22 is not a designated makeup day
But it should be.
Exactly. Passover Seders are in the evening, and if people were planning to travel for them... well at least they have almost 1 year's notice instead of < 4 months!
Ok. Good luck with that.
I assume you are the same negative nelly who has been posting the last several pages... so what is your solution then?
Have school on
Transition Day
November 9
End the school year two days earlier than planned
Which isn't even one of the options. They've already passed a compliant calendar. They don't even have to make any changes to it. They just have to be willing to use it.
But they aren't willing to use it. Which is why they need to change it. It is on TT for proposing the most disruptive option.
And TT is not willing to give up Transition Day. And even though November 9 isn't actually Diwali, its perceived to have the same issues as using Eid and Passover.
The BOE can overrule TT. As far as November 9, it is Diwali, just not the main day. It does not have the same issue as using Eid.
I think we both know the likelihood of them doing what you're proposing and the likelihood of them using any holiday throughout the year as either an instructional or makeup day are about the same. Slim to none. They're going to rubber stamp the earlier start and its going to cause chaos. Completely unnecessary chaos.
The new state guidelines require school to be over by Juneteenth--so no more MCPS trying to extend the school year til June 22 next year if there are snow days and MCPS continues on its trajectory of refusing to use its designated makeup days as it did this year.
So yes, you have to start earlier in August--it's not going to be chaos. It's going to be a lot of grumbling by teachers this year, and then people will get used to it.
It's not a state requirement. They only need to do it if they want to be eligible for a waiver to avoid having to make up snow days. If they're willing to actually make up snow days (which IMO they should be) then they don't need to change a thing.
Given that MCPS opted not to use its makeup days this year and did get a waiver to shortchange kids 3 days of instructional time, the requirement to end school by Juneteenth seems fairly relevant.
What do you mean?
The point is the state is not actually going to penalize MCPS. They broke their own rules to grant a waiver this year.
Sure, and told MCPS explicitly to not rely on extending the year beyond Juneteenth again. So MCPS' solution is to not actually use the within-year makeup days, its to move the year so they can still tack on days at the end. It's utter BS.
Which is why it makes sense to start earlier in August since MCPS refuses to use its own designated makeup days. Of course you can wish that MCPS would get rid of transition day, Diwali, or teacher grading days or whatever. But it's not happening. No one is proposing those things.
So instead we're disrupting the entire county... teachers, parents, students, the Ag Fair... and tacking on three earlier days that many kids will still not attend just to save face when it comes to "equity"
This reminds me of the Hogan era when we couldn't start school before Labor Day because the Eastern shore would be "disrupted." Your precious Ag fair will survive even if the school year starts earlier, just like the Eastern shore survived the start of school in August.
And tacking on extra school days isn't "equity"--it's a requirement so that MCPS school kids aren't shortchanged relative to other kids in the state and country, as occurred this year.
The equity piece is about making sure every group no matter how small a population gets their holidays off. It’s not workable.
As for your other points, fine if the calendar is preplanned. Changing it after it’s already approved serves no one.
No one preplanned losing so many days due to the snow day closings this year. Parents, students and teachers had to roll with the changes. That MCPS requested a waiver to not have the required number of instructional days was also not preplanned.
Yet somehow, when MCPS tries to adjust its calendar for next year to learn from the lessons from the scheduling fiasco this 2025-2026, they can't do that 4 months in advance because it's not "preplanned."
You realize that this fix truly isn’t fixing what you think it is. They’re not extending the year by 3 days. They’re just shifting everything earlier. If we have more than 3 days of closures this year again we’re in the same spot as we were last year. Just with having disrupted everyone’s end of summer
You realize that MCPS can't keep pulling the same BS year after a year of asking the state to waive the required number of days. Maryland told MCPS not to request a waiver again this year, and not to tack on a bunch of days in late June. I don't know how you think MCPS gets to 180 days next year other than by using your magical powers to ensure it doesn't snow next year (keeping in mind that MCPS likes to close for freezing rain and severe cold too.)
Again, this “fix” only allows them to use the three days after the new end of year before Juneteenth and bypass the other makeup days it identified. The only change is now they’re before Juneteenth at the expense of everyone’s 2026 summer plans. If we have 4 days of snow or cold, MCPS gets its waiver and we have 179 days. There’s no guarantee of 180 days with this proposal. Quite the opposite actually. They’re doing this precisely so they can get a waiver.
Did you miss the part this year where MCPS tried to extend the school year til June 22 to make 180 days happen? They got a waiver this year to avoid doing that, but the state told Maryland not to do this again next year. So yes, your summer plans may get screwed up because they need to start earlier in August. Take it up with your union, but MCPS can't create 180 days of instructional time out of thin air.
Again, take a look at the calendar of literally any other school system in Maryland. Aug 24 - June 18 offers much more than enough time for 180 instructional days.
Unlike other school districts, MCPS did not use all of its scheduled spring makeup days, secure waivers of otherwise mandatory state holidays, or have the school board approve a virtual learning plan as a last resort for multi-day closures. MCPS is the "dog ate my homework" school district.
+1 Since 2016, MCPS has reduced scheduled school days from 184 to 181. This year, only half of the 18 weeks before January were full five-day weeks. At the same time, MCPS scheduled nearly all contingency days in the fall and early winter—when they are unlikely to be used—or in late June, after testing ends and attendance declines.
+2 What strikes me is that MCPS still has so few snow days built into its calendar compared to other Maryland school districts (just 1 while others have 3 or 4 according to the article below) when it didn't bother to do a virtual learning plan for bad weather days. What did they expect to happen? Carroll County builds builds its calendar so that it will remove days at the end of the year if snow days go unused--why can't MCPS do that rather than not building in snow days and causing chaos each year about when the school year ends in June?
Parents would be up in arms if the last day was moved up due to unused snow days. I’d love to see it.
Did I miss the news articles about the parents of Carroll county arming themselves due to changes in the school calendar? I grew up in NY State and we had the same type of calendar where if you didn't use the snow days, the school year ended earlier. You know by March what the snow days are and parents adjusted. I can assure you that no one was up in arms, and that it was far preferable to this MCPS chaos.
Anonymous wrote:Who knows what they will do. Maybe MCEA is calling Taylor's bluff which I support. If your kid misses the first two days of school, it will be fine, hardly catastrophic if not ideal. I assume it will be worse for the teachers to have kids slowly streaming in the first 3 days of school. Seems like this will mean starting off with 2 fewer days of actual instruction. If teachers miss 3 days of preservice, I feel for them and hope they don't lose leave days because of it. Taylor and the BOE have done a lot of stupid things, this is one on a very long list of them.
Of course they will have to take leave if they don’t show up for work.
That sucks because in order to show up many will have to lose money on travel that has been booked or other jobs. I don't know about you but I think that's a 5h!tty way to treat my kid's wonderful teachers.
I hope teachers are pushing MCPS to choose another option, and for the union to negotiate to allow makeups as 1/2 days on grading and reporting. Otherwise they will need to show up as early as Aug 10th.
MCEA told teachers there is nothing they can do except fill out the survey, unfortunately. I agree that they could be doing more to push Taylor and the board. But they didn't even poll teachers.
MCEA has no input on the calendar.
They have impact on the grading days. That’s what TT is targeting. He wants MCEA to relent on that contract requirement.
Teachers need those days for grading and reporting. Better to get rid of a few PD days, and make the day before Thanksgiving and 12/23 early release days, and get rid of transition day.
Better yet, people need to advocate for counting hours of instruction or (not and) days.
In reality MCPS never utilizes the feedback from its surveys. They’ve already made the decision regarding the calendar.
PD is required by state law. If we have a snow day, teachers should use that to catch up on grading and allow the next grading to be a makeup day.
I’m very against getting rid of the days requirement
And if the snow day falls two weeks into the marking period?
Use the snow day to get ahead on planning. Then you have more time for grading later on. It's not that hard. A day without school that you are being paid for should be used productively and replace the day you would have had for that planning/grading.
I'm not a teacher but I have a young child and don't get a lot done on most snow days since they also close child care on those days.
Then like everyone else, teachers should have to take PTO or a sick day to cover the childcare on those days. Why are teachers the exception here and expect they don't have to work when being paid to do so on a snow day? I also have to work and have an elementary student. If I can't work, I have to take PTO.
That's ridiculous. Teachers have so little flexibility in the first place. I don't support this at all. Especially given workloads for teachers like for many professionals vary throughout the year. Working on a snow day in February is simply not going to make up for losing a grading day in April. Stop embarrassing yourself.
Then start advocating for TT and MCPS to use the holidays they've already designated as makeup days. Truly, those are the only two options.
No, there are multiple options. Some are more realistic than others. TT is recommending the worst option in hopes of getting teachers to give up their grading and planning days, which I do not support for the reasons I have already discussed.
The designated makeup days in the approved 2026-27 calendar are:
October 16 2026 - obviously not helpful
November 2 2026 - obviously not helpful
March 9 - aligns with Eid al Adha
April 16 - aligns with Eid al Fitr
June 17, 21, 22 and 23 - all occur after the last day of school and three of them they can't use now because they are after Juneteenth (they wouldn't have used them anyway, as we all know)
The only designated makeup days on the calendar that occur after snow days are reasonably likely to happen and occur before the last day of school are both on Muslim holidays.
I totally understand that many if not most families are fine with using both Eids to make up snow days, but the BOE will never approve that. MCPS needs buy in from the Muslim community and they certainly can't get that by only using their holidays as makeup days.
You have your dates wrong.
Eid Al-fitr is March 9.
Eid Al-adha is May 17
Every Muslim family I know is super into education. I wish a community of them would come forward and say -- look, we'd rather you use these days as makeup days rather than mess up everybody's plans, and upset the teachers so much.
The state rule requiring a 4-day weekend for easter is ridiculous and should absolutely be changed, but for some dumb reason no one got that through Annapolis this year. Maybe this will be the push to get it done next year.
I personally think school holidays for religious holidays are dumb. I grew up in a religious family where we regularly took the day off school, or left early/went in late, due to mandatory observance rules. It was fine. We just made it up. Schools are flexible about that. I honestly don't believe many parents really care that much about having it off....I suspect it was a few squeaky wheels that felt disrespected this year.
Enjoy your bubble. Many families have issues with the day being excused, but not closed. Students need to make up work. Students who missed days for other reasons around then will have even more trouble making up work. It's actually quite a problem because many families will opt to send the children to school to avoid those issues.
But again, a school system cannot cater to each individual's need to be out of school. Up thread many pages ago there was a mom of a kid who often has to be out for a medical issue. The school can't stop teaching because her kid is out. The population of kids that will be out for many of these holidays is extremely, extremely tiny in MCPS. If its a choice about moving the start date earlier, when people already have paid for trips and camps (many MORE people than will be affected by having a holiday as a potential makeup day -- not even a definitive day of school) and designating a makeup day for a holiday a few people celebrate, I choose the latter.
It is not up to you. It doesn't matter how many people post this on DCUM. The BOE will not approve it.
The BOE has approved bad calendars for 2024-25, 2025-26 and 2026-27. And it's not because they scheduled non instructional days on Eid. It's because they have progressively reduced the number of instructional days for different reasons and for multiple religious groups without adding other instructional days to make up for it. And the makeup days they are willing to use fall at the end of the school year, often into the following week during which staff and students have camps, travel and other jobs planned. This is simply not workable, and it's not the fault of the Muslim community. It is on TT and the BOE.
I mean, they literally sent out a survey asking people whether they preferred removing holidays or the last week of summer. So, sure, it's ultimately up the BoE, but they're elected by "us" and are pretending to get input from "us", so it seems fine for "us" to discuss it on a public forum.
Nobody said you can't discuss it.
Survey responses are not votes. They are tools for MCPS to use to justify whatever decision they deem to be in their best interest.
You can scream about how stupid it is to not have school on Eid. Feel free to continue posting on it. But you and I both know it's not a solution. Not only because the BOE won't use it, but also because only one of the Eids is a designated makeup day. They need three days before the scheduled last day of school that they can actually use. Even if you INSIST they can actually use the one Eid day, that's still only one day. They need more days besides Eid. And if they do use Eid as one of the days, they will never use the other Eid as the second day. The NEED to look at the transition day and November 9 and also try to get the law changed on President's Day, Good Friday and Easter Monday for future years. That is, if they want to stop causing mass chaos every year (I think TT loves the chaos so...)
This isn't about Eid specifically! This is about them using the days they've ALREADY DESIGNATED which includes Eid but is not exclusive to Eid.
Which other days that they have ALREADY DESIGNATED do you propose they use either as planned instructional day or as a makeup day?
They have 3 designated after winter break: March 9, June 17, and April 16 which seems to be a misprint, but I would say should be April 22 which is non-instruction for Passover. There, done. We have the 3 makeup days we need before Juneteenth.
My guess is the April 16 day is the grading day and is probably unusable due to it being in the collective bargaining agreement with the teachers, unless they cave again like they did this year. But I think it is unlikely they will use it especially if it is also Passover.
April 16, 2027 does not align with Passover.
April 22, which is currently no school for teachers or students, does. Use that day as the makeup
April 22 is not a designated makeup day
But it should be.
Exactly. Passover Seders are in the evening, and if people were planning to travel for them... well at least they have almost 1 year's notice instead of < 4 months!
Ok. Good luck with that.
I assume you are the same negative nelly who has been posting the last several pages... so what is your solution then?
Have school on
Transition Day
November 9
End the school year two days earlier than planned
Which isn't even one of the options. They've already passed a compliant calendar. They don't even have to make any changes to it. They just have to be willing to use it.
But they aren't willing to use it. Which is why they need to change it. It is on TT for proposing the most disruptive option.
And TT is not willing to give up Transition Day. And even though November 9 isn't actually Diwali, its perceived to have the same issues as using Eid and Passover.
The BOE can overrule TT. As far as November 9, it is Diwali, just not the main day. It does not have the same issue as using Eid.
I think we both know the likelihood of them doing what you're proposing and the likelihood of them using any holiday throughout the year as either an instructional or makeup day are about the same. Slim to none. They're going to rubber stamp the earlier start and its going to cause chaos. Completely unnecessary chaos.
The new state guidelines require school to be over by Juneteenth--so no more MCPS trying to extend the school year til June 22 next year if there are snow days and MCPS continues on its trajectory of refusing to use its designated makeup days as it did this year.
So yes, you have to start earlier in August--it's not going to be chaos. It's going to be a lot of grumbling by teachers this year, and then people will get used to it.
It's not a state requirement. They only need to do it if they want to be eligible for a waiver to avoid having to make up snow days. If they're willing to actually make up snow days (which IMO they should be) then they don't need to change a thing.
Given that MCPS opted not to use its makeup days this year and did get a waiver to shortchange kids 3 days of instructional time, the requirement to end school by Juneteenth seems fairly relevant.
What do you mean?
The point is the state is not actually going to penalize MCPS. They broke their own rules to grant a waiver this year.
Sure, and told MCPS explicitly to not rely on extending the year beyond Juneteenth again. So MCPS' solution is to not actually use the within-year makeup days, its to move the year so they can still tack on days at the end. It's utter BS.
Which is why it makes sense to start earlier in August since MCPS refuses to use its own designated makeup days. Of course you can wish that MCPS would get rid of transition day, Diwali, or teacher grading days or whatever. But it's not happening. No one is proposing those things.
So instead we're disrupting the entire county... teachers, parents, students, the Ag Fair... and tacking on three earlier days that many kids will still not attend just to save face when it comes to "equity"
This reminds me of the Hogan era when we couldn't start school before Labor Day because the Eastern shore would be "disrupted." Your precious Ag fair will survive even if the school year starts earlier, just like the Eastern shore survived the start of school in August.
And tacking on extra school days isn't "equity"--it's a requirement so that MCPS school kids aren't shortchanged relative to other kids in the state and country, as occurred this year.
The equity piece is about making sure every group no matter how small a population gets their holidays off. It’s not workable.
As for your other points, fine if the calendar is preplanned. Changing it after it’s already approved serves no one.
No one preplanned losing so many days due to the snow day closings this year. Parents, students and teachers had to roll with the changes. That MCPS requested a waiver to not have the required number of instructional days was also not preplanned.
Yet somehow, when MCPS tries to adjust its calendar for next year to learn from the lessons from the scheduling fiasco this 2025-2026, they can't do that 4 months in advance because it's not "preplanned."
You realize that this fix truly isn’t fixing what you think it is. They’re not extending the year by 3 days. They’re just shifting everything earlier. If we have more than 3 days of closures this year again we’re in the same spot as we were last year. Just with having disrupted everyone’s end of summer
You realize that MCPS can't keep pulling the same BS year after a year of asking the state to waive the required number of days. Maryland told MCPS not to request a waiver again this year, and not to tack on a bunch of days in late June. I don't know how you think MCPS gets to 180 days next year other than by using your magical powers to ensure it doesn't snow next year (keeping in mind that MCPS likes to close for freezing rain and severe cold too.)
Again, this “fix” only allows them to use the three days after the new end of year before Juneteenth and bypass the other makeup days it identified. The only change is now they’re before Juneteenth at the expense of everyone’s 2026 summer plans. If we have 4 days of snow or cold, MCPS gets its waiver and we have 179 days. There’s no guarantee of 180 days with this proposal. Quite the opposite actually. They’re doing this precisely so they can get a waiver.
Did you miss the part this year where MCPS tried to extend the school year til June 22 to make 180 days happen? They got a waiver this year to avoid doing that, but the state told Maryland not to do this again next year. So yes, your summer plans may get screwed up because they need to start earlier in August. Take it up with your union, but MCPS can't create 180 days of instructional time out of thin air.
Again, take a look at the calendar of literally any other school system in Maryland. Aug 24 - June 18 offers much more than enough time for 180 instructional days.
Unlike other school districts, MCPS did not use all of its scheduled spring makeup days, secure waivers of otherwise mandatory state holidays, or have the school board approve a virtual learning plan as a last resort for multi-day closures. MCPS is the "dog ate my homework" school district.
+1 Since 2016, MCPS has reduced scheduled school days from 184 to 181. This year, only half of the 18 weeks before January were full five-day weeks. At the same time, MCPS scheduled nearly all contingency days in the fall and early winter—when they are unlikely to be used—or in late June, after testing ends and attendance declines.
+2 What strikes me is that MCPS still has so few snow days built into its calendar compared to other Maryland school districts (just 1 while others have 3 or 4 according to the article below) when it didn't bother to do a virtual learning plan for bad weather days. What did they expect to happen? Carroll County builds builds its calendar so that it will remove days at the end of the year if snow days go unused--why can't MCPS do that rather than not building in snow days and causing chaos each year about when the school year ends in June?
Haven't you realized by now that most MCPS staff are happy to have to work fewer days and get a waiver year after year? There's no other logical explanation to this scheduling chaos. It's not that hard to do, and yet MCPS manages to torture staff, students and parents with these constant changes year after year.
Anonymous wrote:Who knows what they will do. Maybe MCEA is calling Taylor's bluff which I support. If your kid misses the first two days of school, it will be fine, hardly catastrophic if not ideal. I assume it will be worse for the teachers to have kids slowly streaming in the first 3 days of school. Seems like this will mean starting off with 2 fewer days of actual instruction. If teachers miss 3 days of preservice, I feel for them and hope they don't lose leave days because of it. Taylor and the BOE have done a lot of stupid things, this is one on a very long list of them.
Of course they will have to take leave if they don’t show up for work.
That sucks because in order to show up many will have to lose money on travel that has been booked or other jobs. I don't know about you but I think that's a 5h!tty way to treat my kid's wonderful teachers.
I hope teachers are pushing MCPS to choose another option, and for the union to negotiate to allow makeups as 1/2 days on grading and reporting. Otherwise they will need to show up as early as Aug 10th.
MCEA told teachers there is nothing they can do except fill out the survey, unfortunately. I agree that they could be doing more to push Taylor and the board. But they didn't even poll teachers.
MCEA has no input on the calendar.
They have impact on the grading days. That’s what TT is targeting. He wants MCEA to relent on that contract requirement.
Teachers need those days for grading and reporting. Better to get rid of a few PD days, and make the day before Thanksgiving and 12/23 early release days, and get rid of transition day.
Better yet, people need to advocate for counting hours of instruction or (not and) days.
In reality MCPS never utilizes the feedback from its surveys. They’ve already made the decision regarding the calendar.
PD is required by state law. If we have a snow day, teachers should use that to catch up on grading and allow the next grading to be a makeup day.
I’m very against getting rid of the days requirement
And if the snow day falls two weeks into the marking period?
Use the snow day to get ahead on planning. Then you have more time for grading later on. It's not that hard. A day without school that you are being paid for should be used productively and replace the day you would have had for that planning/grading.
I'm not a teacher but I have a young child and don't get a lot done on most snow days since they also close child care on those days.
Then like everyone else, teachers should have to take PTO or a sick day to cover the childcare on those days. Why are teachers the exception here and expect they don't have to work when being paid to do so on a snow day? I also have to work and have an elementary student. If I can't work, I have to take PTO.
That's ridiculous. Teachers have so little flexibility in the first place. I don't support this at all. Especially given workloads for teachers like for many professionals vary throughout the year. Working on a snow day in February is simply not going to make up for losing a grading day in April. Stop embarrassing yourself.
Then start advocating for TT and MCPS to use the holidays they've already designated as makeup days. Truly, those are the only two options.
No, there are multiple options. Some are more realistic than others. TT is recommending the worst option in hopes of getting teachers to give up their grading and planning days, which I do not support for the reasons I have already discussed.
The designated makeup days in the approved 2026-27 calendar are:
October 16 2026 - obviously not helpful
November 2 2026 - obviously not helpful
March 9 - aligns with Eid al Adha
April 16 - aligns with Eid al Fitr
June 17, 21, 22 and 23 - all occur after the last day of school and three of them they can't use now because they are after Juneteenth (they wouldn't have used them anyway, as we all know)
The only designated makeup days on the calendar that occur after snow days are reasonably likely to happen and occur before the last day of school are both on Muslim holidays.
I totally understand that many if not most families are fine with using both Eids to make up snow days, but the BOE will never approve that. MCPS needs buy in from the Muslim community and they certainly can't get that by only using their holidays as makeup days.
You have your dates wrong.
Eid Al-fitr is March 9.
Eid Al-adha is May 17
Every Muslim family I know is super into education. I wish a community of them would come forward and say -- look, we'd rather you use these days as makeup days rather than mess up everybody's plans, and upset the teachers so much.
The state rule requiring a 4-day weekend for easter is ridiculous and should absolutely be changed, but for some dumb reason no one got that through Annapolis this year. Maybe this will be the push to get it done next year.
I personally think school holidays for religious holidays are dumb. I grew up in a religious family where we regularly took the day off school, or left early/went in late, due to mandatory observance rules. It was fine. We just made it up. Schools are flexible about that. I honestly don't believe many parents really care that much about having it off....I suspect it was a few squeaky wheels that felt disrespected this year.
Enjoy your bubble. Many families have issues with the day being excused, but not closed. Students need to make up work. Students who missed days for other reasons around then will have even more trouble making up work. It's actually quite a problem because many families will opt to send the children to school to avoid those issues.
But again, a school system cannot cater to each individual's need to be out of school. Up thread many pages ago there was a mom of a kid who often has to be out for a medical issue. The school can't stop teaching because her kid is out. The population of kids that will be out for many of these holidays is extremely, extremely tiny in MCPS. If its a choice about moving the start date earlier, when people already have paid for trips and camps (many MORE people than will be affected by having a holiday as a potential makeup day -- not even a definitive day of school) and designating a makeup day for a holiday a few people celebrate, I choose the latter.
It is not up to you. It doesn't matter how many people post this on DCUM. The BOE will not approve it.
The BOE has approved bad calendars for 2024-25, 2025-26 and 2026-27. And it's not because they scheduled non instructional days on Eid. It's because they have progressively reduced the number of instructional days for different reasons and for multiple religious groups without adding other instructional days to make up for it. And the makeup days they are willing to use fall at the end of the school year, often into the following week during which staff and students have camps, travel and other jobs planned. This is simply not workable, and it's not the fault of the Muslim community. It is on TT and the BOE.
I mean, they literally sent out a survey asking people whether they preferred removing holidays or the last week of summer. So, sure, it's ultimately up the BoE, but they're elected by "us" and are pretending to get input from "us", so it seems fine for "us" to discuss it on a public forum.
Nobody said you can't discuss it.
Survey responses are not votes. They are tools for MCPS to use to justify whatever decision they deem to be in their best interest.
You can scream about how stupid it is to not have school on Eid. Feel free to continue posting on it. But you and I both know it's not a solution. Not only because the BOE won't use it, but also because only one of the Eids is a designated makeup day. They need three days before the scheduled last day of school that they can actually use. Even if you INSIST they can actually use the one Eid day, that's still only one day. They need more days besides Eid. And if they do use Eid as one of the days, they will never use the other Eid as the second day. The NEED to look at the transition day and November 9 and also try to get the law changed on President's Day, Good Friday and Easter Monday for future years. That is, if they want to stop causing mass chaos every year (I think TT loves the chaos so...)
This isn't about Eid specifically! This is about them using the days they've ALREADY DESIGNATED which includes Eid but is not exclusive to Eid.
Which other days that they have ALREADY DESIGNATED do you propose they use either as planned instructional day or as a makeup day?
They have 3 designated after winter break: March 9, June 17, and April 16 which seems to be a misprint, but I would say should be April 22 which is non-instruction for Passover. There, done. We have the 3 makeup days we need before Juneteenth.
My guess is the April 16 day is the grading day and is probably unusable due to it being in the collective bargaining agreement with the teachers, unless they cave again like they did this year. But I think it is unlikely they will use it especially if it is also Passover.
April 16, 2027 does not align with Passover.
April 22, which is currently no school for teachers or students, does. Use that day as the makeup
April 22 is not a designated makeup day
But it should be.
Exactly. Passover Seders are in the evening, and if people were planning to travel for them... well at least they have almost 1 year's notice instead of < 4 months!
Ok. Good luck with that.
I assume you are the same negative nelly who has been posting the last several pages... so what is your solution then?
Have school on
Transition Day
November 9
End the school year two days earlier than planned
Which isn't even one of the options. They've already passed a compliant calendar. They don't even have to make any changes to it. They just have to be willing to use it.
But they aren't willing to use it. Which is why they need to change it. It is on TT for proposing the most disruptive option.
And TT is not willing to give up Transition Day. And even though November 9 isn't actually Diwali, its perceived to have the same issues as using Eid and Passover.
The BOE can overrule TT. As far as November 9, it is Diwali, just not the main day. It does not have the same issue as using Eid.
I think we both know the likelihood of them doing what you're proposing and the likelihood of them using any holiday throughout the year as either an instructional or makeup day are about the same. Slim to none. They're going to rubber stamp the earlier start and its going to cause chaos. Completely unnecessary chaos.
The new state guidelines require school to be over by Juneteenth--so no more MCPS trying to extend the school year til June 22 next year if there are snow days and MCPS continues on its trajectory of refusing to use its designated makeup days as it did this year.
So yes, you have to start earlier in August--it's not going to be chaos. It's going to be a lot of grumbling by teachers this year, and then people will get used to it.
It's not a state requirement. They only need to do it if they want to be eligible for a waiver to avoid having to make up snow days. If they're willing to actually make up snow days (which IMO they should be) then they don't need to change a thing.
Given that MCPS opted not to use its makeup days this year and did get a waiver to shortchange kids 3 days of instructional time, the requirement to end school by Juneteenth seems fairly relevant.
What do you mean?
The point is the state is not actually going to penalize MCPS. They broke their own rules to grant a waiver this year.
Sure, and told MCPS explicitly to not rely on extending the year beyond Juneteenth again. So MCPS' solution is to not actually use the within-year makeup days, its to move the year so they can still tack on days at the end. It's utter BS.
Which is why it makes sense to start earlier in August since MCPS refuses to use its own designated makeup days. Of course you can wish that MCPS would get rid of transition day, Diwali, or teacher grading days or whatever. But it's not happening. No one is proposing those things.
So instead we're disrupting the entire county... teachers, parents, students, the Ag Fair... and tacking on three earlier days that many kids will still not attend just to save face when it comes to "equity"
This reminds me of the Hogan era when we couldn't start school before Labor Day because the Eastern shore would be "disrupted." Your precious Ag fair will survive even if the school year starts earlier, just like the Eastern shore survived the start of school in August.
And tacking on extra school days isn't "equity"--it's a requirement so that MCPS school kids aren't shortchanged relative to other kids in the state and country, as occurred this year.
The equity piece is about making sure every group no matter how small a population gets their holidays off. It’s not workable.
As for your other points, fine if the calendar is preplanned. Changing it after it’s already approved serves no one.
No one preplanned losing so many days due to the snow day closings this year. Parents, students and teachers had to roll with the changes. That MCPS requested a waiver to not have the required number of instructional days was also not preplanned.
Yet somehow, when MCPS tries to adjust its calendar for next year to learn from the lessons from the scheduling fiasco this 2025-2026, they can't do that 4 months in advance because it's not "preplanned."
You realize that this fix truly isn’t fixing what you think it is. They’re not extending the year by 3 days. They’re just shifting everything earlier. If we have more than 3 days of closures this year again we’re in the same spot as we were last year. Just with having disrupted everyone’s end of summer
You realize that MCPS can't keep pulling the same BS year after a year of asking the state to waive the required number of days. Maryland told MCPS not to request a waiver again this year, and not to tack on a bunch of days in late June. I don't know how you think MCPS gets to 180 days next year other than by using your magical powers to ensure it doesn't snow next year (keeping in mind that MCPS likes to close for freezing rain and severe cold too.)
Again, this “fix” only allows them to use the three days after the new end of year before Juneteenth and bypass the other makeup days it identified. The only change is now they’re before Juneteenth at the expense of everyone’s 2026 summer plans. If we have 4 days of snow or cold, MCPS gets its waiver and we have 179 days. There’s no guarantee of 180 days with this proposal. Quite the opposite actually. They’re doing this precisely so they can get a waiver.
Did you miss the part this year where MCPS tried to extend the school year til June 22 to make 180 days happen? They got a waiver this year to avoid doing that, but the state told Maryland not to do this again next year. So yes, your summer plans may get screwed up because they need to start earlier in August. Take it up with your union, but MCPS can't create 180 days of instructional time out of thin air.
Again, take a look at the calendar of literally any other school system in Maryland. Aug 24 - June 18 offers much more than enough time for 180 instructional days.
Unlike other school districts, MCPS did not use all of its scheduled spring makeup days, secure waivers of otherwise mandatory state holidays, or have the school board approve a virtual learning plan as a last resort for multi-day closures. MCPS is the "dog ate my homework" school district.
Yes. And the state enables them with waivers that allow them to provide less instructional time to students.
Anonymous wrote:Who knows what they will do. Maybe MCEA is calling Taylor's bluff which I support. If your kid misses the first two days of school, it will be fine, hardly catastrophic if not ideal. I assume it will be worse for the teachers to have kids slowly streaming in the first 3 days of school. Seems like this will mean starting off with 2 fewer days of actual instruction. If teachers miss 3 days of preservice, I feel for them and hope they don't lose leave days because of it. Taylor and the BOE have done a lot of stupid things, this is one on a very long list of them.
Of course they will have to take leave if they don’t show up for work.
That sucks because in order to show up many will have to lose money on travel that has been booked or other jobs. I don't know about you but I think that's a 5h!tty way to treat my kid's wonderful teachers.
I hope teachers are pushing MCPS to choose another option, and for the union to negotiate to allow makeups as 1/2 days on grading and reporting. Otherwise they will need to show up as early as Aug 10th.
MCEA told teachers there is nothing they can do except fill out the survey, unfortunately. I agree that they could be doing more to push Taylor and the board. But they didn't even poll teachers.
MCEA has no input on the calendar.
They have impact on the grading days. That’s what TT is targeting. He wants MCEA to relent on that contract requirement.
Teachers need those days for grading and reporting. Better to get rid of a few PD days, and make the day before Thanksgiving and 12/23 early release days, and get rid of transition day.
Better yet, people need to advocate for counting hours of instruction or (not and) days.
In reality MCPS never utilizes the feedback from its surveys. They’ve already made the decision regarding the calendar.
PD is required by state law. If we have a snow day, teachers should use that to catch up on grading and allow the next grading to be a makeup day.
I’m very against getting rid of the days requirement
And if the snow day falls two weeks into the marking period?
Use the snow day to get ahead on planning. Then you have more time for grading later on. It's not that hard. A day without school that you are being paid for should be used productively and replace the day you would have had for that planning/grading.
I'm not a teacher but I have a young child and don't get a lot done on most snow days since they also close child care on those days.
Then like everyone else, teachers should have to take PTO or a sick day to cover the childcare on those days. Why are teachers the exception here and expect they don't have to work when being paid to do so on a snow day? I also have to work and have an elementary student. If I can't work, I have to take PTO.
That's ridiculous. Teachers have so little flexibility in the first place. I don't support this at all. Especially given workloads for teachers like for many professionals vary throughout the year. Working on a snow day in February is simply not going to make up for losing a grading day in April. Stop embarrassing yourself.
Then start advocating for TT and MCPS to use the holidays they've already designated as makeup days. Truly, those are the only two options.
No, there are multiple options. Some are more realistic than others. TT is recommending the worst option in hopes of getting teachers to give up their grading and planning days, which I do not support for the reasons I have already discussed.
The designated makeup days in the approved 2026-27 calendar are:
October 16 2026 - obviously not helpful
November 2 2026 - obviously not helpful
March 9 - aligns with Eid al Adha
April 16 - aligns with Eid al Fitr
June 17, 21, 22 and 23 - all occur after the last day of school and three of them they can't use now because they are after Juneteenth (they wouldn't have used them anyway, as we all know)
The only designated makeup days on the calendar that occur after snow days are reasonably likely to happen and occur before the last day of school are both on Muslim holidays.
I totally understand that many if not most families are fine with using both Eids to make up snow days, but the BOE will never approve that. MCPS needs buy in from the Muslim community and they certainly can't get that by only using their holidays as makeup days.
You have your dates wrong.
Eid Al-fitr is March 9.
Eid Al-adha is May 17
Every Muslim family I know is super into education. I wish a community of them would come forward and say -- look, we'd rather you use these days as makeup days rather than mess up everybody's plans, and upset the teachers so much.
The state rule requiring a 4-day weekend for easter is ridiculous and should absolutely be changed, but for some dumb reason no one got that through Annapolis this year. Maybe this will be the push to get it done next year.
I personally think school holidays for religious holidays are dumb. I grew up in a religious family where we regularly took the day off school, or left early/went in late, due to mandatory observance rules. It was fine. We just made it up. Schools are flexible about that. I honestly don't believe many parents really care that much about having it off....I suspect it was a few squeaky wheels that felt disrespected this year.
Enjoy your bubble. Many families have issues with the day being excused, but not closed. Students need to make up work. Students who missed days for other reasons around then will have even more trouble making up work. It's actually quite a problem because many families will opt to send the children to school to avoid those issues.
But again, a school system cannot cater to each individual's need to be out of school. Up thread many pages ago there was a mom of a kid who often has to be out for a medical issue. The school can't stop teaching because her kid is out. The population of kids that will be out for many of these holidays is extremely, extremely tiny in MCPS. If its a choice about moving the start date earlier, when people already have paid for trips and camps (many MORE people than will be affected by having a holiday as a potential makeup day -- not even a definitive day of school) and designating a makeup day for a holiday a few people celebrate, I choose the latter.
It is not up to you. It doesn't matter how many people post this on DCUM. The BOE will not approve it.
The BOE has approved bad calendars for 2024-25, 2025-26 and 2026-27. And it's not because they scheduled non instructional days on Eid. It's because they have progressively reduced the number of instructional days for different reasons and for multiple religious groups without adding other instructional days to make up for it. And the makeup days they are willing to use fall at the end of the school year, often into the following week during which staff and students have camps, travel and other jobs planned. This is simply not workable, and it's not the fault of the Muslim community. It is on TT and the BOE.
I mean, they literally sent out a survey asking people whether they preferred removing holidays or the last week of summer. So, sure, it's ultimately up the BoE, but they're elected by "us" and are pretending to get input from "us", so it seems fine for "us" to discuss it on a public forum.
Nobody said you can't discuss it.
Survey responses are not votes. They are tools for MCPS to use to justify whatever decision they deem to be in their best interest.
You can scream about how stupid it is to not have school on Eid. Feel free to continue posting on it. But you and I both know it's not a solution. Not only because the BOE won't use it, but also because only one of the Eids is a designated makeup day. They need three days before the scheduled last day of school that they can actually use. Even if you INSIST they can actually use the one Eid day, that's still only one day. They need more days besides Eid. And if they do use Eid as one of the days, they will never use the other Eid as the second day. The NEED to look at the transition day and November 9 and also try to get the law changed on President's Day, Good Friday and Easter Monday for future years. That is, if they want to stop causing mass chaos every year (I think TT loves the chaos so...)
This isn't about Eid specifically! This is about them using the days they've ALREADY DESIGNATED which includes Eid but is not exclusive to Eid.
Which other days that they have ALREADY DESIGNATED do you propose they use either as planned instructional day or as a makeup day?
They have 3 designated after winter break: March 9, June 17, and April 16 which seems to be a misprint, but I would say should be April 22 which is non-instruction for Passover. There, done. We have the 3 makeup days we need before Juneteenth.
My guess is the April 16 day is the grading day and is probably unusable due to it being in the collective bargaining agreement with the teachers, unless they cave again like they did this year. But I think it is unlikely they will use it especially if it is also Passover.
April 16, 2027 does not align with Passover.
April 22, which is currently no school for teachers or students, does. Use that day as the makeup
April 22 is not a designated makeup day
But it should be.
Exactly. Passover Seders are in the evening, and if people were planning to travel for them... well at least they have almost 1 year's notice instead of < 4 months!
Ok. Good luck with that.
I assume you are the same negative nelly who has been posting the last several pages... so what is your solution then?
Have school on
Transition Day
November 9
End the school year two days earlier than planned
Which isn't even one of the options. They've already passed a compliant calendar. They don't even have to make any changes to it. They just have to be willing to use it.
But they aren't willing to use it. Which is why they need to change it. It is on TT for proposing the most disruptive option.
And TT is not willing to give up Transition Day. And even though November 9 isn't actually Diwali, its perceived to have the same issues as using Eid and Passover.
The BOE can overrule TT. As far as November 9, it is Diwali, just not the main day. It does not have the same issue as using Eid.
I think we both know the likelihood of them doing what you're proposing and the likelihood of them using any holiday throughout the year as either an instructional or makeup day are about the same. Slim to none. They're going to rubber stamp the earlier start and its going to cause chaos. Completely unnecessary chaos.
The new state guidelines require school to be over by Juneteenth--so no more MCPS trying to extend the school year til June 22 next year if there are snow days and MCPS continues on its trajectory of refusing to use its designated makeup days as it did this year.
So yes, you have to start earlier in August--it's not going to be chaos. It's going to be a lot of grumbling by teachers this year, and then people will get used to it.
It's not a state requirement. They only need to do it if they want to be eligible for a waiver to avoid having to make up snow days. If they're willing to actually make up snow days (which IMO they should be) then they don't need to change a thing.
Given that MCPS opted not to use its makeup days this year and did get a waiver to shortchange kids 3 days of instructional time, the requirement to end school by Juneteenth seems fairly relevant.
What do you mean?
The point is the state is not actually going to penalize MCPS. They broke their own rules to grant a waiver this year.
Sure, and told MCPS explicitly to not rely on extending the year beyond Juneteenth again. So MCPS' solution is to not actually use the within-year makeup days, its to move the year so they can still tack on days at the end. It's utter BS.
Which is why it makes sense to start earlier in August since MCPS refuses to use its own designated makeup days. Of course you can wish that MCPS would get rid of transition day, Diwali, or teacher grading days or whatever. But it's not happening. No one is proposing those things.
So instead we're disrupting the entire county... teachers, parents, students, the Ag Fair... and tacking on three earlier days that many kids will still not attend just to save face when it comes to "equity"
This reminds me of the Hogan era when we couldn't start school before Labor Day because the Eastern shore would be "disrupted." Your precious Ag fair will survive even if the school year starts earlier, just like the Eastern shore survived the start of school in August.
And tacking on extra school days isn't "equity"--it's a requirement so that MCPS school kids aren't shortchanged relative to other kids in the state and country, as occurred this year.
The equity piece is about making sure every group no matter how small a population gets their holidays off. It’s not workable.
As for your other points, fine if the calendar is preplanned. Changing it after it’s already approved serves no one.
No one preplanned losing so many days due to the snow day closings this year. Parents, students and teachers had to roll with the changes. That MCPS requested a waiver to not have the required number of instructional days was also not preplanned.
Yet somehow, when MCPS tries to adjust its calendar for next year to learn from the lessons from the scheduling fiasco this 2025-2026, they can't do that 4 months in advance because it's not "preplanned."
You realize that this fix truly isn’t fixing what you think it is. They’re not extending the year by 3 days. They’re just shifting everything earlier. If we have more than 3 days of closures this year again we’re in the same spot as we were last year. Just with having disrupted everyone’s end of summer
You realize that MCPS can't keep pulling the same BS year after a year of asking the state to waive the required number of days. Maryland told MCPS not to request a waiver again this year, and not to tack on a bunch of days in late June. I don't know how you think MCPS gets to 180 days next year other than by using your magical powers to ensure it doesn't snow next year (keeping in mind that MCPS likes to close for freezing rain and severe cold too.)
Again, this “fix” only allows them to use the three days after the new end of year before Juneteenth and bypass the other makeup days it identified. The only change is now they’re before Juneteenth at the expense of everyone’s 2026 summer plans. If we have 4 days of snow or cold, MCPS gets its waiver and we have 179 days. There’s no guarantee of 180 days with this proposal. Quite the opposite actually. They’re doing this precisely so they can get a waiver.
Did you miss the part this year where MCPS tried to extend the school year til June 22 to make 180 days happen? They got a waiver this year to avoid doing that, but the state told Maryland not to do this again next year. So yes, your summer plans may get screwed up because they need to start earlier in August. Take it up with your union, but MCPS can't create 180 days of instructional time out of thin air.
Again, take a look at the calendar of literally any other school system in Maryland. Aug 24 - June 18 offers much more than enough time for 180 instructional days.
Unlike other school districts, MCPS did not use all of its scheduled spring makeup days, secure waivers of otherwise mandatory state holidays, or have the school board approve a virtual learning plan as a last resort for multi-day closures. MCPS is the "dog ate my homework" school district.
+1 Since 2016, MCPS has reduced scheduled school days from 184 to 181. This year, only half of the 18 weeks before January were full five-day weeks. At the same time, MCPS scheduled nearly all contingency days in the fall and early winter—when they are unlikely to be used—or in late June, after testing ends and attendance declines.
Why has this happened? Seems like having only 181 scheduled school days is a recipe for disaster in an area where we usually do get snow each winter.
Anonymous wrote:Who knows what they will do. Maybe MCEA is calling Taylor's bluff which I support. If your kid misses the first two days of school, it will be fine, hardly catastrophic if not ideal. I assume it will be worse for the teachers to have kids slowly streaming in the first 3 days of school. Seems like this will mean starting off with 2 fewer days of actual instruction. If teachers miss 3 days of preservice, I feel for them and hope they don't lose leave days because of it. Taylor and the BOE have done a lot of stupid things, this is one on a very long list of them.
Of course they will have to take leave if they don’t show up for work.
That sucks because in order to show up many will have to lose money on travel that has been booked or other jobs. I don't know about you but I think that's a 5h!tty way to treat my kid's wonderful teachers.
I hope teachers are pushing MCPS to choose another option, and for the union to negotiate to allow makeups as 1/2 days on grading and reporting. Otherwise they will need to show up as early as Aug 10th.
MCEA told teachers there is nothing they can do except fill out the survey, unfortunately. I agree that they could be doing more to push Taylor and the board. But they didn't even poll teachers.
MCEA has no input on the calendar.
They have impact on the grading days. That’s what TT is targeting. He wants MCEA to relent on that contract requirement.
Teachers need those days for grading and reporting. Better to get rid of a few PD days, and make the day before Thanksgiving and 12/23 early release days, and get rid of transition day.
Better yet, people need to advocate for counting hours of instruction or (not and) days.
In reality MCPS never utilizes the feedback from its surveys. They’ve already made the decision regarding the calendar.
PD is required by state law. If we have a snow day, teachers should use that to catch up on grading and allow the next grading to be a makeup day.
I’m very against getting rid of the days requirement
And if the snow day falls two weeks into the marking period?
Use the snow day to get ahead on planning. Then you have more time for grading later on. It's not that hard. A day without school that you are being paid for should be used productively and replace the day you would have had for that planning/grading.
I'm not a teacher but I have a young child and don't get a lot done on most snow days since they also close child care on those days.
Then like everyone else, teachers should have to take PTO or a sick day to cover the childcare on those days. Why are teachers the exception here and expect they don't have to work when being paid to do so on a snow day? I also have to work and have an elementary student. If I can't work, I have to take PTO.
That's ridiculous. Teachers have so little flexibility in the first place. I don't support this at all. Especially given workloads for teachers like for many professionals vary throughout the year. Working on a snow day in February is simply not going to make up for losing a grading day in April. Stop embarrassing yourself.
Then start advocating for TT and MCPS to use the holidays they've already designated as makeup days. Truly, those are the only two options.
No, there are multiple options. Some are more realistic than others. TT is recommending the worst option in hopes of getting teachers to give up their grading and planning days, which I do not support for the reasons I have already discussed.
The designated makeup days in the approved 2026-27 calendar are:
October 16 2026 - obviously not helpful
November 2 2026 - obviously not helpful
March 9 - aligns with Eid al Adha
April 16 - aligns with Eid al Fitr
June 17, 21, 22 and 23 - all occur after the last day of school and three of them they can't use now because they are after Juneteenth (they wouldn't have used them anyway, as we all know)
The only designated makeup days on the calendar that occur after snow days are reasonably likely to happen and occur before the last day of school are both on Muslim holidays.
I totally understand that many if not most families are fine with using both Eids to make up snow days, but the BOE will never approve that. MCPS needs buy in from the Muslim community and they certainly can't get that by only using their holidays as makeup days.
You have your dates wrong.
Eid Al-fitr is March 9.
Eid Al-adha is May 17
Every Muslim family I know is super into education. I wish a community of them would come forward and say -- look, we'd rather you use these days as makeup days rather than mess up everybody's plans, and upset the teachers so much.
The state rule requiring a 4-day weekend for easter is ridiculous and should absolutely be changed, but for some dumb reason no one got that through Annapolis this year. Maybe this will be the push to get it done next year.
I personally think school holidays for religious holidays are dumb. I grew up in a religious family where we regularly took the day off school, or left early/went in late, due to mandatory observance rules. It was fine. We just made it up. Schools are flexible about that. I honestly don't believe many parents really care that much about having it off....I suspect it was a few squeaky wheels that felt disrespected this year.
Enjoy your bubble. Many families have issues with the day being excused, but not closed. Students need to make up work. Students who missed days for other reasons around then will have even more trouble making up work. It's actually quite a problem because many families will opt to send the children to school to avoid those issues.
But again, a school system cannot cater to each individual's need to be out of school. Up thread many pages ago there was a mom of a kid who often has to be out for a medical issue. The school can't stop teaching because her kid is out. The population of kids that will be out for many of these holidays is extremely, extremely tiny in MCPS. If its a choice about moving the start date earlier, when people already have paid for trips and camps (many MORE people than will be affected by having a holiday as a potential makeup day -- not even a definitive day of school) and designating a makeup day for a holiday a few people celebrate, I choose the latter.
It is not up to you. It doesn't matter how many people post this on DCUM. The BOE will not approve it.
The BOE has approved bad calendars for 2024-25, 2025-26 and 2026-27. And it's not because they scheduled non instructional days on Eid. It's because they have progressively reduced the number of instructional days for different reasons and for multiple religious groups without adding other instructional days to make up for it. And the makeup days they are willing to use fall at the end of the school year, often into the following week during which staff and students have camps, travel and other jobs planned. This is simply not workable, and it's not the fault of the Muslim community. It is on TT and the BOE.
I mean, they literally sent out a survey asking people whether they preferred removing holidays or the last week of summer. So, sure, it's ultimately up the BoE, but they're elected by "us" and are pretending to get input from "us", so it seems fine for "us" to discuss it on a public forum.
Nobody said you can't discuss it.
Survey responses are not votes. They are tools for MCPS to use to justify whatever decision they deem to be in their best interest.
You can scream about how stupid it is to not have school on Eid. Feel free to continue posting on it. But you and I both know it's not a solution. Not only because the BOE won't use it, but also because only one of the Eids is a designated makeup day. They need three days before the scheduled last day of school that they can actually use. Even if you INSIST they can actually use the one Eid day, that's still only one day. They need more days besides Eid. And if they do use Eid as one of the days, they will never use the other Eid as the second day. The NEED to look at the transition day and November 9 and also try to get the law changed on President's Day, Good Friday and Easter Monday for future years. That is, if they want to stop causing mass chaos every year (I think TT loves the chaos so...)
This isn't about Eid specifically! This is about them using the days they've ALREADY DESIGNATED which includes Eid but is not exclusive to Eid.
Which other days that they have ALREADY DESIGNATED do you propose they use either as planned instructional day or as a makeup day?
They have 3 designated after winter break: March 9, June 17, and April 16 which seems to be a misprint, but I would say should be April 22 which is non-instruction for Passover. There, done. We have the 3 makeup days we need before Juneteenth.
My guess is the April 16 day is the grading day and is probably unusable due to it being in the collective bargaining agreement with the teachers, unless they cave again like they did this year. But I think it is unlikely they will use it especially if it is also Passover.
April 16, 2027 does not align with Passover.
April 22, which is currently no school for teachers or students, does. Use that day as the makeup
April 22 is not a designated makeup day
But it should be.
Exactly. Passover Seders are in the evening, and if people were planning to travel for them... well at least they have almost 1 year's notice instead of < 4 months!
Ok. Good luck with that.
I assume you are the same negative nelly who has been posting the last several pages... so what is your solution then?
Have school on
Transition Day
November 9
End the school year two days earlier than planned
Which isn't even one of the options. They've already passed a compliant calendar. They don't even have to make any changes to it. They just have to be willing to use it.
But they aren't willing to use it. Which is why they need to change it. It is on TT for proposing the most disruptive option.
And TT is not willing to give up Transition Day. And even though November 9 isn't actually Diwali, its perceived to have the same issues as using Eid and Passover.
The BOE can overrule TT. As far as November 9, it is Diwali, just not the main day. It does not have the same issue as using Eid.
I think we both know the likelihood of them doing what you're proposing and the likelihood of them using any holiday throughout the year as either an instructional or makeup day are about the same. Slim to none. They're going to rubber stamp the earlier start and its going to cause chaos. Completely unnecessary chaos.
The new state guidelines require school to be over by Juneteenth--so no more MCPS trying to extend the school year til June 22 next year if there are snow days and MCPS continues on its trajectory of refusing to use its designated makeup days as it did this year.
So yes, you have to start earlier in August--it's not going to be chaos. It's going to be a lot of grumbling by teachers this year, and then people will get used to it.
It's not a state requirement. They only need to do it if they want to be eligible for a waiver to avoid having to make up snow days. If they're willing to actually make up snow days (which IMO they should be) then they don't need to change a thing.
Given that MCPS opted not to use its makeup days this year and did get a waiver to shortchange kids 3 days of instructional time, the requirement to end school by Juneteenth seems fairly relevant.
What do you mean?
The point is the state is not actually going to penalize MCPS. They broke their own rules to grant a waiver this year.
Sure, and told MCPS explicitly to not rely on extending the year beyond Juneteenth again. So MCPS' solution is to not actually use the within-year makeup days, its to move the year so they can still tack on days at the end. It's utter BS.
Which is why it makes sense to start earlier in August since MCPS refuses to use its own designated makeup days. Of course you can wish that MCPS would get rid of transition day, Diwali, or teacher grading days or whatever. But it's not happening. No one is proposing those things.
So instead we're disrupting the entire county... teachers, parents, students, the Ag Fair... and tacking on three earlier days that many kids will still not attend just to save face when it comes to "equity"
This reminds me of the Hogan era when we couldn't start school before Labor Day because the Eastern shore would be "disrupted." Your precious Ag fair will survive even if the school year starts earlier, just like the Eastern shore survived the start of school in August.
And tacking on extra school days isn't "equity"--it's a requirement so that MCPS school kids aren't shortchanged relative to other kids in the state and country, as occurred this year.
The equity piece is about making sure every group no matter how small a population gets their holidays off. It’s not workable.
As for your other points, fine if the calendar is preplanned. Changing it after it’s already approved serves no one.
No one preplanned losing so many days due to the snow day closings this year. Parents, students and teachers had to roll with the changes. That MCPS requested a waiver to not have the required number of instructional days was also not preplanned.
Yet somehow, when MCPS tries to adjust its calendar for next year to learn from the lessons from the scheduling fiasco this 2025-2026, they can't do that 4 months in advance because it's not "preplanned."
You realize that this fix truly isn’t fixing what you think it is. They’re not extending the year by 3 days. They’re just shifting everything earlier. If we have more than 3 days of closures this year again we’re in the same spot as we were last year. Just with having disrupted everyone’s end of summer
You realize that MCPS can't keep pulling the same BS year after a year of asking the state to waive the required number of days. Maryland told MCPS not to request a waiver again this year, and not to tack on a bunch of days in late June. I don't know how you think MCPS gets to 180 days next year other than by using your magical powers to ensure it doesn't snow next year (keeping in mind that MCPS likes to close for freezing rain and severe cold too.)
Again, this “fix” only allows them to use the three days after the new end of year before Juneteenth and bypass the other makeup days it identified. The only change is now they’re before Juneteenth at the expense of everyone’s 2026 summer plans. If we have 4 days of snow or cold, MCPS gets its waiver and we have 179 days. There’s no guarantee of 180 days with this proposal. Quite the opposite actually. They’re doing this precisely so they can get a waiver.
Did you miss the part this year where MCPS tried to extend the school year til June 22 to make 180 days happen? They got a waiver this year to avoid doing that, but the state told Maryland not to do this again next year. So yes, your summer plans may get screwed up because they need to start earlier in August. Take it up with your union, but MCPS can't create 180 days of instructional time out of thin air.
Again, take a look at the calendar of literally any other school system in Maryland. Aug 24 - June 18 offers much more than enough time for 180 instructional days.
Unlike other school districts, MCPS did not use all of its scheduled spring makeup days, secure waivers of otherwise mandatory state holidays, or have the school board approve a virtual learning plan as a last resort for multi-day closures. MCPS is the "dog ate my homework" school district.
+1 Since 2016, MCPS has reduced scheduled school days from 184 to 181. This year, only half of the 18 weeks before January were full five-day weeks. At the same time, MCPS scheduled nearly all contingency days in the fall and early winter—when they are unlikely to be used—or in late June, after testing ends and attendance declines.
Why has this happened? Seems like having only 181 scheduled school days is a recipe for disaster in an area where we usually do get snow each winter.
Literally this has happened because they have added in a number of cultural/religous holidays. RH/YK have been on the calendar since forever, but once they started adding additional, groups came to testify that their culture wasn't recognized, so they added more. And here we are.
Anonymous wrote:Who knows what they will do. Maybe MCEA is calling Taylor's bluff which I support. If your kid misses the first two days of school, it will be fine, hardly catastrophic if not ideal. I assume it will be worse for the teachers to have kids slowly streaming in the first 3 days of school. Seems like this will mean starting off with 2 fewer days of actual instruction. If teachers miss 3 days of preservice, I feel for them and hope they don't lose leave days because of it. Taylor and the BOE have done a lot of stupid things, this is one on a very long list of them.
Of course they will have to take leave if they don’t show up for work.
That sucks because in order to show up many will have to lose money on travel that has been booked or other jobs. I don't know about you but I think that's a 5h!tty way to treat my kid's wonderful teachers.
I hope teachers are pushing MCPS to choose another option, and for the union to negotiate to allow makeups as 1/2 days on grading and reporting. Otherwise they will need to show up as early as Aug 10th.
MCEA told teachers there is nothing they can do except fill out the survey, unfortunately. I agree that they could be doing more to push Taylor and the board. But they didn't even poll teachers.
MCEA has no input on the calendar.
They have impact on the grading days. That’s what TT is targeting. He wants MCEA to relent on that contract requirement.
Teachers need those days for grading and reporting. Better to get rid of a few PD days, and make the day before Thanksgiving and 12/23 early release days, and get rid of transition day.
Better yet, people need to advocate for counting hours of instruction or (not and) days.
In reality MCPS never utilizes the feedback from its surveys. They’ve already made the decision regarding the calendar.
PD is required by state law. If we have a snow day, teachers should use that to catch up on grading and allow the next grading to be a makeup day.
I’m very against getting rid of the days requirement
And if the snow day falls two weeks into the marking period?
Use the snow day to get ahead on planning. Then you have more time for grading later on. It's not that hard. A day without school that you are being paid for should be used productively and replace the day you would have had for that planning/grading.
I'm not a teacher but I have a young child and don't get a lot done on most snow days since they also close child care on those days.
Then like everyone else, teachers should have to take PTO or a sick day to cover the childcare on those days. Why are teachers the exception here and expect they don't have to work when being paid to do so on a snow day? I also have to work and have an elementary student. If I can't work, I have to take PTO.
That's ridiculous. Teachers have so little flexibility in the first place. I don't support this at all. Especially given workloads for teachers like for many professionals vary throughout the year. Working on a snow day in February is simply not going to make up for losing a grading day in April. Stop embarrassing yourself.
Then start advocating for TT and MCPS to use the holidays they've already designated as makeup days. Truly, those are the only two options.
No, there are multiple options. Some are more realistic than others. TT is recommending the worst option in hopes of getting teachers to give up their grading and planning days, which I do not support for the reasons I have already discussed.
The designated makeup days in the approved 2026-27 calendar are:
October 16 2026 - obviously not helpful
November 2 2026 - obviously not helpful
March 9 - aligns with Eid al Adha
April 16 - aligns with Eid al Fitr
June 17, 21, 22 and 23 - all occur after the last day of school and three of them they can't use now because they are after Juneteenth (they wouldn't have used them anyway, as we all know)
The only designated makeup days on the calendar that occur after snow days are reasonably likely to happen and occur before the last day of school are both on Muslim holidays.
I totally understand that many if not most families are fine with using both Eids to make up snow days, but the BOE will never approve that. MCPS needs buy in from the Muslim community and they certainly can't get that by only using their holidays as makeup days.
You have your dates wrong.
Eid Al-fitr is March 9.
Eid Al-adha is May 17
Every Muslim family I know is super into education. I wish a community of them would come forward and say -- look, we'd rather you use these days as makeup days rather than mess up everybody's plans, and upset the teachers so much.
The state rule requiring a 4-day weekend for easter is ridiculous and should absolutely be changed, but for some dumb reason no one got that through Annapolis this year. Maybe this will be the push to get it done next year.
I personally think school holidays for religious holidays are dumb. I grew up in a religious family where we regularly took the day off school, or left early/went in late, due to mandatory observance rules. It was fine. We just made it up. Schools are flexible about that. I honestly don't believe many parents really care that much about having it off....I suspect it was a few squeaky wheels that felt disrespected this year.
Enjoy your bubble. Many families have issues with the day being excused, but not closed. Students need to make up work. Students who missed days for other reasons around then will have even more trouble making up work. It's actually quite a problem because many families will opt to send the children to school to avoid those issues.
But again, a school system cannot cater to each individual's need to be out of school. Up thread many pages ago there was a mom of a kid who often has to be out for a medical issue. The school can't stop teaching because her kid is out. The population of kids that will be out for many of these holidays is extremely, extremely tiny in MCPS. If its a choice about moving the start date earlier, when people already have paid for trips and camps (many MORE people than will be affected by having a holiday as a potential makeup day -- not even a definitive day of school) and designating a makeup day for a holiday a few people celebrate, I choose the latter.
It is not up to you. It doesn't matter how many people post this on DCUM. The BOE will not approve it.
The BOE has approved bad calendars for 2024-25, 2025-26 and 2026-27. And it's not because they scheduled non instructional days on Eid. It's because they have progressively reduced the number of instructional days for different reasons and for multiple religious groups without adding other instructional days to make up for it. And the makeup days they are willing to use fall at the end of the school year, often into the following week during which staff and students have camps, travel and other jobs planned. This is simply not workable, and it's not the fault of the Muslim community. It is on TT and the BOE.
I mean, they literally sent out a survey asking people whether they preferred removing holidays or the last week of summer. So, sure, it's ultimately up the BoE, but they're elected by "us" and are pretending to get input from "us", so it seems fine for "us" to discuss it on a public forum.
Nobody said you can't discuss it.
Survey responses are not votes. They are tools for MCPS to use to justify whatever decision they deem to be in their best interest.
You can scream about how stupid it is to not have school on Eid. Feel free to continue posting on it. But you and I both know it's not a solution. Not only because the BOE won't use it, but also because only one of the Eids is a designated makeup day. They need three days before the scheduled last day of school that they can actually use. Even if you INSIST they can actually use the one Eid day, that's still only one day. They need more days besides Eid. And if they do use Eid as one of the days, they will never use the other Eid as the second day. The NEED to look at the transition day and November 9 and also try to get the law changed on President's Day, Good Friday and Easter Monday for future years. That is, if they want to stop causing mass chaos every year (I think TT loves the chaos so...)
This isn't about Eid specifically! This is about them using the days they've ALREADY DESIGNATED which includes Eid but is not exclusive to Eid.
Which other days that they have ALREADY DESIGNATED do you propose they use either as planned instructional day or as a makeup day?
They have 3 designated after winter break: March 9, June 17, and April 16 which seems to be a misprint, but I would say should be April 22 which is non-instruction for Passover. There, done. We have the 3 makeup days we need before Juneteenth.
My guess is the April 16 day is the grading day and is probably unusable due to it being in the collective bargaining agreement with the teachers, unless they cave again like they did this year. But I think it is unlikely they will use it especially if it is also Passover.
April 16, 2027 does not align with Passover.
April 22, which is currently no school for teachers or students, does. Use that day as the makeup
April 22 is not a designated makeup day
But it should be.
Exactly. Passover Seders are in the evening, and if people were planning to travel for them... well at least they have almost 1 year's notice instead of < 4 months!
Ok. Good luck with that.
I assume you are the same negative nelly who has been posting the last several pages... so what is your solution then?
Have school on
Transition Day
November 9
End the school year two days earlier than planned
Which isn't even one of the options. They've already passed a compliant calendar. They don't even have to make any changes to it. They just have to be willing to use it.
But they aren't willing to use it. Which is why they need to change it. It is on TT for proposing the most disruptive option.
And TT is not willing to give up Transition Day. And even though November 9 isn't actually Diwali, its perceived to have the same issues as using Eid and Passover.
The BOE can overrule TT. As far as November 9, it is Diwali, just not the main day. It does not have the same issue as using Eid.
I think we both know the likelihood of them doing what you're proposing and the likelihood of them using any holiday throughout the year as either an instructional or makeup day are about the same. Slim to none. They're going to rubber stamp the earlier start and its going to cause chaos. Completely unnecessary chaos.
The new state guidelines require school to be over by Juneteenth--so no more MCPS trying to extend the school year til June 22 next year if there are snow days and MCPS continues on its trajectory of refusing to use its designated makeup days as it did this year.
So yes, you have to start earlier in August--it's not going to be chaos. It's going to be a lot of grumbling by teachers this year, and then people will get used to it.
It's not a state requirement. They only need to do it if they want to be eligible for a waiver to avoid having to make up snow days. If they're willing to actually make up snow days (which IMO they should be) then they don't need to change a thing.
Given that MCPS opted not to use its makeup days this year and did get a waiver to shortchange kids 3 days of instructional time, the requirement to end school by Juneteenth seems fairly relevant.
What do you mean?
The point is the state is not actually going to penalize MCPS. They broke their own rules to grant a waiver this year.
Sure, and told MCPS explicitly to not rely on extending the year beyond Juneteenth again. So MCPS' solution is to not actually use the within-year makeup days, its to move the year so they can still tack on days at the end. It's utter BS.
Which is why it makes sense to start earlier in August since MCPS refuses to use its own designated makeup days. Of course you can wish that MCPS would get rid of transition day, Diwali, or teacher grading days or whatever. But it's not happening. No one is proposing those things.
So instead we're disrupting the entire county... teachers, parents, students, the Ag Fair... and tacking on three earlier days that many kids will still not attend just to save face when it comes to "equity"
This reminds me of the Hogan era when we couldn't start school before Labor Day because the Eastern shore would be "disrupted." Your precious Ag fair will survive even if the school year starts earlier, just like the Eastern shore survived the start of school in August.
And tacking on extra school days isn't "equity"--it's a requirement so that MCPS school kids aren't shortchanged relative to other kids in the state and country, as occurred this year.
The equity piece is about making sure every group no matter how small a population gets their holidays off. It’s not workable.
As for your other points, fine if the calendar is preplanned. Changing it after it’s already approved serves no one.
No one preplanned losing so many days due to the snow day closings this year. Parents, students and teachers had to roll with the changes. That MCPS requested a waiver to not have the required number of instructional days was also not preplanned.
Yet somehow, when MCPS tries to adjust its calendar for next year to learn from the lessons from the scheduling fiasco this 2025-2026, they can't do that 4 months in advance because it's not "preplanned."
You realize that this fix truly isn’t fixing what you think it is. They’re not extending the year by 3 days. They’re just shifting everything earlier. If we have more than 3 days of closures this year again we’re in the same spot as we were last year. Just with having disrupted everyone’s end of summer
You realize that MCPS can't keep pulling the same BS year after a year of asking the state to waive the required number of days. Maryland told MCPS not to request a waiver again this year, and not to tack on a bunch of days in late June. I don't know how you think MCPS gets to 180 days next year other than by using your magical powers to ensure it doesn't snow next year (keeping in mind that MCPS likes to close for freezing rain and severe cold too.)
Again, this “fix” only allows them to use the three days after the new end of year before Juneteenth and bypass the other makeup days it identified. The only change is now they’re before Juneteenth at the expense of everyone’s 2026 summer plans. If we have 4 days of snow or cold, MCPS gets its waiver and we have 179 days. There’s no guarantee of 180 days with this proposal. Quite the opposite actually. They’re doing this precisely so they can get a waiver.
Did you miss the part this year where MCPS tried to extend the school year til June 22 to make 180 days happen? They got a waiver this year to avoid doing that, but the state told Maryland not to do this again next year. So yes, your summer plans may get screwed up because they need to start earlier in August. Take it up with your union, but MCPS can't create 180 days of instructional time out of thin air.
Again, take a look at the calendar of literally any other school system in Maryland. Aug 24 - June 18 offers much more than enough time for 180 instructional days.
Unlike other school districts, MCPS did not use all of its scheduled spring makeup days, secure waivers of otherwise mandatory state holidays, or have the school board approve a virtual learning plan as a last resort for multi-day closures. MCPS is the "dog ate my homework" school district.
+1 Since 2016, MCPS has reduced scheduled school days from 184 to 181. This year, only half of the 18 weeks before January were full five-day weeks. At the same time, MCPS scheduled nearly all contingency days in the fall and early winter—when they are unlikely to be used—or in late June, after testing ends and attendance declines.
Why has this happened? Seems like having only 181 scheduled school days is a recipe for disaster in an area where we usually do get snow each winter.
Literally this has happened because they have added in a number of cultural/religous holidays. RH/YK have been on the calendar since forever, but once they started adding additional, groups came to testify that their culture wasn't recognized, so they added more. And here we are.
Religious holidays aren't being added as religious holidays. They're added as "non-instructional days" that teachers can use to grade or do professional development or whatever. Let's stop pretending that all these religious holidays were added because suddenly MCPS grew a great fondness for Diwali and Eid, in comparison to the 3 Jewish holidays already on the calendar.
Anonymous wrote:Who knows what they will do. Maybe MCEA is calling Taylor's bluff which I support. If your kid misses the first two days of school, it will be fine, hardly catastrophic if not ideal. I assume it will be worse for the teachers to have kids slowly streaming in the first 3 days of school. Seems like this will mean starting off with 2 fewer days of actual instruction. If teachers miss 3 days of preservice, I feel for them and hope they don't lose leave days because of it. Taylor and the BOE have done a lot of stupid things, this is one on a very long list of them.
Of course they will have to take leave if they don’t show up for work.
That sucks because in order to show up many will have to lose money on travel that has been booked or other jobs. I don't know about you but I think that's a 5h!tty way to treat my kid's wonderful teachers.
I hope teachers are pushing MCPS to choose another option, and for the union to negotiate to allow makeups as 1/2 days on grading and reporting. Otherwise they will need to show up as early as Aug 10th.
MCEA told teachers there is nothing they can do except fill out the survey, unfortunately. I agree that they could be doing more to push Taylor and the board. But they didn't even poll teachers.
MCEA has no input on the calendar.
They have impact on the grading days. That’s what TT is targeting. He wants MCEA to relent on that contract requirement.
Teachers need those days for grading and reporting. Better to get rid of a few PD days, and make the day before Thanksgiving and 12/23 early release days, and get rid of transition day.
Better yet, people need to advocate for counting hours of instruction or (not and) days.
In reality MCPS never utilizes the feedback from its surveys. They’ve already made the decision regarding the calendar.
PD is required by state law. If we have a snow day, teachers should use that to catch up on grading and allow the next grading to be a makeup day.
I’m very against getting rid of the days requirement
And if the snow day falls two weeks into the marking period?
Use the snow day to get ahead on planning. Then you have more time for grading later on. It's not that hard. A day without school that you are being paid for should be used productively and replace the day you would have had for that planning/grading.
I'm not a teacher but I have a young child and don't get a lot done on most snow days since they also close child care on those days.
Then like everyone else, teachers should have to take PTO or a sick day to cover the childcare on those days. Why are teachers the exception here and expect they don't have to work when being paid to do so on a snow day? I also have to work and have an elementary student. If I can't work, I have to take PTO.
That's ridiculous. Teachers have so little flexibility in the first place. I don't support this at all. Especially given workloads for teachers like for many professionals vary throughout the year. Working on a snow day in February is simply not going to make up for losing a grading day in April. Stop embarrassing yourself.
Then start advocating for TT and MCPS to use the holidays they've already designated as makeup days. Truly, those are the only two options.
No, there are multiple options. Some are more realistic than others. TT is recommending the worst option in hopes of getting teachers to give up their grading and planning days, which I do not support for the reasons I have already discussed.
The designated makeup days in the approved 2026-27 calendar are:
October 16 2026 - obviously not helpful
November 2 2026 - obviously not helpful
March 9 - aligns with Eid al Adha
April 16 - aligns with Eid al Fitr
June 17, 21, 22 and 23 - all occur after the last day of school and three of them they can't use now because they are after Juneteenth (they wouldn't have used them anyway, as we all know)
The only designated makeup days on the calendar that occur after snow days are reasonably likely to happen and occur before the last day of school are both on Muslim holidays.
I totally understand that many if not most families are fine with using both Eids to make up snow days, but the BOE will never approve that. MCPS needs buy in from the Muslim community and they certainly can't get that by only using their holidays as makeup days.
You have your dates wrong.
Eid Al-fitr is March 9.
Eid Al-adha is May 17
Every Muslim family I know is super into education. I wish a community of them would come forward and say -- look, we'd rather you use these days as makeup days rather than mess up everybody's plans, and upset the teachers so much.
The state rule requiring a 4-day weekend for easter is ridiculous and should absolutely be changed, but for some dumb reason no one got that through Annapolis this year. Maybe this will be the push to get it done next year.
I personally think school holidays for religious holidays are dumb. I grew up in a religious family where we regularly took the day off school, or left early/went in late, due to mandatory observance rules. It was fine. We just made it up. Schools are flexible about that. I honestly don't believe many parents really care that much about having it off....I suspect it was a few squeaky wheels that felt disrespected this year.
Enjoy your bubble. Many families have issues with the day being excused, but not closed. Students need to make up work. Students who missed days for other reasons around then will have even more trouble making up work. It's actually quite a problem because many families will opt to send the children to school to avoid those issues.
But again, a school system cannot cater to each individual's need to be out of school. Up thread many pages ago there was a mom of a kid who often has to be out for a medical issue. The school can't stop teaching because her kid is out. The population of kids that will be out for many of these holidays is extremely, extremely tiny in MCPS. If its a choice about moving the start date earlier, when people already have paid for trips and camps (many MORE people than will be affected by having a holiday as a potential makeup day -- not even a definitive day of school) and designating a makeup day for a holiday a few people celebrate, I choose the latter.
It is not up to you. It doesn't matter how many people post this on DCUM. The BOE will not approve it.
The BOE has approved bad calendars for 2024-25, 2025-26 and 2026-27. And it's not because they scheduled non instructional days on Eid. It's because they have progressively reduced the number of instructional days for different reasons and for multiple religious groups without adding other instructional days to make up for it. And the makeup days they are willing to use fall at the end of the school year, often into the following week during which staff and students have camps, travel and other jobs planned. This is simply not workable, and it's not the fault of the Muslim community. It is on TT and the BOE.
I mean, they literally sent out a survey asking people whether they preferred removing holidays or the last week of summer. So, sure, it's ultimately up the BoE, but they're elected by "us" and are pretending to get input from "us", so it seems fine for "us" to discuss it on a public forum.
Nobody said you can't discuss it.
Survey responses are not votes. They are tools for MCPS to use to justify whatever decision they deem to be in their best interest.
You can scream about how stupid it is to not have school on Eid. Feel free to continue posting on it. But you and I both know it's not a solution. Not only because the BOE won't use it, but also because only one of the Eids is a designated makeup day. They need three days before the scheduled last day of school that they can actually use. Even if you INSIST they can actually use the one Eid day, that's still only one day. They need more days besides Eid. And if they do use Eid as one of the days, they will never use the other Eid as the second day. The NEED to look at the transition day and November 9 and also try to get the law changed on President's Day, Good Friday and Easter Monday for future years. That is, if they want to stop causing mass chaos every year (I think TT loves the chaos so...)
This isn't about Eid specifically! This is about them using the days they've ALREADY DESIGNATED which includes Eid but is not exclusive to Eid.
Which other days that they have ALREADY DESIGNATED do you propose they use either as planned instructional day or as a makeup day?
They have 3 designated after winter break: March 9, June 17, and April 16 which seems to be a misprint, but I would say should be April 22 which is non-instruction for Passover. There, done. We have the 3 makeup days we need before Juneteenth.
My guess is the April 16 day is the grading day and is probably unusable due to it being in the collective bargaining agreement with the teachers, unless they cave again like they did this year. But I think it is unlikely they will use it especially if it is also Passover.
April 16, 2027 does not align with Passover.
April 22, which is currently no school for teachers or students, does. Use that day as the makeup
April 22 is not a designated makeup day
But it should be.
Exactly. Passover Seders are in the evening, and if people were planning to travel for them... well at least they have almost 1 year's notice instead of < 4 months!
Ok. Good luck with that.
I assume you are the same negative nelly who has been posting the last several pages... so what is your solution then?
Have school on
Transition Day
November 9
End the school year two days earlier than planned
Which isn't even one of the options. They've already passed a compliant calendar. They don't even have to make any changes to it. They just have to be willing to use it.
But they aren't willing to use it. Which is why they need to change it. It is on TT for proposing the most disruptive option.
And TT is not willing to give up Transition Day. And even though November 9 isn't actually Diwali, its perceived to have the same issues as using Eid and Passover.
The BOE can overrule TT. As far as November 9, it is Diwali, just not the main day. It does not have the same issue as using Eid.
I think we both know the likelihood of them doing what you're proposing and the likelihood of them using any holiday throughout the year as either an instructional or makeup day are about the same. Slim to none. They're going to rubber stamp the earlier start and its going to cause chaos. Completely unnecessary chaos.
The new state guidelines require school to be over by Juneteenth--so no more MCPS trying to extend the school year til June 22 next year if there are snow days and MCPS continues on its trajectory of refusing to use its designated makeup days as it did this year.
So yes, you have to start earlier in August--it's not going to be chaos. It's going to be a lot of grumbling by teachers this year, and then people will get used to it.
It's not a state requirement. They only need to do it if they want to be eligible for a waiver to avoid having to make up snow days. If they're willing to actually make up snow days (which IMO they should be) then they don't need to change a thing.
Given that MCPS opted not to use its makeup days this year and did get a waiver to shortchange kids 3 days of instructional time, the requirement to end school by Juneteenth seems fairly relevant.
What do you mean?
The point is the state is not actually going to penalize MCPS. They broke their own rules to grant a waiver this year.
Sure, and told MCPS explicitly to not rely on extending the year beyond Juneteenth again. So MCPS' solution is to not actually use the within-year makeup days, its to move the year so they can still tack on days at the end. It's utter BS.
Which is why it makes sense to start earlier in August since MCPS refuses to use its own designated makeup days. Of course you can wish that MCPS would get rid of transition day, Diwali, or teacher grading days or whatever. But it's not happening. No one is proposing those things.
So instead we're disrupting the entire county... teachers, parents, students, the Ag Fair... and tacking on three earlier days that many kids will still not attend just to save face when it comes to "equity"
This reminds me of the Hogan era when we couldn't start school before Labor Day because the Eastern shore would be "disrupted." Your precious Ag fair will survive even if the school year starts earlier, just like the Eastern shore survived the start of school in August.
And tacking on extra school days isn't "equity"--it's a requirement so that MCPS school kids aren't shortchanged relative to other kids in the state and country, as occurred this year.
The equity piece is about making sure every group no matter how small a population gets their holidays off. It’s not workable.
As for your other points, fine if the calendar is preplanned. Changing it after it’s already approved serves no one.
No one preplanned losing so many days due to the snow day closings this year. Parents, students and teachers had to roll with the changes. That MCPS requested a waiver to not have the required number of instructional days was also not preplanned.
Yet somehow, when MCPS tries to adjust its calendar for next year to learn from the lessons from the scheduling fiasco this 2025-2026, they can't do that 4 months in advance because it's not "preplanned."
You realize that this fix truly isn’t fixing what you think it is. They’re not extending the year by 3 days. They’re just shifting everything earlier. If we have more than 3 days of closures this year again we’re in the same spot as we were last year. Just with having disrupted everyone’s end of summer
You realize that MCPS can't keep pulling the same BS year after a year of asking the state to waive the required number of days. Maryland told MCPS not to request a waiver again this year, and not to tack on a bunch of days in late June. I don't know how you think MCPS gets to 180 days next year other than by using your magical powers to ensure it doesn't snow next year (keeping in mind that MCPS likes to close for freezing rain and severe cold too.)
Again, this “fix” only allows them to use the three days after the new end of year before Juneteenth and bypass the other makeup days it identified. The only change is now they’re before Juneteenth at the expense of everyone’s 2026 summer plans. If we have 4 days of snow or cold, MCPS gets its waiver and we have 179 days. There’s no guarantee of 180 days with this proposal. Quite the opposite actually. They’re doing this precisely so they can get a waiver.
Did you miss the part this year where MCPS tried to extend the school year til June 22 to make 180 days happen? They got a waiver this year to avoid doing that, but the state told Maryland not to do this again next year. So yes, your summer plans may get screwed up because they need to start earlier in August. Take it up with your union, but MCPS can't create 180 days of instructional time out of thin air.
Again, take a look at the calendar of literally any other school system in Maryland. Aug 24 - June 18 offers much more than enough time for 180 instructional days.
Unlike other school districts, MCPS did not use all of its scheduled spring makeup days, secure waivers of otherwise mandatory state holidays, or have the school board approve a virtual learning plan as a last resort for multi-day closures. MCPS is the "dog ate my homework" school district.
+1 Since 2016, MCPS has reduced scheduled school days from 184 to 181. This year, only half of the 18 weeks before January were full five-day weeks. At the same time, MCPS scheduled nearly all contingency days in the fall and early winter—when they are unlikely to be used—or in late June, after testing ends and attendance declines.
Why has this happened? Seems like having only 181 scheduled school days is a recipe for disaster in an area where we usually do get snow each winter.
Literally this has happened because they have added in a number of cultural/religous holidays. RH/YK have been on the calendar since forever, but once they started adding additional, groups came to testify that their culture wasn't recognized, so they added more. And here we are.
Yep. All in the name of equity. If someone has something all must get it or no one can. That’s what it has turned into.
Anonymous wrote:Who knows what they will do. Maybe MCEA is calling Taylor's bluff which I support. If your kid misses the first two days of school, it will be fine, hardly catastrophic if not ideal. I assume it will be worse for the teachers to have kids slowly streaming in the first 3 days of school. Seems like this will mean starting off with 2 fewer days of actual instruction. If teachers miss 3 days of preservice, I feel for them and hope they don't lose leave days because of it. Taylor and the BOE have done a lot of stupid things, this is one on a very long list of them.
Of course they will have to take leave if they don’t show up for work.
That sucks because in order to show up many will have to lose money on travel that has been booked or other jobs. I don't know about you but I think that's a 5h!tty way to treat my kid's wonderful teachers.
I hope teachers are pushing MCPS to choose another option, and for the union to negotiate to allow makeups as 1/2 days on grading and reporting. Otherwise they will need to show up as early as Aug 10th.
MCEA told teachers there is nothing they can do except fill out the survey, unfortunately. I agree that they could be doing more to push Taylor and the board. But they didn't even poll teachers.
MCEA has no input on the calendar.
They have impact on the grading days. That’s what TT is targeting. He wants MCEA to relent on that contract requirement.
Teachers need those days for grading and reporting. Better to get rid of a few PD days, and make the day before Thanksgiving and 12/23 early release days, and get rid of transition day.
Better yet, people need to advocate for counting hours of instruction or (not and) days.
In reality MCPS never utilizes the feedback from its surveys. They’ve already made the decision regarding the calendar.
PD is required by state law. If we have a snow day, teachers should use that to catch up on grading and allow the next grading to be a makeup day.
I’m very against getting rid of the days requirement
And if the snow day falls two weeks into the marking period?
Use the snow day to get ahead on planning. Then you have more time for grading later on. It's not that hard. A day without school that you are being paid for should be used productively and replace the day you would have had for that planning/grading.
I'm not a teacher but I have a young child and don't get a lot done on most snow days since they also close child care on those days.
Then like everyone else, teachers should have to take PTO or a sick day to cover the childcare on those days. Why are teachers the exception here and expect they don't have to work when being paid to do so on a snow day? I also have to work and have an elementary student. If I can't work, I have to take PTO.
That's ridiculous. Teachers have so little flexibility in the first place. I don't support this at all. Especially given workloads for teachers like for many professionals vary throughout the year. Working on a snow day in February is simply not going to make up for losing a grading day in April. Stop embarrassing yourself.
Then start advocating for TT and MCPS to use the holidays they've already designated as makeup days. Truly, those are the only two options.
No, there are multiple options. Some are more realistic than others. TT is recommending the worst option in hopes of getting teachers to give up their grading and planning days, which I do not support for the reasons I have already discussed.
The designated makeup days in the approved 2026-27 calendar are:
October 16 2026 - obviously not helpful
November 2 2026 - obviously not helpful
March 9 - aligns with Eid al Adha
April 16 - aligns with Eid al Fitr
June 17, 21, 22 and 23 - all occur after the last day of school and three of them they can't use now because they are after Juneteenth (they wouldn't have used them anyway, as we all know)
The only designated makeup days on the calendar that occur after snow days are reasonably likely to happen and occur before the last day of school are both on Muslim holidays.
I totally understand that many if not most families are fine with using both Eids to make up snow days, but the BOE will never approve that. MCPS needs buy in from the Muslim community and they certainly can't get that by only using their holidays as makeup days.
You have your dates wrong.
Eid Al-fitr is March 9.
Eid Al-adha is May 17
Every Muslim family I know is super into education. I wish a community of them would come forward and say -- look, we'd rather you use these days as makeup days rather than mess up everybody's plans, and upset the teachers so much.
The state rule requiring a 4-day weekend for easter is ridiculous and should absolutely be changed, but for some dumb reason no one got that through Annapolis this year. Maybe this will be the push to get it done next year.
I personally think school holidays for religious holidays are dumb. I grew up in a religious family where we regularly took the day off school, or left early/went in late, due to mandatory observance rules. It was fine. We just made it up. Schools are flexible about that. I honestly don't believe many parents really care that much about having it off....I suspect it was a few squeaky wheels that felt disrespected this year.
Enjoy your bubble. Many families have issues with the day being excused, but not closed. Students need to make up work. Students who missed days for other reasons around then will have even more trouble making up work. It's actually quite a problem because many families will opt to send the children to school to avoid those issues.
But again, a school system cannot cater to each individual's need to be out of school. Up thread many pages ago there was a mom of a kid who often has to be out for a medical issue. The school can't stop teaching because her kid is out. The population of kids that will be out for many of these holidays is extremely, extremely tiny in MCPS. If its a choice about moving the start date earlier, when people already have paid for trips and camps (many MORE people than will be affected by having a holiday as a potential makeup day -- not even a definitive day of school) and designating a makeup day for a holiday a few people celebrate, I choose the latter.
It is not up to you. It doesn't matter how many people post this on DCUM. The BOE will not approve it.
The BOE has approved bad calendars for 2024-25, 2025-26 and 2026-27. And it's not because they scheduled non instructional days on Eid. It's because they have progressively reduced the number of instructional days for different reasons and for multiple religious groups without adding other instructional days to make up for it. And the makeup days they are willing to use fall at the end of the school year, often into the following week during which staff and students have camps, travel and other jobs planned. This is simply not workable, and it's not the fault of the Muslim community. It is on TT and the BOE.
I mean, they literally sent out a survey asking people whether they preferred removing holidays or the last week of summer. So, sure, it's ultimately up the BoE, but they're elected by "us" and are pretending to get input from "us", so it seems fine for "us" to discuss it on a public forum.
Nobody said you can't discuss it.
Survey responses are not votes. They are tools for MCPS to use to justify whatever decision they deem to be in their best interest.
You can scream about how stupid it is to not have school on Eid. Feel free to continue posting on it. But you and I both know it's not a solution. Not only because the BOE won't use it, but also because only one of the Eids is a designated makeup day. They need three days before the scheduled last day of school that they can actually use. Even if you INSIST they can actually use the one Eid day, that's still only one day. They need more days besides Eid. And if they do use Eid as one of the days, they will never use the other Eid as the second day. The NEED to look at the transition day and November 9 and also try to get the law changed on President's Day, Good Friday and Easter Monday for future years. That is, if they want to stop causing mass chaos every year (I think TT loves the chaos so...)
This isn't about Eid specifically! This is about them using the days they've ALREADY DESIGNATED which includes Eid but is not exclusive to Eid.
Which other days that they have ALREADY DESIGNATED do you propose they use either as planned instructional day or as a makeup day?
They have 3 designated after winter break: March 9, June 17, and April 16 which seems to be a misprint, but I would say should be April 22 which is non-instruction for Passover. There, done. We have the 3 makeup days we need before Juneteenth.
My guess is the April 16 day is the grading day and is probably unusable due to it being in the collective bargaining agreement with the teachers, unless they cave again like they did this year. But I think it is unlikely they will use it especially if it is also Passover.
April 16, 2027 does not align with Passover.
April 22, which is currently no school for teachers or students, does. Use that day as the makeup
April 22 is not a designated makeup day
But it should be.
Exactly. Passover Seders are in the evening, and if people were planning to travel for them... well at least they have almost 1 year's notice instead of < 4 months!
Ok. Good luck with that.
I assume you are the same negative nelly who has been posting the last several pages... so what is your solution then?
Have school on
Transition Day
November 9
End the school year two days earlier than planned
Which isn't even one of the options. They've already passed a compliant calendar. They don't even have to make any changes to it. They just have to be willing to use it.
But they aren't willing to use it. Which is why they need to change it. It is on TT for proposing the most disruptive option.
And TT is not willing to give up Transition Day. And even though November 9 isn't actually Diwali, its perceived to have the same issues as using Eid and Passover.
The BOE can overrule TT. As far as November 9, it is Diwali, just not the main day. It does not have the same issue as using Eid.
I think we both know the likelihood of them doing what you're proposing and the likelihood of them using any holiday throughout the year as either an instructional or makeup day are about the same. Slim to none. They're going to rubber stamp the earlier start and its going to cause chaos. Completely unnecessary chaos.
The new state guidelines require school to be over by Juneteenth--so no more MCPS trying to extend the school year til June 22 next year if there are snow days and MCPS continues on its trajectory of refusing to use its designated makeup days as it did this year.
So yes, you have to start earlier in August--it's not going to be chaos. It's going to be a lot of grumbling by teachers this year, and then people will get used to it.
It's not a state requirement. They only need to do it if they want to be eligible for a waiver to avoid having to make up snow days. If they're willing to actually make up snow days (which IMO they should be) then they don't need to change a thing.
Given that MCPS opted not to use its makeup days this year and did get a waiver to shortchange kids 3 days of instructional time, the requirement to end school by Juneteenth seems fairly relevant.
What do you mean?
The point is the state is not actually going to penalize MCPS. They broke their own rules to grant a waiver this year.
Sure, and told MCPS explicitly to not rely on extending the year beyond Juneteenth again. So MCPS' solution is to not actually use the within-year makeup days, its to move the year so they can still tack on days at the end. It's utter BS.
Which is why it makes sense to start earlier in August since MCPS refuses to use its own designated makeup days. Of course you can wish that MCPS would get rid of transition day, Diwali, or teacher grading days or whatever. But it's not happening. No one is proposing those things.
So instead we're disrupting the entire county... teachers, parents, students, the Ag Fair... and tacking on three earlier days that many kids will still not attend just to save face when it comes to "equity"
This reminds me of the Hogan era when we couldn't start school before Labor Day because the Eastern shore would be "disrupted." Your precious Ag fair will survive even if the school year starts earlier, just like the Eastern shore survived the start of school in August.
And tacking on extra school days isn't "equity"--it's a requirement so that MCPS school kids aren't shortchanged relative to other kids in the state and country, as occurred this year.
The equity piece is about making sure every group no matter how small a population gets their holidays off. It’s not workable.
As for your other points, fine if the calendar is preplanned. Changing it after it’s already approved serves no one.
No one preplanned losing so many days due to the snow day closings this year. Parents, students and teachers had to roll with the changes. That MCPS requested a waiver to not have the required number of instructional days was also not preplanned.
Yet somehow, when MCPS tries to adjust its calendar for next year to learn from the lessons from the scheduling fiasco this 2025-2026, they can't do that 4 months in advance because it's not "preplanned."
You realize that this fix truly isn’t fixing what you think it is. They’re not extending the year by 3 days. They’re just shifting everything earlier. If we have more than 3 days of closures this year again we’re in the same spot as we were last year. Just with having disrupted everyone’s end of summer
You realize that MCPS can't keep pulling the same BS year after a year of asking the state to waive the required number of days. Maryland told MCPS not to request a waiver again this year, and not to tack on a bunch of days in late June. I don't know how you think MCPS gets to 180 days next year other than by using your magical powers to ensure it doesn't snow next year (keeping in mind that MCPS likes to close for freezing rain and severe cold too.)
Again, this “fix” only allows them to use the three days after the new end of year before Juneteenth and bypass the other makeup days it identified. The only change is now they’re before Juneteenth at the expense of everyone’s 2026 summer plans. If we have 4 days of snow or cold, MCPS gets its waiver and we have 179 days. There’s no guarantee of 180 days with this proposal. Quite the opposite actually. They’re doing this precisely so they can get a waiver.
Did you miss the part this year where MCPS tried to extend the school year til June 22 to make 180 days happen? They got a waiver this year to avoid doing that, but the state told Maryland not to do this again next year. So yes, your summer plans may get screwed up because they need to start earlier in August. Take it up with your union, but MCPS can't create 180 days of instructional time out of thin air.
Again, take a look at the calendar of literally any other school system in Maryland. Aug 24 - June 18 offers much more than enough time for 180 instructional days.
Unlike other school districts, MCPS did not use all of its scheduled spring makeup days, secure waivers of otherwise mandatory state holidays, or have the school board approve a virtual learning plan as a last resort for multi-day closures. MCPS is the "dog ate my homework" school district.
+1 Since 2016, MCPS has reduced scheduled school days from 184 to 181. This year, only half of the 18 weeks before January were full five-day weeks. At the same time, MCPS scheduled nearly all contingency days in the fall and early winter—when they are unlikely to be used—or in late June, after testing ends and attendance declines.
Why has this happened? Seems like having only 181 scheduled school days is a recipe for disaster in an area where we usually do get snow each winter.
Literally this has happened because they have added in a number of cultural/religous holidays. RH/YK have been on the calendar since forever, but once they started adding additional, groups came to testify that their culture wasn't recognized, so they added more. And here we are.
Religious holidays aren't being added as religious holidays. They're added as "non-instructional days" that teachers can use to grade or do professional development or whatever. Let's stop pretending that all these religious holidays were added because suddenly MCPS grew a great fondness for Diwali and Eid, in comparison to the 3 Jewish holidays already on the calendar.
The grading days are completely separate and were negotiated under the union contract.
Anonymous wrote:Who knows what they will do. Maybe MCEA is calling Taylor's bluff which I support. If your kid misses the first two days of school, it will be fine, hardly catastrophic if not ideal. I assume it will be worse for the teachers to have kids slowly streaming in the first 3 days of school. Seems like this will mean starting off with 2 fewer days of actual instruction. If teachers miss 3 days of preservice, I feel for them and hope they don't lose leave days because of it. Taylor and the BOE have done a lot of stupid things, this is one on a very long list of them.
Of course they will have to take leave if they don’t show up for work.
That sucks because in order to show up many will have to lose money on travel that has been booked or other jobs. I don't know about you but I think that's a 5h!tty way to treat my kid's wonderful teachers.
I hope teachers are pushing MCPS to choose another option, and for the union to negotiate to allow makeups as 1/2 days on grading and reporting. Otherwise they will need to show up as early as Aug 10th.
MCEA told teachers there is nothing they can do except fill out the survey, unfortunately. I agree that they could be doing more to push Taylor and the board. But they didn't even poll teachers.
MCEA has no input on the calendar.
They have impact on the grading days. That’s what TT is targeting. He wants MCEA to relent on that contract requirement.
Teachers need those days for grading and reporting. Better to get rid of a few PD days, and make the day before Thanksgiving and 12/23 early release days, and get rid of transition day.
Better yet, people need to advocate for counting hours of instruction or (not and) days.
In reality MCPS never utilizes the feedback from its surveys. They’ve already made the decision regarding the calendar.
PD is required by state law. If we have a snow day, teachers should use that to catch up on grading and allow the next grading to be a makeup day.
I’m very against getting rid of the days requirement
And if the snow day falls two weeks into the marking period?
Use the snow day to get ahead on planning. Then you have more time for grading later on. It's not that hard. A day without school that you are being paid for should be used productively and replace the day you would have had for that planning/grading.
I'm not a teacher but I have a young child and don't get a lot done on most snow days since they also close child care on those days.
Then like everyone else, teachers should have to take PTO or a sick day to cover the childcare on those days. Why are teachers the exception here and expect they don't have to work when being paid to do so on a snow day? I also have to work and have an elementary student. If I can't work, I have to take PTO.
That's ridiculous. Teachers have so little flexibility in the first place. I don't support this at all. Especially given workloads for teachers like for many professionals vary throughout the year. Working on a snow day in February is simply not going to make up for losing a grading day in April. Stop embarrassing yourself.
Then start advocating for TT and MCPS to use the holidays they've already designated as makeup days. Truly, those are the only two options.
No, there are multiple options. Some are more realistic than others. TT is recommending the worst option in hopes of getting teachers to give up their grading and planning days, which I do not support for the reasons I have already discussed.
The designated makeup days in the approved 2026-27 calendar are:
October 16 2026 - obviously not helpful
November 2 2026 - obviously not helpful
March 9 - aligns with Eid al Adha
April 16 - aligns with Eid al Fitr
June 17, 21, 22 and 23 - all occur after the last day of school and three of them they can't use now because they are after Juneteenth (they wouldn't have used them anyway, as we all know)
The only designated makeup days on the calendar that occur after snow days are reasonably likely to happen and occur before the last day of school are both on Muslim holidays.
I totally understand that many if not most families are fine with using both Eids to make up snow days, but the BOE will never approve that. MCPS needs buy in from the Muslim community and they certainly can't get that by only using their holidays as makeup days.
You have your dates wrong.
Eid Al-fitr is March 9.
Eid Al-adha is May 17
Every Muslim family I know is super into education. I wish a community of them would come forward and say -- look, we'd rather you use these days as makeup days rather than mess up everybody's plans, and upset the teachers so much.
The state rule requiring a 4-day weekend for easter is ridiculous and should absolutely be changed, but for some dumb reason no one got that through Annapolis this year. Maybe this will be the push to get it done next year.
I personally think school holidays for religious holidays are dumb. I grew up in a religious family where we regularly took the day off school, or left early/went in late, due to mandatory observance rules. It was fine. We just made it up. Schools are flexible about that. I honestly don't believe many parents really care that much about having it off....I suspect it was a few squeaky wheels that felt disrespected this year.
Enjoy your bubble. Many families have issues with the day being excused, but not closed. Students need to make up work. Students who missed days for other reasons around then will have even more trouble making up work. It's actually quite a problem because many families will opt to send the children to school to avoid those issues.
But again, a school system cannot cater to each individual's need to be out of school. Up thread many pages ago there was a mom of a kid who often has to be out for a medical issue. The school can't stop teaching because her kid is out. The population of kids that will be out for many of these holidays is extremely, extremely tiny in MCPS. If its a choice about moving the start date earlier, when people already have paid for trips and camps (many MORE people than will be affected by having a holiday as a potential makeup day -- not even a definitive day of school) and designating a makeup day for a holiday a few people celebrate, I choose the latter.
It is not up to you. It doesn't matter how many people post this on DCUM. The BOE will not approve it.
The BOE has approved bad calendars for 2024-25, 2025-26 and 2026-27. And it's not because they scheduled non instructional days on Eid. It's because they have progressively reduced the number of instructional days for different reasons and for multiple religious groups without adding other instructional days to make up for it. And the makeup days they are willing to use fall at the end of the school year, often into the following week during which staff and students have camps, travel and other jobs planned. This is simply not workable, and it's not the fault of the Muslim community. It is on TT and the BOE.
I mean, they literally sent out a survey asking people whether they preferred removing holidays or the last week of summer. So, sure, it's ultimately up the BoE, but they're elected by "us" and are pretending to get input from "us", so it seems fine for "us" to discuss it on a public forum.
Nobody said you can't discuss it.
Survey responses are not votes. They are tools for MCPS to use to justify whatever decision they deem to be in their best interest.
You can scream about how stupid it is to not have school on Eid. Feel free to continue posting on it. But you and I both know it's not a solution. Not only because the BOE won't use it, but also because only one of the Eids is a designated makeup day. They need three days before the scheduled last day of school that they can actually use. Even if you INSIST they can actually use the one Eid day, that's still only one day. They need more days besides Eid. And if they do use Eid as one of the days, they will never use the other Eid as the second day. The NEED to look at the transition day and November 9 and also try to get the law changed on President's Day, Good Friday and Easter Monday for future years. That is, if they want to stop causing mass chaos every year (I think TT loves the chaos so...)
This isn't about Eid specifically! This is about them using the days they've ALREADY DESIGNATED which includes Eid but is not exclusive to Eid.
Which other days that they have ALREADY DESIGNATED do you propose they use either as planned instructional day or as a makeup day?
They have 3 designated after winter break: March 9, June 17, and April 16 which seems to be a misprint, but I would say should be April 22 which is non-instruction for Passover. There, done. We have the 3 makeup days we need before Juneteenth.
My guess is the April 16 day is the grading day and is probably unusable due to it being in the collective bargaining agreement with the teachers, unless they cave again like they did this year. But I think it is unlikely they will use it especially if it is also Passover.
April 16, 2027 does not align with Passover.
April 22, which is currently no school for teachers or students, does. Use that day as the makeup
April 22 is not a designated makeup day
But it should be.
Exactly. Passover Seders are in the evening, and if people were planning to travel for them... well at least they have almost 1 year's notice instead of < 4 months!
Ok. Good luck with that.
I assume you are the same negative nelly who has been posting the last several pages... so what is your solution then?
Have school on
Transition Day
November 9
End the school year two days earlier than planned
Which isn't even one of the options. They've already passed a compliant calendar. They don't even have to make any changes to it. They just have to be willing to use it.
But they aren't willing to use it. Which is why they need to change it. It is on TT for proposing the most disruptive option.
And TT is not willing to give up Transition Day. And even though November 9 isn't actually Diwali, its perceived to have the same issues as using Eid and Passover.
The BOE can overrule TT. As far as November 9, it is Diwali, just not the main day. It does not have the same issue as using Eid.
I think we both know the likelihood of them doing what you're proposing and the likelihood of them using any holiday throughout the year as either an instructional or makeup day are about the same. Slim to none. They're going to rubber stamp the earlier start and its going to cause chaos. Completely unnecessary chaos.
The new state guidelines require school to be over by Juneteenth--so no more MCPS trying to extend the school year til June 22 next year if there are snow days and MCPS continues on its trajectory of refusing to use its designated makeup days as it did this year.
So yes, you have to start earlier in August--it's not going to be chaos. It's going to be a lot of grumbling by teachers this year, and then people will get used to it.
It's not a state requirement. They only need to do it if they want to be eligible for a waiver to avoid having to make up snow days. If they're willing to actually make up snow days (which IMO they should be) then they don't need to change a thing.
Given that MCPS opted not to use its makeup days this year and did get a waiver to shortchange kids 3 days of instructional time, the requirement to end school by Juneteenth seems fairly relevant.
What do you mean?
The point is the state is not actually going to penalize MCPS. They broke their own rules to grant a waiver this year.
Sure, and told MCPS explicitly to not rely on extending the year beyond Juneteenth again. So MCPS' solution is to not actually use the within-year makeup days, its to move the year so they can still tack on days at the end. It's utter BS.
Which is why it makes sense to start earlier in August since MCPS refuses to use its own designated makeup days. Of course you can wish that MCPS would get rid of transition day, Diwali, or teacher grading days or whatever. But it's not happening. No one is proposing those things.
So instead we're disrupting the entire county... teachers, parents, students, the Ag Fair... and tacking on three earlier days that many kids will still not attend just to save face when it comes to "equity"
This reminds me of the Hogan era when we couldn't start school before Labor Day because the Eastern shore would be "disrupted." Your precious Ag fair will survive even if the school year starts earlier, just like the Eastern shore survived the start of school in August.
And tacking on extra school days isn't "equity"--it's a requirement so that MCPS school kids aren't shortchanged relative to other kids in the state and country, as occurred this year.
The equity piece is about making sure every group no matter how small a population gets their holidays off. It’s not workable.
As for your other points, fine if the calendar is preplanned. Changing it after it’s already approved serves no one.
No one preplanned losing so many days due to the snow day closings this year. Parents, students and teachers had to roll with the changes. That MCPS requested a waiver to not have the required number of instructional days was also not preplanned.
Yet somehow, when MCPS tries to adjust its calendar for next year to learn from the lessons from the scheduling fiasco this 2025-2026, they can't do that 4 months in advance because it's not "preplanned."
You realize that this fix truly isn’t fixing what you think it is. They’re not extending the year by 3 days. They’re just shifting everything earlier. If we have more than 3 days of closures this year again we’re in the same spot as we were last year. Just with having disrupted everyone’s end of summer
You realize that MCPS can't keep pulling the same BS year after a year of asking the state to waive the required number of days. Maryland told MCPS not to request a waiver again this year, and not to tack on a bunch of days in late June. I don't know how you think MCPS gets to 180 days next year other than by using your magical powers to ensure it doesn't snow next year (keeping in mind that MCPS likes to close for freezing rain and severe cold too.)
Again, this “fix” only allows them to use the three days after the new end of year before Juneteenth and bypass the other makeup days it identified. The only change is now they’re before Juneteenth at the expense of everyone’s 2026 summer plans. If we have 4 days of snow or cold, MCPS gets its waiver and we have 179 days. There’s no guarantee of 180 days with this proposal. Quite the opposite actually. They’re doing this precisely so they can get a waiver.
Did you miss the part this year where MCPS tried to extend the school year til June 22 to make 180 days happen? They got a waiver this year to avoid doing that, but the state told Maryland not to do this again next year. So yes, your summer plans may get screwed up because they need to start earlier in August. Take it up with your union, but MCPS can't create 180 days of instructional time out of thin air.
Again, take a look at the calendar of literally any other school system in Maryland. Aug 24 - June 18 offers much more than enough time for 180 instructional days.
Unlike other school districts, MCPS did not use all of its scheduled spring makeup days, secure waivers of otherwise mandatory state holidays, or have the school board approve a virtual learning plan as a last resort for multi-day closures. MCPS is the "dog ate my homework" school district.
+1 Since 2016, MCPS has reduced scheduled school days from 184 to 181. This year, only half of the 18 weeks before January were full five-day weeks. At the same time, MCPS scheduled nearly all contingency days in the fall and early winter—when they are unlikely to be used—or in late June, after testing ends and attendance declines.
Why has this happened? Seems like having only 181 scheduled school days is a recipe for disaster in an area where we usually do get snow each winter.
Literally this has happened because they have added in a number of cultural/religous holidays. RH/YK have been on the calendar since forever, but once they started adding additional, groups came to testify that their culture wasn't recognized, so they added more. And here we are.
Religious holidays aren't being added as religious holidays. They're added as "non-instructional days" that teachers can use to grade or do professional development or whatever. Let's stop pretending that all these religious holidays were added because suddenly MCPS grew a great fondness for Diwali and Eid, in comparison to the 3 Jewish holidays already on the calendar.
The grading days are completely separate and were negotiated under the union contract.
They are not "completely separate." These non-instructional days just happen to be on religious holidays--be they Yom Kippur or Eid.
Anonymous wrote:Who knows what they will do. Maybe MCEA is calling Taylor's bluff which I support. If your kid misses the first two days of school, it will be fine, hardly catastrophic if not ideal. I assume it will be worse for the teachers to have kids slowly streaming in the first 3 days of school. Seems like this will mean starting off with 2 fewer days of actual instruction. If teachers miss 3 days of preservice, I feel for them and hope they don't lose leave days because of it. Taylor and the BOE have done a lot of stupid things, this is one on a very long list of them.
Of course they will have to take leave if they don’t show up for work.
That sucks because in order to show up many will have to lose money on travel that has been booked or other jobs. I don't know about you but I think that's a 5h!tty way to treat my kid's wonderful teachers.
I hope teachers are pushing MCPS to choose another option, and for the union to negotiate to allow makeups as 1/2 days on grading and reporting. Otherwise they will need to show up as early as Aug 10th.
MCEA told teachers there is nothing they can do except fill out the survey, unfortunately. I agree that they could be doing more to push Taylor and the board. But they didn't even poll teachers.
MCEA has no input on the calendar.
They have impact on the grading days. That’s what TT is targeting. He wants MCEA to relent on that contract requirement.
Teachers need those days for grading and reporting. Better to get rid of a few PD days, and make the day before Thanksgiving and 12/23 early release days, and get rid of transition day.
Better yet, people need to advocate for counting hours of instruction or (not and) days.
In reality MCPS never utilizes the feedback from its surveys. They’ve already made the decision regarding the calendar.
PD is required by state law. If we have a snow day, teachers should use that to catch up on grading and allow the next grading to be a makeup day.
I’m very against getting rid of the days requirement
And if the snow day falls two weeks into the marking period?
Use the snow day to get ahead on planning. Then you have more time for grading later on. It's not that hard. A day without school that you are being paid for should be used productively and replace the day you would have had for that planning/grading.
I'm not a teacher but I have a young child and don't get a lot done on most snow days since they also close child care on those days.
Then like everyone else, teachers should have to take PTO or a sick day to cover the childcare on those days. Why are teachers the exception here and expect they don't have to work when being paid to do so on a snow day? I also have to work and have an elementary student. If I can't work, I have to take PTO.
That's ridiculous. Teachers have so little flexibility in the first place. I don't support this at all. Especially given workloads for teachers like for many professionals vary throughout the year. Working on a snow day in February is simply not going to make up for losing a grading day in April. Stop embarrassing yourself.
Then start advocating for TT and MCPS to use the holidays they've already designated as makeup days. Truly, those are the only two options.
No, there are multiple options. Some are more realistic than others. TT is recommending the worst option in hopes of getting teachers to give up their grading and planning days, which I do not support for the reasons I have already discussed.
The designated makeup days in the approved 2026-27 calendar are:
October 16 2026 - obviously not helpful
November 2 2026 - obviously not helpful
March 9 - aligns with Eid al Adha
April 16 - aligns with Eid al Fitr
June 17, 21, 22 and 23 - all occur after the last day of school and three of them they can't use now because they are after Juneteenth (they wouldn't have used them anyway, as we all know)
The only designated makeup days on the calendar that occur after snow days are reasonably likely to happen and occur before the last day of school are both on Muslim holidays.
I totally understand that many if not most families are fine with using both Eids to make up snow days, but the BOE will never approve that. MCPS needs buy in from the Muslim community and they certainly can't get that by only using their holidays as makeup days.
You have your dates wrong.
Eid Al-fitr is March 9.
Eid Al-adha is May 17
Every Muslim family I know is super into education. I wish a community of them would come forward and say -- look, we'd rather you use these days as makeup days rather than mess up everybody's plans, and upset the teachers so much.
The state rule requiring a 4-day weekend for easter is ridiculous and should absolutely be changed, but for some dumb reason no one got that through Annapolis this year. Maybe this will be the push to get it done next year.
I personally think school holidays for religious holidays are dumb. I grew up in a religious family where we regularly took the day off school, or left early/went in late, due to mandatory observance rules. It was fine. We just made it up. Schools are flexible about that. I honestly don't believe many parents really care that much about having it off....I suspect it was a few squeaky wheels that felt disrespected this year.
Enjoy your bubble. Many families have issues with the day being excused, but not closed. Students need to make up work. Students who missed days for other reasons around then will have even more trouble making up work. It's actually quite a problem because many families will opt to send the children to school to avoid those issues.
But again, a school system cannot cater to each individual's need to be out of school. Up thread many pages ago there was a mom of a kid who often has to be out for a medical issue. The school can't stop teaching because her kid is out. The population of kids that will be out for many of these holidays is extremely, extremely tiny in MCPS. If its a choice about moving the start date earlier, when people already have paid for trips and camps (many MORE people than will be affected by having a holiday as a potential makeup day -- not even a definitive day of school) and designating a makeup day for a holiday a few people celebrate, I choose the latter.
It is not up to you. It doesn't matter how many people post this on DCUM. The BOE will not approve it.
The BOE has approved bad calendars for 2024-25, 2025-26 and 2026-27. And it's not because they scheduled non instructional days on Eid. It's because they have progressively reduced the number of instructional days for different reasons and for multiple religious groups without adding other instructional days to make up for it. And the makeup days they are willing to use fall at the end of the school year, often into the following week during which staff and students have camps, travel and other jobs planned. This is simply not workable, and it's not the fault of the Muslim community. It is on TT and the BOE.
I mean, they literally sent out a survey asking people whether they preferred removing holidays or the last week of summer. So, sure, it's ultimately up the BoE, but they're elected by "us" and are pretending to get input from "us", so it seems fine for "us" to discuss it on a public forum.
Nobody said you can't discuss it.
Survey responses are not votes. They are tools for MCPS to use to justify whatever decision they deem to be in their best interest.
You can scream about how stupid it is to not have school on Eid. Feel free to continue posting on it. But you and I both know it's not a solution. Not only because the BOE won't use it, but also because only one of the Eids is a designated makeup day. They need three days before the scheduled last day of school that they can actually use. Even if you INSIST they can actually use the one Eid day, that's still only one day. They need more days besides Eid. And if they do use Eid as one of the days, they will never use the other Eid as the second day. The NEED to look at the transition day and November 9 and also try to get the law changed on President's Day, Good Friday and Easter Monday for future years. That is, if they want to stop causing mass chaos every year (I think TT loves the chaos so...)
This isn't about Eid specifically! This is about them using the days they've ALREADY DESIGNATED which includes Eid but is not exclusive to Eid.
Which other days that they have ALREADY DESIGNATED do you propose they use either as planned instructional day or as a makeup day?
They have 3 designated after winter break: March 9, June 17, and April 16 which seems to be a misprint, but I would say should be April 22 which is non-instruction for Passover. There, done. We have the 3 makeup days we need before Juneteenth.
My guess is the April 16 day is the grading day and is probably unusable due to it being in the collective bargaining agreement with the teachers, unless they cave again like they did this year. But I think it is unlikely they will use it especially if it is also Passover.
April 16, 2027 does not align with Passover.
April 22, which is currently no school for teachers or students, does. Use that day as the makeup
April 22 is not a designated makeup day
But it should be.
Exactly. Passover Seders are in the evening, and if people were planning to travel for them... well at least they have almost 1 year's notice instead of < 4 months!
Ok. Good luck with that.
I assume you are the same negative nelly who has been posting the last several pages... so what is your solution then?
Have school on
Transition Day
November 9
End the school year two days earlier than planned
Which isn't even one of the options. They've already passed a compliant calendar. They don't even have to make any changes to it. They just have to be willing to use it.
But they aren't willing to use it. Which is why they need to change it. It is on TT for proposing the most disruptive option.
And TT is not willing to give up Transition Day. And even though November 9 isn't actually Diwali, its perceived to have the same issues as using Eid and Passover.
The BOE can overrule TT. As far as November 9, it is Diwali, just not the main day. It does not have the same issue as using Eid.
I think we both know the likelihood of them doing what you're proposing and the likelihood of them using any holiday throughout the year as either an instructional or makeup day are about the same. Slim to none. They're going to rubber stamp the earlier start and its going to cause chaos. Completely unnecessary chaos.
The new state guidelines require school to be over by Juneteenth--so no more MCPS trying to extend the school year til June 22 next year if there are snow days and MCPS continues on its trajectory of refusing to use its designated makeup days as it did this year.
So yes, you have to start earlier in August--it's not going to be chaos. It's going to be a lot of grumbling by teachers this year, and then people will get used to it.
It's not a state requirement. They only need to do it if they want to be eligible for a waiver to avoid having to make up snow days. If they're willing to actually make up snow days (which IMO they should be) then they don't need to change a thing.
Given that MCPS opted not to use its makeup days this year and did get a waiver to shortchange kids 3 days of instructional time, the requirement to end school by Juneteenth seems fairly relevant.
What do you mean?
The point is the state is not actually going to penalize MCPS. They broke their own rules to grant a waiver this year.
Sure, and told MCPS explicitly to not rely on extending the year beyond Juneteenth again. So MCPS' solution is to not actually use the within-year makeup days, its to move the year so they can still tack on days at the end. It's utter BS.
Which is why it makes sense to start earlier in August since MCPS refuses to use its own designated makeup days. Of course you can wish that MCPS would get rid of transition day, Diwali, or teacher grading days or whatever. But it's not happening. No one is proposing those things.
So instead we're disrupting the entire county... teachers, parents, students, the Ag Fair... and tacking on three earlier days that many kids will still not attend just to save face when it comes to "equity"
This reminds me of the Hogan era when we couldn't start school before Labor Day because the Eastern shore would be "disrupted." Your precious Ag fair will survive even if the school year starts earlier, just like the Eastern shore survived the start of school in August.
And tacking on extra school days isn't "equity"--it's a requirement so that MCPS school kids aren't shortchanged relative to other kids in the state and country, as occurred this year.
The equity piece is about making sure every group no matter how small a population gets their holidays off. It’s not workable.
As for your other points, fine if the calendar is preplanned. Changing it after it’s already approved serves no one.
No one preplanned losing so many days due to the snow day closings this year. Parents, students and teachers had to roll with the changes. That MCPS requested a waiver to not have the required number of instructional days was also not preplanned.
Yet somehow, when MCPS tries to adjust its calendar for next year to learn from the lessons from the scheduling fiasco this 2025-2026, they can't do that 4 months in advance because it's not "preplanned."
You realize that this fix truly isn’t fixing what you think it is. They’re not extending the year by 3 days. They’re just shifting everything earlier. If we have more than 3 days of closures this year again we’re in the same spot as we were last year. Just with having disrupted everyone’s end of summer
You realize that MCPS can't keep pulling the same BS year after a year of asking the state to waive the required number of days. Maryland told MCPS not to request a waiver again this year, and not to tack on a bunch of days in late June. I don't know how you think MCPS gets to 180 days next year other than by using your magical powers to ensure it doesn't snow next year (keeping in mind that MCPS likes to close for freezing rain and severe cold too.)
Again, this “fix” only allows them to use the three days after the new end of year before Juneteenth and bypass the other makeup days it identified. The only change is now they’re before Juneteenth at the expense of everyone’s 2026 summer plans. If we have 4 days of snow or cold, MCPS gets its waiver and we have 179 days. There’s no guarantee of 180 days with this proposal. Quite the opposite actually. They’re doing this precisely so they can get a waiver.
Did you miss the part this year where MCPS tried to extend the school year til June 22 to make 180 days happen? They got a waiver this year to avoid doing that, but the state told Maryland not to do this again next year. So yes, your summer plans may get screwed up because they need to start earlier in August. Take it up with your union, but MCPS can't create 180 days of instructional time out of thin air.
Again, take a look at the calendar of literally any other school system in Maryland. Aug 24 - June 18 offers much more than enough time for 180 instructional days.
Unlike other school districts, MCPS did not use all of its scheduled spring makeup days, secure waivers of otherwise mandatory state holidays, or have the school board approve a virtual learning plan as a last resort for multi-day closures. MCPS is the "dog ate my homework" school district.
+1 Since 2016, MCPS has reduced scheduled school days from 184 to 181. This year, only half of the 18 weeks before January were full five-day weeks. At the same time, MCPS scheduled nearly all contingency days in the fall and early winter—when they are unlikely to be used—or in late June, after testing ends and attendance declines.
Why has this happened? Seems like having only 181 scheduled school days is a recipe for disaster in an area where we usually do get snow each winter.
Literally this has happened because they have added in a number of cultural/religous holidays. RH/YK have been on the calendar since forever, but once they started adding additional, groups came to testify that their culture wasn't recognized, so they added more. And here we are.
Yep. All in the name of equity. If someone has something all must get it or no one can. That’s what it has turned into.
Let's not ignore the fact that in 2024-25 there were 182 instructional days, and then TT created the transition day and that is how we got down to 181 this year
Anonymous wrote:The thing that's so irritating about this is that it's not necessary to cause all this angst.
1. MSDE is not changing requirements for this year at all.
2. There are so many choices that could be made that have a less disruptive impact on the community as a whole.
*Make Transition Day a school day - do traditional have day transition during preservice.
*Make November 9 a school day - occurs the day AFTER Diwali.
*Make the day before Thanksgiving a half day.
*Make December 23 a half day or a full day.
*Make one or two professional days half days. Allow teachers to complete the additional PD asynchronously.
*Make even one or two teacher grading days into half days. Extend due date for grade submission a couple of days beyond quarter to allow extra time.
*Make ALL religious holidays snow make-up days. When the last snow day is used and a make-up is needed, the next make-up day on the calendar is used automatically. This makes it less personal.
*Lobby MSDE to allow schools to provide instruction on Good Friday and Easter Monday, and most certainly in the case of snow make-ups.
None of these choices have as great an impact as bumping the school calendar up a week at this time. And making a number of these changes would create a calendar that flows much more smoothly than the current one while easily fitting 180 days and plenty of snow make-ups within a reasonable window.
Anonymous wrote:Who knows what they will do. Maybe MCEA is calling Taylor's bluff which I support. If your kid misses the first two days of school, it will be fine, hardly catastrophic if not ideal. I assume it will be worse for the teachers to have kids slowly streaming in the first 3 days of school. Seems like this will mean starting off with 2 fewer days of actual instruction. If teachers miss 3 days of preservice, I feel for them and hope they don't lose leave days because of it. Taylor and the BOE have done a lot of stupid things, this is one on a very long list of them.
Of course they will have to take leave if they don’t show up for work.
That sucks because in order to show up many will have to lose money on travel that has been booked or other jobs. I don't know about you but I think that's a 5h!tty way to treat my kid's wonderful teachers.
I hope teachers are pushing MCPS to choose another option, and for the union to negotiate to allow makeups as 1/2 days on grading and reporting. Otherwise they will need to show up as early as Aug 10th.
MCEA told teachers there is nothing they can do except fill out the survey, unfortunately. I agree that they could be doing more to push Taylor and the board. But they didn't even poll teachers.
MCEA has no input on the calendar.
They have impact on the grading days. That’s what TT is targeting. He wants MCEA to relent on that contract requirement.
Teachers need those days for grading and reporting. Better to get rid of a few PD days, and make the day before Thanksgiving and 12/23 early release days, and get rid of transition day.
Better yet, people need to advocate for counting hours of instruction or (not and) days.
In reality MCPS never utilizes the feedback from its surveys. They’ve already made the decision regarding the calendar.
PD is required by state law. If we have a snow day, teachers should use that to catch up on grading and allow the next grading to be a makeup day.
I’m very against getting rid of the days requirement
And if the snow day falls two weeks into the marking period?
Use the snow day to get ahead on planning. Then you have more time for grading later on. It's not that hard. A day without school that you are being paid for should be used productively and replace the day you would have had for that planning/grading.
I'm not a teacher but I have a young child and don't get a lot done on most snow days since they also close child care on those days.
Then like everyone else, teachers should have to take PTO or a sick day to cover the childcare on those days. Why are teachers the exception here and expect they don't have to work when being paid to do so on a snow day? I also have to work and have an elementary student. If I can't work, I have to take PTO.
That's ridiculous. Teachers have so little flexibility in the first place. I don't support this at all. Especially given workloads for teachers like for many professionals vary throughout the year. Working on a snow day in February is simply not going to make up for losing a grading day in April. Stop embarrassing yourself.
Then start advocating for TT and MCPS to use the holidays they've already designated as makeup days. Truly, those are the only two options.
No, there are multiple options. Some are more realistic than others. TT is recommending the worst option in hopes of getting teachers to give up their grading and planning days, which I do not support for the reasons I have already discussed.
The designated makeup days in the approved 2026-27 calendar are:
October 16 2026 - obviously not helpful
November 2 2026 - obviously not helpful
March 9 - aligns with Eid al Adha
April 16 - aligns with Eid al Fitr
June 17, 21, 22 and 23 - all occur after the last day of school and three of them they can't use now because they are after Juneteenth (they wouldn't have used them anyway, as we all know)
The only designated makeup days on the calendar that occur after snow days are reasonably likely to happen and occur before the last day of school are both on Muslim holidays.
I totally understand that many if not most families are fine with using both Eids to make up snow days, but the BOE will never approve that. MCPS needs buy in from the Muslim community and they certainly can't get that by only using their holidays as makeup days.
You have your dates wrong.
Eid Al-fitr is March 9.
Eid Al-adha is May 17
Every Muslim family I know is super into education. I wish a community of them would come forward and say -- look, we'd rather you use these days as makeup days rather than mess up everybody's plans, and upset the teachers so much.
The state rule requiring a 4-day weekend for easter is ridiculous and should absolutely be changed, but for some dumb reason no one got that through Annapolis this year. Maybe this will be the push to get it done next year.
I personally think school holidays for religious holidays are dumb. I grew up in a religious family where we regularly took the day off school, or left early/went in late, due to mandatory observance rules. It was fine. We just made it up. Schools are flexible about that. I honestly don't believe many parents really care that much about having it off....I suspect it was a few squeaky wheels that felt disrespected this year.
Enjoy your bubble. Many families have issues with the day being excused, but not closed. Students need to make up work. Students who missed days for other reasons around then will have even more trouble making up work. It's actually quite a problem because many families will opt to send the children to school to avoid those issues.
But again, a school system cannot cater to each individual's need to be out of school. Up thread many pages ago there was a mom of a kid who often has to be out for a medical issue. The school can't stop teaching because her kid is out. The population of kids that will be out for many of these holidays is extremely, extremely tiny in MCPS. If its a choice about moving the start date earlier, when people already have paid for trips and camps (many MORE people than will be affected by having a holiday as a potential makeup day -- not even a definitive day of school) and designating a makeup day for a holiday a few people celebrate, I choose the latter.
It is not up to you. It doesn't matter how many people post this on DCUM. The BOE will not approve it.
The BOE has approved bad calendars for 2024-25, 2025-26 and 2026-27. And it's not because they scheduled non instructional days on Eid. It's because they have progressively reduced the number of instructional days for different reasons and for multiple religious groups without adding other instructional days to make up for it. And the makeup days they are willing to use fall at the end of the school year, often into the following week during which staff and students have camps, travel and other jobs planned. This is simply not workable, and it's not the fault of the Muslim community. It is on TT and the BOE.
I mean, they literally sent out a survey asking people whether they preferred removing holidays or the last week of summer. So, sure, it's ultimately up the BoE, but they're elected by "us" and are pretending to get input from "us", so it seems fine for "us" to discuss it on a public forum.
Nobody said you can't discuss it.
Survey responses are not votes. They are tools for MCPS to use to justify whatever decision they deem to be in their best interest.
You can scream about how stupid it is to not have school on Eid. Feel free to continue posting on it. But you and I both know it's not a solution. Not only because the BOE won't use it, but also because only one of the Eids is a designated makeup day. They need three days before the scheduled last day of school that they can actually use. Even if you INSIST they can actually use the one Eid day, that's still only one day. They need more days besides Eid. And if they do use Eid as one of the days, they will never use the other Eid as the second day. The NEED to look at the transition day and November 9 and also try to get the law changed on President's Day, Good Friday and Easter Monday for future years. That is, if they want to stop causing mass chaos every year (I think TT loves the chaos so...)
This isn't about Eid specifically! This is about them using the days they've ALREADY DESIGNATED which includes Eid but is not exclusive to Eid.
Which other days that they have ALREADY DESIGNATED do you propose they use either as planned instructional day or as a makeup day?
They have 3 designated after winter break: March 9, June 17, and April 16 which seems to be a misprint, but I would say should be April 22 which is non-instruction for Passover. There, done. We have the 3 makeup days we need before Juneteenth.
My guess is the April 16 day is the grading day and is probably unusable due to it being in the collective bargaining agreement with the teachers, unless they cave again like they did this year. But I think it is unlikely they will use it especially if it is also Passover.
April 16, 2027 does not align with Passover.
April 22, which is currently no school for teachers or students, does. Use that day as the makeup
April 22 is not a designated makeup day
But it should be.
Exactly. Passover Seders are in the evening, and if people were planning to travel for them... well at least they have almost 1 year's notice instead of < 4 months!
Ok. Good luck with that.
I assume you are the same negative nelly who has been posting the last several pages... so what is your solution then?
Have school on
Transition Day
November 9
End the school year two days earlier than planned
Which isn't even one of the options. They've already passed a compliant calendar. They don't even have to make any changes to it. They just have to be willing to use it.
But they aren't willing to use it. Which is why they need to change it. It is on TT for proposing the most disruptive option.
And TT is not willing to give up Transition Day. And even though November 9 isn't actually Diwali, its perceived to have the same issues as using Eid and Passover.
The BOE can overrule TT. As far as November 9, it is Diwali, just not the main day. It does not have the same issue as using Eid.
I think we both know the likelihood of them doing what you're proposing and the likelihood of them using any holiday throughout the year as either an instructional or makeup day are about the same. Slim to none. They're going to rubber stamp the earlier start and its going to cause chaos. Completely unnecessary chaos.
The new state guidelines require school to be over by Juneteenth--so no more MCPS trying to extend the school year til June 22 next year if there are snow days and MCPS continues on its trajectory of refusing to use its designated makeup days as it did this year.
So yes, you have to start earlier in August--it's not going to be chaos. It's going to be a lot of grumbling by teachers this year, and then people will get used to it.
It's not a state requirement. They only need to do it if they want to be eligible for a waiver to avoid having to make up snow days. If they're willing to actually make up snow days (which IMO they should be) then they don't need to change a thing.
Given that MCPS opted not to use its makeup days this year and did get a waiver to shortchange kids 3 days of instructional time, the requirement to end school by Juneteenth seems fairly relevant.
What do you mean?
The point is the state is not actually going to penalize MCPS. They broke their own rules to grant a waiver this year.
Sure, and told MCPS explicitly to not rely on extending the year beyond Juneteenth again. So MCPS' solution is to not actually use the within-year makeup days, its to move the year so they can still tack on days at the end. It's utter BS.
Which is why it makes sense to start earlier in August since MCPS refuses to use its own designated makeup days. Of course you can wish that MCPS would get rid of transition day, Diwali, or teacher grading days or whatever. But it's not happening. No one is proposing those things.
So instead we're disrupting the entire county... teachers, parents, students, the Ag Fair... and tacking on three earlier days that many kids will still not attend just to save face when it comes to "equity"
This reminds me of the Hogan era when we couldn't start school before Labor Day because the Eastern shore would be "disrupted." Your precious Ag fair will survive even if the school year starts earlier, just like the Eastern shore survived the start of school in August.
And tacking on extra school days isn't "equity"--it's a requirement so that MCPS school kids aren't shortchanged relative to other kids in the state and country, as occurred this year.
The equity piece is about making sure every group no matter how small a population gets their holidays off. It’s not workable.
As for your other points, fine if the calendar is preplanned. Changing it after it’s already approved serves no one.
No one preplanned losing so many days due to the snow day closings this year. Parents, students and teachers had to roll with the changes. That MCPS requested a waiver to not have the required number of instructional days was also not preplanned.
Yet somehow, when MCPS tries to adjust its calendar for next year to learn from the lessons from the scheduling fiasco this 2025-2026, they can't do that 4 months in advance because it's not "preplanned."
You realize that this fix truly isn’t fixing what you think it is. They’re not extending the year by 3 days. They’re just shifting everything earlier. If we have more than 3 days of closures this year again we’re in the same spot as we were last year. Just with having disrupted everyone’s end of summer
You realize that MCPS can't keep pulling the same BS year after a year of asking the state to waive the required number of days. Maryland told MCPS not to request a waiver again this year, and not to tack on a bunch of days in late June. I don't know how you think MCPS gets to 180 days next year other than by using your magical powers to ensure it doesn't snow next year (keeping in mind that MCPS likes to close for freezing rain and severe cold too.)
Again, this “fix” only allows them to use the three days after the new end of year before Juneteenth and bypass the other makeup days it identified. The only change is now they’re before Juneteenth at the expense of everyone’s 2026 summer plans. If we have 4 days of snow or cold, MCPS gets its waiver and we have 179 days. There’s no guarantee of 180 days with this proposal. Quite the opposite actually. They’re doing this precisely so they can get a waiver.
Did you miss the part this year where MCPS tried to extend the school year til June 22 to make 180 days happen? They got a waiver this year to avoid doing that, but the state told Maryland not to do this again next year. So yes, your summer plans may get screwed up because they need to start earlier in August. Take it up with your union, but MCPS can't create 180 days of instructional time out of thin air.
Again, take a look at the calendar of literally any other school system in Maryland. Aug 24 - June 18 offers much more than enough time for 180 instructional days.
Unlike other school districts, MCPS did not use all of its scheduled spring makeup days, secure waivers of otherwise mandatory state holidays, or have the school board approve a virtual learning plan as a last resort for multi-day closures. MCPS is the "dog ate my homework" school district.
+1 Since 2016, MCPS has reduced scheduled school days from 184 to 181. This year, only half of the 18 weeks before January were full five-day weeks. At the same time, MCPS scheduled nearly all contingency days in the fall and early winter—when they are unlikely to be used—or in late June, after testing ends and attendance declines.
+2 What strikes me is that MCPS still has so few snow days built into its calendar compared to other Maryland school districts (just 1 while others have 3 or 4 according to the article below) when it didn't bother to do a virtual learning plan for bad weather days. What did they expect to happen? Carroll County builds builds its calendar so that it will remove days at the end of the year if snow days go unused--why can't MCPS do that rather than not building in snow days and causing chaos each year about when the school year ends in June?
Parents would be up in arms if the last day was moved up due to unused snow days. I’d love to see it.
Did I miss the news articles about the parents of Carroll county arming themselves due to changes in the school calendar? I grew up in NY State and we had the same type of calendar where if you didn't use the snow days, the school year ended earlier. You know by March what the snow days are and parents adjusted. I can assure you that no one was up in arms, and that it was far preferable to this MCPS chaos.
I had this in New England where I grew up. And agree that it was no big deal, as it was explained clearly up front what the calendar would be.
Anonymous wrote:Who knows what they will do. Maybe MCEA is calling Taylor's bluff which I support. If your kid misses the first two days of school, it will be fine, hardly catastrophic if not ideal. I assume it will be worse for the teachers to have kids slowly streaming in the first 3 days of school. Seems like this will mean starting off with 2 fewer days of actual instruction. If teachers miss 3 days of preservice, I feel for them and hope they don't lose leave days because of it. Taylor and the BOE have done a lot of stupid things, this is one on a very long list of them.
Of course they will have to take leave if they don’t show up for work.
That sucks because in order to show up many will have to lose money on travel that has been booked or other jobs. I don't know about you but I think that's a 5h!tty way to treat my kid's wonderful teachers.
I hope teachers are pushing MCPS to choose another option, and for the union to negotiate to allow makeups as 1/2 days on grading and reporting. Otherwise they will need to show up as early as Aug 10th.
MCEA told teachers there is nothing they can do except fill out the survey, unfortunately. I agree that they could be doing more to push Taylor and the board. But they didn't even poll teachers.
MCEA has no input on the calendar.
They have impact on the grading days. That’s what TT is targeting. He wants MCEA to relent on that contract requirement.
Teachers need those days for grading and reporting. Better to get rid of a few PD days, and make the day before Thanksgiving and 12/23 early release days, and get rid of transition day.
Better yet, people need to advocate for counting hours of instruction or (not and) days.
In reality MCPS never utilizes the feedback from its surveys. They’ve already made the decision regarding the calendar.
PD is required by state law. If we have a snow day, teachers should use that to catch up on grading and allow the next grading to be a makeup day.
I’m very against getting rid of the days requirement
And if the snow day falls two weeks into the marking period?
Use the snow day to get ahead on planning. Then you have more time for grading later on. It's not that hard. A day without school that you are being paid for should be used productively and replace the day you would have had for that planning/grading.
I'm not a teacher but I have a young child and don't get a lot done on most snow days since they also close child care on those days.
Then like everyone else, teachers should have to take PTO or a sick day to cover the childcare on those days. Why are teachers the exception here and expect they don't have to work when being paid to do so on a snow day? I also have to work and have an elementary student. If I can't work, I have to take PTO.
That's ridiculous. Teachers have so little flexibility in the first place. I don't support this at all. Especially given workloads for teachers like for many professionals vary throughout the year. Working on a snow day in February is simply not going to make up for losing a grading day in April. Stop embarrassing yourself.
Then start advocating for TT and MCPS to use the holidays they've already designated as makeup days. Truly, those are the only two options.
No, there are multiple options. Some are more realistic than others. TT is recommending the worst option in hopes of getting teachers to give up their grading and planning days, which I do not support for the reasons I have already discussed.
The designated makeup days in the approved 2026-27 calendar are:
October 16 2026 - obviously not helpful
November 2 2026 - obviously not helpful
March 9 - aligns with Eid al Adha
April 16 - aligns with Eid al Fitr
June 17, 21, 22 and 23 - all occur after the last day of school and three of them they can't use now because they are after Juneteenth (they wouldn't have used them anyway, as we all know)
The only designated makeup days on the calendar that occur after snow days are reasonably likely to happen and occur before the last day of school are both on Muslim holidays.
I totally understand that many if not most families are fine with using both Eids to make up snow days, but the BOE will never approve that. MCPS needs buy in from the Muslim community and they certainly can't get that by only using their holidays as makeup days.
You have your dates wrong.
Eid Al-fitr is March 9.
Eid Al-adha is May 17
Every Muslim family I know is super into education. I wish a community of them would come forward and say -- look, we'd rather you use these days as makeup days rather than mess up everybody's plans, and upset the teachers so much.
The state rule requiring a 4-day weekend for easter is ridiculous and should absolutely be changed, but for some dumb reason no one got that through Annapolis this year. Maybe this will be the push to get it done next year.
I personally think school holidays for religious holidays are dumb. I grew up in a religious family where we regularly took the day off school, or left early/went in late, due to mandatory observance rules. It was fine. We just made it up. Schools are flexible about that. I honestly don't believe many parents really care that much about having it off....I suspect it was a few squeaky wheels that felt disrespected this year.
Enjoy your bubble. Many families have issues with the day being excused, but not closed. Students need to make up work. Students who missed days for other reasons around then will have even more trouble making up work. It's actually quite a problem because many families will opt to send the children to school to avoid those issues.
But again, a school system cannot cater to each individual's need to be out of school. Up thread many pages ago there was a mom of a kid who often has to be out for a medical issue. The school can't stop teaching because her kid is out. The population of kids that will be out for many of these holidays is extremely, extremely tiny in MCPS. If its a choice about moving the start date earlier, when people already have paid for trips and camps (many MORE people than will be affected by having a holiday as a potential makeup day -- not even a definitive day of school) and designating a makeup day for a holiday a few people celebrate, I choose the latter.
It is not up to you. It doesn't matter how many people post this on DCUM. The BOE will not approve it.
The BOE has approved bad calendars for 2024-25, 2025-26 and 2026-27. And it's not because they scheduled non instructional days on Eid. It's because they have progressively reduced the number of instructional days for different reasons and for multiple religious groups without adding other instructional days to make up for it. And the makeup days they are willing to use fall at the end of the school year, often into the following week during which staff and students have camps, travel and other jobs planned. This is simply not workable, and it's not the fault of the Muslim community. It is on TT and the BOE.
I mean, they literally sent out a survey asking people whether they preferred removing holidays or the last week of summer. So, sure, it's ultimately up the BoE, but they're elected by "us" and are pretending to get input from "us", so it seems fine for "us" to discuss it on a public forum.
Nobody said you can't discuss it.
Survey responses are not votes. They are tools for MCPS to use to justify whatever decision they deem to be in their best interest.
You can scream about how stupid it is to not have school on Eid. Feel free to continue posting on it. But you and I both know it's not a solution. Not only because the BOE won't use it, but also because only one of the Eids is a designated makeup day. They need three days before the scheduled last day of school that they can actually use. Even if you INSIST they can actually use the one Eid day, that's still only one day. They need more days besides Eid. And if they do use Eid as one of the days, they will never use the other Eid as the second day. The NEED to look at the transition day and November 9 and also try to get the law changed on President's Day, Good Friday and Easter Monday for future years. That is, if they want to stop causing mass chaos every year (I think TT loves the chaos so...)
This isn't about Eid specifically! This is about them using the days they've ALREADY DESIGNATED which includes Eid but is not exclusive to Eid.
Which other days that they have ALREADY DESIGNATED do you propose they use either as planned instructional day or as a makeup day?
They have 3 designated after winter break: March 9, June 17, and April 16 which seems to be a misprint, but I would say should be April 22 which is non-instruction for Passover. There, done. We have the 3 makeup days we need before Juneteenth.
My guess is the April 16 day is the grading day and is probably unusable due to it being in the collective bargaining agreement with the teachers, unless they cave again like they did this year. But I think it is unlikely they will use it especially if it is also Passover.
April 16, 2027 does not align with Passover.
April 22, which is currently no school for teachers or students, does. Use that day as the makeup
April 22 is not a designated makeup day
But it should be.
Exactly. Passover Seders are in the evening, and if people were planning to travel for them... well at least they have almost 1 year's notice instead of < 4 months!
Ok. Good luck with that.
I assume you are the same negative nelly who has been posting the last several pages... so what is your solution then?
Have school on
Transition Day
November 9
End the school year two days earlier than planned
Which isn't even one of the options. They've already passed a compliant calendar. They don't even have to make any changes to it. They just have to be willing to use it.
But they aren't willing to use it. Which is why they need to change it. It is on TT for proposing the most disruptive option.
And TT is not willing to give up Transition Day. And even though November 9 isn't actually Diwali, its perceived to have the same issues as using Eid and Passover.
The BOE can overrule TT. As far as November 9, it is Diwali, just not the main day. It does not have the same issue as using Eid.
I think we both know the likelihood of them doing what you're proposing and the likelihood of them using any holiday throughout the year as either an instructional or makeup day are about the same. Slim to none. They're going to rubber stamp the earlier start and its going to cause chaos. Completely unnecessary chaos.
The new state guidelines require school to be over by Juneteenth--so no more MCPS trying to extend the school year til June 22 next year if there are snow days and MCPS continues on its trajectory of refusing to use its designated makeup days as it did this year.
So yes, you have to start earlier in August--it's not going to be chaos. It's going to be a lot of grumbling by teachers this year, and then people will get used to it.
It's not a state requirement. They only need to do it if they want to be eligible for a waiver to avoid having to make up snow days. If they're willing to actually make up snow days (which IMO they should be) then they don't need to change a thing.
Given that MCPS opted not to use its makeup days this year and did get a waiver to shortchange kids 3 days of instructional time, the requirement to end school by Juneteenth seems fairly relevant.
What do you mean?
The point is the state is not actually going to penalize MCPS. They broke their own rules to grant a waiver this year.
Sure, and told MCPS explicitly to not rely on extending the year beyond Juneteenth again. So MCPS' solution is to not actually use the within-year makeup days, its to move the year so they can still tack on days at the end. It's utter BS.
Which is why it makes sense to start earlier in August since MCPS refuses to use its own designated makeup days. Of course you can wish that MCPS would get rid of transition day, Diwali, or teacher grading days or whatever. But it's not happening. No one is proposing those things.
So instead we're disrupting the entire county... teachers, parents, students, the Ag Fair... and tacking on three earlier days that many kids will still not attend just to save face when it comes to "equity"
This reminds me of the Hogan era when we couldn't start school before Labor Day because the Eastern shore would be "disrupted." Your precious Ag fair will survive even if the school year starts earlier, just like the Eastern shore survived the start of school in August.
And tacking on extra school days isn't "equity"--it's a requirement so that MCPS school kids aren't shortchanged relative to other kids in the state and country, as occurred this year.
The equity piece is about making sure every group no matter how small a population gets their holidays off. It’s not workable.
As for your other points, fine if the calendar is preplanned. Changing it after it’s already approved serves no one.
No one preplanned losing so many days due to the snow day closings this year. Parents, students and teachers had to roll with the changes. That MCPS requested a waiver to not have the required number of instructional days was also not preplanned.
Yet somehow, when MCPS tries to adjust its calendar for next year to learn from the lessons from the scheduling fiasco this 2025-2026, they can't do that 4 months in advance because it's not "preplanned."
You realize that this fix truly isn’t fixing what you think it is. They’re not extending the year by 3 days. They’re just shifting everything earlier. If we have more than 3 days of closures this year again we’re in the same spot as we were last year. Just with having disrupted everyone’s end of summer
You realize that MCPS can't keep pulling the same BS year after a year of asking the state to waive the required number of days. Maryland told MCPS not to request a waiver again this year, and not to tack on a bunch of days in late June. I don't know how you think MCPS gets to 180 days next year other than by using your magical powers to ensure it doesn't snow next year (keeping in mind that MCPS likes to close for freezing rain and severe cold too.)
Again, this “fix” only allows them to use the three days after the new end of year before Juneteenth and bypass the other makeup days it identified. The only change is now they’re before Juneteenth at the expense of everyone’s 2026 summer plans. If we have 4 days of snow or cold, MCPS gets its waiver and we have 179 days. There’s no guarantee of 180 days with this proposal. Quite the opposite actually. They’re doing this precisely so they can get a waiver.
Did you miss the part this year where MCPS tried to extend the school year til June 22 to make 180 days happen? They got a waiver this year to avoid doing that, but the state told Maryland not to do this again next year. So yes, your summer plans may get screwed up because they need to start earlier in August. Take it up with your union, but MCPS can't create 180 days of instructional time out of thin air.
Again, take a look at the calendar of literally any other school system in Maryland. Aug 24 - June 18 offers much more than enough time for 180 instructional days.
Unlike other school districts, MCPS did not use all of its scheduled spring makeup days, secure waivers of otherwise mandatory state holidays, or have the school board approve a virtual learning plan as a last resort for multi-day closures. MCPS is the "dog ate my homework" school district.
+1 Since 2016, MCPS has reduced scheduled school days from 184 to 181. This year, only half of the 18 weeks before January were full five-day weeks. At the same time, MCPS scheduled nearly all contingency days in the fall and early winter—when they are unlikely to be used—or in late June, after testing ends and attendance declines.
Why has this happened? Seems like having only 181 scheduled school days is a recipe for disaster in an area where we usually do get snow each winter.
Literally this has happened because they have added in a number of cultural/religous holidays. RH/YK have been on the calendar since forever, but once they started adding additional, groups came to testify that their culture wasn't recognized, so they added more. And here we are.
Religious holidays aren't being added as religious holidays. They're added as "non-instructional days" that teachers can use to grade or do professional development or whatever. Let's stop pretending that all these religious holidays were added because suddenly MCPS grew a great fondness for Diwali and Eid, in comparison to the 3 Jewish holidays already on the calendar.
Right… that’s why MCPS backtracked on using a designated makeup day this year after the Muslim community complained. /s
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