MCPS Considering Beginning 2020-21 School Calendar Year Before Labor Day

[Anonymous]

Please use this thread for the continuing discussion of calendar options available. List your pros and cons.


https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/schools/mcps-considering-beginning-2020-21-school-year-before-labor-day/

At a school board committee meeting on Thursday afternoon, MCPS staff members presented three potential options for the 2020-21 school year calendar. The options include school starting on Aug. 31, Sept. 1 or Sept. 8.

All three calendar options presented Thursday incorporate a weeklong spring break and full non-instructional days for professional development, grading and planning time at the end of each quarter. On professional development days, the staff would report to school, but students would not.

The school board committee on Thursday also debated whether the school district should close in recognition of Inauguration Day on Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021. Martin Luther King Jr. Day — a holiday on which schools must be closed, according to state law — falls on Monday of the same week.

[Anonymous]

I prefer the late calendar start, we've gotten quite used to the post Labor Day start. I wouldn't mind the kids going to school until June 25th, if they received a mid winter recess in February.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Please use this thread for the continuing discussion of calendar options available. List your pros and cons.


https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/schools/mcps-considering-beginning-2020-21-school-year-before-labor-day/

At a school board committee meeting on Thursday afternoon, MCPS staff members presented three potential options for the 2020-21 school year calendar. The options include school starting on Aug. 31, Sept. 1 or Sept. 8.

All three calendar options presented Thursday incorporate a weeklong spring break and full non-instructional days for professional development, grading and planning time at the end of each quarter. On professional development days, the staff would report to school, but students would not.

The school board committee on Thursday also debated whether the school district should close in recognition of Inauguration Day on Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021. Martin Luther King Jr. Day — a holiday on which schools must be closed, according to state law — falls on Monday of the same week.

That article is from a month ago. There has been another meeting since then, and additional options presented.
https://go.boarddocs.com/mabe/mcpsmd/Board.nsf/files/BGSUFN7BD0DA/$file/2020-2021%20School%20Year%20Calendar%20191008%20PPT.pdf

At that meeting they agreed to put three refined options out for public comment: two starting before Labor Day, and one starting after.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please use this thread for the continuing discussion of calendar options available. List your pros and cons.


https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/schools/mcps-considering-beginning-2020-21-school-year-before-labor-day/

At a school board committee meeting on Thursday afternoon, MCPS staff members presented three potential options for the 2020-21 school year calendar. The options include school starting on Aug. 31, Sept. 1 or Sept. 8.

All three calendar options presented Thursday incorporate a weeklong spring break and full non-instructional days for professional development, grading and planning time at the end of each quarter. On professional development days, the staff would report to school, but students would not.

The school board committee on Thursday also debated whether the school district should close in recognition of Inauguration Day on Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021. Martin Luther King Jr. Day — a holiday on which schools must be closed, according to state law — falls on Monday of the same week.

That article is from a month ago. There has been another meeting since then, and additional options presented.
https://go.boarddocs.com/mabe/mcpsmd/Board.nsf/files/BGSUFN7BD0DA/$file/2020-2021%20School%20Year%20Calendar%20191008%20PPT.pdf

At that meeting they agreed to put three refined options out for public comment: two starting before Labor Day, and one starting after.

And they will also be putting out the Inauguration Day policy change for public comment.
https://go.boarddocs.com/mabe/mcpsmd/Board.nsf/files/BGHHNJ494ECF/$file/IDA%20Draft%201%20191008.pdf

[Anonymous]

Children are not pawns, they are human beings. They need their rest, their family bonding time and the time to explore other interest outside the school. Historically schools were to help parents to educate their children and even more so
provide parents free childcare so they could focus on farm work, factory work etc.

School should not take over family life, devour the entire family time and leave kids exhausted physically and emotionally.
The whole tendency to make school day longer and longer, the schoolyear longer and longer has nothing to do with academic results. Whatever you can put in kids heads in 186 days, you can certainly put in 180.
Kids forget anything what they learn at school for the most part, school is about learning how to think
and not retaining the specifics that in any case have to be revisited and relearned or refreshed prior to any and all tests.

If the schoolyear has anything to do with fulfilling the gap for the need of free daycare then why this can not be satisfied without the affect on the whole population? Let the schools be open in limited capacity all year round with day care stuff in place with free meals for the families in need and academic support for those who struggle, all during that time.

Keeping kids at school as much as possible leads to overstress kids that result in students that have all kinds of learning and emotional problems that transfer into family life impacting the well being of the family unit.

[Anonymous]

I vote for AFTER the Labor Day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Children are not pawns, they are human beings. They need their rest, their family bonding time and the time to explore other interest outside the school. Historically schools were to help parents to educate their children and even more so
provide parents free childcare so they could focus on farm work, factory work etc.

What? No.

[Anonymous]

The History of early childhood care and education (ECCE) refers to the development of care and education of children between birth and eight years old throughout history. ECCE has a global scope, and caring for and educating young children has always been an integral part of human societies. Arrangements for fulfilling these societal roles have evolved over time and remain varied across cultures, often reflecting family and community structures as well as the social and economic roles of women and men.[1] Historically, such arrangements have largely been informal, involving family, household and community members. The formalization of these arrangements emerged in the nineteenth century with the establishment of kindergartens for educational purposes and day nurseries for care in much of Europe and North America, Brazil, China, India, Jamaica and Mexico

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_early_childhood_care_and_education

[Anonymous]

I have HS kids and want random days off for college visits and to help the kids unwind. Not to mention the extra time to get ready for their AP exams.

While I sympathize with the ES parents and child care (been there done that when we started the week before Labor Day when my own children were in ES), my vote is for before Labor day.

[Anonymous]

All the way up until progressive nobility started establishing village school houses in the 19 century you did not have anything organized really. That is because there was no such need from the perspective of those societies.
Poor people were poor and uneducated and stayed that way from generation to generation. Nobility was educating their young ones and the two worlds did not collide behind any desks.
The early elementary schools were teaching reading, writing and math, they were established with the purpose to educate to some degree and to allow parents to be employed in the emerging sectors of early industrial period, while also let the farming families to be more productive not having to focus on child care but on the production of goods. It was simply releasing the resources.
Coincidentally there was great progress in school development in the Post revolution Russia because the new society
required everybody to work and taking care of the kids all of the sudden became a problem to which an easy mass education became a solution on many levels.
The school role was similar in all countries that shared the same path of social progress respectively. So the more progressive capitalist or socialist communities would have more develop system and the less developed agrarian societies would have historically lesser need for schools.

Next question.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have HS kids and want random days off for college visits and to help the kids unwind. Not to mention the extra time to get ready for their AP exams.

While I sympathize with the ES parents and child care (been there done that when we started the week before Labor Day when my own children were in ES), my vote is for before Labor day.

Why does it have to be one or the other? Why the system can not recognize that there are two groups of parents
with two distinct needs and why not find a solution that accommodate each respectively. Doable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have HS kids and want random days off for college visits and to help the kids unwind. Not to mention the extra time to get ready for their AP exams.

While I sympathize with the ES parents and child care (been there done that when we started the week before Labor Day when my own children were in ES), my vote is for before Labor day.

Why does it have to be one or the other? Why the system can not recognize that there are two groups of parents
with two distinct needs and why not find a solution that accommodate each respectively. Doable.

You want elementary schools to start after Labor Day and high schools to start before Labor Day? How about middle schools, when should they start?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The History of early childhood care and education (ECCE) refers to the development of care and education of children between birth and eight years old throughout history. ECCE has a global scope, and caring for and educating young children has always been an integral part of human societies. Arrangements for fulfilling these societal roles have evolved over time and remain varied across cultures, often reflecting family and community structures as well as the social and economic roles of women and men.[1] Historically, such arrangements have largely been informal, involving family, household and community members. The formalization of these arrangements emerged in the nineteenth century with the establishment of kindergartens for educational purposes and day nurseries for care in much of Europe and North America, Brazil, China, India, Jamaica and Mexico

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_early_childhood_care_and_education

You're quoting Wikipedia. About Brazil.

[Anonymous]

Vacation should last three months: June, July and August.
School should could be open the whole time to provide free child care, meals and supplemental education
for underprivileged or kids who struggle.

That way those who don't need as much schooling or want their kids to enjoy the summer because they
are doing just fine at school would not need to be subjected to one size fits all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The History of early childhood care and education (ECCE) refers to the development of care and education of children between birth and eight years old throughout history. ECCE has a global scope, and caring for and educating young children has always been an integral part of human societies. Arrangements for fulfilling these societal roles have evolved over time and remain varied across cultures, often reflecting family and community structures as well as the social and economic roles of women and men.[1] Historically, such arrangements have largely been informal, involving family, household and community members. The formalization of these arrangements emerged in the nineteenth century with the establishment of kindergartens for educational purposes and day nurseries for care in much of Europe and North America, Brazil, China, India, Jamaica and Mexico

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_early_childhood_care_and_education

You're quoting Wikipedia. About Brazil.

Brazil is mentioned only in a context and only because the same system was true to all areas that were
modeling their systems after Europe. Read again.