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.
If they’re not being scheduled because of religion, they can be moved to different days between quarters or M/F.
If they are being scheduled because of religion, that’s against the law.
In its presentation a few weeks back MCPS was clear that the days “aligned with holidays” and that’s why they were not recommending using them.
Ugh. That’s so obnoxious, if not illegal. Keep your religion out of my public school.
Anonymous wrote:Ugh. I know so many people (including us) that have travel plans the 3rd week of August. What is the point of putting out a calendar if we can't rely on it?!? Fortunately we don't have flights booked yet, but I know 7 families who are supposed to be out of the country! And since I have to get my work time off approved in advance that's the week I got, and it's unlikely I'll be able to switch, so I guess we're just not going on vacation this summer if they do this.
It would clearly be less disruptive at this point to take back some holidays (including Easter Monday), and even though every person I've spoken too is in favor of that approach versus moving the start date this year, I doubt the Board will have the guts to do it.
Any calendar change is disruptive. People just disagree on what is more disruptive.
I can't imagine anyone could argue with a straight face that starting the year several days earlier with less than 4 months notice is less disruptive than saying "for spring break, 11 months in the future, we will switch a couple of those days to possible makeup days if there's a lot of snow days.".
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.
If they’re not being scheduled because of religion, they can be moved to different days between quarters or M/F.
If they are being scheduled because of religion, that’s against the law.
What are you talking about? There's a non-instructional day on September 21, 2026 which just so happens to be Rosh Hashanah. MCPS isn't picking random Mondays as days off.
That’s for the operational reason of having a potential 15% impact on attendance for staff and students, not observing the Jewish holidays.
MCPS has Muslim staff too. You're just guessing about the 15% impact on attendance for Jewish staff--that's not data driven. Only 10% of MoCo is Jewish--and that's from survey data from years ago--it could be that the Jewish population doesn't have the birthrates of other communities in MoCo.
Jews make up the biggest swath of the non-Christian population in MoCo and MoCo happens to have one of the largest populations in the country (outside of the NY tristate area). Yes, it’s an operational issue
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.
No, actually, MCPS is going through this whole rigamarole for the sole purpose of wanting to shortchange Montgomery County kids by getting school days waived if there's more than a few days of snow. If they weren't trying to position themselves for a waiver of the 180 day requirement next year, there would be no reason to make these changes at all, because MSDE only said "do this if you want a waiver next year," not "everyone has to do this."
I wish people were talking more about this part of it
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.
If they’re not being scheduled because of religion, they can be moved to different days between quarters or M/F.
If they are being scheduled because of religion, that’s against the law.
What are you talking about? There's a non-instructional day on September 21, 2026 which just so happens to be Rosh Hashanah. MCPS isn't picking random Mondays as days off.
That’s for the operational reason of having a potential 15% impact on attendance for staff and students, not observing the Jewish holidays.
MCPS has Muslim staff too. You're just guessing about the 15% impact on attendance for Jewish staff--that's not data driven. Only 10% of MoCo is Jewish--and that's from survey data from years ago--it could be that the Jewish population doesn't have the birthrates of other communities in MoCo.
If that’s the case, then great - we can go back to scheduling school on those days for the 90% and allow observant Jews excused absences with make-up work.
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.
If they’re not being scheduled because of religion, they can be moved to different days between quarters or M/F.
If they are being scheduled because of religion, that’s against the law.
What are you talking about? There's a non-instructional day on September 21, 2026 which just so happens to be Rosh Hashanah. MCPS isn't picking random Mondays as days off.
That’s for the operational reason of having a potential 15% impact on attendance for staff and students, not observing the Jewish holidays.
MCPS has Muslim staff too. You're just guessing about the 15% impact on attendance for Jewish staff--that's not data driven. Only 10% of MoCo is Jewish--and that's from survey data from years ago--it could be that the Jewish population doesn't have the birthrates of other communities in MoCo.
Jews make up the biggest swath of the non-Christian population in MoCo and MoCo happens to have one of the largest populations in the country (outside of the NY tristate area). Yes, it’s an operational issue
Show us the data on Jewish staff at MCPS relative to Muslim staff. I don't think you can--because it doesn't exist. You're just guessing with your own religious biases front and center.
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.
If they’re not being scheduled because of religion, they can be moved to different days between quarters or M/F.
If they are being scheduled because of religion, that’s against the law.
In its presentation a few weeks back MCPS was clear that the days “aligned with holidays” and that’s why they were not recommending using them.
Ugh. That’s so obnoxious, if not illegal. Keep your religion out of my public school.
Anonymous wrote:Ugh. I know so many people (including us) that have travel plans the 3rd week of August. What is the point of putting out a calendar if we can't rely on it?!? Fortunately we don't have flights booked yet, but I know 7 families who are supposed to be out of the country! And since I have to get my work time off approved in advance that's the week I got, and it's unlikely I'll be able to switch, so I guess we're just not going on vacation this summer if they do this.
It would clearly be less disruptive at this point to take back some holidays (including Easter Monday), and even though every person I've spoken too is in favor of that approach versus moving the start date this year, I doubt the Board will have the guts to do it.
Any calendar change is disruptive. People just disagree on what is more disruptive.
I can't imagine anyone could argue with a straight face that starting the year several days earlier with less than 4 months notice is less disruptive than saying "for spring break, 11 months in the future, we will switch a couple of those days to possible makeup days if there's a lot of snow days.".
People would also complain if you shortened spring break. As others have pointed out, the makeup days are disproportionately allocated in the fall and early winter before we have any snow. MCPS isn't suddenly adding makeup days in the spring that you can use.
To me, starting earlier in August is the least disruptive. Obviously, people have a diversity of opinions on this topic.
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.
+2 Massachusetts schedules 185 school days each year knowing they will lose several to snow days (and they're a lot better about clearing snow than Maryland).
+3 We need to be more like Massachusetts and less like the dunce of the Maryland school districts who can't manage a basic schedule.
Anonymous wrote:Ugh. I know so many people (including us) that have travel plans the 3rd week of August. What is the point of putting out a calendar if we can't rely on it?!? Fortunately we don't have flights booked yet, but I know 7 families who are supposed to be out of the country! And since I have to get my work time off approved in advance that's the week I got, and it's unlikely I'll be able to switch, so I guess we're just not going on vacation this summer if they do this.
It would clearly be less disruptive at this point to take back some holidays (including Easter Monday), and even though every person I've spoken too is in favor of that approach versus moving the start date this year, I doubt the Board will have the guts to do it.
Any calendar change is disruptive. People just disagree on what is more disruptive.
I can't imagine anyone could argue with a straight face that starting the year several days earlier with less than 4 months notice is less disruptive than saying "for spring break, 11 months in the future, we will switch a couple of those days to possible makeup days if there's a lot of snow days.".
People would also complain if you shortened spring break. As others have pointed out, the makeup days are disproportionately allocated in the fall and early winter before we have any snow. MCPS isn't suddenly adding makeup days in the spring that you can use.
To me, starting earlier in August is the least disruptive. Obviously, people have a diversity of opinions on this topic.
How is it the least disruptive? It is only a few months away, when most people have already made plans of some type for that week, and it is also a huge deal for kids to miss the first few days of school (both for them themselves, and for the class as a whole.) It is also extremely hard on teachers who get no break after summer school and may already have committed to jobs during that week that will now be preservice week, and school staff who have barely any time to get the building ready after summer school.
Other options are much longer in the future, when many fewer people have plans. And if they do have plans, missing those days is much less consequential and disruptive than missing the first week of school for kids, or missing preservice for teachers.
This isn't even close. It's a slam dunk. The only way anyone could think starting early is less disruptive is if it's easier for you personally and you're unable to see past the end of your nose.
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
It wasn't the "Muslim community" who complained. It was the broader MoCo community (including a number of county council members elected by the broader public). MCPS is stupid to disproportionately designate makeup days in the fall and early winter before we even have snow, and then expect that the only Muslim holiday be cancelled, while the April 15 random Wednesday day off for teachers remained.
7News obtained a letter from a group that represents nearly forty mosques and Muslim organizations.
The IMAN Network recently sent the correspondence to the state superintendent of schools and the president of the Maryland State Board of Education.
It requests that the education leaders restore Eid holidays as non-instructional days and says that the "removal of Eid as a recognized day off undermines years of progress."
And you think because the mosques complained, that it meant that other non-Muslim members didnt complain? I am not Muslim and thought it was offensive that MCPS attempted to cancel the Eid holiday while leaving the random April 15 Wednesday off untouched as a "makeup day."
You said, "it wasn't the Muslim community who complained". That is false. You could have said, "it wasn't only the Muslim community who complained" and that would have been accurate. The Muslim community did complain, despite some posters trying to suggest they actually want to send their kids to school on their biggest holiday.
Anonymous wrote:Ugh. I know so many people (including us) that have travel plans the 3rd week of August. What is the point of putting out a calendar if we can't rely on it?!? Fortunately we don't have flights booked yet, but I know 7 families who are supposed to be out of the country! And since I have to get my work time off approved in advance that's the week I got, and it's unlikely I'll be able to switch, so I guess we're just not going on vacation this summer if they do this.
It would clearly be less disruptive at this point to take back some holidays (including Easter Monday), and even though every person I've spoken too is in favor of that approach versus moving the start date this year, I doubt the Board will have the guts to do it.
Any calendar change is disruptive. People just disagree on what is more disruptive.
I can't imagine anyone could argue with a straight face that starting the year several days earlier with less than 4 months notice is less disruptive than saying "for spring break, 11 months in the future, we will switch a couple of those days to possible makeup days if there's a lot of snow days.".
People would also complain if you shortened spring break. As others have pointed out, the makeup days are disproportionately allocated in the fall and early winter before we have any snow. MCPS isn't suddenly adding makeup days in the spring that you can use.
To me, starting earlier in August is the least disruptive. Obviously, people have a diversity of opinions on this topic.
How is it the least disruptive? It is only a few months away, when most people have already made plans of some type for that week, and it is also a huge deal for kids to miss the first few days of school (both for them themselves, and for the class as a whole.) It is also extremely hard on teachers who get no break after summer school and may already have committed to jobs during that week that will now be preservice week, and school staff who have barely any time to get the building ready after summer school.
Other options are much longer in the future, when many fewer people have plans. And if they do have plans, missing those days is much less consequential and disruptive than missing the first week of school for kids, or missing preservice for teachers.
This isn't even close. It's a slam dunk. The only way anyone could think starting early is less disruptive is if it's easier for you personally and you're unable to see past the end of your nose.
You seem to have mistaken your opinion on what is disruptive for yourself as representative of the entire MCPS community. Some people are happy to have their kids go back to school earlier in August. Not every MCPS family is flying back from Europe or Asia that week.
Sorry that your vacation plans may be messed up, but you're pretty narrow-minded if you can't see that others have different situations than you.
Anonymous wrote:Ugh. I know so many people (including us) that have travel plans the 3rd week of August. What is the point of putting out a calendar if we can't rely on it?!? Fortunately we don't have flights booked yet, but I know 7 families who are supposed to be out of the country! And since I have to get my work time off approved in advance that's the week I got, and it's unlikely I'll be able to switch, so I guess we're just not going on vacation this summer if they do this.
It would clearly be less disruptive at this point to take back some holidays (including Easter Monday), and even though every person I've spoken too is in favor of that approach versus moving the start date this year, I doubt the Board will have the guts to do it.
Any calendar change is disruptive. People just disagree on what is more disruptive.
I can't imagine anyone could argue with a straight face that starting the year several days earlier with less than 4 months notice is less disruptive than saying "for spring break, 11 months in the future, we will switch a couple of those days to possible makeup days if there's a lot of snow days.".
People would also complain if you shortened spring break. As others have pointed out, the makeup days are disproportionately allocated in the fall and early winter before we have any snow. MCPS isn't suddenly adding makeup days in the spring that you can use.
To me, starting earlier in August is the least disruptive. Obviously, people have a diversity of opinions on this topic.
How is it the least disruptive? It is only a few months away, when most people have already made plans of some type for that week, and it is also a huge deal for kids to miss the first few days of school (both for them themselves, and for the class as a whole.) It is also extremely hard on teachers who get no break after summer school and may already have committed to jobs during that week that will now be preservice week, and school staff who have barely any time to get the building ready after summer school.
Other options are much longer in the future, when many fewer people have plans. And if they do have plans, missing those days is much less consequential and disruptive than missing the first week of school for kids, or missing preservice for teachers.
This isn't even close. It's a slam dunk. The only way anyone could think starting early is less disruptive is if it's easier for you personally and you're unable to see past the end of your nose.
You seem to have mistaken your opinion on what is disruptive for yourself as representative of the entire MCPS community. Some people are happy to have their kids go back to school earlier in August. Not every MCPS family is flying back from Europe or Asia that week.
Sorry that your vacation plans may be messed up, but you're pretty narrow-minded if you can't see that others have different situations than you.
Is that you AP mom? It's been a few pages without your commentary... I was getting worried!
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
It wasn't the "Muslim community" who complained. It was the broader MoCo community (including a number of county council members elected by the broader public). MCPS is stupid to disproportionately designate makeup days in the fall and early winter before we even have snow, and then expect that the only Muslim holiday be cancelled, while the April 15 random Wednesday day off for teachers remained.
7News obtained a letter from a group that represents nearly forty mosques and Muslim organizations.
The IMAN Network recently sent the correspondence to the state superintendent of schools and the president of the Maryland State Board of Education.
It requests that the education leaders restore Eid holidays as non-instructional days and says that the "removal of Eid as a recognized day off undermines years of progress."
And you think because the mosques complained, that it meant that other non-Muslim members didnt complain? I am not Muslim and thought it was offensive that MCPS attempted to cancel the Eid holiday while leaving the random April 15 Wednesday off untouched as a "makeup day."
They were both designated as makeup days in the approved calendar and should have both been used
Should have. Could have. Would have. But MCPS didn't.
Because they’re chicken shit to appear anti-equity or go up against the union. They need to grow a backbone. They have the same approved calendar for next year. They need to just use it. But they won’t and instead want to cause chaos.
They caused chaos this year too. And the year before. Because MCPS only puts in 1 snow day in the calendar and schedules a bunch of makeup days they won't use and didn't bother to put in a virtual learning plan, and then acts surprised Pikachu face that their lack of planning got them into a mess.
Anonymous wrote:Ugh. I know so many people (including us) that have travel plans the 3rd week of August. What is the point of putting out a calendar if we can't rely on it?!? Fortunately we don't have flights booked yet, but I know 7 families who are supposed to be out of the country! And since I have to get my work time off approved in advance that's the week I got, and it's unlikely I'll be able to switch, so I guess we're just not going on vacation this summer if they do this.
It would clearly be less disruptive at this point to take back some holidays (including Easter Monday), and even though every person I've spoken too is in favor of that approach versus moving the start date this year, I doubt the Board will have the guts to do it.
Any calendar change is disruptive. People just disagree on what is more disruptive.
I can't imagine anyone could argue with a straight face that starting the year several days earlier with less than 4 months notice is less disruptive than saying "for spring break, 11 months in the future, we will switch a couple of those days to possible makeup days if there's a lot of snow days.".
People would also complain if you shortened spring break. As others have pointed out, the makeup days are disproportionately allocated in the fall and early winter before we have any snow. MCPS isn't suddenly adding makeup days in the spring that you can use.
To me, starting earlier in August is the least disruptive. Obviously, people have a diversity of opinions on this topic.
How is it the least disruptive? It is only a few months away, when most people have already made plans of some type for that week, and it is also a huge deal for kids to miss the first few days of school (both for them themselves, and for the class as a whole.) It is also extremely hard on teachers who get no break after summer school and may already have committed to jobs during that week that will now be preservice week, and school staff who have barely any time to get the building ready after summer school.
Other options are much longer in the future, when many fewer people have plans. And if they do have plans, missing those days is much less consequential and disruptive than missing the first week of school for kids, or missing preservice for teachers.
This isn't even close. It's a slam dunk. The only way anyone could think starting early is less disruptive is if it's easier for you personally and you're unable to see past the end of your nose.
You seem to have mistaken your opinion on what is disruptive for yourself as representative of the entire MCPS community. Some people are happy to have their kids go back to school earlier in August. Not every MCPS family is flying back from Europe or Asia that week.
Sorry that your vacation plans may be messed up, but you're pretty narrow-minded if you can't see that others have different situations than you.
Is that you AP mom? It's been a few pages without your commentary... I was getting worried!
Are you on drugs? That seems to be the only explanation of why you think you know who anonymous internet posters are in an internet forum with thousands of posters. Either way, sorry that you can't see beyond the nose on your face that others might feel differently than you.
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