APS cutting instructional days from calendar

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I truly think people who say “school isn’t childcare” are mostly just contrarians. I’ve only heard a couple (childless) teachers say this in real life. I’m a teacher and school is my childcare. I have to get camps 2 weeks during the summers and on workdays.

I'm a parent who works full time, and I say this. Do I use school in place of childcare? Of course! But that's because a typical school day falls when I have work. I don't think I'm entitled to have my public school system step up year round even though unlike teachers, my job is year round. I don't expect school to provide a place for my kids when they're sick even if I have something I need to do at the office. And I don't pull my kid out of school because I want to go on vacation at a particular time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I truly think people who say “school isn’t childcare” are mostly just contrarians. I’ve only heard a couple (childless) teachers say this in real life. I’m a teacher and school is my childcare. I have to get camps 2 weeks during the summers and on workdays.

I'm a parent who works full time, and I say this. Do I use school in place of childcare? Of course! But that's because a typical school day falls when I have work. I don't think I'm entitled to have my public school system step up year round even though unlike teachers, my job is year round. I don't expect school to provide a place for my kids when they're sick even if I have something I need to do at the office. And I don't pull my kid out of school because I want to go on vacation at a particular time.

Is this a parody of a contrarian parent? If so, it's hilarious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I truly think people who say “school isn’t childcare” are mostly just contrarians. I’ve only heard a couple (childless) teachers say this in real life. I’m a teacher and school is my childcare. I have to get camps 2 weeks during the summers and on workdays.

I'm a parent who works full time, and I say this. Do I use school in place of childcare? Of course! But that's because a typical school day falls when I have work. I don't think I'm entitled to have my public school system step up year round even though unlike teachers, my job is year round. I don't expect school to provide a place for my kids when they're sick even if I have something I need to do at the office. And I don't pull my kid out of school because I want to go on vacation at a particular time.

Thanks, Trumper. Go back to you’re hole. Thankfully progressives still run the show and give a F about social safety net and feminism.

[Anonymous]

So much complaining over essentially an ES problem. Once our DD was in 6th grade and beyond, she could stay home on snow days and random teacher workdays. We did summer camps for a couple more years; but this HUGE problem of childcare only lasts a few years. I’ll admit those years sucked, but it goes by quickly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I truly think people who say “school isn’t childcare” are mostly just contrarians. I’ve only heard a couple (childless) teachers say this in real life. I’m a teacher and school is my childcare. I have to get camps 2 weeks during the summers and on workdays.

I'm a parent who works full time, and I say this. Do I use school in place of childcare? Of course! But that's because a typical school day falls when I have work. I don't think I'm entitled to have my public school system step up year round even though unlike teachers, my job is year round. I don't expect school to provide a place for my kids when they're sick even if I have something I need to do at the office. And I don't pull my kid out of school because I want to go on vacation at a particular time.

Thanks, Trumper. Go back to you’re hole. Thankfully progressives still run the show and give a F about social safety net and feminism.

It's weird how people think calling attention to what a stopgap it is to use school as childcare is reactionary. The pandemic has shown how little a social safety net there is, and rather than decide we need to do something about childcare and mental health and all the other problems thrown into relief over the past two years, there are a whole lotta white women voting for Youngkin and hoping things can go back to the way they were. It worked for them, so it's gotta be OK, amirite?

SUPER feminist of you to demand that teachers (most of whom are women) step up and do what you want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I truly think people who say “school isn’t childcare” are mostly just contrarians. I’ve only heard a couple (childless) teachers say this in real life. I’m a teacher and school is my childcare. I have to get camps 2 weeks during the summers and on workdays.

I'm a parent who works full time, and I say this. Do I use school in place of childcare? Of course! But that's because a typical school day falls when I have work. I don't think I'm entitled to have my public school system step up year round even though unlike teachers, my job is year round. I don't expect school to provide a place for my kids when they're sick even if I have something I need to do at the office. And I don't pull my kid out of school because I want to go on vacation at a particular time.

Thanks, Trumper. Go back to you’re hole. Thankfully progressives still run the show and give a F about social safety net and feminism.

It's weird how people think calling attention to what a stopgap it is to use school as childcare is reactionary. The pandemic has shown how little a social safety net there is, and rather than decide we need to do something about childcare and mental health and all the other problems thrown into relief over the past two years, there are a whole lotta white women voting for Youngkin and hoping things can go back to the way they were. It worked for them, so it's gotta be OK, amirite?

SUPER feminist of you to demand that teachers (most of whom are women) step up and do what you want.

APS is actually created the stopgap issue by adding midweek instructional days. This simply creates a burden for working parents. No one else has mentioned all year schooling or making schools take care of sick kids. That's completely irrelevant and, frankly, idiotic.
The point of this thread is not to ask teachers to "step up" and do more, it's imploring APS to maintain a more consistent schedule. I don't see why we can't support both families and teachers.

And for what it's worth, I would have walked over broken glass to vote for McAuliffe. Youngkin will be bad news for education, but he made a big deal out of open schools and lots of parents correlate open schools to better mental health for their children (for better or worse). I supposed that's a different thread.

[Anonymous]

Half day Wednesdays aren’t new. This has been happening since 2015, at least. Maybe there are more of them? Haven’t counted. But they’re not new. You’re new to the system. The only new things are the additional religious holidays, which apparently upsets a number of people, and starting before Labor Day, also controversial.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
APS is actually created the stopgap issue by adding midweek instructional days. This simply creates a burden for working parents. No one else has mentioned all year schooling or making schools take care of sick kids.

The point of this thread is not to ask teachers to "step up" and do more, it's imploring APS to maintain a more consistent schedule. I don't see why we can't support both families and teachers.

And for what it's worth, I would have walked over broken glass to vote for McAuliffe. Youngkin will be bad news for education, but he made a big deal out of open schools and lots of parents correlate open schools to better mental health for their children (for better or worse). I supposed that's a different thread.

No, school as childcare has always been a stopgap. There needs to be care for children even if school is not in session for whatever reason. There needs to be a way that parents can meet the needs of sick children and not get fired over it. There needs to be readily available mental health care for everyone, including teenagers. Kids need to be fed even if they aren't eating at school cafeterias. There are a ton of ways schools cover for the lack of a proper social safety net, and a whole lot of parents never noticed until the pandemic hit. And now all they want is for things to be the way they were before the pandemic. But things weren't good then, either, for a lot of families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Half day Wednesdays aren’t new. This has been happening since 2015, at least. Maybe there are more of them? Haven’t counted. But they’re not new. You’re new to the system. The only new things are the additional religious holidays, which apparently upsets a number of people, and starting before Labor Day, also controversial.

So half day Wednesdays used to be EVERY WEEK. Yup. Every. Single. week. Historically this means they actually ADDED instructional days.

[Anonymous]

This thread is ridiculous. It is uniformly accepted that 180 days is the standard school year. APS provided that pre-pandemic with the school day length and now it isn’t. Why not? To say this is a childcare issue is insulting to teachers. Kids are desperately behind after last year and you can agree or disagree whether schools should have been in-person sooner. But we are where we are now and kids need help. So why on Earth would APS increase class sizes and cut days after all these kids have been through. It’s a fair question that deserves a serious answer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread is ridiculous. It is uniformly accepted that 180 days is the standard school year. APS provided that pre-pandemic with the school day length and now it isn’t. Why not? To say this is a childcare issue is insulting to teachers. Kids are desperately behind after last year and you can agree or disagree whether schools should have been in-person sooner. But we are where we are now and kids need help. So why on Earth would APS increase class sizes and cut days after all these kids have been through. It’s a fair question that deserves a serious answer.

I haven’t counted them, but somehow, I doubt they have cut school time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread is ridiculous. It is uniformly accepted that 180 days is the standard school year. APS provided that pre-pandemic with the school day length and now it isn’t. Why not? To say this is a childcare issue is insulting to teachers. Kids are desperately behind after last year and you can agree or disagree whether schools should have been in-person sooner. But we are where we are now and kids need help. So why on Earth would APS increase class sizes and cut days after all these kids have been through. It’s a fair question that deserves a serious answer.

I haven’t counted them, but somehow, I doubt they have cut school time.

The school day is same time pre-pandemic. Regardless, these seem like important points that our school board should be asking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Half day Wednesdays aren’t new. This has been happening since 2015, at least. Maybe there are more of them? Haven’t counted. But they’re not new. You’re new to the system. The only new things are the additional religious holidays, which apparently upsets a number of people, and starting before Labor Day, also controversial.

So half day Wednesdays used to be EVERY WEEK. Yup. Every. Single. week. Historically this means they actually ADDED instructional days.

They counted half days as full days?! This must be connected to my second grader telling me they learned that 5 rounds up to the next whole place value! APS is screwing us again!!1!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Half day Wednesdays aren’t new. This has been happening since 2015, at least. Maybe there are more of them? Haven’t counted. But they’re not new. You’re new to the system. The only new things are the additional religious holidays, which apparently upsets a number of people, and starting before Labor Day, also controversial.

So half day Wednesdays used to be EVERY WEEK. Yup. Every. Single. week. Historically this means they actually ADDED instructional days.

They counted half days as full days?! This must be connected to my second grader telling me they learned that 5 rounds up to the next whole place value! APS is screwing us again!!1!

1. Early release is just over 2 hours less instructional time
2. 5 does round up

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Half day Wednesdays aren’t new. This has been happening since 2015, at least. Maybe there are more of them? Haven’t counted. But they’re not new. You’re new to the system. The only new things are the additional religious holidays, which apparently upsets a number of people, and starting before Labor Day, also controversial.

So half day Wednesdays used to be EVERY WEEK. Yup. Every. Single. week. Historically this means they actually ADDED instructional days.

Yes I remember that too. But the APEs are new to all of this, they had no idea.