APS proposed school year calendar up

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:In all the fighting over the first day of school, no one paid attention to the last. I emailed and emailed. June 18 is late to be getting out. And, folks, the religious holidays are why. That’s the difference. I’m happy if they keep them. But they need to find other days to cut.

??? 180 school days is Virginia law. I don’t understand the opposition to this.

The religious holidays are only four days. They could keep them and get rid of other random days off (like grade prep days) and have kids come to school on veterans day.

Great! And yes they could. But they won’t. Someone suggested they go to school on Veterans Day and their response was “no” because a lot of veterans live around here. They won’t get rid of any of the holidays. So we are stuck with an absurd ending date. And still going to school before Labor Day!

I think it's sad that everyone is eager to eliminate Veterans' Day as the holiday off. We should be HONORING the sacrifices of those who have protected and served this country. I suppose folks think going on family picnics and long weekends "celebrating" Memorial Day.....those who DIED protecting and serving this country, is enough. But there are a lot of people who have done so and have not yet died. It's nice to honor them while they're still around to feel the honor.

Nobody ever suggests eliminating Columbus Day now Indigenous Peoples' Day; and they surely would never suggest eliminating Juneteenth as a day off if school extended beyond that date. What about Presidents' Day? That seems like one of the silliest holidays, imo.

I don't understand all the people insisting on a full two weeks winter break but then griping about getting out too late in June and/or starting before Labor Day. You can't have it all folks.

Well, you know what? We had pretty close to “it all” last year. We had 2 weeks of winter break, started one week before Labor Day, got our earlier then June 18, AND had the religious holidays. But some people got upset because we had 990 hours but not 180 days. So APS added more days. We have 13 snow days built in.

The main thing is, there needs to be consistency. For example, federal holidays off only. Or, only religious holidays where at least X percentage of staff/students are likely to be absent. Adding religious holidays randomly is a no-win, because you can’t include everyone.

By some people you mean a lobbying group named Arlington Parents for Education. They lobbied heavily for 180 days. Even though a lot of them have their own kids in private school, they still want to control public ed for the rest of us.

180 school days is Virginia law. https://law.lis.virginia.gov/admincode/title8/agency20/chapter131/section150/#:~:text=The%20standard%20school%20year%20shall,in%20grades%20kindergarten%20through%2012.

Nope. 180 days OR 990 hours. APS has enough extra hours for 13 snow days this year.

APS always had more than 180 days before the pandemic. Going back years. i can't believe people want fewer days.

They also had 10-11 week long summers. It’s not that people want fewer days of school per se, but we don’t want a shorter summer with a bunch of random days off during the ever-lengthening school year.

THIS

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I guess I am in minority bc I am all for more school days and shorter summer breaks. Provided of course they are actually teaching and not just playing for three weeks following SOLs.

I also don't really care about shorter summers. Less summer camp I have to pay for.

But now you have to pay for more random days off throughout the year.

I wish they'd add to the calendar rules that there cannot not be two non-consecutive days off/early releases in a single week.

In 2024 they have an early release on Wednesday (10/30), then a full day on Thursday (10/31), and no school on Friday (11/1, Diwali). It basically kills the whole end of the week. Move the early release to 10/31 and have a full day on 10/30. Don't have non-consecutive closures.

Great - We'll go on vacation starting that Wednesday. And they wonder why absences are so much higher. Add in a bunch of days off and people will turn it into a long weekend away.

My kids don't want to be away and miss Halloween. APS needs to move the early release to 10/31.

All early releases should be on Fridays (or a day immediately before a holiday, such as the 10/31 example).

So Halloween is now a holiday with no school? Seriously, what's wrong with the ER being on Halloween and only having a day and a half off instead of two and a half?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The kids who will be impacted the most (as a group) are the juniors next year. For those with younger kids, the last week of school is for final exams. Each class period is assigned a time and students have to come in for that part of the day. I believe there was even a note sent out last year that the schedule would not be altered. The juniors/rising seniors are also the ones most likely to be enrolling in summer programs to help prepare them for college application season. Those programs often start early b/c most of the country is out of school by mid-June.

The 2024/25 seniors will have an extra short summer b/c they start college in early/mid August, so I hope many of them can do a senior experience to give them more space.

Seniors already know where they're going to college by June of their senior year. Those admissions decisions are made well before then.

[Anonymous]

20:37??? The rising seniors are in the programs in the summer. The graduating students are impacted by having a shorter break before they go to college.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I guess I am in minority bc I am all for more school days and shorter summer breaks. Provided of course they are actually teaching and not just playing for three weeks following SOLs.

I also don't really care about shorter summers. Less summer camp I have to pay for.

But now you have to pay for more random days off throughout the year.

I wish they'd add to the calendar rules that there cannot not be two non-consecutive days off/early releases in a single week.

In 2024 they have an early release on Wednesday (10/30), then a full day on Thursday (10/31), and no school on Friday (11/1, Diwali). It basically kills the whole end of the week. Move the early release to 10/31 and have a full day on 10/30. Don't have non-consecutive closures.

Great - We'll go on vacation starting that Wednesday. And they wonder why absences are so much higher. Add in a bunch of days off and people will turn it into a long weekend away.

My kids don't want to be away and miss Halloween. APS needs to move the early release to 10/31.

All early releases should be on Fridays (or a day immediately before a holiday, such as the 10/31 example).

So Halloween is now a holiday with no school? Seriously, what's wrong with the ER being on Halloween and only having a day and a half off instead of two and a half?

I think you're confused. No one has said that Halloween should be a holiday. We've just said that the current plan of Early Release (Weds)-Halloween (Thurs)-No school (Friday) is stupid. Move the half day to Halloween. Don't make the week so choppy.

Elementary students are distracted on Halloween anyways so it would be a good day for a half day, rather than shortening a day when students are more focused. I'd be fine if APS just cut the half day, but they say they need it for professional learning. If they are going to keep it, they should at least choose a less stupid date.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Proposing to start last week in August, end the middle of the third week in June which is 3 days later later than we usually end.
https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/arlington/Board.nsf/files/CXSREA6D9A52/$file/H-4%202024-25%20%26%202025-26%20Proposed%20School%20Year%20Calendars.pdf

Also looks like March 5 of this school year will be a student holiday. Surprise!
https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/arlington/Board.nsf/files/CXSRFZ6DD911/$file/H-3%202023-24%20Revised%20School%20Year%20Calendar.pdf

Seriously????
How many Arlingtonians actually go out and vote in March?
Any excuse to create another day off. Why do we even bother with a school calendar anymore? So concerned about chronic absenteeism....these calendars do nothing to encourage coming or to promote the priority people should place on education.

The schools are polling places. That’s why the close on polling days.

No one cares if you vote.

Most voting is at Arlington's numerous community centers which are perfect for this, they really need to move all polling there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In all the fighting over the first day of school, no one paid attention to the last. I emailed and emailed. June 18 is late to be getting out. And, folks, the religious holidays are why. That’s the difference. I’m happy if they keep them. But they need to find other days to cut.

??? 180 school days is Virginia law. I don’t understand the opposition to this.

The religious holidays are only four days. They could keep them and get rid of other random days off (like grade prep days) and have kids come to school on veterans day.

Great! And yes they could. But they won’t. Someone suggested they go to school on Veterans Day and their response was “no” because a lot of veterans live around here. They won’t get rid of any of the holidays. So we are stuck with an absurd ending date. And still going to school before Labor Day!

I think it's sad that everyone is eager to eliminate Veterans' Day as the holiday off. We should be HONORING the sacrifices of those who have protected and served this country. I suppose folks think going on family picnics and long weekends "celebrating" Memorial Day.....those who DIED protecting and serving this country, is enough. But there are a lot of people who have done so and have not yet died. It's nice to honor them while they're still around to feel the honor.

Nobody ever suggests eliminating Columbus Day now Indigenous Peoples' Day; and they surely would never suggest eliminating Juneteenth as a day off if school extended beyond that date. What about Presidents' Day? That seems like one of the silliest holidays, imo.

I don't understand all the people insisting on a full two weeks winter break but then griping about getting out too late in June and/or starting before Labor Day. You can't have it all folks.

Well, you know what? We had pretty close to “it all” last year. We had 2 weeks of winter break, started one week before Labor Day, got our earlier then June 18, AND had the religious holidays. But some people got upset because we had 990 hours but not 180 days. So APS added more days. We have 13 snow days built in.

The main thing is, there needs to be consistency. For example, federal holidays off only. Or, only religious holidays where at least X percentage of staff/students are likely to be absent. Adding religious holidays randomly is a no-win, because you can’t include everyone.

By some people you mean a lobbying group named Arlington Parents for Education. They lobbied heavily for 180 days. Even though a lot of them have their own kids in private school, they still want to control public ed for the rest of us.

180 school days is Virginia law. https://law.lis.virginia.gov/admincode/title8/agency20/chapter131/section150/#:~:text=The%20standard%20school%20year%20shall,in%20grades%20kindergarten%20through%2012.

Nope. 180 days OR 990 hours. APS has enough extra hours for 13 snow days this year.

APS always had more than 180 days before the pandemic. Going back years. i can't believe people want fewer days.

They also had 10-11 week long summers. It’s not that people want fewer days of school per se, but we don’t want a shorter summer with a bunch of random days off during the ever-lengthening school year.

THIS

TOO many random days off that are disconnected from one another.

[Anonymous]

I would like APS to tally how many students observe which holidays. We are required to update the Parent VUE each fall, that would be an easy way to put a checkmark on your family's observed holidays, ensuring that they will receive a response from every family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In all the fighting over the first day of school, no one paid attention to the last. I emailed and emailed. June 18 is late to be getting out. And, folks, the religious holidays are why. That’s the difference. I’m happy if they keep them. But they need to find other days to cut.

We did pay attention. But APS would not commit to ending any earlier than “by Juneteenth” even if they started 2 weeks before Labor Day. They could have said something like “summer must be 10 weeks long,” but they refused.

Yes, I noted that, too, and had sent comments. Even in their proposal to start 2 weeks before Labor Day we were still ending school "by Juneteenth", a certain length of the summer would have been perhaps a better measure to enshrine into the the guidelines. We are ending school so much later than the rest of the country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:I was surprised by the superintendent's recent email on snow days stating that Arlington has 13 school days that can be taken before we would need to start making up days for snow days. I'm a teacher and all for snow days, but couldn't we just add in 5 additional days and move to virtual after. Do we really need to attend 13 days over what the VDOE requires?

Also on Grade Prep Days, they aren't just for strictly grades. They are the only time during the school year that we get additional time for planning/work in our classrooms without being forced into professional developments that are poorly developed. SPED teachers especially need this time for compiling data collection for quarterly progress reports.

This. When is the last time we actually used 13 snow days? And how much instruction is really going to happen that last half week in June? It's absurd.

They are predicting a snowier winter this year. Given that schools around here close on the threat of rain and the possibility of maybe a light flurry, we may need every one of these 13 days. Can't wait to see what happens if day 14 is due to a huge blizzard knocking out power and (some) students can't connect to the internet for online distance learning.....

I don’t think we’ve ever used 13 snow days. Even as a kid when I lived here we didn’t use that many.

This, 13 snow days is completely excessive. That's nearly 3 weeks worth. We've never ever needed that many.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I guess I am in minority bc I am all for more school days and shorter summer breaks. Provided of course they are actually teaching and not just playing for three weeks following SOLs.

I also don't really care about shorter summers. Less summer camp I have to pay for.

But now you have to pay for more random days off throughout the year.

I wish they'd add to the calendar rules that there cannot not be two non-consecutive days off/early releases in a single week.

In 2024 they have an early release on Wednesday (10/30), then a full day on Thursday (10/31), and no school on Friday (11/1, Diwali). It basically kills the whole end of the week. Move the early release to 10/31 and have a full day on 10/30. Don't have non-consecutive closures.

I wrote many comments about please NOT having non-consecutive closures.

[Anonymous]

The proposed 2025/2026 calendar has many Muslim and Jewish religious holidays, but they scrapped Easter Monday...
They really make a point of mentioning all religious holidays by name, but not Christmas or Easter, why?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The proposed 2025/2026 calendar has many Muslim and Jewish religious holidays, but they scrapped Easter Monday...
They really make a point of mentioning all religious holidays by name, but not Christmas or Easter, why?

Easter Monday isn't really a thing. Easter is observed on Sunday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The proposed 2025/2026 calendar has many Muslim and Jewish religious holidays, but they scrapped Easter Monday...
They really make a point of mentioning all religious holidays by name, but not Christmas or Easter, why?

Easter Monday isn't really a thing. Easter is observed on Sunday.

+1 Is an entire week off leading up to Easter Sunday not enough that you’re complaining about not having the following Monday off?

You do get that Monday off in 2025 when Easter is suuuuper late.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The proposed 2025/2026 calendar has many Muslim and Jewish religious holidays, but they scrapped Easter Monday...
They really make a point of mentioning all religious holidays by name, but not Christmas or Easter, why?

Easter Monday isn't really a thing. Easter is observed on Sunday.

Incorrect. Easter Monday is a Christian holiday. It's observed as a national holiday in nearly all English speaking countries, including Great Britain, Canada, Australia, as well as in nearly all of Europe.