Why doesn't MCPS include more than 1 snow day in the calendar?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS parents want
1. Schools to start as late as possible in august
2. Religious holidays (jewish, diwali, Eid , passover)
3. End school year by mid June.

How on earth are they able to do all that given all these conditions?

Fairfax county starts 2 weeks before labor day. They don’t get religious holidays and have 2 weeks off in winter, they still end mid june.

Why can’t mcps do this? Just start 2 weeks before labor day?

In HS, sports and marching band start in early August, so its a problem to start a lot earlier if kids are working, camps, etc. If you want your pools open, you need lifeguards.

There are school districts in the South and in Florida that start in July. They still manage to have sports, marching bands, and pools staffed by life guards.

JULY? Early August is bad enough! LEAVE SUMMER ALONE! NO TO EARLY STARTS!
Start 1 week before Labor Day (regardless if LD is September 1 or 7), 5 day weekend for Thanksgiving, 2 weeks December-early January, *break around President's Day, **4 day weekend at Easter, spring break in mid-April. End before Juneteenth.
*The length of the President's Day break would depend on other holidays
**The 4 day weekend at Easter would apply when Easter is earlier than the first full week of April. If Easter is after the 2nd full week of April spring break would still be with Easter. If Easter is between the first two weeks of April spring break would either be the week after Easter or in late April based on a vote.
As for 180 days? Maryland should adopt Georgia or Florida or Virginia law where the number of hours is counted towards the equivalent of 180 days.

Yep beginning of August to end of May. 8-9 wks of summer. No half days. Breaks every 6 wks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS parents want
1. Schools to start as late as possible in august
2. Religious holidays (jewish, diwali, Eid , passover)
3. End school year by mid June.

How on earth are they able to do all that given all these conditions?

Fairfax county starts 2 weeks before labor day. They don’t get religious holidays and have 2 weeks off in winter, they still end mid june.

Why can’t mcps do this? Just start 2 weeks before labor day?

In HS, sports and marching band start in early August, so its a problem to start a lot earlier if kids are working, camps, etc. If you want your pools open, you need lifeguards.

There are school districts in the South and in Florida that start in July. They still manage to have sports, marching bands, and pools staffed by life guards.

It never ceases to amaze me that some people on this forum are so convinced that the way MCPS does things is the only way it can be done. If you drive 30 minutes from MoCo you can find school districts that start earlier in August.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS parents want
1. Schools to start as late as possible in august
2. Religious holidays (jewish, diwali, Eid , passover)
3. End school year by mid June.

How on earth are they able to do all that given all these conditions?

Fairfax county starts 2 weeks before labor day. They don’t get religious holidays and have 2 weeks off in winter, they still end mid june.

Why can’t mcps do this? Just start 2 weeks before labor day?

I have never heard anyone complain about the prospect of an earlier start. If anything, the reason folks travel/vacation in the week before school is because camp options bottom out and its hard to find coverage.

You obviously only know people with younger kids who need camps and coverage. Older kids start sports several weeks before school, teachers have preservice, plenty of people want to vacation in August and definitely don’t want an earlier start. They have repeatedly surveyed people and this is what the majority prefers.

Parents of older kids are among the biggest advocates of starting the school year earlier. Some schools start in late July or early August and their high school students are far more prepared for AP exams with a month of extra instruction than our MCPS kids.

I don’t know any older students who have sports weeks before school start that would take up the full day with practice such that they couldn’t attend HS.

Fall sports start in early August and students are forced to practice pretty much from sun up to sun down in order for every team to get field time. There would be no possible way to handle summer conditioning with everyone having to be in class until 2:30 PM. And if you think those 2-3 weeks of conditioning aren't important then you have never played sports. You acclimate in early August to avoid serious issues later on.

Well I think schools should be prioiritizing academics over sports but obviously YMMV.

Well balanced kids do both, and/or other activities.

No one is saying kids can't do both, just that when designing a calendar, school districts should prioritize academics for all kids vs. the practice schedule of a small number of elite athletes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS parents want
1. Schools to start as late as possible in august
2. Religious holidays (jewish, diwali, Eid , passover)
3. End school year by mid June.

How on earth are they able to do all that given all these conditions?

Fairfax county starts 2 weeks before labor day. They don’t get religious holidays and have 2 weeks off in winter, they still end mid june.

Why can’t mcps do this? Just start 2 weeks before labor day?

I have never heard anyone complain about the prospect of an earlier start. If anything, the reason folks travel/vacation in the week before school is because camp options bottom out and its hard to find coverage.

You obviously only know people with younger kids who need camps and coverage. Older kids start sports several weeks before school, teachers have preservice, plenty of people want to vacation in August and definitely don’t want an earlier start. They have repeatedly surveyed people and this is what the majority prefers.

Parents of older kids are among the biggest advocates of starting the school year earlier. Some schools start in late July or early August and their high school students are far more prepared for AP exams with a month of extra instruction than our MCPS kids.

I don’t know any older students who have sports weeks before school start that would take up the full day with practice such that they couldn’t attend HS.

Fall sports start in early August and students are forced to practice pretty much from sun up to sun down in order for every team to get field time. There would be no possible way to handle summer conditioning with everyone having to be in class until 2:30 PM. And if you think those 2-3 weeks of conditioning aren't important then you have never played sports. You acclimate in early August to avoid serious issues later on.

What percentage of MCPS HS kids are doing MCPS team sports from "sun up to sun down" in August? I doubt it's higher than 5%, but even if it were higher, school exists to educate kids.

The vast majority of MCPS ES, MS and HS kids don't need to miss out on 180 full days of education per year, because you want your kid to play sports all day.If you want your kid to train all day, there are special schools that accomodate that.

You clearly don’t have Mcps hs kids. Your ignorance shows.

Enlighten me then oh wise one and answer the question posted above. What percentage of MCPS HS kids are doing MCPS team sports from "sun up to sun down" in August? I doubt it's higher than 5%.

+1. I want to know this too. We have some lifeguards at our pool who also play HS sports so that affects their availability at the end of summer but none of them are practicing 12 hrs per day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS parents want
1. Schools to start as late as possible in august
2. Religious holidays (jewish, diwali, Eid , passover)
3. End school year by mid June.

How on earth are they able to do all that given all these conditions?

Fairfax county starts 2 weeks before labor day. They don’t get religious holidays and have 2 weeks off in winter, they still end mid june.

Why can’t mcps do this? Just start 2 weeks before labor day?

I have never heard anyone complain about the prospect of an earlier start. If anything, the reason folks travel/vacation in the week before school is because camp options bottom out and its hard to find coverage.

You obviously only know people with younger kids who need camps and coverage. Older kids start sports several weeks before school, teachers have preservice, plenty of people want to vacation in August and definitely don’t want an earlier start. They have repeatedly surveyed people and this is what the majority prefers.

Parents of older kids are among the biggest advocates of starting the school year earlier. Some schools start in late July or early August and their high school students are far more prepared for AP exams with a month of extra instruction than our MCPS kids.

I don’t know any older students who have sports weeks before school start that would take up the full day with practice such that they couldn’t attend HS.

Fall sports start in early August and students are forced to practice pretty much from sun up to sun down in order for every team to get field time. There would be no possible way to handle summer conditioning with everyone having to be in class until 2:30 PM. And if you think those 2-3 weeks of conditioning aren't important then you have never played sports. You acclimate in early August to avoid serious issues later on.

What percentage of MCPS HS kids are doing MCPS team sports from "sun up to sun down" in August? I doubt it's higher than 5%, but even if it were higher, school exists to educate kids.

The vast majority of MCPS ES, MS and HS kids don't need to miss out on 180 full days of education per year, because you want your kid to play sports all day.If you want your kid to train all day, there are special schools that accomodate that.

You clearly don’t have Mcps hs kids. Your ignorance shows.

Enlighten me then oh wise one and answer the question posted above. What percentage of MCPS HS kids are doing MCPS team sports from "sun up to sun down" in August? I doubt it's higher than 5%.

To piggy back on this, those sports schedules would adjust to the school schedule anyway, so they'd have those workout/ practice days earlier in the summer instead of on school days. These things are only designed the way they are now to accommodate the current schedule.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We used to have 184 days scheduled, with additional days at the end as snow days. Most years we only used one or two, and everyone wished school ended sooner (hated the 2days the following week pattern.) The couple of times we had huge storms, it was a state emergency and they waived making up extra days beyond the 4.

Then came Hogan and his mandate that schools start after Labor Day and end by 6/15. Some years it barely fit and end of quarter grading became half days, pd became half days. As part of that process they dropped extra days not mandated by law and got creative around where to put makeup days. After the assembly made a law giving start date decisions back to school systems and we were post pandemic, they never went back, partly because climate change has really switched weather patterns and partly because it’s less expensive to not open the buildings unnecessarily.

+1. I’ve been an MCPS teacher for two decades and this is what happened.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS parents want
1. Schools to start as late as possible in august
2. Religious holidays (jewish, diwali, Eid , passover)
3. End school year by mid June.

How on earth are they able to do all that given all these conditions?

Fairfax county starts 2 weeks before labor day. They don’t get religious holidays and have 2 weeks off in winter, they still end mid june.

Why can’t mcps do this? Just start 2 weeks before labor day?

In HS, sports and marching band start in early August, so its a problem to start a lot earlier if kids are working, camps, etc. If you want your pools open, you need lifeguards.

There are school districts in the South and in Florida that start in July. They still manage to have sports, marching bands, and pools staffed by life guards.

JULY? Early August is bad enough! LEAVE SUMMER ALONE! NO TO EARLY STARTS!
Start 1 week before Labor Day (regardless if LD is September 1 or 7), 5 day weekend for Thanksgiving, 2 weeks December-early January, *break around President's Day, **4 day weekend at Easter, spring break in mid-April. End before Juneteenth.
*The length of the President's Day break would depend on other holidays
**The 4 day weekend at Easter would apply when Easter is earlier than the first full week of April. If Easter is after the 2nd full week of April spring break would still be with Easter. If Easter is between the first two weeks of April spring break would either be the week after Easter or in late April based on a vote.
As for 180 days? Maryland should adopt Georgia or Florida or Virginia law where the number of hours is counted towards the equivalent of 180 days.

Yep beginning of August to end of May. 8-9 wks of summer. No half days. Breaks every 6 wks.

+1 I'd love this schedule!

[Anonymous]

Or Maryland can reduce the required number of days. Most private schools are at 170 days and plenty of states have fewer than 180. It’s an arbitrary number.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We used to have 184 days scheduled, with additional days at the end as snow days. Most years we only used one or two, and everyone wished school ended sooner (hated the 2days the following week pattern.) The couple of times we had huge storms, it was a state emergency and they waived making up extra days beyond the 4.

Then came Hogan and his mandate that schools start after Labor Day and end by 6/15. Some years it barely fit and end of quarter grading became half days, pd became half days. As part of that process they dropped extra days not mandated by law and got creative around where to put makeup days. After the assembly made a law giving start date decisions back to school systems and we were post pandemic, they never went back, partly because climate change has really switched weather patterns and partly because it’s less expensive to not open the buildings unnecessarily.

+1. I’ve been an MCPS teacher for two decades and this is what happened.

I liked the Hogan mandate because it forced schools to stay in session at a relatively steady pace, from start to finish. I'm a high school teacher, and I prefer 1/2 day grading days and 1/2 day professional days. I prefer a threshold of 15% absenteeism before adding a religious or cultural holiday to the calendar or making those 1/2 days, as well. It's the constant disruption caused by singular days off that extends the school year over such a long period and prevents us from being able to fit in 184 days. Most importantly, we hardly ever have a full week of instruction due to these constant interruptions. If we have to have them, I'd prefer that we at least see the kids for 1/2 days to keep things moving.

[Anonymous]

The reason MCPS only builds one snow day is the board members all suffer from gambling addiction. They love to gamble so much that they bring that gambling to the calendar

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We used to have 184 days scheduled, with additional days at the end as snow days. Most years we only used one or two, and everyone wished school ended sooner (hated the 2days the following week pattern.) The couple of times we had huge storms, it was a state emergency and they waived making up extra days beyond the 4.

Then came Hogan and his mandate that schools start after Labor Day and end by 6/15. Some years it barely fit and end of quarter grading became half days, pd became half days. As part of that process they dropped extra days not mandated by law and got creative around where to put makeup days. After the assembly made a law giving start date decisions back to school systems and we were post pandemic, they never went back, partly because climate change has really switched weather patterns and partly because it’s less expensive to not open the buildings unnecessarily.

+1. I’ve been an MCPS teacher for two decades and this is what happened.

I liked the Hogan mandate because it forced schools to stay in session at a relatively steady pace, from start to finish. I'm a high school teacher, and I prefer 1/2 day grading days and 1/2 day professional days. I prefer a threshold of 15% absenteeism before adding a religious or cultural holiday to the calendar or making those 1/2 days, as well. It's the constant disruption caused by singular days off that extends the school year over such a long period and prevents us from being able to fit in 184 days. Most importantly, we hardly ever have a full week of instruction due to these constant interruptions. If we have to have them, I'd prefer that we at least see the kids for 1/2 days to keep things moving.

Yes, thank you! Agree completely.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS parents want
1. Schools to start as late as possible in august
2. Religious holidays (jewish, diwali, Eid , passover)
3. End school year by mid June.

How on earth are they able to do all that given all these conditions?

Fairfax county starts 2 weeks before labor day. They don’t get religious holidays and have 2 weeks off in winter, they still end mid june.

Why can’t mcps do this? Just start 2 weeks before labor day?

I have never heard anyone complain about the prospect of an earlier start. If anything, the reason folks travel/vacation in the week before school is because camp options bottom out and its hard to find coverage.

You obviously only know people with younger kids who need camps and coverage. Older kids start sports several weeks before school, teachers have preservice, plenty of people want to vacation in August and definitely don’t want an earlier start. They have repeatedly surveyed people and this is what the majority prefers.

Parents of older kids are among the biggest advocates of starting the school year earlier. Some schools start in late July or early August and their high school students are far more prepared for AP exams with a month of extra instruction than our MCPS kids.

I don’t know any older students who have sports weeks before school start that would take up the full day with practice such that they couldn’t attend HS.

Fall sports start in early August and students are forced to practice pretty much from sun up to sun down in order for every team to get field time. There would be no possible way to handle summer conditioning with everyone having to be in class until 2:30 PM. And if you think those 2-3 weeks of conditioning aren't important then you have never played sports. You acclimate in early August to avoid serious issues later on.

What percentage of MCPS HS kids are doing MCPS team sports from "sun up to sun down" in August? I doubt it's higher than 5%, but even if it were higher, school exists to educate kids.

The vast majority of MCPS ES, MS and HS kids don't need to miss out on 180 full days of education per year, because you want your kid to play sports all day.If you want your kid to train all day, there are special schools that accomodate that.

You clearly don’t have Mcps hs kids. Your ignorance shows.

Enlighten me then oh wise one and answer the question posted above. What percentage of MCPS HS kids are doing MCPS team sports from "sun up to sun down" in August? I doubt it's higher than 5%.

To piggy back on this, those sports schedules would adjust to the school schedule anyway, so they'd have those workout/ practice days earlier in the summer instead of on school days. These things are only designed the way they are now to accommodate the current schedule.

Or take turns using the gym or other spaces for cooling down.

Frankly the argument against changing the calendar because of high school sports is the weakest one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS parents want
1. Schools to start as late as possible in august
2. Religious holidays (jewish, diwali, Eid , passover)
3. End school year by mid June.

How on earth are they able to do all that given all these conditions?

Fairfax county starts 2 weeks before labor day. They don’t get religious holidays and have 2 weeks off in winter, they still end mid june.

Why can’t mcps do this? Just start 2 weeks before labor day?

I have never heard anyone complain about the prospect of an earlier start. If anything, the reason folks travel/vacation in the week before school is because camp options bottom out and its hard to find coverage.

You obviously only know people with younger kids who need camps and coverage. Older kids start sports several weeks before school, teachers have preservice, plenty of people want to vacation in August and definitely don’t want an earlier start. They have repeatedly surveyed people and this is what the majority prefers.

Parents of older kids are among the biggest advocates of starting the school year earlier. Some schools start in late July or early August and their high school students are far more prepared for AP exams with a month of extra instruction than our MCPS kids.

I don’t know any older students who have sports weeks before school start that would take up the full day with practice such that they couldn’t attend HS.

Fall sports start in early August and students are forced to practice pretty much from sun up to sun down in order for every team to get field time. There would be no possible way to handle summer conditioning with everyone having to be in class until 2:30 PM. And if you think those 2-3 weeks of conditioning aren't important then you have never played sports. You acclimate in early August to avoid serious issues later on.

What percentage of MCPS HS kids are doing MCPS team sports from "sun up to sun down" in August? I doubt it's higher than 5%, but even if it were higher, school exists to educate kids.

The vast majority of MCPS ES, MS and HS kids don't need to miss out on 180 full days of education per year, because you want your kid to play sports all day.If you want your kid to train all day, there are special schools that accomodate that.

The sun up to sun down comment doesn't mean the same kids are out there the whole time. It means that there are like 8 different teams, plus marching band that have to use the same field for practice. Each team gets like 2 hours. Try cramming all of that into a 6 hour day.

[Anonymous]

And for the schools are for learning and not sports crowd, these are the final years many of these kids get to participate in team sports that teach valuable lessons in hard work, determination, and cooperation. To rob those children of that opportunity so a few kids can get an extra 2 weeks to prepare for a test is pretty stupid. If your kids need the extra 2 weeks, maybe you shouldn't have forced them into AP classes they aren't capable of in the first place

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And for the schools are for learning and not sports crowd, these are the final years many of these kids get to participate in team sports that teach valuable lessons in hard work, determination, and cooperation. To rob those children of that opportunity so a few kids can get an extra 2 weeks to prepare for a test is pretty stupid. If your kids need the extra 2 weeks, maybe you shouldn't have forced them into AP classes they aren't capable of in the first place

Geez you're insufferable. I guess you're satusfied with the usless makeup days tacked on in June, maybe you don't even bother sending your kids, but it's not ideal for a variety of reasons. Starting the school year slightly earlier to build in more snow days is the most practical solution from a logistics standpoint AND would have the added benefit of more time for AP classes. It doesn't have to be and would unlikely be two weeks, stop being dramatic. If your kids can't adjust to starting school slightly earlier maybe you need to teach them more resilliance.