Two MCPS Make-Up Days Announced

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My rising senior has a job to start on 6/18 there’s no way she’s missing a week of work. This is going to screw up so many local summer camps who rely on high schoolers to work.

Oh the horror! That's a tragedy compared to students not getting the educational days they're supposed to get. Also, this happened last year, where days in June were tacked on because MCPS didn't plan in enough snow days.

It's not like this is unexpected. I didn't make summer camp plans for my kids for that week because I knew this could happen. There's no reason to book camps by February, for a week that is likely to have makeup days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who do we contact to advocate for the state legislation to count instructional hours vs. days? This extra WEEK will cost our county so. much. money for the benefit of so few who will actually attend the week of 6/22 (with ridiculous half days 6/24 and 6/25!?).

"As a result, extending the school year is the only option (at this time) that ensures MCPS meets state instructional requirements. However, our Montgomery County state legislative delegation in the State General Assembly is working on a bill that would provide relief by allowing school systems to meet a minimum number of instructional hours instead of having to make up all the days. Good news! MCPS already exceeds the minimum hours requirement each year and this year is no exception. We currently meet the required learning hours as set forth by the state department of education. Special thanks to our state legislative partners from Montgomery County for supporting our schools and our families. If the bill passes successfully, we will re-adjust the end of the school year."

Can someone please send the names of the state legislature/general assembly members to contact. As per Taylor (in yesterday's meeting), each day MCPS stays open costs 2 million per day in taxpayer money.

You need to look on the website. I think ours are Emily Shetty, Jared Solomon, Jeff W and one other person? Different reps cover different sections of MoCo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who do we contact to advocate for the state legislation to count instructional hours vs. days? This extra WEEK will cost our county so. much. money for the benefit of so few who will actually attend the week of 6/22 (with ridiculous half days 6/24 and 6/25!?).

"As a result, extending the school year is the only option (at this time) that ensures MCPS meets state instructional requirements. However, our Montgomery County state legislative delegation in the State General Assembly is working on a bill that would provide relief by allowing school systems to meet a minimum number of instructional hours instead of having to make up all the days. Good news! MCPS already exceeds the minimum hours requirement each year and this year is no exception. We currently meet the required learning hours as set forth by the state department of education. Special thanks to our state legislative partners from Montgomery County for supporting our schools and our families. If the bill passes successfully, we will re-adjust the end of the school year."

Can someone please send the names of the state legislature/general assembly members to contact. As per Taylor (in yesterday's meeting), each day MCPS stays open costs 2 million per day in taxpayer money.

Yeah, that's why MCPS should have planned better.

+1 It's not rocket science to add in more than 1 snow day into the calendar. We had the same problem last year, only with even more snow days off this year. Lots of Maryland school districts have 3-4 days in the calendar. Fairfax county does too. Only MCPS fails to plan and then complains that their lack of planning to cost them money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Staff is going to expect to be paid if they have to work until June 25.

Don’t even think of goi g there with “well they got paid for the snowcrete days.”

Juneteenth is going to have to be a paid holiday.

This is gonna be expensive.

I don't think they need to pay them any more than previously negotiated. The contract is for a specific number of working days. They did not actually work the snow days.

But we got paid for them. So teachers will not get paid for the make up days.
So if you are a teacher who has summer job starting June 21, which are you going to do…work for free or earn a paycheck? Not a tough decision there.

Right. So you got paid for days you didn’t work. Then you can make up days where you won’t get paid.

That isn't how it works. You'll get over it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My rising senior has a job to start on 6/18 there’s no way she’s missing a week of work. This is going to screw up so many local summer camps who rely on high schoolers to work.

Oh the horror! That's a tragedy compared to students not getting the educational days they're supposed to get. Also, this happened last year, where days in June were tacked on because MCPS didn't plan in enough snow days.

It's not like this is unexpected. I didn't make summer camp plans for my kids for that week because I knew this could happen. There's no reason to book camps by February, for a week that is likely to have makeup days.

Your kids sound young and you sound insufferable. Some programs/camps/jobs only exist with a fixed start date that did not previously conflict with the school calendar, and given that this is the latest the school has been extended in an extremely long time, it was reasonable to book these plans. Many of these programs are already full, and had people waited until the end of snow season, they would have been shut out. MCPS identified 3 perfectly reasonable dates (3/20, 4/15, 6/18) that most people would have assumed they would have used first because those are among the dates they literally picked as options when making the calendar, making it far less likely that they would have boldly chosen to use the later June dates instead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My rising senior has a job to start on 6/18 there’s no way she’s missing a week of work. This is going to screw up so many local summer camps who rely on high schoolers to work.

Oh the horror! That's a tragedy compared to students not getting the educational days they're supposed to get. Also, this happened last year, where days in June were tacked on because MCPS didn't plan in enough snow days.

It's not like this is unexpected. I didn't make summer camp plans for my kids for that week because I knew this could happen. There's no reason to book camps by February, for a week that is likely to have makeup days.

Your kids sound young and you sound insufferable. Some programs/camps/jobs only exist with a fixed start date that did not previously conflict with the school calendar, and given that this is the latest the school has been extended in an extremely long time, it was reasonable to book these plans. Many of these programs are already full, and had people waited until the end of snow season, they would have been shut out. MCPS identified 3 perfectly reasonable dates (3/20, 4/15, 6/18) that most people would have assumed they would have used first because those are among the dates they literally picked as options when making the calendar, making it far less likely that they would have boldly chosen to use the later June dates instead.

+1. I assume anyone saying "[t]here's no reason to book camps by February" hasn't actually booked very many camps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who do we contact to advocate for the state legislation to count instructional hours vs. days? This extra WEEK will cost our county so. much. money for the benefit of so few who will actually attend the week of 6/22 (with ridiculous half days 6/24 and 6/25!?).

"As a result, extending the school year is the only option (at this time) that ensures MCPS meets state instructional requirements. However, our Montgomery County state legislative delegation in the State General Assembly is working on a bill that would provide relief by allowing school systems to meet a minimum number of instructional hours instead of having to make up all the days. Good news! MCPS already exceeds the minimum hours requirement each year and this year is no exception. We currently meet the required learning hours as set forth by the state department of education. Special thanks to our state legislative partners from Montgomery County for supporting our schools and our families. If the bill passes successfully, we will re-adjust the end of the school year."

Can someone please send the names of the state legislature/general assembly members to contact. As per Taylor (in yesterday's meeting), each day MCPS stays open costs 2 million per day in taxpayer money.

Yeah, that's why MCPS should have planned better.

+1 It's not rocket science to add in more than 1 snow day into the calendar. We had the same problem last year, only with even more snow days off this year. Lots of Maryland school districts have 3-4 days in the calendar. Fairfax county does too. Only MCPS fails to plan and then complains that their lack of planning to cost them money.

Adding days doesn’t resolve anything. If snow days aren’t used, will they remove those extra days at the end of the year? Otherwise you need to pay teachers and staff for the extra days worked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Staff is going to expect to be paid if they have to work until June 25.

Don’t even think of goi g there with “well they got paid for the snowcrete days.”

Juneteenth is going to have to be a paid holiday.

This is gonna be expensive.

I don't think they need to pay them any more than previously negotiated. The contract is for a specific number of working days. They did not actually work the snow days.

But we got paid for them. So teachers will not get paid for the make up days.
So if you are a teacher who has summer job starting June 21, which are you going to do…work for free or earn a paycheck? Not a tough decision there.

Right. So you got paid for days you didn’t work. Then you can make up days where you won’t get paid.

That isn't how it works. You'll get over it.

Except it is how works

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My rising senior has a job to start on 6/18 there’s no way she’s missing a week of work. This is going to screw up so many local summer camps who rely on high schoolers to work.

Oh the horror! That's a tragedy compared to students not getting the educational days they're supposed to get. Also, this happened last year, where days in June were tacked on because MCPS didn't plan in enough snow days.

It's not like this is unexpected. I didn't make summer camp plans for my kids for that week because I knew this could happen. There's no reason to book camps by February, for a week that is likely to have makeup days.

Your kids sound young and you sound insufferable. Some programs/camps/jobs only exist with a fixed start date that did not previously conflict with the school calendar, and given that this is the latest the school has been extended in an extremely long time, it was reasonable to book these plans. Many of these programs are already full, and had people waited until the end of snow season, they would have been shut out. MCPS identified 3 perfectly reasonable dates (3/20, 4/15, 6/18) that most people would have assumed they would have used first because those are among the dates they literally picked as options when making the calendar, making it far less likely that they would have boldly chosen to use the later June dates instead.

That's your opinion, and your magical powers of detecting the age of anonymous internet poster's kids aren't that good.

And you sound far more insufferable whining about your HS kid's summer job, when most MCPS kids don't have the money to go to camp, and a lot of smart MCPS parents held off on making plans because we know it snows, and we have experience with what happens last year.

And MCPS never wants to use its makeup days, so this was entirely predictable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My rising senior has a job to start on 6/18 there’s no way she’s missing a week of work. This is going to screw up so many local summer camps who rely on high schoolers to work.

Oh the horror! That's a tragedy compared to students not getting the educational days they're supposed to get. Also, this happened last year, where days in June were tacked on because MCPS didn't plan in enough snow days.

It's not like this is unexpected. I didn't make summer camp plans for my kids for that week because I knew this could happen. There's no reason to book camps by February, for a week that is likely to have makeup days.

Your kids sound young and you sound insufferable. Some programs/camps/jobs only exist with a fixed start date that did not previously conflict with the school calendar, and given that this is the latest the school has been extended in an extremely long time, it was reasonable to book these plans. Many of these programs are already full, and had people waited until the end of snow season, they would have been shut out. MCPS identified 3 perfectly reasonable dates (3/20, 4/15, 6/18) that most people would have assumed they would have used first because those are among the dates they literally picked as options when making the calendar, making it far less likely that they would have boldly chosen to use the later June dates instead.

+1. I assume anyone saying "[t]here's no reason to book camps by February" hasn't actually booked very many camps.

It may come as news to you that not every parent in MoCo can afford camp, and that not all the cheaper/low-cost subsidized ones book up on January 15.

[Anonymous]

Yes and some families count on working during the summer to make ends meet and save for college and have committed to seasonal jobs that begin that week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My rising senior has a job to start on 6/18 there’s no way she’s missing a week of work. This is going to screw up so many local summer camps who rely on high schoolers to work.

Oh the horror! That's a tragedy compared to students not getting the educational days they're supposed to get. Also, this happened last year, where days in June were tacked on because MCPS didn't plan in enough snow days.

It's not like this is unexpected. I didn't make summer camp plans for my kids for that week because I knew this could happen. There's no reason to book camps by February, for a week that is likely to have makeup days.

Your kids sound young and you sound insufferable. Some programs/camps/jobs only exist with a fixed start date that did not previously conflict with the school calendar, and given that this is the latest the school has been extended in an extremely long time, it was reasonable to book these plans. Many of these programs are already full, and had people waited until the end of snow season, they would have been shut out. MCPS identified 3 perfectly reasonable dates (3/20, 4/15, 6/18) that most people would have assumed they would have used first because those are among the dates they literally picked as options when making the calendar, making it far less likely that they would have boldly chosen to use the later June dates instead.

+1. I assume anyone saying "[t]here's no reason to book camps by February" hasn't actually booked very many camps.

It may come as news to you that not every parent in MoCo can afford camp, and that not all the cheaper/low-cost subsidized ones book up on January 15.

A lot of the low cost ones do book up that early though. If you wanted a Parks or Rec Department camp for that week (relatively low cost, financial assistance available), and you waited until now you'd be mostly out of luck. I know, because I book those camps every year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My rising senior has a job to start on 6/18 there’s no way she’s missing a week of work. This is going to screw up so many local summer camps who rely on high schoolers to work.

Oh the horror! That's a tragedy compared to students not getting the educational days they're supposed to get. Also, this happened last year, where days in June were tacked on because MCPS didn't plan in enough snow days.

It's not like this is unexpected. I didn't make summer camp plans for my kids for that week because I knew this could happen. There's no reason to book camps by February, for a week that is likely to have makeup days.

Your kids sound young and you sound insufferable. Some programs/camps/jobs only exist with a fixed start date that did not previously conflict with the school calendar, and given that this is the latest the school has been extended in an extremely long time, it was reasonable to book these plans. Many of these programs are already full, and had people waited until the end of snow season, they would have been shut out. MCPS identified 3 perfectly reasonable dates (3/20, 4/15, 6/18) that most people would have assumed they would have used first because those are among the dates they literally picked as options when making the calendar, making it far less likely that they would have boldly chosen to use the later June dates instead.

+1. I assume anyone saying "[t]here's no reason to book camps by February" hasn't actually booked very many camps.

PP is a jerk, but I do always book refundable camps for my kids for week 1 at this point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My rising senior has a job to start on 6/18 there’s no way she’s missing a week of work. This is going to screw up so many local summer camps who rely on high schoolers to work.

Oh the horror! That's a tragedy compared to students not getting the educational days they're supposed to get. Also, this happened last year, where days in June were tacked on because MCPS didn't plan in enough snow days.

It's not like this is unexpected. I didn't make summer camp plans for my kids for that week because I knew this could happen. There's no reason to book camps by February, for a week that is likely to have makeup days.

Your kids sound young and you sound insufferable. Some programs/camps/jobs only exist with a fixed start date that did not previously conflict with the school calendar, and given that this is the latest the school has been extended in an extremely long time, it was reasonable to book these plans. Many of these programs are already full, and had people waited until the end of snow season, they would have been shut out. MCPS identified 3 perfectly reasonable dates (3/20, 4/15, 6/18) that most people would have assumed they would have used first because those are among the dates they literally picked as options when making the calendar, making it far less likely that they would have boldly chosen to use the later June dates instead.

+1. I assume anyone saying "[t]here's no reason to book camps by February" hasn't actually booked very many camps.

It may come as news to you that not every parent in MoCo can afford camp, and that not all the cheaper/low-cost subsidized ones book up on January 15.

Are you one of those people? Or are you speaking for others instead of letting them speak for themselves and their perspectives again?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes and some families count on working during the summer to make ends meet and save for college and have committed to seasonal jobs that begin that week.

As do some teachers.