The response to MoCo's calendar change shows why the FCPS religious holidays will never go away

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here is a straightforward calendar from a state/metropolitan area with a diverse population https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1756930407/mplsk12mnus/ge5clwh0shgydwvthwbs/SYCalendar-English-2026-27.pdf

Put it out there and if people don’t like it there is always private school, home school, or excused absences.

The people who don’t like it will be the teachers/their advocates who will describe such a calendar as indecent conditions. Look at all the five-day weeks in school.

I think it is terrible because the summer is waaaay too long. Do you really want 3 full months off? That is very bad for most kids.

You are free to register your kid(s) for summer classes if you believe that to be needed.

NP: I’m not worried about my own kids. I do plenty with them over the summer (as a teacher, I have time to do so!) I’m worried about my students who inevitably regress 3-6 months in ability after a summer of YouTube, requiring intense remediation on my end every fall. I’m worried about some of my children’s classmates who fall in the same category, who will need the teacher’s attention to catch up, limiting the focus my own child can get. I’m worried about the overall level of behaviors that are brutal every August/September as the TikTok/youtube/minecraft addiction goes through 8 hours of withdrawals.

Unless you can tell me every child has enriching summer experiences, a long summer isn’t beneficial to society as a whole.

It would be possible for the county to offer programming to families that qualify for the need.

This concern shouldn't be our guiding factor in calendars. We shouldn't have to cater to the lowest denominator.

With what money? They already claim they can't fund what currently exists. There's no way more will be added.

There is zero academic value to a long summer, over 5-6 weeks. The reality is the only reason we have a long summer is the beach lobby (and to a much lesser extent, swim team families). It's not because it's better for the kids' learning.

It’s better for the kids whose summers are spent getting all the things school isn’t providing but is critical to development like outdoor time and language and intensive enrichment. Don’t now start saying you care about the underprivileged kids when you don’t give a fork about them being left home alone on snow days or unfed on TW days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We haven't had a new calendar thread in a few hours, so I thought that I better pick up the slack.

Our sister district across the river is struggling with making up snow days, and they are proposing to use Eid al-Fitr to accomplish that. Obviously, that is rubbing some people the wrong way.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2026/02/15/muslim-holiday-makeup-day-backlash/

Zainab Chaudry, director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations office in Maryland, said Eid al-Fitr should be granted the same respect as Judeo-Christian holidays like Yom Kippur and Easter, which are designated non-instruction days in both school districts. Chaudry said it is unfair to put families in the position of choosing between religious observance and school instruction.

She called on the districts to amend their makeup plans.

“Our holidays are not expendable. Our communities do not get to decide whether or not they want to observe the holiday based on circumstances beyond their control, including the weather,” Chaudry said. “Our communities deserve the same level of dignity and respect as all other communities.”

...

Glass said he has been in contact with members of Maryland’s legislature, and is urging for a change that could prevent religious holidays from being used to make up for lost instructional time.


In other words, the calendar isn't going to change. The only realistic days to remove (based on the 25/26 and 26/27 calendars) are Veterans Day and Presidents Day. The next options are the paired Teacher Workday and Staff Development/School Planning days at the end of each Quarter. It is pointless to advocate for the removal of some or all religious holidays.

Be glad Virginia law is flexible now, your sister district is in a state with a far less flexible law which is why they are dealing with makeup day dilemmas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here is a straightforward calendar from a state/metropolitan area with a diverse population https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1756930407/mplsk12mnus/ge5clwh0shgydwvthwbs/SYCalendar-English-2026-27.pdf

Put it out there and if people don’t like it there is always private school, home school, or excused absences.

The people who don’t like it will be the teachers/their advocates who will describe such a calendar as indecent conditions. Look at all the five-day weeks in school.

I think it is terrible because the summer is waaaay too long. Do you really want 3 full months off? That is very bad for most kids.

You are free to register your kid(s) for summer classes if you believe that to be needed.

NP: I’m not worried about my own kids. I do plenty with them over the summer (as a teacher, I have time to do so!) I’m worried about my students who inevitably regress 3-6 months in ability after a summer of YouTube, requiring intense remediation on my end every fall. I’m worried about some of my children’s classmates who fall in the same category, who will need the teacher’s attention to catch up, limiting the focus my own child can get. I’m worried about the overall level of behaviors that are brutal every August/September as the TikTok/youtube/minecraft addiction goes through 8 hours of withdrawals.

Unless you can tell me every child has enriching summer experiences, a long summer isn’t beneficial to society as a whole.

It would be possible for the county to offer programming to families that qualify for the need.

This concern shouldn't be our guiding factor in calendars. We shouldn't have to cater to the lowest denominator.

With what money? They already claim they can't fund what currently exists. There's no way more will be added.

There is zero academic value to a long summer, over 5-6 weeks. The reality is the only reason we have a long summer is the beach lobby (and to a much lesser extent, swim team families). It's not because it's better for the kids' learning.

It’s better for the kids whose summers are spent getting all the things school isn’t providing but is critical to development like outdoor time and language and intensive enrichment. Don’t now start saying you care about the underprivileged kids when you don’t give a fork about them being left home alone on snow days or unfed on TW days.

My not underprivileged kid gets plenty of outdoor time all school year. But if he didn’t, wouldn’t spreading the outside time throughout the year be better than clustering it all into summer months only?

And I absolutely care about my students being left home alone on snow days and TWD! It’s why I stuff backpacks full of food to send home with kids any time there is snow in the forecast. It’s a lot easier to feed kids 3-5 days at a time than 2 months. A few summers ago I was part of a group of FCPS teachers that set up school sponsored lunch bbqs and brought food, jump ropes, and sidewalk chalk to the low income apartment complexes near my school. We had twice weekly hang outs to chat, play, eat together. The elementary teachers did story time and played games, the secondary teachers touched base with the teens and tried to play social worker and gather needed resources. I haven’t seen info about it lately though, so I assume budget ran out. It was hard to staff with volunteers, harder to fund (I think local churches covered the cost of meals). I think they replaced it with cafeteria meals at the school, but that requires kids to be able to leave and go get them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here is a straightforward calendar from a state/metropolitan area with a diverse population https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1756930407/mplsk12mnus/ge5clwh0shgydwvthwbs/SYCalendar-English-2026-27.pdf

Put it out there and if people don’t like it there is always private school, home school, or excused absences.

The people who don’t like it will be the teachers/their advocates who will describe such a calendar as indecent conditions. Look at all the five-day weeks in school.

I think it is terrible because the summer is waaaay too long. Do you really want 3 full months off? That is very bad for most kids.

You are free to register your kid(s) for summer classes if you believe that to be needed.

NP: I’m not worried about my own kids. I do plenty with them over the summer (as a teacher, I have time to do so!) I’m worried about my students who inevitably regress 3-6 months in ability after a summer of YouTube, requiring intense remediation on my end every fall. I’m worried about some of my children’s classmates who fall in the same category, who will need the teacher’s attention to catch up, limiting the focus my own child can get. I’m worried about the overall level of behaviors that are brutal every August/September as the TikTok/youtube/minecraft addiction goes through 8 hours of withdrawals.

Unless you can tell me every child has enriching summer experiences, a long summer isn’t beneficial to society as a whole.

It would be possible for the county to offer programming to families that qualify for the need.

This concern shouldn't be our guiding factor in calendars. We shouldn't have to cater to the lowest denominator.

With what money? They already claim they can't fund what currently exists. There's no way more will be added.

There is zero academic value to a long summer, over 5-6 weeks. The reality is the only reason we have a long summer is the beach lobby (and to a much lesser extent, swim team families). It's not because it's better for the kids' learning.

Honestly I do think the reason that the school year is so long is because FCPS wants something closer to a year round schedule without the implications of actually doing a year round schedule. Even year-round districts still have 4-6 weeks in the summer (either roughly Memorial Day-July 4th or July 4th-mid August) and FCPS is getting somewhat close to that in our shorter summer calendar years.

But those who do true year round scheduling get the benefit of several 2 week breaks during the year as well which is the whole appeal. In this area we get stuck with de facto year round school because of a short summer necessitated by tons of 1 and 2-day micro breaks all year long. It’s the worst aspects of both types of calendars and none of the benefits.

[Anonymous]

I have zero desire for an even shorter summer. It is only about two months. For kids that do fall sports or band (ignoring summer swim even) it is about 6 weeks before they have to report in Aug. And my kid’s sport starts Green Day practices in July. The need time to just be kids and do stuff you cannot easily do during the year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here is a straightforward calendar from a state/metropolitan area with a diverse population https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1756930407/mplsk12mnus/ge5clwh0shgydwvthwbs/SYCalendar-English-2026-27.pdf

Put it out there and if people don’t like it there is always private school, home school, or excused absences.

The people who don’t like it will be the teachers/their advocates who will describe such a calendar as indecent conditions. Look at all the five-day weeks in school.

I think it is terrible because the summer is waaaay too long. Do you really want 3 full months off? That is very bad for most kids.

You are free to register your kid(s) for summer classes if you believe that to be needed.

NP: I’m not worried about my own kids. I do plenty with them over the summer (as a teacher, I have time to do so!) I’m worried about my students who inevitably regress 3-6 months in ability after a summer of YouTube, requiring intense remediation on my end every fall. I’m worried about some of my children’s classmates who fall in the same category, who will need the teacher’s attention to catch up, limiting the focus my own child can get. I’m worried about the overall level of behaviors that are brutal every August/September as the TikTok/youtube/minecraft addiction goes through 8 hours of withdrawals.

Unless you can tell me every child has enriching summer experiences, a long summer isn’t beneficial to society as a whole.

It would be possible for the county to offer programming to families that qualify for the need.

This concern shouldn't be our guiding factor in calendars. We shouldn't have to cater to the lowest denominator.

With what money? They already claim they can't fund what currently exists. There's no way more will be added.

There is zero academic value to a long summer, over 5-6 weeks. The reality is the only reason we have a long summer is the beach lobby (and to a much lesser extent, swim team families). It's not because it's better for the kids' learning.

It’s better for the kids whose summers are spent getting all the things school isn’t providing but is critical to development like outdoor time and language and intensive enrichment. Don’t now start saying you care about the underprivileged kids when you don’t give a fork about them being left home alone on snow days or unfed on TW days.

My not underprivileged kid gets plenty of outdoor time all school year. But if he didn’t, wouldn’t spreading the outside time throughout the year be better than clustering it all into summer months only?

And I absolutely care about my students being left home alone on snow days and TWD! It’s why I stuff backpacks full of food to send home with kids any time there is snow in the forecast. It’s a lot easier to feed kids 3-5 days at a time than 2 months. A few summers ago I was part of a group of FCPS teachers that set up school sponsored lunch bbqs and brought food, jump ropes, and sidewalk chalk to the low income apartment complexes near my school. We had twice weekly hang outs to chat, play, eat together. The elementary teachers did story time and played games, the secondary teachers touched base with the teens and tried to play social worker and gather needed resources. I haven’t seen info about it lately though, so I assume budget ran out. It was hard to staff with volunteers, harder to fund (I think local churches covered the cost of meals). I think they replaced it with cafeteria meals at the school, but that requires kids to be able to leave and go get them.

Great does your not-underprivileged kid also get lots of language immersion, international travel, single-subject advanced enrichment and sports? If they do please share the unicorn FCPS school they attend.


Instead of your “I sent home
Food!” point me to the links of the teachers collective bargaining unit advocating for schools to stay open to support all students not just a few. Backpacks of food do nothing to supervise children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here is a straightforward calendar from a state/metropolitan area with a diverse population https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1756930407/mplsk12mnus/ge5clwh0shgydwvthwbs/SYCalendar-English-2026-27.pdf

Put it out there and if people don’t like it there is always private school, home school, or excused absences.

The people who don’t like it will be the teachers/their advocates who will describe such a calendar as indecent conditions. Look at all the five-day weeks in school.

I think it is terrible because the summer is waaaay too long. Do you really want 3 full months off? That is very bad for most kids.

You are free to register your kid(s) for summer classes if you believe that to be needed.

NP: I’m not worried about my own kids. I do plenty with them over the summer (as a teacher, I have time to do so!) I’m worried about my students who inevitably regress 3-6 months in ability after a summer of YouTube, requiring intense remediation on my end every fall. I’m worried about some of my children’s classmates who fall in the same category, who will need the teacher’s attention to catch up, limiting the focus my own child can get. I’m worried about the overall level of behaviors that are brutal every August/September as the TikTok/youtube/minecraft addiction goes through 8 hours of withdrawals.

Unless you can tell me every child has enriching summer experiences, a long summer isn’t beneficial to society as a whole.

It would be possible for the county to offer programming to families that qualify for the need.

This concern shouldn't be our guiding factor in calendars. We shouldn't have to cater to the lowest denominator.

With what money? They already claim they can't fund what currently exists. There's no way more will be added.

There is zero academic value to a long summer, over 5-6 weeks. The reality is the only reason we have a long summer is the beach lobby (and to a much lesser extent, swim team families). It's not because it's better for the kids' learning.

It’s better for the kids whose summers are spent getting all the things school isn’t providing but is critical to development like outdoor time and language and intensive enrichment. Don’t now start saying you care about the underprivileged kids when you don’t give a fork about them being left home alone on snow days or unfed on TW days.

My not underprivileged kid gets plenty of outdoor time all school year. But if he didn’t, wouldn’t spreading the outside time throughout the year be better than clustering it all into summer months only?

And I absolutely care about my students being left home alone on snow days and TWD! It’s why I stuff backpacks full of food to send home with kids any time there is snow in the forecast. It’s a lot easier to feed kids 3-5 days at a time than 2 months. A few summers ago I was part of a group of FCPS teachers that set up school sponsored lunch bbqs and brought food, jump ropes, and sidewalk chalk to the low income apartment complexes near my school. We had twice weekly hang outs to chat, play, eat together. The elementary teachers did story time and played games, the secondary teachers touched base with the teens and tried to play social worker and gather needed resources. I haven’t seen info about it lately though, so I assume budget ran out. It was hard to staff with volunteers, harder to fund (I think local churches covered the cost of meals). I think they replaced it with cafeteria meals at the school, but that requires kids to be able to leave and go get them.

Great does your not-underprivileged kid also get lots of language immersion, international travel, single-subject advanced enrichment and sports? If they do please share the unicorn FCPS school they attend.


Instead of your “I sent home
Food!” point me to the links of the teachers collective bargaining unit advocating for schools to stay open to support all students not just a few. Backpacks of food do nothing to supervise children.

Teacher bargaining units cannot bargain for schools to stay open in unsafe travel conditions like snow/ice days. Be soooo for real.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have zero desire for an even shorter summer. It is only about two months. For kids that do fall sports or band (ignoring summer swim even) it is about 6 weeks before they have to report in Aug. And my kid’s sport starts Green Day practices in July. The need time to just be kids and do stuff you cannot easily do during the year.

No one wants year round school or a short, 2 month summer

[Anonymous]

It is generally easier to arrange for longer term childcare (summer) than two or three weeks here and there.

Also, as a teacher, the learning curve after longer breaks is harder to adjust. The summer break is accustomed and the kids have a new teacher(s).

Consistency counts. That's why closures are hard to deal with. Naturally, we needed closures for weather this month--but four day weeks and half days, etc, are disruptive. That includes teacher work days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have zero desire for an even shorter summer. It is only about two months. For kids that do fall sports or band (ignoring summer swim even) it is about 6 weeks before they have to report in Aug. And my kid’s sport starts Green Day practices in July. The need time to just be kids and do stuff you cannot easily do during the year.

No one wants year round school or a short, 2 month summer

I do! I would love the 9-week on, 3-week off schedule with a 5/6 week summer. That would be so awesome.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have zero desire for an even shorter summer. It is only about two months. For kids that do fall sports or band (ignoring summer swim even) it is about 6 weeks before they have to report in Aug. And my kid’s sport starts Green Day practices in July. The need time to just be kids and do stuff you cannot easily do during the year.

No one wants year round school or a short, 2 month summer

Some people do want year round school. Two weeks off after quarters would be amazing for travel and there would be enough time in summer to take good trips and do camps. The people who seem to oppose year round school are parents that are devoted to summer swim and feel like they need 8 weeks of travel. Most families cannot afford that type of travel and don't participate in summer swim but the families that do scream loudly.

[Anonymous]

There’s a significant Ethiopian community in dc. Why isn’t Orthodox Christmas (January 7) a holiday for them?

[Anonymous]

The snow days should be virtual days at this point. A week without school over a snowstorm is ridiculous in 2026

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here is a straightforward calendar from a state/metropolitan area with a diverse population https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1756930407/mplsk12mnus/ge5clwh0shgydwvthwbs/SYCalendar-English-2026-27.pdf

Put it out there and if people don’t like it there is always private school, home school, or excused absences.

Oh look, this year Minneapolis is also closed Monday/Tuesday for Presidents Day weekend and is giving 3 days off for Memorial Day due to Eid.

https://www.centerschool.org/about/mps-calendar-2025-2026

I'm a native Minnesotan and for whatever reason, we always had one of the lowest number of school days required. Started after Labor Day, ended the first week of June. Looks like only Colorado is lower

I’m a native New Yorker. school always started Tuesday after labor day and we ended school the Friday before Father’s Day. There was never any change. Parents loved this so they knew when to plan vacations annually. The dates for first and last day of school never changed. We rarely had more than 2 snow days in a row off

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The snow days should be virtual days at this point. A week without school over a snowstorm is ridiculous in 2026

We would have been absent. Virtual school is a waste of time unless you are enrolled in a dedicated virtual program that is established for that type of learning. The COVID year was a complete waste, and my kid attended every day. The math was so bad that we started RSM and found competition math. DS loved it and still participates in math competitions but he was learning nothing in math during COVID.