Superintendent's Calendar Recommendation for 2026-27

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have zero complaints with this schedule. It works well and should be the plan for future years as well

This is sarcasm, right?

Nope. I like this schedule as a MCPS teacher and a parent of a MCPS student. Zero complaints.

You realize it creates a mess every year because we don't have proper make up days, don't you?

DP, they would need to add more random days off to do that. People don't like random days off. I personally am fine with it now because my kid can just go to childcare, but it would be a burden for many.

They really should go back to scheduling 184 days of school from the start. Then if there are more than 3 days when school is closed because of weather, they can get a waiver, nbd. But the union would push back against that. It's crazy that they just reduced instructional days over the last several years, now it will be hard to get them back.

This. Somehow McPS has gone from scheduling 184 days of instruction to 181 in the last few years. it’s not surprising that since they don’t actually plan for snow days that this year our kids only got 177 days.

It shows that McPS priorities are on keeping the union happy and not on teaching kids. Massachusetts requires that schools schedule 185 days so they can make sure that kids get at least 180 given the snow days there.

This isn't about keeping the union happy. It's about keeping minority religious groups happy. If we would abide by our own policy that dictates that school closures only relate to operational concerns, we wouldn't have this problem.

What utter BS. Minority religious groups are not the ones insisting that we only need 181 days of instructional time when we used to have 184. This is all the union.

BS. Minority religious groups freaked out when Eid was threatened this year. They got the county council involved. Teachers don't want random days off-they'd rather get out of school earlier. Stop acting like you know anything and per usual, just placing undue blame on teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have zero complaints with this schedule. It works well and should be the plan for future years as well

This is sarcasm, right?

Nope. I like this schedule as a MCPS teacher and a parent of a MCPS student. Zero complaints.

You realize it creates a mess every year because we don't have proper make up days, don't you?

DP, they would need to add more random days off to do that. People don't like random days off. I personally am fine with it now because my kid can just go to childcare, but it would be a burden for many.

They really should go back to scheduling 184 days of school from the start. Then if there are more than 3 days when school is closed because of weather, they can get a waiver, nbd. But the union would push back against that. It's crazy that they just reduced instructional days over the last several years, now it will be hard to get them back.

This. Somehow McPS has gone from scheduling 184 days of instruction to 181 in the last few years. it’s not surprising that since they don’t actually plan for snow days that this year our kids only got 177 days.

It shows that McPS priorities are on keeping the union happy and not on teaching kids. Massachusetts requires that schools schedule 185 days so they can make sure that kids get at least 180 given the snow days there.

This isn't about keeping the union happy. It's about keeping minority religious groups happy. If we would abide by our own policy that dictates that school closures only relate to operational concerns, we wouldn't have this problem.

What utter BS. Minority religious groups are not the ones insisting that we only need 181 days of instructional time when we used to have 184. This is all the union.

BS. Minority religious groups freaked out when Eid was threatened this year. They got the county council involved. Teachers don't want random days off-they'd rather get out of school earlier. Stop acting like you know anything and per usual, just placing undue blame on teachers.

They really should go back to scheduling 184 days of school from the start. Then if there are more than 3 days when school is closed because of weather, they can get a waiver, nbd. But the union would push back against that. It's crazy that they just reduced instructional days over the last several years, now it will be hard to get them back

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Was it all a fake-out? If this had been the original recommendation there probably would have been a lot of grumbling about day before Thanksgiving or maybe something else.

Was the 1st recommendation just to make us see this as vastly superior, or am I giving him too much credit?

I think he was trying to get the union to negotiate on the grading and planning days, and it didn't work.

Seems that way. It’s a stupid calendar because McPS has no intention of using the Passover and Eid teacher non instructional days as makeup days and if there is more than one snow day (which there probably will be) we’ll soon be back at the situation where McPS has to ask for a waiver again to approve them not providing 180 days of school to our kids.

They made Passover a day off as too many teacher appropriately took off. Why not remove a Christian holiday?

The only actual Christian holiday on the calendar is Christmas. There is a 0.0% chance any school district anywhere in this country will plan for schools to be open on Christmas Eve or Christmas. Neither Good Friday nor Easter Monday are a Christian holiday, but those are days off because Maryland state law requires it. As a Christian I would have no issue with them changing that law, but MCPS can’t unilaterally do anything with those days.

I wouldn't care if they made it a school day, but it's completely bizarre to claim that Good Friday is not a Christian holiday.

I went to Catholic school from K-12 and we went to school on Good Friday. We went to mass during the day but we were in school.

I am Catholic and from a very religious family. We all went to school (public school) on Good Friday, although we may have left a bit early. Services are at 3 or 3:30, because Our Lord died in the late afternoon. It's not a full day religious holiday. And it's not even a Holy Day of Obligation (although my Mom certainly strongly implied that it was!). We also went to Mass on Holy Thursday, but that's always in the evening, because it's the Last Supper, hence at Supper time.
Orthodox people may celebrate it as a full day event, but Orthodox usually have a different Easter, so it's not really relevant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Back in the 90s mcps had 5 built in extra days. [/quote

Correct. We also did not have all of the religious holidays we've added in recent years:
Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur (we may have had those)
Diwali - new
Lunar New Year
Eid (two separate days)
Passover

I realize we don't always have ALL of these days in a single year (depending on whether they fall on a weekend), but that is a total of seven added holidays.
In addition, there are two full teacher professional days (one in fall and one in spring) that have been added - I think they might be required by MD Blueprint? - they are definitely state mandated because 1/2 of the training on each of those days is mandated the state.

So that would be a total of nine days.
Then we added Transition Day, which automatically cut down on one school day (we had 182 days prior to last year when we started that).
So, you can see that if we returned to basing school closures only on operations (rather than religion), we could easily return to a 184 day school year.
Without Transition Day, we'd only be looking at 2-3 more days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Was it all a fake-out? If this had been the original recommendation there probably would have been a lot of grumbling about day before Thanksgiving or maybe something else.

Was the 1st recommendation just to make us see this as vastly superior, or am I giving him too much credit?

I think he was trying to get the union to negotiate on the grading and planning days, and it didn't work.

Seems that way. It’s a stupid calendar because McPS has no intention of using the Passover and Eid teacher non instructional days as makeup days and if there is more than one snow day (which there probably will be) we’ll soon be back at the situation where McPS has to ask for a waiver again to approve them not providing 180 days of school to our kids.

They made Passover a day off as too many teacher appropriately took off. Why not remove a Christian holiday?

The only actual Christian holiday on the calendar is Christmas. There is a 0.0% chance any school district anywhere in this country will plan for schools to be open on Christmas Eve or Christmas. Neither Good Friday nor Easter Monday are a Christian holiday, but those are days off because Maryland state law requires it. As a Christian I would have no issue with them changing that law, but MCPS can’t unilaterally do anything with those days.

I wouldn't care if they made it a school day, but it's completely bizarre to claim that Good Friday is not a Christian holiday.

I went to Catholic school from K-12 and we went to school on Good Friday. We went to mass during the day but we were in school.

I am Catholic and from a very religious family. We all went to school (public school) on Good Friday, although we may have left a bit early. Services are at 3 or 3:30, because Our Lord died in the late afternoon. It's not a full day religious holiday. And it's not even a Holy Day of Obligation (although my Mom certainly strongly implied that it was!). We also went to Mass on Holy Thursday, but that's always in the evening, because it's the Last Supper, hence at Supper time.
Orthodox people may celebrate it as a full day event, but Orthodox usually have a different Easter, so it's not really relevant.

It wouldn't make sense for Good Friday to be a Holy Day of Obligation, because Holy Days of Obligation are days on which Catholics are required to attend mass, and there's no mass on Good Friday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Was it all a fake-out? If this had been the original recommendation there probably would have been a lot of grumbling about day before Thanksgiving or maybe something else.

Was the 1st recommendation just to make us see this as vastly superior, or am I giving him too much credit?

I think he was trying to get the union to negotiate on the grading and planning days, and it didn't work.

Seems that way. It’s a stupid calendar because McPS has no intention of using the Passover and Eid teacher non instructional days as makeup days and if there is more than one snow day (which there probably will be) we’ll soon be back at the situation where McPS has to ask for a waiver again to approve them not providing 180 days of school to our kids.

They made Passover a day off as too many teacher appropriately took off. Why not remove a Christian holiday?

The only actual Christian holiday on the calendar is Christmas. There is a 0.0% chance any school district anywhere in this country will plan for schools to be open on Christmas Eve or Christmas. Neither Good Friday nor Easter Monday are a Christian holiday, but those are days off because Maryland state law requires it. As a Christian I would have no issue with them changing that law, but MCPS can’t unilaterally do anything with those days.

I wouldn't care if they made it a school day, but it's completely bizarre to claim that Good Friday is not a Christian holiday.

+1

Also it is a little disingenuous to imply that Christmas only counts as one day. Are there any schools districts! that have off the 25th and no other days? Come on, the entire winter break is designed around Christmas. New Year's Day, while mostly understood as secular, originated from Roman practices and is culturally Christian (fwiw Jan 1 is also a holy day of obligation in the Catholic Church). No US school district would so much as contemplate having school on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day. And that's fine and not a bad thing but let's not pretend the structure of school calendars isn't mostly intended to cater to the traditions of Christian people.

So you think that Christmas/Christmas Eve and New Years Day should be the make-up day options? This is the type of exhausting virtue signaling that led to the calendar we currently have where kids are in school through mid-June and there is only 1 day built into the calendar for snow days even though we routinely have 5+ snow days a year.

Why not?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In the Marine Corps we got 4 days off for Christmas and then 4 days off for New Years and the 3 days in between were considered regular work days. Something similar could work for schools but it wouldn't be popular

My spouse is Air Force and they never got that off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dec 23 isn't christmas eve.

It is not. I care more about the day before Thanksgiving. I know everyone has their own preferences, but bringing back the half day before Thanksgiving is just adding in hours for the sake of school hours. Teachers who don't take leave are exhausted from parent conferences. Meaningful instruction does not happen. 50-60% of students do not attend, depending on the grade - a lot are already traveling or do not bother. It is more beneficial to have the day. The holiday is one of the most celebrated because there is no religious significance. It makes more sense to allow families, students and staff to have that time than to have some of the other proposals.

The same is true for the 23rd.

This calendar is not about meaningful instruction. It's about putting in the minimum needed to be able to apply for a waiver.

I don't feel that Dec. 23rd is as important as the day before Thanksgiving, but by making Dec. 23rd a half day, it is definitely not about instruction. A full day on Dec. 23rd would be more meaningful.

December 23rd is pointless too but a half pointless day is better than a full pointless day. Many schools around the country (practically all states south or west of Maryland) have TWO FULL weeks off! The issue is that Maryland requires 180 separate calendar days even if some are lost to weather. If they only required 176 they could have the day before Thanksgiving, two week winter break and the same rest of schedule.

If they only required 176 MCPS would happily provide 170 and get a waiver for the other 6 days. Then we are down two weeks of instruction. At that point I have to ask the question, at what point does losing instructional days not matter? I assume you think 3 days is fine. What about 5 or 10?

In that case they would have lost 4-6 days of instruction not 10. The day before Thanksgiving and December 21-23 maybe called instructional days but there is nothing getting done. Just a bunch of people out and others looking forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas (even non Christians who enjoy the holiday season). So school being closed December 21-January 1 would not lose any instruction it's the law to be open 180 days regardless of weather that causes that. School being closed the day before Thanksgiving makes complete sense too and some places even take that entire week off despite it being less than a month before the next break.

As a non-Christian, we do not celebrate Christmas. You may tell yourself we do, but we don't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have zero complaints with this schedule. It works well and should be the plan for future years as well

This is sarcasm, right?

Nope. I like this schedule as a MCPS teacher and a parent of a MCPS student. Zero complaints.

You realize it creates a mess every year because we don't have proper make up days, don't you?

DP, they would need to add more random days off to do that. People don't like random days off. I personally am fine with it now because my kid can just go to childcare, but it would be a burden for many.

They really should go back to scheduling 184 days of school from the start. Then if there are more than 3 days when school is closed because of weather, they can get a waiver, nbd. But the union would push back against that. It's crazy that they just reduced instructional days over the last several years, now it will be hard to get them back.

This. Somehow McPS has gone from scheduling 184 days of instruction to 181 in the last few years. it’s not surprising that since they don’t actually plan for snow days that this year our kids only got 177 days.

It shows that McPS priorities are on keeping the union happy and not on teaching kids. Massachusetts requires that schools schedule 185 days so they can make sure that kids get at least 180 given the snow days there.

This isn't about keeping the union happy. It's about keeping minority religious groups happy. If we would abide by our own policy that dictates that school closures only relate to operational concerns, we wouldn't have this problem.

What utter BS. Minority religious groups are not the ones insisting that we only need 181 days of instructional time when we used to have 184. This is all the union.

We gave Jewish holidays because many teachers were requesting time off and we didn't have enough substitutes. It wasn't out of kindness.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Was it all a fake-out? If this had been the original recommendation there probably would have been a lot of grumbling about day before Thanksgiving or maybe something else.

Was the 1st recommendation just to make us see this as vastly superior, or am I giving him too much credit?

I think he was trying to get the union to negotiate on the grading and planning days, and it didn't work.

Seems that way. It’s a stupid calendar because McPS has no intention of using the Passover and Eid teacher non instructional days as makeup days and if there is more than one snow day (which there probably will be) we’ll soon be back at the situation where McPS has to ask for a waiver again to approve them not providing 180 days of school to our kids.

They made Passover a day off as too many teacher appropriately took off. Why not remove a Christian holiday?

The only actual Christian holiday on the calendar is Christmas. There is a 0.0% chance any school district anywhere in this country will plan for schools to be open on Christmas Eve or Christmas. Neither Good Friday nor Easter Monday are a Christian holiday, but those are days off because Maryland state law requires it. As a Christian I would have no issue with them changing that law, but MCPS can’t unilaterally do anything with those days.

I wouldn't care if they made it a school day, but it's completely bizarre to claim that Good Friday is not a Christian holiday.

+1

Also it is a little disingenuous to imply that Christmas only counts as one day. Are there any schools districts! that have off the 25th and no other days? Come on, the entire winter break is designed around Christmas. New Year's Day, while mostly understood as secular, originated from Roman practices and is culturally Christian (fwiw Jan 1 is also a holy day of obligation in the Catholic Church). No US school district would so much as contemplate having school on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day. And that's fine and not a bad thing but let's not pretend the structure of school calendars isn't mostly intended to cater to the traditions of Christian people.

So you think that Christmas/Christmas Eve and New Years Day should be the make-up day options? This is the type of exhausting virtue signaling that led to the calendar we currently have where kids are in school through mid-June and there is only 1 day built into the calendar for snow days even though we routinely have 5+ snow days a year.

Why not?

I am the PP that the above PP was responding to (though they didn't seem to actually read what I said). I said, "No US school district would so much as contemplate having school on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day. And that's fine and not a bad thing" Same applies to Christmas Day. To answer your obvious question, operating schools on those days would be pointless given the massive staff and student absences that would occur. Christmas Eve as well, especially since Christmas Eve is the main celebration day for many Latinos.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Was it all a fake-out? If this had been the original recommendation there probably would have been a lot of grumbling about day before Thanksgiving or maybe something else.

Was the 1st recommendation just to make us see this as vastly superior, or am I giving him too much credit?

I think he was trying to get the union to negotiate on the grading and planning days, and it didn't work.

Seems that way. It’s a stupid calendar because McPS has no intention of using the Passover and Eid teacher non instructional days as makeup days and if there is more than one snow day (which there probably will be) we’ll soon be back at the situation where McPS has to ask for a waiver again to approve them not providing 180 days of school to our kids.

They made Passover a day off as too many teacher appropriately took off. Why not remove a Christian holiday?

The only actual Christian holiday on the calendar is Christmas. There is a 0.0% chance any school district anywhere in this country will plan for schools to be open on Christmas Eve or Christmas. Neither Good Friday nor Easter Monday are a Christian holiday, but those are days off because Maryland state law requires it. As a Christian I would have no issue with them changing that law, but MCPS can’t unilaterally do anything with those days.

I wouldn't care if they made it a school day, but it's completely bizarre to claim that Good Friday is not a Christian holiday.

+1

Also it is a little disingenuous to imply that Christmas only counts as one day. Are there any schools districts! that have off the 25th and no other days? Come on, the entire winter break is designed around Christmas. New Year's Day, while mostly understood as secular, originated from Roman practices and is culturally Christian (fwiw Jan 1 is also a holy day of obligation in the Catholic Church). No US school district would so much as contemplate having school on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day. And that's fine and not a bad thing but let's not pretend the structure of school calendars isn't mostly intended to cater to the traditions of Christian people.

So you think that Christmas/Christmas Eve and New Years Day should be the make-up day options? This is the type of exhausting virtue signaling that led to the calendar we currently have where kids are in school through mid-June and there is only 1 day built into the calendar for snow days even though we routinely have 5+ snow days a year.

Why not?

Sure, seems like a great idea to use days in the middle of winter break where the vast majority of students and teachers wouldn’t attend as make up days. Equity, amirite?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Was it all a fake-out? If this had been the original recommendation there probably would have been a lot of grumbling about day before Thanksgiving or maybe something else.

Was the 1st recommendation just to make us see this as vastly superior, or am I giving him too much credit?

I think he was trying to get the union to negotiate on the grading and planning days, and it didn't work.

Seems that way. It’s a stupid calendar because McPS has no intention of using the Passover and Eid teacher non instructional days as makeup days and if there is more than one snow day (which there probably will be) we’ll soon be back at the situation where McPS has to ask for a waiver again to approve them not providing 180 days of school to our kids.

They made Passover a day off as too many teacher appropriately took off. Why not remove a Christian holiday?

The only actual Christian holiday on the calendar is Christmas. There is a 0.0% chance any school district anywhere in this country will plan for schools to be open on Christmas Eve or Christmas. Neither Good Friday nor Easter Monday are a Christian holiday, but those are days off because Maryland state law requires it. As a Christian I would have no issue with them changing that law, but MCPS can’t unilaterally do anything with those days.

I wouldn't care if they made it a school day, but it's completely bizarre to claim that Good Friday is not a Christian holiday.

+1

Also it is a little disingenuous to imply that Christmas only counts as one day. Are there any schools districts! that have off the 25th and no other days? Come on, the entire winter break is designed around Christmas. New Year's Day, while mostly understood as secular, originated from Roman practices and is culturally Christian (fwiw Jan 1 is also a holy day of obligation in the Catholic Church). No US school district would so much as contemplate having school on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day. And that's fine and not a bad thing but let's not pretend the structure of school calendars isn't mostly intended to cater to the traditions of Christian people.

So you think that Christmas/Christmas Eve and New Years Day should be the make-up day options? This is the type of exhausting virtue signaling that led to the calendar we currently have where kids are in school through mid-June and there is only 1 day built into the calendar for snow days even though we routinely have 5+ snow days a year.

Why not?

I am the PP that the above PP was responding to (though they didn't seem to actually read what I said). I said, "No US school district would so much as contemplate having school on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day. And that's fine and not a bad thing" Same applies to Christmas Day. To answer your obvious question, operating schools on those days would be pointless given the massive staff and student absences that would occur. Christmas Eve as well, especially since Christmas Eve is the main celebration day for many Latinos.

So, basically, you are justifying why MCPS/Taylor/BOE have MCPS as a Christian based school system.... not surprising given the number of hate crimes that go unaddressed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Was it all a fake-out? If this had been the original recommendation there probably would have been a lot of grumbling about day before Thanksgiving or maybe something else.

Was the 1st recommendation just to make us see this as vastly superior, or am I giving him too much credit?

I think he was trying to get the union to negotiate on the grading and planning days, and it didn't work.

Seems that way. It’s a stupid calendar because McPS has no intention of using the Passover and Eid teacher non instructional days as makeup days and if there is more than one snow day (which there probably will be) we’ll soon be back at the situation where McPS has to ask for a waiver again to approve them not providing 180 days of school to our kids.

They made Passover a day off as too many teacher appropriately took off. Why not remove a Christian holiday?

The only actual Christian holiday on the calendar is Christmas. There is a 0.0% chance any school district anywhere in this country will plan for schools to be open on Christmas Eve or Christmas. Neither Good Friday nor Easter Monday are a Christian holiday, but those are days off because Maryland state law requires it. As a Christian I would have no issue with them changing that law, but MCPS can’t unilaterally do anything with those days.

I wouldn't care if they made it a school day, but it's completely bizarre to claim that Good Friday is not a Christian holiday.

+1

Also it is a little disingenuous to imply that Christmas only counts as one day. Are there any schools districts! that have off the 25th and no other days? Come on, the entire winter break is designed around Christmas. New Year's Day, while mostly understood as secular, originated from Roman practices and is culturally Christian (fwiw Jan 1 is also a holy day of obligation in the Catholic Church). No US school district would so much as contemplate having school on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day. And that's fine and not a bad thing but let's not pretend the structure of school calendars isn't mostly intended to cater to the traditions of Christian people.

So you think that Christmas/Christmas Eve and New Years Day should be the make-up day options? This is the type of exhausting virtue signaling that led to the calendar we currently have where kids are in school through mid-June and there is only 1 day built into the calendar for snow days even though we routinely have 5+ snow days a year.

Why not?

I am the PP that the above PP was responding to (though they didn't seem to actually read what I said). I said, "No US school district would so much as contemplate having school on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day. And that's fine and not a bad thing" Same applies to Christmas Day. To answer your obvious question, operating schools on those days would be pointless given the massive staff and student absences that would occur. Christmas Eve as well, especially since Christmas Eve is the main celebration day for many Latinos.

So, basically, you are justifying why MCPS/Taylor/BOE have MCPS as a Christian based school system.... not surprising given the number of hate crimes that go unaddressed.

Are you suggesting not having school on days when at least half of staff and students wouldn't show up is causing hate crimes? Or does it just prevent them from addressing hate crimes?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Was it all a fake-out? If this had been the original recommendation there probably would have been a lot of grumbling about day before Thanksgiving or maybe something else.

Was the 1st recommendation just to make us see this as vastly superior, or am I giving him too much credit?

I think he was trying to get the union to negotiate on the grading and planning days, and it didn't work.

Seems that way. It’s a stupid calendar because McPS has no intention of using the Passover and Eid teacher non instructional days as makeup days and if there is more than one snow day (which there probably will be) we’ll soon be back at the situation where McPS has to ask for a waiver again to approve them not providing 180 days of school to our kids.

They made Passover a day off as too many teacher appropriately took off. Why not remove a Christian holiday?

The only actual Christian holiday on the calendar is Christmas. There is a 0.0% chance any school district anywhere in this country will plan for schools to be open on Christmas Eve or Christmas. Neither Good Friday nor Easter Monday are a Christian holiday, but those are days off because Maryland state law requires it. As a Christian I would have no issue with them changing that law, but MCPS can’t unilaterally do anything with those days.

I wouldn't care if they made it a school day, but it's completely bizarre to claim that Good Friday is not a Christian holiday.

+1

Also it is a little disingenuous to imply that Christmas only counts as one day. Are there any schools districts! that have off the 25th and no other days? Come on, the entire winter break is designed around Christmas. New Year's Day, while mostly understood as secular, originated from Roman practices and is culturally Christian (fwiw Jan 1 is also a holy day of obligation in the Catholic Church). No US school district would so much as contemplate having school on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day. And that's fine and not a bad thing but let's not pretend the structure of school calendars isn't mostly intended to cater to the traditions of Christian people.

So you think that Christmas/Christmas Eve and New Years Day should be the make-up day options? This is the type of exhausting virtue signaling that led to the calendar we currently have where kids are in school through mid-June and there is only 1 day built into the calendar for snow days even though we routinely have 5+ snow days a year.

Why not?

I am the PP that the above PP was responding to (though they didn't seem to actually read what I said). I said, "No US school district would so much as contemplate having school on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day. And that's fine and not a bad thing" Same applies to Christmas Day. To answer your obvious question, operating schools on those days would be pointless given the massive staff and student absences that would occur. Christmas Eve as well, especially since Christmas Eve is the main celebration day for many Latinos.

So, basically, you are justifying why MCPS/Taylor/BOE have MCPS as a Christian based school system.... not surprising given the number of hate crimes that go unaddressed.

New Year’s Day is not a Christian holiday. It may be a day of obligation for Catholics, but that has no bearing on the school calendar. There are plenty of days of obligation where school is still in session. You’re literally only talking about Christmas Eve/Day, which at this point are built into winter break. So are you suggesting that winter break be moved to different weeks to make your point? Good Friday and Easter Monday are days that state law mandates schools are closed, and MCPS is not responsible for that. There are also plenty of Christians that have no issue with that law being changed, but as of now it’s still on the books.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Was it all a fake-out? If this had been the original recommendation there probably would have been a lot of grumbling about day before Thanksgiving or maybe something else.

Was the 1st recommendation just to make us see this as vastly superior, or am I giving him too much credit?

I think he was trying to get the union to negotiate on the grading and planning days, and it didn't work.

Seems that way. It’s a stupid calendar because McPS has no intention of using the Passover and Eid teacher non instructional days as makeup days and if there is more than one snow day (which there probably will be) we’ll soon be back at the situation where McPS has to ask for a waiver again to approve them not providing 180 days of school to our kids.

They made Passover a day off as too many teacher appropriately took off. Why not remove a Christian holiday?

The only actual Christian holiday on the calendar is Christmas. There is a 0.0% chance any school district anywhere in this country will plan for schools to be open on Christmas Eve or Christmas. Neither Good Friday nor Easter Monday are a Christian holiday, but those are days off because Maryland state law requires it. As a Christian I would have no issue with them changing that law, but MCPS can’t unilaterally do anything with those days.

I wouldn't care if they made it a school day, but it's completely bizarre to claim that Good Friday is not a Christian holiday.

+1

Also it is a little disingenuous to imply that Christmas only counts as one day. Are there any schools districts! that have off the 25th and no other days? Come on, the entire winter break is designed around Christmas. New Year's Day, while mostly understood as secular, originated from Roman practices and is culturally Christian (fwiw Jan 1 is also a holy day of obligation in the Catholic Church). No US school district would so much as contemplate having school on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day. And that's fine and not a bad thing but let's not pretend the structure of school calendars isn't mostly intended to cater to the traditions of Christian people.

So you think that Christmas/Christmas Eve and New Years Day should be the make-up day options? This is the type of exhausting virtue signaling that led to the calendar we currently have where kids are in school through mid-June and there is only 1 day built into the calendar for snow days even though we routinely have 5+ snow days a year.

Why not?

I am the PP that the above PP was responding to (though they didn't seem to actually read what I said). I said, "No US school district would so much as contemplate having school on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day. And that's fine and not a bad thing" Same applies to Christmas Day. To answer your obvious question, operating schools on those days would be pointless given the massive staff and student absences that would occur. Christmas Eve as well, especially since Christmas Eve is the main celebration day for many Latinos.

So, basically, you are justifying why MCPS/Taylor/BOE have MCPS as a Christian based school system.... not surprising given the number of hate crimes that go unaddressed.

New Year’s Day is not a Christian holiday. It may be a day of obligation for Catholics, but that has no bearing on the school calendar. There are plenty of days of obligation where school is still in session. You’re literally only talking about Christmas Eve/Day, which at this point are built into winter break. So are you suggesting that winter break be moved to different weeks to make your point? Good Friday and Easter Monday are days that state law mandates schools are closed, and MCPS is not responsible for that. There are also plenty of Christians that have no issue with that law being changed, but as of now it’s still on the books.

Nobody has suggested this. It's interesting though how triggering it is for some of you to read about the ways in which our calendar is structured around Christian traditions and culture. Why do you continue to claim I think that is a bad thing (given I specifically said it wasn't lol)? It's obviously done for operational reasons and won't change.