How to fit school days into Gov Larry Hogan's ridiculous policy on school start and stop dates

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think 8 weeks of summer break are more than enough. We take 2 weeks vacation and six weeks of camp. My kids get sick of camp and look forward to getting back to school. Hogan is nuts! We vacationed at Cape Cod this year to protest Hogan’s mandate. No way am I giving Ocean City money for this idiocy.

Wait. So you’re pissed at Hogan. And you decided to take it out on small business owners in Ocean City. Okay, then. Kudos to you for sticking it to the Republicans.

[Anonymous]

My comment is that clearly many here have Elementary School students, and not High School students. When MCPS high school students are taking AP classes, and start a week later than everyone else, and the AP exams still happen the first week in May, our students are behind everyone else in learning. They need that time before Labor Day to get started with their classes. And while in elementary school, and even middle school, the first week may be discussing, "what I did this summer," that is NOT the case in high school.

My guess is, by the time their kids get to high school, most parents don't give a crap about what other people, including those on this forum, have to say, which is why you're not hearing anything about this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is this a ridiculous policy? I do 't get it.

Personally we love the longer summer. If you don't like it, then put your kid in an academic camp or something. It's nice to have that long break.

We always started after Labor Day when I was growing up in NY.

Because it's bad for kids' education to be out of school that long -- especially poor kids. Whose parents are not going to put them in an academic camp or something.

Oh, please. It's been discussed on here before. MCPS offers educational opportunities for poor/lower income students over the summer. Plus free meals at churches/some schools. It's perfectly fine for their (and all kids') education to have a little bit of a break.

Spoken like someone for whom paying for an extra week of summer camp/day care is no big deal. Must be nice.

It costs me much more to find childcare each random day off. We don't use our before/after care because we purposely set up our work schedules to avoid it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My comment is that clearly many here have Elementary School students, and not High School students. When MCPS high school students are taking AP classes, and start a week later than everyone else, and the AP exams still happen the first week in May, our students are behind everyone else in learning. They need that time before Labor Day to get started with their classes. And while in elementary school, and even middle school, the first week may be discussing, "what I did this summer," that is NOT the case in high school.

My guess is, by the time their kids get to high school, most parents don't give a crap about what other people, including those on this forum, have to say, which is why you're not hearing anything about this.

I have a junior and my guess is that you haven't rationally thought your comment thru.
IF school started on Sept 28th, it would have been a 4 day week because of Eid and then professional days off after quarters 1,2, and 3. Your kids would have had ONE extra school day before the AP exam. ONE! And as a matter of fact, as a high school AP parent, I would think you would approve of the earlier end date because the AP courses are essentially done by May 10th. So now your child can get a longer summer job to save up for a car, college, etc...

Oh and most private schools start after Labor Day and do great on AP's. Same with most of the Northeast public and private schools.

See, not really a valid complaint anymore, is it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is this a ridiculous policy? I do 't get it.

Personally we love the longer summer. If you don't like it, then put your kid in an academic camp or something. It's nice to have that long break.

We always started after Labor Day when I was growing up in NY.

Yes, we did start after Labor Day, but we also ended a lot later than June 15th.
They need the extra time to fit it all in.

Wrong. We ended in the mid to late teens every year. Never in the 20's. We also didn't have religious days and teacher days so 180 was easy to get to.

You didn't grow up where I did...NYC. We had religious days and finished late June. They still do. So, no I'm not wrong.

Last time I checked we were in DMV hun. It isn't our fault NYE gives off from RH, YK, both Eids, Diwali, Chinese NY, and all federal holidays. They also have teacher service days. THAT is why they finish late June. They rarely have a 5 day school week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think 8 weeks of summer break are more than enough. We take 2 weeks vacation and six weeks of camp. My kids get sick of camp and look forward to getting back to school. Hogan is nuts! We vacationed at Cape Cod this year to protest Hogan’s mandate. No way am I giving Ocean City money for this idiocy.

Wait. So you’re pissed at Hogan. And you decided to take it out on small business owners in Ocean City. Okay, then. Kudos to you for sticking it to the Republicans.

LOL

[Anonymous]

This is a blatantly political email and to me, that's an abuse of their power- to use their influence and distro list for political gain. They aren't so idiotic that they can't figure out how to arrange the calendar, and if they are, we have bigger problems. I wrote several representatives to let them know I received this email that was clearly designed to drum up opposition to the measure, but that I support the new calendar (and gave my reasons why).

[Anonymous]

Because school really is a daycare that trains students for future factory work and not a place of learning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because school really is a daycare that trains students for future factory work and not a place of learning.

I see this more and more as an educator.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because school really is a daycare that trains students for future factory work and not a place of learning.

If this comment is directed at me, the immediate PP, this change has increased my child care costs, so no, child care isn't a factor (and if it were, that would be okay, because parents are allowed to factor value for their money into their viewpoints).

[Anonymous]

It's political because the Board of Ed sends out info to inform their constituency about a change that will affect them/the school calendar? Get a grip! If they sent nothing and just made the change you'd consider them corrupt for not making the process public.

What exactly would you preferred they have done, given that the calender will change considerably next year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's political because the Board of Ed sends out info to inform their constituency about a change that will affect them/the school calendar? Get a grip! If they sent nothing and just made the change you'd consider them corrupt for not making the process public.

What exactly would you preferred they have done, given that the calendar will change considerably next year?

I would also like people to answer that question. Would you have preferred for the Board of Education to not inform you about the calendar?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's political because the Board of Ed sends out info to inform their constituency about a change that will affect them/the school calendar? Get a grip! If they sent nothing and just made the change you'd consider them corrupt for not making the process public.

What exactly would you preferred they have done, given that the calendar will change considerably next year?

I would also like people to answer that question. Would you have preferred for the Board of Education to not inform you about the calendar?

Normally the BOE sends out a notice once the calendar is set. They have never before sent out an email like this. I want an email saying what the final calendar is and that’s it.

They didn’t even send out an email to all parents when there was an incident where guns were brought to a school. They did not send out a universal email when the RM Security Team Leader was found to have been having a sexual relationship with a student. Why did the BOE choose to send out this particular email? Maybe it’s just random but it does seem slightly political to me. But maybe I’m wrong. They’ve also been known to make these calendar issue a political issue in the past. They sent Hogan several letters last year about the calendar, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because school really is a daycare that trains students for future factory work and not a place of learning.

I see this more and more as an educator.

So true! Unfortunately, many teachers will tell you this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is this a ridiculous policy? I do 't get it.

Personally we love the longer summer. If you don't like it, then put your kid in an academic camp or something. It's nice to have that long break.

We always started after Labor Day when I was growing up in NY.

Because it's bad for kids' education to be out of school that long -- especially poor kids. Whose parents are not going to put them in an academic camp or something.

Oh, please. It's been discussed on here before. MCPS offers educational opportunities for poor/lower income students over the summer. Plus free meals at churches/some schools. It's perfectly fine for their (and all kids') education to have a little bit of a break.

Spoken like someone for whom paying for an extra week of summer camp/day care is no big deal. Must be nice.

It costs me much more to find childcare each random day off. We don't use our before/after care because we purposely set up our work schedules to avoid it.

This. I’m the PP that the other PP responded to.

It’s actually cheaper per day to do camp for a week. Versus finding a sitter or doing one of those One Day Off programs. We also set our schedule so that one of us is here before/after school. So we don’t do aftercare during the school year.