Key items: No change to the school year start + School on Nov 9 + School on 12/23 and 11/25 (eww to both of those). Makeup days possible on Passover and Eid.
Transition day remains. Full summary:
No change from approved:
● Pre-service: August 17–21
● Student Transition Day: August 24
● First day for all students: August 25
Added instructional days:
● November 9: Instructional Day (previously non-instructional aligned with Diwali
November 8)
● November 25: Early Release Day (previously systemwide closure prior to Thanksgiving)
● December 23: Early Release Day (previously systemwide closure prior to Winter Break)
Identified make-up days:
● June 11: Last Day of School (Day 181, first make-up day)
● April 22: Non-instructional day aligned with Passover
● May 17: Non-instructional day aligned with Eid al-Adha
● June 14-17: Days that can be added to extend the school year
I feel this one is more rationale than the original proposal. Any concerns? Of course we need to expect a high absence rate for Nov. 25 and Dec. 23.
Key items: No change to the school year start + School on Nov 9 + School on 12/23 and 11/25 (eww to both of those). Makeup days possible on Passover and Eid.
Transition day remains. Full summary:
No change from approved:
● Pre-service: August 17–21
● Student Transition Day: August 24
● First day for all students: August 25
Added instructional days:
● November 9: Instructional Day (previously non-instructional aligned with Diwali
November 8)
● November 25: Early Release Day (previously systemwide closure prior to Thanksgiving)
● December 23: Early Release Day (previously systemwide closure prior to Winter Break)
Identified make-up days:
● June 11: Last Day of School (Day 181, first make-up day)
● April 22: Non-instructional day aligned with Passover
● May 17: Non-instructional day aligned with Eid al-Adha
● June 14-17: Days that can be added to extend the school year
I feel this one is more rationale than the original proposal. Any concerns? Of course we need to expect a high absence rate for Nov. 25 and Dec. 23.
Yea, we're going to have a high absence rate on those days + they're setting themselves up for a fight again for the May 17th day. Honestly, I don't think the Jewish community will really complain around Passover (its not until the evening anyway and if you're traveling, then you'd miss the next day anyway most likely... I say this as a Jew who travels to my in-laws for Passover most years). But we say what happened with Eid this year...
Key items: No change to the school year start + School on Nov 9 + School on 12/23 and 11/25 (eww to both of those). Makeup days possible on Passover and Eid.
Transition day remains. Full summary:
No change from approved:
● Pre-service: August 17–21
● Student Transition Day: August 24
● First day for all students: August 25
Added instructional days:
● November 9: Instructional Day (previously non-instructional aligned with Diwali
November 8)
● November 25: Early Release Day (previously systemwide closure prior to Thanksgiving)
● December 23: Early Release Day (previously systemwide closure prior to Winter Break)
Identified make-up days:
● June 11: Last Day of School (Day 181, first make-up day)
● April 22: Non-instructional day aligned with Passover
● May 17: Non-instructional day aligned with Eid al-Adha
● June 14-17: Days that can be added to extend the school year
I feel this one is more rationale than the original proposal. Any concerns? Of course we need to expect a high absence rate for Nov. 25 and Dec. 23.
Yea, we're going to have a high absence rate on those days + they're setting themselves up for a fight again for the May 17th day. Honestly, I don't think the Jewish community will really complain around Passover (its not until the evening anyway and if you're traveling, then you'd miss the next day anyway most likely... I say this as a Jew who travels to my in-laws for Passover most years). But we say what happened with Eid this year...
There will be no Diwali (was originally there but now removed) nor Chinese new year breaks (not there anyway). Jews and Muslims should put themselves in context and celebrate what they have been left with...
Key items: No change to the school year start + School on Nov 9 + School on 12/23 and 11/25 (eww to both of those). Makeup days possible on Passover and Eid.
Transition day remains. Full summary:
No change from approved:
● Pre-service: August 17–21
● Student Transition Day: August 24
● First day for all students: August 25
Added instructional days:
● November 9: Instructional Day (previously non-instructional aligned with Diwali
November 8)
● November 25: Early Release Day (previously systemwide closure prior to Thanksgiving)
● December 23: Early Release Day (previously systemwide closure prior to Winter Break)
Identified make-up days:
● June 11: Last Day of School (Day 181, first make-up day)
● April 22: Non-instructional day aligned with Passover
● May 17: Non-instructional day aligned with Eid al-Adha
● June 14-17: Days that can be added to extend the school year
I feel this one is more rationale than the original proposal. Any concerns? Of course we need to expect a high absence rate for Nov. 25 and Dec. 23.
Yea, we're going to have a high absence rate on those days + they're setting themselves up for a fight again for the May 17th day. Honestly, I don't think the Jewish community will really complain around Passover (its not until the evening anyway and if you're traveling, then you'd miss the next day anyway most likely... I say this as a Jew who travels to my in-laws for Passover most years). But we say what happened with Eid this year...
There will be no Diwali (was originally there but now removed) nor Chinese new year breaks (not there anyway). Jews and Muslims should put themselves in context and celebrate what they have been left with...
Anonymous wrote:We thankfully have changeable plans— visit with my parents 4 hours away, no flights or hotels to cancel, one of us taking leave and the other teleworking. But it’d be a bummer if my kid’s time with grandparents was cut in half this summer.
PP again, and I know with just 4 hrs we can make up for it somewhere with a long weekend. But I know others who drive 10 hrs to places like Wisconsin or upstate NY to visit family, and that trip being cut from 8 days to 4 would really suck.
There are lots of international families in MCPS who have planned to travel home to Europe or Asia that week. Not for a holiday, but just to visit family. It’s not even just domestic plans being messed up
Get a sense of perspective. 44% of MCPS students are eligible for free or reduced cost lunch because their incomes are so low. They are not all travelling to Europe or Asia in August for a holiday.
These 44% MCPS students are likely needed to work their a** off to earn some incomes for their families. And those small business or non-profit organizations who hire these MCPS HS students to lower the salary costs will also find themselves in mess by hiring HS students.
Don't you see? People who have travel plans are not worth worrying about because they are too rich and privileged so who cares about them. Also people who don't have travel plans are too poor to have any plans at all and even if they did they wouldn't matter to MCPS s/
And everyone travels internationally! Nobody packs up the car and drives to the shore, or to the mountains, or to family. If people are travelling, it's 5 star travel all the way!
Anonymous wrote:We thankfully have changeable plans— visit with my parents 4 hours away, no flights or hotels to cancel, one of us taking leave and the other teleworking. But it’d be a bummer if my kid’s time with grandparents was cut in half this summer.
PP again, and I know with just 4 hrs we can make up for it somewhere with a long weekend. But I know others who drive 10 hrs to places like Wisconsin or upstate NY to visit family, and that trip being cut from 8 days to 4 would really suck.
There are lots of international families in MCPS who have planned to travel home to Europe or Asia that week. Not for a holiday, but just to visit family. It’s not even just domestic plans being messed up
Get a sense of perspective. 44% of MCPS students are eligible for free or reduced cost lunch because their incomes are so low. They are not all travelling to Europe or Asia in August for a holiday.
These 44% MCPS students are likely needed to work their a** off to earn some incomes for their families. And those small business or non-profit organizations who hire these MCPS HS students to lower the salary costs will also find themselves in mess by hiring HS students.
Don't you see? People who have travel plans are not worth worrying about because they are too rich and privileged so who cares about them. Also people who don't have travel plans are too poor to have any plans at all and even if they did they wouldn't matter to MCPS s/
And everyone travels internationally! Nobody packs up the car and drives to the shore, or to the mountains, or to family. If people are travelling, it's 5 star travel all the way!
It sounds like you are talking about middle class people. But to MCPS, middle class people don't exist at all. MCPS families can only be very wealthy or very poor.
Key items: No change to the school year start + School on Nov 9 + School on 12/23 and 11/25 (eww to both of those). Makeup days possible on Passover and Eid.
Transition day remains. Full summary:
No change from approved:
● Pre-service: August 17–21
● Student Transition Day: August 24
● First day for all students: August 25
Added instructional days:
● November 9: Instructional Day (previously non-instructional aligned with Diwali
November 8)
● November 25: Early Release Day (previously systemwide closure prior to Thanksgiving)
● December 23: Early Release Day (previously systemwide closure prior to Winter Break)
Identified make-up days:
● June 11: Last Day of School (Day 181, first make-up day)
● April 22: Non-instructional day aligned with Passover
● May 17: Non-instructional day aligned with Eid al-Adha
● June 14-17: Days that can be added to extend the school year
I feel this one is more rationale than the original proposal. Any concerns? Of course we need to expect a high absence rate for Nov. 25 and Dec. 23.
Yea, we're going to have a high absence rate on those days + they're setting themselves up for a fight again for the May 17th day. Honestly, I don't think the Jewish community will really complain around Passover (its not until the evening anyway and if you're traveling, then you'd miss the next day anyway most likely... I say this as a Jew who travels to my in-laws for Passover most years). But we say what happened with Eid this year...
There will be no Diwali (was originally there but now removed) nor Chinese new year breaks (not there anyway). Jews and Muslims should put themselves in context and celebrate what they have been left with...
I’m pretty sure Diwali is Sunday 11/8
Diwali 2026, the main day of Lakshmi Puja, is on Sunday, November 8, 2026. The five-day festival of lights generally runs from November 7 to November 10, 2026, beginning with Dhanteras on November 7 and ending with Bhai Dooj on November 10.
Anonymous wrote:Ugh. I know so many people (including us) that have travel plans the 3rd week of August. What is the point of putting out a calendar if we can't rely on it?!? Fortunately we don't have flights booked yet, but I know 7 families who are supposed to be out of the country! And since I have to get my work time off approved in advance that's the week I got, and it's unlikely I'll be able to switch, so I guess we're just not going on vacation this summer if they do this.
It would clearly be less disruptive at this point to take back some holidays (including Easter Monday), and even though every person I've spoken too is in favor of that approach versus moving the start date this year, I doubt the Board will have the guts to do it.
Any calendar change is disruptive. People just disagree on what is more disruptive.
I can't imagine anyone could argue with a straight face that starting the year several days earlier with less than 4 months notice is less disruptive than saying "for spring break, 11 months in the future, we will switch a couple of those days to possible makeup days if there's a lot of snow days.".
People would also complain if you shortened spring break. As others have pointed out, the makeup days are disproportionately allocated in the fall and early winter before we have any snow. MCPS isn't suddenly adding makeup days in the spring that you can use.
To me, starting earlier in August is the least disruptive. Obviously, people have a diversity of opinions on this topic.
How is it the least disruptive? It is only a few months away, when most people have already made plans of some type for that week, and it is also a huge deal for kids to miss the first few days of school (both for them themselves, and for the class as a whole.) It is also extremely hard on teachers who get no break after summer school and may already have committed to jobs during that week that will now be preservice week, and school staff who have barely any time to get the building ready after summer school.
Other options are much longer in the future, when many fewer people have plans. And if they do have plans, missing those days is much less consequential and disruptive than missing the first week of school for kids, or missing preservice for teachers.
This isn't even close. It's a slam dunk. The only way anyone could think starting early is less disruptive is if it's easier for you personally and you're unable to see past the end of your nose.
You seem to have mistaken your opinion on what is disruptive for yourself as representative of the entire MCPS community. Some people are happy to have their kids go back to school earlier in August. Not every MCPS family is flying back from Europe or Asia that week.
Sorry that your vacation plans may be messed up, but you're pretty narrow-minded if you can't see that others have different situations than you.
Some people prefer starting earlier. Others do not.
That does not change the fact that the early start is incredibly disruptive for a significant number of staff, students, and families in a way that none of the other changes would be.
It's not about who prefers what. It's about what is a doable change and what is an incredibly problematic change.
An "incredibly problematic change" is your opinion-not a fact. You have 4 months to adjust to the new calendar. That's a lot more notice than parents get when MCPS decides to keep schools closed 1 week after a snowstorm ends.
Typically parents aren't going to have nonrefundable travel, PTO, camps, etc. due to a weather emergency. This is an unnecessary expense and burden for MoCo at large.
Typical MCPS parents aren't going to have expensive travel plans and camps late in August. You're talking about a niche of well-off families. Many are going to be happy to have their kids back in school earlier so they can go to work (I know I am.)
Actually MOST MCPS parents have expensive travel plans, camp plans, etc. It doesn't make someone rich by going to the shore. It also doesn't magically make non-refundable, refundable. Good for you for not properly planning your summer- the rest of us actually did. No, I don't need to worry about my kid starting earlier because I based my summer on the calendar approved in December. You sound like you're always just planning to wing it.
You have no idea what plans MCPS parents have. You're just making things up because you're angry about the schedule changes. Some of us have a more flexible attitude to MCPS schedules--we have to, because MCPS schedules change all the time.
MCPS sometimes has unplanned closures, and sometimes the clearly labeled makeup days on the calendar are used as makeup days. I can't remember there ever being any other time when days off not labeled as days off have been turned into school days. It turns MCPS from a generally predictable district into a place with schedules that no one can trust anymore. I don't blame teachers one bit for quitting after this, it's ridiculous.
If teachers quit over starting work a few days earlier, having gotten unexpected extra vacation days the year before, they had issues with being at MCPS that go well beyond bad scheduling practices.
Serious thought exercise for you...
You really only get 1-2 weeks off a year because you work two different jobs. You've been planning to spend that week off with your family all year, saving what little money you make (because you aren't in a high paying profession but love it anyway) to go on a trip that you've put non-refundable deposits down on. Then, not 4 months before the trip is supposed to happen your employer goes "oh nevermind, we need you to come back to work a week earlier than planned, you can't take that trip anymore." How would you feel? Do you feel respected by your workplace in that case?
The DC area has the highest unemployment rate in the country thanks to Trump/DOGE/a crap economy. Excuse me while I don't use up all my sympathy on MCPS staff who are getting 4 months notice about a schedule change who may have to lose a deposit on an expensive vacation.
I see, so you need to take out the fact that your life isn't going well on the teachers and make everyone miserable around you. Got it. That's so nice of you...
And you missed that day in kindergarten where they should have taught you that you're not the sun and that the world doesn't revolve around you and your needs.
LOL I'm not even a teacher. I just have empathy for the people who teach my kids every day and the fact that this situation doesn't need to exist at all.
Too bad you don't have empathy for others in the DMV area who are suffering economic challenges far worse than a schedule change and who might actually benefit from having their kids back to school a few days earlier in August and from getting the 180 days of instructional time they need since MCPS student achievement levels are in the toilet.
But my non-refundable vacation deposit...waaaah waaaah waaaah!!
Again... the schedule change in no way guarantees we'll get 180 days of instruction. In fact, its just the opposite -- it helps MCPS get its waiver next year.
And apparently the world revolves around you and your need for childcare. Okay, got it.
God forbid people need childcare for their kids. Clearly that need pales in the face of your non-refundable vacation deposit.
How does starting the school year earlier help people who need childcare? People who need childcare that week have generally already booked camp for that last week (probably non-refundable since most of them that week are), so they will have to pay for the week despite only using 2-3 days of it. Even if they didn't, it's still the same number of days of school so they still have to pay for the same amount of camp, they just have to pay for an extra week next summer instead of this summer.
Clearly the PP is one of the people who has been affected by federal/DOGE layoffs and for that you have my full empathy. I was also laid off but have managed to find a new position. She’s probably stressed about the cost of camp and hadn’t signed her kid up because she doesn’t yet have a job and the news of an early start brought some news of financial relief. I feel you PP I do. But your situation is one of many. You are getting a windfall out of the pain of so many others who are cancelling trips and camps, losing money, and all around scrambling by the MCPS-made chaos. PP, I truly hope your situation improves soon.
But, that doesn’t change the fact that changing the calendar this close to the start of the year is not a good idea.
Changing the calendar four months from the start of the school year may adversely affect your vacation plans, but that doesn't mean that it's not a good idea for many others.
+1 There are differing opinions on practically every schedule change. Many people I know are happy about this change. I suspect survey data will show this as well.
So what if there are "differing opinions"?
You can't act like "some people have a slight preference for starting earlier this year but neither option affects their lives much" on the one hand balances out "massive stress, cost, and/or inconvenience for many staff and families, and makes MCPS a less desirable employer for teachers for years to come" on the other.
Hear, hear.
Why do you disregard some people's preferences, while assuming data not in evidence that this represents a "massive stress, cost and inconvenience for many staff and families." I'm amazed by how you feel your opinions are universal.
How much will it cost you if we keep the start date as is? How much will it cost you if we change it to Aug 20 as proposed?
Now let’s do that across the district. The actual cost of moving the date is significant between nonrefundable fees, lost revenue for camps and other care providers, and the Ag Fair. What’s your purported cost for keeping it the same?
What's the loss to educational outcomes for 150K students by shortchanging our students by several days of education each year because MCPS can't get the days of instructional time in with the calendar it has? If you're focused on "lost revenue for camps and the ag fair" your priorities are not on our kids, only 1/3 of whom meet basic proficiency levels for math and 1/2 of whom are reading at grade level.
Also if you care about education you should care about the county’s revenue. Less money for the county means less money to invest in the schools. You want outcomes? You better hope they make what they need to from the Ag fair.
Are you employed by the Ag Fair? Because truly, very few people think that the revenue of the MoCo Ag Fair are more important that educational outcomes for hundreds of thousands of students. We do not need to schedule our kids' education around an event that I would bet less than 5% of MCPS students attend (if that).
You keep arguing educational outcomes… can you show me a study that starting earlier but not adding days to the calendar makes any difference? There are other ways for MCPS to make sure they have makeup days before Juneteenth and the only reason the want them before Juneteenth is so they can get a waiver from providing 180 days in the event we have more than 3 snow days.
Educational outcomes is not a valid argument for why we need to disrupt everyone’s established plans at this point.
Did you even read the Board presentation? There's limited options to use makeup days if we stick with the status quo, so you're dooming MCPS kids to have fewer school days than the 180 required nationwide if you don't start earlier in the school year. At least with this proposed earlier August schedule, if there's a lot of snowdays, the makeup days can occur before Juneteenth as the state requires, so that we don't have this awful situation with waiving instructional days again next year.
https://go.boarddocs.com/mabe/mcpsmd/Board.nsf/files/DT7SZF751736/$file/Proposed%20Amendments%202026-2027%20SY%20Calendar%20PPT%20260416.pdf
Advantages:
-Adds time to address inclement weather ahead of June 18 deadline
-Centers instruction earlier in the school year, ahead of testing and other spring events
-Time for additional professional development opportunities
-Better alignment with the school year calendar for neighboring school district, Frederick County Public Schools
I'm sorry, "better alignment" with Frederick County public schools? So, the *two* other neighboring MOCO school districts (PG and Howard) start the week of August 24th but we need to be "better aligned" with the one nearby county that starts school the week BEFORE?
lol ... also their last day of school is June 4, so how is that alignment?
Anonymous wrote:Ugh. I know so many people (including us) that have travel plans the 3rd week of August. What is the point of putting out a calendar if we can't rely on it?!? Fortunately we don't have flights booked yet, but I know 7 families who are supposed to be out of the country! And since I have to get my work time off approved in advance that's the week I got, and it's unlikely I'll be able to switch, so I guess we're just not going on vacation this summer if they do this.
It would clearly be less disruptive at this point to take back some holidays (including Easter Monday), and even though every person I've spoken too is in favor of that approach versus moving the start date this year, I doubt the Board will have the guts to do it.
Any calendar change is disruptive. People just disagree on what is more disruptive.
I can't imagine anyone could argue with a straight face that starting the year several days earlier with less than 4 months notice is less disruptive than saying "for spring break, 11 months in the future, we will switch a couple of those days to possible makeup days if there's a lot of snow days.".
People would also complain if you shortened spring break. As others have pointed out, the makeup days are disproportionately allocated in the fall and early winter before we have any snow. MCPS isn't suddenly adding makeup days in the spring that you can use.
To me, starting earlier in August is the least disruptive. Obviously, people have a diversity of opinions on this topic.
How is it the least disruptive? It is only a few months away, when most people have already made plans of some type for that week, and it is also a huge deal for kids to miss the first few days of school (both for them themselves, and for the class as a whole.) It is also extremely hard on teachers who get no break after summer school and may already have committed to jobs during that week that will now be preservice week, and school staff who have barely any time to get the building ready after summer school.
Other options are much longer in the future, when many fewer people have plans. And if they do have plans, missing those days is much less consequential and disruptive than missing the first week of school for kids, or missing preservice for teachers.
This isn't even close. It's a slam dunk. The only way anyone could think starting early is less disruptive is if it's easier for you personally and you're unable to see past the end of your nose.
You seem to have mistaken your opinion on what is disruptive for yourself as representative of the entire MCPS community. Some people are happy to have their kids go back to school earlier in August. Not every MCPS family is flying back from Europe or Asia that week.
Sorry that your vacation plans may be messed up, but you're pretty narrow-minded if you can't see that others have different situations than you.
Some people prefer starting earlier. Others do not.
That does not change the fact that the early start is incredibly disruptive for a significant number of staff, students, and families in a way that none of the other changes would be.
It's not about who prefers what. It's about what is a doable change and what is an incredibly problematic change.
An "incredibly problematic change" is your opinion-not a fact. You have 4 months to adjust to the new calendar. That's a lot more notice than parents get when MCPS decides to keep schools closed 1 week after a snowstorm ends.
Typically parents aren't going to have nonrefundable travel, PTO, camps, etc. due to a weather emergency. This is an unnecessary expense and burden for MoCo at large.
Typical MCPS parents aren't going to have expensive travel plans and camps late in August. You're talking about a niche of well-off families. Many are going to be happy to have their kids back in school earlier so they can go to work (I know I am.)
Actually MOST MCPS parents have expensive travel plans, camp plans, etc. It doesn't make someone rich by going to the shore. It also doesn't magically make non-refundable, refundable. Good for you for not properly planning your summer- the rest of us actually did. No, I don't need to worry about my kid starting earlier because I based my summer on the calendar approved in December. You sound like you're always just planning to wing it.
You have no idea what plans MCPS parents have. You're just making things up because you're angry about the schedule changes. Some of us have a more flexible attitude to MCPS schedules--we have to, because MCPS schedules change all the time.
MCPS sometimes has unplanned closures, and sometimes the clearly labeled makeup days on the calendar are used as makeup days. I can't remember there ever being any other time when days off not labeled as days off have been turned into school days. It turns MCPS from a generally predictable district into a place with schedules that no one can trust anymore. I don't blame teachers one bit for quitting after this, it's ridiculous.
If teachers quit over starting work a few days earlier, having gotten unexpected extra vacation days the year before, they had issues with being at MCPS that go well beyond bad scheduling practices.
Serious thought exercise for you...
You really only get 1-2 weeks off a year because you work two different jobs. You've been planning to spend that week off with your family all year, saving what little money you make (because you aren't in a high paying profession but love it anyway) to go on a trip that you've put non-refundable deposits down on. Then, not 4 months before the trip is supposed to happen your employer goes "oh nevermind, we need you to come back to work a week earlier than planned, you can't take that trip anymore." How would you feel? Do you feel respected by your workplace in that case?
The DC area has the highest unemployment rate in the country thanks to Trump/DOGE/a crap economy. Excuse me while I don't use up all my sympathy on MCPS staff who are getting 4 months notice about a schedule change who may have to lose a deposit on an expensive vacation.
I see, so you need to take out the fact that your life isn't going well on the teachers and make everyone miserable around you. Got it. That's so nice of you...
And you missed that day in kindergarten where they should have taught you that you're not the sun and that the world doesn't revolve around you and your needs.
LOL I'm not even a teacher. I just have empathy for the people who teach my kids every day and the fact that this situation doesn't need to exist at all.
Too bad you don't have empathy for others in the DMV area who are suffering economic challenges far worse than a schedule change and who might actually benefit from having their kids back to school a few days earlier in August and from getting the 180 days of instructional time they need since MCPS student achievement levels are in the toilet.
But my non-refundable vacation deposit...waaaah waaaah waaaah!!
Again... the schedule change in no way guarantees we'll get 180 days of instruction. In fact, its just the opposite -- it helps MCPS get its waiver next year.
And apparently the world revolves around you and your need for childcare. Okay, got it.
God forbid people need childcare for their kids. Clearly that need pales in the face of your non-refundable vacation deposit.
How does starting the school year earlier help people who need childcare? People who need childcare that week have generally already booked camp for that last week (probably non-refundable since most of them that week are), so they will have to pay for the week despite only using 2-3 days of it. Even if they didn't, it's still the same number of days of school so they still have to pay for the same amount of camp, they just have to pay for an extra week next summer instead of this summer.
Clearly the PP is one of the people who has been affected by federal/DOGE layoffs and for that you have my full empathy. I was also laid off but have managed to find a new position. She’s probably stressed about the cost of camp and hadn’t signed her kid up because she doesn’t yet have a job and the news of an early start brought some news of financial relief. I feel you PP I do. But your situation is one of many. You are getting a windfall out of the pain of so many others who are cancelling trips and camps, losing money, and all around scrambling by the MCPS-made chaos. PP, I truly hope your situation improves soon.
But, that doesn’t change the fact that changing the calendar this close to the start of the year is not a good idea.
Changing the calendar four months from the start of the school year may adversely affect your vacation plans, but that doesn't mean that it's not a good idea for many others.
+1 There are differing opinions on practically every schedule change. Many people I know are happy about this change. I suspect survey data will show this as well.
So what if there are "differing opinions"?
You can't act like "some people have a slight preference for starting earlier this year but neither option affects their lives much" on the one hand balances out "massive stress, cost, and/or inconvenience for many staff and families, and makes MCPS a less desirable employer for teachers for years to come" on the other.
Hear, hear.
Why do you disregard some people's preferences, while assuming data not in evidence that this represents a "massive stress, cost and inconvenience for many staff and families." I'm amazed by how you feel your opinions are universal.
How much will it cost you if we keep the start date as is? How much will it cost you if we change it to Aug 20 as proposed?
Now let’s do that across the district. The actual cost of moving the date is significant between nonrefundable fees, lost revenue for camps and other care providers, and the Ag Fair. What’s your purported cost for keeping it the same?
What's the loss to educational outcomes for 150K students by shortchanging our students by several days of education each year because MCPS can't get the days of instructional time in with the calendar it has? If you're focused on "lost revenue for camps and the ag fair" your priorities are not on our kids, only 1/3 of whom meet basic proficiency levels for math and 1/2 of whom are reading at grade level.
Also if you care about education you should care about the county’s revenue. Less money for the county means less money to invest in the schools. You want outcomes? You better hope they make what they need to from the Ag fair.
Are you employed by the Ag Fair? Because truly, very few people think that the revenue of the MoCo Ag Fair are more important that educational outcomes for hundreds of thousands of students. We do not need to schedule our kids' education around an event that I would bet less than 5% of MCPS students attend (if that).
You keep arguing educational outcomes… can you show me a study that starting earlier but not adding days to the calendar makes any difference? There are other ways for MCPS to make sure they have makeup days before Juneteenth and the only reason the want them before Juneteenth is so they can get a waiver from providing 180 days in the event we have more than 3 snow days.
Educational outcomes is not a valid argument for why we need to disrupt everyone’s established plans at this point.
God forbid that the goal of having MCPS kids read at grade level (when half of them can't) interfere with the non-refundable deposit on your flights to Europe.
Yes, those 3 days are going to make all the difference between failing and academic excellence.
Key items: No change to the school year start + School on Nov 9 + School on 12/23 and 11/25 (eww to both of those). Makeup days possible on Passover and Eid.
Transition day remains. Full summary:
No change from approved:
● Pre-service: August 17–21
● Student Transition Day: August 24
● First day for all students: August 25
Added instructional days:
● November 9: Instructional Day (previously non-instructional aligned with Diwali
November 8)
● November 25: Early Release Day (previously systemwide closure prior to Thanksgiving)
● December 23: Early Release Day (previously systemwide closure prior to Winter Break)
Identified make-up days:
● June 11: Last Day of School (Day 181, first make-up day)
● April 22: Non-instructional day aligned with Passover
● May 17: Non-instructional day aligned with Eid al-Adha
● June 14-17: Days that can be added to extend the school year
I feel this one is more rationale than the original proposal. Any concerns? Of course we need to expect a high absence rate for Nov. 25 and Dec. 23.
I really want to hear from the poster who for pages and pages and pages here insisted that starting early was the best thing for the district and that if it affected plans you were a privileged jerk
I’m happy with that. Rearranging the last weeks of summer would have been a giant headache this late in the game. I’m very happy with the Thanksgiving and Christmas changes - those were travel days, which aren’t necessary to celebrate the holidays (and I do travel for them).
Forum Index
»
Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS)
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
