Reply to Why does FCPS have all these random days of week off???

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I looked at the posted survey results. The fact that only 23% of the parents responded is problematic. I would guess that parents who wanted to add religious holidays were far more incentivized to participate then parents who had no real idea that there was a chance that we would add how many religious holidays as days off.

And I don't see a question on there regarding adding days off for religious holidays across the board. The question was new days off and extending the school year or adding async days. There was no option for not adding new days off or anything that said that the new days off would be for every religious groups day of importance. There was no place to say "I don't want new days added" except the comments. I know that I specifically said that I was not in favor of adding any new holidays in my comment section. Not to mention, the add new days and extend the school year did not get over 50% in any of the populations surveyed. I suspect that the only reason Option B, the asynch days BS, was so high was because there was no option for don't add new days at all.

Essentially, the survey did not allow anyone to say that they didn't want to add days. The Board wanted to add in a ton of religious holidays because the O day idea was so poorly developed and implemented, that the Board just added those days with no real input from anyone other then the various religious leaders that wanted those days. Had the board created a decent O day policy, no tests and assignments due on those days and maybe even the day after the O days so kids participating in said religious activity didn't feel like they had to work on the O day, and left it at that most folks would have been happy. Instead we end up with this ridiculous schedule based on the argument that Christmas is always off so every religious group should have a day off.

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There were very vocal groups clamoring for the calendar with added religious days off. This was mainly Jewish groups to get YK and RH off, as they had been disappointed with the vote last year. I think the rest of the religious days added were so that the school board would look fair and balanced like it wasn't just catering to the Jewish advocates. So here we are. [/quote]
This is not what happened. The SB put together an equity task force right before the pandemic with leaders from different faith communities, and asked them to come up with calendar recommendations. That task force chose four holidays (Eid, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Diwali) to add to the calendar and made that recommendation to the SB (calendars A and B from what feels like a million years ago). The SB ignored [i]their own[/i] task force's recommendations and came up with the O Day nonsense from last year. Those religious groups were asked to come to the table and contribute to an equitable calendar, and then they were straight-up ignored, so of course they continued to advocate on their own behalf. All four of those days were always meant to be on the calendar. Eid and Diwali weren't added to look "fair and balanced" in the face of Jewish "clamor." They were carefully chosen by an interfaith task force that considered the religious significance and observance requirements of [i]many[/i] holidays and decided on those four. Spring Break is also now realigned with Easter.[/quote]

Spring break is going to occasionally coincide with Easter because of when Spring Break falls. Spring Break is supposed to be locked into one specific week now, that was the change made several years ago. It should stay that way.

And we should not be consulting with any religion about any holidays. Keep Spring Break to a specific week every year and it is removed from Easter. That leaves Christmas which is a Federal Holiday, when the Federal Government removes it from the list of Federal Holidays it should not be a consideration for a school holiday. Ideally, winter break comes at the end of the first quarter but right now, Christmas is a Federal Holiday and that tends to be a time when there is a lot of travel. You will see massive amounts of absence over that week on the part of Teachers and students, it is why it is a Federal Holiday because so many people took that time period off who work for the Federal Government. It shouldn't be a holiday for secular purposes but it is because it was just practical.

The priority should be a schedule that advances teaching all the kids in the school not to develop a mish-mash calendar that makes as many religious groups happy. If you want your specific religious holiday off, go a private school for your faith.

The SB didn't put the idea of adding religious holidays on the survey because they knew what the response would be and because they knew that most people would object. [/quote]

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