Reply to Superintendent's Calendar Recommendation for 2026-27

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Montoya says she isn’t supporting the calendar over the early release days [/quote]

Also because they are adding a 1/2 day on the 23rd. She said she fought for the day off for Hispanic/Latino people.[/quote]

I found that irritating. Nochebuena, as she said, is on December 24, not the 23rd. The 24th is off! Seemed really tone deaf that she said that folks need extra time to cook and travel the day before the holiday when literally Eid and Passover just became possible school days if we need snow make ups. Your holiday is off, with a half day prior. No one else gets cooking days. [/quote] Almost all the secular schools in the country not only have December 23 off but Dec 21 and 22 too. It's Maryland and much of the Northeast States that starts break on December 24 (Christmas Eve). The reason for that is the requirement to hold 180 days even if bad weather cancels school days. Most other states have a more normal law. If there are makeup days at the end summer is still long enough. Thanksgiving is at least a five day weekend with more places converting to a full week off. The late December break is two full weeks in nearly every state that has a more flexible law.[/quote]

Why would anyone want or need a full week off for Thanksgiving? It’s one meal. Even if you are traveling to celebrate, you’d be traveling domestically since it’s obviously an American holiday. No one needs two weekends and a full week to get to/from a domestic destination for one meal. Lots of people stay local if they have local family or international family. So it’s really the rare situation where anyone would want/need 9 days off to celebrate the holiday. [/quote]

My parents have since passed away, but they used to be where I grew up on the other side of the country. We are not Christian and do not celebrate Christmas so Thanksgiving was (and still remains even without them) our big family holiday. It may not be international travel but it still takes a good 8 hours to get out there as there are no direct flights. Stop thinking you know everyone's situation. Lots of folks in MoCo did not grow up here and were brought out here to work in DC. [/quote]

Not to mention, we always -- regardless of the school calendar -- flew out on Sunday because I will never, ever travel on the day before Thanksgiving again nor on the Sunday after (we'd leave on Saturday)[/quote]

I'm in the same boat with parents across the country, but I don't expect the school system to cater to that.  I WOULD like the school system to be somewhat more forgiving in excusing days for things like this, so that I don't have to lie and say that my kids needed "mental wellness days" (I don't even know what THAT is, but I guess visiting their very elderly grandparents is probably a mental wellness thing).

They should ditch transition day, ditch all religious holidays (including really pushing for a change to the state law about GF and EM) unless they will be unable to adequately/safely staff schools due to religious accommodation requirements for staff, give us a decent spring break (untied to a religious holiday) and a decent winter break, and be more forgiving about families taking off time for religious, cultural, or family reasons.  I feel like MCPS spends a lot of time chasing after my super compliant hard-working kids for attendance reasons -- but if they focused their attention on families where the kids are just disengaged from learning, that might be more effective.  [/quote]

How often is the school system bothering you about your kids missing a day? I thought it was only for chronic absenteeism (which is a big problem). I'll get a text from the school if one of my kids misses a day, but that's it. I've never had to justify why they are out. For my elementary kids I'll send a note to the teacher, and for my older kids I'll have them follow up with their teachers to makeup work.[/quote]

It can become a LOT more important in HS.  I get lots of texts and emails even for the excused absences.  But if your kid has ANY unexecused absences, they cannot participate in sporting events.  And a lot of HS teachers are very difficult about making up work if the absence is not excused.  So, for instance, my kid was out sick the other week and I submitted the attendance note, but it wasn't entered into synergy properly.  My kid's teacher was going to fail him on a major assignment (which he made up) because it wasn't showing as excused -- luckily I had saved the confirmation of my submitting the note.  I've had kids in a couple of different HSs.  The first one was really lenient about absences for things like EC competitions -- the attendance secretary would forward to the AP, and the AP always excused them promptly.  Our current HS is just dysfunctional on the admin side, so there isn't really a process for this.  They basically want the parents to just lie and say "sick", I think, to make it easier.   [/quote]

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