Reply to Practical question re today's closure

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Reply to "Practical question re today's closure"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It’s about staffing. There are too many Jewish staff members for the system to be able to function.[/quote]

Why is that the case for the school system but not other county agencies? [/quote]
Because other county agencies don’t need an actual person to supervise a class full of students. Teaching is unique in this way compared to other jobs. You can’t just take leave for a day whenever you want, unless you can get a substitute to cover your classes. Generally not an issue, but around major holidays/breaks the principal has to approve leave. For example, we aren’t just allowed to tack on a day before and after a 3day weekend without a sub and approval.

MCPS has had Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur off since the 1970s due to a large population of Jewish teachers and students. It couldn’t operate safely without enough coverage of classes. Christmas and Easter are off because it is a state holiday. Whether or not that’s necessary operationally is besides the point. MCPS has chosen to put some of the scattered professional days on some of the other holidays, because they have to go somewhere and those are days that teachers can take off if desired without needing coverage.

If you really want to understand the calendar, watch the BOE meetings this fall when they discuss next year’s. If you want the history, watch some of the old meetings 2016-2019 where they were trying to figure out how to fit 180 school day between a late Labor Day and June 15 with all the state mandated holidays, Election Day, and mandatory number of make up days. They really hashed out every little detail about why each thing is in the calendar. [/quote]

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