Reply to Why is There no School Next Year on Monday, October 20th?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Diwali is a fun holiday. Our whole neighborhood celebrates with parties and fireworks. [/quote]

Couldn’t your celebration continue after school for those who are there for fun and not religious beliefs? Do we really need to shut the system down?[/quote]

MCPS does that for all religions- Jewish holidays, Ramadan, Easter, Christmas etc. As an Indian immigrant, I did not request or vote for this day to be given a school holiday. We still have to go to work and do not celebrate it until that evening. MCPS aligns those dates with end of quarter/ grading/ teacher work days- so no there are no extra school days off because of Diwali.[/quote]

In the past we never had the Jewish holidays off.  It’s newer as too many teachers took off and not enough subs. [/quote]

MCPS has Jewish holidays off since late 70s when I was attending. It’s been decades. [/quote]

Yes! It was originally done because there were too many Jewish teachers and not enough subs. [b]But I don’t think that is really true anymore and I think it is worth exploring whether we can have school on those Jewish holidays and other religious holidays[/b]. Because there’s no way MPS can take into account every single religion and give everyone their holidays off and still run a system.[/quote]

They did explore this a few years ago and found that it was still true. And it's even harder to get subs in general now, post-pandemic.[/quote]

+1 and for what it’s worth, those two holidays are observed with important services during the daytime (in addition to evening services and ceremonial meals) so they legitimately conflict with school hours.

If you feel MCPS cannot accommodate every single religion, feel free to tell them you don’t need the day off for YOUR religion or culture. It’s not great to just pick someone else’s that you know nothing about and insist it’s not needed. [/quote]

I’m a Jewish teacher and parent and I did tell them that when they did the survey about the calendar preferences a couple of years ago.

There are so many religions and every time they try to accommodate one religion, others will want equity for their own (which I agree with). That’s why I don’t think MCPS is in a position to take off for every holiday. I think we should have used June 6th as a make-up day instead of having a random day off a week before school is out.[/quote]

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