Reply to Howard County Changes Calendar: Why can't MCPS also prioritize instruction?

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Reply to "Howard County Changes Calendar: Why can't MCPS also prioritize instruction?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It would be so easy for MCPS to pivot and make up the time:

March 20: Half day (give a nod to those celebrating Eid, but provide instruction to the majority of students)
April 15: Half day or 2 hour delay (or do two days of this - give time to teachers while prioritizing instruction for students)
Easter Monday:  Full day of instruction (Howard County got a waiver)
Wednesday, May 27: Half day (give a nod to those celebrating but provide instruction to the majority of students)
Add June 18.

My gosh, here a 5 (FIVE DAYS) that we could still tweak in the calendar to make up the time.  Not all of it falls before exams, but it's a start.[/quote]

And how about delay start of school on December 25 you know after everyone can open their presents. What about Kwanza?

And how about give a nod to Jews observing two early dismissal days in the Fall

And give the Hindu observers an early dismissal in the Fall

Anyone else? Buddhists? Other?[/quote]

This is why a PUBLIC school system should NEVER make calendar decisions for reasons of religion or culture.  Such decisions should be solely based on attendance.  While a holiday like Christmas certainly impacts staff and student attendance in a way that makes having school impossible, many of the holidays MCPS currently observes do not impact enough of the student/staff population to prevent school from taking place.  This is not an insult to any religion or culture, it's just a point of data.  Everyone in MCPS is encouraged to take an excused absence for any religious or cultural holiday that is important to them.  [/quote]

Is there a transparent, specific, publicly available and determined threshold for staff and student attendance that determines whether schools should be open or closed? If not, MCPS needs to do that first.[/quote]

Teacher here.  [b]Years ago, the school system had a clear and transparent guideline.  If the teacher/student absentee rate would exceed 15%, it warranted a school closure.[/b]  At the time, the Jewish holidays met that threshold and that's why they were implemented.  However, that was decades ago.

I'm not sure of the best resource to use to calculate this, but I did find an article from Bethesda Magazine dated September 30, 2024 that breaks down our county by religion.  They list it in percentages: 9% Jewish, 3% Hindu, 3% Muslim, 3% Buddhist.  They do not list Christianity because it's an article about the diversity of religious affiliation in our county.

I'm only guessing, but I think the population of staff and students who practice each of these faiths would be lower in our school system than in the county in general, if we account for religious schools, so I doubt that any of these groups would currently meet the 15% absentee threshold that used to warrant a holiday.

The only other religious holidays that we celebrate aside from Christmas (federal holiday) are Good Friday and Easter Monday. I don't think anyone is advocating to keep those, but for some reason they are Maryland State Holidays, so the state would have to change the law on those.  We do know from past and current experience that Maryland willingly waives Easter Monday regularly to make up snow days.

We also had a day off for Lunar New Year a couple of weeks ago, which is cultural rather than religious.  This linked profile of Asian and Pacific Islanders in Montgomery indicates that they made up 15% of our population in 2022.  https://montgomeryplanning.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Profile-Asian-and-Pacific-Islanders-in-Montgomery-County.pdf   My spouse is Asian, and we celebrate Lunar New Year with our family and friends.  I don't know anyone who is advocating to have a day off for this cultural holiday, which is widely celebrated on the weekend.  I surely wouldn't take a day off for it, I wouldn't pull my kids out for it, and most of our friends had no idea MCPS was off on the 17th because of that holiday.

[/quote]

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