Reply to Proposed APS Calendar Policy

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The more I read comments here the more it seems this is a back door way to give teachers and staff more 4 day workweeks. There are lots of ways to honor religious holidays for those who recognize them. Why is equity around these days completely outweighing all other equity concerns around disruptions for students, safety for students, costs and difficulties of covering these days for families? 5 day weeks should be a priority. Figure out how to give staff and students days off for the religious days they observe.

[/quote]

Wow, I had no idea other districts would model Fairfax's system for school calendars where they can't ever release one without numerous meetings and hand wringing. But to answer your question, Fairfax didn't collect any data about absences because the board thought religious holidays on the school calendar satisfied equity over all other concerns.[/quote]

Fairfax has years of data on it.  https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/forms/Absence%20Data%20Final3.pdf

Schools legally required to have a reason for religious holidays 
[/quote]

Is this real? I am Mexican American from TX and neither my family here nor in Mexico keep kids home from school for Dia de Los Mueurtos and it's not a school holiday. [/quote]

Wait wait wait. Are you saying Arlington is requesting Dia de los Muertos be a holiday? Or are we talking about FFX? Another Mexican American here and I cannot believe they would actually be requesting that. Where can we look at the actual request for Arlington? [/quote]

That data from Fairfax was showing enough absences to make Dia de Los Muertos a religious holidays and posters here were saying Arlington is adopting the Fairfax schedule. Not every religious day was in that study so I was asking who would even request Dia de los Muertos?[/quote]

Dios de Los Muertos is not a holiday in FCPS.  It is an observance day.

https://www.fcps.edu/system/files/2023-2024-standard-school-year-calendar.pdf[/quote]

DP. It will also be an observance day in APS along with 10 other days. So there are [b]18 federal, religious and cultural holidays where school will be off[/b]. And another 11 days that will be "observed." The proposed policy means lots of activities can't happen on day of the dead or these other 10 days.  All of this makes planning for teachers and other school activities that much harder.

From proposed policy https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/arlington/Board.nsf/files/CQZKTE52655C/$file/I-4.30%20Combined.pdf:

School may still be held on those days, the policy says, but schools shouldn’t have field trips, school pictures, assemblies or auditions on those days.

10. Certain days will be considered Cultural Observance Days. While school may still be held on these days, they should not have [b]field trips, school pictures, assemblies, guest speakers, sporting events, school‐sponsored special events and activities (prom, back‐to‐school nights, town halls, etc.), auditions, tryouts, safety drills that occur 1‐2 times a year, recruiting and hiring events, professional development activities, or other conferences.[/b] Any students who miss a test, quiz, or summative assessment due to a Cultural Observance Day will be given the opportunity to take it afterwards without penalty. Students observing Cultural Observance days will be given additional time for any assignments due in accordance with Policy Implementation Procedure I‐11.2 PIP‐1 Homework. Students may have Cultural Observance Days beyond those on this list. Those days must be honored by staff if associated with a sincerely held religious belief.

a. All Saints Day/Dia de los Muertos
b. Bodi Day
c. Three Kings Day/Epiphany
d. Orthodox Epiphany
e. First Full Day of Ramadan
f. Lunar New year
g. Second Day of Rosh Hashanah
h. Orthodox Christmas
i. Orthodox Epiphany
j. Orthodox Good Friday
k. Theravada

[/quote]

Who come up with this list? Even parochial schools don't recognize all of these Christian holidays as observed days.    [/quote]

APS Central is incentivized to celebrate ALL the holidays because they get a paid day off. The argument used to be that we didn't want students to have to decide between celebrating their religious holiday at home and missing school. There is zero reason Syphax shoudl have the religious days off. NO ONE IN PUBLIC OR PRIVATE SECTOR has these days off. Make them professional learning days and nix the early releases and professional development training. At least if Syphax was open teachers could take care of admin business those days. Make no mistake - this is all about Central getting more paid time off. Shame on Duran and the school board. [/quote]

Unless a family is tremendously multi-cultural/faith, no single Syphax employee is going to be observing all those "observed" religious holidays. Pick one, maybe two. And I chaffe at all the paid time off Syphax employees are now getting. However, I don't believe this piece of the nonsense is driven by the desire for even more days off for Syphax people. It is driven by the extreme progressive need to be aware and sensitive to any and every potential thing for any and all people; to acknowledge the traditional educational calendar is white, Christian-centric and based and that our country is less homogenous and therefore more people's beliefs and customs should be accommodated.  I just wish schools could be allowed to focus on their mission: to educate the populace to ensure an educated electorate for the successful continuance of our democracy.[/quote]

I agree this is the rationale.  As soon as aps (and other school systems) decided to start making religious holidays holidays based on a need to recognize diversity rather than the traditional operational needs, they stumbled off a cliff.  If your rationale for adding a holiday is operational- you have a test for what gets observed, those holidays that enough students and staff celebrate that holding school becomes difficult.  But as soon as you made the rationale 'diversity' then there really is no limit.  There is no justification for celebrating Rosh Hashanah over say bodhi day.  And there is a religious holiday around the world weekly.[/quote]

You guys have fun with the Satanic Temple suing to add a bunch of their holidays to the school calendar.[/quote]

I'm the PPP. Didn't say I agree with the philosophy. I'm betting even APS has its limits and won't be catering to Satanic observances. But, yes....I've been waiting for someone to raise this sort of flag![/quote]

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