Reply to latest calendar survey

Forum Index » Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)

Reply to "latest calendar survey"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I didn't like the calendar this year at all.

Some of it was outside of the school's control. The [b]snowcrete [/b]never-ending closure was an anomaly that frustrated me, but I can't [i]really [/i]blame on FCPS. This was the second year in a row of pretty bad snow and the county has got to develop a better plan to clear it if snow is going to be a more regular occurrence in our region. The closures for [b]special elections[/b] were also frustrating. I appreciated that they at least tried to combine them with TWs, but they just felt like one more thing on top of a bad situation.

Overall, though, there were entirely too many [b]TWs[/b]/SPs. Do teachers really need 2.5 days at the end of every quarter? On top of that, as an elementary parent, we had these completely unjustified monthly half-days. I was annoyed last year when they introduced them to help teachers learn a last-minute new curriculum, but at least there was a reason for them. This year they just...decided to keep them for fun?

I really don't mind a few extra student holidays to allow minority religion families to celebrate some of their major holidays. Part of what I like about living in Fairfax is how diverse it is and I liked that the days off prompted my kid to ask why and learn a little bit about Yom Kippur and Ramadan and Diwali, in addition to Christmas and Easter. It doesn't cover every holiday, nor is that feasible, but I like the message that it sends. And since sometimes those holidays fall on weekends or over the summer, I would leave them alone. This year happened to fall a lot mid-week and was exacerbated by the other closures, but generally-speaking, if we reigned in the TWs and monthly half-days, I think the calendar could be a lot better without having to throw holidays under the bus. [/quote]

Were there more TW/SP days though? Teachers have had 195 day contracts for years. 5 or 6 TW days fall before school starts and 1 or 2 fall after it ends. The rest fall somewhere in between.

I’d be ok with eliminating the early release days, but I think a TW should occur around the time 4th quarter grades  are due (now).

ES Teacher [/quote]

There was a TW the day after Memorial Day but I’m sure most teachers actually used it for vacation. [/quote]

That was too early to start the kids still had lots of graded work to do.[/quote]

That is what the afternoon of the 17th and the TW day on the 18th are (supposedly) for. Of course, if you’re trying to takeoff early, that’s not a convenient day.[/quote]

What? You can’t work on grades after they are sent home. Progress Reports are sent home with the students in the last day of school. Grades are due a week or so before that. [/quote]

Not for high school. They get mailed later.[/quote]

Sure, but the PP about completing grades on the 17th and 18th was directed to an ES teacher’s comment.

Maybe they should do the same thing with ES reports. Mail them later.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics