Reply to 2023-24 draft calendar scenarios to be reviewed

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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]Longer and frequent breaks is far better.

Kids get time.
Families can travel.[/quote]

It makes no sense to cram all vacations and breaks in 2-3 months. It's far better to spread it out. International families can travel and kids can get break. [/quote]

Agree so much.  I do appreciate that many have already planned their vacation for late August next year.... but I hope that if this is a reason to keep the later start for the coming year, we can take the time to address it sooner for future years.[/quote]

How many people in MoCo actually have a "bought and paid for" vacation already for August 2023?  I am guessing that is a small fraction of families.[/quote]

I think you’d be surprised, plus camp schedules are already coming out. Our own extended family is waiting on us/this info for a group trip. People need to be able to plan. This is really late to be changing the weeks in any significant fashion. [/quote]

Agree. This doesn’t just affect vacations but camps would have to shift schedules too.  But yeah, lots of people take august vacations, including teachers.  Our next door neighbor is a teacher and their kids are on swim team, so august is the only time that works (obviously not the week before school starts, but often the week before that).

Not to say none of this could shift, I just wouldn’t do it next year unless there was a really compelling reason. Give everyone a heads up for 2024.[/quote]

+1. Also, nowhere in this state opens as early as August 14. Places that open in mid or early August in other regions end around Memorial Day or the week after. We are still ending mid June in 2023, so I think the shift earlier needs to be done incrementally, although for the record, I absolutely do not think kids should go back to school mid August at all. They are really trying to suck the joy of childhood in MCPS. This is just another example. [/quote]

Agreed.  And I don’t think it makes sense to be potentially two weeks off from what other DMV area districts are doing either.[/quote]

Frederick County's current school year runs August 17th to June 1st.[/quote]

While that is indeed true, every single one of the other school systems in the state of Maryland started on or after August 24, with the VAST majority starting on/around August 29 and a significant number starting in September. Aug 17 in Frederick County is a single outlier in this state if you are benchmarking against other school systems, and August 17 is a midweek (Wednesday) start in 2022-23. MCPS starting on August 14 would make us the absolute earliest and an absolute outlier. [/quote]

No wonder our kids lag behind the rest of the kids in the world. Parents here are not invested in their kid’s education. They can’t understand that summer loss is real. Longer break is not helpful especially for minority kids in low performing school. Its better to start early and have a longer winter or spring break. But no dcum parents care about camps and vacations way more than their kid’s education. [/quote]

I have the same preference as you but I have no idea why you are latching onto PP’s comment as evidence that “parents here are not invested in their kid’s education.”[/quote]

Also didn’t all the options have pretty much the same length of summer anyway?  A week long thanksgiving break is only two extra days during the year.  A two week winter break would probably be 3 extra days.  It’s just not that meaningful.[/quote]

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