Reply to Melanie Meren's FB post about the calendar

Forum Index » Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)

Reply to "Melanie Meren's FB post about the calendar"

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][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][i][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I’d be happy enough with the 26-27 calendar as is, as long as the dumb 3 hour early releases are going the way of the dodo. My kids’ ES has given up on any instruction on those days. They use them for class test makeups if a kid was sick and then spend the rest of the time for all the other kids on “team building activities” and playing games. Meanwhile SOL’s are sneaking up on us … only March, April, and maybe a week of May left to go and we have to get through spring break in there … [/quote]

My guess is, if they can get rid of the early release, Meren can declare victory. It’s an intensely unpopular policy.

Hopefully, they can draw some guidelines for commonsense reformed to the calendar going forward: [b]TW/SD days only permitted on Monday or Friday[/b], teacher training moved virtual and [b]carried out to some extent during snow days[/b], [b]TW days layered on top of either federal or religious holidays, whichever makes more sense.[/b][/quote]

None of your ideas make sense and/or are feasible. Get real.
 
TW/PD on a Friday? Never going to happen. Fridays are not productive. No one ever schedules meetings for Friday afternoons. By then, teachers are exhausted.

Virtual teacher training on snow days. doesn’t make sense as teachers’ own children would be at home. A snow day means teachers are off period.

TW on a religious or federal holiday? I don’t think so.

[/quote]

From the perspective of a normal professional adult who is also a parent,  professional expectations in 2026 include working five day weeks (even Friday!) teleworking in inclement weather (even if children are home) and not having every religious or federal holiday as PTO. I believe our teachers are professional adults who can adapt to higher professional expectations to save taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars.[/quote]

Sheeesh, what 19th century boss do you have?!

Professional expectations in 2026 also include unlimited PTO, full time remote work, and a focus on mental health outside of work. Sorry your company hasn’t gotten with the times of R.O.W.E. [/quote]

Very few jobs offer unlimited PTO and full time remote work. I worked for a company with “unlimited PTO” and the people who took that literally ended up being counseled and then fired. Every contract has a number of hours that employees have to work, drop under that and you are gone. Any contract where you have deadlines or work in teams will have limits on the amount of PTO you can take.

Most of the world reverted to at least hybrid if not full time office after COVID. There are some remote jobs but they are hard to find.

The normal work environment is still 9-5 in the office. You can work to find something else but it isn’t easy. [/quote]

A bunch of opinion based generalizations here.

“Very few jobs offer unlimited PTO”

In my sector, pharmaceuticals, it’s pretty common. In fact my last 3 companies (severance, merger, promotion) have all offered unlimited PTO. I’ve been approached by multiple competitors, none have any verbiage about contract hours etc. I work on a team and have deadlines, as long as my work is submitted by the deadline, they could care less when and where I do it. As professionals, we have the freedom and the ability to plan our meetings when it works for us.

I think there’s some confusion about what a ROWE workplace is. This may not be common in your sector unfortunately, but it’s very common in others. I’d encourage you to explore better opportunities where the company prioritizes your happiness and mental health as much as they do your work. They’re out there! [/quote]

I have worked for pretty much every major Defense Contractor in the area. One offered unlimited PTO and they started that 3 years ago. Two people on my team were let go for abusing said policy within a year. You work in a sector that offers it but most don't. I promise you that the parents working retail jobs and house cleaning and other blue collar jobs were they are working for a company do not have remote work and unlimited PTO. [/quote]

[b]"This may not be common in your sector unfortunately"[/b]

Reading comprehension is key.

Obviously retail jobs and house cleaning and other blue collar jobs do not have remote work and unlimited PTO. McDonalds doesn't offer remote work either, shocker. Those aren't ROWE workplaces (mainly a corporate term), and most of them are not 9-5s either, everyone knows that...

As sure as we both are of that, I'm also sure that there are countless corporate accounting, marketing, and engineering jobs (white collar) that are remote with unlimited PTO. The median household income in Fairfax County (census.gov) is north of $150k with the average person making $70k+. Those aren't retail employees or house cleaners...[/quote]

Are you suggesting that FCPS is or should be an ROWE employer? I don’t see any value to our students in having teachers out of the classroom more than they already are, but, but that would have nothing to do with changes to the calendar and you should perhaps start a new thread advocating for such workplace benefits.

In the meantime, while discussing an important proposal aimed at addressing affordability, I would suggest you consider the following:

https://www.ffxnow.com/2025/10/03/number-of-jobless-fairfax-residents-up-nearly-28-over-2024-as-more-uncertainty-looms/[/quote]

Straight out of your article:

"Unemployment figures for Virginia localities and metro areas are reported a month after being compiled. The August figures came out the same day the federal government entered a partial shutdown as Congress failed to agree on a spending plan at the start of the fiscal year."

And here I thought you were advocating for the house cleaners and retail employees? [/quote]

I’m for all families for whom the cost of childcare is being needlessly driven up by FCPS. Yes its the retain employees, it’s also the VA nurses and the TSA workers who are part of the federal government. What do you think the school board should do to reduce the childcare burden on Fairfax families?[/quote]

I personally don’t believe any school board/public school system has a responsibility to reduce the cost of private childcare for anyone. [/quote]

That’s a reasonable belief. It isn’t one shared by at least some members of the current board.
Do you suggest they should not respond to their constituents?[/quote]

Oh, they'll respond, but response and meaningful change are two different things.

"Thank you for sharing your concerns about the rising cost of childcare. I understand the burden this places on families. I will bring this issue up at our next School Board meeting for discussion."

Followed by no change. [/quote]

Much more likely for them to make an easy change – – get rid of early release— and then say they have responded with decisive action to their constituents concerns about affordability. [/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