Reply to How DO we get the calendar changed?

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What's wrong with the calendar?  It's good to have more days off to give both families and teachers a breather from the miserable daily grind.  As a parent, I don't understand why parents of older kids who do not need babysitting (I get it when parents need daycare) want more school days.

My other concern is teachers unavailability to timely grade tests/assignments and post for parental review as is.  Even with all the days dedicated to having teachers catch up on this work, they don't have ability to do this already, grades can be lagging weeks, which makes it difficult for the parents to assess when their child needs help.  There is already little to no communications between schools/teachers and parents when kids aren't doing well or fail before things get worse  (due to delayed posting of progress) that it's impossible to catch up or do anything.  So, no, I don't want more schools days, more assignments, more prolonged busy work for my kids and myself as a working parent. I want to also have more days for kids to catch up on assignments, on sleep, or to simply decompress, hang out with friends beyond organized activities, etc.

I get it that a lot of parents want longer or around-the-year school situation where kids are out of their hair daily, but this also heavily penalizes families who do not need this and don't want their kids to be punished for absences.

And for this whole thing with more days of school to work, we seriously need to have more teachers, fewer kids per class, to allow teacher to spend time to grade, assess who needs help, provide help to the kids who fail or underperform, provide extra challenges for kids who overachieve and are bored, etc. have ability to contact parents when needed, etc. [/quote]

You misunderstand. Many parents want kids in schools 5 days a week because all of these 3 or 4 day weeks extend the school year and make summer break shorter. [/quote]

Exactly. A longer summer provides opportunities for high achieving high school students to do the summer enrichment programs and still start practice for fall sports and have some downtime. A Tuesday at home in Chantilly is a waste compared to a week in New Haven.[/quote]

Ok, for the 1% the longer summer break is better.  For everyone else, there is significant learning loss over the summer.[/quote]

It’s way more than “the 1%”. Its every student with any value or interest outside the limits of FCPS offering. For example:

1. International students for whom the summer is the only opportunity to see family/immerse in language
2. Serious athletes especially in non-school programs like ballet and ice skating
3. Serious musicians doing summer conservatory programs
4. Families who send their kids to religiously affiliated camps — this is a big deal for a lot of Jewish families in the NE

And I don’t dispute that there may be learning loss. Parents can make a choice to send their kids to summer school if learning loss is their #1 concern. But for many, many Fairfax families, learning loss is an acceptable tradeoff to meet the needs that aren’t met in school . [/quote]

Those are wants vs needs[/quote]

There’s no “need” to be off on a random March Tuesday in order to limit families summer activities. Kids who need more school in the summer can sign up for summer school, but most kids don’t need it. [/quote]

Gosh, it must be hard to be you. All that free summer time and money to spend on your kids lessons, camps and vacations, yet you are still miserable because the world isn’t meeting your perceived “needs.”[/quote]

Look, if your kid is so significantly behind that they need a shorter summer to stay on track, I’m sympathetic. That must be hard. But most families have things they prioritize outside school— language, arts, sports, culture, even just family time. Public school cannot, and isn’t intended to, replace those things. [/quote]

DP. I like having our outside priorities year-round, not crammed into summer months.

I’d much rather have a shorter summer and have more extended breaks spread throughout the school year.

My kid can still have her summer job, maybe lasting 7 weeks instead of 9. And then we can have a family vacation in October or February, when we don’t have to take her out of her job just to travel during the crowded summer months.

[b][/b]You, PP, don’t speak for all of us.[b] Bring on the shorter summer! [/quote]

You don’t speak for all of us either. Some us want a longer summer and fewer disrupted weeks during the school year. [/quote]

Great! So we agree.

So let’s stop with the “most people feel…” this and the “all high schoolers need…” that.

No solution is going to make everybody happy because we are all invested in our own interests, like the poster who keeps bringing up prestigious summer internships that impact like .003% of high schoolers.

[/quote]

Most people do want long summers. Thats why there was such outcry this year, including from teachers. Absolutely no one got up and said 25-26 was a good calendar for students or families. [/quote]

Look… the loudest voices don’t always represent the bigger group.

And my point remains. No solution is going to please everybody because most people are fixated on their own interests.

I posted above about summer brain drain and how much time is wasted every school year reviewing the prior year’s material. I was met with comments about vacations and swim team, etc.

Let’s not pretend that people’s interests represent what’s best for the majority of students. It’s what’s best for them: their kids, their schedules, their preferences. [/quote]

Summer swim quite literally changed my life. It’s how I fell in love with the sport and got a full ride to a very good university. The year round swim teams cannot replicate the magic of summer league. It’s hard to explain if you aren’t familiar with it. I am sure that other experiences that kids have over a 8 or 9 week summer are equally formative… 6 week sleep away camps being just one example. It would be a real shame to dramatically modify or get rid of these things just so kids can sit in public school buildings most of the year. And no, you can’t recreate a lot of these opportunities during a 5 week summer or shorter breaks throughout the year.

It feels like people who don’t have the means to create a good summer for their children want to get rid of it for everyone else, so they don’t have to feel bad. [/quote]

This is silly. You think I’m trying to selfishly take away your summer because I’m without means and jealous of the opportunities you can provide?

No. I simply value school more than swim team. My children participate in both summer and club swim, and I STILL value school more.

We all have different priorities, I guess. I just think more study time and AP prep time during the school year is more important than decreasing a summer swim time by .001 seconds. [/quote]

The kids aren't spending all those 3 and 4 day weeks studying.

They are spending them sleeping and playing on their phones.[/quote]

Not all kids. Mine take multiple APs and have used the time off effectively.

[/quote]

+1 Yes! The random days off have been a blessing to my high schooler.[/quote]

Same here![/quote]

I’m embarrassed for all of us if Fairfax kids somehow need four-day weeks in order to study so they can achieve what northeast kids can do with a normal schedule. [/quote]
I can’t speak for all Northeast schools, but the ones I’m familiar with have a similar start and end time as FCPS (not counting this year) and if they start after Labor Day they go until the last week of June. Where their calendar differs is a they get a full week off for President’s day whereas FCPS scatters their closures. Northeast schools also only have a handful of snow days, so there is less uncertainty with weather disruptions. [/quote]

Baloney.

Name the states that give a full week off for... [i]presidents day[/i][/quote]

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