Reply to Is FCPS "cheating" my kids out of the minimum instruction required by the state?

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Reply to "Is FCPS "cheating" my kids out of the minimum instruction required by the state?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The current calendar accounts for way more than 990 hours.  The county hits the minimum of 990 hours EVEN if there are 13 days of snow.  So, basically, if there is no snow, they are getting 990 hours PLUS 13 extra days.  I would not stress a about the 10 minutes of putting away your coat, greeting your teacher, and sitting in your seat being counted as "instructional time."[/quote]

OP here.. I think the "new" accounting method (i.e. counting 60 hrs/ school year of "walk to and from the bus" time as "instructional time" misleads us into believing we have 13 snow days "in the bank" when we really only have 3 snow days banked.  After that, the kids will simply lose instructional time that in years past they would have received.  Basically the school district is claiming we are getting 70 additional hours when 60 of those 70 are imaginary hours based on new accounting methods (counting the walk to and from the bus as instructional time).  I'm not 100% certain, but that's my suspicion.

Here's my calculations.  There are 180 days of school (6 days are early release by 2 hrs each).  FCPS is counting each of the 180 school days as 6 hrs of instructional time (except for the 6 early release days). 180×6=1080 (-12hrs for early release days) =1068 hrs.

1068 hrs far exceeds the required 990 hrs.  Except, that 6 hrs of instruction is based on 20 min. of "walk to/from the bus time".... (20 min/day. ×180 days = 3600 min. or 60 hrs of "walk to/from bus" time.  So 1068 hrs (claimed instructional time) - 60 hrs (false time) = 1008 hrs. of instruction......which still meets the state requirement of 990.....so all is well.....so long as there are less than 18 hrs (i.e. 3 days) of cancelled classes (snow days or delays).  If my calculations are correct, we don't have 13 snow days in the bank...we have 3 snow days (or fewer if there are any weather delays).  Beyond that, I think FCPS is now just choosing not to make up days and they are simply claiming that the next 10 missed days are covered by kids walking to and from the buses for 60 hrs/school year.

I hope I'm wrong.  It seems quite shifty for FCPS to claim they added 70 hrs of extra school time and 13 snow days when most of what they did is pretend that walking to and from a bus counts as instruction.  If this is their strategy,  wow.  I have lost faith in the school board.  Either they weren't paying attention to the details or they were perpetuating a fraud on the parents/students in Fairfax.  It would be very disappointing if this is how they are running the system.[/quote]

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