Anonymous wrote:I have had it with the FCPS calendar. The days off have gotten totally out off hand. At some point FCPS decided it need to celebrate EVERY possibly , religious and non religious holiday under the sun.
It is out of control.

Throw in all the weather delays and closing and kids are never in school. I know, I know, but they still meet their hours and are above the VA standard. Sure, who cares when it come to elementary, but HS teachers, especially, those teaching AP classes plan their year around having a certain number of days of school, and given that most AP exams are early May they already have a condensed timeline. Elementary parents come back to the conversation with your kid in in HS and school actually matters. Why not have a higher bar and if there aren't weather related closing we get more instruction.

You are saying that the number of days that the kids attend school meet the required hours and are ABOVE the VA standard but yet the "kids are never in school". How can that be? Is your gripe to change the standard? Do you even know what you are b-tching about?

Anonymous wrote:Someone needs to get the Media involved!!!

I hope this is posted to be funny because it made me chuckle. But just in case it isn't because I know how stupid some DCUMs could be, if you haven't noticed, the media reports the school closings, delays, and early dismissals, so I'm pretty sure they are aware of these things.

I have a kids in elementary and high school. The calendar is awful. The struggle for elementary completely outweighs anything. It is not about child care. There is no consistency, no momentum for actual learning.

Combined with the elementary early releases it is absolutely impossible to develop a routine for the young ones which is SEVEN grades versus 4 in high school so it includes more kids.

I posted years ago about this being a public school system (we are not a religious school system) and don’t need every holiday off but everyone lambasted me.

Anonymous wrote:I have had it with the FCPS calendar. The days off have gotten totally out off hand. At some point FCPS decided it need to celebrate EVERY possibly , religious and non religious holiday under the sun.
It is out of control.

Throw in all the weather delays and closing and kids are never in school. I know, I know, but they still meet their hours and are above the VA standard. Sure, who cares when it come to elementary, but HS teachers, especially, those teaching AP classes plan their year around having a certain number of days of school, and given that most AP exams are early May they already have a condensed timeline. Elementary parents come back to the conversation with your kid in in HS and school actually matters. Why not have a higher bar and if there aren't weather related closing we get more instruction.

Stop electing and reelecting these goobers on the SB - especially ones without children in FCPS

You need to write your school board members and then you need to engage them where they care which is politics.

All of the schoolboard members are liberal and many are progressive. This calendar is *not* progressive and disproportionately impacts lower-income and dual-working families. Women and hourly workers are supposed to be constituencies democrats care about. So raise the issue with local league of women voters, canvassers/fundraisers who are trying to get support for other democratic candidates (especially if you’ve donated before) and directly ask school board members how they are contributing to the affordability agenda with their calendar choices.

It is idiotic that this is how any of this works. But COVID created the idea for many Democrats that liberals don’t mind keeping kids out of school and now its course correction.

Anonymous wrote:Everyone says this. But then their kids get old enough to stay home alone and they stop caring.

Yes, this is true. It’s a big deal and you are frustrated up until middle school. Then overnight, the random days off start to be a blessing when your kid has been getting to the bus at 6:30 or earlier in MS.

Then HS comes with the AP classes and you no longer pay attention and they tell you when they have the days off. You love the days off because they can study for all of the exams for those classes. Your kid is in too many activities, because they want to be, and is happy to rest.

You don’t even care when school gets out because of the half days at the end and you realize you actually can pull them when they aren’t doing anything.

So no, we don’t care and neither will you in a few years. But yes, it was really bad when they were little and I’m sorry. It was hard for daycare and working parents.

Anonymous wrote:Eh, AP courses are at a fast-pace naturally....just like in college - the real deal.
Colleges arent in school that much longer than FCPS (arguably less given their winter break is super long, classes only meet 2x or 3x/week, and they're done by mid-May). And yes, some even close for snow (gasp) (looking at you VT).

My AP courses were harder than the college courses I took freshman and maybe even sophomore year. It wasn't until junior level courses where things started to get really hard. In college the real learning is done through experiences like internships or working in labs anyway. And in college you use every minute of class time wisely. High school days have a lot of wasted time built in.

Eh, AP courses are at a fast-pace naturally....just like in college - the real deal.
Colleges arent in school that much longer than FCPS (arguably less given their winter break is super long, classes only meet 2x or 3x/week, and they're done by mid-May). And yes, some even close for snow (gasp) (looking at you VT).

What frustrates me the most is that SACC is now closed on these religious holidays. No one except the school district and the county treat these days as holidays. Everyone else has to go to work and thus needs childcare. People love to whine about how it's unfair that Christmas is a day off and thus their holiday should be one too. But last time I checked every company and agency/organization in this country gives off on Christmas. So the holidays are not the same no matter what you want to pretend.

Everyone says this. But then their kids get old enough to stay home alone and they stop caring.

Someone needs to get the Media involved!!!

Anonymous wrote:I have had it with the FCPS calendar. The days off have gotten totally out off hand. At some point FCPS decided it need to celebrate EVERY possibly , religious and non religious holiday under the sun.
It is out of control.

Throw in all the weather delays and closing and kids are never in school. I know, I know, but they still meet their hours and are above the VA standard. Sure, who cares when it come to elementary, but HS teachers, especially, those teaching AP classes plan their year around having a certain number of days of school, and given that most AP exams are early May they already have a condensed timeline. Elementary parents come back to the conversation with your kid in in HS and school actually matters. Why not have a higher bar and if there aren't weather related closing we get more instruction.

Are you an AP teacher?

Welcome to DEI

Email your SB members immediately!!!

Go to the media!!!

It is completely out of control what they're doing!! There needs to be a call to action immediately!

I have had it with the FCPS calendar. The days off have gotten totally out off hand. At some point FCPS decided it need to celebrate EVERY possibly , religious and non religious holiday under the sun.
It is out of control.

Throw in all the weather delays and closing and kids are never in school. I know, I know, but they still meet their hours and are above the VA standard. Sure, who cares when it come to elementary, but HS teachers, especially, those teaching AP classes plan their year around having a certain number of days of school, and given that most AP exams are early May they already have a condensed timeline. Elementary parents come back to the conversation with your kid in in HS and school actually matters. Why not have a higher bar and if there aren't weather related closing we get more instruction.