Well, that too bad because we already bought our plane tickets. Either way, I wouldn't have sent my children because this is just ridiculous.

Anonymous wrote:I find it hard to believe that the original calendar couldn't accommodate two missed days.

Exactly what I thought, usually there are about 5 extra days that accommodate for inclement weather/other causes.

Anonymous wrote:My oldest is just in 1st grade, but was one the few kids at school on the last two days of school last year. The K'ers had a move up ceremony the day before the last day of school, and I sent him back to class with his teacher afterwards - apparently, only 5 or so of the kids came back to class. He said it was only a few kids on the last day. I guess I will join everyone else in not sending their kids to school the last few days. I have paid for camp for the week of the 12th, so my kids will not be there. This is just UNREAL (and typical). Apparently they didn't even tell the teachers - they posted it on social media first.

OP here. Exactly my PGCPS teacher friends had no idea what I was talking about. There was no formal announcement. They just posted it on social media.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I'm aware of the rule. I'm a former PGCPS teacher and a current MCPS teacher with a child still in PGCPS. However I feel the decision should have been made weeks ago. There is going to be a lot of students and possibly teachers absent those last 2 days. Even though teachers were scheduled until the 12th but that last time for teachers is usually cleaning/packing up their classrooms and returning any materials you used throughout the year. People usually book vacations and summer camps well in advance

Montgomery County where you work has 184 school days in your schedule, so you build the 4 extra days right in and don't get them back even if you don't use them.

http://news.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/staff-bulletin/board-of-education-sets-calendar-for-2016-2017-school-year/

The school calendar is based on 184 instructional days for students (four more than the minimum required by the state of Maryland) and 193 duty days for teachers.

Your teachers have 193 duty days, whereas PGCPS teachers only have 192 duty days (even though you have 4 more instructional days than we do, you only work 1 more day than we do!)

Thanks once again I am aware especially since I was a former PGCPS teacher.

My oldest is just in 1st grade, but was one the few kids at school on the last two days of school last year. The K'ers had a move up ceremony the day before the last day of school, and I sent him back to class with his teacher afterwards - apparently, only 5 or so of the kids came back to class. He said it was only a few kids on the last day. I guess I will join everyone else in not sending their kids to school the last few days. I have paid for camp for the week of the 12th, so my kids will not be there. This is just UNREAL (and typical). Apparently they didn't even tell the teachers - they posted it on social media first.

PGCPS apply for a waiver from the State and only were denied this week.
"UPPER MARLBORO, MD – Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS) will end the 2016-17 academic year on June 13 for students and teachers.

Schools will dismiss two hours early on June 9, June 12 and June 13 to allow teachers time to complete year-end tasks.

Since March, PGCPS officials had been seeking a state waiver from the mandatory 180-day school calendar. The waiver for one to two days of student attendance would have allowed the school year to end as originally planned, June 9 for students and June 12 for teachers. The school system recently learned those efforts were unsuccessful.

As a result, two extra days will be added to the calendar for students and one extra day for teachers.

These dates are subject to change pending any emergency closures."

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I'm aware of the rule. I'm a former PGCPS teacher and a current MCPS teacher with a child still in PGCPS. However I feel the decision should have been made weeks ago. There is going to be a lot of students and possibly teachers absent those last 2 days. Even though teachers were scheduled until the 12th but that last time for teachers is usually cleaning/packing up their classrooms and returning any materials you used throughout the year. People usually book vacations and summer camps well in advance

Montgomery County where you work has 184 school days in your schedule, so you build the 4 extra days right in and don't get them back even if you don't use them.

http://news.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/staff-bulletin/board-of-education-sets-calendar-for-2016-2017-school-year/

The school calendar is based on 184 instructional days for students (four more than the minimum required by the state of Maryland) and 193 duty days for teachers.

Your teachers have 193 duty days, whereas PGCPS teachers only have 192 duty days (even though you have 4 more instructional days than we do, you only work 1 more day than we do!)

Anonymous wrote:I find it hard to believe that the original calendar couldn't accommodate two missed days.

There were 4 "Inclement Weather Makeup Days" listed on the original calendar: Monday June 12 to Thursday June 15th. Those are our 4 makeup days. If we use a snow day or cancel school for another reason, we add one of those days to the schedule and bump the last day of school by one day. If we don't use those days, the last day of school remains as originally scheduled.

Some school districts do it differently. Since 180 instructional days are needed, they plan 184 days into the schedule. That gives them 4 extra days just in case. If our school district had done that, then the planned last day of school would have been Thursday June 15th. And even if you don't use all your snowdays, you still are in school until that day -- they don't let you out early due to unused snow days.

The problem here is the very late notice that we will be using our scheduled Inclement Weather make Up days. There was not reason to wait this long to announce it.

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I'm aware of the rule. I'm a former PGCPS teacher and a current MCPS teacher with a child still in PGCPS. However I feel the decision should have been made weeks ago. There is going to be a lot of students and possibly teachers absent those last 2 days. Even though teachers were scheduled until the 12th but that last time for teachers is usually cleaning/packing up their classrooms and returning any materials you used throughout the year. People usually book vacations and summer camps well in advance

I agree completely! But you asked why school was extended 2 days.
The answer is that the original school calendar only held 180 days, and we missed two days of instruction.

I can't figure out why this notification is coming so late. My two guesses are (a) someone screwed up or (b) they were applying for some kind of waiver to the state Dept of Ed.

The cancelled days of instruction happened in March so there was plenty of time to announce the need to use two makeup days and the end of March.

OP here. I'm aware of the rule. I'm a former PGCPS teacher and a current MCPS teacher with a child still in PGCPS. However I feel the decision should have been made weeks ago. There is going to be a lot of students and possibly teachers absent those last 2 days. Even though teachers were scheduled until the 12th but that last time for teachers is usually cleaning/packing up their classrooms and returning any materials you used throughout the year. People usually book vacations and summer camps well in advance

I find it hard to believe that the original calendar couldn't accommodate two missed days.

MD state law requires a minimum of 180 instructional days for students.

http://msa.maryland.gov/msa/mdmanual/01glance/html/edelem.html

"The Maryland school year is a minimum of 180 days long. Schools are open for a ten-month period, from about Labor Day to mid-June. Opening and closing dates vary from county to county. Elementary and middle school students attend school at least 6 hours a day, high school students 6.5 hours a day."

The pgcps calendar for 2016-2017 included 180 student instructional days.

However, we lost one day of instruction when schools had to close that day in March for Day without a Woman. Although staff reported, the students were not there.

We lost a second instructional day for a snow day. Teachers did not work that day.

Monday and Tuesday will now be instructional days.

I agree. I'm surprised they made the decision so late. I asked a bunch of my friends who are PGCPS and they didn't even know.

I see it was just announced but I have no idea why. One comment on their Facebook page mentions the day without a woman might be the cause but I'm not sure. I'm surprised they would make such a last minute decision. We already had setup our vacation for that week but I guess it won't be too big of a deal to miss the last two days.

Does anyone know why PGCPS extended school until the 13th? The original last day of school was June 9th. Now the calendar reads June 13th.