Anonymous wrote:I think this is a separate discussion from the long thread about Calendar D. I am truly curious what the end goal is for "equity". I am Jewish, and I would love more my kid to have Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur off, but I also get there is lots of diversity and other religions/cultures would then start wondering why we get the days off - similar to how we always have wondered why the calendar has always favored Christians in the past.

Calendar D has ONE Christian holiday off school - Christmas. That's not going to change any time soon because it's so ingrained. I think the calendar looks a little ridiculous with all the "O" dates, but what is a better solution?

I have seen a couple of very vocal Jewish people and organizations complaining about how disappointed they are and how this calendar is a step away from equity. I don't really get it. I have not seen a proposed solution...

So what would a calendar that truly represents equity look like?

Christmas is not a specific religious holiday since it occurs during "Winter Break".

If anyone wants religious holidays, move your kid to a private religion based school.

Once again, calendar "equity" is a solution looking for a problem.

Anonymous wrote:No religious holidays. Make it an excused absence for anyone who chooses to celebrate (and allow students the standard week to make up assignments/tests/etc without penalty).

Staff should be allowed to use leave that cannot be denied, but I don't think any special religious rules should be in place about extra leave or whatever. We get 5 personal days. FIVE. In addition to sick leave. If you can't spare one of your five personal days for your religious holiday, then IMO it's really not a priority for you to take it off.

Teacher here. I disagree. Many teachers have been banking leave for eventual maternity leave which is atrocious. Also, personal leave can be denied. Religious Leave cannot.

Education funds should follow the kids (vouchers), so that you could more easily afford to send your kids to a parochial or private school that met your scheduling needs, or get the ultimate in schedule flexibility, and homeschool.

“ Make it an excused absence for anyone who chooses to celebrate (and allow students the standard week to make up assignments/tests/etc without penalty). ”

I do agree they should not schedule huge things on the big holidays though too like graduation, Cogat testing, prom, etc.

As to missing class and having to make up I thought Meghan M raised a really good point in saying that holidays are not the only reason kids miss and we need to look at why kids feel it is impossible to be out and make things up regardless of the reason.

No religious holidays. Make it an excused absence for anyone who chooses to celebrate (and allow students the standard week to make up assignments/tests/etc without penalty).

Staff should be allowed to use leave that cannot be denied, but I don't think any special religious rules should be in place about extra leave or whatever. We get 5 personal days. FIVE. In addition to sick leave. If you can't spare one of your five personal days for your religious holiday, then IMO it's really not a priority for you to take it off.

I don’t know one school systems or college that does have a winter break at the end of the year. Some are longer and others are shorter, but they all have a break around Christmas and New Year. At one point it was because of Christmas, now it is just the culture. FCPS should follow the norm, as it has.

I agree calendar D is not ideal, but it does not favor one group over another.

Anonymous wrote:I feel like since it’s impossible to accommodate everyone’s religious holidays, the new calendar that uses a fixed spring break week is as close as we are going to get to equity. Winter break makes the most sense as the last two weeks of the year, regardless of when Christmas falls.

Agree with the boldest

Though at “whenever Xmas falls”. It always falls a week before the end of the year. That said, while I don’t need a full week maybe easily 2/3 of the schools would not show up if they cut it closer to Xmas than the 23rd. And basically the entire country goes on vacation around then - the notion that FCPS would not is entirely ridiculous .

I feel like since it’s impossible to accommodate everyone’s religious holidays, the new calendar that uses a fixed spring break week is as close as we are going to get to equity. Winter break makes the most sense as the last two weeks of the year, regardless of when Christmas falls.

I am also Jewish. I have kids in ES - and I personally was ok with calendar option C. I think it's good to unpeg spring break from Easter - and if we give off for Jewish holidays than it starts a slippery slope of what other holidays do we have to close for - so I think better to close for none.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No days off for anything. No christmas (haha winter break). Spring break and Easter link removed (which they have done). We just go to school for everyone's holidays. Only federal holidays and teacher work days are days off. Give no one want they want make everyone mad.

Christmas is a federal holiday. But the secular reason is the same as making it a federal holiday— they could try to keep the school system open, but wouldn’t be able to because 80%+ of teachers and kids would be out. At some point there are so many absences they can’t run something.

+1
The reality is that the only holiday in FCPS that actually meets that “we cannot functionally run our school system” bar is Christmas (out of the religious holidays). The rest do not. Which is why I agree that FCPS should not cave to public pressure to add the 4 that were being lobbied for because there is no way to draw a line after that and say no to others. And we need to have a workable school schedule!

I think D was about as good as they could do to thread that needle after the MESS of how A and B were rolled out. It is deeply hypocritical for the favored 3 religions to keep arguing equity demands they get their minority population days off while ignoring the other minority populations that have their own special days and saying basically “sucks to be you but we got here first”.

Anonymous wrote:No days off for anything. No christmas (haha winter break). Spring break and Easter link removed (which they have done). We just go to school for everyone's holidays. Only federal holidays and teacher work days are days off. Give no one want they want make everyone mad.

Christmas is a federal holiday. But the secular reason is the same as making it a federal holiday— they could try to keep the school system open, but wouldn’t be able to because 80%+ of teachers and kids would be out. At some point there are so many absences they can’t run something.

I am a Jewish teacher who grew up with high holidays off. But I also grew up in a very Jewish area. I would say 1/2 of student and teacher population was Jewish. So it made sense. I usually have 1-2 Jewish kids in my class per year. So I understand not getting off. I just think the teacher regulation is ridiculous and inequitable. In order to take religious leave and not use your own leave we have to document making up hours. I work way more hours than the 7.5 per day. It is insulting to even have to ask a teacher to document and make up hours. I do think it is good that the county has recognized days that certain things should not occur like assessments, BTS, field trips, etc.

Anonymous wrote:No days off for anything. No christmas (haha winter break). Spring break and Easter link removed (which they have done). We just go to school for everyone's holidays. Only federal holidays and teacher work days are days off. Give no one want they want make everyone mad.

I agree with this. Let's make it totally secular. Give only federal holidays off. Decouple Easter and Spring Break. Keep the election days because of the obvious. Let's do away with all of it. We cannot be totally inclusive and this random picking and choosing is nonsensical.

No days off for anything. No christmas (haha winter break). Spring break and Easter link removed (which they have done). We just go to school for everyone's holidays. Only federal holidays and teacher work days are days off. Give no one want they want make everyone mad.

I think this is a separate discussion from the long thread about Calendar D. I am truly curious what the end goal is for "equity". I am Jewish, and I would love more my kid to have Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur off, but I also get there is lots of diversity and other religions/cultures would then start wondering why we get the days off - similar to how we always have wondered why the calendar has always favored Christians in the past.

Calendar D has ONE Christian holiday off school - Christmas. That's not going to change any time soon because it's so ingrained. I think the calendar looks a little ridiculous with all the "O" dates, but what is a better solution?

I have seen a couple of very vocal Jewish people and organizations complaining about how disappointed they are and how this calendar is a step away from equity. I don't really get it. I have not seen a proposed solution...

So what would a calendar that truly represents equity look like?