Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am Jewish and very much appreciate having Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur off but giving time off for Passover is crazy. Kids can totally go to school and still celebrate Passover!!


In terms of "where does it end?", The same holidays have been off for several years now, seems like there is no need to add more or take some away, unless demographics change dramatically.

For those who don't celebrate, this seems like a good chance to talk to your kids about being respectful of different religions and making reasonable accommodations (ex not serving pork when a Muslim friend comes over).

You can be respectful of different religions without contorting a school calendar to privilege the exercise of them. Excusing the absences and making them no-test days is a reasonable accommodation. Not letting kids get 5 straight days in school for months on end is not reasonable.

Kids love days off. This is about you needing childcare. That's fine, it's a valid need, but let's stop trotting out nobler-sounding needs rather than say "I have ES kids and a full-time job"

It doesn’t matter either way. Being able to work to pay your bills is an immensely greater priority than the optional celebration of a holiday. Heck, me wanting to use my PTO and money to go get my nails done mid-week should be a greater priority than burning my leave/disposable income on getting kids to/from school break camps so other people can celebrate their holidays. I shouldn’t have to give up my limited time off and money so someone else can feel warm and fuzzy about their special little holiday.

But even more so, kids need a predictable schedule, especially young kids and those of us who have kids with special needs who thrive with routine. This needs to be the ultimate priority. Every day my kids wake up they ask whether they have school today because they’re so confused about when is a school day and when isn’t. I try to go over it with them the week before, but it constantly changes, no wonder they can’t keep up. Sprinkle in some sick days and they basically haven’t had a full week of school yet. It’s not as hard on my neurotypical kid as it is my neurodivergent kid, but it sucks for both of them.

People should exercise their religious freedoms on their own time. There are A LOT of other priorities that are way more important than religion. And if we’re going to bend over backwards to rearrange the school calendar for this nonsense then we may as well open ourselves up to pruning the library of books that are “offensive” to certain religions. Because clearly we’ve decided to be non-secular at this point.

How are we non-secular if we're observing all the religious holidays?

That’s the point. We’re basically becoming non-secular if we’re deciding to prioritize religion. The hypocrisy though is that liberals want to give days off for non-Christian holidays to score progressive brownie points, but dismiss things like complaints about books in the library (largely made by Christian conservatives) even though restricting some books in the library is certainly less disruptive and a lesser accommodation than making the entire school district resolve their calendar around these days off. I’m not saying we should ban books (in fact I don’t think we should be catering to religion is a mistake). But let’s be real about how APS is picking and choosing which religious beliefs to accommodate based on liberal politics instead of just focusing on education.

You are equating these things, saying, APS is picking one over the other due to politics? If you don't understand why one would choose accommodation of minority religious beliefs vs censorship, I don't know what to tell you.

I’m a NP, and I don’t want any religion or any religious beliefs in my taxpayer funded schools, period. Maybe for the high schoolers who are old enough to study it objectively. You get accommodated as the law requires, you get the same respect any human is entitled to, and no privilege. That goes for every religion out there from the Christians to the oppressed minorities. It’s not safe for one (or the “nones”) until they’re all out.

Anonymous wrote:Sidenote: am I reading the calendar options correctly, APS has April 10, 2023 off as Eid al-Fitr? How does that work? Doesn't Eid April 21?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am Jewish and very much appreciate having Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur off but giving time off for Passover is crazy. Kids can totally go to school and still celebrate Passover!!


In terms of "where does it end?", The same holidays have been off for several years now, seems like there is no need to add more or take some away, unless demographics change dramatically.

For those who don't celebrate, this seems like a good chance to talk to your kids about being respectful of different religions and making reasonable accommodations (ex not serving pork when a Muslim friend comes over).

You can be respectful of different religions without contorting a school calendar to privilege the exercise of them. Excusing the absences and making them no-test days is a reasonable accommodation. Not letting kids get 5 straight days in school for months on end is not reasonable.

Kids love days off. This is about you needing childcare. That's fine, it's a valid need, but let's stop trotting out nobler-sounding needs rather than say "I have ES kids and a full-time job"

It doesn’t matter either way. Being able to work to pay your bills is an immensely greater priority than the optional celebration of a holiday. Heck, me wanting to use my PTO and money to go get my nails done mid-week should be a greater priority than burning my leave/disposable income on getting kids to/from school break camps so other people can celebrate their holidays. I shouldn’t have to give up my limited time off and money so someone else can feel warm and fuzzy about their special little holiday.

But even more so, kids need a predictable schedule, especially young kids and those of us who have kids with special needs who thrive with routine. This needs to be the ultimate priority. Every day my kids wake up they ask whether they have school today because they’re so confused about when is a school day and when isn’t. I try to go over it with them the week before, but it constantly changes, no wonder they can’t keep up. Sprinkle in some sick days and they basically haven’t had a full week of school yet. It’s not as hard on my neurotypical kid as it is my neurodivergent kid, but it sucks for both of them.

People should exercise their religious freedoms on their own time. There are A LOT of other priorities that are way more important than religion. And if we’re going to bend over backwards to rearrange the school calendar for this nonsense then we may as well open ourselves up to pruning the library of books that are “offensive” to certain religions. Because clearly we’ve decided to be non-secular at this point.

How are we non-secular if we're observing all the religious holidays?

That’s the point. We’re basically becoming non-secular if we’re deciding to prioritize religion. The hypocrisy though is that liberals want to give days off for non-Christian holidays to score progressive brownie points, but dismiss things like complaints about books in the library (largely made by Christian conservatives) even though restricting some books in the library is certainly less disruptive and a lesser accommodation than making the entire school district resolve their calendar around these days off. I’m not saying we should ban books (in fact I don’t think we should be catering to religion is a mistake). But let’s be real about how APS is picking and choosing which religious beliefs to accommodate based on liberal politics instead of just focusing on education.

You are equating these things, saying, APS is picking one over the other due to politics? If you don't understand why one would choose accommodation of minority religious beliefs vs censorship, I don't know what to tell you.

Anonymous wrote:The fall schedule is always choppy but there are no days off except spring break from March-Memorial Day. Something to look forward to?

Anonymous wrote:I don't really care what calendar they pick. I just wish they'd do this in 3-year chunks so we didn't have to go through this process every single year.

Wouldn't it be amazing if we could have calendars through 2026 this December instead of just the 23-24 school year?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am Jewish and very much appreciate having Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur off but giving time off for Passover is crazy. Kids can totally go to school and still celebrate Passover!!


In terms of "where does it end?", The same holidays have been off for several years now, seems like there is no need to add more or take some away, unless demographics change dramatically.

For those who don't celebrate, this seems like a good chance to talk to your kids about being respectful of different religions and making reasonable accommodations (ex not serving pork when a Muslim friend comes over).

You can be respectful of different religions without contorting a school calendar to privilege the exercise of them. Excusing the absences and making them no-test days is a reasonable accommodation. Not letting kids get 5 straight days in school for months on end is not reasonable.

Kids love days off. This is about you needing childcare. That's fine, it's a valid need, but let's stop trotting out nobler-sounding needs rather than say "I have ES kids and a full-time job"

You must have NT kids. Many kids do NOT do well when their schedule is disrupted. Wednesdays off are very disruptive to keeps that need consistency.

OK, so how about this? No more individual days off, ever. If there needs to be a day off for a holiday, kids get the whole week off: A week off at Thanksgiving, two weeks off around Christmas & New Year's, a week off each for Diwali, Eid, Yom Kippur, and Rosh Hashana. School starts as much before Labor Day as necessary to be done the Friday before Memorial Day.

And no more polling the parents. Parents can write during the year to raise concerns, but the actual schedule is determined by the teachers.

Not that PP, but I’m pretty sure you know you are being ridiculous. PP wasn’t referring to Fridays/Mondays/contiguous sets of days off, but rather school off on a Wednesday or Tuesday but happening on the days before & after.
And APS already completely ignores parental calendar input anyway. They probably ignore teacher input, too. The surveys are all for show.

There are, in fact, parents complaining about 4-day school weeks.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am Jewish and very much appreciate having Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur off but giving time off for Passover is crazy. Kids can totally go to school and still celebrate Passover!!


In terms of "where does it end?", The same holidays have been off for several years now, seems like there is no need to add more or take some away, unless demographics change dramatically.

For those who don't celebrate, this seems like a good chance to talk to your kids about being respectful of different religions and making reasonable accommodations (ex not serving pork when a Muslim friend comes over).

You can be respectful of different religions without contorting a school calendar to privilege the exercise of them. Excusing the absences and making them no-test days is a reasonable accommodation. Not letting kids get 5 straight days in school for months on end is not reasonable.

Kids love days off. This is about you needing childcare. That's fine, it's a valid need, but let's stop trotting out nobler-sounding needs rather than say "I have ES kids and a full-time job"

Everyone needs days off. Everyone, especially kids, also needs a routine. It’s very hard to get into one and learn subject matter coherently when you have weeks that are broken up at random for months on end. I think the test scores are baring this out, no?

I also have significant concerns about teaching my children that the exercise of religion is to be privileged in public places.

And yes, some of us have to work. There is no nobler thing than putting a roof over your child’s head or putting food on their plates. Not everyone was lucky enough to marry a hedge fund manager so we could choose not to work and be available for childcare every third day. We are debating a calendar option that was created for the sole purpose of allowing APS teachers who live in Fairfax County to not have to worry about childcare. So please, just stop it with the nasty WAHM vs SAHM argument about school being “childcare.”

This really seems to be the tail that wags the dog, doesn't it? I live and vote in Arlington on the Arlington Public School System. The APS calendar should be developed with a goal of maximizing learning. If FFX's policy of having tons of days off in the middle of the week is a hardship for the teachers who work there, then perhaps those they should exercise their votes as residents of FFX county to encourage them to adopt a saner policy that isn't unnecessarily burdensome of working parents. After all, those teachers would only be subjected to the same difficulties that all the other working parents in FFX have to deal with, right now. And my employer isn't bending over backwards to accommodate FFX's school schedule, that's for sure.

It it also about no affordable housing in Arlington so many teachers leave in a different county, but it is more about not having subs to cover. I really don’t care if your employer accommodates your schedule nor do I care if APS (my employer) accommodates my kids schedule, but I damn better be able to use the leave I have to cover when I am out to take my kids days off so we can take a trip together just as your employer allows you to do. I am sure many many of you do this. In fact, most of the children in my class traveled last year so I know their parents were able to take off. The issue is we have no subs to cover being sick much less a significant number of teachers taking part of a week off at the same time to take a long weekend when FCPS breaks.

So while you are understanding the correlation between APS and FCPS you are not addressing the actual issue: subs when the schedules don’t align.

But we can’t take trips when the days off are scattered throughout the year. If we had actual chunks of breaks we could go somewhere. But a random Wednesdays off just suck. Let’s just have a 1.5 week fall break, 1.5 week winter break, and 1.5 week spring break (or something like that). Sprinkle in a few long weekends for teacher grade prep days and Thanksgiving b/c it is cultural to America. No religious holidays. No Veterans Day, President’s Day, etc.

I find it very sad that people think Thanksgiving deserves a break because it's part of our country's culture; yet are competely dismissive of all the veterans who fought to preserve that national culture and the freedoms we enjoy. A PP even noted they were ambivalent about Columbus Day; but would ditch Veterans' Day. Very sad.

PS Federal holidays are also part of our "country's culture." Would you also ditch July 4? probably not. But, yeah, Thanksgiving is an absolute must.

Most private companies don't observe all Federal holidays--they are not that entrenched in the American culture. I get six federal holidays at my job and I think these are pretty typical of what are considered major American holidays:

New Years Day
Memorial Day
Independence Day
Labor Day
Thanksgiving
Xmas

There's no reason kids can't do activities at school to celebrate Veterans' day, MLK day, Indigenous People's day or President's day. It's likely that covering the roots of the holiday at school would bring more attention to the holiday than having schools closed anyways.

PP here and I agree. However, they could "cover the roots" on any school day, doesn't have to be on the actual holiday. It would be even better if the day's activities involved attending Veterans' Day commemorations and spending the day with veterans, etc. But can you imagine the furor if we stopped taking MLK Jr day off?! Even though we celebrate Black History Month all month long?

The State diminishing the importance of social studies is not helpful in educating our students on civics and history, which are very important for multiple reasons.

If schools focused on celebrating the holiday on the holiday (in an educational way), I think it would be a huge win-win. Bring in veterans to speak. Do service activities at school to honor MLK day. Learn about indiginous culture. It could quickly become a norm in American culture to have many of these celebrations happen at schools. There's no budget for busing kids all over the place. Bring the celebration to the schools. Make them age appropriate.

Sounds great. Can we then stop "celebrating" entire Black history month if we have in-school activities on MLK Day?
And can we just "celebrate" cinco de mayo instead of Hispanic heritage month?
My "heritage" doesn't get any holiday or designated month and it's not possible to provide one for every cultural background represented in APS. So why can't we just consolidate? Other than MLK Jr Day, these aren't holidays anyway.

But you do realize that parents LIKE having MLK Jr and Presidents' Day because they're 3-day weekends and there aren't many breaks in the second half of the school calendar other than spring break? So then people will complain that there are TOO MANY 5-day weeks.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am Jewish and very much appreciate having Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur off but giving time off for Passover is crazy. Kids can totally go to school and still celebrate Passover!!


In terms of "where does it end?", The same holidays have been off for several years now, seems like there is no need to add more or take some away, unless demographics change dramatically.

For those who don't celebrate, this seems like a good chance to talk to your kids about being respectful of different religions and making reasonable accommodations (ex not serving pork when a Muslim friend comes over).

You can be respectful of different religions without contorting a school calendar to privilege the exercise of them. Excusing the absences and making them no-test days is a reasonable accommodation. Not letting kids get 5 straight days in school for months on end is not reasonable.

Kids love days off. This is about you needing childcare. That's fine, it's a valid need, but let's stop trotting out nobler-sounding needs rather than say "I have ES kids and a full-time job"

Everyone needs days off. Everyone, especially kids, also needs a routine. It’s very hard to get into one and learn subject matter coherently when you have weeks that are broken up at random for months on end. I think the test scores are baring this out, no?

I also have significant concerns about teaching my children that the exercise of religion is to be privileged in public places.

And yes, some of us have to work. There is no nobler thing than putting a roof over your child’s head or putting food on their plates. Not everyone was lucky enough to marry a hedge fund manager so we could choose not to work and be available for childcare every third day. We are debating a calendar option that was created for the sole purpose of allowing APS teachers who live in Fairfax County to not have to worry about childcare. So please, just stop it with the nasty WAHM vs SAHM argument about school being “childcare.”

This really seems to be the tail that wags the dog, doesn't it? I live and vote in Arlington on the Arlington Public School System. The APS calendar should be developed with a goal of maximizing learning. If FFX's policy of having tons of days off in the middle of the week is a hardship for the teachers who work there, then perhaps those they should exercise their votes as residents of FFX county to encourage them to adopt a saner policy that isn't unnecessarily burdensome of working parents. After all, those teachers would only be subjected to the same difficulties that all the other working parents in FFX have to deal with, right now. And my employer isn't bending over backwards to accommodate FFX's school schedule, that's for sure.

It it also about no affordable housing in Arlington so many teachers leave in a different county, but it is more about not having subs to cover. I really don’t care if your employer accommodates your schedule nor do I care if APS (my employer) accommodates my kids schedule, but I damn better be able to use the leave I have to cover when I am out to take my kids days off so we can take a trip together just as your employer allows you to do. I am sure many many of you do this. In fact, most of the children in my class traveled last year so I know their parents were able to take off. The issue is we have no subs to cover being sick much less a significant number of teachers taking part of a week off at the same time to take a long weekend when FCPS breaks.

So while you are understanding the correlation between APS and FCPS you are not addressing the actual issue: subs when the schedules don’t align.

But we can’t take trips when the days off are scattered throughout the year. If we had actual chunks of breaks we could go somewhere. But a random Wednesdays off just suck. Let’s just have a 1.5 week fall break, 1.5 week winter break, and 1.5 week spring break (or something like that). Sprinkle in a few long weekends for teacher grade prep days and Thanksgiving b/c it is cultural to America. No religious holidays. No Veterans Day, President’s Day, etc.

I find it very sad that people think Thanksgiving deserves a break because it's part of our country's culture; yet are competely dismissive of all the veterans who fought to preserve that national culture and the freedoms we enjoy. A PP even noted they were ambivalent about Columbus Day; but would ditch Veterans' Day. Very sad.

PS Federal holidays are also part of our "country's culture." Would you also ditch July 4? probably not. But, yeah, Thanksgiving is an absolute must.

Most private companies don't observe all Federal holidays--they are not that entrenched in the American culture. I get six federal holidays at my job and I think these are pretty typical of what are considered major American holidays:

New Years Day
Memorial Day
Independence Day
Labor Day
Thanksgiving
Xmas

There's no reason kids can't do activities at school to celebrate Veterans' day, MLK day, Indigenous People's day or President's day. It's likely that covering the roots of the holiday at school would bring more attention to the holiday than having schools closed anyways.

PP here and I agree. However, they could "cover the roots" on any school day, doesn't have to be on the actual holiday. It would be even better if the day's activities involved attending Veterans' Day commemorations and spending the day with veterans, etc. But can you imagine the furor if we stopped taking MLK Jr day off?! Even though we celebrate Black History Month all month long?

The State diminishing the importance of social studies is not helpful in educating our students on civics and history, which are very important for multiple reasons.

If schools focused on celebrating the holiday on the holiday (in an educational way), I think it would be a huge win-win. Bring in veterans to speak. Do service activities at school to honor MLK day. Learn about indiginous culture. It could quickly become a norm in American culture to have many of these celebrations happen at schools. There's no budget for busing kids all over the place. Bring the celebration to the schools. Make them age appropriate.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am Jewish and very much appreciate having Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur off but giving time off for Passover is crazy. Kids can totally go to school and still celebrate Passover!!


In terms of "where does it end?", The same holidays have been off for several years now, seems like there is no need to add more or take some away, unless demographics change dramatically.

For those who don't celebrate, this seems like a good chance to talk to your kids about being respectful of different religions and making reasonable accommodations (ex not serving pork when a Muslim friend comes over).

You can be respectful of different religions without contorting a school calendar to privilege the exercise of them. Excusing the absences and making them no-test days is a reasonable accommodation. Not letting kids get 5 straight days in school for months on end is not reasonable.

Kids love days off. This is about you needing childcare. That's fine, it's a valid need, but let's stop trotting out nobler-sounding needs rather than say "I have ES kids and a full-time job"

You must have NT kids. Many kids do NOT do well when their schedule is disrupted. Wednesdays off are very disruptive to keeps that need consistency.

OK, so how about this? No more individual days off, ever. If there needs to be a day off for a holiday, kids get the whole week off: A week off at Thanksgiving, two weeks off around Christmas & New Year's, a week off each for Diwali, Eid, Yom Kippur, and Rosh Hashana. School starts as much before Labor Day as necessary to be done the Friday before Memorial Day.

And no more polling the parents. Parents can write during the year to raise concerns, but the actual schedule is determined by the teachers.

Not that PP, but I’m pretty sure you know you are being ridiculous. PP wasn’t referring to Fridays/Mondays/contiguous sets of days off, but rather school off on a Wednesday or Tuesday but happening on the days before & after.
And APS already completely ignores parental calendar input anyway. They probably ignore teacher input, too. The surveys are all for show.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am Jewish and very much appreciate having Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur off but giving time off for Passover is crazy. Kids can totally go to school and still celebrate Passover!!


In terms of "where does it end?", The same holidays have been off for several years now, seems like there is no need to add more or take some away, unless demographics change dramatically.

For those who don't celebrate, this seems like a good chance to talk to your kids about being respectful of different religions and making reasonable accommodations (ex not serving pork when a Muslim friend comes over).

You can be respectful of different religions without contorting a school calendar to privilege the exercise of them. Excusing the absences and making them no-test days is a reasonable accommodation. Not letting kids get 5 straight days in school for months on end is not reasonable.

Kids love days off. This is about you needing childcare. That's fine, it's a valid need, but let's stop trotting out nobler-sounding needs rather than say "I have ES kids and a full-time job"

Everyone needs days off. Everyone, especially kids, also needs a routine. It’s very hard to get into one and learn subject matter coherently when you have weeks that are broken up at random for months on end. I think the test scores are baring this out, no?

I also have significant concerns about teaching my children that the exercise of religion is to be privileged in public places.

And yes, some of us have to work. There is no nobler thing than putting a roof over your child’s head or putting food on their plates. Not everyone was lucky enough to marry a hedge fund manager so we could choose not to work and be available for childcare every third day. We are debating a calendar option that was created for the sole purpose of allowing APS teachers who live in Fairfax County to not have to worry about childcare. So please, just stop it with the nasty WAHM vs SAHM argument about school being “childcare.”

This really seems to be the tail that wags the dog, doesn't it? I live and vote in Arlington on the Arlington Public School System. The APS calendar should be developed with a goal of maximizing learning. If FFX's policy of having tons of days off in the middle of the week is a hardship for the teachers who work there, then perhaps those they should exercise their votes as residents of FFX county to encourage them to adopt a saner policy that isn't unnecessarily burdensome of working parents. After all, those teachers would only be subjected to the same difficulties that all the other working parents in FFX have to deal with, right now. And my employer isn't bending over backwards to accommodate FFX's school schedule, that's for sure.

It it also about no affordable housing in Arlington so many teachers leave in a different county, but it is more about not having subs to cover. I really don’t care if your employer accommodates your schedule nor do I care if APS (my employer) accommodates my kids schedule, but I damn better be able to use the leave I have to cover when I am out to take my kids days off so we can take a trip together just as your employer allows you to do. I am sure many many of you do this. In fact, most of the children in my class traveled last year so I know their parents were able to take off. The issue is we have no subs to cover being sick much less a significant number of teachers taking part of a week off at the same time to take a long weekend when FCPS breaks.

So while you are understanding the correlation between APS and FCPS you are not addressing the actual issue: subs when the schedules don’t align.

But we can’t take trips when the days off are scattered throughout the year. If we had actual chunks of breaks we could go somewhere. But a random Wednesdays off just suck. Let’s just have a 1.5 week fall break, 1.5 week winter break, and 1.5 week spring break (or something like that). Sprinkle in a few long weekends for teacher grade prep days and Thanksgiving b/c it is cultural to America. No religious holidays. No Veterans Day, President’s Day, etc.

I find it very sad that people think Thanksgiving deserves a break because it's part of our country's culture; yet are competely dismissive of all the veterans who fought to preserve that national culture and the freedoms we enjoy. A PP even noted they were ambivalent about Columbus Day; but would ditch Veterans' Day. Very sad.

PS Federal holidays are also part of our "country's culture." Would you also ditch July 4? probably not. But, yeah, Thanksgiving is an absolute must.

Most private companies don't observe all Federal holidays--they are not that entrenched in the American culture. I get six federal holidays at my job and I think these are pretty typical of what are considered major American holidays:

New Years Day
Memorial Day
Independence Day
Labor Day
Thanksgiving
Xmas

There's no reason kids can't do activities at school to celebrate Veterans' day, MLK day, Indigenous People's day or President's day. It's likely that covering the roots of the holiday at school would bring more attention to the holiday than having schools closed anyways.

PP here and I agree. However, they could "cover the roots" on any school day, doesn't have to be on the actual holiday. It would be even better if the day's activities involved attending Veterans' Day commemorations and spending the day with veterans, etc. But can you imagine the furor if we stopped taking MLK Jr day off?! Even though we celebrate Black History Month all month long?

The State diminishing the importance of social studies is not helpful in educating our students on civics and history, which are very important for multiple reasons.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am Jewish and very much appreciate having Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur off but giving time off for Passover is crazy. Kids can totally go to school and still celebrate Passover!!


In terms of "where does it end?", The same holidays have been off for several years now, seems like there is no need to add more or take some away, unless demographics change dramatically.

For those who don't celebrate, this seems like a good chance to talk to your kids about being respectful of different religions and making reasonable accommodations (ex not serving pork when a Muslim friend comes over).

You can be respectful of different religions without contorting a school calendar to privilege the exercise of them. Excusing the absences and making them no-test days is a reasonable accommodation. Not letting kids get 5 straight days in school for months on end is not reasonable.

Kids love days off. This is about you needing childcare. That's fine, it's a valid need, but let's stop trotting out nobler-sounding needs rather than say "I have ES kids and a full-time job"

It doesn’t matter either way. Being able to work to pay your bills is an immensely greater priority than the optional celebration of a holiday. Heck, me wanting to use my PTO and money to go get my nails done mid-week should be a greater priority than burning my leave/disposable income on getting kids to/from school break camps so other people can celebrate their holidays. I shouldn’t have to give up my limited time off and money so someone else can feel warm and fuzzy about their special little holiday.

But even more so, kids need a predictable schedule, especially young kids and those of us who have kids with special needs who thrive with routine. This needs to be the ultimate priority. Every day my kids wake up they ask whether they have school today because they’re so confused about when is a school day and when isn’t. I try to go over it with them the week before, but it constantly changes, no wonder they can’t keep up. Sprinkle in some sick days and they basically haven’t had a full week of school yet. It’s not as hard on my neurotypical kid as it is my neurodivergent kid, but it sucks for both of them.

People should exercise their religious freedoms on their own time. There are A LOT of other priorities that are way more important than religion. And if we’re going to bend over backwards to rearrange the school calendar for this nonsense then we may as well open ourselves up to pruning the library of books that are “offensive” to certain religions. Because clearly we’ve decided to be non-secular at this point.

How are we non-secular if we're observing all the religious holidays?

That’s the point. We’re basically becoming non-secular if we’re deciding to prioritize religion. The hypocrisy though is that liberals want to give days off for non-Christian holidays to score progressive brownie points, but dismiss things like complaints about books in the library (largely made by Christian conservatives) even though restricting some books in the library is certainly less disruptive and a lesser accommodation than making the entire school district resolve their calendar around these days off. I’m not saying we should ban books (in fact I don’t think we should be catering to religion is a mistake). But let’s be real about how APS is picking and choosing which religious beliefs to accommodate based on liberal politics instead of just focusing on education.