Anonymous wrote:We are now required to have a 12 week summer at the expense of a guaranteed spring break. Would much rather have spring break. The June end date is absurd but no one focuses on that.

+1

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are now required to have a 12 week summer at the expense of a guaranteed spring break. Would much rather have spring break. The June end date is absurd but no one focuses on that.

How is it any different than Florida schools that started Aug 14th and get done May 30th? 12 weeks of Summer is the norm. Adding every religious holiday off, multiple teacher service days, and an 11 day Spring Break to shorten summer to 10 weeks is not.

MCPS used to always have mid June to Labor Day. This only changed about 13 years ago. Decades before that it was always 12 weeks. They are just getting back to that.

As parent of HS student the delayed start is a real problem for my child. AP and IB exams are in the month of May and the late start puts my child beyond schedule. FCPS start August 28th in contradiction to the Virginia Beach. Why, because they recognized kids needed that extra week to prepare for end-of-year tests.

Also there is very little in terms of child-care/camps for younger kids and not everyone can take a week at Ocean City then. Many businesses need their workers then as well.

Last year, many Delaware beaches didn't have lifeguards the last weeks of August because college kids had to go back to school. The beaches hire college kids because they can start mid-May and work until mid-august which is when most people go to the beach.
in short, this schedule has been nothing but a mess for my family.

Anonymous wrote:We are now required to have a 12 week summer at the expense of a guaranteed spring break. Would much rather have spring break. The June end date is absurd but no one focuses on that.

How is it any different than Florida schools that started Aug 14th and get done May 30th? 12 weeks of Summer is the norm. Adding every religious holiday off, multiple teacher service days, and an 11 day Spring Break to shorten summer to 10 weeks is not.

MCPS used to always have mid June to Labor Day. This only changed about 13 years ago. Decades before that it was always 12 weeks. They are just getting back to that.

We are now required to have a 12 week summer at the expense of a guaranteed spring break. Would much rather have spring break. The June end date is absurd but no one focuses on that.

Anonymous wrote:It is not one week. It is two weeks. Not sure why the pro Hogan supporters on this and many other threads can't understand that.

This year if we started before Labor Day, school would have been closed Friday, Sept 1st for Eid. That is only 4 school days missed starting after Labor Day.

Last year school ended on June 16th
This year it ends on June 12th but will go as far as June 15th with snow days since we don't have the snow days built in, nor should we.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All religious holidays should all be eliminated from the school calendar. People can practice their superstitious mumbo-jumbo on their own time.

Agree. Keep winter break and Thanksgiving. Can the rest.

Winter Break is religious.

Not it isn't. Christmas and New Years are federal holidays and for the most part Christmas is secular these days. I was just reading how people from India celebrate Christmas as a day of rest/family and even decorate a tree. I think the only religion that outright bans any celebration of secular Christmas is the Jewish community and they have Hanukkah around the same time.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I never said they all work in OC. I meant summer jobs in general, many are lifeguards in which pools are open all of August.

If Hogan didn't do this MCPS would have started on Aug 21st (even before UMD) and Fall sports would have started Aug 2nd. Hard to get a summer job when you are in school until June 19th and going back to sports by Aug 2nd.

The purpose of the school calendar is to

1. support the Maryland tourism industry.
2. fit the schedule of teenagers who want to get summer jobs and also play high school sports.

Evidently.

I am not the person you are posting to but what is wrong with supporting Maryland tourism? It is one week and you are acting like it is the end of the world. I loved not going back until after the holiday weekend and 67% approved of the start of after Labor Day. What are your reasons for being against it?

Who exactly is this 67% of people who said they were in favor of this ridiculous executive order? No one polled me or ANYONE I know.

It is not one week. It is two weeks. Not sure why the pro Hogan supporters on this and many other threads can't understand that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All religious holidays should all be eliminated from the school calendar. People can practice their superstitious mumbo-jumbo on their own time.

Agree. Keep winter break and Thanksgiving. Can the rest.

Winter Break is religious.

I agree that Winter Break is probably (at least in large part) due to Christmas. The ironic part is that while nobody knows exactly when Jesus was born, there is widespread consensus that it almost certainly wasn't in December.

Why do we celebrate in December? My understanding is that as Christianity spread, people adapted some of their pagan rituals to their new religion. Thus, the Winter Solstice, seemed a good time to celebrate the birth of the Savior.

Why did pagans celebrate the Winter Solstice? I suspect it was because humans need light. Shorter days are harder physically and emotionally. It seems a good time to celebrate the longer days and to brace oneself for the hardships of winter.

Basically, while the shortest days of winter have been linked to one religion or another so long that no one knows exactly how or why it started, I think the need for a holiday from winter dreariness probably shaped the religions, rather than religious events driving the holiday. Celebrations on the solstice are not limited to Western civilizations. While you may not be Christian (or Druid, etc.), a break when the year is darkest might still have psychological benefits.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_solstice

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Today is the second day of RH. Post this afternoon if your kid had a sub.

MCPS should be able to release the stats on how many teachers called in for a sub today and how many slots were able to be filled/unfilled.

Today's numbers will be smaller than yesterday but it's a good starting point.

I was thinking this also. Previous post mentioned that asking about religion is not allowed - but the information would be helpful in planning the school calendar. It should not be hard to figure out or at least estimate how many subs are needed for the Jewish holidays.
Regarding the shortage of substitutes - this is possibly due to the fact that the qualifications for the job are too high for the pay and the nature of the work. The shortage of substitutes on any given day IS a systemic problem. Ideally each school should have enough full time support staff that could serve as subs when needed. But I am guessing that bureaucracy and budget won't allow it.

At this point the qualification for subbing is a 4 year degree. Do you really want someone who didn't finish college trying to teach your MS or HS during the teacher's three week medical leave?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All religious holidays should all be eliminated from the school calendar. People can practice their superstitious mumbo-jumbo on their own time.

Agree. Keep winter break and Thanksgiving. Can the rest.

Winter Break is religious.

Why are posts getting deleted that has actual facts but the "wow the Hogan robots are out in full force." Are people actually reporting posts that are for Hogan and explain why funding shouldn't be on the burden of just the state. That 70% of Marylanders agree with Hogan's decision on this executive order? How liberal can these posters and moderators be? They can't take their schools being moved one lousy week so they complain to the moderator when it isn't going their way when people are posting? Not really a big deal and the order isn't going to change. Get over it already. At least move on to complaining about Hogan's decision to adding extra lanes to 270 and 495. You have time to change that.

It's an odd position these Hogan loyalists are taking, certainly. The tourism industry is vital to Maryland's economy and revenues for school funding, but Montgomery County's economy isn't?

Man, the Hogan loyalists are out in full force. Hogan has taken an axe to school funding because he hates kids and he hates education - let's face facts. He is running the state government to benefit his Ocean City buddies, because there was no other legitimate reason to change local school authority over calendaring. Hogan's terrible governance will slowly erode Maryland's excellent schools. Hogan wants to turn us into South Carolina.

Anonymous wrote:
Newsflash, Hogan never cut funding. As a matter of fact he has increased it every year. Just not enough for MCPS to not to whine that they need more. But the majority of funding for MCPS comes from MC, not the state. So how come you never see the board ask MC for more money. Do your research.

Operating Budget
Fiscal Year 2017: $2.46 billion

Funding Sources
Montgomery County: 65.8%
State education aid: 26.8%
Federal govt. grants: 3%
Enterprise funds: 2.6%
Fees, other sources: 0.4%
Fund balance: 1.4%

While you are at it, why don't you ask your ole pal O'Malley where all the casino money is for the school budgets that he promised when agreeing to allow gambling/casinos in our state? He messed that up royally but yet no one complains about that.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-casino-education-20170121-story.html

When enrollment goes up and funding doesn't go up, that's a funding cut.

And if you haven't seen MCPS ask the Montgomery County Council for more money, you haven't been paying attention.