Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree with setting spring break at a specific point in April and not attaching it to Easter.

Disagree with your reasoning re: holidays. I don't know of any Christian denominations that specifically don't work on Good Friday: it can be a school day. And I understand observant Jews often don't work or attend school the first two days of Passover, so you'd potentially need those to be holidays.

I thought Good Friday is to Christians as Yom Kippur is to Jews. Apparently not. If many people would be absent on Good Friday schools should be closed, if not they can be open.

Nobody except the very devout celebrate Easter. Most Christians are not devout or even remotely religious, as you can see by the election results.

This is nonsense. Easter is second only to Christmas. And it’s 2-3 weeks off school in many countries. There are many more Christian holidays that have already been removed from the US calendars. These are the only two left!

Easter is actually the more important religious holiday. But yes, it's on a Sunday so I don't need any time off for it. Other religions should work on making their holidays appear on weekends

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is spring break tied to Easter a mid Atlantic thing? I grew up in New England and it was never linked to Easter. How do they do spring break in the Midwest? West coast?

I went to a private school in the Midwest. Spring break was the last two weeks of March. Same length of time and same timeframe every year.

It allowed families to plan in advance. It allowed time for junior and seniors to do college visits. It also neatly split the time between January and the end of school in early June.

Two weeks sounds lovely!

I HATE that Easter is the last day of spring break. That needs to stop. We drive a long distance to my parents' rural home for Easter (flying takes longer and we would need to rent a car too). I always spend all of Easter on the road driving home, essentially missing the holiday. Easter should be the FIRST weekend of the break.

Contacts for all 6 NoVA public school systems
to make spring break the 1st full week of April starting in 2027. An exception can occur in a year that Good Friday would otherwise be the 1st Friday after spring break.
Spring Break 2027 would be April 5-9
(Good Friday is March 26)
Loudoun County
https://loudouncountypsva.sites.thrillshare.com/o/lcps/page/contact-the-loudoun-county-school-board
Arlington County
https://www.apsva.us/contact-aps/
Prince William County
https://www.pwcs.edu/about_us/contact_us
Alexandria City
https://www.acps.k12.va.us/contact-us/concerns-inquiries-suggestions-guide
Falls Church City
https://www.fccps.org/page/contact-board
Fairfax County
https://www.fcps.edu/about-fcps/leadership/school-board/school-board-clerks-office/submit-question-school-board-clerks

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Practicing Catholic and I totally agree.

Pin it to the first week of April. Always. Done.

Families can plan. Teachers who live and teach in different counties don't have a unique childcare scramble that no one else faces. It seems like a no-brainer.

Somebody somewhere will always face a school system misalignment. How far west and south do you push the alignment? Even if you aligned the entire state there will still be teachers that live in VA that teach in MD, WV, NC, etc.

Most people referencing northern Virginia mean APS, FCPS, Alexandria and Falls Church City. Outer limits would be Loudoun and Prince William.

Teachers absolutely commute to FCPS (at least) from Loudoun and Prince William, so I would think you'd need to include them in a big shift.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Practicing Catholic and I totally agree.

Pin it to the first week of April. Always. Done.

Families can plan. Teachers who live and teach in different counties don't have a unique childcare scramble that no one else faces. It seems like a no-brainer.

Somebody somewhere will always face a school system misalignment. How far west and south do you push the alignment? Even if you aligned the entire state there will still be teachers that live in VA that teach in MD, WV, NC, etc.

Most people referencing northern Virginia mean APS, FCPS, Alexandria and Falls Church City. Outer limits would be Loudoun and Prince William.

Anonymous wrote:Is spring break tied to Easter a mid Atlantic thing? I grew up in New England and it was never linked to Easter. How do they do spring break in the Midwest? West coast?

I went to a private school in the Midwest. Spring break was the last two weeks of March. Same length of time and same timeframe every year.

It allowed families to plan in advance. It allowed time for junior and seniors to do college visits. It also neatly split the time between January and the end of school in early June.

Is spring break tied to Easter a mid Atlantic thing? I grew up in New England and it was never linked to Easter. How do they do spring break in the Midwest? West coast?

My guess is the truly devout Christians who show up at things like Good Friday services would not be the ones pushing back on this change. They already agree with someone over on the FCPS board who said Holy Week (week before Easter) is a somber time and not really the best "yay happy family adventure!" week for the devout.

It's the cultural Christians who assume you're moving it because somehow you are displacing their culture who would yell and scream. The kind who show up in church on Christmas and Easter and really have no concept of what Holy Week is all about.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree with setting spring break at a specific point in April and not attaching it to Easter.

Disagree with your reasoning re: holidays. I don't know of any Christian denominations that specifically don't work on Good Friday: it can be a school day. And I understand observant Jews often don't work or attend school the first two days of Passover, so you'd potentially need those to be holidays.

I thought Good Friday is to Christians as Yom Kippur is to Jews. Apparently not. If many people would be absent on Good Friday schools should be closed, if not they can be open.

Nobody except the very devout celebrate Easter. Most Christians are not devout or even remotely religious, as you can see by the election results.

This is nonsense. Easter is second only to Christmas. And it’s 2-3 weeks off school in many countries. There are many more Christian holidays that have already been removed from the US calendars. These are the only two left!

It should be first, above Christmas. Actually the most important date in the liturgical calendar. But it's a little hard to make death/resurrection (Easter) commercial and cute, unlike a baby, even one born in miserable circumstances (Christmas).

Anonymous wrote:I don't know of any Christian denominations that specifically don't work on Good Friday: it can be a school day.

Tell me you don’t work on Wall Street without telling me you don’t work on Wall Street.

I like it tied to Easter.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree with setting spring break at a specific point in April and not attaching it to Easter.

Disagree with your reasoning re: holidays. I don't know of any Christian denominations that specifically don't work on Good Friday: it can be a school day. And I understand observant Jews often don't work or attend school the first two days of Passover, so you'd potentially need those to be holidays.

I thought Good Friday is to Christians as Yom Kippur is to Jews. Apparently not. If many people would be absent on Good Friday schools should be closed, if not they can be open.

Nobody except the very devout celebrate Easter. Most Christians are not devout or even remotely religious, as you can see by the election results.

This is nonsense. Easter is second only to Christmas. And it’s 2-3 weeks off school in many countries. There are many more Christian holidays that have already been removed from the US calendars. These are the only two left!

Anonymous wrote:Practicing Catholic and I totally agree.

Pin it to the first week of April. Always. Done.

Families can plan. Teachers who live and teach in different counties don't have a unique childcare scramble that no one else faces. It seems like a no-brainer.

Spring Break not lining up with your kids as a teacher means that if you want to travel, you are either taking your kids out of a week of school or are taking off a week as a teacher. It's the one time where I think it's important to align.

Anonymous wrote:Practicing Catholic and I totally agree.

Pin it to the first week of April. Always. Done.

Families can plan. Teachers who live and teach in different counties don't have a unique childcare scramble that no one else faces. It seems like a no-brainer.

Somebody somewhere will always face a school system misalignment. How far west and south do you push the alignment? Even if you aligned the entire state there will still be teachers that live in VA that teach in MD, WV, NC, etc.