Where were all these February break fans when DCPS sent out surveys asking for input on future schedules? Because parents spoke loudly and clearly that most hated the February break.

The PD days sound like a waste of time. Our school used the entire PD two weeks ago discussing inclusivity and how to take bias out of teaching. Never mind that school is predominantly minority and most of the teachers are Latino and black. And the school is already super liberal. They really need to spend a day on this? What about discussing how to include an advanced math track for 7th graders which parents have been asking for.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They won’t combine the PD with holiday weekends / other days off because too many staff members will take leave or call in sick to extend their holidays.

Well then they should get fired.

They already combined the PD with MLK and Presidents weekends. Just put the PD on a Tuesday instead of a Friday so there's a full week of school instead of two 4-day weeks.

There's nothing stopping the staff calling out sick on the Thursday to extend their holiday (PD Friday and holiday on Monday). In fact, they are probably more likely to do that since traveling on a Thursday is cheaper than a Friday on a holiday weekend.

Sure. Blame the teachers.

Anonymous wrote:Please bring back the February break. I hate all these crazy random long weekends.

Yes this. One of my kids is at a charter (no half days!) with a February break and also two full weeks for Christmas and I love it. Other kid in DCPS and I do find it annoying.

The schedule is built around the 5 day week -- there are all kinds of rhythms and patterns of classes that get disrupted when there is no Friday or no Monday.

Anonymous wrote:4 day weeks ARE consistent learning. Many schools in th midwest have already adopted 4 day school weeks. Stop being hysterical.

Biggest effect of school on child well-being isn’t cognitive outcomes, but on family income. Cognitive effects wear off, and are way more influenced by family environment than school. Putting kids in school lets parents work, and that’s way more impactful, especially further down the income distribution (see the recent NBER on the pre-k lottery in New Haven).

School’s biggest benefit is that the kids are penned up while the parents work. Unless we suddenly have a 4 day workweek, going from 5 days of school to 4 seems a massively bad idea, and disproportionately would affect lower income people.

I want the February break back too. This month has been so f’d up with snow days, days off, and random events at school that I’ve had to take time off for. I wish the would also figure out how to end school on a Friday so that we could send our kids to camp the following week. I don’t want to burn my leave for 3 days.

Anonymous wrote:Please bring back the February break. I hate all these crazy random long weekends.

YES

Please bring back the February break. I hate all these crazy random long weekends.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:4 day weeks ARE consistent learning. Many schools in th midwest have already adopted 4 day school weeks. Stop being hysterical.

This is a bad take. 4 days could be consistent learning if the whole school calendar was planned around it. It’s not consistent learning when the schedule is planned around 5 days and it’s not consistently 4 anyways… sometimes it’s 3, other times 2, other times 5. Completely different than if you had quasi year round school with 4 day weeks.

Also, I don’t know anywhere where “many” public schools have adopted 4 day weeks. Where is this magical place?

+1

This argument would make more sense if it was always Friday off. But like last weekend was 4 days.

Anonymous wrote:4 day weeks ARE consistent learning. Many schools in th midwest have already adopted 4 day school weeks. Stop being hysterical.

This is a bad take. 4 days could be consistent learning if the whole school calendar was planned around it. It’s not consistent learning when the schedule is planned around 5 days and it’s not consistently 4 anyways… sometimes it’s 3, other times 2, other times 5. Completely different than if you had quasi year round school with 4 day weeks.

Also, I don’t know anywhere where “many” public schools have adopted 4 day weeks. Where is this magical place?

4 day weeks ARE consistent learning. Many schools in th midwest have already adopted 4 day school weeks. Stop being hysterical.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They won’t combine the PD with holiday weekends / other days off because too many staff members will take leave or call in sick to extend their holidays.

Well then they should get fired.

They already combined the PD with MLK and Presidents weekends. Just put the PD on a Tuesday instead of a Friday so there's a full week of school instead of two 4-day weeks.

There's nothing stopping the staff calling out sick on the Thursday to extend their holiday (PD Friday and holiday on Monday). In fact, they are probably more likely to do that since traveling on a Thursday is cheaper than a Friday on a holiday weekend.

Why is it better to have a 5 day week and a 3 day week than two 4 day weeks? Same number of days of school.

Because routine is helpful for kids and every extra long break (even if it’s just a day or two) requires a new adjustment period.

If you hate the DCPS schedule so much you should switch to a charter. Then you can have a half day every week.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They won’t combine the PD with holiday weekends / other days off because too many staff members will take leave or call in sick to extend their holidays.

Well then they should get fired.

They already combined the PD with MLK and Presidents weekends. Just put the PD on a Tuesday instead of a Friday so there's a full week of school instead of two 4-day weeks.

There's nothing stopping the staff calling out sick on the Thursday to extend their holiday (PD Friday and holiday on Monday). In fact, they are probably more likely to do that since traveling on a Thursday is cheaper than a Friday on a holiday weekend.

Why is it better to have a 5 day week and a 3 day week than two 4 day weeks? Same number of days of school.

Anonymous wrote:They won’t combine the PD with holiday weekends / other days off because too many staff members will take leave or call in sick to extend their holidays.

Who cares? PD is a waste of time. DCPS should care about student learning. That is much more productive when they are in school consistently.