Anonymous wrote:I think they need to make a choice between grading days at the end of the marking period and religious holidays.

Or cut the Federal holidays like Indigenous Peoples day, MLK day, President's Day, etc. They can be observed as part of the curriculum.

I think they need to make a choice between grading days at the end of the marking period and religious holidays.

Wow 6 full weeks before Christmas break (which is very short).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Didn’t APS pass a broad policy about developing calendars and say they would do 2 weeks at every Christmas holiday? A couple years ago.

Yea I swear I remember the same thing, so I’m surprised to see they didn’t do it for this calendar.

I also recall this… but they also set a policy of 180 days, start 1 week before Labor Day, out by June 18, and must include all these religious holidays. So I guess something had to give, with Labor Day so late next year. Too bad it wasn’t a one-off day off vs part of winter break.

The calendar gets you no matter what age your kids are. If they are young, you have to take days off or pay for care in all the random days off. If they are older, they miss out on summer opportunities that start before APS gets out of school. For this upcoming summer every single program my daughter was interested started before June 18. I’m sure there are programs that start later but we haven’t found any of interest to her that are also within our price range.

Out relatives in the Midwest are out the first week of June and start the same week. Our relatives in Massachusetts get out two days earlier and start a week later.

But the loudest voices who can scream racist the longest get their way.

I think the early release days for ES for conferences and no conference days at all for MS is their way of responding to the criticism about too many random days off without retreating on the extra religious holidays added. The School Board is afraid of getting crucified if they back track on the more inclusive religious holiday schedule.

Anonymous wrote:APS was supposed to have two back-to-back early release days in March 2026 for conferences, and just recently changed the calendar to be one early release and one full day off (and removed an early release later in April). Duran's note when this change was announced said, "To ensure sufficient time for Parent-Teacher Conferences and to make sure they are accessible to all families, I am proposing a calendar change at tomorrow’s School Board meeting."

But then they'll be back to doing back-to-back early releases for conferences in Fall '26 and Spring '27? I don't get it. Is the "sufficient time" and "accessible to all families" a matter of having 3 early release days vs. 2?

I can see how 2 wouldn't be enough and 3 would.

Keep in mind many elementary teachers pretty actively discourage even doing them in the spring if your kid is on track in all areas and middle school teachers practically tell you flat out not to bother both fall and spring and yet in the current system all these kids and teachers have a full day off school in the fall and the spring. It seems they are going to stop the charade of doing them at all in middle school for next school year.

APS was supposed to have two back-to-back early release days in March 2026 for conferences, and just recently changed the calendar to be one early release and one full day off (and removed an early release later in April). Duran's note when this change was announced said, "To ensure sufficient time for Parent-Teacher Conferences and to make sure they are accessible to all families, I am proposing a calendar change at tomorrow’s School Board meeting."

But then they'll be back to doing back-to-back early releases for conferences in Fall '26 and Spring '27? I don't get it. Is the "sufficient time" and "accessible to all families" a matter of having 3 early release days vs. 2?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They either need to come off the 180 day commitment or eliminate holidays — don’t care if religious or Columbus Day or whatever. Something has to give. The calendar is out of control. We’ve gotten nothing out of moving up a week. They just added more days off. All the nonsense about more instructional days before AP exams was just a scam to put in the religious holidays.

I’m staff and agree 100%
3 days of early release in October, so stupid

.

And 3 in March. All for conferences instead of the 1 early release day and 1 day off.

I actually think this makes sense. I’ve had 2 kids go through elementary school and most teachers don’t even hold the conferences on the full day off school. They pack them in after school and then I guess just take the day off? We often used to use those days to travel as a family. It was a good chance to hit places at non-peak travel time.

The school board just changed the calendar for this year to get rid of the half days for conferences and bring back a full day off. So the calendar committee proposes 3 half days? The right hand never talks to the left hand in APS.

Anonymous wrote:Didn’t APS pass a broad policy about developing calendars and say they would do 2 weeks at every Christmas holiday? A couple years ago.

Yea I swear I remember the same thing, so I’m surprised to see they didn’t do it for this calendar.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They either need to come off the 180 day commitment or eliminate holidays — don’t care if religious or Columbus Day or whatever. Something has to give. The calendar is out of control. We’ve gotten nothing out of moving up a week. They just added more days off. All the nonsense about more instructional days before AP exams was just a scam to put in the religious holidays.

I’m staff and agree 100%
3 days of early release in October, so stupid

.

And 3 in March. All for conferences instead of the 1 early release day and 1 day off.

I actually think this makes sense. I’ve had 2 kids go through elementary school and most teachers don’t even hold the conferences on the full day off school. They pack them in after school and then I guess just take the day off? We often used to use those days to travel as a family. It was a good chance to hit places at non-peak travel time.

if they don't do 2 full weeks at xmas they should add in a full week off another time during in the winter.

but for the love of god please get rid of all of the holidays.

Didn’t APS pass a broad policy about developing calendars and say they would do 2 weeks at every Christmas holiday? A couple years ago.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder if APS will rethink school on December 21 and 22. The Fairfax board has a thread about emails from FCPS about not missing schools around the breaks, attendance is important etc.

We won’t be traveling so my kids will be there but I’m going to guess there will be a lot of student and staff absences.

Such a stupid schedule. No one is going to be there those days.

My kids will be there. Fine if it’s used for parties because it means the Friday before can still be a regular learning day.

For HS, its a whole other animal. Kids/Parents will be moaning about make up tests.

My kids won’t. They’ll be in school. By high school teachers use all the days to teach (certainly they do in AP classes) and if your kids miss it’s their problem.

The two days before Christmas are awful!