Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was the one who insisted that MCPS will get a waiver and there will be no make up days.. JUne 19th is going to be off (juneteenth), so it makes no sense to add more fluff days after june 19th just to say they added make up days..

The requirement exists to ensure that school systems provide the right amount of instructional time. The reason we are looking at extending the school year is because of MCPS's poor and disingenuous planning. Could be avoided by baking in 3 snows days into the calendar and including 3 make up days in March, April and May that they are actually willing to use.

March ✓ April possibly on the 15th
May doesn't have any off days besides Memorial Day and the 2nd Eid holiday so unless you want that day (in which Muslim's heads will explode if they hear both days were taken) there is no place.
The 180 day requirement came based on the logics of it being approximately half the calendar days in a year. It is doable with little or no religious hoalidays and cancelations. Once those sprout the year gets longer and longer. States like Florida, Georgia and Virginia have "180 days" in their law but allow credit based on a specific number of hours even if less than 180 calendar days are used to get there.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was the one who insisted that MCPS will get a waiver and there will be no make up days.. JUne 19th is going to be off (juneteenth), so it makes no sense to add more fluff days after june 19th just to say they added make up days..

The requirement exists to ensure that school systems provide the right amount of instructional time. The reason we are looking at extending the school year is because of MCPS's poor and disingenuous planning. Could be avoided by baking in 3 snows days into the calendar and including 3 make up days in March, April and May that they are actually willing to use.

100%

Anonymous wrote:I support the waiver. We have plans for this 4 day weekend and my kids camp deposits have already been made for June. I dont know understand why parents are screaming about making up two days with such short notice. As someone up thread pointed out.... managerial supervisors understand that would have been an illivised choice.

Logistically it would have been difficult to pull off. Teachers not only likely made plans but what of the bus drivers, support staff, building services, etc.

It should have been automatic so we didn't waste 2 weeks arguing about it. It obviously isn't practical at this point.

MCPS isn't going to get a waiver unless it finds one or two more days to add on. Making June 18 an early release day didn't help their case.

Anonymous wrote:The best way would be to shorten the spring break if they can’t use Feb 16,17. Extending beyond june 18th and adding fluff days is not useful. By the last week of school instruction has already stopped. What is the point?

Absolutely not! Spring break should not be shortened. Some of us have made international them plans and to force us to miss school unexcused it absurd. Kids in the DC region work incredibly hard, coming from Colorado, this region is very type A and the public education system in this region is on par with private schools in many other regions of the country.

The kids do not deserve to lose spring break because some parents do not like their children or refuse to make additional plans for their children.

I support the waiver. We have plans for this 4 day weekend and my kids camp deposits have already been made for June. I dont know understand why parents are screaming about making up two days with such short notice. As someone up thread pointed out.... managerial supervisors understand that would have been an illivised choice.

Logistically it would have been difficult to pull off. Teachers not only likely made plans but what of the bus drivers, support staff, building services, etc.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They absolutely need to seek a waiver.

They can always seek one, but the regulations say they need to add three school days to have a chance of getting one. Which they haven't done.

It will be like last year where they add them in June and discourage kids from coming because the school year is over.

Because McPS would rather do that than put appropriate number of snow days into the calendar and have school start earlier in August like FCPS.

I doubt those days in FCPS are much better given that teachers don't know if they're going to be used. They should just build more days into the base calendar knowing that there will be about 5 snow days a year.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They absolutely need to seek a waiver.

They can always seek one, but the regulations say they need to add three school days to have a chance of getting one. Which they haven't done.

It will be like last year where they add them in June and discourage kids from coming because the school year is over.

Because McPS would rather do that than put appropriate number of snow days into the calendar and have school start earlier in August like FCPS.

Anonymous wrote:They absolutely need to seek a waiver.

They can always seek one, but the regulations say they need to add three school days to have a chance of getting one. Which they haven't done.

OP is insane

The best way would be to shorten the spring break if they can’t use Feb 16,17. Extending beyond june 18th and adding fluff days is not useful. By the last week of school instruction has already stopped. What is the point?

It's only February. What if it snows again? Will they seek another waiver or force us to school?

Anonymous wrote:How feasible would it be to pivot snow days to virtual professional learning for teachers?

That would not really gain you anything. The pushback isn't that teachers are getting less professional days, it's having school on a holiday that was designed to overlap with the professional day. (And then the other possible makeup days are teacher grading days which there is generally pushback on taking away, but those happen at specific times between marking periods.)

Anonymous wrote:How feasible would it be to pivot snow days to virtual professional learning for teachers?

BOE says they can’t because, you know, equity. Meanwhile the rest of the country figured it out.

How feasible would it be to pivot snow days to virtual professional learning for teachers?

Anonymous wrote:I was the one who insisted that MCPS will get a waiver and there will be no make up days.. JUne 19th is going to be off (juneteenth), so it makes no sense to add more fluff days after june 19th just to say they added make up days..

The requirement exists to ensure that school systems provide the right amount of instructional time. The reason we are looking at extending the school year is because of MCPS's poor and disingenuous planning. Could be avoided by baking in 3 snows days into the calendar and including 3 make up days in March, April and May that they are actually willing to use.