Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FCPS calendar, please. There’s no absentee data to support these other holidays because WE SEND OUR KIDS TO SCHOOL ON THEM. You know why? Because the County won’t give the day off. There’s no absentee data on Christmas either. Let’s revoke Winter Break. Good lord. It’s for holidays of great important to multiple faiths. Give me a break. Glad APS did the right thing.

They did the right thing, but did they do the legal thing? (Lawyers apparently stopped FCPS from moving forward with adding them to their calendar.)

Because they claim there was no evidence of excessive absenteeism for those holidays. But was there ever any evidence for absenteeism on Christmas? What about Christmas Eve? Should we eliminate all holidays? It’s absurd.

Christmas is also a federal holiday, so they would not be in school on that day anyway.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FCPS calendar, please. There’s no absentee data to support these other holidays because WE SEND OUR KIDS TO SCHOOL ON THEM. You know why? Because the County won’t give the day off. There’s no absentee data on Christmas either. Let’s revoke Winter Break. Good lord. It’s for holidays of great important to multiple faiths. Give me a break. Glad APS did the right thing.

They did the right thing, but did they do the legal thing? (Lawyers apparently stopped FCPS from moving forward with adding them to their calendar.)

Because they claim there was no evidence of excessive absenteeism for those holidays. But was there ever any evidence for absenteeism on Christmas? What about Christmas Eve? Should we eliminate all holidays? It’s absurd.

Anonymous wrote:FCPS calendar, please. There’s no absentee data to support these other holidays because WE SEND OUR KIDS TO SCHOOL ON THEM. You know why? Because the County won’t give the day off. There’s no absentee data on Christmas either. Let’s revoke Winter Break. Good lord. It’s for holidays of great important to multiple faiths. Give me a break. Glad APS did the right thing.

They did the right thing, but did they do the legal thing? (Lawyers apparently stopped FCPS from moving forward with adding them to their calendar.)

FCPS calendar, please. There’s no absentee data to support these other holidays because WE SEND OUR KIDS TO SCHOOL ON THEM. You know why? Because the County won’t give the day off. There’s no absentee data on Christmas either. Let’s revoke Winter Break. Good lord. It’s for holidays of great important to multiple faiths. Give me a break. Glad APS did the right thing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FCPS has made some changes to the calendar for 2021-2022, including recognizing religious holidays by applying restrictions on what school activities can take place on those days. APS has paid lip service to trying to align its calendar with that of FCPS. It seems like our calendars will not be aligned at all for next year. Is it too late to make changes to the calendar for next year in APS?

https://wtop.com/fairfax-county/2021/03/fairfax-county-recognizes-religious-holidays/

LCPS, ACPS and APS all kept the traditional spring break schedule and published their calendars before FCPS. If anything FCPS should align to us.

Agree. FCPS is a hot mess.

~FCPS parent 🤪

Agree/

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FCPS has made some changes to the calendar for 2021-2022, including recognizing religious holidays by applying restrictions on what school activities can take place on those days. APS has paid lip service to trying to align its calendar with that of FCPS. It seems like our calendars will not be aligned at all for next year. Is it too late to make changes to the calendar for next year in APS?

https://wtop.com/fairfax-county/2021/03/fairfax-county-recognizes-religious-holidays/

LCPS, ACPS and APS all kept the traditional spring break schedule and published their calendars before FCPS. If anything FCPS should align to us.

FCPS was the first to propose the calendar with extra holidays and then backtracked before approving it.

...and the reason they backtracked is because they could not close on those 4 hand-picked religious holidays for operational reasons, because there was no data to support closing on those days. What secular reasons did your superintendent and school board come up with for adding them to your calendars?

This. It’s interesting to follow what is going on right now in FCPS and how that will affect the calendars in other districts, if it does.

If that's the rationale, good. Unlink all the holidays on all the calendars and be done with it.

Totally agree.
Christmas is deemed secular, as 75% or more of the teachers/students would take off. Plus, it is a federal holiday, as well.
FCPS uncoupled spring break from randomly bouncing around to follow Easter in 2022.

That said, the stakeholders are not happy with this interim calendar for this public school and it is likely because these holidays appear on your school districts’ calendars and not FCPS’s!

Anonymous wrote:No, FCPS didn’t propose it. A group of community members did and for some reason thought they had the authority of the School Board.

That is not correct at all. The task force was 1 piece of the committee that provided input into the calendar. FCPS ultimately developed the 2 calendars themselves so yes FCPS proposed it.

Their own press releases from last year confirm that: https://www.fcps.edu/news/school-board-considers-2021-22-calendar-four-additional-religious-holidays

And from the school board presentation - the makeup of the committee:
• Parent Teacher Associations/Organizations: Fairfax County Council PTA, Special Education PTA
• Religious Organizations - Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, Virginia Organized for Interfaith Community Engagement, Islamic Circle of North America
• Teacher, Operational Employee, and Principal Associations
• Various FCPS Department Personnel
• School Board Member