Anonymous wrote:Why do they have to start the Wednesday before?Starting Thursday would be a little better.

Or using the "teachers union meeting" day in October as a school day. I understand that very few teachers actually go. I understand it is a paid day/workday for teachers.

Sorry, should have said NOT a paid day. I was typing on phone and watching a football game. (And complaining to my DH about all this.) Yes, I know what the October day off of school is. But I've also been told hardly anyone goes.

The day off in October is to attend the State Teacher's Union convention. All counties in MD give their teachers the day off as either conference attendance OR staff development/in service. No one, not even failing systems like Baltimore City, expect teachers to skip the conference because the district can't figure out a better calendar solution than running it as a normal school day.

Also, I am pretty sure that someone already posted this past October that the conference is NOT a paid day off. Does anyone know if it is calculated in the 193 days teacher are paid to report? If so, MCPS could argue teachers must show proof of conference attendance or go to an in service/professional development at their school or MCEA office in order to be paid. If it is not a paid day at all, how can MCPS tell teachers what to do on a non duty day?

Anonymous wrote:Why do they have to start the Wednesday before?Starting Thursday would be a little better.

Or using the "teachers union meeting" day in October as a school day. I understand that very few teachers actually go. I understand it is a paid day/workday for teachers.

It's the date of the teachers convention. It's a collectively bargained day off for teachers whether they go to the convention or not.

Why do they have to start the Wednesday before?Starting Thursday would be a little better.

Or using the "teachers union meeting" day in October as a school day. I understand that very few teachers actually go. I understand it is a paid day/workday for teachers.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
With no numbers for Muslims, it's not meaningful. I guess you are trying to assert that the Muslim population has grown along with county population, but that's certainly not a given. The population may have fallen. And if it didn't grow 6% or more, then the percentage didn't increase. Point is, the BOE says they can't and don't close for religious holidays. Then Durso outright declared that they are closing for a religious holiday. And now the calendar is jacked to cater to a tiny segment of the population.

The only thing anybody is asserting right here is that your numbers are out of date. Which they are.

There are no reliable 2015 figures for # of Muslims in the county that I can find. If you can find, feel free to post.

Could somebody please clarify this issue for me? I assumed that there was some defined criteria with a threshold which would determine if a given population was large enough to justify closing schools. It sounds as though not only are we lacking decision criteria, we are lacking the data on which to apply it. Has MCPS cited their criteria for closing for this group? Are they looking at attendance data? Do we even know if this is the largest unrepresented group? We are a very diverse system. I know, for example, we have a large Asian population which may encompass multiple faiths. I don't know what religious holidays they might observe or how their numbers compare to those of the Muslim (or Christian or Jewish) faith.

Please understand this is a sincere post as I feel woefully uninformed on this subject.

As far as we know there is no defined criteria. It looks to be a mostly political decision. It is actually unprecedented, as the Board and MCPS have always maintained that schools will only close due to operational issues. For instance, there is a high percentage of Jewish staff who work for MCPS and they would all presumably request subs for the High Holidays that fall on weekdays. There's also a high student absence rate on those days. So schools are not closed in observance of the holidays, but because schools would not be able to operate typically if they were open.

At least that's been the explanation for as long as I've been in MoCo as a child and as an adult.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
With no numbers for Muslims, it's not meaningful. I guess you are trying to assert that the Muslim population has grown along with county population, but that's certainly not a given. The population may have fallen. And if it didn't grow 6% or more, then the percentage didn't increase. Point is, the BOE says they can't and don't close for religious holidays. Then Durso outright declared that they are closing for a religious holiday. And now the calendar is jacked to cater to a tiny segment of the population.

The only thing anybody is asserting right here is that your numbers are out of date. Which they are.

There are no reliable 2015 figures for # of Muslims in the county that I can find. If you can find, feel free to post.

Could somebody please clarify this issue for me? I assumed that there was some defined criteria with a threshold which would determine if a given population was large enough to justify closing schools. It sounds as though not only are we lacking decision criteria, we are lacking the data on which to apply it. Has MCPS cited their criteria for closing for this group? Are they looking at attendance data? Do we even know if this is the largest unrepresented group? We are a very diverse system. I know, for example, we have a large Asian population which may encompass multiple faiths. I don't know what religious holidays they might observe or how their numbers compare to those of the Muslim (or Christian or Jewish) faith.

Please understand this is a sincere post as I feel woefully uninformed on this subject.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
With no numbers for Muslims, it's not meaningful. I guess you are trying to assert that the Muslim population has grown along with county population, but that's certainly not a given. The population may have fallen. And if it didn't grow 6% or more, then the percentage didn't increase. Point is, the BOE says they can't and don't close for religious holidays. Then Durso outright declared that they are closing for a religious holiday. And now the calendar is jacked to cater to a tiny segment of the population.

The only thing anybody is asserting right here is that your numbers are out of date. Which they are.

There are no reliable 2015 figures for # of Muslims in the county that I can find. If you can find, feel free to post.

There are no reliable figures for number of Muslims in the county at all, or number of members of any other religion, unless there are so few members in the county that literally everybody knows everybody else.

What the hell are you talking about?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
With no numbers for Muslims, it's not meaningful. I guess you are trying to assert that the Muslim population has grown along with county population, but that's certainly not a given. The population may have fallen. And if it didn't grow 6% or more, then the percentage didn't increase. Point is, the BOE says they can't and don't close for religious holidays. Then Durso outright declared that they are closing for a religious holiday. And now the calendar is jacked to cater to a tiny segment of the population.

The only thing anybody is asserting right here is that your numbers are out of date. Which they are.

There are no reliable 2015 figures for # of Muslims in the county that I can find. If you can find, feel free to post.

There are no reliable figures for number of Muslims in the county at all, or number of members of any other religion, unless there are so few members in the county that literally everybody knows everybody else.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
With no numbers for Muslims, it's not meaningful. I guess you are trying to assert that the Muslim population has grown along with county population, but that's certainly not a given. The population may have fallen. And if it didn't grow 6% or more, then the percentage didn't increase. Point is, the BOE says they can't and don't close for religious holidays. Then Durso outright declared that they are closing for a religious holiday. And now the calendar is jacked to cater to a tiny segment of the population.

The only thing anybody is asserting right here is that your numbers are out of date. Which they are.

There are no reliable 2015 figures for # of Muslims in the county that I can find. If you can find, feel free to post.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But they aren't on the list of state-required public school holidays.

http://msa.maryland.gov/msa/mdmanual/01glance/html/holidayp.html

1: Religious holidays are not on the school calendar.
2: Christmas is on the school calendar.
3: That's because Christmas is a federal holiday.
4: So are Columbus Day and Veterans' Day.
5: But they're not state-required school holidays.

This is not a discussion, it's a tangle of yarn.

And it's all peripheral to the earlier start date!

Anonymous wrote:
With no numbers for Muslims, it's not meaningful. I guess you are trying to assert that the Muslim population has grown along with county population, but that's certainly not a given. The population may have fallen. And if it didn't grow 6% or more, then the percentage didn't increase. Point is, the BOE says they can't and don't close for religious holidays. Then Durso outright declared that they are closing for a religious holiday. And now the calendar is jacked to cater to a tiny segment of the population.

The only thing anybody is asserting right here is that your numbers are out of date. Which they are.

Anonymous wrote:But they aren't on the list of state-required public school holidays.

http://msa.maryland.gov/msa/mdmanual/01glance/html/holidayp.html

1: Religious holidays are not on the school calendar.
2: Christmas is on the school calendar.
3: That's because Christmas is a federal holiday.
4: So are Columbus Day and Veterans' Day.
5: But they're not state-required school holidays.

This is not a discussion, it's a tangle of yarn.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/24/24031.html

I don't see any figures on religious affiliation at this link.

Correct. But it does show the population of the county, which is well over 971,000.

It says 971,777. Are you mentally handicapped? Serious question.

Look at the top line.

With no numbers for Muslims, it's not meaningful. I guess you are trying to assert that the Muslim population has grown along with county population, but that's certainly not a given. The population may have fallen. And if it didn't grow 6% or more, then the percentage didn't increase. Point is, the BOE says they can't and don't close for religious holidays. Then Durso outright declared that they are closing for a religious holiday. And now the calendar is jacked to cater to a tiny segment of the population.

But they aren't on the list of state-required public school holidays.

http://msa.maryland.gov/msa/mdmanual/01glance/html/holidayp.html

Anonymous wrote:

Christmas is a state and federal holiday.

So are Columbus Day and Veterans Day.