Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The increase in instructional time is great. Back to 180 days. I'm very happy about that.

I’m a teacher, I’m furious. We’ve never started that early. Having the time off in the summer is one of the few, very important, perks of this job. It’s not the salary. The light workload. It’s the summer, and I’m losing a week of it?!

Blame the additional religious holidays, not 180. APS has always had 180/181 days of school until last year when they added the holidays.

APE pressured APS to add the extra days to get to 180, so that's why no one likes this year's options.

I’m Muslim. To be honest I would prefer Eid to be an excused absence instead of a day off. There are just too many days off during the year. Having Eid recognized as a holiday on the calendar has been great of my kids. They feel included instead of outsiders. But that can be achieved by keeping Eid on the calendar, recognizing it as a holiday, and talking about it at school. We can do this for all the holidays, including Chinese New Year, Nowruz and the orthodox holidays which are currently not off. Everyone gets recognized but there is still school that day with an excused absence available for those who celebrate.

Anonymous wrote:I don't know anyone who likes all these religious holidays off. We celebrate the jewish holidays but would rather just take the excused absence if it meant there was school on the other days.

More people need to be comfortable saying this. The admin seems to be of the impression we can’t “honor” the world’s religions unless we take a token day off for each of them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The increase in instructional time is great. Back to 180 days. I'm very happy about that.

I’m a teacher, I’m furious. We’ve never started that early. Having the time off in the summer is one of the few, very important, perks of this job. It’s not the salary. The light workload. It’s the summer, and I’m losing a week of it?!

Blame the additional religious holidays, not 180. APS has always had 180/181 days of school until last year when they added the holidays.

I don't know anyone who likes all these religious holidays off. We celebrate the jewish holidays but would rather just take the excused absence if it meant there was school on the other days.

Anonymous wrote:The issue with option 1 is that teachers report Aug 10. That’s insanely early and teachers are not happy with that option. I don’t get why teachers have to return for those 2 days of meetings… such a waste.

7 days of preservice is also relatively new, it used to be 5

The issue with option 1 is that teachers report Aug 10. That’s insanely early and teachers are not happy with that option. I don’t get why teachers have to return for those 2 days of meetings… such a waste.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are a family that prefers to have a full two weeks for Winter Break. It gives us time to travel and get home to get the kids resettled before falling into the January/February rat race. It also helps a lot because we have college kids as well as elementary and secondary kids. Having the kids home longer during Winter Break is a good chance for everyone to see each other and relax. We like Option 1 for that reason. Personally, I like the Spring Break after Easter as it is in Option 3, but the plusses of Option 1 with the full two week Winter Break outweigh that preference.

I agree. I really like 2 weeks for Winter Break.

It is funny, I think, but those 3-4 extra days make such a big difference. It will be interesting to see which option ends up being selected.

He selected #1.

The school board gets final say, not the superintendent.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are a family that prefers to have a full two weeks for Winter Break. It gives us time to travel and get home to get the kids resettled before falling into the January/February rat race. It also helps a lot because we have college kids as well as elementary and secondary kids. Having the kids home longer during Winter Break is a good chance for everyone to see each other and relax. We like Option 1 for that reason. Personally, I like the Spring Break after Easter as it is in Option 3, but the plusses of Option 1 with the full two week Winter Break outweigh that preference.

I agree. I really like 2 weeks for Winter Break.

It is funny, I think, but those 3-4 extra days make such a big difference. It will be interesting to see which option ends up being selected.

He selected #1.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One week is not long enough in winter. We need two weeks to break up the year and provide an actual break for kids, especially high schoolers. With only one week and holiday chaos, traveling, etc. there is not enough downtime to mentally relax.

No one is proposing one week.

I thought that's what options 2 and 3 have

No they have 1.5 weeks.

So probably a lot of kids would end up skipping that half a week anyway, which means very little instruction those days anyway.

I wouldn’t be so sure. When my kid was in kindergarten (2018) in APS they went all the way to 12/21 and the class was full. With option 2 and 3, the break is still 12 days long (including weekends).

If the break starts the 21st, maybe families will stick around. But back in the day, school once went to the 23rd, and schools emptied out.

The pattern needs to be consistent from year to year. Two weeks

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are a family that prefers to have a full two weeks for Winter Break. It gives us time to travel and get home to get the kids resettled before falling into the January/February rat race. It also helps a lot because we have college kids as well as elementary and secondary kids. Having the kids home longer during Winter Break is a good chance for everyone to see each other and relax. We like Option 1 for that reason. Personally, I like the Spring Break after Easter as it is in Option 3, but the plusses of Option 1 with the full two week Winter Break outweigh that preference.

I agree. I really like 2 weeks for Winter Break.

It is funny, I think, but those 3-4 extra days make such a big difference. It will be interesting to see which option ends up being selected.

Anonymous wrote:We are a family that prefers to have a full two weeks for Winter Break. It gives us time to travel and get home to get the kids resettled before falling into the January/February rat race. It also helps a lot because we have college kids as well as elementary and secondary kids. Having the kids home longer during Winter Break is a good chance for everyone to see each other and relax. We like Option 1 for that reason. Personally, I like the Spring Break after Easter as it is in Option 3, but the plusses of Option 1 with the full two week Winter Break outweigh that preference.

I agree. I really like 2 weeks for Winter Break.

We are a family that prefers to have a full two weeks for Winter Break. It gives us time to travel and get home to get the kids resettled before falling into the January/February rat race. It also helps a lot because we have college kids as well as elementary and secondary kids. Having the kids home longer during Winter Break is a good chance for everyone to see each other and relax. We like Option 1 for that reason. Personally, I like the Spring Break after Easter as it is in Option 3, but the plusses of Option 1 with the full two week Winter Break outweigh that preference.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One week is not long enough in winter. We need two weeks to break up the year and provide an actual break for kids, especially high schoolers. With only one week and holiday chaos, traveling, etc. there is not enough downtime to mentally relax.

No one is proposing one week.

I thought that's what options 2 and 3 have

No they have 1.5 weeks.

So probably a lot of kids would end up skipping that half a week anyway, which means very little instruction those days anyway.

I wouldn’t be so sure. When my kid was in kindergarten (2018) in APS they went all the way to 12/21 and the class was full. With option 2 and 3, the break is still 12 days long (including weekends).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One week is not long enough in winter. We need two weeks to break up the year and provide an actual break for kids, especially high schoolers. With only one week and holiday chaos, traveling, etc. there is not enough downtime to mentally relax.

No one is proposing one week.

I thought that's what options 2 and 3 have

No they have 1.5 weeks.

So probably a lot of kids would end up skipping that half a week anyway, which means very little instruction those days anyway.