Anonymous wrote:I am a teacher, and I think it is stupid that we are tying spring break to Easter instead of tying spring break to the end of the quarter. Sigh...

But what’s even stupider is we could do both by just picking the week right after Easter instead of the one before.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OH MY GOD WHY ARE THEY GIVING VETERANS DAY OFF????

I don’t understand that either. It’s another choppy calendar.

It was actually off this year.

I am a teacher, and I think it is stupid that we are tying spring break to Easter instead of tying spring break to the end of the quarter. Sigh...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I looked at the future calendars and I am PISSED that they are continuing to put spring break around Easter when they promised last year that they were going to stop doing that. It is so expensive to travel for spring break when it is aligned to easter - the only reason we are traveling this year is because Southwest just decided to hold a sale to make up for its holiday travel fiasco.

I also looked at the slide deck and it's very clear that they build these calendars around what teachers and staff want and not what families want. Families said they did not want spring break tied to easter, but teachers and staff did.

They should listen to teachers because they are the ones they need to retain.

Do teachers prefer it tied to Easter?

Teacher

I think many teachers prefer whatever the neighboring districts do, which is tie it to Easter.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I looked at the future calendars and I am PISSED that they are continuing to put spring break around Easter when they promised last year that they were going to stop doing that. It is so expensive to travel for spring break when it is aligned to easter - the only reason we are traveling this year is because Southwest just decided to hold a sale to make up for its holiday travel fiasco.

I also looked at the slide deck and it's very clear that they build these calendars around what teachers and staff want and not what families want. Families said they did not want spring break tied to easter, but teachers and staff did.

They should listen to teachers because they are the ones they need to retain.

Do teachers prefer it tied to Easter?

Teacher

Anonymous wrote:Just two more years... just two more years... just two more years....

then I'm out. of. here.

I’ve already turned in my retirement papers. A few years early, but I’ve had my fill.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I looked at the future calendars and I am PISSED that they are continuing to put spring break around Easter when they promised last year that they were going to stop doing that. It is so expensive to travel for spring break when it is aligned to easter - the only reason we are traveling this year is because Southwest just decided to hold a sale to make up for its holiday travel fiasco.

I also looked at the slide deck and it's very clear that they build these calendars around what teachers and staff want and not what families want. Families said they did not want spring break tied to easter, but teachers and staff did.

Wait why don’t you want it tied to Easter? My family definitely voted for that, although I wish it was only a couple days rather than a full week.

Anonymous wrote:Another take away is that FCPS likes to make things 1000 times harder than it has to be and goes through all these gyrations and powerpoints just to do what they intended to do in the first place.

And that's why every other jurisdiction had already decided on their calendar while FCPS was running in circles trying to create a mountain out of a molehill. The sheer number of attachments and appendices tells you they have lost their minds.

+1
They refused to let people comment on the elephant in the room and so chewed up months getting feedback on tinkering at the edges.

Another take away is that FCPS likes to make things 1000 times harder than it has to be and goes through all these gyrations and powerpoints just to do what they intended to do in the first place.

And that's why every other jurisdiction had already decided on their calendar while FCPS was running in circles trying to create a mountain out of a molehill. The sheer number of attachments and appendices tells you they have lost their minds.

Anonymous wrote:So, kids are at home for a week of spring break in all versions, then they go to school for a shortened week... then three more days off the next week... makes sense.

April is squirrelly this year too. SB first week and the next two Fridays off as well with an early release in there for good measure.

Looks like the following religious holidays are always going to be on the FCPS no-school days:

Rosh Hashana
Yom Kippur
Diwali
Eid
And Easter connected to Spring Break.

That's pretty much the take away... they are keeping the religious holidays on the non-school days and everyone who doesn't like it can eat rocks.

Anonymous wrote:So, kids are at home for a week of spring break in all versions, then they go to school for a shortened week... then three more days off the next week... makes sense.

Yup. Particularly when they could have just scheduled the semester to end before spring break and then given the first week of April off plus the two teacher work days tacked on right after that. Families would have loved that.

Just two more years... just two more years... just two more years....

then I'm out. of. here.

So, kids are at home for a week of spring break in all versions, then they go to school for a shortened week... then three more days off the next week... makes sense.

I think they “aligned with Easter” and picked that week (rather than the “fixed” week of every first week of April which would also happen to conveniently be next to Easter this time) because the other districts all picked that already and it was a genuine problem when our spring break did not align with theirs. More broadly they could not very well claim they “have” to give the religious holidays off for operational reasons due to other schools being off if they divorce spring break from the other schools timing.