Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NYC is not a good example at all. They go until the end of June!!

Yes, but DC could differ from NY by staying open on Rosh Hashana (2 days), Eid (2 days), Yom Kippur, Diwali, Holy Thursday, and the last 4 days of the NY spring break (so just close Good Friday-Easter Monday as a 4 day weekend). Even with Emancipation Day, that would allow DC to end two weeks sooner than NYC. Or split the difference and go until the day before Juneteenth.

The real sticking point for DC is the number of PD and parent-teacher conference days. If DCPS could do PD before or after the school year, and if they could do conferences after school, they could have a more compact schedule. I would still want that schedule to go mid-August to early/mid June though, because of the previously-mentioned issues with summer camp in late August and standardized testing in May.

PD days are pointless. P/T conferences should be half days like in MCPS. Also, why are they held more than once a year? Really regretting my decision to move districts. Impact evaluations seem to be the only thing people care about. It’s all stress around unplanned observations. In MCPS, there’s tenure… evaluations are not stressful, our whole year isn’t planned around fear like DCPS. I can’t wait till June.

Well, I mean, the thing is that DC had become really really bad so something had to change.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NYC is not a good example at all. They go until the end of June!!

Yes, but DC could differ from NY by staying open on Rosh Hashana (2 days), Eid (2 days), Yom Kippur, Diwali, Holy Thursday, and the last 4 days of the NY spring break (so just close Good Friday-Easter Monday as a 4 day weekend). Even with Emancipation Day, that would allow DC to end two weeks sooner than NYC. Or split the difference and go until the day before Juneteenth.

The real sticking point for DC is the number of PD and parent-teacher conference days. If DCPS could do PD before or after the school year, and if they could do conferences after school, they could have a more compact schedule. I would still want that schedule to go mid-August to early/mid June though, because of the previously-mentioned issues with summer camp in late August and standardized testing in May.

PD days are pointless. P/T conferences should be half days like in MCPS. Also, why are they held more than once a year? Really regretting my decision to move districts. Impact evaluations seem to be the only thing people care about. It’s all stress around unplanned observations. In MCPS, there’s tenure… evaluations are not stressful, our whole year isn’t planned around fear like DCPS. I can’t wait till June.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your examples are not good ones- do you want DC to reduce the required number of days of instruction to 165? That cuts three weeks out of the school year.

Whoever referenced NYC, June 29 is not early or mid-June. It’s two days before July 1!

Any real examples of school districts that require 180 days of instruction?

NJ has a lot of districts that start after Labor Day. Paramus gets out June 19 and has 183 school days. I don’t know what their “minimum days” are though. https://www.paramus.k12.nj.us/accnt_308692/site_308693/Documents/2024-2025-Calendar.pdf

Long Branch starts the Thursday after Labor Day and ends June 18. 180 days. https://www.longbranch.k12.nj.us/site/handlers/filedownload.ashx?moduleinstanceid=28816&dataid=23250&FileName=2024-2025%20District%20Calendar-%20New%20Design.pdf

It's amazing the scheduling flexibility you have when there's only one PD day on the entire schedule, and it's on a day (Indigenous Peoples Day) that's a holiday in other places. Don't DCPS teachers generally consider the PD days to be useless? Why do they exist?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your examples are not good ones- do you want DC to reduce the required number of days of instruction to 165? That cuts three weeks out of the school year.

Whoever referenced NYC, June 29 is not early or mid-June. It’s two days before July 1!

Any real examples of school districts that require 180 days of instruction?

NJ has a lot of districts that start after Labor Day. Paramus gets out June 19 and has 183 school days. I don’t know what their “minimum days” are though. https://www.paramus.k12.nj.us/accnt_308692/site_308693/Documents/2024-2025-Calendar.pdf

Long Branch starts the Thursday after Labor Day and ends June 18. 180 days. https://www.longbranch.k12.nj.us/site/handlers/filedownload.ashx?moduleinstanceid=28816&dataid=23250&FileName=2024-2025%20District%20Calendar-%20New%20Design.pdf

Anonymous wrote:Your examples are not good ones- do you want DC to reduce the required number of days of instruction to 165? That cuts three weeks out of the school year.

Whoever referenced NYC, June 29 is not early or mid-June. It’s two days before July 1!

Any real examples of school districts that require 180 days of instruction?

NJ has a lot of districts that start after Labor Day. Paramus gets out June 19 and has 183 school days. I don’t know what their “minimum days” are though. https://www.paramus.k12.nj.us/accnt_308692/site_308693/Documents/2024-2025-Calendar.pdf

Anonymous wrote:NYC is not a good example at all. They go until the end of June!!

Yes, but DC could differ from NY by staying open on Rosh Hashana (2 days), Eid (2 days), Yom Kippur, Diwali, Holy Thursday, and the last 4 days of the NY spring break (so just close Good Friday-Easter Monday as a 4 day weekend). Even with Emancipation Day, that would allow DC to end two weeks sooner than NYC. Or split the difference and go until the day before Juneteenth.

The real sticking point for DC is the number of PD and parent-teacher conference days. If DCPS could do PD before or after the school year, and if they could do conferences after school, they could have a more compact schedule. I would still want that schedule to go mid-August to early/mid June though, because of the previously-mentioned issues with summer camp in late August and standardized testing in May.

Anonymous wrote:Your examples are not good ones- do you want DC to reduce the required number of days of instruction to 165? That cuts three weeks out of the school year.

Whoever referenced NYC, June 29 is not early or mid-June. It’s two days before July 1!

Any real examples of school districts that require 180 days of instruction?

No—because the people who want to start after Labor Day don’t really care about this. They just want things to be like when they were kids and summer didn’t end until then. It’s not a serious discussion.

Your examples are not good ones- do you want DC to reduce the required number of days of instruction to 165? That cuts three weeks out of the school year.

Whoever referenced NYC, June 29 is not early or mid-June. It’s two days before July 1!

Any real examples of school districts that require 180 days of instruction?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP: can you share links to examples of the family members' calendars that start after Labor Day and end in early June?

Minneapolis started the day after Labor Day this school year and its last day of school is June 6. There are zero teacher-development days:

https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1715977581/mplsk12mnus/c1cuqckrzklauwjnfewa/sy_calendar_-_english_-_2024-25_2.pdf

In St. Paul, school starts the day after Labor Day and ends June 10 (a Tuesday).

https://www.spps.org/about/calendar

Schools cannot open before Labor Day under Minnesota law, fwiw.

Minnesota law also sets the minimum number of annual school days at 165, not 180 like in DC.

Duluth schools start the day after Labor Day and end June 5.

https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1710945464/isd709org/f62vuvbtgm7uzcfheccg/2024-2025Calendar.pdf

Some of the school calendar is driven by the WTU contract (number of PD days, etc.)

Anonymous wrote:PP: can you share links to examples of the family members' calendars that start after Labor Day and end in early June?

Minneapolis started the day after Labor Day this school year and its last day of school is June 6. There are zero teacher-development days:

https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1715977581/mplsk12mnus/c1cuqckrzklauwjnfewa/sy_calendar_-_english_-_2024-25_2.pdf

In St. Paul, school starts the day after Labor Day and ends June 10 (a Tuesday).

https://www.spps.org/about/calendar

Schools cannot open before Labor Day under Minnesota law, fwiw.

NYC is not a good example at all. They go until the end of June!!

Anonymous wrote:PP: can you share links to examples of the family members' calendars that start after Labor Day and end in early June?

not PP, but they said mid-June, not early June.

Here's NYC: https://cdn-blob-prd.azureedge.net/prd-pws/docs/default-source/default-document-library/school-year-2025-26-calendar-updated-v2-03-11-24.pdf?sfvrsn=1d1b76fe_4

They start after Labor Day and end 6/29/26. However, they have off several days DCPS probably wouldn't: 2 for Rosh Hashana, 1 for Yom Kippur, 2 for Eids, and 1 for Diwali. They also have a full week off in Feb and 7 days off in April (Holy Thurs, Good Fri, and the whole following week...this likely accommodates all of Passover too). DCPS would need Emancipation Day but could still probably finish by 6/18/26 (before Juneteenth) if they wanted to. But there wouldn't be a lot of breaks. One thing that would help DCPS is if they did what NYC does and have evening parent-teacher conferences or early dismissal rather than full days off. This would likely require DCPS to renegotiate the teachers' contracts though.

Late August is always such a hard time to find summer camps. Plus starting earlier is useful to kids taking AP exams, for whom June is truly a waste of time. So I wouldn't mind starting mid-August and finishing by Juneteenth but with a few more breaks than would be possible if not starting until after Labor Day. I mean, what I would really like is for the school year to go to 200 days and we pay teachers more and have smaller class sizes and better SEL and special ed and good and affordable before and after care, but I understand this thread is trying to stay within the confines of current reality...

PP: can you share links to examples of the family members' calendars that start after Labor Day and end in early June?

I don't have a single family member or friend in other districts whose kids start before labor day and they all end mid June when DCPS does. This isn't rocket science. They need to consult with other districts who have figured this out easily each year and eliminate the 5000 PD days.