Anonymous
Post 08/11/2023 04:40     Subject: Proposed APS Calendar Policy
Anonymous wrote:I just commented. The part I hate the most is having school end earlier if there are no snow days. My kids are older but that seems hard on parents of elementary school students.


+1. 4th quarter is too late for anyone to make alternative plans. Most camps are filled up by that point, and frankly most camps aren’t going to be available for a week when school is suooosed to be in session anyway.

I also wonder how they are going to align winter and spring breaks with nearby jurisdictions if we’re making the calendars 2 years in advance of the nearby jurisdictions.
Anonymous
Post 08/11/2023 02:17     Subject: Proposed APS Calendar Policy
I just commented. The part I hate the most is having school end earlier if there are no snow days. My kids are older but that seems hard on parents of elementary school students.
Anonymous
Post 08/10/2023 22:40     Subject: Proposed APS Calendar Policy
The email inviting people to give feedback on the “revised” calendar policy came out today. Looks like they’re using a new platform vs the standard (terribly-designed) surveys.

Already, the comments are overwhelmingly people asking APS not to shorten summer break even more. But I doubt APS cares.
Anonymous
Post 08/05/2023 09:35     Subject: Proposed APS Calendar Policy
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Reading about teachers not getting paid for summer school and this lease thing. Where are APS's priorities?

A board member told me that they need all these days because they don't get to telework. But then at the meeting last night, APS said they telework in the summer. So which is it?

We need more days off, more telework and more office space? But we'll cram teachers and kids into old facilities and maybe not even pay them for teaching summer school?





What do you mean they were not paid for summer school?


Two people spoke about it at the school board meeting- including one who I think did a really good job articulating how, for those working summer school, the problems getting paid the agreed upon amount at the agreed upon time caused the summer school staff significant financial hardship. I was unaware of the problem before but it sounds inexcusable.
Anonymous
Post 08/05/2023 08:58     Subject: Proposed APS Calendar Policy
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Reading about teachers not getting paid for summer school and this lease thing. Where are APS's priorities?

A board member told me that they need all these days because they don't get to telework. But then at the meeting last night, APS said they telework in the summer. So which is it?

We need more days off, more telework and more office space? But we'll cram teachers and kids into old facilities and maybe not even pay them for teaching summer school?





Please explain to me the rationale that people need more paid vacation days because they don't get to telework???
Is that just an admission or acknowledgement that people who telework aren't actually working?
and yes, many of them ARE teleworking.


The rationale is whatever the Superintendent wants it to be. And he seems to want his staff to have really cushy jobs in a really nice office space that they rarely work in.


The only additional office space I’d support is a place in each school to store the carts each Syphax employee would be required to use on mandatory rotations through the schools.
Anonymous
Post 08/05/2023 08:56     Subject: Proposed APS Calendar Policy
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Reading about teachers not getting paid for summer school and this lease thing. Where are APS's priorities?

A board member told me that they need all these days because they don't get to telework. But then at the meeting last night, APS said they telework in the summer. So which is it?

We need more days off, more telework and more office space? But we'll cram teachers and kids into old facilities and maybe not even pay them for teaching summer school?





What do you mean they were not paid for summer school?


Apparently more HR issues resulting in pay problems for summer school teachers.


Maybe if HR was actually working, in the office, instead of “teleworking” in between days off, the teachers might actually get paid.

HR seems to be the weakest point of what is already a very weak back office. I heard so many people who tried to be subs this year after hearing about the so-called shortages only to find out that it was HR who was sitting on applications for months.
Anonymous
Post 08/04/2023 16:19     Subject: Proposed APS Calendar Policy
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Reading about teachers not getting paid for summer school and this lease thing. Where are APS's priorities?

A board member told me that they need all these days because they don't get to telework. But then at the meeting last night, APS said they telework in the summer. So which is it?

We need more days off, more telework and more office space? But we'll cram teachers and kids into old facilities and maybe not even pay them for teaching summer school?





What do you mean they were not paid for summer school?


Apparently more HR issues resulting in pay problems for summer school teachers.
Anonymous
Post 08/04/2023 15:38     Subject: Proposed APS Calendar Policy
Anonymous wrote:Reading about teachers not getting paid for summer school and this lease thing. Where are APS's priorities?

A board member told me that they need all these days because they don't get to telework. But then at the meeting last night, APS said they telework in the summer. So which is it?

We need more days off, more telework and more office space? But we'll cram teachers and kids into old facilities and maybe not even pay them for teaching summer school?





What do you mean they were not paid for summer school?
Anonymous
Post 08/04/2023 15:27     Subject: Proposed APS Calendar Policy
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Reading about teachers not getting paid for summer school and this lease thing. Where are APS's priorities?

A board member told me that they need all these days because they don't get to telework. But then at the meeting last night, APS said they telework in the summer. So which is it?

We need more days off, more telework and more office space? But we'll cram teachers and kids into old facilities and maybe not even pay them for teaching summer school?





Please explain to me the rationale that people need more paid vacation days because they don't get to telework???
Is that just an admission or acknowledgement that people who telework aren't actually working?
and yes, many of them ARE teleworking.


The rationale is whatever the Superintendent wants it to be. And he seems to want his staff to have really cushy jobs in a really nice office space that they rarely work in.
Anonymous
Post 08/04/2023 15:15     Subject: Proposed APS Calendar Policy
Anonymous wrote:Reading about teachers not getting paid for summer school and this lease thing. Where are APS's priorities?

A board member told me that they need all these days because they don't get to telework. But then at the meeting last night, APS said they telework in the summer. So which is it?

We need more days off, more telework and more office space? But we'll cram teachers and kids into old facilities and maybe not even pay them for teaching summer school?





Please explain to me the rationale that people need more paid vacation days because they don't get to telework???
Is that just an admission or acknowledgement that people who telework aren't actually working?
and yes, many of them ARE teleworking.
Anonymous
Post 08/04/2023 13:24     Subject: Proposed APS Calendar Policy
Reading about teachers not getting paid for summer school and this lease thing. Where are APS's priorities?

A board member told me that they need all these days because they don't get to telework. But then at the meeting last night, APS said they telework in the summer. So which is it?

We need more days off, more telework and more office space? But we'll cram teachers and kids into old facilities and maybe not even pay them for teaching summer school?



Anonymous
Post 08/04/2023 12:56     Subject: Proposed APS Calendar Policy
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Unbelievable. Why does APS want to give all these holidays to syphax? Why haven’t our school board members stopped this?


+1. Starting to wonder if Duran views his purpose as leading a system for educating children or running a government funded jobs organization. Class sizes are enormous, learning loss is real, and teacher morale is at an all time low, and a month of paid holidays for back office employees is the hill he wants to die on?

Somebody has some MESSED UP priorities.


Agreed. I don’t want my tax dollars going to extra vacay for management. Take care of the teachers, the assistants, and the bus drivers.


When is the school board voting on this? Teachers are struggling to get paid for summer school but syphax is going to get a lot of paid holidays?


In the new contract, the administrators lost extra leave days to keep the same breaks as students. That was not widely advertised.


I don't think it's a 1-1 trade. Admins are still getting more paid leave in total than they did before all of these holidays were added as paid days for them. Now those days are fixed rather than flexible, and they have more of them. While teachers still don't get paid for any of these days off.
Anonymous
Post 08/04/2023 09:12     Subject: Proposed APS Calendar Policy
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Unbelievable. Why does APS want to give all these holidays to syphax? Why haven’t our school board members stopped this?


+1. Starting to wonder if Duran views his purpose as leading a system for educating children or running a government funded jobs organization. Class sizes are enormous, learning loss is real, and teacher morale is at an all time low, and a month of paid holidays for back office employees is the hill he wants to die on?

Somebody has some MESSED UP priorities.


Agreed. I don’t want my tax dollars going to extra vacay for management. Take care of the teachers, the assistants, and the bus drivers.


When is the school board voting on this? Teachers are struggling to get paid for summer school but syphax is going to get a lot of paid holidays?


In the new contract, the administrators lost extra leave days to keep the same breaks as students. That was not widely advertised.
Anonymous
Post 08/04/2023 08:13     Subject: Proposed APS Calendar Policy
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Wasn't the SB supposed to vote on this policy in July? Is that happening at the mtg tonight?


There was a “second draft” posted that addressed very few substantive concerns with the first and had an abnormally short comment period that was not advertised.


Does anyone have a link to the second draft? I can’t find it on the APS website.
Anonymous
Post 08/04/2023 07:58     Subject: Proposed APS Calendar Policy
Anonymous wrote:Contact the school board to share your thoughts.
https://www.apsva.us/arlington-school-board/


I did. Just wondering if they are thinking this “second draft” negates the need to consider comments they didn’t address on the first. I don’t have time to “engage” 10 different times and 10 different ways just to get legitimate concerns about learning interruptions, legal sufficiency, and costing teachers money dismissed out of hand. If you’re going to conduct a survey, actually respond to the concerns before you ask people to do it again.