I see lots of talk about Easter Monday, and yet no one here actually claims to be one of the people who actually DO celebrate it.

Also, a good 50% of the commenters seem not to realize that the Orthodox Church uses the Julian calendar. That means that Easter for them in about a week later in 2023. So are we going to do two Easter Monday holidays??

And if an Orthodox day of obligation is enough to cancel school, I have new for you about New Years Day, All Saint’s Day, the Ascension, the assumption, etc. All of which are holy days of obligation.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many of the bus drivers and their community celebrate Ethiopian new year and many extended workers celebrate Vietnamese New Year. We should consider adding those to the calendar. I also would like to see Good Friday and Easter Monday added. This will ensure families can celebrate those days no matter when spring break is scheduled in future. I find it offensive it’s not named on the current calendar, frankly.

We already get Easter Monday troll

Well this comment didn’t age well. Revised proposed calendar removes Easter Monday. That’s why Good Friday (holiest Christian holiday along w Easter) and Easter Monday need to be observed - it’s not guaranteed that APS will overlap spring break. Why is no one calling this out?

Why is Easter Monday necessary??? It is not a religious holiday.

I believe the rationale is usually so people who celebrate Easter can celebrate the whole holiday with family and travel home the following day.

Based on that rationale every religious holiday should get two days off. For example, I'd love to have the day after Yom Kippur off so we could observe the holiday and break the fast with family and travel the next day.

There are Christian Orthodox (yes in Arlington) who go to mass or celebrate Monday after Easter. If a holiday falls on a weekend there are many who want it the next Monday off from school. Also it is well known that there is a large Ethiopian population in DMV. Probably more than celebrate Diwali. That should def be a recognized holiday.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many of the bus drivers and their community celebrate Ethiopian new year and many extended workers celebrate Vietnamese New Year. We should consider adding those to the calendar. I also would like to see Good Friday and Easter Monday added. This will ensure families can celebrate those days no matter when spring break is scheduled in future. I find it offensive it’s not named on the current calendar, frankly.

We already get Easter Monday troll

Well this comment didn’t age well. Revised proposed calendar removes Easter Monday. That’s why Good Friday (holiest Christian holiday along w Easter) and Easter Monday need to be observed - it’s not guaranteed that APS will overlap spring break. Why is no one calling this out?

Why is Easter Monday necessary??? It is not a religious holiday.

I believe the rationale is usually so people who celebrate Easter can celebrate the whole holiday with family and travel home the following day.

As a Christian celebrating Easter, I don’t think we need Easter Monday off. Good Friday makes more sense, but really that’s not necessary either. We are always off on Sunday, so it’s fine.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many of the bus drivers and their community celebrate Ethiopian new year and many extended workers celebrate Vietnamese New Year. We should consider adding those to the calendar. I also would like to see Good Friday and Easter Monday added. This will ensure families can celebrate those days no matter when spring break is scheduled in future. I find it offensive it’s not named on the current calendar, frankly.

We already get Easter Monday troll

Well this comment didn’t age well. Revised proposed calendar removes Easter Monday. That’s why Good Friday (holiest Christian holiday along w Easter) and Easter Monday need to be observed - it’s not guaranteed that APS will overlap spring break. Why is no one calling this out?

Why is Easter Monday necessary??? It is not a religious holiday.

I believe the rationale is usually so people who celebrate Easter can celebrate the whole holiday with family and travel home the following day.

Based on that rationale every religious holiday should get two days off. For example, I'd love to have the day after Yom Kippur off so we could observe the holiday and break the fast with family and travel the next day.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many of the bus drivers and their community celebrate Ethiopian new year and many extended workers celebrate Vietnamese New Year. We should consider adding those to the calendar. I also would like to see Good Friday and Easter Monday added. This will ensure families can celebrate those days no matter when spring break is scheduled in future. I find it offensive it’s not named on the current calendar, frankly.

We already get Easter Monday troll

Well this comment didn’t age well. Revised proposed calendar removes Easter Monday. That’s why Good Friday (holiest Christian holiday along w Easter) and Easter Monday need to be observed - it’s not guaranteed that APS will overlap spring break. Why is no one calling this out?

Why is Easter Monday necessary??? It is not a religious holiday.

I believe the rationale is usually so people who celebrate Easter can celebrate the whole holiday with family and travel home the following day.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many of the bus drivers and their community celebrate Ethiopian new year and many extended workers celebrate Vietnamese New Year. We should consider adding those to the calendar. I also would like to see Good Friday and Easter Monday added. This will ensure families can celebrate those days no matter when spring break is scheduled in future. I find it offensive it’s not named on the current calendar, frankly.

We already get Easter Monday troll

Well this comment didn’t age well. Revised proposed calendar removes Easter Monday. That’s why Good Friday (holiest Christian holiday along w Easter) and Easter Monday need to be observed - it’s not guaranteed that APS will overlap spring break. Why is no one calling this out?

Why is Easter Monday necessary??? It is not a religious holiday.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many of the bus drivers and their community celebrate Ethiopian new year and many extended workers celebrate Vietnamese New Year. We should consider adding those to the calendar. I also would like to see Good Friday and Easter Monday added. This will ensure families can celebrate those days no matter when spring break is scheduled in future. I find it offensive it’s not named on the current calendar, frankly.

We already get Easter Monday troll

Well this comment didn’t age well. Revised proposed calendar removes Easter Monday. That’s why Good Friday (holiest Christian holiday along w Easter) and Easter Monday need to be observed - it’s not guaranteed that APS will overlap spring break. Why is no one calling this out?

Anonymous wrote:Many of the bus drivers and their community celebrate Ethiopian new year and many extended workers celebrate Vietnamese New Year. We should consider adding those to the calendar. I also would like to see Good Friday and Easter Monday added. This will ensure families can celebrate those days no matter when spring break is scheduled in future. I find it offensive it’s not named on the current calendar, frankly.

Good Friday and Easter Monday have typically been off due to scheduling spring break according to Easter and making the day after a grade prep day. As one who observes holy week and Easter, I've never appreciated the extended spring break with Monday off. Also as one who observes holy week and Easter, I don't advocate Good Friday or Easter Monday being designated as holidays and days off from school. We can easily observe and celebrate Easter (and the accompanying events) without Friday and Monday off. If anyone really wants to go to an afternoon service on Friday, they can be excused and miss school without missing a lot of class or work. I'm not aware of any big services for Easter Monday. It seems that's just because you want to travel and not come back on Easter Sunday. We Christians have Easter. We also have Christmas and will likely always have Christmas Eve (not an actual holiday, I know - but several days around our actual "one" religious holiday of Christmas. i wouldn't advocate for Epiphany and don't think it's necessary to push for Good Friday or Easter Monday, either).

I would advocate for the State to eliminate its stupid restriction around Labor Day; but I don't mind having a 4-day first few weeks of school to get back into the swing of things. I would much rather eliminate the day off for Veterans' Day when the actual holiday falls on the weekend, as it will next year. If we didn't have election day off, I'd be all-in for the Veterans' Day observance. But I absolutely despite disjointed weeks. I've been somewhat swayed by arguments that more could be done in observance of Veterans Day in school than out and would really like to see the curriculum require Veterans' Day activities and lessons rather than having the day off and nobody participating in any Veterans' Day activities. My family doesn't - and it's a shame. We should. we get Memorial Day off - and people mainly "celebrate" rather than "memorialize" with picnics and parties and travel. Let's actually focus on the sacrifice and devotion of all veterans in November.

Anonymous wrote:So is there any shot the SB approves revised option 2?

Duran said at the meeting he could support option 2 if it had 180 instructional days, which the revised version now does. So it has a chance.

So is there any shot the SB approves revised option 2?

Eid is already a holiday on the calendar. The date is based on the lunar cycle so it is projected but sometimes needs to be adjusted. It was a day off this year and projected for I think Saturday but now will be adjusted to Friday. Same thing happened last year. And not just in APS.

Anonymous wrote:From the Friday email:

2. Calendar Updates & Eid al-Fitr Holiday Added

At the Dec. 1 School Board meeting, the Board received recommendations on the 2023-24 School Year Calendar. Based on the discussion and feedback from staff and families, APS is revisiting options 1 and 2 and is modifying option 2 to provide a full 180 instructional days. A final decision will be made at the Dec. 15 School Board meeting.

Additionally, the Board approved a calendar change for the current school year to designate Fri, April 21, 2023, as a holiday for Eid al-Fitr. Because of this change, all schools and offices will be closed on Fri, April 21, 2023.

Next Wed, Dec. 7 is a Countywide Early Release for all students and a Professional Learning Day for staff. Winter Break is Dec. 19 - Jan. 2. All schools and offices will be closed.

I haven't been following this too closely...did the SB seriously just say "we value more days in school" and then the very next action was to decrease the number of days in school? Am I going crazy?

I listened to the school board meeting, and I was heartened by the discussions and comments that were made in favor of having an actual policy on setting the calendar--establishing guidelines for length of winter break, start of school, etc. And they all agreed that the current system (surveys every year) was undesirable. Plus they want to coordinate with other school systems better in the future.

It won't help us for the 23-24 calendar, but I'm optimistic that we could get a much better system in place for this starting in 24-25. I haven't been the biggest Duran fan, but I thought he had very good things to say last night about this and his willingness to improve it going forward.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's the revised option 2 - start date Aug 28.

https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/2023-24-School-Year-Calendar-Proposal-Revised-Option-2.pdf

I can live with this. The choppiness of the calendar is getting kind of ridiculous. I appreciate the desire for inclusiveness but seriously, before we start adding in holidays for every single faith or ethnic background, how many people are we talking about? Do we shut down a system of 30,000+ people (students and staff) for 300? For 3,000? What's the point at which there is a significant impact on teaching and learning?

Can't you also say that about having a longer summer if these holidays were removed?

Anonymous wrote:Here's the revised option 2 - start date Aug 28.

https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/2023-24-School-Year-Calendar-Proposal-Revised-Option-2.pdf

I can live with this. The choppiness of the calendar is getting kind of ridiculous. I appreciate the desire for inclusiveness but seriously, before we start adding in holidays for every single faith or ethnic background, how many people are we talking about? Do we shut down a system of 30,000+ people (students and staff) for 300? For 3,000? What's the point at which there is a significant impact on teaching and learning?