Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m loving the simplicity of National Presbyterian’s calendar! Wow!

https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1672929300/nps/p4j14aia0vs3orqcmpu5/2023-2024NPSMajorDatesCalendar.pdf

It’s a lot easier when you are a religious school and don’t have to accommodate more than one religion’s holidays.

The public school shouldn't be accommodating any religious holidays. And before someone drags up Christmas, it's far more than than a religious holiday in the US.

IOW, “I got mine. Screw everybody else.”

And don’t try to claim you don’t celebrate Christmas because it’s an anonymous message board. Nope. Sorry.

Not who you're responding to. But I celebrate Christmas in a secular way -no baby Jesus, nativity, church, etc. And sorry, it just IS different. It's cultural and ingrained, even celebrated by non-Christians in some ways. It just is. And there is the recognition that lots of places shut down, people travel etc. at this time of the year. So it is practical to close over the holidays (to include NY).

So you can drag up Christmas in some ridiculous attempt to show it is the same as other holidays . . . . but you just look foolish. It's different. An that will never change, ever. It just won't.

Anonymous wrote:I’m angrier that the kids got out so late in June.

+1

I just want June OR August - give me one.

Anonymous wrote:Wait until y'all see the 2025-2026 schedule. School starts August 18 and ends June 17.

Yikes.

Wait until y'all see the 2025-2026 schedule. School starts August 18 and ends June 17.

Schools should be out by Memorial Day.

Back in the day, we started after Labor Day and finished Memorial Day. That was before we had so many teacher work days and religious holidays.

As a teacher, I would much rather have June off and start in August. That was the model when I was teaching--in three different areas. Kids are ready to get out of school when weather turns nice. And, going back in August does not bother most of them. (Some kids never want to go back.)

When enough kids are taking the day off to impact attendance, then put it into the calendar.

I am not familiar with all these holidays--but I think some of them do not require the day off. And, some of them have so few students celebrating them, that they can be accomodated in other ways.

I'm thinking of the mess when they cancelled an AP exam because of one of the religious holidays. They did not take into account that some kids had other APs scheduled on the rescheduled day.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m loving the simplicity of National Presbyterian’s calendar! Wow!

https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1672929300/nps/p4j14aia0vs3orqcmpu5/2023-2024NPSMajorDatesCalendar.pdf

It’s a lot easier when you are a religious school and don’t have to accommodate more than one religion’s holidays.

The public school shouldn't be accommodating any religious holidays. And before someone drags up Christmas, it's far more than than a religious holiday in the US.

IOW, “I got mine. Screw everybody else.”

And don’t try to claim you don’t celebrate Christmas because it’s an anonymous message board. Nope. Sorry.

Sure I celebrate Christmas. So do a lot of people. In fact, so many that the school system couldn't operate. It's also a federal holiday.

Now, why don't you provide any evidence that says the same for any Jewish or Muslim holiday in Fairfax County? Here's a hint: There is none.

This. It's such a ridiculous argument. When 80% of the country is off during this time, it's a pretty good reason to give school holidays. If less than 5% are off, it makes no sense to shut down. Diwali? Eid? RH, YK? Please. It's unnecessary.

Anonymous wrote:I’m angrier that the kids got out so late in June.

So you and other parents with an issue need to organize, start a campaign, make noise. So much complaining on this board but that's all there is -- complaining. So take some action if you're "angry" about it. Don't come back to whine that "It won't do any good!" No one should complain unless they are willing to work for change at the same time.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have friends in California that started school yesterday - so the trend overall is earlier start dates.

Most places in the US start mid August and end late May/early June.

+1

FCPS parents act so shocked by things like this, when FCPS is sometimes an outlier compared to the rest of the country.

Same thing happened when FCPS was weighing whether to alter school day start times so high schools started later in the morning and middle schools were shifted earlier. Some parents threw hissy fits, but research -- easily available to see -- showed that this was the norm in many, many large school systems all over the US and FCPS was the odd one out. \

I'm not saying FCPS should imitate whatever other systems do every time. I'm saying that parents here often have no clue that maybe what FCPS "has always done" is not exactly widely accepted practice.

I’m angrier that the kids got out so late in June.

Too early.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m loving the simplicity of National Presbyterian’s calendar! Wow!

https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1672929300/nps/p4j14aia0vs3orqcmpu5/2023-2024NPSMajorDatesCalendar.pdf

It’s a lot easier when you are a religious school and don’t have to accommodate more than one religion’s holidays.

The public school shouldn't be accommodating any religious holidays. And before someone drags up Christmas, it's far more than than a religious holiday in the US.

IOW, “I got mine. Screw everybody else.”

And don’t try to claim you don’t celebrate Christmas because it’s an anonymous message board. Nope. Sorry.

Sure I celebrate Christmas. So do a lot of people. In fact, so many that the school system couldn't operate. It's also a federal holiday.

Now, why don't you provide any evidence that says the same for any Jewish or Muslim holiday in Fairfax County? Here's a hint: There is none.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m loving the simplicity of National Presbyterian’s calendar! Wow!

https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1672929300/nps/p4j14aia0vs3orqcmpu5/2023-2024NPSMajorDatesCalendar.pdf

It’s a lot easier when you are a religious school and don’t have to accommodate more than one religion’s holidays.

The public school shouldn't be accommodating any religious holidays. And before someone drags up Christmas, it's far more than than a religious holiday in the US.

IOW, “I got mine. Screw everybody else.”

And don’t try to claim you don’t celebrate Christmas because it’s an anonymous message board. Nope. Sorry.

The rationale for public schools aout for Christmas is operational. Namely, too many staff would call in sick to staff on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. And most kids wouldn’t show up. In areas with high Jewish populations, Jewish high holidays are off for the same reason.

Christmas Eve to New Years is a lost cause. There is no realistic way to get bus drivers, janitors, security, admin, teachers, etc in. They literally cannot run the school. 17 days of Christmas is ridiculous.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But the highest positive response was for ONE week before labor day and none of the next three years has that.

We’re also not seeing what they voted for for the end of the year, which impacts the start of the year. In recent surveys most families wanted a later start and an earlier end, which is not exactly feasible.

Sure it is. We’ve explained how so many times. An easy way to cut days off the end is to get rid of all of the teacher workdays and PD days. Have school on Veteran’s Day, with an assembly, once again and have school the day before Thanksgiving. That’s at least a week if not more right there. -teacher

+1

My kids are now on a college calendar, which is lovely. Different colleges in different parts of the country. Both heading back in the next few days. Classes start next week. One gets a week of fall break and 4 day Thanksgiving. The other gets a 4 day falls break and week long Thanksgiving. Home a week before Christmas. One has a month off. One has a winter term and does something structured but less academic and P/F. Restart late Jan, one week of spring break, out early to mid May. 150 days of classes (15 weeks x2 semesters), plus finals comes close to 180 days.

The beauty is that except for Labor Day and Thanksgiving, you get a fall break and a spring break after spring and fall midterms and… you have no other breaks or days off.

Both my kids strongly prefer it to the FCPS Swiss cheese calendars.

Only downside is spring breaks from different colleges don’t usually line up.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m loving the simplicity of National Presbyterian’s calendar! Wow!

https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1672929300/nps/p4j14aia0vs3orqcmpu5/2023-2024NPSMajorDatesCalendar.pdf

It’s a lot easier when you are a religious school and don’t have to accommodate more than one religion’s holidays.

The public school shouldn't be accommodating any religious holidays. And before someone drags up Christmas, it's far more than than a religious holiday in the US.

IOW, “I got mine. Screw everybody else.”

And don’t try to claim you don’t celebrate Christmas because it’s an anonymous message board. Nope. Sorry.