Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Religious holiday closures are a failed experiment. Give all students and staff 2 personal holidays. If you want to ensure operational efficacy have them be payable if they don’t get used.

+1. The only winner of this experiment is Syphax. Syphax gets a paid holiday for every single one of these holidays. They want more holidays on the schedule.

This is so true.

I have heard that it can be an issue with getting bus drivers and that's one that's difficult to find adequate subs.

Based on a school board meeting I watched, most APS bus drivers are a different religion than those recognized with school closer days by APS (I believe most are Orthodox Christians). According to one bus driver testimony, they have to work during their most sacred day of the year.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ugh wish I had seen this sooner. Just earlier today I rescheduled a group meeting proposed for 10/21 because of the school closure. It would have been nice if there had been a more publicized announcement about the change.

It’s like APS is totally ignorant to the fact that parents rely on the school calendar for scheduling things like work, doctor’s appts, etc. The least they could do is clearly announce it. I just went back and found it buried in an “other news” section at the bottom of the Friday 5 where it reads like a reminder there is no school on Diwali as opposed to highlighting the date change. It reads as if they wanted to downplay it after the school board vote re: the EID change.

Our middle school literally distributed incorrect school calendars to students which still show Oct 21 as the holiday. It's not just buried. There is inconsistent information being distributed.

Anonymous wrote:Another parent here who scheduled appointments months ago for the 21st so my kids wouldn’t have to miss school, and now they will.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I really wish they would just do away with the religious holidays altogether. Christmas is a federal holiday so that ship has sailed. But separate spring break from Easter and then get rid of all the rest of them. It’s not like all religions are represented anyway. Allow people excused absences and be done with it.

This, or take a survey and have holidays off if some threshold of people who would be absent is met (20%? Higher?).

Staff would say yes so they could get the day off. A lot of people who do not celebrate Eid requested it off when APS didn’t change the date at the end of the school year.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure why Arlington got the date wrong - FCPS and Loudoun have had the correct date this whole time. Someone messed up.

+1 Because they're incompetent. The date of Diwali is known well in advance. APS just screwed up.

Anonymous wrote:Ugh wish I had seen this sooner. Just earlier today I rescheduled a group meeting proposed for 10/21 because of the school closure. It would have been nice if there had been a more publicized announcement about the change.

It’s like APS is totally ignorant to the fact that parents rely on the school calendar for scheduling things like work, doctor’s appts, etc. The least they could do is clearly announce it. I just went back and found it buried in an “other news” section at the bottom of the Friday 5 where it reads like a reminder there is no school on Diwali as opposed to highlighting the date change. It reads as if they wanted to downplay it after the school board vote re: the EID change.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I really wish they would just do away with the religious holidays altogether. Christmas is a federal holiday so that ship has sailed. But separate spring break from Easter and then get rid of all the rest of them. It’s not like all religions are represented anyway. Allow people excused absences and be done with it.

This, or take a survey and have holidays off if some threshold of people who would be absent is met (20%? Higher?).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Religious holiday closures are a failed experiment. Give all students and staff 2 personal holidays. If you want to ensure operational efficacy have them be payable if they don’t get used.

+1. The only winner of this experiment is Syphax. Syphax gets a paid holiday for every single one of these holidays. They want more holidays on the schedule.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Religious holiday closures are a failed experiment. Give all students and staff 2 personal holidays. If you want to ensure operational efficacy have them be payable if they don’t get used.

+1. The only winner of this experiment is Syphax. Syphax gets a paid holiday for every single one of these holidays. They want more holidays on the schedule.

This is so true.

I have heard that it can be an issue with getting bus drivers and that's one that's difficult to find adequate subs.

Based on a school board meeting I watched, most APS bus drivers are a different religion than those recognized with school closer days by APS (I believe most are Orthodox Christians). According to one bus driver testimony, they have to work during their most sacred day of the year.

Anonymous wrote:I really wish they would just do away with the religious holidays altogether. Christmas is a federal holiday so that ship has sailed. But separate spring break from Easter and then get rid of all the rest of them. It’s not like all religions are represented anyway. Allow people excused absences and be done with it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Religious holiday closures are a failed experiment. Give all students and staff 2 personal holidays. If you want to ensure operational efficacy have them be payable if they don’t get used.

+1. The only winner of this experiment is Syphax. Syphax gets a paid holiday for every single one of these holidays. They want more holidays on the schedule.

This is so true.

I have heard that it can be an issue with getting bus drivers and that's one that's difficult to find adequate subs.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Religious holiday closures are a failed experiment. Give all students and staff 2 personal holidays. If you want to ensure operational efficacy have them be payable if they don’t get used.

+1. The only winner of this experiment is Syphax. Syphax gets a paid holiday for every single one of these holidays. They want more holidays on the schedule.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure why Arlington got the date wrong - FCPS and Loudoun have had the correct date this whole time. Someone messed up.

Because they don't really care and there aren't many people who celebrate Diwali in APS anyway. This is just for woke points. They should have the Orthodox Holidays off if they want to give days off that a sizable population of the school (students and staff) celebrate but they are just following the other districts.

I would like to see a coherent rationale from APS admin on why they have chosen to observe certain holidays and not observe other holidays. They added them in a few years ago, so they have data on attendance before the added holidays.

There is no coherent rationale, beyond “celebrating diversity” and “recognizing different religions.” Occasionally you hear that FCPS studied it and found higher absence rates those days, as if APS and FCPS were exactly the same and had the same populations and therefore same operational impacts. Which we know is untrue.

But no coherent, Constitutional rationale has been offered for APS to recognize, say Diwali, and not the orthodox holidays.

I suspect there are also far fewer people who observe Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur than the Orthodox Holidays and Lunar New Year. That's definitely true in our school population, if not APS as a whole.

Remember it's not just the kids it's the teachers.

Give them two paid days off and offer extra pay for subs if there is a real operational issue.