Anonymous wrote:For MCPS to have school on Easter Monday, the state would have to grant a waiver. State law requires schools to close on Easter Monday (and Good Friday too).

The state has already given a waiver to Anne Arundel county and maybe one more school system for attending on Easter Monday. I suspect that MCPS will resubmit a proposal that includes classes on April 21, June 13, June 16-17 and maybe 18 and then ask for a waiver the last 1 (or 2, depending on the status of the 18th).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel really bad for the teachers. For HS, they got stuck trying to jam everything into a smaller time period and now they will have to come up with something random for the kids to do the last week. Exams and grades are already done at this point so no idea what they will do.

The good ones don't schedule vacation during the school year. They use breaks for vacation. Many teachers in MCPS don't like in Montgomery County. The live up in Frederick and have small kids. Frederick unlike MCPS has made attempts to make up some instructional time so they will probably get a waiver. The teachers with kids in Frederick will have to cancel vacation plans and come up with childcare as their kids will be out of school.

I am glad you feel bad for the teachers. As a teacher myself with a child. I was looking forward to the trips we have planned this summer. I think they could have done something to avoid putting extra days at the end of the school year. However many counties failed to do that. So now one of my trips is being cut or I will take those days off depending on when the last day of school will be.

You were on notice that one of your nine weeks off could be a school week. Doesnt make any sense to plan a trip for that week.

+1000

Now we have entitled teachers. And the comment above about specialist doctors only available one week in June or the end of August is total bullshit. Teachers, administration AND parents knew of the snow make-up policy. There was already 4 days by the end of winter break, yet people still went ahead with camp deposits, vacations and doctor appointments. The school is not to blame, Mother Nature is not to blame, the state denying a waiver is not to blame. You are the only one to blame. You prepared wrong and instead of owning up to it, people either whine/complain around their kids. Say "we won't send our kids to school" or just blow it all off saying it is a wasted week with no learning. What fine examples you are showing your kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel really bad for the teachers. For HS, they got stuck trying to jam everything into a smaller time period and now they will have to come up with something random for the kids to do the last week. Exams and grades are already done at this point so no idea what they will do.

The good ones don't schedule vacation during the school year. They use breaks for vacation. Many teachers in MCPS don't like in Montgomery County. The live up in Frederick and have small kids. Frederick unlike MCPS has made attempts to make up some instructional time so they will probably get a waiver. The teachers with kids in Frederick will have to cancel vacation plans and come up with childcare as their kids will be out of school.

I am glad you feel bad for the teachers. As a teacher myself with a child. I was looking forward to the trips we have planned this summer. I think they could have done something to avoid putting extra days at the end of the school year. However many counties failed to do that. So now one of my trips is being cut or I will take those days off depending on when the last day of school will be.

You were on notice that one of your nine weeks off could be a school week. Doesnt make any sense to plan a trip for that week.

I'm a teacher, and I planned two doctors' visits for my daughter the week after school ends. If I didn't schedule them THAT week (specialists), she would have waited until August. Life happens. If you expect teachers to put lives on hold for weather, you're fooling yourself and perhaps are in need of a little extra schooling yourself!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel really bad for the teachers. For HS, they got stuck trying to jam everything into a smaller time period and now they will have to come up with something random for the kids to do the last week. Exams and grades are already done at this point so no idea what they will do.

The good ones don't schedule vacation during the school year. They use breaks for vacation. Many teachers in MCPS don't like in Montgomery County. The live up in Frederick and have small kids. Frederick unlike MCPS has made attempts to make up some instructional time so they will probably get a waiver. The teachers with kids in Frederick will have to cancel vacation plans and come up with childcare as their kids will be out of school.

I am glad you feel bad for the teachers. As a teacher myself with a child. I was looking forward to the trips we have planned this summer. I think they could have done something to avoid putting extra days at the end of the school year. However many counties failed to do that. So now one of my trips is being cut or I will take those days off depending on when the last day of school will be.

You were on notice that one of your nine weeks off could be a school week. Doesnt make any sense to plan a trip for that week.

For MCPS to have school on Easter Monday, the state would have to grant a waiver. State law requires schools to close on Easter Monday (and Good Friday too).

MCPS has a published policy for how they will handle extra snow days, which is to add them on to the end of the school year. They publish this with their calendar before the school year starts (next year's calendar shows the same thing).

To all of you who think they should be canceling teacher workdays or spring break days, etc., I would suggest contacting the school board to advocate that this be the policy put in place for future years. It seems like a perfectly reasonable (and perhaps preferable in terms of adding instructional time before final assessments) solution, but it isn't the solution that has been agreed to for this year. Other school districts do have published contingency plans that say that days off can be turned into school days to make up for snow days, so it makes sense they are following those policies.

To me, it makes sense that the school district should follow their published, previously agreed-to policy. I'm glad the waiver denial pointed this out to MCPS. I will be annoyed if the district changes their policy (adding time to the school days, taking away Easter Monday, etc.) at the last minute. I would not be annoyed if future years changed this policy and publicized it in advance.

This is how they could have taken care fo this but I am fine with them staying extra days.

Last friday should not have been a teachers work day, president;s day should have been a school day, thehalf day should have been converted to full days, and easter monday a school day. they owuld then have 1.5 days ot make up and a waiver for that is cake

Anonymous wrote:I feel really bad for the teachers. For HS, they got stuck trying to jam everything into a smaller time period and now they will have to come up with something random for the kids to do the last week. Exams and grades are already done at this point so no idea what they will do.

The good ones don't schedule vacation during the school year. They use breaks for vacation. Many teachers in MCPS don't like in Montgomery County. The live up in Frederick and have small kids. Frederick unlike MCPS has made attempts to make up some instructional time so they will probably get a waiver. The teachers with kids in Frederick will have to cancel vacation plans and come up with childcare as their kids will be out of school.

I am glad you feel bad for the teachers. As a teacher myself with a child. I was looking forward to the trips we have planned this summer. I think they could have done something to avoid putting extra days at the end of the school year. However many counties failed to do that. So now one of my trips is being cut or I will take those days off depending on when the last day of school will be.

I feel really bad for the teachers. For HS, they got stuck trying to jam everything into a smaller time period and now they will have to come up with something random for the kids to do the last week. Exams and grades are already done at this point so no idea what they will do.

The good ones don't schedule vacation during the school year. They use breaks for vacation. Many teachers in MCPS don't like in Montgomery County. The live up in Frederick and have small kids. Frederick unlike MCPS has made attempts to make up some instructional time so they will probably get a waiver. The teachers with kids in Frederick will have to cancel vacation plans and come up with childcare as their kids will be out of school.

Anonymous wrote:They could have eliminated last week's "professional day" and the rest of the half days for the year.

There are no 1/2 days remaining on the schedule.

I really hope that the last week of school for ES is not filled with psycho substitutes. My kids used to not mind subs because they were retired teachers from the school or some of the other school staff. in K and 1 st grade, they seemed to know the subs and liked them. In the upper grades, they get complete nut cases for subs. Yelling, giving wrong information, nothing getting anything done....my kids dread subs after this year.

I too am disappointed and somewhat shocked that MCPS did absolutely nothing to try and make up the days off. Last week's professional day seems a no-brainer. It says to me that the MCPS leadership sees themselves as above the 'law' (or state in this case). I am not surprised that the state denied the request. I certainly hope that this is a wake-up call to MCPS that their reputation isn't all that's needed to make a good school system.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD will be on a Beach in Cape Cod that week.

Two years ago they extended the school days and it seemed to be a good enough solution- why not do it again. It makes sense. DD's school (and many others) will be a ghost town that week if they extend the year.

Well you are an idiot for signing up for a vacation on a week clearly used for snow make-ups. I am so happy the state did the right thing. All these schools and parents that don't give a crap about school and a "who cares" attitude.

She is not an idiot. they will have a great vacation and her daughter will start in September at exactly the same place as her peers. There is no down side to a vacation that week. I probably won't send my kids - if they want to go they can.

Setting a great example about responsibility! Such entitlement.

I don't understand what responsibility the PP is shirking, or how going on a scheduled vacation displays entitlement.

Its a real shame that MCPS did absolutely nothing to try to make up the instructional time when the kids really need it now and not at the end of the year. They could have eliminated last week's "professional day" and the rest of the half days for the year. I spoke to a staff member at my daughter's school last week and found out that teachers did not even need to report to the school last Friday, but could "work" from home. I was shocked given how many days the kids have missed. It may not effect the elementary school kids, but the high school students are getting slammed by having the teachers throw the curriculum at them to get through it and it may impact students not having the right amount of time to prepare for AP exams etc. MCPS really messed up and now the kids will pay the price. The kids may have enjoyed playing in the snow, but the reality is that its not as if they had the choice to go to school, it was closed.

+1000 I agree with this. (Though, I don't have a problem with teachers teleworking.) MCPS should have better continuity plans. If MCPS wasn't so backwards, they would have the ability to provide more materials outside of class and consistent on-line offerings. High school kids could continue working independently on snow days if MCPS wouldn't lock the curriculum behind their closed doors. A better plan would have been to move the marking periods to allow teachers and students to finish the work or to have work reduction plans in place.

For ES, it doesn't matter but for the upper grades there should be a better plan in 2014.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD will be on a Beach in Cape Cod that week.

Two years ago they extended the school days and it seemed to be a good enough solution- why not do it again. It makes sense. DD's school (and many others) will be a ghost town that week if they extend the year.

Well you are an idiot for signing up for a vacation on a week clearly used for snow make-ups. I am so happy the state did the right thing. All these schools and parents that don't give a crap about school and a "who cares" attitude.

She is not an idiot. they will have a great vacation and her daughter will start in September at exactly the same place as her peers. There is no down side to a vacation that week. I probably won't send my kids - if they want to go they can.

Setting a great example about responsibility! Such entitlement.