Anonymous wrote:If there's a pre-Labor Day start, first day of school is August 31 for my kid. The day after we return from our vacation.

The activities she'll be doing in Yellowstone and Grand Teton on the first two days of school will be more educational than sitting through a Boosterthon assembly.

See you there, PP! *keeping fingers crossed that THIS year they don't start before Labor Day, but every year hereafter*

If there's a pre-Labor Day start, first day of school is August 31 for my kid. The day after we return from our vacation.

The activities she'll be doing in Yellowstone and Grand Teton on the first two days of school will be more educational than sitting through a Boosterthon assembly.

Did you thought it was ok that Garza changed Mondays from half day to full day over the summer disrupting countless business engaged in hiring for an entire year? There are camps during that last week including some through Fairfax County. My children have always been in camps that week. Camps will adjust depending on what the schedule is. You can always just skip the first week of school one year too.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: "Get a grip" - unnecessary comment. I have a grip - just trying to gather as much info as possible. I realize there are bigger issues than vacations, but when those vacations cost thousands of hard earned money, it is a big deal to that family.

They will not change the calendar by more than a week this next year. Plan your vacation during Aug. 22-26.

Many of us plan vacation the last week of August because there are no camps available that week, and FCPS usually starts after labor day. With a system as large as FCPS, it's unacceptable that we don't have a finalized scheduled when there is less than 9 months away from the start of the school year.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I received an email from our school board member stating that the waiver to start before Labor Day could be granted should FCPS miss 5 days of school due to snow. Well, we are already at day 1 today and hitting that 5 day mark is more than likely.

My question is - does anyone know the waiver process? For instance, does anyone know if FCPS automatically will request the waiver once they hit 5 day mark or do they just consider it? How does it get approved - can parents weigh in?

I know several families that have spent thousands on vacations that last week in August /first week September based on school starting after Labor Day for the past 40 years. Seems like late notice to make it earlier now.

Thanks in advance for any insight....

Yes. You can weigh in. Email your SB member as well as others and tell them the bolder part above. I will too.

I have no dog in this fight. But I seriously doubt they care about your travel plans.

What about teachers' travel plans? I teach in FCPS and we have booked a vacation where we come back on August 23rd. So I would miss the first 3 days back if they change the calendar. I can come in before then to plan and organize, but still annoying to think about.

Same here. My DS is a high school athlete, but his season doesn't start until late October. Our summer doesn't free up for travel until after the first weekend off August due to the summer swim schedule. We went ahead and made travel plans for August.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I received an email from our school board member stating that the waiver to start before Labor Day could be granted should FCPS miss 5 days of school due to snow. Well, we are already at day 1 today and hitting that 5 day mark is more than likely.

My question is - does anyone know the waiver process? For instance, does anyone know if FCPS automatically will request the waiver once they hit 5 day mark or do they just consider it? How does it get approved - can parents weigh in?

I know several families that have spent thousands on vacations that last week in August /first week September based on school starting after Labor Day for the past 40 years. Seems like late notice to make it earlier now.

Thanks in advance for any insight....

Yes. You can weigh in. Email your SB member as well as others and tell them the bolder part above. I will too.

I have no dog in this fight. But I seriously doubt they care about your travel plans.

What about teachers' travel plans? I teach in FCPS and we have booked a vacation where we come back on August 23rd. So I would miss the first 3 days back if they change the calendar. I can come in before then to plan and organize, but still annoying to think about.

Anonymous wrote:Im not changing travel plans. If the schools are so worried about instruction time, which is whether want to start early, why did they close today?

Traffic incidents. Many school systems are closed today. It really had nothing to do with the waiver. They will be closed Friday and Monday for sure so that leaves 2 more days.

Im not changing travel plans. If the schools are so worried about instruction time, which is whether want to start early, why did they close today?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DH is a physician and makes his entire 2015 call schedule now. Labor Day falls on Sept 7.

Is it safe to assume that school will start Sept 8 and not Aug 31?

I have taught in FCPS for almost 15 years and we have never started before Labor Day so I would think Sept. 8 is a fairly safe bet. That said, I feel like Karen Garza has gotten more done in the year she has been here than any other superintendant we have ever had, so I wouldn't put it past her to change things up.

Sept 8 would be fabulous.

*leaves* sorry^

Anonymous wrote: "Get a grip" - unnecessary comment. I have a grip - just trying to gather as much info as possible. I realize there are bigger issues than vacations, but when those vacations cost thousands of hard earned money, it is a big deal to that family.

I've been holding off on booking our summer plans in part b/c of this possibility. I think McElveen sent out something recently encouraging people to be aware of the possibility in making their plans. I have one starting MS, and we may be moving, so missing the orientation/open house before school starts is really important.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: "Get a grip" - unnecessary comment. I have a grip - just trying to gather as much info as possible. I realize there are bigger issues than vacations, but when those vacations cost thousands of hard earned money, it is a big deal to that family.

They will not change the calendar by more than a week this next year. Plan your vacation during Aug. 22-26.

This. And no family with a kid in high school sports is going to plan to be away in August, so that mostly lives middle and elementary school. Kid away for week before labor day would miss the initial activities in class, so not such a big deal, really.

Anonymous wrote: "Get a grip" - unnecessary comment. I have a grip - just trying to gather as much info as possible. I realize there are bigger issues than vacations, but when those vacations cost thousands of hard earned money, it is a big deal to that family.

They will not change the calendar by more than a week this next year. Plan your vacation during Aug. 22-26.

"Get a grip" - unnecessary comment. I have a grip - just trying to gather as much info as possible. I realize there are bigger issues than vacations, but when those vacations cost thousands of hard earned money, it is a big deal to that family.

I have heard it just gets automatically approved if your school system falls under one of the categories the state has listed for before labor day start. I can not confirm this and have search. It is strange that they would call it "apply for a waiver" why not just "receive a waiver". Does anyone actually have this info about approval-Is that automatic?

I would guess that if FCPS actually did change their start day for 2016-2017 there would be plenty of families who would not send their kids for the first 5 days as many families made plans over a month or two ago for summer vacation(Beach houses tend to start booking up the DECEMBER before summer). When the school year was extended two years ago because of too many snow days our principal even stated that they would have their own kids miss if they had a pre planned vacation. School would start August 29th if they apply for the waiver then followed buy a long weekend for Labor day. It would be hardest for kids in Kindergarten, starting Middle and starting HS to miss those 5 days.