Anonymous wrote:I thought the Staff answers to the board questions and the Staff presentations were really disingenuous. I mean saying 'shriver principal said no problem to move graduation.' Well no problem in what sense? Sure you can find space for graduation to be on Thursday instead of Friday, but what about family members that are flying in Thursday night for the Friday graduation? Or other arrangements the families have made? Similarly the 'we will work to reschedule cancelled activities.' But you know you can't reschedule the Hershey music festival. You know the kids are excited for it and paid out of pocket.
This debacle, and the bus driver saying he wasn't allowed a day off for his orthodox holiday (I didn't even think he was asking for school to be closed, just that he personally be allowed to take the day off) should really have them rethinking this policy. But if anything they doubled down- saying they want to block multiple days for lunar holidays. Its crazytown.

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Anonymous wrote:“Let’s get rid of all of the new religious holidays.”

Same Breath: “That Busdriver should get his day off too.”

Unserious people sowing discord. You got what you wanted. But let’s argue about a done deal for weeks anyway because none of us have a life.

Sounds like you don’t want any momentum to build around changing the policy to floating holidays.

I support the current religious holidays as days off for APS. And lol there's no momentum aside from your complaining on anon boards. Even Miranda said yesterday publicly that this vote wasn't a moratorium on changing the religious holiday policy.

Just wait until APS starts blocking off three consecutive days for each Eid as “possible” days off. Nothing will be allowed to be planned for those days and no one will know until a few weeks in advance which day will be off. Next year it’s the week after Memorial Day and if Eid moves it will be a one day week. People are gonna get sick of this pretty quick.

That’s precisely what was suggested at the meeting last night. Making sure that principals and PTAs knew they would not be able to schedule anything on the days before and after holidays that were dictated by the lunar calendar.

I don't understand the problem with telling schools not to schedule extra things on those few days. Can someone explain it to me?

Both occur at busy times of year and have an alternative (floating holiday/excused absence)

I think keeping those days clear is best. It would really sad for those kids who end up missing out on the end of year activities. It is also a tough position to put a teacher in if this is a holiday they observe and they've also been working with their kids to plan the end of school activity. Planning things a few days earlier or later doesn't seem as challenging to me, but I realize others might have a different view.

APS needs to get rid of all the religious holidays. But then have clear notices on calendars that events can't be scheduled on those days to respect people observing them.

So people say this but what would happen if we moved winter break to January and uncoupled it from Christmas. If kids had to go to school on Christmas eve. People would be outraged.

They wouldn’t have to go to school because it would be an excused absence. But, there would be an enormous drop in attendance, making it impossible to have a school day.

I wonder if I moved to a majority Muslim country, could I expect their school systems to shut down for Christian holidays?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:“Let’s get rid of all of the new religious holidays.”

Same Breath: “That Busdriver should get his day off too.”

Unserious people sowing discord. You got what you wanted. But let’s argue about a done deal for weeks anyway because none of us have a life.

Sounds like you don’t want any momentum to build around changing the policy to floating holidays.

I support the current religious holidays as days off for APS. And lol there's no momentum aside from your complaining on anon boards. Even Miranda said yesterday publicly that this vote wasn't a moratorium on changing the religious holiday policy.

Just wait until APS starts blocking off three consecutive days for each Eid as “possible” days off. Nothing will be allowed to be planned for those days and no one will know until a few weeks in advance which day will be off. Next year it’s the week after Memorial Day and if Eid moves it will be a one day week. People are gonna get sick of this pretty quick.

That’s precisely what was suggested at the meeting last night. Making sure that principals and PTAs knew they would not be able to schedule anything on the days before and after holidays that were dictated by the lunar calendar.

I don't understand the problem with telling schools not to schedule extra things on those few days. Can someone explain it to me?

Both occur at busy times of year and have an alternative (floating holiday/excused absence)

I think keeping those days clear is best. It would really sad for those kids who end up missing out on the end of year activities. It is also a tough position to put a teacher in if this is a holiday they observe and they've also been working with their kids to plan the end of school activity. Planning things a few days earlier or later doesn't seem as challenging to me, but I realize others might have a different view.

APS needs to get rid of all the religious holidays. But then have clear notices on calendars that events can't be scheduled on those days to respect people observing them.

So people say this but what would happen if we moved winter break to January and uncoupled it from Christmas. If kids had to go to school on Christmas eve. People would be outraged.

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Anonymous wrote:I am absolutely shocked parents were able to get the Arlington school board to vote against giving the most extreme accomodation in the name of inclusivity. I mean, you all still had to remain anonymous, but that's some serious progress.

The cost of closing school was concrete and high - cancelling a fully paid/nonrefundable field trip for hundreds of middle school kids, disrupting graduation scheduling for special needs kids, cancelling dances, possibly missing testing, causing childcare issues for already stressed feds, etc. Meanwhile, keeping school open just means some students and staff take an excused absence. It’s really not a contest for someone looking at it rationally. The troubling thing is that APS staff didn’t stop to think about the collateral impacts. At all. It was clear they did not even consider that their actions have downstream impacts.

This. This should have been a no brainer vote and Duran shouldn't have even suggested it. They are slaves to their own look at me extreme progressive tunnel vision and can't see past their egos to make rational decisions. This is the same issue as the mother raising the issue of a pool patron openly flashing a penis in the women's pool locker room in front of her kids and a Board member (who abstained last night from this vote) blowing her off. It is more important to some of them to a) protect certain people's rights even when there is clear evidence it is harming others and b) have it be abundantly clear to everyone in their echo chamber this is what they are doing.

It's nauseating. And before people harass me, no I'm not MAGA, anti-trans, or a Republican. I'm anti-showing your penis in the women's locker room and anti-canceling events that impact hundreds of kids when people who want to observe a religious holiday can simply take the day off or stay home.

Anonymous wrote:I don't know if it was parents or common sense School Board Members. Remember, only two School Board Members voted to not close (Clark and Turner). That's the real difference maker. Three School Board members received all that advocacy and still did not oppose closing schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am absolutely shocked parents were able to get the Arlington school board to vote against giving the most extreme accomodation in the name of inclusivity. I mean, you all still had to remain anonymous, but that's some serious progress.

The cost of closing school was concrete and high - cancelling a fully paid/nonrefundable field trip for hundreds of middle school kids, disrupting graduation scheduling for special needs kids, cancelling dances, possibly missing testing, causing childcare issues for already stressed feds, etc. Meanwhile, keeping school open just means some students and staff take an excused absence. It’s really not a contest for someone looking at it rationally. The troubling thing is that APS staff didn’t stop to think about the collateral impacts. At all. It was clear they did not even consider that their actions have downstream impacts.

Anonymous wrote:I don't know if it was parents or common sense School Board Members. Remember, only two School Board Members voted to not close (Clark and Turner). That's the real difference maker. Three School Board members received all that advocacy and still did not oppose closing schools.

Anonymous wrote:I am absolutely shocked parents were able to get the Arlington school board to vote against giving the most extreme accomodation in the name of inclusivity. I mean, you all still had to remain anonymous, but that's some serious progress.

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Anonymous wrote:Students start before Labor Day and end in late June because of the addition of these holidays. This is a public school system. We should have excused absences for everything except the most common federal holidays and move on.

Speaking of federal holidays, APS used to be open on Veteran's Day...why did that end ?

Happy to drop the tie of Spring Break to Easter.

+1

Anonymous wrote:what was the vote?