I prefer staring in mid-august but would want to be don’t by end of May/first week of June. Religious holidays are just not workable with a traditional school calendar. My sister is a teacher and and camp counselor at a sleepaway camp. The ever expanding academic calendar is hurting her ability to make extra income. If we must have religious holidays they should be paid for teachers.

But why do staff have religious holidays off anyway? They should be PD days. No one celebrates all of them. Those who observe can make up PD on the days they don’t observe. And there is NO REASON syphax shouldn’t have to work those days. No public or private sector workers get those days off. What justification is there for them?!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS parent who is VERY happy about the religious observance days, although I think there are too many conference / prof development days in the calendar, and would like to see the kids in school on Election Day since most of the rest of the world has to work then as well. About to go comment on Mary's page.

So everyone should get every religious holiday off; but you begrudge teachers their mandatory professional development days and parent-teacher conference days?

Let’s start by trimming the number of days teachers are required to be in school before the year starts.

Let’s have PD offered during the year based on what the teachers agree would be useful.

I'd rather have a week break in October for teachers to do ALL of their PD for the year. Done. Then put those scattered days back as school days throughout the rest of the year. But we've got to stop all these choppy part-time weeks. It's a PIA for everyone (except those who insist their kids need mental health breaks every week. That's what the weekends are for, folks! If your kids can't handle so much, maybe you shouldn't let them do so many extracurriculars)

Several of the days are grade prep/conferences so they can’t be consolidated into that week.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS parent who is VERY happy about the religious observance days, although I think there are too many conference / prof development days in the calendar, and would like to see the kids in school on Election Day since most of the rest of the world has to work then as well. About to go comment on Mary's page.

So everyone should get every religious holiday off; but you begrudge teachers their mandatory professional development days and parent-teacher conference days?

Let’s start by trimming the number of days teachers are required to be in school before the year starts.

Let’s have PD offered during the year based on what the teachers agree would be useful.

I'd rather have a week break in October for teachers to do ALL of their PD for the year. Done. Then put those scattered days back as school days throughout the rest of the year. But we've got to stop all these choppy part-time weeks. It's a PIA for everyone (except those who insist their kids need mental health breaks every week. That's what the weekends are for, folks! If your kids can't handle so much, maybe you shouldn't let them do so many extracurriculars)

That would be too logical. Won’t work under Duran. Nope. Makes too much sense.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS parent who is VERY happy about the religious observance days, although I think there are too many conference / prof development days in the calendar, and would like to see the kids in school on Election Day since most of the rest of the world has to work then as well. About to go comment on Mary's page.

So everyone should get every religious holiday off; but you begrudge teachers their mandatory professional development days and parent-teacher conference days?

Let’s start by trimming the number of days teachers are required to be in school before the year starts.

Let’s have PD offered during the year based on what the teachers agree would be useful.

I'd rather have a week break in October for teachers to do ALL of their PD for the year. Done. Then put those scattered days back as school days throughout the rest of the year. But we've got to stop all these choppy part-time weeks. It's a PIA for everyone (except those who insist their kids need mental health breaks every week. That's what the weekends are for, folks! If your kids can't handle so much, maybe you shouldn't let them do so many extracurriculars)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS parent who is VERY happy about the religious observance days, although I think there are too many conference / prof development days in the calendar, and would like to see the kids in school on Election Day since most of the rest of the world has to work then as well. About to go comment on Mary's page.

So everyone should get every religious holiday off; but you begrudge teachers their mandatory professional development days and parent-teacher conference days?

Let’s start by trimming the number of days teachers are required to be in school before the year starts.

Let’s have PD offered during the year based on what the teachers agree would be useful.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS parent who is VERY happy about the religious observance days, although I think there are too many conference / prof development days in the calendar, and would like to see the kids in school on Election Day since most of the rest of the world has to work then as well. About to go comment on Mary's page.

So everyone should get every religious holiday off; but you begrudge teachers their mandatory professional development days and parent-teacher conference days?

+1. start earlier or cut something. Why should we cut days allotted for parent teacher conferences, grade prep or other days teachers need?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS parent who is VERY happy about the religious observance days, although I think there are too many conference / prof development days in the calendar, and would like to see the kids in school on Election Day since most of the rest of the world has to work then as well. About to go comment on Mary's page.

Are any of the schools used as voting locations? Is that the rationale for having election day off? I could see that being a security challenge, to have all kinds of people in the building.

Yes.

Anonymous wrote:APS parent who is VERY happy about the religious observance days, although I think there are too many conference / prof development days in the calendar, and would like to see the kids in school on Election Day since most of the rest of the world has to work then as well. About to go comment on Mary's page.

So everyone should get every religious holiday off; but you begrudge teachers their mandatory professional development days and parent-teacher conference days?

I’d like the stupid law that requires the Friday before Labor Day to be no school to be repealed. How do we get Richmond to change this? That’d be a day back right there

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There was an AEM post today detailing the 12 mos v 10 mos employee inequity. Just crazy this isn’t being covered by the press.

Also saw this posted online: https://www.gazetteleader.com/arlington/opinion/letter-aps-calendar-proposal-does-not-prioritize-learning-7471776

Oh that letter! It's from one of the notorious APEs. Now they are attacking religious minorities who finally got their holidays.

Personally my kids benefit from the holidays. They are appreciated as mental health breaks from a hectic intense schedule.

Ewww.

They still polluting APS education email lists with their ignorance and aggression. Zero self-awareness.

"The schedule doesn't prioritize learning!"

Wait, no, it doesn't prioritize the need for childcare. Or sobriety (only the OD happened during school):

"APS’s plan, however, persists with this policy, leaving working families to grapple with costly child-care alternatives during closures. Older students are also left unsupervised, a serious concern given recent student drug overdoses."

And we're concerned about teachers' incomes! Only not enough to pay them more!

"Moreover, APS staff deserve a traditional summer break. These unpaid religious holidays have shrunk summer break by a week, affecting teachers’ ability to supplement their income."

Get over your ape-hate. Parents and staff both have overwhelmingly spoken out against the calendar, including those of religious minorities.

Teachers don’t want shorter summers. We have shorter summer because APS wants to add a lot of religious holidays and not take away elsewhere.

If only they would stop screaming their ignorance at everyone else. I love when they get put in their place by knowledge parents.

Religious holidays shouldn’t be part of the calendar. I’m surprised people disagree with that. Anyway, given that APS did this many parents will just take out kids from the last week or two of school. Nothing happens anyway and there’s no testing that last month.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There was an AEM post today detailing the 12 mos v 10 mos employee inequity. Just crazy this isn’t being covered by the press.

Also saw this posted online: https://www.gazetteleader.com/arlington/opinion/letter-aps-calendar-proposal-does-not-prioritize-learning-7471776

Oh that letter! It's from one of the notorious APEs. Now they are attacking religious minorities who finally got their holidays.

Personally my kids benefit from the holidays. They are appreciated as mental health breaks from a hectic intense schedule.

Ewww.

They still polluting APS education email lists with their ignorance and aggression. Zero self-awareness.

"The schedule doesn't prioritize learning!"

Wait, no, it doesn't prioritize the need for childcare. Or sobriety (only the OD happened during school):

"APS’s plan, however, persists with this policy, leaving working families to grapple with costly child-care alternatives during closures. Older students are also left unsupervised, a serious concern given recent student drug overdoses."

And we're concerned about teachers' incomes! Only not enough to pay them more!

"Moreover, APS staff deserve a traditional summer break. These unpaid religious holidays have shrunk summer break by a week, affecting teachers’ ability to supplement their income."

Get over your ape-hate. Parents and staff both have overwhelmingly spoken out against the calendar, including those of religious minorities.

Teachers don’t want shorter summers. We have shorter summer because APS wants to add a lot of religious holidays and not take away elsewhere.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There was an AEM post today detailing the 12 mos v 10 mos employee inequity. Just crazy this isn’t being covered by the press.

Also saw this posted online: https://www.gazetteleader.com/arlington/opinion/letter-aps-calendar-proposal-does-not-prioritize-learning-7471776

Oh that letter! It's from one of the notorious APEs. Now they are attacking religious minorities who finally got their holidays.

Personally my kids benefit from the holidays. They are appreciated as mental health breaks from a hectic intense schedule.

Ewww.

They still polluting APS education email lists with their ignorance and aggression. Zero self-awareness.

"The schedule doesn't prioritize learning!"

Wait, no, it doesn't prioritize the need for childcare. Or sobriety (only the OD happened during school):

"APS’s plan, however, persists with this policy, leaving working families to grapple with costly child-care alternatives during closures. Older students are also left unsupervised, a serious concern given recent student drug overdoses."

And we're concerned about teachers' incomes! Only not enough to pay them more!

"Moreover, APS staff deserve a traditional summer break. These unpaid religious holidays have shrunk summer break by a week, affecting teachers’ ability to supplement their income."

Calendar aside. The OD could have gone a lot worse had it occurred at home while parents at work. Parents largely have to work these religious days off. I worry about kids who struggle with addiction being alone. If they’re at school there are eyes in them and access to narcan.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There was an AEM post today detailing the 12 mos v 10 mos employee inequity. Just crazy this isn’t being covered by the press.

Also saw this posted online: https://www.gazetteleader.com/arlington/opinion/letter-aps-calendar-proposal-does-not-prioritize-learning-7471776

Oh that letter! It's from one of the notorious APEs. Now they are attacking religious minorities who finally got their holidays.

Personally my kids benefit from the holidays. They are appreciated as mental health breaks from a hectic intense schedule.

Ewww.

They still polluting APS education email lists with their ignorance and aggression. Zero self-awareness.

"The schedule doesn't prioritize learning!"

Wait, no, it doesn't prioritize the need for childcare. Or sobriety (only the OD happened during school):

"APS’s plan, however, persists with this policy, leaving working families to grapple with costly child-care alternatives during closures. Older students are also left unsupervised, a serious concern given recent student drug overdoses."

And we're concerned about teachers' incomes! Only not enough to pay them more!

"Moreover, APS staff deserve a traditional summer break. These unpaid religious holidays have shrunk summer break by a week, affecting teachers’ ability to supplement their income."

Anonymous wrote:APS parent who is VERY happy about the religious observance days, although I think there are too many conference / prof development days in the calendar, and would like to see the kids in school on Election Day since most of the rest of the world has to work then as well. About to go comment on Mary's page.

You don't have to like the new holidays to see this as a reasonable compromise. Consolidate the other days off into the closest holiday.