Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can anyone explain why Orthodox Good Friday is a holiday in 2025-2026 and an O day in 2026-2027?

It makes the week after Spring Break this year really strange. They have Monday as a TW and then Friday as a holiday.

There's no rational reason for it.

Embrace it then. Take a nice two week spring break.

Anonymous wrote:Love the five day Memorial Day holiday!

If parents want to spend more time with their children and extended family, this is a great option. Especially because so many parts of the country are done with school on Friday before Memorial Day.

The extended Memorial Day might be the dumbest thing I have seen on the calendar. I would much rather get out earlier in June.

Some of you are so shortsighted

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can anyone explain why Orthodox Good Friday is a holiday in 2025-2026 and an O day in 2026-2027?

It makes the week after Spring Break this year really strange. They have Monday as a TW and then Friday as a holiday.

It is likely because it allows families to have essentially a two week spring break and only miss four days of schools.

Same with Memorial Day being a five day weekend. Families can take the full week off and only miss two days of school.

I love the schedule!

Good to know you don't value education.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can anyone explain why Orthodox Good Friday is a holiday in 2025-2026 and an O day in 2026-2027?

It makes the week after Spring Break this year really strange. They have Monday as a TW and then Friday as a holiday.

It is likely because it allows families to have essentially a two week spring break and only miss four days of schools.

Same with Memorial Day being a five day weekend. Families can take the full week off and only miss two days of school.

I love the schedule!

Why? I am genuinely curious why you don't want your kids learning?

Even on a good week, the amount of content is pretty low. If you ever want to do a deep dive, go and look at the pacing guide. There is nothing that cannot be easily caught up on.

And have you ever been in an ES after SOLs are done? Unless your child failed the SOL and is getting remediation, there is very little of substance happening. Sure, the administration claims that teachers are teaching to parents, but everyone knows that the year is wrapping up.

Anonymous wrote:Can anyone explain why Orthodox Good Friday is a holiday in 2025-2026 and an O day in 2026-2027?

It makes the week after Spring Break this year really strange. They have Monday as a TW and then Friday as a holiday.

There's no rational reason for it.

Anonymous wrote:Love the five day Memorial Day holiday!

If parents want to spend more time with their children and extended family, this is a great option. Especially because so many parts of the country are done with school on Friday before Memorial Day.

Yes, we could be done with school too if we didn't take so many days off!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can anyone explain why Orthodox Good Friday is a holiday in 2025-2026 and an O day in 2026-2027?

It makes the week after Spring Break this year really strange. They have Monday as a TW and then Friday as a holiday.

It is likely because it allows families to have essentially a two week spring break and only miss four days of schools.

Same with Memorial Day being a five day weekend. Families can take the full week off and only miss two days of school.

I love the schedule!

Why? I am genuinely curious why you don't want your kids learning?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can anyone explain why Orthodox Good Friday is a holiday in 2025-2026 and an O day in 2026-2027?

It makes the week after Spring Break this year really strange. They have Monday as a TW and then Friday as a holiday.

They added Orthodox holidays when Pekarsky (who is Orthodox) was on the School Board.

I don't think there are very many Orthodox Christians in Fairfax County. I think their holidays are a week after the greater Christian population.
I was in Greece one Easter and learned that Easter is celebrated there much more than Christmas. It is a very important holiday in Greece. This was a number of years ago and I remember that lots of things were closed for Easter.

The religious beliefs of the individual school board members do not seem like the best way to decide on a school system calendar.

But what do I know.

Anonymous wrote:Spring Break and Memorial Day this year are going to skyrocket the attendance issues. April 7-9 and May 28-29 will be very high truancy dates.

It’s similar the first year when we started O days. So many absences at our school and zero seniors were in school since nothing could be taught and O days were study hall days. Glad that they fixed that problem.

This is not a problem for the 2026-2027 calendar.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can anyone explain why Orthodox Good Friday is a holiday in 2025-2026 and an O day in 2026-2027?

It makes the week after Spring Break this year really strange. They have Monday as a TW and then Friday as a holiday.

They added Orthodox holidays when Pekarsky (who is Orthodox) was on the School Board.

I don't think there are very many Orthodox Christians in Fairfax County. I think their holidays are a week after the greater Christian population.
I was in Greece one Easter and learned that Easter is celebrated there much more than Christmas. It is a very important holiday in Greece. This was a number of years ago and I remember that lots of things were closed for Easter.

Thank you. It’s a strange artifact in the calendar and good to know why it’s there.

Spring Break and Memorial Day this year are going to skyrocket the attendance issues. April 7-9 and May 28-29 will be very high truancy dates.

It’s similar the first year when we started O days. So many absences at our school and zero seniors were in school since nothing could be taught and O days were study hall days. Glad that they fixed that problem.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Two things can be true:

1. You enjoy spending time with your children.

2. You want your children to be in school receiving a good education.

Wanting what is best for your children just might involve having them in school consistently.

Smothering just may not be the best mothering.

Can I add number three? I would rather spend an extra day with my child relaxed on a summer beach or even in our neighborhood pool then sitting home on a random Tuesday when we can’t travel because there is school on Wednesday, none of our nearby family has the day off, so we can’t spend time together, and options for enrichment are so intensely limited. Yes I want to spend time with my kid— and I want it to be the right time.

+100

These people saying “oh you just don’t want to be around your kids” are so dumb. I want a longer summer with them! How is that not wanting my kids around? There is a lot more to do in June or August than in February, and yes much easier to coordinate with family who live elsewhere. I don’t understand what has changed since my oldest started K that has caused the need for this ridiculous calendar. It was fine before! How did this area lose all common sense so quickly?

Anonymous wrote:Can anyone explain why Orthodox Good Friday is a holiday in 2025-2026 and an O day in 2026-2027?

It makes the week after Spring Break this year really strange. They have Monday as a TW and then Friday as a holiday.

They added Orthodox holidays when Pekarsky (who is Orthodox) was on the School Board.

I don't think there are very many Orthodox Christians in Fairfax County. I think their holidays are a week after the greater Christian population.
I was in Greece one Easter and learned that Easter is celebrated there much more than Christmas. It is a very important holiday in Greece. This was a number of years ago and I remember that lots of things were closed for Easter.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can anyone explain why Orthodox Good Friday is a holiday in 2025-2026 and an O day in 2026-2027?

It makes the week after Spring Break this year really strange. They have Monday as a TW and then Friday as a holiday.

It is likely because it allows families to have essentially a two week spring break and only miss four days of schools.

Same with Memorial Day being a five day weekend. Families can take the full week off and only miss two days of school.

I love the schedule!

Sorry, only miss three days of school to have a two week spring break! Miss April 7-9!

Anonymous wrote:Can anyone explain why Orthodox Good Friday is a holiday in 2025-2026 and an O day in 2026-2027?

It makes the week after Spring Break this year really strange. They have Monday as a TW and then Friday as a holiday.

It is likely because it allows families to have essentially a two week spring break and only miss four days of schools.

Same with Memorial Day being a five day weekend. Families can take the full week off and only miss two days of school.

I love the schedule!