Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does APS have to observe and the religious AND federal holidays? Pick one. If we need to keep the religious ones, then drop Indigenous People's Day/Veteran's Day, etc. FCPS doesn't have these days off.

This is really convenient proposal when Christmas is a federal holiday.

Private companies don't observe all Federal holidays. It makes sense to coordinate with working parent schedules.

Having school on Xmas is a ridiculous strawman. I'm fine with school on Easter Monday, Good Friday, Ash Wednesday, Assention and Assumption and other Christian holidays that are observed in other places.

“Easter Monday” is not a thing.

+1

None of those days are ever holidays here.

I always had Ash Wrdnesday and Good Friday off as a kid in a very Catholic part of the country. They are religious holidays and many kids went to mass. They aren't acknowledged in APS, just like all the other religious holidays weren't until last year, but that doesn't make them not religious holidays.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So a spring break (6 school days) is followed by a choppy three day week? Ugh. Just stupid.

Option 3 is ok in that regard. Having a 4-day week after a long break is easier than a full week and at least it's 2 consecutive days separated by one day off rather than the obnoxious 1 day on/1 day off/2 days on nonsense that we apparently cannot avoid in November (election day/Veterans day week!)

They could avoid it by not having veterans day off and/or talking to the county about moving polling locations so they aren't in schools. Using schools as polling locations made more sense before it meant schools would have to be closed to accommodate it.

Move parent teacher conferences to Election Day, would be great since many people vote at their local elementary school

You know parent teacher conferences aren’t just for elementary school, right? Also, lots of people’s polling places are not at the school where they have children enrolled.

It’s a bonus not a feature. I wasn’t aware that high school had a day off for conferences too

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So a spring break (6 school days) is followed by a choppy three day week? Ugh. Just stupid.

Option 3 is ok in that regard. Having a 4-day week after a long break is easier than a full week and at least it's 2 consecutive days separated by one day off rather than the obnoxious 1 day on/1 day off/2 days on nonsense that we apparently cannot avoid in November (election day/Veterans day week!)

They could avoid it by not having veterans day off and/or talking to the county about moving polling locations so they aren't in schools. Using schools as polling locations made more sense before it meant schools would have to be closed to accommodate it.

Move parent teacher conferences to Election Day, would be great since many people vote at their local elementary school

You know parent teacher conferences aren’t just for elementary school, right? Also, lots of people’s polling places are not at the school where they have children enrolled.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ugh. Why is spring break so late again? Either make it early March or add a Feb holiday.

Seriously? Winter break runs into early January. You need a week off less than two months later but are fine with no meaningful time off for the last three months of the school year?

+1
People want a late start, long winter break, a mid-Feb break, spring break, and early-June end date....but still observe all the holidays and religious days and give teachers planning/grade prep days. I'd love for one of those people to propose an actual calendar that does that.

Lame strawman. No one person is asking for all of that.

I'm the top PP and I don't think we should have any religious holidays - including Christmas. I'm ok with starting end of August and getting out mid-June end. Consolidate the days off so we don't have a bunch of one offs. Have better spacing between the breaks.

So move winter break to start with New Years Eve and run through early January?

I mean, I agree with you that we shouldn’t be prioritizing certain religions’ holidays over others, but they probably wouldn’t be able to get enough subs to cover all of the teachers who would call out on Christmas.

Exactly, the fact is in this country. The majority of citizens celebrate the Christmas holiday. That’s why it qualifies as a federal holiday.

We are a pro-Santa country. 🎅🏻

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does APS have to observe and the religious AND federal holidays? Pick one. If we need to keep the religious ones, then drop Indigenous People's Day/Veteran's Day, etc. FCPS doesn't have these days off.

This is really convenient proposal when Christmas is a federal holiday.

Private companies don't observe all Federal holidays. It makes sense to coordinate with working parent schedules.

Having school on Xmas is a ridiculous strawman. I'm fine with school on Easter Monday, Good Friday, Ash Wednesday, Assention and Assumption and other Christian holidays that are observed in other places.

“Easter Monday” is not a thing.

+1

None of those days are ever holidays here.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does APS have to observe and the religious AND federal holidays? Pick one. If we need to keep the religious ones, then drop Indigenous People's Day/Veteran's Day, etc. FCPS doesn't have these days off.

This is really convenient proposal when Christmas is a federal holiday.

Private companies don't observe all Federal holidays. It makes sense to coordinate with working parent schedules.

Having school on Xmas is a ridiculous strawman. I'm fine with school on Easter Monday, Good Friday, Ash Wednesday, Assention and Assumption and other Christian holidays that are observed in other places.

“Easter Monday” is not a thing.

https://nationaltoday.com/easter-monday/

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So a spring break (6 school days) is followed by a choppy three day week? Ugh. Just stupid.

Option 3 is ok in that regard. Having a 4-day week after a long break is easier than a full week and at least it's 2 consecutive days separated by one day off rather than the obnoxious 1 day on/1 day off/2 days on nonsense that we apparently cannot avoid in November (election day/Veterans day week!)

They could avoid it by not having veterans day off and/or talking to the county about moving polling locations so they aren't in schools. Using schools as polling locations made more sense before it meant schools would have to be closed to accommodate it.

Move parent teacher conferences to Election Day, would be great since many people vote at their local elementary school

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does APS have to observe and the religious AND federal holidays? Pick one. If we need to keep the religious ones, then drop Indigenous People's Day/Veteran's Day, etc. FCPS doesn't have these days off.

This is really convenient proposal when Christmas is a federal holiday.

Private companies don't observe all Federal holidays. It makes sense to coordinate with working parent schedules.

Having school on Xmas is a ridiculous strawman. I'm fine with school on Easter Monday, Good Friday, Ash Wednesday, Assention and Assumption and other Christian holidays that are observed in other places.

“Easter Monday” is not a thing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So a spring break (6 school days) is followed by a choppy three day week? Ugh. Just stupid.

Option 3 is ok in that regard. Having a 4-day week after a long break is easier than a full week and at least it's 2 consecutive days separated by one day off rather than the obnoxious 1 day on/1 day off/2 days on nonsense that we apparently cannot avoid in November (election day/Veterans day week!)

They could avoid it by not having veterans day off and/or talking to the county about moving polling locations so they aren't in schools. Using schools as polling locations made more sense before it meant schools would have to be closed to accommodate it.

Anonymous wrote:Does APS have to observe and the religious AND federal holidays? Pick one. If we need to keep the religious ones, then drop Indigenous People's Day/Veteran's Day, etc. FCPS doesn't have these days off.

Agree I'd rather keep religious holidays and skip the minor federal holidays (esp veterans day, which only feds get off)

Anonymous wrote:Also 2 weeks for winter break is just too long, unless you have oodles of money and are going somewhere.

+1 - LOVE LOVE LOVE the shorter winter breaks. It's too long and learning loss. End up sending kids to camps for half of it so wish the school was just open more which options 2 and 3 do.

Teacher here. The on/off days are disruptive to instruction. Kids cannot fall into a rhythm. There should be consistency and the calendar doesn’t give us that. Also my food insecure students are missing two free meals during those days.

One poster said, before the contenders were announced, that there was one schedule most people could agree on. It's as though he's never met Arlington parents.

Option 3 has the fewest number of random days off, correct? That’s what I care about most. And that’s not even addressed in the table comparing the differences. But looking at the calendars, it looks like option 1 has 15, option 2 has 14, and option 3 has 13 of the one-off days off that you have to find coverage for if you’re a working parent (that are not winter or spring break).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ugh. Why is spring break so late again? Either make it early March or add a Feb holiday.

Seriously? Winter break runs into early January. You need a week off less than two months later but are fine with no meaningful time off for the last three months of the school year?

+1
People want a late start, long winter break, a mid-Feb break, spring break, and early-June end date....but still observe all the holidays and religious days and give teachers planning/grade prep days. I'd love for one of those people to propose an actual calendar that does that.

Lame strawman. No one person is asking for all of that.

I'm the top PP and I don't think we should have any religious holidays - including Christmas. I'm ok with starting end of August and getting out mid-June end. Consolidate the days off so we don't have a bunch of one offs. Have better spacing between the breaks.

So move winter break to start with New Years Eve and run through early January?

I mean, I agree with you that we shouldn’t be prioritizing certain religions’ holidays over others, but they probably wouldn’t be able to get enough subs to cover all of the teachers who would call out on Christmas.

Exactly, the fact is in this country. The majority of citizens celebrate the Christmas holiday. That’s why it qualifies as a federal holiday.

right- the Christmas and Easter things are really red herrings. I really don't think anyone cares about Easter being tied to Spring Break b/c of religious observance. As an observant Christian, I would really rather Easter not be tied to Spring Break b/c we like to be in church for Easter and we like to travel for Spring Break- so always end up coming home early from Spring Break in order to celebrate Easter.
Christmas and New Years are federal holidays, 1 week apart. Many many businesses shut down completely or are on significantly reduced staffing during this week. It would be really difficult for schools to function this week- again not b/c of any 'religious' observance of Christmas, but because so many teachers want to be off this week, etc. The Thanksgiving break also falls into this category- we take it b/c it is a cultural holiday.

APS has not articulated a clear rationale for why they added the religious holidays of Yom Kippur, Rosh Hashanah, DIwali, and EId. Is it based on attendance data and the need for sub coverage? That is a supportable rationale if true- but I seriously seriously doubt that it is.
Is it b/c of 'equity' 'diversity' or similar concerns? This really cuts all sorts of ways. If we are concerned about honoring diversity no matter how small the number of impacted families, there are a LOT more potential holidays out there that would fall into this category- Lunar New Year, Dias de los Muertos, etc- Immediately come to mind.
Do we think it is inequitable that some students have to miss school for a religious holiday while Christian students 'automatically' get Christmas off? Equity can cut all sorts of ways in this situation. Is it equitable that children with special needs who struggle with changes in routine have numerous school weeks interrupted mid week to accommodate these holidays? Is it equitable that working families have to struggle to find child care, pay for it, arrange transportation for it, etc? to accommodate all these holidays?