Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok. Thank you.

I am glad i am misreading the O days.

Why is next year's calendar so long?

Because our school board is run by idiots.

The only thing FCPS is good at is keeping kids out of school.

Sigh. You get 180 days. They are not keeping kids out of school any more or less than years past.

Oh, so I'm imagining that school starts earlier than ever and ends later than ever?

No wonder the FCPS budget keeps going up.

This year, we started August 19th and are ending June 11th. There were 180 instructional days over 42.5 weeks.
Next year, we will start August 18th and end June 17th. There will 180 instructional days over 43.5 weeks.

So somewhere, yes, there are 5 more days off in the middle of the school year than there were this year. I counted and there were 6 Teacher workday/Staff Development days this year and there will be 9 next year (not counting the days before and after school ends), so that's three of them. The remaining two must be holidays.

I just laugh so hard at all the white christians complaining about TWO extra holidays this year when they literally get three weeks off due to theirs.

*queue the lady who goes on and on about this is the only time for international families to visit their families overseas. My family always went in the summer. Yes, to India. Yes, during monsoon season.

Umm, there were no explicitly Christian holidays on the calendar until they added the unnecessary Orthodox holidays.

You may be referring to Spring and Winter Breaks, but as you can easily see, these are not Christian holidays.

Try harder.

This is such a stupid argument. The ONLY reason we have that particular two weeks off in Dec/January rather than at the end of the Quarter is because of Christmas and New Year's. You know it, I know it, we all know it. If we were having a true winter break, it would be at the end of the quarter in January.

I can make an even better connection for spring break. A few years ago, FCPS sent out a survey that literally asked parents and teachers if they wanted spring break tied to Easter. The majority of respondents apparently said yes, so therefore spring break is always going to be tied to easter and is going flip around between March and April. A lot of school systems don't do this, they pick the last week of March or the first week of April or the week after Quarter end EVERY YEAR for their spring break. But FCPS ties it to Easter. It is not quit literally an easter break, but it is an Easter Break. Again, everyone knows it, it was literally in a survey. FCPS will fully admit it.

Just because your religious holidays aren't in the name doesn't mean those breaks are not tied to the religious holidays. Stop being outraged at other religions getting holidays off when you're getting yours off, too.

You are missing a crucial detail.

FCPS moved spring break to the end of the quarter.

None of the other school systems did this.

Many of our teachers and support staff live in other counties.

FCPS was out one week and the rest of the area was out Easter week.

FCPS employees ran into significant childcare issues due to FCPS spring break not aligned to the rest of the area.

Teachers and staff wanted spring break tied to other districts, which happens to be Easter week. They voted in that survey too.

No matter though. If the vast majority wanted spring break tied to Easter, then that is a cultural choice based on when spring break traditionally occurs in northern Virginia, not a religious decision, because:

A) Holy Week is a time of reflection, worship and sacrifice for practicing Christians, not a party on the beach and fly to Disney week. Practicing Christians want spring break separated from Holy Week, just like the Catholic schools do. If spring break was determined based on Christian residents, it would either be the week after Easter, or the end of the quarter, but certainly NOT Holy Week.

B) It was a large majority that voted to keep spring break with Easter. The percentage was larger than the actual percentage of religious, practicing Christians. Since the practicing Christians prefer spring break uncoupled from Holy Week, one can only assume that many of the votes to keep spring break on Holy Week came from non Christians and non practicing cultural Christians who just view Easter as Egg Hunt Bunny Day, not Our Lord has risen Day.

C) If FCPS was observing Easter as a religious holiday, they would have kids in school Holy Week, giving an early dismissal on Good Friday with Good Friday listed on the calendar. That would be an example of FCPS religiously obaerving Easter.



To your other point, try having school on Christmas Eve and Chrsitmas Day. You wouldn't have enough teachers or students to staff a full grade anywhere, except maube 1 or 2 places.

Christmas is the largest CULTURAL holiday in the USA and one of our first national holidays. It is sewn into the cultural fabric and history of our country. Celebrating Christmas is as American as celebrating the Fourth of July and part of our country's history from the beginning. It is religious, clearly. But it is also one of the most significant secular cultural celebrations in the USA and has been from the beginning of our nation.

To claim otherwise shows a gross misunderstanding of our nation's history and culture.

Look, I don't mind getting time off to travel at the end of the year, but let's not go crazy comparing Christmas with the 4th of July. Independence Day is an actual American holiday. Christmas, no matter how secular you make it, is still rooted in Christianity, and non-Christian Americans are no less American for not celebrating it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Christmas or not, the FCPS calendar is deeply flawed and has far too many days off.

Can we just get a calendar that gives the Federal Holidays; a few days at the end of each quarter, 5 days for Thanksgiving, 1 week (not 2+) for Christmas and 1 week for Spring Break? And can we please be done early June!!!

No one wants the endless days off, the endless time off in the Winter, the religious holidays etc etc.

FCCPS 2025-26 calendar
August 18-June 5
FCPS 2025-26 calendar
August 18-June 17
Both have 2 weeks off late December into January. The difference is all the single day closures.

Anonymous wrote:Christmas or not, the FCPS calendar is deeply flawed and has far too many days off.

Can we just get a calendar that gives the Federal Holidays; a few days at the end of each quarter, 5 days for Thanksgiving, 1 week (not 2+) for Christmas and 1 week for Spring Break? And can we please be done early June!!!

No one wants the endless days off, the endless time off in the Winter, the religious holidays etc etc.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:After someone posted about june Eid, I pulled up next years 2025-2026 calendar.

We start really early, August 18, and go really, really, unusually late, June 17.

I started to look at all the dates and religious events that FCPS marked off next year. One month in particular caught my mind.

The kids return from winter break on Monday, January 5th. With New Years on a Thursday, that makes perfect sense.

BUT...

It appears that students only have one day of school (January 5th) then they are off for 2 Days for Epiphany? (January 6th and 7th) Because of this, there is only one full week of classes in January.

Am I looking at that correctly? That can't be right, can it? There are only 3 Orthodox churches in Fairfax County, so the population of students and staff in that religious tradition cannot be significant enough to cause even a blip of absences if all of them take off on a school day.

When FCPS moved to an August start, one of the main arguments for it was that the school year would end 2 weeks earlier in early June, shortly after SOLs and AP exams.

When the school board created a committee to look at giving days off for major religious holidays, the premise and task was to look at holidays where staff and student attendance was significantly impacted, and develop a list based explicitly on attendance issues. Looking at the FCPS population, an attendance metric would have added the muslim, Jewish and Hindu holdays currently added to the calendar, but that should have been it.

How did we end up with 2 days off for the aorthodox Christmas/Epiphany, with only 1 day of classes between it and winter break?

Am I reading the calendar correctly? Or am I misunderstanding the 2 different O day markings? Epiphany does not have the no activities marking. It has the full O.

https://www.fcps.edu/system/files/forms/2024-02/2025-2026-standard-school-year-calendar.pdf

You are not reading calendar correctly. Those are not holidays. There will be school those days- same as all years before. You ARE correct though that the idea to start before Labor Day was to end earlier and instead school board just added in more days so now start earlier and end later.

I like this trend. I prefer a shorter summer and more days off during the school year. I think it is good for the kids to get breaks during the year.

+1 Let's keep going until we get a full year-round-school schedule with a 5/6 week summer break in July! That would be awesome.

Anonymous wrote:Christmas or not, the FCPS calendar is deeply flawed and has far too many days off.

Can we just get a calendar that gives the Federal Holidays; a few days at the end of each quarter, 5 days for Thanksgiving, 1 week (not 2+) for Christmas and 1 week for Spring Break? And can we please be done early June!!!

No one wants the endless days off, the endless time off in the Winter, the religious holidays etc etc.

Anonymous wrote:Christmas or not, the FCPS calendar is deeply flawed and has far too many days off.

Can we just get a calendar that gives the Federal Holidays; a few days at the end of each quarter, 5 days for Thanksgiving, 1 week (not 2+) for Christmas and 1 week for Spring Break? And can we please be done early June!!!

No one wants the endless days off, the endless time off in the Winter, the religious holidays etc etc.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok. Thank you.

I am glad i am misreading the O days.

Why is next year's calendar so long?

Because our school board is run by idiots.

The only thing FCPS is good at is keeping kids out of school.

Sigh. You get 180 days. They are not keeping kids out of school any more or less than years past.

Oh, so I'm imagining that school starts earlier than ever and ends later than ever?

No wonder the FCPS budget keeps going up.

This year, we started August 19th and are ending June 11th. There were 180 instructional days over 42.5 weeks.
Next year, we will start August 18th and end June 17th. There will 180 instructional days over 43.5 weeks.

So somewhere, yes, there are 5 more days off in the middle of the school year than there were this year. I counted and there were 6 Teacher workday/Staff Development days this year and there will be 9 next year (not counting the days before and after school ends), so that's three of them. The remaining two must be holidays.

I just laugh so hard at all the white christians complaining about TWO extra holidays this year when they literally get three weeks off due to theirs.

*queue the lady who goes on and on about this is the only time for international families to visit their families overseas. My family always went in the summer. Yes, to India. Yes, during monsoon season.

Umm, there were no explicitly Christian holidays on the calendar until they added the unnecessary Orthodox holidays.

You may be referring to Spring and Winter Breaks, but as you can easily see, these are not Christian holidays.

Try harder.

This is such a stupid argument. The ONLY reason we have that particular two weeks off in Dec/January rather than at the end of the Quarter is because of Christmas and New Year's. You know it, I know it, we all know it. If we were having a true winter break, it would be at the end of the quarter in January.

I can make an even better connection for spring break. A few years ago, FCPS sent out a survey that literally asked parents and teachers if they wanted spring break tied to Easter. The majority of respondents apparently said yes, so therefore spring break is always going to be tied to easter and is going flip around between March and April. A lot of school systems don't do this, they pick the last week of March or the first week of April or the week after Quarter end EVERY YEAR for their spring break. But FCPS ties it to Easter. It is not quit literally an easter break, but it is an Easter Break. Again, everyone knows it, it was literally in a survey. FCPS will fully admit it.

Just because your religious holidays aren't in the name doesn't mean those breaks are not tied to the religious holidays. Stop being outraged at other religions getting holidays off when you're getting yours off, too.

You are missing a crucial detail.

FCPS moved spring break to the end of the quarter.

None of the other school systems did this.

Many of our teachers and support staff live in other counties.

FCPS was out one week and the rest of the area was out Easter week.

FCPS employees ran into significant childcare issues due to FCPS spring break not aligned to the rest of the area.

Teachers and staff wanted spring break tied to other districts, which happens to be Easter week. They voted in that survey too.

No matter though. If the vast majority wanted spring break tied to Easter, then that is a cultural choice based on when spring break traditionally occurs in northern Virginia, not a religious decision, because:

A) Holy Week is a time of reflection, worship and sacrifice for practicing Christians, not a party on the beach and fly to Disney week. Practicing Christians want spring break separated from Holy Week, just like the Catholic schools do. If spring break was determined based on Christian residents, it would either be the week after Easter, or the end of the quarter, but certainly NOT Holy Week.

B) It was a large majority that voted to keep spring break with Easter. The percentage was larger than the actual percentage of religious, practicing Christians. Since the practicing Christians prefer spring break uncoupled from Holy Week, one can only assume that many of the votes to keep spring break on Holy Week came from non Christians and non practicing cultural Christians who just view Easter as Egg Hunt Bunny Day, not Our Lord has risen Day.

C) If FCPS was observing Easter as a religious holiday, they would have kids in school Holy Week, giving an early dismissal on Good Friday with Good Friday listed on the calendar. That would be an example of FCPS religiously obaerving Easter.



To your other point, try having school on Christmas Eve and Chrsitmas Day. You wouldn't have enough teachers or students to staff a full grade anywhere, except maube 1 or 2 places.

Christmas is the largest CULTURAL holiday in the USA and one of our first national holidays. It is sewn into the cultural fabric and history of our country. Celebrating Christmas is as American as celebrating the Fourth of July and part of our country's history from the beginning. It is religious, clearly. But it is also one of the most significant secular cultural celebrations in the USA and has been from the beginning of our nation.

To claim otherwise shows a gross misunderstanding of our nation's history and culture.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok. Thank you.

I am glad i am misreading the O days.

Why is next year's calendar so long?

Because our school board is run by idiots.

The only thing FCPS is good at is keeping kids out of school.

Sigh. You get 180 days. They are not keeping kids out of school any more or less than years past.

Oh, so I'm imagining that school starts earlier than ever and ends later than ever?

No wonder the FCPS budget keeps going up.

This year, we started August 19th and are ending June 11th. There were 180 instructional days over 42.5 weeks.
Next year, we will start August 18th and end June 17th. There will 180 instructional days over 43.5 weeks.

So somewhere, yes, there are 5 more days off in the middle of the school year than there were this year. I counted and there were 6 Teacher workday/Staff Development days this year and there will be 9 next year (not counting the days before and after school ends), so that's three of them. The remaining two must be holidays.

I just laugh so hard at all the white christians complaining about TWO extra holidays this year when they literally get three weeks off due to theirs.

*queue the lady who goes on and on about this is the only time for international families to visit their families overseas. My family always went in the summer. Yes, to India. Yes, during monsoon season.

Umm, there were no explicitly Christian holidays on the calendar until they added the unnecessary Orthodox holidays.

You may be referring to Spring and Winter Breaks, but as you can easily see, these are not Christian holidays.

Try harder.

This is such a stupid argument. The ONLY reason we have that particular two weeks off in Dec/January rather than at the end of the Quarter is because of Christmas and New Year's. You know it, I know it, we all know it. If we were having a true winter break, it would be at the end of the quarter in January.

I can make an even better connection for spring break. A few years ago, FCPS sent out a survey that literally asked parents and teachers if they wanted spring break tied to Easter. The majority of respondents apparently said yes, so therefore spring break is always going to be tied to easter and is going flip around between March and April. A lot of school systems don't do this, they pick the last week of March or the first week of April or the week after Quarter end EVERY YEAR for their spring break. But FCPS ties it to Easter. It is not quit literally an easter break, but it is an Easter Break. Again, everyone knows it, it was literally in a survey. FCPS will fully admit it.

Just because your religious holidays aren't in the name doesn't mean those breaks are not tied to the religious holidays. Stop being outraged at other religions getting holidays off when you're getting yours off, too.

Anonymous wrote:Every calendar or schedule-related post I've ever seen on this site is more or less summarized by the following:

- Some see a shorter summer (say 7-9 weeks) as also helping to at least somewhat mitigate the degree of academic summer slide.
- Some want a longer summer (say 10-12 weeks) because that's what they are used to or they find it easier for planning vacations.
- Some are opposed to ending late (mid-June) because the last few weeks of school post-testing "not much gets done".
- Some like ending late (mid-June) because it gives more time for teachers to work with students on projects/learning that isn't so "teach to the test" oriented.
- Some would prefer ensuring FCPS is as aligned as possible with the calendars of surrounding jurisdictions and/or other parts of the country. Having slightly different vacation windows can be disadvantageous for attending certain events and coordinating with distributed friends/family.
- Some would prefer ensuring FCPS does what makes most sense for our county, students, parents, etc. without worrying about what other areas are doing. Having slightly different vacation windows can be advantageous for keeping holiday costs lower.
- Similar points and counterpoints apply to how soon the school year starts, how many mid-year days off students and teachers have, the value/priority of having "full weeks", aligning breaks with quarter ends, extracurricular planning/coordination, how large of a percentage of the population needs to participate in a religious or cultural observance in order for the system to plan around it, and on and on and on.

The key thing is that most on DCUM seem to enjoy stating their preferred stances on any/all of the above positions as if they are clear, obvious, objective truths with no legitimate counterpoints, rather than simply a matter of personal preference and rolling with whatever the broader community and school system (most of whom don't express their preferences on DCUM, so even if a thread had consensus, which they don't, it would be basically meaningless consensus).

The school system for their part gives out surveys to check the "community engagement" box but doesn't structure the surveys with sufficient options or nuance of feedback to really be meaningful in terms of gauging community sentiment. We're usually given a list of options none of which really accurately capture anyone's actual POV. The quality of reporting out on these surveys and transparency as to how this did or did not influence decisions is also sorely lacking.

So why do I keep reading these threads? Not sure, I guess it's kind of like a guilty pleasure watching people fret about with such certainty in their opinions. I suppose everyone needs a good opportunity to shake their head and chuckle from time to time.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone have inside knowledge on what day graduations will start next year? This year they start May 30 (I think).

Graduations always start the first week with June days (sometimes that has a couple of May Days)

But with this bunch, who knows. FCPS appears to have changed the graduation queue this year from the traditional queue, so they could screw up the graduation timeline too.

The last full week of May has Robinson plus all the nontraditional schools, then the rest of the schools start the next week. How did Robinson score that early one...I have one more year parenting in FCPS and I can only hope to be out as soon as possible!!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone have inside knowledge on what day graduations will start next year? This year they start May 30 (I think).

Graduations always start the first week with June days (sometimes that has a couple of May Days)

But with this bunch, who knows. FCPS appears to have changed the graduation queue this year from the traditional queue, so they could screw up the graduation timeline too.