Anonymous
Post 03/27/2026 11:27     Subject: Re:Will APS close on 4/21?
Anonymous wrote:I took one for the team and watched the Board meeting recording.

4/21 is off. Vote was 3-2. Turner and Tapia-Hadley voted no.

Duran said he has "grave concerns" of security and operational disruptions if they are open election day. Staff brought up FCPS closed. Staff said they don't make recommendations lightly, blah, blah. Staff says this will be as much turnout as a general election. Turner and Tapia-Hadley pushed back hard. The other Board members said all the things but then said their priority is keeping students/staff safe.





Thank you for the info.
Anonymous
Post 03/27/2026 11:23     Subject: Re:Will APS close on 4/21?
Anonymous wrote:I took one for the team and watched the Board meeting recording.

4/21 is off. Vote was 3-2. Turner and Tapia-Hadley voted no.

Duran said he has "grave concerns" of security and operational disruptions if they are open election day. Staff brought up FCPS closed. Staff said they don't make recommendations lightly, blah, blah. Staff says this will be as much turnout as a general election. Turner and Tapia-Hadley pushed back hard. The other Board members said all the things but then said their priority is keeping students/staff safe.





Did they even address the possibility of swapping around another day off?
Anonymous
Post 03/27/2026 11:21     Subject: Re:Will APS close on 4/21?
I took one for the team and watched the Board meeting recording.

4/21 is off. Vote was 3-2. Turner and Tapia-Hadley voted no.

Duran said he has "grave concerns" of security and operational disruptions if they are open election day. Staff brought up FCPS closed. Staff said they don't make recommendations lightly, blah, blah. Staff says this will be as much turnout as a general election. Turner and Tapia-Hadley pushed back hard. The other Board members said all the things but then said their priority is keeping students/staff safe.



Anonymous
Post 03/27/2026 11:14     Subject: Re:Will APS close on 4/21?
Anonymous wrote:So what happened with 4/21? Anyone know?
m

Take a wild guess.
Anonymous
Post 03/27/2026 11:13     Subject: Will APS close on 4/21?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I'm seeing reports that Fairfax is considering changing their calendar for next year to remove some holidays and early releases to make for more 5-day weeks. Hopefully APS follows them in that plan and fixes next year's calendar. I think there's consensus amongst many parents across both school districts that there's too many breaks and holidays and days off. And that they're too random.


the FCPS school board members are proposing to make Veterans' Day and Indigenous People's Day school days. Won't really help parents whose offices follow federal holidays...

The vast majority of parents aren't on a federal schedule and have to work those days. Veterans Day is one of the causes of "no school November" as it's been coined by the kids. They will already get election day off the week before. They don't need a random Wednesday off the following week.


There are a lot of fed employees and contractors in the area, so probably a higher percent of families have fed holidays off than other metro areas.

I guess the silver lining is I’d finally get a real paid holiday off since as of now the kids are always out of school on my holidays. But I think we should scrap the religious ones too. Including not tying spring break to Easter. I’m non-religious and while I support people’s right to believe whatever they want, I don’t think that should be APS’s priority over creating a cohesive calendar.
Anonymous
Post 03/27/2026 10:47     Subject: Re:Will APS close on 4/21?
So what happened with 4/21? Anyone know?
Anonymous
Post 03/27/2026 09:55     Subject: Will APS close on 4/21?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I'm seeing reports that Fairfax is considering changing their calendar for next year to remove some holidays and early releases to make for more 5-day weeks. Hopefully APS follows them in that plan and fixes next year's calendar. I think there's consensus amongst many parents across both school districts that there's too many breaks and holidays and days off. And that they're too random.


the FCPS school board members are proposing to make Veterans' Day and Indigenous People's Day school days. Won't really help parents whose offices follow federal holidays...

The vast majority of parents aren't on a federal schedule and have to work those days. Veterans Day is one of the causes of "no school November" as it's been coined by the kids. They will already get election day off the week before. They don't need a random Wednesday off the following week.
Anonymous
Post 03/27/2026 09:51     Subject: Will APS close on 4/21?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I'm seeing reports that Fairfax is considering changing their calendar for next year to remove some holidays and early releases to make for more 5-day weeks. Hopefully APS follows them in that plan and fixes next year's calendar. I think there's consensus amongst many parents across both school districts that there's too many breaks and holidays and days off. And that they're too random.


the FCPS school board members are proposing to make Veterans' Day and Indigenous People's Day school days. Won't really help parents whose offices follow federal holidays...


Yes, it’s fine to make those school days, I guess, but it’s the religious holidays that virtually no adults have off.

Also, back in the day, fall parent teacher conferences were the Thurs-Fri before Columbus/Indigenous people’s day, giving a 4.5 day stretch off… the closest we’ve had to a fall break. But they decoupled those in recent years and made the calendar even more choppy.

My understanding is that APS doesn't like putting teacher training or work days next to weekends because teachers want to take those days off for a long weekend too. But that seems like a crazy policy when long weekends work better for all of the kids and parents and are more consistent with student learning. If teachers need to be there just make it mandatory and it can still be next to a weekend. We don't need random early releases on a Wednesday just to force teachers not to attend the training and not take the afternoon off.
Anonymous
Post 03/27/2026 09:41     Subject: Will APS close on 4/21?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I'm seeing reports that Fairfax is considering changing their calendar for next year to remove some holidays and early releases to make for more 5-day weeks. Hopefully APS follows them in that plan and fixes next year's calendar. I think there's consensus amongst many parents across both school districts that there's too many breaks and holidays and days off. And that they're too random.


the FCPS school board members are proposing to make Veterans' Day and Indigenous People's Day school days. Won't really help parents whose offices follow federal holidays...


Yes, it’s fine to make those school days, I guess, but it’s the religious holidays that virtually no adults have off.

Also, back in the day, fall parent teacher conferences were the Thurs-Fri before Columbus/Indigenous people’s day, giving a 4.5 day stretch off… the closest we’ve had to a fall break. But they decoupled those in recent years and made the calendar even more choppy.
Anonymous
Post 03/27/2026 09:38     Subject: Will APS close on 4/21?
Anonymous wrote:I'm seeing reports that Fairfax is considering changing their calendar for next year to remove some holidays and early releases to make for more 5-day weeks. Hopefully APS follows them in that plan and fixes next year's calendar. I think there's consensus amongst many parents across both school districts that there's too many breaks and holidays and days off. And that they're too random.


the FCPS school board members are proposing to make Veterans' Day and Indigenous People's Day school days. Won't really help parents whose offices follow federal holidays...
Anonymous
Post 03/27/2026 09:01     Subject: Will APS close on 4/21?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I remember this from the weather closings! I think the insinuation that everyone that disagrees with you doesn’t work or has married “Dr. Biglaw” is kind of weird. People that have high school kids have also had elementary schoolers. Funny how that works. Get a grip. Maybe YOU shouldn’t have had kids!


And I’m sure the people with HS kids have forgotten what it is like to constantly be stringing together leave and shuffling schedules and paying for camps that add up in order to maintain employment (and the job economy here is currently awful here as a cherry on top).

Just like I’ve already moved well beyond things like daycare waitlists, milk supply, sleep training, tantrums, etc., which now feels like a blip.

But I would never tell parents in the thick of it with babies/toddlers that the days are long but the years are short and they should just deal with it. I’m sure someone with adult kids could come along and tell you your current problems are nbd.

And I’d rather be temporarily grumpy about a calendar change than a smug B.


Also, I bet when your kids were little schools didn’t close at random throughout the year to accommodate every religious holiday under the sun.
Anonymous
Post 03/27/2026 09:00     Subject: Will APS close on 4/21?
Anonymous wrote:I'm seeing reports that Fairfax is considering changing their calendar for next year to remove some holidays and early releases to make for more 5-day weeks. Hopefully APS follows them in that plan and fixes next year's calendar. I think there's consensus amongst many parents across both school districts that there's too many breaks and holidays and days off. And that they're too random.


Since we have a history of following Fairfax, I hope we follow them this time!
Anonymous
Post 03/27/2026 08:59     Subject: Will APS close on 4/21?
Anonymous wrote:P.S. You seem to have a boatload of time to post during the school/workday. Maybe if you applied yourself at your job, you could be a breadwinner, too.


Who is you? There are multiple posters here upset about the calendar. I imagine we all have different work schedules/breaks.
Anonymous
Post 03/27/2026 08:58     Subject: Will APS close on 4/21?
Anonymous wrote:I remember this from the weather closings! I think the insinuation that everyone that disagrees with you doesn’t work or has married “Dr. Biglaw” is kind of weird. People that have high school kids have also had elementary schoolers. Funny how that works. Get a grip. Maybe YOU shouldn’t have had kids!


And I’m sure the people with HS kids have forgotten what it is like to constantly be stringing together leave and shuffling schedules and paying for camps that add up in order to maintain employment (and the job economy here is currently awful here as a cherry on top).

Just like I’ve already moved well beyond things like daycare waitlists, milk supply, sleep training, tantrums, etc., which now feels like a blip.

But I would never tell parents in the thick of it with babies/toddlers that the days are long but the years are short and they should just deal with it. I’m sure someone with adult kids could come along and tell you your current problems are nbd.

And I’d rather be temporarily grumpy about a calendar change than a smug B.
Anonymous
Post 03/27/2026 08:47     Subject: Will APS close on 4/21?
[quote=Anonymous]I really like the added religious holidays, but I would love for districts to schedule the non-holiday days off next to holidays so the school breaks are consolidated. [/quote]

Yes, consolidating breaks and attaching days off to weekends whenever possible would be great. Having isolated Tues, Wed, or Thurs off is annoying. Having a longer summer again would also be ideal.