Anonymous wrote:I like the suggestion of moving winter break to the first or second week of January. Half the people here hate seeing family At Christmas so this would help with that.

But, seriously we only drive if we go somewhere during winter break because it is so expensive to fly. We might be able to fly somewhere if winter break was later in January. That said, I like having time before Christmas to do holiday things. The week between Christmas and New Years always feels a bit dead. I like option 1. The HS kids need more time to study for AP exams and it makes no sense for those in AP classes to have weeks of class after they've taken their exams. My kids are in ES so I hope by the time they are in HS the schedule better aligns with AP exam dates. Starting so late makes zero sense to me.

I like the suggestion of moving winter break to the first or second week of January. Half the people here hate seeing family At Christmas so this would help with that.

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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

Ok but I don’t and I am a teacher. My employer should allow me time to vote.

They SHOULD move parent conferences to the day and a half before thanksgiving and not do 2 weeks for Christmas.

To be clear, you’re a teacher who is saying you need Election Day off from school so that you can vote? Come on. You are giving teachers a bad name.

Polls are open until 7 pm. Don't understand why your employer "should allow" you time to vote?

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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

Ok but I don’t and I am a teacher. My employer should allow me time to vote.

They SHOULD move parent conferences to the day and a half before thanksgiving and not do 2 weeks for Christmas.

To be clear, you’re a teacher who is saying you need Election Day off from school so that you can vote? Come on. You are giving teachers a bad name.

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Anonymous wrote:A coworker’s kids attend FCPS. We compared notes. Seems like they figured out a much better calendar that is less disruptive, maybe APS should just align everything with them.

They started a week earlier & get out the same time we do.

They got out a week earlier last year.

Looks like difference is that APS has only 176 days this year

Anonymous wrote:A coworker’s kids attend FCPS. We compared notes. Seems like they figured out a much better calendar that is less disruptive, maybe APS should just align everything with them.

They started a week earlier & get out the same time we do.

A coworker’s kids attend FCPS. We compared notes. Seems like they figured out a much better calendar that is less disruptive, maybe APS should just align everything with them.

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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

Ok but I don’t and I am a teacher. My employer should allow me time to vote.

They SHOULD move parent conferences to the day and a half before thanksgiving and not do 2 weeks for Christmas.

What kind of turnout do you expect conferences to have the week of Thanksgiving?!

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Anonymous wrote: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).

Yep. I'm voting for option 3 because option 2 has a funky post-spring break week. I think everything else is the same for option 2 and 3.

I’m a teacher that lives in Arlington and want option 3. I think a lot of my colleagues prefer that one too- I haven’t heard of any teacher actually wanting option 1. Of course FCPS hasn’t put their options out so who knows. I think it’s important to have alignment of spring break with them for teachers living in Fairfax but we can’t wait on them to make our schedule either.

Yeah I am one of them and I will just take a week off so I can take a vacation with my kids if the don’t align.
Real question though: how do so many families go away for spring break with their kids (as evidenced by the children in my class who travelled over spring break) without taking time off?

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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

Only freshmen have conferences. It really doesn't matter - putting them on election day would be fine with me, even though my polling place is not our high school.

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

Ok but I don’t and I am a teacher. My employer should allow me time to vote.

They SHOULD move parent conferences to the day and a half before thanksgiving and not do 2 weeks for Christmas.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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).

Yep. I'm voting for option 3 because option 2 has a funky post-spring break week. I think everything else is the same for option 2 and 3.

I’m a teacher that lives in Arlington and want option 3. I think a lot of my colleagues prefer that one too- I haven’t heard of any teacher actually wanting option 1. Of course FCPS hasn’t put their options out so who knows. I think it’s important to have alignment of spring break with them for teachers living in Fairfax but we can’t wait on them to make our schedule either.

Anonymous wrote: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).

Yep. I'm voting for option 3 because option 2 has a funky post-spring break week. I think everything else is the same for option 2 and 3.

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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.

My impression was that for ash Wednesday and good Friday people go to services for an hour or so, but they could work or go to school for the rest of the day. Is that wrong? I work with pretty observant catholics and they all work on ash Wednesday with ash on their foreheads. The way they observe it isn't similar to Yom Kippur when you are fasting and in temple for most of the day and forbidden from working. It seems more similar to Passover, when working or doing to school during the day is no big deal.

Mass conflicted with teachers teaching school so there was no school. It wasn't a full day service, but enough to cancel classes.

Anonymous wrote:

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.

My impression was that for ash Wednesday and good Friday people go to services for an hour or so, but they could work or go to school for the rest of the day. Is that wrong? I work with pretty observant catholics and they all work on ash Wednesday with ash on their foreheads. The way they observe it isn't similar to Yom Kippur when you are fasting and in temple for most of the day and forbidden from working. It seems more similar to Passover, when working or doing to school during the day is no big deal.