Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They either need to come off the 180 day commitment or eliminate holidays — don’t care if religious or Columbus Day or whatever. Something has to give. The calendar is out of control. We’ve gotten nothing out of moving up a week. They just added more days off. All the nonsense about more instructional days before AP exams was just a scam to put in the religious holidays.

+1000

This is the worst one yet since we’ve had all the changes.

The 180 days is thanks to APE. That's what they lobbied for and APS caved to them.

Do you think fewer days is better?

DP. I think that when we just made the school day longer a few years ago, and when we have so many extra hours that we could have 13 snow days without dropping below state requirements, then yes. We could have fewer days, or get out a week earlier if we don’t use the snow days. The requirement is 990 hours OR 180 days, not both.

It depends how they are used. More days just for the sake of more days is silly. Like two random days the week of christmas that are going to be wasted with half the kids absent. Or too many days at the end of the year after the tests are done.

+1. If it’s just to check off a box or babysitting, it’s awful. I’m super annoyed by things like 3 early release days in a row, yet I’m stuck here and we cannot leave town until the end of June while they are watching TV every day. And what about the 12 unused snow days every year?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about practicality out of the box? Less long breaks is better for education. What if we moved a week of summer into mid September? Some could travel in shoulder season and for those that don't, run camps? 8-10 weeks of summer does take a toll on knowledge retention of students.

I would like a shorter summer and a week off in February like schools up north have. It's a great time for a break.

We don’t need to shorten the summer to have that. Just rid of a few religious and/or federal holidays, and we could have both. Consolidate the days off vs so many scattered days off

The biggest issue is the GP days after every marking period. The places with February break don't have those.

so you object to giving the teachers time to grade? when do you think they will do it?

It just happens with *magic* (throws confetti) like all the other work teachers do. They don’t need time to do it! /s

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about practicality out of the box? Less long breaks is better for education. What if we moved a week of summer into mid September? Some could travel in shoulder season and for those that don't, run camps? 8-10 weeks of summer does take a toll on knowledge retention of students.

I would like a shorter summer and a week off in February like schools up north have. It's a great time for a break.

We don’t need to shorten the summer to have that. Just rid of a few religious and/or federal holidays, and we could have both. Consolidate the days off vs so many scattered days off

The biggest issue is the GP days after every marking period. The places with February break don't have those.

so you object to giving the teachers time to grade? when do you think they will do it?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about practicality out of the box? Less long breaks is better for education. What if we moved a week of summer into mid September? Some could travel in shoulder season and for those that don't, run camps? 8-10 weeks of summer does take a toll on knowledge retention of students.

I would like a shorter summer and a week off in February like schools up north have. It's a great time for a break.

We don’t need to shorten the summer to have that. Just rid of a few religious and/or federal holidays, and we could have both. Consolidate the days off vs so many scattered days off

speak for yourself, I like the holidays

Anonymous wrote:I know this is a bit of a pipe dream but in the public school utopia in my head, there are free "childcare" options for elementary and middle schools on days off and half days except, like, major religious holidays. Let kids have half a day to run around and play games without stressing out the parents.

Extended day covers early release days (which is what I think you mean by half days).

Other counties, like Fairfax, have a version of extended day that covers those days when school is out. But that version isn’t run by their school system. It’s independent. APS runs is extended day.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about practicality out of the box? Less long breaks is better for education. What if we moved a week of summer into mid September? Some could travel in shoulder season and for those that don't, run camps? 8-10 weeks of summer does take a toll on knowledge retention of students.

I would like a shorter summer and a week off in February like schools up north have. It's a great time for a break.

We don’t need to shorten the summer to have that. Just rid of a few religious and/or federal holidays, and we could have both. Consolidate the days off vs so many scattered days off

The biggest issue is the GP days after every marking period. The places with February break don't have those.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about practicality out of the box? Less long breaks is better for education. What if we moved a week of summer into mid September? Some could travel in shoulder season and for those that don't, run camps? 8-10 weeks of summer does take a toll on knowledge retention of students.

I would like a shorter summer and a week off in February like schools up north have. It's a great time for a break.

We don’t need to shorten the summer to have that. Just rid of a few religious and/or federal holidays, and we could have both. Consolidate the days off vs so many scattered days off

Anonymous wrote:What about practicality out of the box? Less long breaks is better for education. What if we moved a week of summer into mid September? Some could travel in shoulder season and for those that don't, run camps? 8-10 weeks of summer does take a toll on knowledge retention of students.

I would like a shorter summer and a week off in February like schools up north have. It's a great time for a break.

I know this is a bit of a pipe dream but in the public school utopia in my head, there are free "childcare" options for elementary and middle schools on days off and half days except, like, major religious holidays. Let kids have half a day to run around and play games without stressing out the parents.

What about practicality out of the box? Less long breaks is better for education. What if we moved a week of summer into mid September? Some could travel in shoulder season and for those that don't, run camps? 8-10 weeks of summer does take a toll on knowledge retention of students.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They either need to come off the 180 day commitment or eliminate holidays — don’t care if religious or Columbus Day or whatever. Something has to give. The calendar is out of control. We’ve gotten nothing out of moving up a week. They just added more days off. All the nonsense about more instructional days before AP exams was just a scam to put in the religious holidays.

+1000

This is the worst one yet since we’ve had all the changes.

The 180 days is thanks to APE. That's what they lobbied for and APS caved to them.

Do you think fewer days is better?

DP. I think that when we just made the school day longer a few years ago, and when we have so many extra hours that we could have 13 snow days without dropping below state requirements, then yes. We could have fewer days, or get out a week earlier if we don’t use the snow days. The requirement is 990 hours OR 180 days, not both.

Summer needs to stay intact so I'm glad they are limiting the start to 1 week before Labor Day. The winter break is usually 2 weeks and can still be if they drop 2 random days off or settle on 178 days for next year. This year's Fairfax calendar is the worst non year round calendar I've ever seen! It was made over 2 years in advance and people warned them to change it and despite some of the board agreeing that it was bad, nothing happened so its school year is a week longer.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They either need to come off the 180 day commitment or eliminate holidays — don’t care if religious or Columbus Day or whatever. Something has to give. The calendar is out of control. We’ve gotten nothing out of moving up a week. They just added more days off. All the nonsense about more instructional days before AP exams was just a scam to put in the religious holidays.

+1000

This is the worst one yet since we’ve had all the changes.

The 180 days is thanks to APE. That's what they lobbied for and APS caved to them.

Do you think fewer days is better?

DP. I think that when we just made the school day longer a few years ago, and when we have so many extra hours that we could have 13 snow days without dropping below state requirements, then yes. We could have fewer days, or get out a week earlier if we don’t use the snow days. The requirement is 990 hours OR 180 days, not both.

It depends how they are used. More days just for the sake of more days is silly. Like two random days the week of christmas that are going to be wasted with half the kids absent. Or too many days at the end of the year after the tests are done.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They either need to come off the 180 day commitment or eliminate holidays — don’t care if religious or Columbus Day or whatever. Something has to give. The calendar is out of control. We’ve gotten nothing out of moving up a week. They just added more days off. All the nonsense about more instructional days before AP exams was just a scam to put in the religious holidays.

+1000

This is the worst one yet since we’ve had all the changes.

The 180 days is thanks to APE. That's what they lobbied for and APS caved to them.

Do you think fewer days is better?

DP. I think that when we just made the school day longer a few years ago, and when we have so many extra hours that we could have 13 snow days without dropping below state requirements, then yes. We could have fewer days, or get out a week earlier if we don’t use the snow days. The requirement is 990 hours OR 180 days, not both.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They either need to come off the 180 day commitment or eliminate holidays — don’t care if religious or Columbus Day or whatever. Something has to give. The calendar is out of control. We’ve gotten nothing out of moving up a week. They just added more days off. All the nonsense about more instructional days before AP exams was just a scam to put in the religious holidays.

+1000

This is the worst one yet since we’ve had all the changes.

The 180 days is thanks to APE. That's what they lobbied for and APS caved to them.

Do you think fewer days is better?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder if APS will rethink school on December 21 and 22. The Fairfax board has a thread about emails from FCPS about not missing schools around the breaks, attendance is important etc.

We won’t be traveling so my kids will be there but I’m going to guess there will be a lot of student and staff absences.

I thought that whole exercise from a few years ago solidified a guaranteed two week winter break? Why is it so short again. Does this mean the end of the school year in June is up for debate, too?

I think they did, but they painted themselves into a corner by promising all these things that don’t actually work together in 2026-2027. So I guess they arbitrarily chose when thing to go back on, and of course it would never be isolated mid-week days off. 🙄