Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We don't get off for "every possible holiday." They added only FOUR holidays (Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Diwali, and Eid) as days off, in addition to already having a 2-week winter break for Christmas and tying Spring Break to Easter. Stop using holidays as a scapegoat.

I'd love to have fewer weather closures, but the weather and road clearing is not really in the school's control.

Lunar new year.
Eid is like 3 different days.

It’s actually not 3 different days. There is one day off for each Eid. Please be less ignorant.

Anonymous wrote:We don't get off for "every possible holiday." They added only FOUR holidays (Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Diwali, and Eid) as days off, in addition to already having a 2-week winter break for Christmas and tying Spring Break to Easter. Stop using holidays as a scapegoat.

I'd love to have fewer weather closures, but the weather and road clearing is not really in the school's control.

Lunar new year.
Eid is like 3 different days.

Anonymous wrote:We don't get off for "every possible holiday." They added only FOUR holidays (Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Diwali, and Eid) as days off, in addition to already having a 2-week winter break for Christmas and tying Spring Break to Easter. Stop using holidays as a scapegoat.

I'd love to have fewer weather closures, but the weather and road clearing is not really in the school's control.

I think my overall point is that with all the additional holidays and with the long winter break, AND the weather closings and delays - the 2 and 3 hour early releases are like, the straw that broke the camel’s back for me. They gotta go for next school year and for the future.

We don't get off for "every possible holiday." They added only FOUR holidays (Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Diwali, and Eid) as days off, in addition to already having a 2-week winter break for Christmas and tying Spring Break to Easter. Stop using holidays as a scapegoat.

I'd love to have fewer weather closures, but the weather and road clearing is not really in the school's control.

I still find it mind boggling that in 2018-2019 kids went back August 28th and still got out by June 13th

Now they go back earlier and STILL get out later.

Anonymous wrote:Half days need to go away and never, ever come back. It's so disruptive to workplaces too. We all RTO and take annual leave every time they decide to have a half day.

Regarding holidays, I think they need to take a look at holidays. Most of these start at sundown and wouldn't impact the school day at all. Christmas is only one holiday in the entire year, but it's a national holiday that most workers have off. (Easter is on a Sunday)

What is a "national" holiday? Do you mean a Federal holiday? Assuming you do, how do most of them start at sundown...

New Years Day starts at sundown?
MLK Day starts at sundown?
Washington's birthday/President's Day starts at sundown?
Memorial Day starts at sundown?
Juneteenth starts at sundown?
Labor Day starts at sundown?
Indigenous People's Day starts at sundown?
Election Day starts at sundown?
Veterans Day starts at sundown?
Thanksgiving starts at sundown?

These 10 (9 really since Juneteenth is after the EOY) are the majority of holidays students have off on the calendar.

Students are only out for 5 other non-federal/religious holidays, 4 of which start sundown the day before the day off from school:
Eid al Fitr on 3/20 (begins sundown on the 19th and ends sundown on the 20th)
Eid al Adha on 5/27 (begins sundown on the 26th and ends sundown on the 27th)
Rosh Hashana on 9/23 (begins sundown on the 22nd and ends sundown on the 24th)
Yom Kipor on 10/2 (begins sundown on 10/1 and ends sundown on 10/2)
Diwalli on 10/20

Half days need to go away and never, ever come back. It's so disruptive to workplaces too. We all RTO and take annual leave every time they decide to have a half day.

Regarding holidays, I think they need to take a look at holidays. Most of these start at sundown and wouldn't impact the school day at all. Christmas is only one holiday in the entire year, but it's a national holiday that most workers have off. (Easter is on a Sunday)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe I think waiting for the bus on top of a snow pile and the buses taking a little longer to get kids to and from school in the snow is what builds resilience. Sincerely, a person who grew up in one of those “100 inches of snow” places.

Wouldn't the bus taking longer either mean the students need to wake up earlier (which messes up them waking up at a consistent time - mentioned in this thread as a need for student success) or cause them to go get to school late (which makes them lose instruction hours - which has also been mentioned as a problem in this thread)?

Getting to school 20 minutes late because of lingering snow piling up isn’t the same as missing 2 hours or a full day due to weather ……….

Very true, but where do we draw the line numerically on what is acceptable and what isn't?

2 hours = Unacceptable. 20 minutes = Acceptable.

What about a 1 hour delay? Acceptable? What if the bus is a hour late? Unacceptable?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe I think waiting for the bus on top of a snow pile and the buses taking a little longer to get kids to and from school in the snow is what builds resilience. Sincerely, a person who grew up in one of those “100 inches of snow” places.

Wouldn't the bus taking longer either mean the students need to wake up earlier (which messes up them waking up at a consistent time - mentioned in this thread as a need for student success) or cause them to go get to school late (which makes them lose instruction hours - which has also been mentioned as a problem in this thread)?

Getting to school 20 minutes late because of lingering snow piling up isn’t the same as missing 2 hours or a full day due to weather ……….

Anonymous wrote:
Someone is insisting on gaslighting us by shaming us.

It's disgusting

Yep, I have seen the following:

"You didn't plan properly" (shaming parents who have unpredictable work schedules)
"Your kid needs too much hand holding" (shaming CHILDREN who are neurodiverse and have difficulty with change/disruption)
"You just want your kids warehoused" (shaming families who have to work outside the home in order to feed their kids")

What else? Please troll, tell us more about how we need to go along whatever this district shovels out and that if we don't like it, it's due to our own deficiencies! Just like anyone who was concerned about education during COVID was someone who hates their kids, who wanted to put teachers at risk, who has no ReSiLiEnCe.

Anonymous wrote:Maybe I think waiting for the bus on top of a snow pile and the buses taking a little longer to get kids to and from school in the snow is what builds resilience. Sincerely, a person who grew up in one of those “100 inches of snow” places.

Wouldn't the bus taking longer either mean the students need to wake up earlier (which messes up them waking up at a consistent time - mentioned in this thread as a need for student success) or cause them to go get to school late (which makes them lose instruction hours - which has also been mentioned as a problem in this thread)?

Someone is insisting on gaslighting us by shaming us.

It's disgusting

Maybe I think waiting for the bus on top of a snow pile and the buses taking a little longer to get kids to and from school in the snow is what builds resilience. Sincerely, a person who grew up in one of those “100 inches of snow” places.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You need to write your school board members and then you need to engage them where they care which is politics.

All of the schoolboard members are liberal and many are progressive. This calendar is *not* progressive and disproportionately impacts lower-income and dual-working families. Women and hourly workers are supposed to be constituencies democrats care about. So raise the issue with local league of women voters, canvassers/fundraisers who are trying to get support for other democratic candidates (especially if you’ve donated before) and directly ask school board members how they are contributing to the affordability agenda with their calendar choices.

It is idiotic that this is how any of this works. But COVID created the idea for many Democrats that liberals don’t mind keeping kids out of school and now its course correction.

Have you confused school with being child care? You think its primary purpose is to warehouse children?

I think schools exist to provide a public good at public expense. Has taxpayers we have a right to assume the public will be provided efficiently and effectively, and not create undue burdens on the households they are intended to serve.

What undue burdens are they creating? The calendars are published a year in advance. No one can control the weather. There are no burdens, except for maybe people who suck at managing a household. Stop thinking of school as child care. It's not.

The undue burden is on STUDENTS!!! You need to stop. The calendar is a problem. Go away, you lazy troll.

What burden, objectively, is being placed on students? I'm talking a real cognitive effect, not your emotions and feelings of the calendar. But a real statistical effect that is negative effecting them academically. What can you actually prove with data that shows a burden that is having an effect on student's learning as a whole?

My teens have complained they haven't been able to lock in because of the interruptions.
One of my teens has had to miss a lot of their electives just to receive their services hours that got rescheduled because of the closures and delays and shortened weeks.


So, enough from you. Many of us are here screaming that the calendar doesn't work. It is time to listen to us. It isn't about you and your need to sleep in or plan or whatever you do with this half ass schedule.

I’m sorry you didn’t teach your children resilience. That is an important life skill.

My kid basically taught herself the AP material for two classes during Covid. Sure, there were virtual classes but she essentially was self-directed. Most kids in AP classes are like that, or should be, since it is college level material and most learning takes place outside the lectures.

It sounds like your kids need their hands held more than most? I am sorry about that, but you’re still wildly in the minority about this, even if you think yelling loudly and being intransigent might give a different impression (it won’t).

Keep watching for narrative like this. The effort is

1. Shift blame
2. Shame
3. Delay/stall
4. Dissuade

If you see posters doing this, think about what action of yours they’re trying to influence and what narrative they’re trying to push. Consider the above as a case study— who benefits if you internalize the “resilience” narrative? Is it your kids? Is it their classmates?

If not…what do you think the motivation for the post is?

This is a good point. That word keeps getting used a lot. Apparently we are supposed to shut and take whatever garbage FCPS and Fairfax Country throw our way, in the name of building "resilience" in our children. No disagreement allowed! Such a winning message!

Call it out when you see it (also “poor shaming” and “planning” come up a lot on three threads) and ask who the poster is trying to help.

Then do the thing they’re trying to get you NOT to do and engage with your elected officials.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You need to write your school board members and then you need to engage them where they care which is politics.

All of the schoolboard members are liberal and many are progressive. This calendar is *not* progressive and disproportionately impacts lower-income and dual-working families. Women and hourly workers are supposed to be constituencies democrats care about. So raise the issue with local league of women voters, canvassers/fundraisers who are trying to get support for other democratic candidates (especially if you’ve donated before) and directly ask school board members how they are contributing to the affordability agenda with their calendar choices.

It is idiotic that this is how any of this works. But COVID created the idea for many Democrats that liberals don’t mind keeping kids out of school and now its course correction.

Have you confused school with being child care? You think its primary purpose is to warehouse children?

I think schools exist to provide a public good at public expense. Has taxpayers we have a right to assume the public will be provided efficiently and effectively, and not create undue burdens on the households they are intended to serve.

What undue burdens are they creating? The calendars are published a year in advance. No one can control the weather. There are no burdens, except for maybe people who suck at managing a household. Stop thinking of school as child care. It's not.

The undue burden is on STUDENTS!!! You need to stop. The calendar is a problem. Go away, you lazy troll.

What burden, objectively, is being placed on students? I'm talking a real cognitive effect, not your emotions and feelings of the calendar. But a real statistical effect that is negative effecting them academically. What can you actually prove with data that shows a burden that is having an effect on student's learning as a whole?

My teens have complained they haven't been able to lock in because of the interruptions.
One of my teens has had to miss a lot of their electives just to receive their services hours that got rescheduled because of the closures and delays and shortened weeks.


So, enough from you. Many of us are here screaming that the calendar doesn't work. It is time to listen to us. It isn't about you and your need to sleep in or plan or whatever you do with this half ass schedule.

I’m sorry you didn’t teach your children resilience. That is an important life skill.

My kid basically taught herself the AP material for two classes during Covid. Sure, there were virtual classes but she essentially was self-directed. Most kids in AP classes are like that, or should be, since it is college level material and most learning takes place outside the lectures.

It sounds like your kids need their hands held more than most? I am sorry about that, but you’re still wildly in the minority about this, even if you think yelling loudly and being intransigent might give a different impression (it won’t).

Keep watching for narrative like this. The effort is

1. Shift blame
2. Shame
3. Delay/stall
4. Dissuade

If you see posters doing this, think about what action of yours they’re trying to influence and what narrative they’re trying to push. Consider the above as a case study— who benefits if you internalize the “resilience” narrative? Is it your kids? Is it their classmates?

If not…what do you think the motivation for the post is?

This is a good point. That word keeps getting used a lot. Apparently we are supposed to shut and take whatever garbage FCPS and Fairfax Country throw our way, in the name of building "resilience" in our children. No disagreement allowed! Such a winning message!