Fort Belvoir, Va. (Sept. 4, 2014) - Fairfax county schools are undergoing some calendar changes this school year. The schools will no longer have early release days every Monday, which Dawn Hendrick, principal of Woodlawn Elementary School, said will help out both parents and teachers.
"They actually get to have more time in front of the teachers. (Despite) the regular holidays and the weather, it gives them more time for instruction and that's really what they need -- that's the bottom line," said retired Sgt. 1st Class Charles Evelyn, a parent with a child who attends Woodlawn Elementary School.
Hendrick said because of the full-day Mondays, they will now have a 180-day calendar with 990 hours of learning. This also allows them to meet state requirements, which require an annual 990 hours of instruction.
"We realized with all of the snow days, once those happened to us, we were not going to be able to put in enough time for learning to make up the required amount of time that we had," she said. "Because our children were getting out two and a half hours early every Monday, and because we had so many hours of snow days, we were not able to make up all the time that we needed to.
Now, if we have less than 13 days of snow this year, we don't have to make them up because Mondays are full time."
With the changes, there will also be more consistent holiday times. Prior to the switch, winter break could be anywhere from six days to two weeks, Hendrick said. Earlier releases can also be planned sooner and work around teacher's schedules.
"We have our children for longer blocks of time," she said. "Our teachers have 300 minutes of planning time during the week … we have 20 minutes where our children have recess every day exactly at the same time. We have our children longer and we are able to build a more solid schedule."
The changes will work well for working parents, she said.
"They love it," Hendrick said. "There aren't too many parents in Northern Virginia who don't work. On Mondays, every single Monday, they would have to figure out what to do with their children … and now our children are here at the same exact time every single day. There are only a few times where there are two hour release days instead of every single Monday and then before holidays."
The new full-day Mondays will also affect the learning process in the classroom.
"The rigor is so much higher with the state and now we have them here and we have more time to teach them. So it's a win-win," she said. "I think not only are our parents excited, our teachers are excited because now they don't feel as pressured to rush so much and they feel like they have time to let the children think. They feel like they have time to let the children explore, to let the children actually be able to talk and reflect more."
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