share the petition

Please consider sending the petition to friends/neighbors/anyone in Montgomery County that might care. I see lots of people looking at the petition, but not enough signers. https://www.change.org/p/montgomery-county-school-board-don-t-take-away-spring-break?recruiter=69215727&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=share_facebook_responsive&utm_term=des-lg-share_for_starters-no_msg&fb_ref=Default Don't take away spring break in Montgomery County, MD Governor Hogan of MD has mandated a state wide school start date for after Labor Day weekend. http://wpo.st/Ra0y1 These are the reasons not to have that happen. Thankfully, each county can petition for an exemption to his mandate. Reasons not to start after Labor Day: 1. Spring Break will become shorter and we may lose other breaks as well. Hogan mandated that summer would be longer but the number of days in school will remain the same. The lost week has to come from somewhere. 2. There are many studies that prove that learning gaps are exacerbated by long breaks – are you prepared to see those GPA's drop? 3. Since the extra weeks of summer vacation do not come with an automatic increase in paid days off for parents, working parents will be hit particularly hard by this mandate, by using paid or unpaid leave or hiring care, unless you have a camp for the child. 4. But summer camps employ college students who have to return to college mid-August. That limits the available camps for the last weeks of August. No summer camp: use up the leave. 5. This mandate results in fewer instructional days to prepare for AP's, SAT's and all the other standardized tests whose dates are NOT controlled by the state of Maryland. 6. College-bound high school seniors must obtain teacher recommendations and the Common App requires a recommendation from the HS counselor. Fewer days in the fall term before college applications and letters of recommendations are due makes this task harder than it already is. These letters are required and cannot be solicited during the summer. Sign this petition if you want to keep the school start to before Labor Day. Write to the school board directly at boe@mcpsmd.org. Feel free to copy and paste the above to the school board in your email. This petition will be delivered to Montgomery County School Board boe@mcpsmd.org