Friday's "snow?"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Safety was NOT of upmost importance in making the decision Friday

Of course it was. Road safety just wasn't the *only* issue considered. If it was, then we'd never open.

No it wasnt and you know it.

I drove on the roads in the morning. They were fine and it was obvious they would be fine. Things went reasonably smoothly and there weren't majors accidents resulting in serious injuries. It went well.

Except the bus that did have an accident and another that got stuck

Wonder what the parents of students on those buses ended up doing? Do it yourself: drive your kids, teach them how to read and write and do math and science. "Unlocking potential" of MCPs leaders.

What do parents do any other time a bus has an issue? You either go get them or you wait for the bus to get unstuck. Either is fine, but it's not worth closing schools over. Sometimes kids get stuck on buses. They're fine.

My kid's bus got in an accident when she was on it on another day, when the weather was fine. I didn't even find out about it until she got home and told me. These things happen pretty regularly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Safety was NOT of upmost importance in making the decision Friday

Of course it was. Road safety just wasn't the *only* issue considered. If it was, then we'd never open.

No it wasnt and you know it.

I drove on the roads in the morning. They were fine and it was obvious they would be fine. Things went reasonably smoothly and there weren't majors accidents resulting in serious injuries. It went well.

Except the bus that did have an accident and another that got stuck

No serious injuries. Minor accidents happen all the time. And serious accidents can happen on warm, nice days.

My friend’s son’s bus ended up in a ditch. Another at that school crashed. I don’t consider that minor.

Just because you drove a few roads doesn’t mean you had the big picture of the rest of the county.

My young grandchildren’s bus got stuck on a Damascus residential street and they were finally taken to school by a neighbor parent. They said most of the young kids on the bus were scared and crying.

It's good for children to encounter slight adversity even if they are scared at the time.

MCPS got lucky that nothing serious happened. I don’t want them gambling when they make future decisions based on one lucky morning.

All evidence indicates otherwise. The actual experience from opening. The experience from all the other school districts that regularly open under similar conditions. And the overall data for traffic incidents showing much lower rates of serious injuries and fatalities in accidents that occur in snowy or icy conditions.

So the goal is not avoiding an increase in total incidents, but rather avoiding only serious injuries and fatalities?

If you refuse to accept any risk of accidents, then you'd never be able to leave your house.

Nobody’s talking about zero risk; we’re talking about avoiding a known increase in risk a few days out of the year.

We disagree on the risk and the need for closures and delays, but you must admit your view is incongruent with MCPS only having a single snow day in the calendar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Safety was NOT of upmost importance in making the decision Friday

Of course it was. Road safety just wasn't the *only* issue considered. If it was, then we'd never open.

No it wasnt and you know it.

I drove on the roads in the morning. They were fine and it was obvious they would be fine. Things went reasonably smoothly and there weren't majors accidents resulting in serious injuries. It went well.

How nice for you that the roads you drove on were fine. Our high schooler doesn’t have bus service because we’re exactly 2 miles from the school. The roads my dh drove our kid on were not fine. He’s experienced with driving in wintry conditions and never complains about driving in snow, but he said road conditions and sidewalks were very slippery and he maintains that opening on time was hazardous. It’s a big county with residential streets, rural roads, major highways, congested thoroughfares, and heavy traffic. Some roads were prepared better than others. The fact that some people drove on roads that were fine does not negate the fact that others drove in hazardous conditions.

Then you were close enough you could have walked if you were that worried about the roads. And if you're clumsy, you can walk on the grass instead of the sidewalk. But obviously they weren't bad enough to be slightly inconvenienced by the extra time of walking.

That is correct, I’m going to make my clumsy child (developmental coordination disorder) walk 44 minutes (or longer - 44 minutes is the Google maps estimate for the walk, regardless of weather) in cold, snowy weather, with untreated sidewalks, wearing a heavy backpack. Our bad for assuming roads would be safe if schools were opening on time. Now we know not to out blind trust in MCPS’s weather decisions.

The school system is not going to make decisions based on clumsy children. If it's too dangerous for him to walk, then you can keep him home. But other kids should not have to go without school for that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I drove my kid to school Friday and it was slippery even on the main roads (I’m in the DCC). But I drove more slowly and kept a longer following distance and we got there fine. It just took 5-10 minutes longer than normal. I did slide a couple of times when I was turning a little too quickly.

I would have preferred a delay and that would have been more consistent with Tuesday but I don’t think this was a disaster.

This thread demonstrates that there are a lot of people that don't think they should ever have to drive slower. Earlier in the thread some teachers were saying they wouldn't leave home earlier than their normal time, despite knowing that it would (or should) take longer than usual.

If MCPS doesn’t make the call the night before, you have to wake up to find out what their decision is. Historically, they would have a delay when there’s wintry mix during morning rush hour. I can understand why people didn’t set their alarms extra early. If you didn’t get up earlier than usual, how much earlier could you leave?

I managed to order snow boots three days earlier and woke up early on Friday because I knew my kid would be excited to play in the snow before we drove very slowly to school. You don't need to have a crystal ball to plan ahead a little bit. But I guess it's different for me because I don't associate a chance of 1 inch of snow with getting to go to work late or not having to work at all. It often means scrambling in the morning to figure out child care coverage with my DH and reschedule meetings if needed.

I am really confused. You often have to scramble to figure out childcare on snowy mornings, and often do so by rescheduling meetings, because you don’t plan ahead for weather.

But a teacher who didn’t have childcare arranged that let them leave early should have predicted and planned in advance?

I have been in education, or parenting schoolage kids, or both in this area for 20+ years. Based on those years I went to sleep assuming that either the predicted snow would turn to rain, or that the would call a delay. If I still had little kids, I wouldn’t have planned for too much snow to get from daycare to school on time, because that hasn’t been the pattern before. I also didn’t plan for having to cover colleagues who didn’t make it on time due to similar reasons.

Most things were open like normal on Friday. You didn't need to do much other than wake up a little early.

If your child care arrangements only work for ideal weather conditions, without leaving any soon for longer driving times for any reason, then you should already have backup plans.

There isn't an underground workforce of women ready to care for other people's children on a snowy day. Normal people know this and acknowledge that parents have to miss work when their regular childcare arrangements get canceled, unless they have family in the area that can do this.

Snow isn't the only thing that comes up that might require you to leave home 30 minutes early. So you probably factored that in when you selected child care. For instance, it is common to pick child care locations that are close to work, rather than being close to home. If you didn't do that, then you probably had back up plans.

The idea that people couldn't leave home early is absurd.

Most before care providers are located at the school they serve. So, if your kids attend public school their childcare will be close to home, not their parent’s work.

Teaching has pros and cons due to schedule. One pro is that they are generally understanding when people can’t work early. One con is that people just can’t “reschedule meetings” when those meetings are classes.

If you have a long commute between your child's school and where you work such that you have little extra time, then this certainly wasn't the only time you had to deal with it. There are often programs that start earlier than Bar-T with shuttles or buses.

Most high school teachers need care very early in the morning. Even the programs that have shuttles and buses often don’t start early enough so people find home childcare arrangements that specifically care for teachers kids. But they still can’t drop off even earlier.

And if you were in that situation on Friday, then it almost certainly wasn't a unique occurrence. So you've either come up with alternative arrangements, like a spouse or friend doing drop-off, or you've been late before.

We used a small in-home provider mostly for cost reasons, but one major advantage was being able to work out earlier starts when they were needed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Safety was NOT of upmost importance in making the decision Friday

Of course it was. Road safety just wasn't the *only* issue considered. If it was, then we'd never open.

No it wasnt and you know it.

I drove on the roads in the morning. They were fine and it was obvious they would be fine. Things went reasonably smoothly and there weren't majors accidents resulting in serious injuries. It went well.

How nice for you that the roads you drove on were fine. Our high schooler doesn’t have bus service because we’re exactly 2 miles from the school. The roads my dh drove our kid on were not fine. He’s experienced with driving in wintry conditions and never complains about driving in snow, but he said road conditions and sidewalks were very slippery and he maintains that opening on time was hazardous. It’s a big county with residential streets, rural roads, major highways, congested thoroughfares, and heavy traffic. Some roads were prepared better than others. The fact that some people drove on roads that were fine does not negate the fact that others drove in hazardous conditions.

Then you were close enough you could have walked if you were that worried about the roads. And if you're clumsy, you can walk on the grass instead of the sidewalk. But obviously they weren't bad enough to be slightly inconvenienced by the extra time of walking.

That is correct, I’m going to make my clumsy child (developmental coordination disorder) walk 44 minutes (or longer - 44 minutes is the Google maps estimate for the walk, regardless of weather) in cold, snowy weather, with untreated sidewalks, wearing a heavy backpack. Our bad for assuming roads would be safe if schools were opening on time. Now we know not to out blind trust in MCPS’s weather decisions.

The school system is not going to make decisions based on clumsy children. If it's too dangerous for him to walk, then you can keep him home. But other kids should not have to go without school for that.

I was responding to the OP’s suggestion that my child walk if road conditions are bad. I’m not proposing that my child’s coordination issues should play any role in MCPS’s weather related decisions.

I do, however, think road conditions should be considered. On Friday, MCPS made a decision that was not in line with their previous decisions over the last 12 years. Because MCPS has historically been very risk averse, I assumed road conditions must be fine. They were not fine, so now I cannot necessarily make decisions based on MCPS’s appraisals anymore. Lesson learned.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Safety was NOT of upmost importance in making the decision Friday

Of course it was. Road safety just wasn't the *only* issue considered. If it was, then we'd never open.

No it wasnt and you know it.

I drove on the roads in the morning. They were fine and it was obvious they would be fine. Things went reasonably smoothly and there weren't majors accidents resulting in serious injuries. It went well.

Except the bus that did have an accident and another that got stuck

No serious injuries. Minor accidents happen all the time. And serious accidents can happen on warm, nice days.

My friend’s son’s bus ended up in a ditch. Another at that school crashed. I don’t consider that minor.

Just because you drove a few roads doesn’t mean you had the big picture of the rest of the county.

My young grandchildren’s bus got stuck on a Damascus residential street and they were finally taken to school by a neighbor parent. They said most of the young kids on the bus were scared and crying.

It's good for children to encounter slight adversity even if they are scared at the time.

MCPS got lucky that nothing serious happened. I don’t want them gambling when they make future decisions based on one lucky morning.

I think they should be explicit that not sending your kid to school in the case of inclement weather when the school is open is an excused absence. Then you and others who feel unsafe can keep your kids home.

But for the vast majority of people who want their kids at school on days like Friday, their kids should be educated. MCPS made the right call.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Safety was NOT of upmost importance in making the decision Friday

Of course it was. Road safety just wasn't the *only* issue considered. If it was, then we'd never open.

No it wasnt and you know it.

I drove on the roads in the morning. They were fine and it was obvious they would be fine. Things went reasonably smoothly and there weren't majors accidents resulting in serious injuries. It went well.

Except the bus that did have an accident and another that got stuck

No serious injuries. Minor accidents happen all the time. And serious accidents can happen on warm, nice days.

My friend’s son’s bus ended up in a ditch. Another at that school crashed. I don’t consider that minor.

Just because you drove a few roads doesn’t mean you had the big picture of the rest of the county.

My young grandchildren’s bus got stuck on a Damascus residential street and they were finally taken to school by a neighbor parent. They said most of the young kids on the bus were scared and crying.

It's good for children to encounter slight adversity even if they are scared at the time.

MCPS got lucky that nothing serious happened. I don’t want them gambling when they make future decisions based on one lucky morning.

All evidence indicates otherwise. The actual experience from opening. The experience from all the other school districts that regularly open under similar conditions. And the overall data for traffic incidents showing much lower rates of serious injuries and fatalities in accidents that occur in snowy or icy conditions.

So the goal is not avoiding an increase in total incidents, but rather avoiding only serious injuries and fatalities?

If you refuse to accept any risk of accidents, then you'd never be able to leave your house.

Nobody’s talking about zero risk; we’re talking about avoiding a known increase in risk a few days out of the year.

We disagree on the risk and the need for closures and delays, but you must admit your view is incongruent with MCPS only having a single snow day in the calendar.

Yes, it is ridiculous that they’ve added more non instructional days to the point that we only have one built in snow day. The benefits of the new transition day in no way offset the downside of having one less snow day built in. That was a poor decision on MCPS’s part, and one they’re apparently sticking with for next year.

[Anonymous]

When we had the 30” snowfall in 2016, there was an early release because blizzard conditions were moving in. The kids were off school for the next 6 weekdays. One of those days was a holiday, but the other 5 were snow days. It’s absurd that they’ve reduced the number of built in snow days to one since then. I’m not saying we should have 5, but we had 4 when my kids first started in MCPS. Why they think one is sufficient is beyond me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Safety was NOT of upmost importance in making the decision Friday

Of course it was. Road safety just wasn't the *only* issue considered. If it was, then we'd never open.

No it wasnt and you know it.

I drove on the roads in the morning. They were fine and it was obvious they would be fine. Things went reasonably smoothly and there weren't majors accidents resulting in serious injuries. It went well.

How nice for you that the roads you drove on were fine. Our high schooler doesn’t have bus service because we’re exactly 2 miles from the school. The roads my dh drove our kid on were not fine. He’s experienced with driving in wintry conditions and never complains about driving in snow, but he said road conditions and sidewalks were very slippery and he maintains that opening on time was hazardous. It’s a big county with residential streets, rural roads, major highways, congested thoroughfares, and heavy traffic. Some roads were prepared better than others. The fact that some people drove on roads that were fine does not negate the fact that others drove in hazardous conditions.

Then you were close enough you could have walked if you were that worried about the roads. And if you're clumsy, you can walk on the grass instead of the sidewalk. But obviously they weren't bad enough to be slightly inconvenienced by the extra time of walking.

That is correct, I’m going to make my clumsy child (developmental coordination disorder) walk 44 minutes (or longer - 44 minutes is the Google maps estimate for the walk, regardless of weather) in cold, snowy weather, with untreated sidewalks, wearing a heavy backpack. Our bad for assuming roads would be safe if schools were opening on time. Now we know not to out blind trust in MCPS’s weather decisions.

The school system is not going to make decisions based on clumsy children. If it's too dangerous for him to walk, then you can keep him home. But other kids should not have to go without school for that.

Schools absolutely should consider children with disabilities when making calls about safety.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When we had the 30” snowfall in 2016, there was an early release because blizzard conditions were moving in. The kids were off school for the next 6 weekdays. One of those days was a holiday, but the other 5 were snow days. It’s absurd that they’ve reduced the number of built in snow days to one since then. I’m not saying we should have 5, but we had 4 when my kids first started in MCPS. Why they think one is sufficient is beyond me.

If Friday should have been a closure (a delay wouldn't have made sense given it was worse then), then 5 snow days in the calendar seems about right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Safety was NOT of upmost importance in making the decision Friday

Of course it was. Road safety just wasn't the *only* issue considered. If it was, then we'd never open.

No it wasnt and you know it.

I drove on the roads in the morning. They were fine and it was obvious they would be fine. Things went reasonably smoothly and there weren't majors accidents resulting in serious injuries. It went well.

How nice for you that the roads you drove on were fine. Our high schooler doesn’t have bus service because we’re exactly 2 miles from the school. The roads my dh drove our kid on were not fine. He’s experienced with driving in wintry conditions and never complains about driving in snow, but he said road conditions and sidewalks were very slippery and he maintains that opening on time was hazardous. It’s a big county with residential streets, rural roads, major highways, congested thoroughfares, and heavy traffic. Some roads were prepared better than others. The fact that some people drove on roads that were fine does not negate the fact that others drove in hazardous conditions.

Then you were close enough you could have walked if you were that worried about the roads. And if you're clumsy, you can walk on the grass instead of the sidewalk. But obviously they weren't bad enough to be slightly inconvenienced by the extra time of walking.

That is correct, I’m going to make my clumsy child (developmental coordination disorder) walk 44 minutes (or longer - 44 minutes is the Google maps estimate for the walk, regardless of weather) in cold, snowy weather, with untreated sidewalks, wearing a heavy backpack. Our bad for assuming roads would be safe if schools were opening on time. Now we know not to out blind trust in MCPS’s weather decisions.

The school system is not going to make decisions based on clumsy children. If it's too dangerous for him to walk, then you can keep him home. But other kids should not have to go without school for that.

Schools absolutely should consider children with disabilities when making calls about safety.

They should be considered when developing transportation plans in IEPs. If the pp isn't willing or able to get her child to school consistently, and the child can't walk due to the disability, then the school should provide bus service.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I drove my kid to school Friday and it was slippery even on the main roads (I’m in the DCC). But I drove more slowly and kept a longer following distance and we got there fine. It just took 5-10 minutes longer than normal. I did slide a couple of times when I was turning a little too quickly.

I would have preferred a delay and that would have been more consistent with Tuesday but I don’t think this was a disaster.

This thread demonstrates that there are a lot of people that don't think they should ever have to drive slower. Earlier in the thread some teachers were saying they wouldn't leave home earlier than their normal time, despite knowing that it would (or should) take longer than usual.

If MCPS doesn’t make the call the night before, you have to wake up to find out what their decision is. Historically, they would have a delay when there’s wintry mix during morning rush hour. I can understand why people didn’t set their alarms extra early. If you didn’t get up earlier than usual, how much earlier could you leave?

I managed to order snow boots three days earlier and woke up early on Friday because I knew my kid would be excited to play in the snow before we drove very slowly to school. You don't need to have a crystal ball to plan ahead a little bit. But I guess it's different for me because I don't associate a chance of 1 inch of snow with getting to go to work late or not having to work at all. It often means scrambling in the morning to figure out child care coverage with my DH and reschedule meetings if needed.

I am really confused. You often have to scramble to figure out childcare on snowy mornings, and often do so by rescheduling meetings, because you don’t plan ahead for weather.

But a teacher who didn’t have childcare arranged that let them leave early should have predicted and planned in advance?

I have been in education, or parenting schoolage kids, or both in this area for 20+ years. Based on those years I went to sleep assuming that either the predicted snow would turn to rain, or that the would call a delay. If I still had little kids, I wouldn’t have planned for too much snow to get from daycare to school on time, because that hasn’t been the pattern before. I also didn’t plan for having to cover colleagues who didn’t make it on time due to similar reasons.

Most things were open like normal on Friday. You didn't need to do much other than wake up a little early.

If your child care arrangements only work for ideal weather conditions, without leaving any soon for longer driving times for any reason, then you should already have backup plans.

There isn't an underground workforce of women ready to care for other people's children on a snowy day. Normal people know this and acknowledge that parents have to miss work when their regular childcare arrangements get canceled, unless they have family in the area that can do this.

Snow isn't the only thing that comes up that might require you to leave home 30 minutes early. So you probably factored that in when you selected child care. For instance, it is common to pick child care locations that are close to work, rather than being close to home. If you didn't do that, then you probably had back up plans.

The idea that people couldn't leave home early is absurd.

Most before care providers are located at the school they serve. So, if your kids attend public school their childcare will be close to home, not their parent’s work.

Teaching has pros and cons due to schedule. One pro is that they are generally understanding when people can’t work early. One con is that people just can’t “reschedule meetings” when those meetings are classes.

If you have a long commute between your child's school and where you work such that you have little extra time, then this certainly wasn't the only time you had to deal with it. There are often programs that start earlier than Bar-T with shuttles or buses.

Most high school teachers need care very early in the morning. Even the programs that have shuttles and buses often don’t start early enough so people find home childcare arrangements that specifically care for teachers kids. But they still can’t drop off even earlier.

And if you were in that situation on Friday, then it almost certainly wasn't a unique occurrence. So you've either come up with alternative arrangements, like a spouse or friend doing drop-off, or you've been late before.

We used a small in-home provider mostly for cost reasons, but one major advantage was being able to work out earlier starts when they were needed.

MCPS has never opened on time on a day like that since I moved to this area. I can’t think of another reason why I have needed to drop a kid at daycare before 7:00. What are the reasons you are thinking of?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I drove my kid to school Friday and it was slippery even on the main roads (I’m in the DCC). But I drove more slowly and kept a longer following distance and we got there fine. It just took 5-10 minutes longer than normal. I did slide a couple of times when I was turning a little too quickly.

I would have preferred a delay and that would have been more consistent with Tuesday but I don’t think this was a disaster.

This thread demonstrates that there are a lot of people that don't think they should ever have to drive slower. Earlier in the thread some teachers were saying they wouldn't leave home earlier than their normal time, despite knowing that it would (or should) take longer than usual.

If MCPS doesn’t make the call the night before, you have to wake up to find out what their decision is. Historically, they would have a delay when there’s wintry mix during morning rush hour. I can understand why people didn’t set their alarms extra early. If you didn’t get up earlier than usual, how much earlier could you leave?

I managed to order snow boots three days earlier and woke up early on Friday because I knew my kid would be excited to play in the snow before we drove very slowly to school. You don't need to have a crystal ball to plan ahead a little bit. But I guess it's different for me because I don't associate a chance of 1 inch of snow with getting to go to work late or not having to work at all. It often means scrambling in the morning to figure out child care coverage with my DH and reschedule meetings if needed.

I am really confused. You often have to scramble to figure out childcare on snowy mornings, and often do so by rescheduling meetings, because you don’t plan ahead for weather.

But a teacher who didn’t have childcare arranged that let them leave early should have predicted and planned in advance?

I have been in education, or parenting schoolage kids, or both in this area for 20+ years. Based on those years I went to sleep assuming that either the predicted snow would turn to rain, or that the would call a delay. If I still had little kids, I wouldn’t have planned for too much snow to get from daycare to school on time, because that hasn’t been the pattern before. I also didn’t plan for having to cover colleagues who didn’t make it on time due to similar reasons.

Most things were open like normal on Friday. You didn't need to do much other than wake up a little early.

If your child care arrangements only work for ideal weather conditions, without leaving any soon for longer driving times for any reason, then you should already have backup plans.

There isn't an underground workforce of women ready to care for other people's children on a snowy day. Normal people know this and acknowledge that parents have to miss work when their regular childcare arrangements get canceled, unless they have family in the area that can do this.

Snow isn't the only thing that comes up that might require you to leave home 30 minutes early. So you probably factored that in when you selected child care. For instance, it is common to pick child care locations that are close to work, rather than being close to home. If you didn't do that, then you probably had back up plans.

The idea that people couldn't leave home early is absurd.

Most before care providers are located at the school they serve. So, if your kids attend public school their childcare will be close to home, not their parent’s work.

Teaching has pros and cons due to schedule. One pro is that they are generally understanding when people can’t work early. One con is that people just can’t “reschedule meetings” when those meetings are classes.

If you have a long commute between your child's school and where you work such that you have little extra time, then this certainly wasn't the only time you had to deal with it. There are often programs that start earlier than Bar-T with shuttles or buses.

Most high school teachers need care very early in the morning. Even the programs that have shuttles and buses often don’t start early enough so people find home childcare arrangements that specifically care for teachers kids. But they still can’t drop off even earlier.

And if you were in that situation on Friday, then it almost certainly wasn't a unique occurrence. So you've either come up with alternative arrangements, like a spouse or friend doing drop-off, or you've been late before.

We used a small in-home provider mostly for cost reasons, but one major advantage was being able to work out earlier starts when they were needed.

MCPS has never opened on time on a day like that since I moved to this area. I can’t think of another reason why I have needed to drop a kid at daycare before 7:00. What are the reasons you are thinking of?

Heavy rain will similarly slow down a commute. Road closures due to construction or accidents can also have a major impact.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I drove my kid to school Friday and it was slippery even on the main roads (I’m in the DCC). But I drove more slowly and kept a longer following distance and we got there fine. It just took 5-10 minutes longer than normal. I did slide a couple of times when I was turning a little too quickly.

I would have preferred a delay and that would have been more consistent with Tuesday but I don’t think this was a disaster.

This thread demonstrates that there are a lot of people that don't think they should ever have to drive slower. Earlier in the thread some teachers were saying they wouldn't leave home earlier than their normal time, despite knowing that it would (or should) take longer than usual.

If MCPS doesn’t make the call the night before, you have to wake up to find out what their decision is. Historically, they would have a delay when there’s wintry mix during morning rush hour. I can understand why people didn’t set their alarms extra early. If you didn’t get up earlier than usual, how much earlier could you leave?

I managed to order snow boots three days earlier and woke up early on Friday because I knew my kid would be excited to play in the snow before we drove very slowly to school. You don't need to have a crystal ball to plan ahead a little bit. But I guess it's different for me because I don't associate a chance of 1 inch of snow with getting to go to work late or not having to work at all. It often means scrambling in the morning to figure out child care coverage with my DH and reschedule meetings if needed.

I am really confused. You often have to scramble to figure out childcare on snowy mornings, and often do so by rescheduling meetings, because you don’t plan ahead for weather.

But a teacher who didn’t have childcare arranged that let them leave early should have predicted and planned in advance?

I have been in education, or parenting schoolage kids, or both in this area for 20+ years. Based on those years I went to sleep assuming that either the predicted snow would turn to rain, or that the would call a delay. If I still had little kids, I wouldn’t have planned for too much snow to get from daycare to school on time, because that hasn’t been the pattern before. I also didn’t plan for having to cover colleagues who didn’t make it on time due to similar reasons.

Most things were open like normal on Friday. You didn't need to do much other than wake up a little early.

If your child care arrangements only work for ideal weather conditions, without leaving any soon for longer driving times for any reason, then you should already have backup plans.

There isn't an underground workforce of women ready to care for other people's children on a snowy day. Normal people know this and acknowledge that parents have to miss work when their regular childcare arrangements get canceled, unless they have family in the area that can do this.

Snow isn't the only thing that comes up that might require you to leave home 30 minutes early. So you probably factored that in when you selected child care. For instance, it is common to pick child care locations that are close to work, rather than being close to home. If you didn't do that, then you probably had back up plans.

The idea that people couldn't leave home early is absurd.

Most before care providers are located at the school they serve. So, if your kids attend public school their childcare will be close to home, not their parent’s work.

Teaching has pros and cons due to schedule. One pro is that they are generally understanding when people can’t work early. One con is that people just can’t “reschedule meetings” when those meetings are classes.

If you have a long commute between your child's school and where you work such that you have little extra time, then this certainly wasn't the only time you had to deal with it. There are often programs that start earlier than Bar-T with shuttles or buses.

Most high school teachers need care very early in the morning. Even the programs that have shuttles and buses often don’t start early enough so people find home childcare arrangements that specifically care for teachers kids. But they still can’t drop off even earlier.

And if you were in that situation on Friday, then it almost certainly wasn't a unique occurrence. So you've either come up with alternative arrangements, like a spouse or friend doing drop-off, or you've been late before.

We used a small in-home provider mostly for cost reasons, but one major advantage was being able to work out earlier starts when they were needed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When we had the 30” snowfall in 2016, there was an early release because blizzard conditions were moving in. The kids were off school for the next 6 weekdays. One of those days was a holiday, but the other 5 were snow days. It’s absurd that they’ve reduced the number of built in snow days to one since then. I’m not saying we should have 5, but we had 4 when my kids first started in MCPS. Why they think one is sufficient is beyond me.

Are they...climate deniers?!!