MCPS Code Green Thursday On-Time Opening. Also open for activities Wednesday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They made a stupid call to delay 2 days when it wasn’t warranted. At least they fixed it and are getting kids back normally tomorrow. But yes the “joy” part of the message was moronic/tonedeaf.

I want to blame Chris Cram, but part of me feels like that tone deaf injection of forced positivity is Dr. Taylor. That seems like more of his MO.

I get it was sort of awkward and cringey, but I wouldn't use the term "tone deaf." Everyone I talked to today at work thought this was great news.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They made a stupid call to delay 2 days when it wasn’t warranted. At least they fixed it and are getting kids back normally tomorrow. But yes the “joy” part of the message was moronic/tonedeaf.

I want to blame Chris Cram, but part of me feels like that tone deaf injection of forced positivity is Dr. Taylor. That seems like more of his MO.

I get it was sort of awkward and cringey, but I wouldn't use the term "tone deaf." Everyone I talked to today at work thought this was great news.

As a parent who had to reschedule an appointment twice I think it is extremely tone deaf. All they have to do is say "apologies for the confusion and inconvenience" but they decided instead that everyone must feel joy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem with this decision is that in the future people may wonder if they will reverse course again. I have never seen them change a delay to an open on time until today. Will they in the future change an already announced closure to a delay or open on time?

This is my biggest worry. Whether the decision was right or wrong, at least we could rely on it. Things might get upgraded (delay to closure) but never downgraded. If suddenly we have to plan for additional contingencies and them changing their minds after they've already made an announcement, that way lies chaos.

I am trying to be patient with this new superintendent and give him the benefit of the doubt. There are things he has done that I have liked. But this was an "underprepared small district superintendent" move. Once they made the decision, they needed to stick to it. MCPS is not Stafford County. Daily operations are like parallel parking the Titanic. There were a lot of cascading effects of this reversal that are really problematic. As one example, swaths of interpreters for IEP meetings got canceled because supervisors rightly relied on these decisions never being reversed once they're made and there's a fee for cancellations within 24 hours. Now they can't be re-engaged on such short notice so the time is wasted and the meeting has to be rebooked anyway, for example. Cutesy messages about "confusion" and "joy" show an ignorance of the domino effect this caused and were tone deaf.

What you described doesn't seem to be a problem. If they were going to cancel due to a closure, cancelling due to losing the interpreter isn't any *worse.*

The parents already had to take off work during that time. If the meeting could go forward, great. If not, then again it's no worse than cancelling due to weather.

Maybe in purely mathematical terms, it's not worse. But canceling due to weather vs. canceling due to disorganization feels worse and is demoralizing for people who, on an ordinary day, would be mortified to mess up a parent's schedule because of an interpreter issue and still feel responsible. And it's worse for the superintendent because he now has staff who will be spending 2 hours at work thinking about how they could be meeting with Mateo's mom and Alvaro's dad right now except for the superintendent's unprecedented logistical dumpster fire that caused these knock-on effects like a bull in a china shop that they're now stuck cleaning up. Whatever. It's fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They made a stupid call to delay 2 days when it wasn’t warranted. At least they fixed it and are getting kids back normally tomorrow. But yes the “joy” part of the message was moronic/tonedeaf.

I want to blame Chris Cram, but part of me feels like that tone deaf injection of forced positivity is Dr. Taylor. That seems like more of his MO.

I get it was sort of awkward and cringey, but I wouldn't use the term "tone deaf." Everyone I talked to today at work thought this was great news.

As a parent who had to reschedule an appointment twice I think it is extremely tone deaf. All they have to do is say "apologies for the confusion and inconvenience" but they decided instead that everyone must feel joy.

PP here. Yeah, that's a fair take.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem with this decision is that in the future people may wonder if they will reverse course again. I have never seen them change a delay to an open on time until today. Will they in the future change an already announced closure to a delay or open on time?

This is my biggest worry. Whether the decision was right or wrong, at least we could rely on it. Things might get upgraded (delay to closure) but never downgraded. If suddenly we have to plan for additional contingencies and them changing their minds after they've already made an announcement, that way lies chaos.

I am trying to be patient with this new superintendent and give him the benefit of the doubt. There are things he has done that I have liked. But this was an "underprepared small district superintendent" move. Once they made the decision, they needed to stick to it. MCPS is not Stafford County. Daily operations are like parallel parking the Titanic. There were a lot of cascading effects of this reversal that are really problematic. As one example, swaths of interpreters for IEP meetings got canceled because supervisors rightly relied on these decisions never being reversed once they're made and there's a fee for cancellations within 24 hours. Now they can't be re-engaged on such short notice so the time is wasted and the meeting has to be rebooked anyway, for example. Cutesy messages about "confusion" and "joy" show an ignorance of the domino effect this caused and were tone deaf.

What you described doesn't seem to be a problem. If they were going to cancel due to a closure, cancelling due to losing the interpreter isn't any *worse.*

The parents already had to take off work during that time. If the meeting could go forward, great. If not, then again it's no worse than cancelling due to weather.

Maybe in purely mathematical terms, it's not worse. But canceling due to weather vs. canceling due to disorganization feels worse and is demoralizing for people who, on an ordinary day, would be mortified to mess up a parent's schedule because of an interpreter issue and still feel responsible. And it's worse for the superintendent because he now has staff who will be spending 2 hours at work thinking about how they could be meeting with Mateo's mom and Alvaro's dad right now except for the superintendent's unprecedented logistical dumpster fire that caused these knock-on effects like a bull in a china shop that they're now stuck cleaning up. Whatever. It's fine.

Calling the delay messes up the parents' schedules, not calling off the delay. Calling off a delay only makes things better for most, and no worse for everyone else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem with this decision is that in the future people may wonder if they will reverse course again. I have never seen them change a delay to an open on time until today. Will they in the future change an already announced closure to a delay or open on time?

This is my biggest worry. Whether the decision was right or wrong, at least we could rely on it. Things might get upgraded (delay to closure) but never downgraded. If suddenly we have to plan for additional contingencies and them changing their minds after they've already made an announcement, that way lies chaos.

I am trying to be patient with this new superintendent and give him the benefit of the doubt. There are things he has done that I have liked. But this was an "underprepared small district superintendent" move. Once they made the decision, they needed to stick to it. MCPS is not Stafford County. Daily operations are like parallel parking the Titanic. There were a lot of cascading effects of this reversal that are really problematic. As one example, swaths of interpreters for IEP meetings got canceled because supervisors rightly relied on these decisions never being reversed once they're made and there's a fee for cancellations within 24 hours. Now they can't be re-engaged on such short notice so the time is wasted and the meeting has to be rebooked anyway, for example. Cutesy messages about "confusion" and "joy" show an ignorance of the domino effect this caused and were tone deaf.

What you described doesn't seem to be a problem. If they were going to cancel due to a closure, cancelling due to losing the interpreter isn't any *worse.*

The parents already had to take off work during that time. If the meeting could go forward, great. If not, then again it's no worse than cancelling due to weather.

Maybe in purely mathematical terms, it's not worse. But canceling due to weather vs. canceling due to disorganization feels worse and is demoralizing for people who, on an ordinary day, would be mortified to mess up a parent's schedule because of an interpreter issue and still feel responsible. And it's worse for the superintendent because he now has staff who will be spending 2 hours at work thinking about how they could be meeting with Mateo's mom and Alvaro's dad right now except for the superintendent's unprecedented logistical dumpster fire that caused these knock-on effects like a bull in a china shop that they're now stuck cleaning up. Whatever. It's fine.

Calling the delay messes up the parents' schedules, not calling off the delay. Calling off a delay only makes things better for most, and no worse for everyone else.

You're right. I just feel frustrated because there was zero acknowledgement of all the scrambling everybody did, parents and teachers alike, to make childcare plans, reschedule appointments, re-work the IEP calendar, fix the interpreters, try to reschedule field trips, explain to baffled parents new to special ed that the morning PEP class was canceled and now it's not, etc. This whole sequence of events has caused people to waste so much time yesterday and today rearranging things and then trying to un-rearrange them, or sitting there in frustration realizing they can't get the trip or the meeting back or whatever. And then we get this flip message about moments of joy. Nobody's feeling joyful about cleaning this up. Just an unnecessary dumpster fire all the way around. Staff and parents are owed an apology acknowledging what this caused.

[Anonymous]

I still can’t get over that they haven’t let child care providers offer services on ajgnof the delays or snow days. That was not the case in the past, and it makes it exceptionally difficult for working parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem with this decision is that in the future people may wonder if they will reverse course again. I have never seen them change a delay to an open on time until today. Will they in the future change an already announced closure to a delay or open on time?

This is my biggest worry. Whether the decision was right or wrong, at least we could rely on it. Things might get upgraded (delay to closure) but never downgraded. If suddenly we have to plan for additional contingencies and them changing their minds after they've already made an announcement, that way lies chaos.

I am trying to be patient with this new superintendent and give him the benefit of the doubt. There are things he has done that I have liked. But this was an "underprepared small district superintendent" move. Once they made the decision, they needed to stick to it. MCPS is not Stafford County. Daily operations are like parallel parking the Titanic. There were a lot of cascading effects of this reversal that are really problematic. As one example, swaths of interpreters for IEP meetings got canceled because supervisors rightly relied on these decisions never being reversed once they're made and there's a fee for cancellations within 24 hours. Now they can't be re-engaged on such short notice so the time is wasted and the meeting has to be rebooked anyway, for example. Cutesy messages about "confusion" and "joy" show an ignorance of the domino effect this caused and were tone deaf.

What you described doesn't seem to be a problem. If they were going to cancel due to a closure, cancelling due to losing the interpreter isn't any *worse.*

The parents already had to take off work during that time. If the meeting could go forward, great. If not, then again it's no worse than cancelling due to weather.

Maybe in purely mathematical terms, it's not worse. But canceling due to weather vs. canceling due to disorganization feels worse and is demoralizing for people who, on an ordinary day, would be mortified to mess up a parent's schedule because of an interpreter issue and still feel responsible. And it's worse for the superintendent because he now has staff who will be spending 2 hours at work thinking about how they could be meeting with Mateo's mom and Alvaro's dad right now except for the superintendent's unprecedented logistical dumpster fire that caused these knock-on effects like a bull in a china shop that they're now stuck cleaning up. Whatever. It's fine.

Calling the delay messes up the parents' schedules, not calling off the delay. Calling off a delay only makes things better for most, and no worse for everyone else.

You're right. I just feel frustrated because there was zero acknowledgement of all the scrambling everybody did, parents and teachers alike, to make childcare plans, reschedule appointments, re-work the IEP calendar, fix the interpreters, try to reschedule field trips, explain to baffled parents new to special ed that the morning PEP class was canceled and now it's not, etc. This whole sequence of events has caused people to waste so much time yesterday and today rearranging things and then trying to un-rearrange them, or sitting there in frustration realizing they can't get the trip or the meeting back or whatever. And then we get this flip message about moments of joy. Nobody's feeling joyful about cleaning this up. Just an unnecessary dumpster fire all the way around. Staff and parents are owed an apology acknowledging what this caused.

Exactly.
-parent

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem with this decision is that in the future people may wonder if they will reverse course again. I have never seen them change a delay to an open on time until today. Will they in the future change an already announced closure to a delay or open on time?

This is my biggest worry. Whether the decision was right or wrong, at least we could rely on it. Things might get upgraded (delay to closure) but never downgraded. If suddenly we have to plan for additional contingencies and them changing their minds after they've already made an announcement, that way lies chaos.

I am trying to be patient with this new superintendent and give him the benefit of the doubt. There are things he has done that I have liked. But this was an "underprepared small district superintendent" move. Once they made the decision, they needed to stick to it. MCPS is not Stafford County. Daily operations are like parallel parking the Titanic. There were a lot of cascading effects of this reversal that are really problematic. As one example, swaths of interpreters for IEP meetings got canceled because supervisors rightly relied on these decisions never being reversed once they're made and there's a fee for cancellations within 24 hours. Now they can't be re-engaged on such short notice so the time is wasted and the meeting has to be rebooked anyway, for example. Cutesy messages about "confusion" and "joy" show an ignorance of the domino effect this caused and were tone deaf.

What you described doesn't seem to be a problem. If they were going to cancel due to a closure, cancelling due to losing the interpreter isn't any *worse.*

The parents already had to take off work during that time. If the meeting could go forward, great. If not, then again it's no worse than cancelling due to weather.

Maybe in purely mathematical terms, it's not worse. But canceling due to weather vs. canceling due to disorganization feels worse and is demoralizing for people who, on an ordinary day, would be mortified to mess up a parent's schedule because of an interpreter issue and still feel responsible. And it's worse for the superintendent because he now has staff who will be spending 2 hours at work thinking about how they could be meeting with Mateo's mom and Alvaro's dad right now except for the superintendent's unprecedented logistical dumpster fire that caused these knock-on effects like a bull in a china shop that they're now stuck cleaning up. Whatever. It's fine.

Remember there are also people who get to have their IEP meetings instead of having them cancelled (people who don't need interpreters). Do they just....not matter at all to you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem with this decision is that in the future people may wonder if they will reverse course again. I have never seen them change a delay to an open on time until today. Will they in the future change an already announced closure to a delay or open on time?

This is my biggest worry. Whether the decision was right or wrong, at least we could rely on it. Things might get upgraded (delay to closure) but never downgraded. If suddenly we have to plan for additional contingencies and them changing their minds after they've already made an announcement, that way lies chaos.

I am trying to be patient with this new superintendent and give him the benefit of the doubt. There are things he has done that I have liked. But this was an "underprepared small district superintendent" move. Once they made the decision, they needed to stick to it. MCPS is not Stafford County. Daily operations are like parallel parking the Titanic. There were a lot of cascading effects of this reversal that are really problematic. As one example, swaths of interpreters for IEP meetings got canceled because supervisors rightly relied on these decisions never being reversed once they're made and there's a fee for cancellations within 24 hours. Now they can't be re-engaged on such short notice so the time is wasted and the meeting has to be rebooked anyway, for example. Cutesy messages about "confusion" and "joy" show an ignorance of the domino effect this caused and were tone deaf.

What you described doesn't seem to be a problem. If they were going to cancel due to a closure, cancelling due to losing the interpreter isn't any *worse.*

The parents already had to take off work during that time. If the meeting could go forward, great. If not, then again it's no worse than cancelling due to weather.

Maybe in purely mathematical terms, it's not worse. But canceling due to weather vs. canceling due to disorganization feels worse and is demoralizing for people who, on an ordinary day, would be mortified to mess up a parent's schedule because of an interpreter issue and still feel responsible. And it's worse for the superintendent because he now has staff who will be spending 2 hours at work thinking about how they could be meeting with Mateo's mom and Alvaro's dad right now except for the superintendent's unprecedented logistical dumpster fire that caused these knock-on effects like a bull in a china shop that they're now stuck cleaning up. Whatever. It's fine.

Remember there are also people who get to have their IEP meetings instead of having them cancelled (people who don't need interpreters). Do they just....not matter at all to you?

Are they teachers or parents?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem with this decision is that in the future people may wonder if they will reverse course again. I have never seen them change a delay to an open on time until today. Will they in the future change an already announced closure to a delay or open on time?

This is my biggest worry. Whether the decision was right or wrong, at least we could rely on it. Things might get upgraded (delay to closure) but never downgraded. If suddenly we have to plan for additional contingencies and them changing their minds after they've already made an announcement, that way lies chaos.

I am trying to be patient with this new superintendent and give him the benefit of the doubt. There are things he has done that I have liked. But this was an "underprepared small district superintendent" move. Once they made the decision, they needed to stick to it. MCPS is not Stafford County. Daily operations are like parallel parking the Titanic. There were a lot of cascading effects of this reversal that are really problematic. As one example, swaths of interpreters for IEP meetings got canceled because supervisors rightly relied on these decisions never being reversed once they're made and there's a fee for cancellations within 24 hours. Now they can't be re-engaged on such short notice so the time is wasted and the meeting has to be rebooked anyway, for example. Cutesy messages about "confusion" and "joy" show an ignorance of the domino effect this caused and were tone deaf.

What you described doesn't seem to be a problem. If they were going to cancel due to a closure, cancelling due to losing the interpreter isn't any *worse.*

The parents already had to take off work during that time. If the meeting could go forward, great. If not, then again it's no worse than cancelling due to weather.

Maybe in purely mathematical terms, it's not worse. But canceling due to weather vs. canceling due to disorganization feels worse and is demoralizing for people who, on an ordinary day, would be mortified to mess up a parent's schedule because of an interpreter issue and still feel responsible. And it's worse for the superintendent because he now has staff who will be spending 2 hours at work thinking about how they could be meeting with Mateo's mom and Alvaro's dad right now except for the superintendent's unprecedented logistical dumpster fire that caused these knock-on effects like a bull in a china shop that they're now stuck cleaning up. Whatever. It's fine.

Remember there are also people who get to have their IEP meetings instead of having them cancelled (people who don't need interpreters). Do they just....not matter at all to you?

Are they teachers or parents?

I'm referring to the parents not needing interpreters, but I assume everyone involved in those meetings benefits from.having them versus not. It's telling your equation literally only factors in parents that need interpreters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem with this decision is that in the future people may wonder if they will reverse course again. I have never seen them change a delay to an open on time until today. Will they in the future change an already announced closure to a delay or open on time?

This is my biggest worry. Whether the decision was right or wrong, at least we could rely on it. Things might get upgraded (delay to closure) but never downgraded. If suddenly we have to plan for additional contingencies and them changing their minds after they've already made an announcement, that way lies chaos.

I am trying to be patient with this new superintendent and give him the benefit of the doubt. There are things he has done that I have liked. But this was an "underprepared small district superintendent" move. Once they made the decision, they needed to stick to it. MCPS is not Stafford County. Daily operations are like parallel parking the Titanic. There were a lot of cascading effects of this reversal that are really problematic. As one example, swaths of interpreters for IEP meetings got canceled because supervisors rightly relied on these decisions never being reversed once they're made and there's a fee for cancellations within 24 hours. Now they can't be re-engaged on such short notice so the time is wasted and the meeting has to be rebooked anyway, for example. Cutesy messages about "confusion" and "joy" show an ignorance of the domino effect this caused and were tone deaf.

What you described doesn't seem to be a problem. If they were going to cancel due to a closure, cancelling due to losing the interpreter isn't any *worse.*

The parents already had to take off work during that time. If the meeting could go forward, great. If not, then again it's no worse than cancelling due to weather.

Maybe in purely mathematical terms, it's not worse. But canceling due to weather vs. canceling due to disorganization feels worse and is demoralizing for people who, on an ordinary day, would be mortified to mess up a parent's schedule because of an interpreter issue and still feel responsible. And it's worse for the superintendent because he now has staff who will be spending 2 hours at work thinking about how they could be meeting with Mateo's mom and Alvaro's dad right now except for the superintendent's unprecedented logistical dumpster fire that caused these knock-on effects like a bull in a china shop that they're now stuck cleaning up. Whatever. It's fine.

Remember there are also people who get to have their IEP meetings instead of having them cancelled (people who don't need interpreters). Do they just....not matter at all to you?

Of course they matter. I feel just as bad for parents who had their meeting canceled, rearranged their day assuming the meeting was off, then got told "Uh yeah can you come anyway?" by an embarrassed RTSE and then had to un-rearrange things or cancel anyway because it couldn't be unwound. None of this was acknowledged by anyone on high in their "joy."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem with this decision is that in the future people may wonder if they will reverse course again. I have never seen them change a delay to an open on time until today. Will they in the future change an already announced closure to a delay or open on time?

This is my biggest worry. Whether the decision was right or wrong, at least we could rely on it. Things might get upgraded (delay to closure) but never downgraded. If suddenly we have to plan for additional contingencies and them changing their minds after they've already made an announcement, that way lies chaos.

I am trying to be patient with this new superintendent and give him the benefit of the doubt. There are things he has done that I have liked. But this was an "underprepared small district superintendent" move. Once they made the decision, they needed to stick to it. MCPS is not Stafford County. Daily operations are like parallel parking the Titanic. There were a lot of cascading effects of this reversal that are really problematic. As one example, swaths of interpreters for IEP meetings got canceled because supervisors rightly relied on these decisions never being reversed once they're made and there's a fee for cancellations within 24 hours. Now they can't be re-engaged on such short notice so the time is wasted and the meeting has to be rebooked anyway, for example. Cutesy messages about "confusion" and "joy" show an ignorance of the domino effect this caused and were tone deaf.

What you described doesn't seem to be a problem. If they were going to cancel due to a closure, cancelling due to losing the interpreter isn't any *worse.*

The parents already had to take off work during that time. If the meeting could go forward, great. If not, then again it's no worse than cancelling due to weather.

Maybe in purely mathematical terms, it's not worse. But canceling due to weather vs. canceling due to disorganization feels worse and is demoralizing for people who, on an ordinary day, would be mortified to mess up a parent's schedule because of an interpreter issue and still feel responsible. And it's worse for the superintendent because he now has staff who will be spending 2 hours at work thinking about how they could be meeting with Mateo's mom and Alvaro's dad right now except for the superintendent's unprecedented logistical dumpster fire that caused these knock-on effects like a bull in a china shop that they're now stuck cleaning up. Whatever. It's fine.

Remember there are also people who get to have their IEP meetings instead of having them cancelled (people who don't need interpreters). Do they just....not matter at all to you?

Of course they matter. I feel just as bad for parents who had their meeting canceled, rearranged their day assuming the meeting was off, then got told "Uh yeah can you come anyway?" by an embarrassed RTSE and then had to un-rearrange things or cancel anyway because it couldn't be unwound. None of this was acknowledged by anyone on high in their "joy."

It's still better for them if you give them the option to go forward with the meeting. Some already had to take the morning/day off. Offering to hold the meeting doesn't hurt them, and might save them from having to take a second day off.

This is a good thing.

[Anonymous]

What a friggin mess. I feel I have whiplash. Do better Taylor

[Anonymous]

Hopefully we are done with snow days for the year and we can all move on. With everything going on in the world right now it is ridiculously to be arguing about this. You are fortunate if this is your biggest worry.