MCPS closed tomorrow

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All these people that are complaining about schools being closed bc schools are childcare, don't you have kids to take care of or work that is calling your name?

Bashing teachers takes priority over either of those things.

[Anonymous]

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Just a reminder that a PLANE flew into the power lines of a community and thousands, 120,0000 + were affected and this is what you focus on?
Come on, people. Show some compassion and understanding that it was a freak accident and those people are lucky to have their lives and we are lucky the community didn’t get hurt. The blame game is getting old. They might the right call at the time.

The pilot and passenger are fine. The entire county has power. This is a bad call and they had the ability to reverse it at 5am but they didn't. We can have compassion and anger simultaneously.

Power was back by 1 AM. PEPCO had been able to reroute power around the damaged tower. No reason for schools to be closed.

Safety checks have to run at the schools that lost power.

I don’t understand why this can’t be done in a few hours, and just do a delayed opening.

Also, why are care programs not allowed in unaffected schools? Seems like an overreach blanket decision by MCPS

I am a parent impacted by the child care closure. No I don't think on this case they should open child care programs. It would not make any sense to say they are assessing the buildings for safety but go ahead and send your infant in. This is an unprecedented event, let's give them a day.

It’s not an unprecedented event to lose power for ~6 hours. Don’t be ridiculous. From the perspective of MCPS, the only thing that was unprecedented was the decision to close.

It's major damage to the area's energy infrastructure. They have rerouted power but are still assessing the damage. This is not regular downed power line.

Ahh yes. I mean, what if Pepco is serving up the wrong kind of electrons?

From the perspective of MCPS, we're not in an unusual situation. Power was restored after a ~6 hour outage. You seem to be forgetting what Pepco is like if you think that is an "unprecedented" situation.

I've lived in MoCo for over 30 years. I've seen power outages. I've been frustrated with Pepco. I have not seen a plane crash into high tension lines.

Interesting. I wasn’t aware MCPS had to work on the high tension lines. I thought they just had to operate their schools in buildings that have already had utilities restored.

Try to keep up, you were arguing this situation is not unprecedented. It is unprecedented, which makes this a genuinely difficult decision for MCPS. I know Pepco is saying everyone has their power back, but I'm hearing of continued power outages. It is a hard situation for everyone.

It is an unprecedented situation for Pepco, not for MCPS. For them, this is just like resuming after a power outage caused by weather. Easier, actually, since they don’t need to be worried about weather-related damages.

Exactly. I’d there is a thunderstorm on a Sunday night and power goes out in 44 schools and comes back on in the night, do schools close on Monday?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Just a reminder that a PLANE flew into the power lines of a community and thousands, 120,0000 + were affected and this is what you focus on?
Come on, people. Show some compassion and understanding that it was a freak accident and those people are lucky to have their lives and we are lucky the community didn’t get hurt. The blame game is getting old. They might the right call at the time.

The pilot and passenger are fine. The entire county has power. This is a bad call and they had the ability to reverse it at 5am but they didn't. We can have compassion and anger simultaneously.

Power was back by 1 AM. PEPCO had been able to reroute power around the damaged tower. No reason for schools to be closed.

Safety checks have to run at the schools that lost power.

I don’t understand why this can’t be done in a few hours, and just do a delayed opening.

Also, why are care programs not allowed in unaffected schools? Seems like an overreach blanket decision by MCPS

I am a parent impacted by the child care closure. No I don't think on this case they should open child care programs. It would not make any sense to say they are assessing the buildings for safety but go ahead and send your infant in. This is an unprecedented event, let's give them a day.

It’s not an unprecedented event to lose power for ~6 hours. Don’t be ridiculous. From the perspective of MCPS, the only thing that was unprecedented was the decision to close.

It's major damage to the area's energy infrastructure. They have rerouted power but are still assessing the damage. This is not regular downed power line.

Ahh yes. I mean, what if Pepco is serving up the wrong kind of electrons?

From the perspective of MCPS, we're not in an unusual situation. Power was restored after a ~6 hour outage. You seem to be forgetting what Pepco is like if you think that is an "unprecedented" situation.

I've lived in MoCo for over 30 years. I've seen power outages. I've been frustrated with Pepco. I have not seen a plane crash into high tension lines.

Interesting. I wasn’t aware MCPS had to work on the high tension lines. I thought they just had to operate their schools in buildings that have already had utilities restored.

Try to keep up, you were arguing this situation is not unprecedented. It is unprecedented, which makes this a genuinely difficult decision for MCPS. I know Pepco is saying everyone has their power back, but I'm hearing of continued power outages. It is a hard situation for everyone.

No, power outages are not at all “unprecedented”. The cause doesn’t impact MCPS. Doesn’t make a difference if it’s a falling tree or falling airplane, the lines are broken the same way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All these people that are complaining about schools being closed bc schools are childcare, don't you have kids to take care of or work that is calling your name?

Bashing teachers takes priority over either of those things.

Bashing teachers and parents takes priority over either of those things.

FIFY

[Anonymous]

I’m glad the passengers were not seriously injured, but part of me is also really annoyed at the 65 year old man who decided to fly his private plane in the dark, in an area with this much development. If he had to fly here with no other choice, do it during the day and/or perhaps it’s possible to hire another pilot to fly your plane. Not only are we parents annoyed about an unforeseen extra day off when the kids have been off for essentially a week, but all those people who lost power on a cold night have my sympathies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m old enough to remember when MCPS made decisions to close schools at 5am. Everyone complained about the timing of the decisions (and the decision itself) saying MCPS didn’t give enough notice for closures.

The new superintendent started announcing closures the night before. Now we have the issue of things can change overnight and schools may not need to close after all.

Stop complaining - if MCPS waits until 5 am to make the call so they have a current idea of the situation, people will complain. If MCPS makes the call the night before even though a situation can change overnight, people will complain.

Yes, all of this. With a 160,000 student school system that is spread out geographically, you will always have a group that complains loudly.

This is just warm up for winter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP here. Good ol' DCUM managing overnight to create a 7 page snarky thread mostly full of troll comments and people replying to them.

1. Please use the report button in lower right for off-topic and troll comments, rather than replying to them.

2. No the teacher's union doesn't make or influence these decisions. Nor is this decision made just to give teachers an extra day off. It's a big disruption to everyone's plans. People suggesting such a thing are trolling. Report those comments.

3. Power outages affect buildings, and it takes time to go and assess that the HVAC, internet, phones, safety (fire alarms and PA) and security systems are functioning properly. I've been in a school that had a power fluctuation in the area. The area came back up, but the building did not. After 1 hour trying to resolve, they dismissed the school early.

4. I'm surprised they actually decided to close the evening before. They could have said 2 hour delay with reassess in morning. While the message about updating in the morning may have been unclear, they won't reverse a system closure. What they were checking is to see if buildings could open for daycare and if offices could be open. Since they remained closed, that says that a lot of buildings were not ready this morning.

5. It's not just buildings. The state of the roads and traffic signals matters in order to run the buses safely. Montgomery County government (including police and fire dept.) will have a say in whether or not they want MCPS to be running buses. A closure decision is not made in isolation by MCPS.

6. It's not just buildings and roads. There are other support services that are critical to the functioning of the system. They mentioned that food services lost power and they needed to assess impact. If the main servers are down and the system has no internet, it's hard to be effective. Etc.

7. They can't just close schools in part of the system and keep other schools open. There are too many students (~15% in choice programs, not sure how many in SPED programs) that attend school other than their home school. The bus network transporting students covers a significant area.

8. Be prepared. This is the exact same conversation that is going to happen when there is some sort of iffy weather event. No need to rehash the stupid comments. Just recognize how the system works and have back-up plans in place so you can adapt.

Thank you.

I think making the decision last night gave families more time to try to make childcare plans or give notice at work. My high schoolers are currently entertaining 3 ES neighbors. The mom knows I am a teacher and speaks just enough English to knock shyly on my door and ask me to watch her kids. I’m using today to grade, but my son and daughter were happy to volunteer. I’ll feed everyone waffles and eggs in about 15 min and then my kids will take our guests out for a few hours. If the decision had been made at 5 AM, it would have been harder for families to make backup plans.

This sounds lovely. I’m grateful for good neighbors!

[Anonymous]

It’s amazing how all the commercial buildings in Gaithersburg and Rockville seem to be operating, while MCPS is allegedly still in shambles.

What’s more likely: a ridiculous overreaction on the part of MCPS admin, or MCPS building crews are really that incompetent that they can't handle a power outage?

[Anonymous]

I am glad schools are closed. I think they made the right call. I am going hang my holiday lights outside while my kiddos sleep in.

[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:

Just a reminder that a PLANE flew into the power lines of a community and thousands, 120,0000 + were affected and this is what you focus on?
Come on, people. Show some compassion and understanding that it was a freak accident and those people are lucky to have their lives and we are lucky the community didn’t get hurt. The blame game is getting old. They might the right call at the time.

The pilot and passenger are fine. The entire county has power. This is a bad call and they had the ability to reverse it at 5am but they didn't. We can have compassion and anger simultaneously.

Power was back by 1 AM. PEPCO had been able to reroute power around the damaged tower. No reason for schools to be closed.

Safety checks have to run at the schools that lost power.

I don’t understand why this can’t be done in a few hours, and just do a delayed opening.

Also, why are care programs not allowed in unaffected schools? Seems like an overreach blanket decision by MCPS

I am a parent impacted by the child care closure. No I don't think on this case they should open child care programs. It would not make any sense to say they are assessing the buildings for safety but go ahead and send your infant in. This is an unprecedented event, let's give them a day.

It’s not an unprecedented event to lose power for ~6 hours. Don’t be ridiculous. From the perspective of MCPS, the only thing that was unprecedented was the decision to close.

It's major damage to the area's energy infrastructure. They have rerouted power but are still assessing the damage. This is not regular downed power line.

Ahh yes. I mean, what if Pepco is serving up the wrong kind of electrons?

From the perspective of MCPS, we're not in an unusual situation. Power was restored after a ~6 hour outage. You seem to be forgetting what Pepco is like if you think that is an "unprecedented" situation.

I've lived in MoCo for over 30 years. I've seen power outages. I've been frustrated with Pepco. I have not seen a plane crash into high tension lines.

Interesting. I wasn’t aware MCPS had to work on the high tension lines. I thought they just had to operate their schools in buildings that have already had utilities restored.

Try to keep up, you were arguing this situation is not unprecedented. It is unprecedented, which makes this a genuinely difficult decision for MCPS. I know Pepco is saying everyone has their power back, but I'm hearing of continued power outages. It is a hard situation for everyone.

It is an unprecedented situation for Pepco, not for MCPS. For them, this is just like resuming after a power outage caused by weather. Easier, actually, since they don’t need to be worried about weather-related damages.

Exactly. I’d there is a thunderstorm on a Sunday night and power goes out in 44 schools and comes back on in the night, do schools close on Monday?

In the night, before midnight maybe. In the AM after midnight probably not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m old enough to remember when MCPS made decisions to close schools at 5am. Everyone complained about the timing of the decisions (and the decision itself) saying MCPS didn’t give enough notice for closures.

The new superintendent started announcing closures the night before. Now we have the issue of things can change overnight and schools may not need to close after all.

Stop complaining - if MCPS waits until 5 am to make the call so they have a current idea of the situation, people will complain. If MCPS makes the call the night before even though a situation can change overnight, people will complain.

Yes, all of this. With a 160,000 student school system that is spread out geographically, you will always have a group that complains loudly.

This is just warm up for winter.

Exactly this.
Let this be your annual reminder to make emergency closing plans for your young kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP here. Good ol' DCUM managing overnight to create a 7 page snarky thread mostly full of troll comments and people replying to them.

1. Please use the report button in lower right for off-topic and troll comments, rather than replying to them.

2. No the teacher's union doesn't make or influence these decisions. Nor is this decision made just to give teachers an extra day off. It's a big disruption to everyone's plans. People suggesting such a thing are trolling. Report those comments.

3. Power outages affect buildings, and it takes time to go and assess that the HVAC, internet, phones, safety (fire alarms and PA) and security systems are functioning properly. I've been in a school that had a power fluctuation in the area. The area came back up, but the building did not. After 1 hour trying to resolve, they dismissed the school early.

4. I'm surprised they actually decided to close the evening before. They could have said 2 hour delay with reassess in morning. While the message about updating in the morning may have been unclear, they won't reverse a system closure. What they were checking is to see if buildings could open for daycare and if offices could be open. Since they remained closed, that says that a lot of buildings were not ready this morning.

5. It's not just buildings. The state of the roads and traffic signals matters in order to run the buses safely. Montgomery County government (including police and fire dept.) will have a say in whether or not they want MCPS to be running buses. A closure decision is not made in isolation by MCPS.

6. It's not just buildings and roads. There are other support services that are critical to the functioning of the system. They mentioned that food services lost power and they needed to assess impact. If the main servers are down and the system has no internet, it's hard to be effective. Etc.

7. They can't just close schools in part of the system and keep other schools open. There are too many students (~15% in choice programs, not sure how many in SPED programs) that attend school other than their home school. The bus network transporting students covers a significant area.

8. Be prepared. This is the exact same conversation that is going to happen when there is some sort of iffy weather event. No need to rehash the stupid comments. Just recognize how the system works and have back-up plans in place so you can adapt.

Thank you.

I think making the decision last night gave families more time to try to make childcare plans or give notice at work. My high schoolers are currently entertaining 3 ES neighbors. The mom knows I am a teacher and speaks just enough English to knock shyly on my door and ask me to watch her kids. I’m using today to grade, but my son and daughter were happy to volunteer. I’ll feed everyone waffles and eggs in about 15 min and then my kids will take our guests out for a few hours. If the decision had been made at 5 AM, it would have been harder for families to make backup plans.

How much can parents really do between midnight and 5am to line up backup care? That would all gave to wait until the morning anyway. No reason to make the call at midnight.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s amazing how all the commercial buildings in Gaithersburg and Rockville seem to be operating, while MCPS is allegedly still in shambles.

What’s more likely: a ridiculous overreaction on the part of MCPS admin, or MCPS building crews are really that incompetent that they can't handle a power outage?[ coming from the most incompetent one of them all. Feel free to step in and support building service workers since you clearly know what it takes to get old buildings up and running]

[Anonymous]

Parents here have no concept of how complex this system is. They just drop their kid off at the school door and wonder why all of this is so hard.

For starters, consider that at least half the kids require a school lunch that now may or may not be available. More than half require buses that operate on a dispatching system that may or may not be available. The servers that keep the internet up — that every teacher uses all day every day and many students as well — may not be working yet. And there are something like 170,000 kids they’re trying to keep safe and productive under these conditions.

But sure, it looks easy so it must be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am glad schools are closed. I think they made the right call. I am going hang my holiday lights outside while my kiddos sleep in.

Enjoy your paid day off. But understand this isn’t how MCPS rebuilds trust with parents. That’s going to come back to bite you as more and more parents realize they can’t count on the public school system.