Another snow day!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Snow/ice removal comes down to equipment and labor. Who’s willing to have their property taxes increased to cover these costs?

They're going up anyway so yes I would like basic government services covered.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should have been salting constantly overnight until the sun came up. Instead they let everything that melted yesterday refreeze. Clearing streets is not a one and done process

They did. County roads are fine. It's apparently just MCPS that didn't bother to do anything.

You know this how?

No the roads aren't fine. My down county neighborhood is a sheet of ice. The County didn't send any plows through until 5 pm yesterday - that was way too late. Everything just froze overnight.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is why MCPS needs to be more liberal with virtual snow days. Requiring days of advance notice to implement virtual learning is a joke. If MCPS had a more liberal virtual policy, they could have activated today as a virtual day last evening, giving extra time needed to clear parking lots or residential streets. I am not suggesting that virtual days look exactly like regular days, but students are at least given an opportunity to check in with teachers and continue instruction to some degree - and virtual eliminates the need to make up the day at the end of the year. MCPS needs to call a virtual day for Friday now.

The issue is devices and internet. Many schools clawed back Chromebooks last spring and moved to a cart model this year. Others also took back hot spots. With Monday a holiday, they had no way to ensure all students could access virtual instruction yesterday and today.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should have been salting constantly overnight until the sun came up. Instead they let everything that melted yesterday refreeze. Clearing streets is not a one and done process

They did. County roads are fine. It's apparently just MCPS that didn't bother to do anything.

You know this how?

Exactly. Did PP drive down every county road today? Since that’s impossible, time for them to shut up.

Oh they’ll never shut up. Whining on DCUM is their job. I don’t think they’ve got anything else.

Trolling for Mother Russia is all the glory a man needs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Snow/ice removal comes down to equipment and labor. Who’s willing to have their property taxes increased to cover these costs?

But no other county closed. PG, Fairfax, etc… all open. Howard closed but that is because they had a scheduled half day so delay didn’t work

Anne arundel closed, Harford closed, Loudoun closed… should I go on?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is why MCPS needs to be more liberal with virtual snow days. Requiring days of advance notice to implement virtual learning is a joke. If MCPS had a more liberal virtual policy, they could have activated today as a virtual day last evening, giving extra time needed to clear parking lots or residential streets. I am not suggesting that virtual days look exactly like regular days, but students are at least given an opportunity to check in with teachers and continue instruction to some degree - and virtual eliminates the need to make up the day at the end of the year. MCPS needs to call a virtual day for Friday now.

Why is it a good thing that they wouldn't have to make it up? If you don't actually care about school, then lobby the state to get rid of the instructional day requirement. How do you expect kids at BarT and other child care programs to participate in virtual classes?

Regardless, MCPS doesn't have an approved virtual plan. They can't call a virtual day. Or if they did, they couldn't count it as an instructional day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I love how people flock to DCUM to complain about "they" and "them" and "Dr. McKnight" without acknowledging that the people who are doing the hard, dangerous work and walking in hard, dangerous conditions are by and large poor, black and brown workers and families.

Get some perspective and hand the kids one of your iPads. If you're genuinely suffering because of the closure, I am sorry. But "I expect resignations" is just a nuts thing to say. FWIW my school and area seems fine.

Thank you for that reality check. You know how much turnover there is in building services? It's hard repetitive work with low pay

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should have been salting constantly overnight until the sun came up. Instead they let everything that melted yesterday refreeze. Clearing streets is not a one and done process

They did. County roads are fine. It's apparently just MCPS that didn't bother to do anything.

You know this how?

No the roads aren't fine. My down county neighborhood is a sheet of ice. The County didn't send any plows through until 5 pm yesterday - that was way too late. Everything just froze overnight.

And what happened when you drove on the roads?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MC is also closed today (just announced). All three campuses. I suspect conditions are worse than many posters realize.

But their street is plowed! Therefore, conditions in the entire county are perfect!

[Anonymous]

Maybe all of these complaining parents can drive to their local schools and shovel the parking lot and clear the sidewalks so that the kids can go to school. Say less, do more. I will be sledding at the golf course next door with my kids because they need to be active. Then we can bake together and have reading club by the fire. There! Is that so hard?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Great.

Damnit it’s clear. Get these kids back in school. The learning loss is scandalous.

Essentially missing this entire week due to snow related closures is not scandalous.

Especially if they go to school tomorrow, I wouldn't be suprised if they prepare the kids for virtual learning Friday. Will you complain about that too?

They better not. Virtual is just a loophole to have yet another day without meaningful instruction.

Good thing you don’t live in PG county. They have asynchronous days built into the school calendar that count towards the 180 days. Stop whining. Chances are, you don’t give a damn about learning loss, you care about childcare. Tale as old as time.

The state allows 3 of the 8 potential virtual days to be asynchronous. Only McPS is choosing to do live virtual first. Every other district plans to have 3 asynchronous days first.

Last I heard MCPS never filed a plan this year with MSDE.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is why MCPS needs to be more liberal with virtual snow days. Requiring days of advance notice to implement virtual learning is a joke. If MCPS had a more liberal virtual policy, they could have activated today as a virtual day last evening, giving extra time needed to clear parking lots or residential streets. I am not suggesting that virtual days look exactly like regular days, but students are at least given an opportunity to check in with teachers and continue instruction to some degree - and virtual eliminates the need to make up the day at the end of the year. MCPS needs to call a virtual day for Friday now.

Why is it a good thing that they wouldn't have to make it up? If you don't actually care about school, then lobby the state to get rid of the instructional day requirement. How do you expect kids at BarT and other child care programs to participate in virtual classes?

Regardless, MCPS doesn't have an approved virtual plan. They can't call a virtual day. Or if they did, they couldn't count it as an instructional day.

Just like they did at BarT and other childcare programs during COVID? You just want to whine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is why MCPS needs to be more liberal with virtual snow days. Requiring days of advance notice to implement virtual learning is a joke. If MCPS had a more liberal virtual policy, they could have activated today as a virtual day last evening, giving extra time needed to clear parking lots or residential streets. I am not suggesting that virtual days look exactly like regular days, but students are at least given an opportunity to check in with teachers and continue instruction to some degree - and virtual eliminates the need to make up the day at the end of the year. MCPS needs to call a virtual day for Friday now.

I got news for you. I would eat my hat before MCPS. I actually calls any live virtual snow day. They agree to it to placate the vocal minority who love virtual learning. Majority of elementary schools went back to just using Chromebooks in the classroom and you would have to have a very specific set of circumstances where you would be able to know a storm is coming beforehand and be able to deploy all Chromebooks to go home with students before the storm hits.

[Anonymous]

The snow stopped 36 hours ago. The rest of the area is fully back in business. I drove to work yesterday and went to a crowded evening professional event. The cold temperatures have meant no melting/refreeze so the roads are clear and dry.

The real problem with MCPS is that it's too damn big to operate efficiently. It's the biggest school district in the country that is not a city or in the south. But subdividing the county or creating some different model would incite huge controversies over income, class, race, ethnicity so no one will ever touch it. Which is unfortunate because it is low income kids who are the worst off as a result of MCPS inefficiency and incompetence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Great.

Damnit it’s clear. Get these kids back in school. The learning loss is scandalous.

It’s the end of the semester so all this week would have been is make ups of last week’s MAP testing and pulling teeth to get kids to complete missing work before grades are due. Little new learning is happening this time of year because of the pressure being placed solely on teachers to get kids to score higher on standardized tests and turn in all work to get inflated grades to make the schools look good.

No map testing for kids in AP classes trying to learn a lot of content before the exam

You can take any AP test without taking the actual class. All the kids in the W schools figure it out and some boast about meeting their goal of taking every AP test. Sorry your kid needs to be spoon fed

Paying $100 and showing up isn't the point of an AP test.