How to fight this new anti-childcare winter weather approach?

[Anonymous]

MCPS allowed full day care centers to open with a 2 hour delay, but cancelled morning care. I went back to read the full bulleted list from the 5AM email sent by MCPS.

So why are they allowing one kind of care but not the other? They both fall under the childcare umbrella according to the state of MD and they both have contracts with MCPS for building usage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MCPS allowed full day care centers to open with a 2 hour delay, but cancelled morning care. I went back to read the full bulleted list from the 5AM email sent by MCPS.

So why are they allowing one kind of care but not the other? They both fall under the childcare umbrella according to the state of MD and they both have contracts with MCPS for building usage.

Just to f&ck with working parents including their own employees and by extension their own schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MCPS allowed full day care centers to open with a 2 hour delay, but cancelled morning care. I went back to read the full bulleted list from the 5AM email sent by MCPS.

So why are they allowing one kind of care but not the other? They both fall under the childcare umbrella according to the state of MD and they both have contracts with MCPS for building usage.

What would morning care be if it got the same "2 hour delay"?

If anything it would be 2-hr delayed before-school care that runs 2 hrs later, but the staff didn't necessarily sign up for that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am pretty furious that MCPS is forcing beforecare to be closed this morning even in parts of the county where it's just raining. It's not just an inconvenience for families of elementary school kids, but a significant financial burden as well (for example, I am paid hourly and am losing 3 hours of work unnecessarily this morning, and I imagine some parents might have to call off a whole full-day shift of work if they have to watch their kids until 11am.). It's really hostile and punitive for working families.

Combined with the similar forced closures at the tail end of snow cleanup last winter, this seems like a new policy direction under the new MCPS administration and I hate it. I get that when there is bad weather anywhere in the county that all schools need to be delayed or closed accordingly, but there is no reason why before/aftercare providers shouldn't be able to make their own decisions about opening based on local conditions, like they used to do prior to last year. But MCPS has been prohibiting them from opening even when it is perfectly safe locally and they want to be open serving families.

How do we fight this and go back to the old policies of letting the providers make decisions about opening based on local conditions? Who do we contact?

Have you tried getting a high paying job where you get to goof off making fun videos instead of working? That's Taylor's model

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would suggest e-mailing as many folks as possible on this if you are upset-- both high-level and low.

High-level-- Taylor, Board of Ed, County Council (Mink, Jawando, Albornoz-- who are on the Ed committee- as well as your own councilmember and anyone you have a relationship with.)

Lower-level-- Adnan Mamoon, Chief of District Operations ([e-mail]); Cat Malchodi, executive director of the Office of District Operations ([e-mail]); Andrea Swiatocha, deputy chief of the Division of Facilities Management ([e-mail]); William Polman, childcare director at Community Use of Public Facilities at the county ([e-mail])

Please add any other names and e-mail addresses you can think of!

Essie McGuire is Taylor’s Chief of Staff and with him everywhere he goes and speaks for him at the County Council. She is behind all of these decisions.

Good call. So: [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], Councilmember.Jawando
@montgomerycountymd.gov, [e-mail]

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS allowed full day care centers to open with a 2 hour delay, but cancelled morning care. I went back to read the full bulleted list from the 5AM email sent by MCPS.

So why are they allowing one kind of care but not the other? They both fall under the childcare umbrella according to the state of MD and they both have contracts with MCPS for building usage.

What would morning care be if it got the same "2 hour delay"?

If anything it would be 2-hr delayed before-school care that runs 2 hrs later, but the staff didn't necessarily sign up for that.

DP our child care provider's morning hours are 7am to the start of school (our start time is 9am with doors opening at 8:35). Our provider was going to open at 9am this morning before they were told they would not be permitted to open for before care at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS allowed full day care centers to open with a 2 hour delay, but cancelled morning care. I went back to read the full bulleted list from the 5AM email sent by MCPS.

So why are they allowing one kind of care but not the other? They both fall under the childcare umbrella according to the state of MD and they both have contracts with MCPS for building usage.

What would morning care be if it got the same "2 hour delay"?

If anything it would be 2-hr delayed before-school care that runs 2 hrs later, but the staff didn't necessarily sign up for that.

At our school a 2 hour delay of beforecare would mean opening at 9am, and instead today with the closure can't drop off our kids until 11am.

I mean, they should go back to the old policy where they could choose to open on time at 7 on a day like today when it's just rain in our part of the county. But even if not, being able to drop your kid off at 9 and be a little late for work is a big difference compared to dropping them off at 11. And for teachers, a 2 hour delay in childcare as well as school allows them to follow their same morning routine, while this closure messes it up entirely

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you have the luxury of a flexible job and a nice manager, use the time to teach your kid something. For elementary school kids, today is a waste in terms of instruction.

Screw the poor! It's the MCPS way

[Anonymous]

Help me understand. What is the typical schedule for morning care?

If that morning staff is normally scheduled to be off by 9 AM then I can understand canceling care because I’m assuming most of those people or many of those people have other jobs they must get to. Nobody can live off a salary that only pays for 2 to 3 hours a day.

If they operate on a normal schedule, they would work until 9 AM and then you have staff we need to go to their second job which would mean the student to teacher ratio would be off.

If you operate on a two hour delay again many of the staff would not be able to work because they have other job commitments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS allowed full day care centers to open with a 2 hour delay, but cancelled morning care. I went back to read the full bulleted list from the 5AM email sent by MCPS.

So why are they allowing one kind of care but not the other? They both fall under the childcare umbrella according to the state of MD and they both have contracts with MCPS for building usage.

What would morning care be if it got the same "2 hour delay"?

If anything it would be 2-hr delayed before-school care that runs 2 hrs later, but the staff didn't necessarily sign up for that.

At our school a 2 hour delay of beforecare would mean opening at 9am, and instead today with the closure can't drop off our kids until 11am.

I mean, they should go back to the old policy where they could choose to open on time at 7 on a day like today when it's just rain in our part of the county. But even if not, being able to drop your kid off at 9 and be a little late for work is a big difference compared to dropping them off at 11. And for teachers, a 2 hour delay in childcare as well as school allows them to follow their same morning routine, while this closure messes it up entirely

The point of 2-hr delay is that MCPS is worried that somewhere in the county it will not safe to open the school. It's not because it they are worried that pre-care won't be safe but regular school will be fine. The point is that everything before 9:30am (sunrise, snow melt, maybe some road cleanup) is cancelled.

And programs with staff who work 7-9 might not be set up for 9-11. Those people may have other conflicting responsibilities.

[Anonymous]

MCPS is too big centralized. That's why Aspen Hill is closed when it flurries in Poolesville.

They aren't competent enough to make plans on a pre-school basis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did you miss … Covid? The schools do not care about parents.

Have you confused schools with being child care?

[Anonymous]

You cannot rely on the government or schools to take care of your family or children. Get used to it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Help me understand. What is the typical schedule for morning care?

If that morning staff is normally scheduled to be off by 9 AM then I can understand canceling care because I’m assuming most of those people or many of those people have other jobs they must get to. Nobody can live off a salary that only pays for 2 to 3 hours a day.

If they operate on a normal schedule, they would work until 9 AM and then you have staff we need to go to their second job which would mean the student to teacher ratio would be off.

If you operate on a two hour delay again many of the staff would not be able to work because they have other job commitments.

That's a theoretical possibility, but before recently, they did exactly that, and it was fine. Beforecare opened at the usual time and there was staff there until school started, KAH at least used to open on days when school was cancelled for weather, and they had no problem getting staff for the whole day. If that's the justification, it's obviously not what's happening in reality. There's no reason to cancel because you can imagine a problem that we know isn't real from experience.

[Anonymous]

There are a bunch of highly vocal people who are socially insecure about their privilege to not work when they don't want to, who feel a need to lash out at the working class for the sin of making themselves aware of their own privilege.