Is it time for MCPS to be more bold in having regular school when it snows?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They could have let child care open yesterday at schools that didn't have a lot of snow, like they did on January 30, a few weeks ago. But they needed to give their people the day off.

Isn't Taylor and his crew from the south? He seems pretty fearful to commute or ask his staff to commute if there is any snow at all.

He's from MoCo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Today there should have been school. I'm not going to argue about the snow-crete week, but there are so many "snowless" snow days most years. MCPS is just way too cautious.

Let's lean in to going to school and educating our kids, please.

FFS is another Mad Mommy of MoCo Big Mad?

No, OP, you dipshit. Try not to be so stupid.

You can tell a lot about a person when they use "Mommy" as an insult.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Today there should have been school. I'm not going to argue about the snow-crete week, but there are so many "snowless" snow days most years. MCPS is just way too cautious.

Let's lean in to going to school and educating our kids, please.

FFS is another Mad Mommy of MoCo Big Mad?

No, OP, you dipshit. Try not to be so stupid.

You can tell a lot about a person when they use "Mommy" as an insult.

The forum has filters that block the words I want to use

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Today there should have been school. I'm not going to argue about the snow-crete week, but there are so many "snowless" snow days most years. MCPS is just way too cautious.

Let's lean in to going to school and educating our kids, please.

We get it, you live down county and got 3 inches and the roads were clear. In parts of the county there were a little over 7 inches and the streets were not clear. It's one county, and one school system. And until that changes, you will have to keep your kids home when it's not safe for kids in Damascus or Poolesville to get to school.

That is the crux of the problem. The school system is too big. But recognizing that isn't going to change, where is it written in stone that because some schools in Poolesville, Clarksburg or Damascus have to close, so must schools in Bethesda, Chevy Chase, Rockville and Silver Spring? It isn't divinely ordained. Yes, it will take changes to teachers; contracts, union rules, bus schedules, etc. But I simply refuse to believe that those issues are insurmountable - the powers that be just need to be incentivized to start dealing with them. There isn't an instant fix, but it is possible.

That’s only one part of the problem. You assume all the teachers and staff live near your school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They could have let child care open yesterday at schools that didn't have a lot of snow, like they did on January 30, a few weeks ago. But they needed to give their people the day off.

Isn't Taylor and his crew from the south? He seems pretty fearful to commute or ask his staff to commute if there is any snow at all.

He's from MoCo.

Exactly. That explains why he gets hysterical at the sight of snow.

[Anonymous]

There needs to be some kind of change. The outcome this year (and last) is not acceptable.

I'm not particular about any what change they make, and there's a few options. We can be more aggressive about going on snow days, we can build more days into the calendar, we can use the designated make up days, or we can implement a virtual plan. We can use some of them in combination, like scheduling 183 days and doing virtual learning on three additional days.

Some people will complain about any one of these, but the last two years have demonstrated that underpreparing and hoping either MSDE or the legislature will bail us out isn't a plan. Continuing that plan for a third year would be a failure of leadership.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If the county allowed certain schools to make their own opening decision on snow days there would be a lot of schools who suddenly see like 60% of their teachers quit to go to other schools or districts

I'm sure there are a lot of teachers who would have preferred to brave the conditions on Monday rather than tack another day on at the end of the year.

Possibly. But the ones who wouldn't shouldn't be forced to take leave when other teachers get days off. This is why there is a union. To try to create balance and equity for the entire workforce regardless of where they work. And before you say, "then let those teachers not use their leave balance" you don't understand how labor contracts and employment policies actually work. It would create massive loopholes that would be exploited

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is my imagination or did we go to school in snow back in the 80s and 90s?

It's your imagination if you went to MCPS. We didn't go to school in the snow in the 80s and 90s. We just had more snow days built into the calendar and were more creative about it, too (for example, they extended the school day by a few minutes each day for a couple of months when I was in HS in the mid-90s). Now parents would lose their minds if they did that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There needs to be some kind of change. The outcome this year (and last) is not acceptable.

I'm not particular about any what change they make, and there's a few options. We can be more aggressive about going on snow days, we can build more days into the calendar, we can use the designated make up days, or we can implement a virtual plan. We can use some of them in combination, like scheduling 183 days and doing virtual learning on three additional days.

Some people will complain about any one of these, but the last two years have demonstrated that underpreparing and hoping either MSDE or the legislature will bail us out isn't a plan. Continuing that plan for a third year would be a failure of leadership.

1+, exactly. The only apparently "plan" is deus ex machina by way of a state waiver.

[Anonymous]

We personally couldn’t have done a two hour delay, not every neighborhood was plowed immediately. Trucks didn’t come by my street until well into the afternoon. I live at the top of a hill and cars at the bottom couldn’t drive up. One car got stuck and had to turn around. Unless the county invests in better snow clean up, I don’t see how we could have gotten to school even with a delay yesterday. I live in down county too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If the county allowed certain schools to make their own opening decision on snow days there would be a lot of schools who suddenly see like 60% of their teachers quit to go to other schools or districts

I'm sure there are a lot of teachers who would have preferred to brave the conditions on Monday rather than tack another day on at the end of the year.

Possibly. But the ones who wouldn't shouldn't be forced to take leave when other teachers get days off. This is why there is a union. To try to create balance and equity for the entire workforce regardless of where they work. And before you say, "then let those teachers not use their leave balance" you don't understand how labor contracts and employment policies actually work. It would create massive loopholes that would be exploited

They wouldn't have needed to take leave. They could have worked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If the county allowed certain schools to make their own opening decision on snow days there would be a lot of schools who suddenly see like 60% of their teachers quit to go to other schools or districts

I'm sure there are a lot of teachers who would have preferred to brave the conditions on Monday rather than tack another day on at the end of the year.

Possibly. But the ones who wouldn't shouldn't be forced to take leave when other teachers get days off. This is why there is a union. To try to create balance and equity for the entire workforce regardless of where they work. And before you say, "then let those teachers not use their leave balance" you don't understand how labor contracts and employment policies actually work. It would create massive loopholes that would be exploited

They wouldn't have needed to take leave. They could have worked.

What about the teachers who couldn't make it to the school that decided to open?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We personally couldn’t have done a two hour delay, not every neighborhood was plowed immediately. Trucks didn’t come by my street until well into the afternoon. I live at the top of a hill and cars at the bottom couldn’t drive up. One car got stuck and had to turn around. Unless the county invests in better snow clean up, I don’t see how we could have gotten to school even with a delay yesterday. I live in down county too.

The snow amount was small enough that cars definitely could have driven through it. If you were getting stuck then you need new tires.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If the county allowed certain schools to make their own opening decision on snow days there would be a lot of schools who suddenly see like 60% of their teachers quit to go to other schools or districts

I'm sure there are a lot of teachers who would have preferred to brave the conditions on Monday rather than tack another day on at the end of the year.

Possibly. But the ones who wouldn't shouldn't be forced to take leave when other teachers get days off. This is why there is a union. To try to create balance and equity for the entire workforce regardless of where they work. And before you say, "then let those teachers not use their leave balance" you don't understand how labor contracts and employment policies actually work. It would create massive loopholes that would be exploited

They wouldn't have needed to take leave. They could have worked.

What about the teachers who couldn't make it to the school that decided to open?

Find alternative transportation of you're unwilling or unable to drive yourself. Ubers were out.

What do you think other people do? Most people don't get snow days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is my imagination or did we go to school in snow back in the 80s and 90s?

It's your imagination if you went to MCPS. We didn't go to school in the snow in the 80s and 90s. We just had more snow days built into the calendar and were more creative about it, too (for example, they extended the school day by a few minutes each day for a couple of months when I was in HS in the mid-90s). Now parents would lose their minds if they did that.

I did! I was a k-12 mcps student. I remember walking through snow to get to school, but I don’t remember the details of actual snow days.

I think we should bring creativity back to the calendar instead of being stuck in school until almost July!