MCPS closing/delaying on Monday?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Okay so the forecast looks pretty clear on sizeable snowfall starting late Sunday into Monday. This is a clearly going to have a snow day scenario IMO. When will MCPS announce that? This afternoon? This evening? Tomorrow morning?

They will call by 8pm tonight
Cancelled

Call at 8pm tomorrow night
Cancelled for Tues

Call at 5am Wed
Cancelled for Wednesday

Call at 5am Thurs
2hr delay on Thursday

lol. Sorry, you're going to have to go to work before that!

I’ve lived here a long time. PP’s prediction looks spot-on to me. If the forecast holds, we will be out for 3 days and then we’ll have a delay.

-not a MCPS employee.

No, not for snow that ends on Monday night. This isn't a Snowpocalypse winter storm.

A functional district would open with a delay on Tuesday. Even a non-functional district will be able to open on Wednesday.

You must be new or have young children. Who remembers when MCPS closed for 6 days for the January 2016 storm? Storm totals where higher but it tools days and days and days to open after the snow stopped.

I remember even more days off one February due to back to back storms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I read some article somewhere recently about “radical acceptance.”

Folks, you can rant and rave and this and that. But the truth is it will snow however many inches, it will take a corresponding amount of time to clear with whatever level of effort, infrastructure, and competence/incompetence. It will close when it must be closed and it will open when it’s possible to open. You can feel whatever you want to feel, but if you just accept that these things will happen the way they do and will be out of your control, you may feel more at peace.

+1. People can complain about how long it will take to reopen schools--I won't be happy about it--but it won't change that it will, indeed, take that long for MCPS to reopen. Plan now for at least 2 days off, possibly 3.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People have unrealistic expectations and demands for how clear roads, sidewalks, and bus stops need to be of snow to only have two extra days built into the calendar. If you really think every residential street and neighborhood bus stops needs to be clear of snow and ice to open schools, then we should build in 5 extra days to minimize the very unpopular step of adding days during the year.

I agree they should build in more. I tell them this in the feedback every year. Yet next year, they are only building in one. It just means that they need to use the make-up days identified.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Damage to school buildings, heating concerns, pipes"? It's barely below freezing and its just snow.

You people are ridiculous. Schools in the northeast don't have armies of facilities workers, either. They get it done because they're expected to get it done, and everyone accepts that the objective is "good enough" not "perfectly cleared of any evidence of snow".

They have much less litigious parents.

If you want to normalize going to school with “good enough” snow clearance, you have to first normalize not threatening to sue MCPS over everything.

[Anonymous]

They can just go virtual. Problem solved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Damage to school buildings, heating concerns, pipes"? It's barely below freezing and its just snow.

You people are ridiculous. Schools in the northeast don't have armies of facilities workers, either. They get it done because they're expected to get it done, and everyone accepts that the objective is "good enough" not "perfectly cleared of any evidence of snow".

They have much less litigious parents.

If you want to normalize going to school with “good enough” snow clearance, you have to first normalize not threatening to sue MCPS over everything.

Who ever sued MCPS over a snow day?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Amending my previous prediction for Monday and Tuesday called as snow days to include a Wednesday delay due to frostbite and 20 below temps.


A Cold Emergency Alert has been issued from 12 am Mon, 1/6 to 9 am Wed, 1/8. With wind chill values to be below 20 degrees and frostbite on exposed skin within 30 minutes and/or hypothermia.

It's not going to be -20F. I don't know where you got that idea. It will be upper teens.

[Anonymous]

I will revise my guess mid day tomorrow depending on how much we get but for now I will go with us being off Monday and Tuesday with a delay on Wednesday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People have unrealistic expectations and demands for how clear roads, sidewalks, and bus stops need to be of snow to only have two extra days built into the calendar. If you really think every residential street and neighborhood bus stops needs to be clear of snow and ice to open schools, then we should build in 5 extra days to minimize the very unpopular step of adding days during the year.

I agree they should build in more. I tell them this in the feedback every year. Yet next year, they are only building in one. It just means that they need to use the make-up days identified.

Nope. MCPS refuses to shorten the year based on days they don't use, so why should we build them in?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Damage to school buildings, heating concerns, pipes"? It's barely below freezing and its just snow.

You people are ridiculous. Schools in the northeast don't have armies of facilities workers, either. They get it done because they're expected to get it done, and everyone accepts that the objective is "good enough" not "perfectly cleared of any evidence of snow".

They have much less litigious parents.

If you want to normalize going to school with “good enough” snow clearance, you have to first normalize not threatening to sue MCPS over everything.

Who ever sued MCPS over a snow day?

Not over a snow day, but parents need to accept that Larla might slip and break her arm on a patch of ice outside the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Damage to school buildings, heating concerns, pipes"? It's barely below freezing and its just snow.

You people are ridiculous. Schools in the northeast don't have armies of facilities workers, either. They get it done because they're expected to get it done, and everyone accepts that the objective is "good enough" not "perfectly cleared of any evidence of snow".

You are severely underestimating the size of Montgomery County (and the attendant work) versus townships and towns in the NE.

And Montgomery County has correspondingly more resources.

Look at the large cities in the northeast. They don't shut down for several days for 6 inches of snow.

Because it happens more frequently, their infrastructure - including the roads, which have winter tarmac - is better, and it’s more cost effective to have everything on hand. In this area, it’s cheaper just to shut stuff down for a few days.

Except roads aren't the problem. Roads in Montgomery County are *usually* fine quickly after small to moderate snowfalls like we'll have tomorrow.

Which roads? All the roads that school buses throughout the county travel? Or just the ones near your house?

Did you know vehicles can drive on snow? Really, they can. Buses too!

School buses handle like cars on snow? Your kids must be on some fancy buses.

When did I say they handle like cars?

Ok, I understand now. This isn’t a real conversation. You are just bickering for the sake of it.

You're being pedantic. It's true large, rear-wheel drive buses handle differently than small front-wheel drive cars. But that doesn't mean either can't be driven in the snow.

There seems to be a belief herd that northern states have armies of snow-clearing equipment that clear all snow off all their roads, individual residential side streets.

They don't. People accept that they'll have to drive through snow. Carefully. That seems to be the major difference here.

Uhh...yes, they do have this. As well as salt trucks, which many here are opposed to. We also had a snow plow that would do the sidewalks. Both ran continuously starting when flakes fell. -Michigander who only counts a handful of childhood snow days and never drove to school on snow

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They can just go virtual. Problem solved.

They're not allowed to anymore. Everyone knows the virtual day last year was a joke.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They can just go virtual. Problem solved.

They're not allowed, unless they first use up all the makeup days.

[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:"Damage to school buildings, heating concerns, pipes"? It's barely below freezing and its just snow.

You people are ridiculous. Schools in the northeast don't have armies of facilities workers, either. They get it done because they're expected to get it done, and everyone accepts that the objective is "good enough" not "perfectly cleared of any evidence of snow".

You are severely underestimating the size of Montgomery County (and the attendant work) versus townships and towns in the NE.

And Montgomery County has correspondingly more resources.

Look at the large cities in the northeast. They don't shut down for several days for 6 inches of snow.

Because it happens more frequently, their infrastructure - including the roads, which have winter tarmac - is better, and it’s more cost effective to have everything on hand. In this area, it’s cheaper just to shut stuff down for a few days.

Except roads aren't the problem. Roads in Montgomery County are *usually* fine quickly after small to moderate snowfalls like we'll have tomorrow.

Which roads? All the roads that school buses throughout the county travel? Or just the ones near your house?

Did you know vehicles can drive on snow? Really, they can. Buses too!

School buses handle like cars on snow? Your kids must be on some fancy buses.

When did I say they handle like cars?

Ok, I understand now. This isn’t a real conversation. You are just bickering for the sake of it.

You're being pedantic. It's true large, rear-wheel drive buses handle differently than small front-wheel drive cars. But that doesn't mean either can't be driven in the snow.

There seems to be a belief herd that northern states have armies of snow-clearing equipment that clear all snow off all their roads, individual residential side streets.

They don't. People accept that they'll have to drive through snow. Carefully. That seems to be the major difference here.

Uhh...yes, they do have this. As well as salt trucks, which many here are opposed to. We also had a snow plow that would do the sidewalks. Both ran continuously starting when flakes fell. -Michigander who only counts a handful of childhood snow days and never drove to school on snow

They brine roads here too. Yes, people complain, but they it anyway. Plows run during the snow here, too (usually). The county said they're sending out trucks at 3pm tomorrow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They can just go virtual. Problem solved.

They're not allowed, unless they first use up all the makeup days.

And now the state law is explicit that IEPs must be implemented. After 5 years of being screwed over, families in MCPS with students that have special needs are going to hold them to that. And MCPS isn't going to want to pay for compensatory services for the special education supports and services that they can't provide on virtual days.