MCPS closed tomorrow

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Why do you think bus dispatching systems and internet servers aren't back up? Power has been back on for hours now.

Because at 4am, when they had to make the final call, it was not yet clear that they were all working. Which you don’t know either. All you know is that you read on some news site that “power’s back on.”

I am floored that people seem to think that when there’s a disaster at midnight somehow all of MCPS staff is up all night making sure every last thing is smooth just so they can drop off their child by 7 am.

It’s not a “disaster” it’s a power outage. Yesterday.

This isn’t the 19th century. Things turn back on and then they work.

Says someone who never worked IT.

[Anonymous]

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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.

I agree with most of this except #7. That's a dangerous argument to make. Families know which school their child attends. Each school has a principal and staff that know who attends their school should be able to communicate with parents. I hear that there are other reasons why they needed to close all the schools but this should not be one of them.

Yes, this. Especially when they have closed small groups of schools in the past due to power outages, water main breaks, etc. For future reference, I would like them to specify the threshold of how many schools need to affected by a situation like this in order for them to decide to close all 210 schools.

Nice “I want to speak to the manager NOW vibes”

Take a xanny.

It's a legitimate question. If the threshold is 25% of schools affected, it would be helpful to know that.

THIS

44 schools were affected. There are over 200 schools in MCPS.

So, maybe about 20% of the schools lost power. Why can’t the rest of the schools stay open?

Makes zero sense. And I can’t believe parents are just fine with this nonsense in such a supposedly ‘well-educated’ county.

Do you think each school is its own independent entity? Literally everything is controlled centrally, even heating systems and internet, not to mention buses and lunches.

Why have previous power outages only shut down the affected schools?

It’s apples to oranges. These aren’t typical power lines from a snowstorm buddy.

Which is relevant to Pepco, not MCPS. Pepco got the power back on to schools with plenty of time to reopen this morning.

Actually, it is. They don’t make decisions in isolation. Other agencies help determine if it’s safe to open ragrdinf transportation, etc.

Is any other business/school not open? Privates are open. I only know of one pool that can't open today because it's systems need more time to run filters. Please explain why only MCPS must close.

Name another operation in MoCo that runs on over 200 campuses involving 200K people?

Right? It's sooooo big. Not nimble at all.

Given how MCPS has historically had no problem waiting until 6am to make a decision about a school day closure, I'm guessing Pepco must have advised them that power disruptions would continue through the day at a large number of schools. In the grand scheme of things, it's amazing no one was hurt. But yes, it was a surprise to wake up and realize I'd have to take the day off. I think Kids After Hours was trying to figure out if they could open at our school (the flights only flickered in our area) but couldn't since admin offices were closed. So it goes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh be quiet. All you are doing is pushing more teachers out and bringing in unqualified subs. Keep complaining parents and yes figure out why you have zero interest in spending time with your kids. You are cliearly the problem!

So silly. I taught school for 18 years. Questioning a superintendents poor decision is not a situation that would cause me to quit. Teachers are smarter than that and the issues are far larger. Maybe look into it more?

Questioning a superintendent won’t push people out. Arguing that schools were closed solely to benefit teachers because they are too dumb to get dressed in the dark or too spoiled to not blow dry their hair is a continuation of the abuse that has gone on the past couple years and some people are sick of it.

I could leave in 9 years with full retirement. I could quit at the end of the year and do something else (I’m a career changer). I could go out on medical disability tomorrow and we’d be okay financially. I choose to teach because I love working with most of your kids. The hatred online is starting to seep into IRL interactions with parents and kids though. I’m sick of the assumptions about how I spend my time when a class is not in session. I’ll spend most of today grading. Took a 5 min break to look at DCUM while using the bathroom —which feels luxurious given that I don’t get a pee break during a regular school day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids need to be in school. It's like you don't value education. I don't need a break. I can handle my kids, but I want them to get an education. Model resilience and maturity for your kids.

We have two emergency closure days built into the schedule. Take a breath.

Unfortunately, this isn't the first poor decision. You should take a breath. Just hoping that all these pathetic arguments are actually kids and not adults posting. Gonna hold on to that hope.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids need to be in school. It's like you don't value education. I don't need a break. I can handle my kids, but I want them to get an education. Model resilience and maturity for your kids.

We have two emergency closure days built into the schedule. Take a breath.

Unfortunately, this isn't the first poor decision. You should take a breath. Just hoping that all these pathetic arguments are actually kids and not adults posting. Gonna hold on to that hope.

DP who is amazed at the frequency you check and reply on this site while claiming that this decision makes your day chaos

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids need to be in school. It's like you don't value education. I don't need a break. I can handle my kids, but I want them to get an education. Model resilience and maturity for your kids.

We have two emergency closure days built into the schedule. Take a breath.

Unfortunately, this isn't the first poor decision. You should take a breath. Just hoping that all these pathetic arguments are actually kids and not adults posting. Gonna hold on to that hope.

DP who is amazed at the frequency you check and reply on this site while claiming that this decision makes your day chaos

I never, ever said that today's closure makes my life chaos. You're confusing me with someone else. I said that kids need to be in school, learning. And, yes, these arguments supporting today's closure are so silly and scary all at the same time. I am simply amazed.

[Anonymous]

If you truly want to be amazed check out the similar thread on off topic about the power outrage and then compare to this one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids need to be in school. It's like you don't value education. I don't need a break. I can handle my kids, but I want them to get an education. Model resilience and maturity for your kids.

We have two emergency closure days built into the schedule. Take a breath.

Unfortunately, this isn't the first poor decision. You should take a breath. Just hoping that all these pathetic arguments are actually kids and not adults posting. Gonna hold on to that hope.

DP who is amazed at the frequency you check and reply on this site while claiming that this decision makes your day chaos

But when the attack goes personal...you know that the person on the other side is grasping for anything they can get their hands on. Love it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids need to be in school. It's like you don't value education. I don't need a break. I can handle my kids, but I want them to get an education. Model resilience and maturity for your kids.

We have two emergency closure days built into the schedule. Take a breath.

Unfortunately, this isn't the first poor decision. You should take a breath. Just hoping that all these pathetic arguments are actually kids and not adults posting. Gonna hold on to that hope.

DP who is amazed at the frequency you check and reply on this site while claiming that this decision makes your day chaos

But when the attack goes personal...you know that the person on the other side is grasping for anything they can get their hands on. Love it.

Nah, I’m a DP and amazed that you have the time and energy to be on DCUM right now. Aren’t you supposed to be trying to work and watch your kids?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids need to be in school. It's like you don't value education. I don't need a break. I can handle my kids, but I want them to get an education. Model resilience and maturity for your kids.

We have two emergency closure days built into the schedule. Take a breath.

Unfortunately, this isn't the first poor decision. You should take a breath. Just hoping that all these pathetic arguments are actually kids and not adults posting. Gonna hold on to that hope.

DP who is amazed at the frequency you check and reply on this site while claiming that this decision makes your day chaos

But when the attack goes personal...you know that the person on the other side is grasping for anything they can get their hands on. Love it.

What do I have to grasp at? People here are losing their minds over what effectively is an early snow day. I'm just chilling and laughing at team big mad

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids need to be in school. It's like you don't value education. I don't need a break. I can handle my kids, but I want them to get an education. Model resilience and maturity for your kids.

We have two emergency closure days built into the schedule. Take a breath.

Unfortunately, this isn't the first poor decision. You should take a breath. Just hoping that all these pathetic arguments are actually kids and not adults posting. Gonna hold on to that hope.

DP who is amazed at the frequency you check and reply on this site while claiming that this decision makes your day chaos

But when the attack goes personal...you know that the person on the other side is grasping for anything they can get their hands on. Love it.

Nah, I’m a DP and amazed that you have the time and energy to be on DCUM right now. Aren’t you supposed to be trying to work and watch your kids?

Lol! Pot meet kettle

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can you imagine the outcry if at 5am they took back their message that schools were closed???

Yes, and that would have been wrong. The message last night could have said that schools would have been on 2-hour delay the following day, with an update by the following morning. Then this morning's update could have been: all schools will open 2 hours late as expected, or, all schools except the following: [list of still-closed schools].

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids need to be in school. It's like you don't value education. I don't need a break. I can handle my kids, but I want them to get an education. Model resilience and maturity for your kids.

We have two emergency closure days built into the schedule. Take a breath.

Unfortunately, this isn't the first poor decision. You should take a breath. Just hoping that all these pathetic arguments are actually kids and not adults posting. Gonna hold on to that hope.

DP who is amazed at the frequency you check and reply on this site while claiming that this decision makes your day chaos

But when the attack goes personal...you know that the person on the other side is grasping for anything they can get their hands on. Love it.

What do I have to grasp at? People here are losing their minds over what effectively is an early snow day. I'm just chilling and laughing at team big mad

Maybe you should use some of your free time to review the test results that came from MCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids need to be in school. It's like you don't value education. I don't need a break. I can handle my kids, but I want them to get an education. Model resilience and maturity for your kids.

We have two emergency closure days built into the schedule. Take a breath.

Unfortunately, this isn't the first poor decision. You should take a breath. Just hoping that all these pathetic arguments are actually kids and not adults posting. Gonna hold on to that hope.

DP who is amazed at the frequency you check and reply on this site while claiming that this decision makes your day chaos

But when the attack goes personal...you know that the person on the other side is grasping for anything they can get their hands on. Love it.

What do I have to grasp at? People here are losing their minds over what effectively is an early snow day. I'm just chilling and laughing at team big mad

Maybe you should use some of your free time to review the test results that came from MCPS.

No thanks this is much more entertaining. Not really worried about MCPS test scores

[Anonymous]

Wow! I hope this site is not a true representation of MCPS parents.
It would be wise to model grace and flexibility for your children.
Children get more influenced by their home environment than by school