What do we think will happen on Monday?

[Anonymous]

How are all the rec sports and preschools back in session but FCPS can't get it together? My girls have been back at their gymnastics and swim lessons since Wednesday with classes completely full. Our neighbors go to a private school and they were back on Thursday no delay. We have to do better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I get neighborhood streets - I think even the bus stops in those are fine, they’re residential 25 mph roads - but it’s the sidewalks along major roadways, buried under 2 feet of ice chunks, that are not in anyone’s neighborhood or property or HOA or whatever, along roads with 45 mph speed limits and 1.75 lanes, that are the problem for the walkers. And the special ed buses.

It's the same in any of the jurisdictions that have already opened this week.

It's not as if some people didn't get the cement like snow and have amazing and business owners who cleared everything.

Nobody else opened this week except DCPS which has multiple public transportation options that the Virginia suburbs do not. Arlington, Montgomery, Loudoun did not open.

Falls church opened.

They’re small

I know they’re small. But PP said no neighboring schools opened and that’s not true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I get neighborhood streets - I think even the bus stops in those are fine, they’re residential 25 mph roads - but it’s the sidewalks along major roadways, buried under 2 feet of ice chunks, that are not in anyone’s neighborhood or property or HOA or whatever, along roads with 45 mph speed limits and 1.75 lanes, that are the problem for the walkers. And the special ed buses.

It's the same in any of the jurisdictions that have already opened this week.

It's not as if some people didn't get the cement like snow and have amazing and business owners who cleared everything.

Nobody else opened this week except DCPS which has multiple public transportation options that the Virginia suburbs do not. Arlington, Montgomery, Loudoun did not open.

Falls church opened.

They’re small

I know they’re small. But PP said no neighboring schools opened and that’s not true.

Oh, I see. I didn’t read carefully enough. Sorry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How are all the rec sports and preschools back in session but FCPS can't get it together? My girls have been back at their gymnastics and swim lessons since Wednesday with classes completely full. Our neighbors go to a private school and they were back on Thursday no delay. We have to do better.

Because FCPS is huge and getting the busses running for the whole county in this weather and these conditions (great in some areas, bad in others) is not an easy feat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How are all the rec sports and preschools back in session but FCPS can't get it together? My girls have been back at their gymnastics and swim lessons since Wednesday with classes completely full. Our neighbors go to a private school and they were back on Thursday no delay. We have to do better.

None of those things are remotely similar to FCPS. Parents bring their kids to those things. They are responsible for transportation and there are no buses, bus stops or walkers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How are all the rec sports and preschools back in session but FCPS can't get it together? My girls have been back at their gymnastics and swim lessons since Wednesday with classes completely full. Our neighbors go to a private school and they were back on Thursday no delay. We have to do better.

Because FCPS is huge and getting the busses running for the whole county in this weather and these conditions (great in some areas, bad in others) is not an easy feat.

I’m just summarizing what other people wrote, by the way. I have no idea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It seems like bad optics to have buildings open for youth and school sports and activities/events but not for learning.

Nice try, but no. You cannot compare a few hundred kids getting to a school gym with their parents to over 180,000 kids going to schools via walking, cars and buses plus staff. No one sees the open gyms as bad optics.

This is not about the buildings being ready. They are. It’s about moving safely in and around the neighborhoods.

Ok teacher who wants another week off.

Who said anything about being a teacher or wanting a week off? The response was to someone who was opining that it’s bad optics to have buildings open for sports. That opinion shows poor logic. That’s it.

PP-have you always been slow-witted or is it a recent phenomenon?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It seems like bad optics to have buildings open for youth and school sports and activities/events but not for learning.

Nice try, but no. You cannot compare a few hundred kids getting to a school gym with their parents to over 180,000 kids going to schools via walking, cars and buses plus staff. No one sees the open gyms as bad optics.

This is not about the buildings being ready. They are. It’s about moving safely in and around the neighborhoods.

Ok teacher who wants another week off.

Who said anything about being a teacher or wanting a week off? The response was to someone who was opining that it’s bad optics to have buildings open for sports. That opinion shows poor logic. That’s it.

PP-have you always been slow-witted or is it a recent phenomenon?

Yep definitely a teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That email just caused more confusion. We are trying to reppen but we can’t stay closed forever but loan your neighbor a metal shovel to dig out the bus stop or you’re not going back to school but maybe we can make it work if you carpool.

You summed it up perfectly. That’s exactly what the email said! Confusing!

I fantasize about taking over MCPS comms some days. Their messages are so badly written sometimes that I think people would be shocked if they had someone who suddenly was sending out better written messages with useful content for parents.

[Anonymous]

I think we have to open with 2-hour delays until we get some ice melt, to at least have kids and drivers in daylight with the reduced road space and lack of sidewalks.

[Anonymous]

You can blame FCPS all you want but all our school’s sidewalks and parking lots have been completely cleared up. You know what hasn’t been cleaned? Sidewalks surrounding the school and even the roads around the area. I left the house after one week and was shocked to see how none of the neighbors around our school had bothered to clean their sidewalk.

It’s a mess and it is not the fault of FCPS. They have no control over who cleans their snow or not. These people couldn’t care less about their sidewalks that are used by kids to get to school. They just didn’t bother to clean it. So please direct your anger towards VDOT and your neighbors who are too lazy to clean their snow. I just don’t understand how FCPS is at fault here and I’m a parent who has a lot of complains against FCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can blame FCPS all you want but all our school’s sidewalks and parking lots have been completely cleared up. You know what hasn’t been cleaned? Sidewalks surrounding the school and even the roads around the area. I left the house after one week and was shocked to see how none of the neighbors around our school had bothered to clean their sidewalk.

It’s a mess and it is not the fault of FCPS. They have no control over who cleans their snow or not. These people couldn’t care less about their sidewalks that are used by kids to get to school. They just didn’t bother to clean it. So please direct your anger towards VDOT and your neighbors who are too lazy to clean their snow. I just don’t understand how FCPS is at fault here and I’m a parent who has a lot of complains against FCPS.

Some jurisdictions have laws that require homeowners to shovel the walkway in front of their house.
Some jurisdictions don't plow the snow into the school bus stops so that there is no where safe for kids to stand. This would require communication across different levels of state and local government....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It seems like bad optics to have buildings open for youth and school sports and activities/events but not for learning.

Nice try, but no. You cannot compare a few hundred kids getting to a school gym with their parents to over 180,000 kids going to schools via walking, cars and buses plus staff. No one sees the open gyms as bad optics.

This is not about the buildings being ready. They are. It’s about moving safely in and around the neighborhoods.

Ok teacher who wants another week off.

Who said anything about being a teacher or wanting a week off? The response was to someone who was opining that it’s bad optics to have buildings open for sports. That opinion shows poor logic. That’s it.

PP-have you always been slow-witted or is it a recent phenomenon?

Yep definitely a teacher.

Agree. The quick wit gives it away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can blame FCPS all you want but all our school’s sidewalks and parking lots have been completely cleared up. You know what hasn’t been cleaned? Sidewalks surrounding the school and even the roads around the area. I left the house after one week and was shocked to see how none of the neighbors around our school had bothered to clean their sidewalk.

It’s a mess and it is not the fault of FCPS. They have no control over who cleans their snow or not. These people couldn’t care less about their sidewalks that are used by kids to get to school. They just didn’t bother to clean it. So please direct your anger towards VDOT and your neighbors who are too lazy to clean their snow. I just don’t understand how FCPS is at fault here and I’m a parent who has a lot of complains against FCPS.

You can blame your neighbors and county residents but this storm was not like others and shoveling several feet of sidewalk and bus stop corners became impossible and if it wasn’t done by now it’s likely not going to happen. Even if we shovel the sidewalk, the corner bus stop is now covered in a plowed 3’ pile that isn’t possible to shovel away by Monday. You can’t expect that every person in the county was going to be able to shovel sidewalks and bus stops.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can blame FCPS all you want but all our school’s sidewalks and parking lots have been completely cleared up. You know what hasn’t been cleaned? Sidewalks surrounding the school and even the roads around the area. I left the house after one week and was shocked to see how none of the neighbors around our school had bothered to clean their sidewalk.

It’s a mess and it is not the fault of FCPS. They have no control over who cleans their snow or not. These people couldn’t care less about their sidewalks that are used by kids to get to school. They just didn’t bother to clean it. So please direct your anger towards VDOT and your neighbors who are too lazy to clean their snow. I just don’t understand how FCPS is at fault here and I’m a parent who has a lot of complains against FCPS.

You can blame your neighbors and county residents but this storm was not like others and shoveling several feet of sidewalk and bus stop corners became impossible and if it wasn’t done by now it’s likely not going to happen. Even if we shovel the sidewalk, the corner bus stop is now covered in a plowed 3’ pile that isn’t possible to shovel away by Monday. You can’t expect that every person in the county was going to be able to shovel sidewalks and bus stops.

I get this was a storm like no other but why did these people not shovel their sidewalk? If every resident had done their part we won’t be in this predicament right now. We are in the Langley pyramid and there are no sidewalks shoveled and the plow trucks did a terrible job cleaning the streets. Such ineptness all around. I have lived in the Midwest and in the northeast and I have never seen such a poor job of cleaning the snow. There literally is no place for the poor kids to walk! And people keep blaming FCPS which is absurd.