MCPS closed tomorrow

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Classroom teacher here. We ALL could use this ordained-opportunity not to gripe and groan about a most unfortunate and potentially, catastrophic incident; but to offer Grace and Grow. Even if it's not in the curriculum or the parent handbook, everyday we are faced with "Pivot and Turn" moments. This is one of them. For those folks who are so quick to move on from "Giving Thanks" Thursday:

1. Make a moment to check in with a family member
2. Prepare a meal for one of families in Gaithersburg who are still seeking shelter. PTA?? Boosters???
3. Gather some neighborhood kids and rake an elderly person's yard.
4. Create a learning pod for 2 of your kids friends
5. Library visit anyone?
6. Watch a neighbor's kids for 1 hr so they can go to the grocery store or pick up a prescription or even Go To Work.

Or how about unplug, decompress and just go outside an Breathe ......release from this whirlwind season and allow Our children to be THEIR BEST for the rest of this week?....just a thought. SEL starts at home, we're here to enhance what the children already know.

1 Father = 100 Teachers

It’s quite telling that it didn’t even occur to this teacher that other people actually have to work today.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Classroom teacher here. We ALL could use this ordained-opportunity not to gripe and groan about a most unfortunate and potentially, catastrophic incident; but to offer Grace and Grow. Even if it's not in the curriculum or the parent handbook, everyday we are faced with "Pivot and Turn" moments. This is one of them. For those folks who are so quick to move on from "Giving Thanks" Thursday:

1. Make a moment to check in with a family member
2. Prepare a meal for one of families in Gaithersburg who are still seeking shelter. PTA?? Boosters???
3. Gather some neighborhood kids and rake an elderly person's yard.
4. Create a learning pod for 2 of your kids friends
5. Library visit anyone?
6. Watch a neighbor's kids for 1 hr so they can go to the grocery store or pick up a prescription or even Go To Work.

Or how about unplug, decompress and just go outside an Breathe ......release from this whirlwind season and allow Our children to be THEIR BEST for the rest of this week?....just a thought. SEL starts at home, we're here to enhance what the children already know.

1 Father = 100 Teachers

It’s quite telling that it didn’t even occur to this teacher that other people actually have to work today.

Maybe they assume that if you have this much time to post on an anonymous forum surely you can channel that into time with your family. All of those options can still be done after work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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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 t⁷heir 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?

So hiiarious.. you know nothing about me or the ages of my children, or about their needs. You're grasping. One thing you should know...they should be in school today.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I am glad schools are closed. I think they made the right call. I am going hang my holiday lights outside while my kiddos sleep in.

Enjoy your paid day off. But understand this isn’t how MCPS rebuilds trust with parents. That’s going to come back to bite you as more and more parents realize they can’t count on the public school system.

No one cares if you trust MCPS or not.
Feel free to leave and move to PG or Frederick or to private school.
Some of you parents are the worst. Chill out a little.
I used to live in Indiana and man, this area is so uptight.
Everyone is constantly just complaining and whining about every little thing.
Maybe look in the mirror. Rant over now.

Like the teacher that complained that she couldn’t possibly be expected to go to work if she wasn’t able to blow dry her hair this morning?

I’m from the midwest, too. There’s absolutely no way this would have closed schools where I grew up.

+1
People in the midwest where I'm from would never tolerate half this bullshit and it wouldn't happen in the first place.

They just whine about tornado closures.

A tornado closure? What’s that? Kids go to school when there are tornado watches. It wouldn’t even occur to someone to do otherwise.

If there was tornado the night before? Again, the kids are almost certainly going to school the next day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Classroom teacher here. We ALL could use this ordained-opportunity not to gripe and groan about a most unfortunate and potentially, catastrophic incident; but to offer Grace and Grow. Even if it's not in the curriculum or the parent handbook, everyday we are faced with "Pivot and Turn" moments. This is one of them. For those folks who are so quick to move on from "Giving Thanks" Thursday:

1. Make a moment to check in with a family member
2. Prepare a meal for one of families in Gaithersburg who are still seeking shelter. PTA?? Boosters???
3. Gather some neighborhood kids and rake an elderly person's yard.
4. Create a learning pod for 2 of your kids friends
5. Library visit anyone?
6. Watch a neighbor's kids for 1 hr so they can go to the grocery store or pick up a prescription or even Go To Work.

Or how about unplug, decompress and just go outside an Breathe ......release from this whirlwind season and allow Our children to be THEIR BEST for the rest of this week?....just a thought. SEL starts at home, we're here to enhance what the children already know.

1 Father = 100 Teachers

It’s quite telling that it didn’t even occur to this teacher that other people actually have to work today.

Sounds like you might benefit from taking their advice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Classroom teacher here. We ALL could use this ordained-opportunity not to gripe and groan about a most unfortunate and potentially, catastrophic incident; but to offer Grace and Grow. Even if it's not in the curriculum or the parent handbook, everyday we are faced with "Pivot and Turn" moments. This is one of them. For those folks who are so quick to move on from "Giving Thanks" Thursday:

1. Make a moment to check in with a family member
2. Prepare a meal for one of families in Gaithersburg who are still seeking shelter. PTA?? Boosters???
3. Gather some neighborhood kids and rake an elderly person's yard.
4. Create a learning pod for 2 of your kids friends
5. Library visit anyone?
6. Watch a neighbor's kids for 1 hr so they can go to the grocery store or pick up a prescription or even Go To Work.

Or how about unplug, decompress and just go outside an Breathe ......release from this whirlwind season and allow Our children to be THEIR BEST for the rest of this week?....just a thought. SEL starts at home, we're here to enhance what the children already know.

1 Father = 100 Teachers

It’s quite telling that it didn’t even occur to this teacher that other people actually have to work today.

Maybe they assume that if you have this much time to post on an anonymous forum surely you can channel that into time with your family. All of those options can still be done after work.

Not if your kids are young.

[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

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.

I know this is so super inconvenient. I had to cancel my pilates class!@

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Classroom teacher here. We ALL could use this ordained-opportunity not to gripe and groan about a most unfortunate and potentially, catastrophic incident; but to offer Grace and Grow. Even if it's not in the curriculum or the parent handbook, everyday we are faced with "Pivot and Turn" moments. This is one of them. For those folks who are so quick to move on from "Giving Thanks" Thursday:

1. Make a moment to check in with a family member
2. Prepare a meal for one of families in Gaithersburg who are still seeking shelter. PTA?? Boosters???
3. Gather some neighborhood kids and rake an elderly person's yard.
4. Create a learning pod for 2 of your kids friends
5. Library visit anyone?
6. Watch a neighbor's kids for 1 hr so they can go to the grocery store or pick up a prescription or even Go To Work.

Or how about unplug, decompress and just go outside an Breathe ......release from this whirlwind season and allow Our children to be THEIR BEST for the rest of this week?....just a thought. SEL starts at home, we're here to enhance what the children already know.

1 Father = 100 Teachers

It’s quite telling that it didn’t even occur to this teacher that other people actually have to work today.

Maybe they assume that if you have this much time to post on an anonymous forum surely you can channel that into time with your family. All of those options can still be done after work.

Not if your kids are young.

Yes, even then.

[Anonymous]

Responding to you takes 30 seconds. Your arguments are not super strong. Trust me, my kids are right here laughing with me because I never respond on these boards...we are evaluating what makes a sound argument.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Responding to you takes 30 seconds. Your arguments are not super strong. Trust me, my kids are right here laughing with me because I never respond on these boards...we are evaluating what makes a sound argument.

I don't think I have an argument - I just think you all are incredibly silly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Responding to you takes 30 seconds. Your arguments are not super strong. Trust me, my kids are right here laughing with me because I never respond on these boards...we are evaluating what makes a sound argument.

OMG it's a beautiful day, take your kids outside rather than read them DCUM posts- yuck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Responding to you takes 30 seconds. Your arguments are not super strong. Trust me, my kids are right here laughing with me because I never respond on these boards...we are evaluating what makes a sound argument.

You’re responding to multiple posters, PP. not surprised you bring your kids to this forum. That explains a lot.

[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?

That's not MCPS. They don't have over 200K people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Responding to you takes 30 seconds. Your arguments are not super strong. Trust me, my kids are right here laughing with me because I never respond on these boards...we are evaluating what makes a sound argument.

OMG it's a beautiful day, take your kids outside rather than read them DCUM posts- yuck.

YUCK! HOW DO YOU KNOW WE ARENT OUTSIDE!!! HAHAHA! Come on, do better. You can.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

That's not MCPS. They don't have over 200K people.

160,000 students plus 22,000 staff = 182,000. This person rounded up to 200k. They did not say over 200k. This nitpicking does not help your argument.