MCPS closing/delaying on Monday?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone needs to get a grip. No amount of vitriol here will change what day the kids go back to school. I realize some of you think this is fun...but sheesh, go play in the snow with your kid(s). And don't tell me you have to work, you're here, so clearly not.

I think most people here understand today's closure. Many also get why tomorrow will be closed. But they should be able to open on Wednesday, yet they probably won't. Hopefully the childcare providers will be allowed to open on Wednesday.

It is not just that people have to work. As someone else mentioned, kids with disabilities are not getting services while schools are closed. For us it meant a big delay in something my kid really needed because of the availability of the psychologist. I wasn't angry (that was a necessary closure) but please stop pretending this doesn't really affect anyone. Nearly half of MCPS students receive FARMS - do you really think their parents still get paid when they have to take off work?

They need to plan like the rest of us, sorry.

The plan for the situations I mentioned is people have less money they really need and kids don't get services they need. No other option.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I bet 2hr delay/no school Wednesday.

My bet is closed through Wed, then 2hr delay on Thursday. There have been previous storms where MCPS needed that long to recover from 4-5 inches and this storm is going to top that.

Honestly I wouldn't be surprised if Thursday is a closure too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone needs to get a grip. No amount of vitriol here will change what day the kids go back to school. I realize some of you think this is fun...but sheesh, go play in the snow with your kid(s). And don't tell me you have to work, you're here, so clearly not.

I think most people here understand today's closure. Many also get why tomorrow will be closed. But they should be able to open on Wednesday, yet they probably won't. Hopefully the childcare providers will be allowed to open on Wednesday.

It is not just that people have to work. As someone else mentioned, kids with disabilities are not getting services while schools are closed. For us it meant a big delay in something my kid really needed because of the availability of the psychologist. I wasn't angry (that was a necessary closure) but please stop pretending this doesn't really affect anyone. Nearly half of MCPS students receive FARMS - do you really think their parents still get paid when they have to take off work?

I’ve taught at a high farms school for the last seven years. The parents don’t stay home. The kids fend for themselves or there’s a relative or family friend who isn’t working.

I’m not judging. I was a poor kid myself. I’d get dropped off at some distant elderly relative’s home. When I got a bit older (8), I was responsible for younger siblings. Random coworkers of my parents would pick me up from school if the nurse insisted I go home.

I’m more concerned that some of my students last had a full meal on Friday afternoon and might not have a full one again until lunch on Wednesday. We don’t do breakfast when there’s a 2 hour delay. Some kids on FARMS get the food backpacks, but too few given the need. I need to be prepared to bring granola bars and fruit because hungry kids can’t learn.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just putting out there because we’re right in the midst of the big boundary study coming up… this is exactly why we need neighborhood schools. If everyone can walk to school, how long it takes to plow becomes less relevant.

I also wish that there could be some separation where some schools could open with others still working towards it….

But most MCPS employees don’t work at schools in the same neighborhood where they live, and schools can’t open without being staffed. Furthermore, if almost all students are expected to walk, sidewalks will need to be safe, which means you’re relying even more on the citizens of MoCo to clear and/or salt the sidewalks abutting their properties. I don’t know about you, but I definitely have neighbors who don’t adhere to snow removal ordinances.

I'm sorry, but some of you need to adjust your threshold over sidewalk "safety." Get your kids some boots and tell them to walk slow if needed. There are pleny of kids all over the northern parts of th US that trudge to the bus stop/school on icy sidewalks all winter long. And YES, I know that some of these places have sidewalk plows (I grew up in one of them) but honestly the plows just remove the top bits and then the lower layer ices over. Unless you truly scrape down to pavement and there's no daily melt/refreeze from adjacent areas, it's just the way it is.

You are wasting your (incessant) keystrokes. Schools will close no matter how much you complain. Cope.

For how long? Until kids can walk on dry sidewalks in sneakers all the way to school?

You want kids to fall and break their ankles/wrists? Ice is dangerous. Get a grip.

[Anonymous]

Absolutely betting on a snow day tomorrow. There's >6" on the ground and it's still coming down in my area, and the Montgomery County Snow Removal website estimates that they will finish plowing primary and neighborhood streets in my "service area" by 4:30 PM tomorrow (they are 2% done now, and of course there's more snow coming).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just putting out there because we’re right in the midst of the big boundary study coming up… this is exactly why we need neighborhood schools. If everyone can walk to school, how long it takes to plow becomes less relevant.

I also wish that there could be some separation where some schools could open with others still working towards it….

But most MCPS employees don’t work at schools in the same neighborhood where they live, and schools can’t open without being staffed. Furthermore, if almost all students are expected to walk, sidewalks will need to be safe, which means you’re relying even more on the citizens of MoCo to clear and/or salt the sidewalks abutting their properties. I don’t know about you, but I definitely have neighbors who don’t adhere to snow removal ordinances.

I'm sorry, but some of you need to adjust your threshold over sidewalk "safety." Get your kids some boots and tell them to walk slow if needed. There are pleny of kids all over the northern parts of th US that trudge to the bus stop/school on icy sidewalks all winter long. And YES, I know that some of these places have sidewalk plows (I grew up in one of them) but honestly the plows just remove the top bits and then the lower layer ices over. Unless you truly scrape down to pavement and there's no daily melt/refreeze from adjacent areas, it's just the way it is.

You are wasting your (incessant) keystrokes. Schools will close no matter how much you complain. Cope.

For how long? Until kids can walk on dry sidewalks in sneakers all the way to school?

You want kids to fall and break their ankles/wrists? Ice is dangerous. Get a grip.

Maybe we should just shut it all down until spring. You can't be too careful. You don't mind working through the summer, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone needs to get a grip. No amount of vitriol here will change what day the kids go back to school. I realize some of you think this is fun...but sheesh, go play in the snow with your kid(s). And don't tell me you have to work, you're here, so clearly not.

I think most people here understand today's closure. Many also get why tomorrow will be closed. But they should be able to open on Wednesday, yet they probably won't. Hopefully the childcare providers will be allowed to open on Wednesday.

It is not just that people have to work. As someone else mentioned, kids with disabilities are not getting services while schools are closed. For us it meant a big delay in something my kid really needed because of the availability of the psychologist. I wasn't angry (that was a necessary closure) but please stop pretending this doesn't really affect anyone. Nearly half of MCPS students receive FARMS - do you really think their parents still get paid when they have to take off work?

If you truly can’t handle any disruption, then you need to lobby for higher wages for school staff so they can afford to live in the county. Do you want to pay custodians higher wages so that their day starts at 5 am year round? No one is going to bend themselves into a pretzel because you are having a hissy fit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Looks like constant heavyish snow until evening and tomorrow temperature should be in the teens. I for one would not mind tomorrow being another snow day.

Tomorrow will be another snow day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone needs to get a grip. No amount of vitriol here will change what day the kids go back to school. I realize some of you think this is fun...but sheesh, go play in the snow with your kid(s). And don't tell me you have to work, you're here, so clearly not.

I think most people here understand today's closure. Many also get why tomorrow will be closed. But they should be able to open on Wednesday, yet they probably won't. Hopefully the childcare providers will be allowed to open on Wednesday.

It is not just that people have to work. As someone else mentioned, kids with disabilities are not getting services while schools are closed. For us it meant a big delay in something my kid really needed because of the availability of the psychologist. I wasn't angry (that was a necessary closure) but please stop pretending this doesn't really affect anyone. Nearly half of MCPS students receive FARMS - do you really think their parents still get paid when they have to take off work?

If you truly can’t handle any disruption, then you need to lobby for higher wages for school staff so they can afford to live in the county. Do you want to pay custodians higher wages so that their day starts at 5 am year round? No one is going to bend themselves into a pretzel because you are having a hissy fit.

What a sad life you must live

[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:

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!

Not a teacher and I work from home. My youngest of 4 is a sophomore and I know MCPS. They won’t even begin to shovel out schools until mid day Tuesday and the school parking lots and walkways will not be done and treated by Wednesday morning. It will easily be 3 days off

Mid-day Tuesday leaves plenty of time to clear parking lots and walkways by Wednesday morning.

I think we'll find that last January's failure was a wake-up call to MCPS admin. It was very unusual for the county to publicly call out MCPS's BS about the response to that storm. As screwed up as MCPS is, they must have made changes after that. I don't think we'll see a repeat.

MCPS never makes changes and there has never been a storm of a foot of snow and ice where schools weren’t closed for 3 days. If it was ending early Monday, maybe but the warning ends 1am Tuesday. If you all think the county will have 200+ school parking lots, bus lots, and walkways all cleared and treated in less than 24hrs, you are delusional.

I think there are some posters on this thread who aren’t aware of how much work there is to do (bus lots, parking lots, sidewalks, damage to school buildings, heating concerns, pipes, access roads, etc.).

They also aren’t aware of staffing issues, and that there isn’t an army of people at the ready to prepare all of these schools.

So to them, this is easy.

But you see, they don’t CARE. Their KIDS have been HOME for TWO WEEKS (insert dramatic gasp here).

MCPS has 25,000 employees, including 1500 building services employees. Do they disappear when it snows?

What does this even mean?

It means that, on average, each school has 6 or 7 employees, some of whom work part time and/or the evening shifts and have other jobs in the morning so they aren't available to help out with clearing in the morning.

That's incredibly poor planning if the people the school has hired to, in part, do snow removal aren't actually available when snow removal would be needed most.

Is that true? They don't expect building services workers to be available to work in the morning?

A lot of things of come out in this thread suggesting there are some very basic steps MCPS can take to make things significantlt better:

1) Ensure building services workers are available to work at ~5am during winter months.

2) Budget overtime for building services workers to do snow removal.

3) Allow building services to begin clearing sidewalks around schools before parking lots are cleared..

I'm guessing those aren't problems at all schools, but it sounds like different schools have some combination of those problems.

I mean, snow removal is really not their main job by a long shot? It's something they do a handful of days a year at most, some years never, and so they hire people based on the hours they are needed 98% of the time, not based on their snow day availability. (If you want them to be available for both, you should really be paying them more.)

It seems like there should be a different plan for snow removal, like contracting it out, or having a list of MCPS employees (of all types) who are potentially willing to pick up a snow removal shift for extra cash, or something like that.

You don't think MCPS would be able to hire building services workers if they required them to be available to work in the mornings? I bet they would. Those are more desirable jobs than something like a bus driver.

Half of all of the building services workers at any school I've worked at work part time in the evening after the kids are gone, and all the ones I know have other jobs, often jobs that will want them to come in and do snow removal there, but also things like health care, or food service. Do you think they would be able to fill those jobs, that don't on their own pay a livable income, if they didn't let them have a second job so they could be on call for the mornings? I do not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just putting out there because we’re right in the midst of the big boundary study coming up… this is exactly why we need neighborhood schools. If everyone can walk to school, how long it takes to plow becomes less relevant.

I also wish that there could be some separation where some schools could open with others still working towards it….

But most MCPS employees don’t work at schools in the same neighborhood where they live, and schools can’t open without being staffed. Furthermore, if almost all students are expected to walk, sidewalks will need to be safe, which means you’re relying even more on the citizens of MoCo to clear and/or salt the sidewalks abutting their properties. I don’t know about you, but I definitely have neighbors who don’t adhere to snow removal ordinances.

I'm sorry, but some of you need to adjust your threshold over sidewalk "safety." Get your kids some boots and tell them to walk slow if needed. There are pleny of kids all over the northern parts of th US that trudge to the bus stop/school on icy sidewalks all winter long. And YES, I know that some of these places have sidewalk plows (I grew up in one of them) but honestly the plows just remove the top bits and then the lower layer ices over. Unless you truly scrape down to pavement and there's no daily melt/refreeze from adjacent areas, it's just the way it is.

You are wasting your (incessant) keystrokes. Schools will close no matter how much you complain. Cope.

For how long? Until kids can walk on dry sidewalks in sneakers all the way to school?

You want kids to fall and break their ankles/wrists? Ice is dangerous. Get a grip.

Maybe we should just shut it all down until spring. You can't be too careful. You don't mind working through the summer, right?

DP. If MCPS made sure schools had working AC, I would gladly teach through the summer.

My classroom regularly reaches 88 deg in late May. I had to wait until the professional day to pack last year and the room was 92 deg.

It’s not just my school. I reluctantly agreed to sub summer school once. It was so hot that kids got nosebleeds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I bet 2hr delay/no school Wednesday.

At least a 2 hour delay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just putting out there because we’re right in the midst of the big boundary study coming up… this is exactly why we need neighborhood schools. If everyone can walk to school, how long it takes to plow becomes less relevant.

I also wish that there could be some separation where some schools could open with others still working towards it….

But most MCPS employees don’t work at schools in the same neighborhood where they live, and schools can’t open without being staffed. Furthermore, if almost all students are expected to walk, sidewalks will need to be safe, which means you’re relying even more on the citizens of MoCo to clear and/or salt the sidewalks abutting their properties. I don’t know about you, but I definitely have neighbors who don’t adhere to snow removal ordinances.

I'm sorry, but some of you need to adjust your threshold over sidewalk "safety." Get your kids some boots and tell them to walk slow if needed. There are pleny of kids all over the northern parts of th US that trudge to the bus stop/school on icy sidewalks all winter long. And YES, I know that some of these places have sidewalk plows (I grew up in one of them) but honestly the plows just remove the top bits and then the lower layer ices over. Unless you truly scrape down to pavement and there's no daily melt/refreeze from adjacent areas, it's just the way it is.

You are wasting your (incessant) keystrokes. Schools will close no matter how much you complain. Cope.

For how long? Until kids can walk on dry sidewalks in sneakers all the way to school?

You want kids to fall and break their ankles/wrists? Ice is dangerous. Get a grip.

Maybe we should just shut it all down until spring. You can't be too careful. You don't mind working through the summer, right?

DP. If MCPS made sure schools had working AC, I would gladly teach through the summer.

My classroom regularly reaches 88 deg in late May. I had to wait until the professional day to pack last year and the room was 92 deg.

It’s not just my school. I reluctantly agreed to sub summer school once. It was so hot that kids got nosebleeds.

Can you share the names of the schools that reached such high temps? My kids' MCPS schools, or at least the classrooms they were in, never reached those, but I know from a friend that the art room at Woodlin ES, years ago, used to reach 90F. Don't know if they fixed it.

[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:

Anonymous wrote:

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!

Not a teacher and I work from home. My youngest of 4 is a sophomore and I know MCPS. They won’t even begin to shovel out schools until mid day Tuesday and the school parking lots and walkways will not be done and treated by Wednesday morning. It will easily be 3 days off

Mid-day Tuesday leaves plenty of time to clear parking lots and walkways by Wednesday morning.

I think we'll find that last January's failure was a wake-up call to MCPS admin. It was very unusual for the county to publicly call out MCPS's BS about the response to that storm. As screwed up as MCPS is, they must have made changes after that. I don't think we'll see a repeat.

MCPS never makes changes and there has never been a storm of a foot of snow and ice where schools weren’t closed for 3 days. If it was ending early Monday, maybe but the warning ends 1am Tuesday. If you all think the county will have 200+ school parking lots, bus lots, and walkways all cleared and treated in less than 24hrs, you are delusional.

I think there are some posters on this thread who aren’t aware of how much work there is to do (bus lots, parking lots, sidewalks, damage to school buildings, heating concerns, pipes, access roads, etc.).

They also aren’t aware of staffing issues, and that there isn’t an army of people at the ready to prepare all of these schools.

So to them, this is easy.

But you see, they don’t CARE. Their KIDS have been HOME for TWO WEEKS (insert dramatic gasp here).

MCPS has 25,000 employees, including 1500 building services employees. Do they disappear when it snows?

What does this even mean?

It means that, on average, each school has 6 or 7 employees, some of whom work part time and/or the evening shifts and have other jobs in the morning so they aren't available to help out with clearing in the morning.

That's incredibly poor planning if the people the school has hired to, in part, do snow removal aren't actually available when snow removal would be needed most.

Is that true? They don't expect building services workers to be available to work in the morning?

A lot of things of come out in this thread suggesting there are some very basic steps MCPS can take to make things significantlt better:

1) Ensure building services workers are available to work at ~5am during winter months.

2) Budget overtime for building services workers to do snow removal.

3) Allow building services to begin clearing sidewalks around schools before parking lots are cleared..

I'm guessing those aren't problems at all schools, but it sounds like different schools have some combination of those problems.

I mean, snow removal is really not their main job by a long shot? It's something they do a handful of days a year at most, some years never, and so they hire people based on the hours they are needed 98% of the time, not based on their snow day availability. (If you want them to be available for both, you should really be paying them more.)

It seems like there should be a different plan for snow removal, like contracting it out, or having a list of MCPS employees (of all types) who are potentially willing to pick up a snow removal shift for extra cash, or something like that.

You don't think MCPS would be able to hire building services workers if they required them to be available to work in the mornings? I bet they would. Those are more desirable jobs than something like a bus driver.

Half of all of the building services workers at any school I've worked at work part time in the evening after the kids are gone, and all the ones I know have other jobs, often jobs that will want them to come in and do snow removal there, but also things like health care, or food service. Do you think they would be able to fill those jobs, that don't on their own pay a livable income, if they didn't let them have a second job so they could be on call for the mornings? I do not.

This.

Our PM staff all either come straight from their AM job or leave at 10 pm for their overnight job. They are highly sought after and usually get poached by their other employer to go FT. We’ve lost three people to local hospitals this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just putting out there because we’re right in the midst of the big boundary study coming up… this is exactly why we need neighborhood schools. If everyone can walk to school, how long it takes to plow becomes less relevant.

I also wish that there could be some separation where some schools could open with others still working towards it….

But most MCPS employees don’t work at schools in the same neighborhood where they live, and schools can’t open without being staffed. Furthermore, if almost all students are expected to walk, sidewalks will need to be safe, which means you’re relying even more on the citizens of MoCo to clear and/or salt the sidewalks abutting their properties. I don’t know about you, but I definitely have neighbors who don’t adhere to snow removal ordinances.

I'm sorry, but some of you need to adjust your threshold over sidewalk "safety." Get your kids some boots and tell them to walk slow if needed. There are pleny of kids all over the northern parts of th US that trudge to the bus stop/school on icy sidewalks all winter long. And YES, I know that some of these places have sidewalk plows (I grew up in one of them) but honestly the plows just remove the top bits and then the lower layer ices over. Unless you truly scrape down to pavement and there's no daily melt/refreeze from adjacent areas, it's just the way it is.

You are wasting your (incessant) keystrokes. Schools will close no matter how much you complain. Cope.

For how long? Until kids can walk on dry sidewalks in sneakers all the way to school?

You want kids to fall and break their ankles/wrists? Ice is dangerous. Get a grip.

Maybe we should just shut it all down until spring. You can't be too careful. You don't mind working through the summer, right?

DP. If MCPS made sure schools had working AC, I would gladly teach through the summer.

My classroom regularly reaches 88 deg in late May. I had to wait until the professional day to pack last year and the room was 92 deg.

It’s not just my school. I reluctantly agreed to sub summer school once. It was so hot that kids got nosebleeds.

Can you share the names of the schools that reached such high temps? My kids' MCPS schools, or at least the classrooms they were in, never reached those, but I know from a friend that the art room at Woodlin ES, years ago, used to reach 90F. Don't know if they fixed it.

Eastern and SSIMS