Early release Monday?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:That's dumb, but at least they're not closing.

Are the buildings at least staying open for child care?

It’s a school system, not a child-care provider. The goal is getting kids home before the severe weather hits.

Get over yourself. Our aftercare provider is staying open.

Your aftercare staying open isn’t the flex you think it is. Managing a handful of kids indoors isn’t the same as getting an entire district home safely.

Keeping kids (and staff) inside a school building is safe and reasonable in the conditions expected. Much better than being on a bus or walking around outdoors, which is what we are trying to avoid with early dismissal.

Right, let’s just keep thousands of kids trapped in classrooms until normal dismissal while a Level 4 storm hits outside. Totally reasonable.

You don't seem to understand what level 4 means here.

Well, the level 4 level means we will have a good chance to see tornadoes in our area tomorrow afternoon and we will most likely be put under a tornado warning by 1pm tomorrow. According to Doug Kammerer, the storms will move through between 2-6pm and into the metro area between 3-5pm. Damaging winds are likely to occur and you don’t want to get caught outside when the storms roll through.

All of this supports the early dismissal that MCPS (and multiple other counties) has announced.

It's a 10-15% chance of tornadoes. That's certainty not "most likely."

Yes, we'll be under a tornado watch, but that doesn't mean much. They don't call a warning until they see one visually or on radar.

We're not even under a tornado watch yet which at this point I find a bit strange- there are a lot of "warnings" about the weather but we are under no actual weather advisory from NWS. Not even a wind advsiory which is in effect in other parts of MD.

Why would we be under a watch now? The conditions aren't currently right for tornadoes. Later they will be, but not now.

Sorry my bad, I always thought watches were typically issued hours in advance- like I could swear in the summer we'd often get heads-up early in the day from the summer swim team if there was potential for disruption of vening meets if there was a severe thunderstorm watch.

My mom in SW PA is under a wind advisory. I would be glad if we don't get the bad winds here I was just surprised this area was left out.

Not PP but the bad stuff is really not scheduled to hit until later. I understand why MCPS called for an early release but cancelling afterschool activities might have been sufficient.

It would have, but then they wouldn't have gotten to take the afternoon off (paid).

Teacher here. I got through most of my content today, so learning definitely happened at school. I’m now at home grading, like I am every single weeknight. The main difference is I’ll grade for a couple more hours than usual because I have more time.

Want to tell me more about taking afternoons off?

That's work you would have had to do at another time, so yes, it is equivalent to paid time off.

Why are you here instead of working? Why do you have the day off?

Because I had to get my kids early!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What a waste. This storm so far has been a nothing burger. I know MCPS and every other district and OPM went by the forecast... but the forecast was clearly wrong.

It seems to have been a nothing burger.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That's dumb, but at least they're not closing.

Are the buildings at least staying open for child care?

It’s a school system, not a child-care provider. The goal is getting kids home before the severe weather hits.

Get over yourself. Our aftercare provider is staying open.

Your aftercare staying open isn’t the flex you think it is. Managing a handful of kids indoors isn’t the same as getting an entire district home safely.

Keeping kids (and staff) inside a school building is safe and reasonable in the conditions expected. Much better than being on a bus or walking around outdoors, which is what we are trying to avoid with early dismissal.

Right, let’s just keep thousands of kids trapped in classrooms until normal dismissal while a Level 4 storm hits outside. Totally reasonable.

You don't seem to understand what level 4 means here.

Well, the level 4 level means we will have a good chance to see tornadoes in our area tomorrow afternoon and we will most likely be put under a tornado warning by 1pm tomorrow. According to Doug Kammerer, the storms will move through between 2-6pm and into the metro area between 3-5pm. Damaging winds are likely to occur and you don’t want to get caught outside when the storms roll through.

All of this supports the early dismissal that MCPS (and multiple other counties) has announced.

It's a 10-15% chance of tornadoes. That's certainty not "most likely."

Yes, we'll be under a tornado watch, but that doesn't mean much. They don't call a warning until they see one visually or on radar.

We're not even under a tornado watch yet which at this point I find a bit strange- there are a lot of "warnings" about the weather but we are under no actual weather advisory from NWS. Not even a wind advsiory which is in effect in other parts of MD.

Why would we be under a watch now? The conditions aren't currently right for tornadoes. Later they will be, but not now.

Sorry my bad, I always thought watches were typically issued hours in advance- like I could swear in the summer we'd often get heads-up early in the day from the summer swim team if there was potential for disruption of vening meets if there was a severe thunderstorm watch.

My mom in SW PA is under a wind advisory. I would be glad if we don't get the bad winds here I was just surprised this area was left out.

Not PP but the bad stuff is really not scheduled to hit until later. I understand why MCPS called for an early release but cancelling afterschool activities might have been sufficient.

It would have, but then they wouldn't have gotten to take the afternoon off (paid).

Teacher here. I got through most of my content today, so learning definitely happened at school. I’m now at home grading, like I am every single weeknight. The main difference is I’ll grade for a couple more hours than usual because I have more time.

Want to tell me more about taking afternoons off?

That's work you would have had to do at another time, so yes, it is equivalent to paid time off.

You're a moron. Salaried workers can normally leave work whenever we are done with are work. Source: myself. I leave work around noon every day because my employer knows they don't have to babysit me because I'm an adult. This goes for the rest of the employees at my Fortune 500 company. Sounds like your boss just doesn't trust you to do your job, or you have a bad job. Either way, leave teachers alone.

The point is, by closing school early, there was less work. This isn't a case of working efficiently and finished hours early.

How was there less work?

The teachers still had to plan. In fact, they had to alter plans to fit the new bell schedule. So they planned twice.

Teachers still had to teach. In fact, they had to teach students who were more anxious because of the weather (and the hype about the weather, which is not the teachers’ fault).

Teachers still had to perform extra duties as assigned. In fact, many had to cover for their colleagues who didn’t make it in.

Teachers still had to collect formative data. And teachers still have to evaluate and record it.

Today was just as much work as any other day, even if it was crammed into fewer hours. And teachers still head home to get ready for the next day, doing hours of unpaid work at home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What a waste. This storm so far has been a nothing burger. I know MCPS and every other district and OPM went by the forecast... but the forecast was clearly wrong.

The forecast was unpredictable, as they often are with weather this severe. The problem is that if it had been as severe as it could have been, it would have been very dangerous, so school districts and OPM played it safe. If it had just been MCPS, I'd be annoyed. But OPM very, very rarely sends people home in the middle of the day, so for once I don't fault our decisions makers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What a waste. This storm so far has been a nothing burger. I know MCPS and every other district and OPM went by the forecast... but the forecast was clearly wrong.

The meteorologists are already doing mea culpas on X. Agree that the real problem is that MCPS seems to be unable to build in sufficient snow days in the calendar to ensure reasonable make ups.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What a waste. This storm so far has been a nothing burger. I know MCPS and every other district and OPM went by the forecast... but the forecast was clearly wrong.

The meteorologists are already doing mea culpas on X. Agree that the real problem is that MCPS seems to be unable to build in sufficient snow days in the calendar to ensure reasonable make ups.

https://x.com/matthewcappucci/status/2033646320217366975?s=46&t=R3AX3c486LFdeZpFtkN_eA

It’s not that there were not any tornadoes. It was not even a storm worth writing about.

[Anonymous]

I don't blame MCPS at all for today, which I assume does not affect the issue with the length of school year since they did have school today.

But yeah when they added a bunch of days off for Eid and Juneteenth they really should have lengthened the school year to ensure they could comply with the law.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What a waste. This storm so far has been a nothing burger. I know MCPS and every other district and OPM went by the forecast... but the forecast was clearly wrong.

The meteorologists are already doing mea culpas on X. Agree that the real problem is that MCPS seems to be unable to build in sufficient snow days in the calendar to ensure reasonable make ups.

I'm grateful that when I make mistakes in my job, no body dies or loses their child care. Meteorologists save lives. They have to make predictions and appropriate warnings knowing it is all very uncertain. With climate change, things are just going to continue to get harder for them.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That's dumb, but at least they're not closing.

Are the buildings at least staying open for child care?

It’s a school system, not a child-care provider. The goal is getting kids home before the severe weather hits.

Get over yourself. Our aftercare provider is staying open.

Your aftercare staying open isn’t the flex you think it is. Managing a handful of kids indoors isn’t the same as getting an entire district home safely.

Keeping kids (and staff) inside a school building is safe and reasonable in the conditions expected. Much better than being on a bus or walking around outdoors, which is what we are trying to avoid with early dismissal.

Right, let’s just keep thousands of kids trapped in classrooms until normal dismissal while a Level 4 storm hits outside. Totally reasonable.

You don't seem to understand what level 4 means here.

Well, the level 4 level means we will have a good chance to see tornadoes in our area tomorrow afternoon and we will most likely be put under a tornado warning by 1pm tomorrow. According to Doug Kammerer, the storms will move through between 2-6pm and into the metro area between 3-5pm. Damaging winds are likely to occur and you don’t want to get caught outside when the storms roll through.

All of this supports the early dismissal that MCPS (and multiple other counties) has announced.

It's a 10-15% chance of tornadoes. That's certainty not "most likely."

Yes, we'll be under a tornado watch, but that doesn't mean much. They don't call a warning until they see one visually or on radar.

We're not even under a tornado watch yet which at this point I find a bit strange- there are a lot of "warnings" about the weather but we are under no actual weather advisory from NWS. Not even a wind advsiory which is in effect in other parts of MD.

Why would we be under a watch now? The conditions aren't currently right for tornadoes. Later they will be, but not now.

Sorry my bad, I always thought watches were typically issued hours in advance- like I could swear in the summer we'd often get heads-up early in the day from the summer swim team if there was potential for disruption of vening meets if there was a severe thunderstorm watch.

My mom in SW PA is under a wind advisory. I would be glad if we don't get the bad winds here I was just surprised this area was left out.

Not PP but the bad stuff is really not scheduled to hit until later. I understand why MCPS called for an early release but cancelling afterschool activities might have been sufficient.

It would have, but then they wouldn't have gotten to take the afternoon off (paid).

Teacher here. I got through most of my content today, so learning definitely happened at school. I’m now at home grading, like I am every single weeknight. The main difference is I’ll grade for a couple more hours than usual because I have more time.

Want to tell me more about taking afternoons off?

That's work you would have had to do at another time, so yes, it is equivalent to paid time off.

You're a moron. Salaried workers can normally leave work whenever we are done with are work. Source: myself. I leave work around noon every day because my employer knows they don't have to babysit me because I'm an adult. This goes for the rest of the employees at my Fortune 500 company. Sounds like your boss just doesn't trust you to do your job, or you have a bad job. Either way, leave teachers alone.

The point is, by closing school early, there was less work. This isn't a case of working efficiently and finished hours early.

You do not have the profession of a teacher. Just because you went to school hardly makes you an authority how much work exists. There was by no means less work. What you REALLY mean is, there was less free childcare for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That's dumb, but at least they're not closing.

Are the buildings at least staying open for child care?

It’s a school system, not a child-care provider. The goal is getting kids home before the severe weather hits.

Get over yourself. Our aftercare provider is staying open.

Your aftercare staying open isn’t the flex you think it is. Managing a handful of kids indoors isn’t the same as getting an entire district home safely.

Keeping kids (and staff) inside a school building is safe and reasonable in the conditions expected. Much better than being on a bus or walking around outdoors, which is what we are trying to avoid with early dismissal.

Right, let’s just keep thousands of kids trapped in classrooms until normal dismissal while a Level 4 storm hits outside. Totally reasonable.

You don't seem to understand what level 4 means here.

Well, the level 4 level means we will have a good chance to see tornadoes in our area tomorrow afternoon and we will most likely be put under a tornado warning by 1pm tomorrow. According to Doug Kammerer, the storms will move through between 2-6pm and into the metro area between 3-5pm. Damaging winds are likely to occur and you don’t want to get caught outside when the storms roll through.

All of this supports the early dismissal that MCPS (and multiple other counties) has announced.

It's a 10-15% chance of tornadoes. That's certainty not "most likely."

Yes, we'll be under a tornado watch, but that doesn't mean much. They don't call a warning until they see one visually or on radar.

We're not even under a tornado watch yet which at this point I find a bit strange- there are a lot of "warnings" about the weather but we are under no actual weather advisory from NWS. Not even a wind advsiory which is in effect in other parts of MD.

Why would we be under a watch now? The conditions aren't currently right for tornadoes. Later they will be, but not now.

Sorry my bad, I always thought watches were typically issued hours in advance- like I could swear in the summer we'd often get heads-up early in the day from the summer swim team if there was potential for disruption of vening meets if there was a severe thunderstorm watch.

My mom in SW PA is under a wind advisory. I would be glad if we don't get the bad winds here I was just surprised this area was left out.

Not PP but the bad stuff is really not scheduled to hit until later. I understand why MCPS called for an early release but cancelling afterschool activities might have been sufficient.

It would have, but then they wouldn't have gotten to take the afternoon off (paid).

Teacher here. I got through most of my content today, so learning definitely happened at school. I’m now at home grading, like I am every single weeknight. The main difference is I’ll grade for a couple more hours than usual because I have more time.

Want to tell me more about taking afternoons off?

That's work you would have had to do at another time, so yes, it is equivalent to paid time off.

Why are you here instead of working? Why do you have the day off?

Because I had to get my kids early!

So..you had to be a parent to the children you are raising. Just like the rest of us. Grow up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That's dumb, but at least they're not closing.

Are the buildings at least staying open for child care?

It’s a school system, not a child-care provider. The goal is getting kids home before the severe weather hits.

Get over yourself. Our aftercare provider is staying open.

Your aftercare staying open isn’t the flex you think it is. Managing a handful of kids indoors isn’t the same as getting an entire district home safely.

Keeping kids (and staff) inside a school building is safe and reasonable in the conditions expected. Much better than being on a bus or walking around outdoors, which is what we are trying to avoid with early dismissal.

Right, let’s just keep thousands of kids trapped in classrooms until normal dismissal while a Level 4 storm hits outside. Totally reasonable.

You don't seem to understand what level 4 means here.

Well, the level 4 level means we will have a good chance to see tornadoes in our area tomorrow afternoon and we will most likely be put under a tornado warning by 1pm tomorrow. According to Doug Kammerer, the storms will move through between 2-6pm and into the metro area between 3-5pm. Damaging winds are likely to occur and you don’t want to get caught outside when the storms roll through.

All of this supports the early dismissal that MCPS (and multiple other counties) has announced.

It's a 10-15% chance of tornadoes. That's certainty not "most likely."

Yes, we'll be under a tornado watch, but that doesn't mean much. They don't call a warning until they see one visually or on radar.

We're not even under a tornado watch yet which at this point I find a bit strange- there are a lot of "warnings" about the weather but we are under no actual weather advisory from NWS. Not even a wind advsiory which is in effect in other parts of MD.

Why would we be under a watch now? The conditions aren't currently right for tornadoes. Later they will be, but not now.

Sorry my bad, I always thought watches were typically issued hours in advance- like I could swear in the summer we'd often get heads-up early in the day from the summer swim team if there was potential for disruption of vening meets if there was a severe thunderstorm watch.

My mom in SW PA is under a wind advisory. I would be glad if we don't get the bad winds here I was just surprised this area was left out.

Not PP but the bad stuff is really not scheduled to hit until later. I understand why MCPS called for an early release but cancelling afterschool activities might have been sufficient.

It would have, but then they wouldn't have gotten to take the afternoon off (paid).

Teacher here. I got through most of my content today, so learning definitely happened at school. I’m now at home grading, like I am every single weeknight. The main difference is I’ll grade for a couple more hours than usual because I have more time.

Want to tell me more about taking afternoons off?

That's work you would have had to do at another time, so yes, it is equivalent to paid time off.

You're a moron. Salaried workers can normally leave work whenever we are done with are work. Source: myself. I leave work around noon every day because my employer knows they don't have to babysit me because I'm an adult. This goes for the rest of the employees at my Fortune 500 company. Sounds like your boss just doesn't trust you to do your job, or you have a bad job. Either way, leave teachers alone.

The point is, by closing school early, there was less work. This isn't a case of working efficiently and finished hours early.

How was there less work?

The teachers still had to plan. In fact, they had to alter plans to fit the new bell schedule. So they planned twice.

Teachers still had to teach. In fact, they had to teach students who were more anxious because of the weather (and the hype about the weather, which is not the teachers’ fault).

Teachers still had to perform extra duties as assigned. In fact, many had to cover for their colleagues who didn’t make it in.

Teachers still had to collect formative data. And teachers still have to evaluate and record it.

Today was just as much work as any other day, even if it was crammed into fewer hours. And teachers still head home to get ready for the next day, doing hours of unpaid work at home.

It wasn't as much as any other day. Or if it was, it was only because people were doing work that would have still had to be done on a different day.

Surely you see that, don't you?

[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:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That's dumb, but at least they're not closing.

Are the buildings at least staying open for child care?

It’s a school system, not a child-care provider. The goal is getting kids home before the severe weather hits.

Get over yourself. Our aftercare provider is staying open.

Your aftercare staying open isn’t the flex you think it is. Managing a handful of kids indoors isn’t the same as getting an entire district home safely.

Keeping kids (and staff) inside a school building is safe and reasonable in the conditions expected. Much better than being on a bus or walking around outdoors, which is what we are trying to avoid with early dismissal.

Right, let’s just keep thousands of kids trapped in classrooms until normal dismissal while a Level 4 storm hits outside. Totally reasonable.

You don't seem to understand what level 4 means here.

Well, the level 4 level means we will have a good chance to see tornadoes in our area tomorrow afternoon and we will most likely be put under a tornado warning by 1pm tomorrow. According to Doug Kammerer, the storms will move through between 2-6pm and into the metro area between 3-5pm. Damaging winds are likely to occur and you don’t want to get caught outside when the storms roll through.

All of this supports the early dismissal that MCPS (and multiple other counties) has announced.

It's a 10-15% chance of tornadoes. That's certainty not "most likely."

Yes, we'll be under a tornado watch, but that doesn't mean much. They don't call a warning until they see one visually or on radar.

We're not even under a tornado watch yet which at this point I find a bit strange- there are a lot of "warnings" about the weather but we are under no actual weather advisory from NWS. Not even a wind advsiory which is in effect in other parts of MD.

Why would we be under a watch now? The conditions aren't currently right for tornadoes. Later they will be, but not now.

Sorry my bad, I always thought watches were typically issued hours in advance- like I could swear in the summer we'd often get heads-up early in the day from the summer swim team if there was potential for disruption of vening meets if there was a severe thunderstorm watch.

My mom in SW PA is under a wind advisory. I would be glad if we don't get the bad winds here I was just surprised this area was left out.

Not PP but the bad stuff is really not scheduled to hit until later. I understand why MCPS called for an early release but cancelling afterschool activities might have been sufficient.

It would have, but then they wouldn't have gotten to take the afternoon off (paid).

Teacher here. I got through most of my content today, so learning definitely happened at school. I’m now at home grading, like I am every single weeknight. The main difference is I’ll grade for a couple more hours than usual because I have more time.

Want to tell me more about taking afternoons off?

That's work you would have had to do at another time, so yes, it is equivalent to paid time off.

You're a moron. Salaried workers can normally leave work whenever we are done with are work. Source: myself. I leave work around noon every day because my employer knows they don't have to babysit me because I'm an adult. This goes for the rest of the employees at my Fortune 500 company. Sounds like your boss just doesn't trust you to do your job, or you have a bad job. Either way, leave teachers alone.

The point is, by closing school early, there was less work. This isn't a case of working efficiently and finished hours early.

How was there less work?

The teachers still had to plan. In fact, they had to alter plans to fit the new bell schedule. So they planned twice.

Teachers still had to teach. In fact, they had to teach students who were more anxious because of the weather (and the hype about the weather, which is not the teachers’ fault).

Teachers still had to perform extra duties as assigned. In fact, many had to cover for their colleagues who didn’t make it in.

Teachers still had to collect formative data. And teachers still have to evaluate and record it.

Today was just as much work as any other day, even if it was crammed into fewer hours. And teachers still head home to get ready for the next day, doing hours of unpaid work at home.

It wasn't as much as any other day. Or if it was, it was only because people were doing work that would have still had to be done on a different day.

Surely you see that, don't you?

I’ve been teaching a very long time. I’m well aware there’s extra work to be done when the schedule changes: revised lessons, pivots for tests and presentations, etc. There are also additional duties. On days like today, we tend to have more absences. That means we pick up extra classes. And nothing stops. The grading doesn’t stop. The emails don’t stop.

Do you teach?

[Anonymous]

Fact: forecasts are a prediction
Fact: meteorologists typically don’t win the lottery or have the best stock portfolios…because they predict not foresee

At the end of the day staying in school was the wrong answer and releasing early was the wrong answer. Kids got home before the predicted worse.

In summation: better to be wrong and safe vs wrong and not safe

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Fact: forecasts are a prediction
Fact: meteorologists typically don’t win the lottery or have the best stock portfolios…because they predict not foresee

At the end of the day staying in school was the wrong answer and releasing early was the wrong answer. Kids got home before the predicted worse.

In summation: better to be wrong and safe vs wrong and not safe

I agree with you wrt today, but this rule suggests MCPS should play it safe no matter how high the risk is. Today the risk was unusually high. But the 4th day after the snow has stopped and some buses might get stuck is trickier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Fact: forecasts are a prediction
Fact: meteorologists typically don’t win the lottery or have the best stock portfolios…because they predict not foresee

At the end of the day staying in school was the wrong answer and releasing early was the wrong answer. Kids got home before the predicted worse.

In summation: better to be wrong and safe vs wrong and not safe

Today demonstrates the problem with that. They released high schools right around the peak of the storm.

We didn't know when it was going to hit. Clearly MCPS and other districts (rightfully) concluded that the risks of the storm didn't justify systemwide closures. But then picking an early release time and sticking to it wasn't the safe choice, either. The safe choice would have been going to the end of the day and delaying if the storm was ongoing and severe at the time of dismissal.

But obviously some people don't want the safest option, either.

If we were willing to roll the dice for the conditions at early dismissal time, why not roll the dice for conditions at normal dismissal time?