MCPS closed tomorrow

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We all have Covid after our Thanksgiving super spreader so this day means one less day of absence from school for the kids.

I hope you all get better soon. There will be many families and even teachers in the same boat. And they might not have realized it if school had been in session today. The closure may help prevent some spread.

Honestly, MCPS might want to consider closing Wednesday to Tuesday next year anyway.

You have got to be kidding. Sadly I know you're not. Why teach the kids at all between Thanksgiving and Christmas?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We all have Covid after our Thanksgiving super spreader so this day means one less day of absence from school for the kids.

You took the risk and got Covid. So, what is your point?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We all have Covid after our Thanksgiving super spreader so this day means one less day of absence from school for the kids.

I hope you all get better soon. There will be many families and even teachers in the same boat. And they might not have realized it if school had been in session today. The closure may help prevent some spread.

Honestly, MCPS might want to consider closing Wednesday to Tuesday next year anyway.

You have got to be kidding. Sadly I know you're not. Why teach the kids at all between Thanksgiving and Christmas?

Mcps is mandated by the state to have a specific amount of instructional days. They don’t have a lot of flexibility.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You people need to get lives.
Anyway. Did today come out of the Snow Day bank?

Yes. Yes, it did.

So there is now just one snow day remaining in the bank.

Don't worry about it. I remember years ago I could have sworn we used a snow day for a potential hurricane day. Not to mention all the times the schools have been closed for rain.

You really are a parent of a young child, aren't you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You people need to get lives.
Anyway. Did today come out of the Snow Day bank?

You say this as you post to the same forum. “You all need to get a life. Oh, by the way…”

Right, because it was a question about logistics to my calendar, not sitting around bickering

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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 n⁵eighborhood 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.

So, if you work and have children in school, what is your emergency backup plan if they are sick and can't go to school? What is your emergency backup plan if there was a snow storm and they couldn't go to school?

All parents should have an emergency backup plan if school is not available. Just because you don't have one is not a reason to blame the school or teachers. They had nothing to do with this decision. The problem is that an accident happened that has caused an emergency in the eastern seaboard power grid. The power company has a lot of work to do and at some point will likely have to shut power down again and the schools have as little control over that scenario as you do. So, rather than getting all those kids into schools where the power, HVAC, telephones and all operating equipment in the facility may go out an any time today for an unpredictable amount of time, the school system is closing today to ensure all children are safe at home. It is easier for parents to take care of their own children at home if the power goes out again than trying to handle hundreds or thousands of students at school in that situation.

Oh no, another silly argument.where is the school's back up plan? So what if the power goes out? Power didn't even flicker in our cluster.

How often do you coordinate the schedule of 200 campuses, 22K employees and 165K students? The plan is what they did. They closed schools and had staff report and do safety and equipment checks on all facilities.

Trying to plan different schedules for 44 out of 200 schools becomes a logistical nightmare. Especially when the next major event and partial closing comes around and a different set of schools has conditions where some schools can open and some schools have to close. If they used these scenarios, then by the 3rd quarter, you'd have like 100 different plans in place and trying to juggle which school has this problem and which school has that schedule and so on. You can still open when you have only a few schools that have an issue, but by the time you get to 10 schools impacted, you close to avoid creating a huge logistical explosion.

Why not just close the 44 affected schools? This is different from say, a snowstorm where conditions may vary across the county. At a certain point last night, these schools simply didn't have power. If MCPS can't plan around that type of scenario, it's saying a lot. I get that shutting down the whole system is EASIER, but it doesn't mean they should just take the easy way out every time.

I suspect the answer to this involves the fact that major administrative offices and the bus depot and food services buildings were also affected. It’s a question MCPS may answer for clarification in the future.

But more importantly, why do you think you know any better than they do? Where does this assumption come from that since you have one single child who you send to a school you somehow know how to run this giant system?

DP. I think it's natural for parents to have questions. There is precedent to only close certain schools for power outages- I was trying to remember what happened after Irene so thanks to the PP for posting that! So I do think it would be helpful if MCPS clarified why this was treated differently, e.g., if the power outages were affecting MCPS-wide services, or if the number of affected schools was above an internal threshold where closing all the schools is preferable for X reason.

I don't really get the argument about schools being on different schedules though as a good reason to close all though. If MCPS uses all the emergency closure days, surely this is a case they could petition the state to waive a makeup day for those schools.

This is a smart post. I’ve been assuming that it affected central offices too much. It may also be an issue with how thinly staffed they are. If 20% of teachers at the schools with power can’t attend because their kids schools are closed, then the system probably can’t function. We have no fat on the bones here — no subs and no extra bodies. It makes us much more vulnerable to any unplanned event.

Teacher here and I'm sure that played into it- if my kids had been at one of the affected schools I would have been taking leave because my spouse left for a work trip this morning. Everyone always says "have an emergency backup plan!!" but truth is with no local family the backup plan is typically one of us staying home.

And, that is ok for you to take off.

The point is that teachers taking off + no subs = logistical challenges. If I take an unplanned leave day, it generally doesn't matter. I'll just get back to it tomorrow. When a teacher is absent and there is no sub, you still need to find somewhere to put the kids.

[Anonymous]

I do have an emergency backup plan. But it's not easy and it's not cheap, and it is perfectly reasonable to be upset to have to activate an emergency plan when there is no emergency. Power has been restored. Pepco is not shutting the power down. This was a pointless closure.


You really have no idea what is involved when you take out one point of the eastern seaboard power grid, do you? The tower that was hit was a major point in the grid. They've diverted power around that tower so that they could shut it down. After they get the plane disentangled from the tower and the work crews repair all the damage to the tower and the power cables and ensure that the tower is safe to power on, they are going to have to put the tower back into the grid. Do you think they can do that without another major power outage? Unlikely. There is likely to be another scheduled power outage whenever they return to the power grid to the design configuration and they don't want to have the kids in school when that happens because they don't know when it will happen and for how long. Power, HVAC and phones will likely go out (mostly because not one uses phones that don't require power anymore). And transportation will be logistical nightmare if they have to cope with a power outage affected 20% of the schools in the system, even if it is scheduled. Most likely when it is scheduled there will be maybe an hour's notice, but that's not enough to get all students out of the building and on their way home.

I'm here, still waiting for the entire eastern seaboard's power to be shut off for an hour.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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 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.

No matter the ages of your children, they need you more than DCUM does.

Obviously you don't have an ounce of common sense. You do need me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We all have Covid after our Thanksgiving super spreader so this day means one less day of absence from school for the kids.

I hope you all get better soon. There will be many families and even teachers in the same boat. And they might not have realized it if school had been in session today. The closure may help prevent some spread.

Honestly, MCPS might want to consider closing Wednesday to Tuesday next year anyway.

You have got to be kidding. Sadly I know you're not. Why teach the kids at all between Thanksgiving and Christmas?

Don't forget about New Years. Or MLK. Or Valentine's Day. Or Memorial Day.

You better just keep the kids home until summer vacation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I do have an emergency backup plan. But it's not easy and it's not cheap, and it is perfectly reasonable to be upset to have to activate an emergency plan when there is no emergency. Power has been restored. Pepco is not shutting the power down. This was a pointless closure.


You really have no idea what is involved when you take out one point of the eastern seaboard power grid, do you? The tower that was hit was a major point in the grid. They've diverted power around that tower so that they could shut it down. After they get the plane disentangled from the tower and the work crews repair all the damage to the tower and the power cables and ensure that the tower is safe to power on, they are going to have to put the tower back into the grid. Do you think they can do that without another major power outage? Unlikely. There is likely to be another scheduled power outage whenever they return to the power grid to the design configuration and they don't want to have the kids in school when that happens because they don't know when it will happen and for how long. Power, HVAC and phones will likely go out (mostly because not one uses phones that don't require power anymore). And transportation will be logistical nightmare if they have to cope with a power outage affected 20% of the schools in the system, even if it is scheduled. Most likely when it is scheduled there will be maybe an hour's notice, but that's not enough to get all students out of the building and on their way home.

I'm here, still waiting for the entire eastern seaboard's power to be shut off for an hour.

Word on the street is that it might happen tomorrow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I do have an emergency backup plan. But it's not easy and it's not cheap, and it is perfectly reasonable to be upset to have to activate an emergency plan when there is no emergency. Power has been restored. Pepco is not shutting the power down. This was a pointless closure.


You really have no idea what is involved when you take out one point of the eastern seaboard power grid, do you? The tower that was hit was a major point in the grid. They've diverted power around that tower so that they could shut it down. After they get the plane disentangled from the tower and the work crews repair all the damage to the tower and the power cables and ensure that the tower is safe to power on, they are going to have to put the tower back into the grid. Do you think they can do that without another major power outage? Unlikely. There is likely to be another scheduled power outage whenever they return to the power grid to the design configuration and they don't want to have the kids in school when that happens because they don't know when it will happen and for how long. Power, HVAC and phones will likely go out (mostly because not one uses phones that don't require power anymore). And transportation will be logistical nightmare if they have to cope with a power outage affected 20% of the schools in the system, even if it is scheduled. Most likely when it is scheduled there will be maybe an hour's notice, but that's not enough to get all students out of the building and on their way home.

I'm here, still waiting for the entire eastern seaboard's power to be shut off for an hour.

Word on the street is that it might happen tomorrow.

Better shut down schools another day!

And, just to make sure things are stable after that, we better keep them closed on Wednesday, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I do have an emergency backup plan. But it's not easy and it's not cheap, and it is perfectly reasonable to be upset to have to activate an emergency plan when there is no emergency. Power has been restored. Pepco is not shutting the power down. This was a pointless closure.


You really have no idea what is involved when you take out one point of the eastern seaboard power grid, do you? The tower that was hit was a major point in the grid. They've diverted power around that tower so that they could shut it down. After they get the plane disentangled from the tower and the work crews repair all the damage to the tower and the power cables and ensure that the tower is safe to power on, they are going to have to put the tower back into the grid. Do you think they can do that without another major power outage? Unlikely. There is likely to be another scheduled power outage whenever they return to the power grid to the design configuration and they don't want to have the kids in school when that happens because they don't know when it will happen and for how long. Power, HVAC and phones will likely go out (mostly because not one uses phones that don't require power anymore). And transportation will be logistical nightmare if they have to cope with a power outage affected 20% of the schools in the system, even if it is scheduled. Most likely when it is scheduled there will be maybe an hour's notice, but that's not enough to get all students out of the building and on their way home.

I'm here, still waiting for the entire eastern seaboard's power to be shut off for an hour.

Word on the street is that it might happen tomorrow.

Better shut down schools another day!

And, just to make sure things are stable after that, we better keep them closed on Wednesday, too.

And if this is going to affect the entire eastern seaboard, shouldn't schools be shutdown elsewhere too?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We all have Covid after our Thanksgiving super spreader so this day means one less day of absence from school for the kids.

You took the risk and got Covid. So, what is your point?

Well the rest of us who chose to be cautious and not travel did not have to make the difficult choice whether to keep our kids home today because of people like you. Silver linings!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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 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.

No matter the ages of your children, they need you more than DCUM does.

Obviously you don't have an ounce of common sense. You do need me.

Nah, but it’s good that you are focusing on us rather than warping your children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You people need to get lives.
Anyway. Did today come out of the Snow Day bank?

You say this as you post to the same forum. “You all need to get a life. Oh, by the way…”

Right, because it was a question about logistics to my calendar, not sitting around bickering

Yet here you are