There will be no school all week - Here is why.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They should have been working on this all of last week. Clown behavior.

4 billion dollar budget.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"...whose owners chose to do nothing". This says more (in a bad way) about the Principal than the neighbors.

FCPS principals put up with a lot. I’m fine with the comment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why can't parents drive kids if they can't walk?? It seems my options are to either take off an entire day of work and stay home with my kids, or drive them to school. I think all working parents will choose #2.

I get that school isn't childcare, but schools need to understand that parents have to work.

Longfellow Middle School has almost 1600 kids. Not possible for 1600 cars to be dropping off kids. Now, imagine ALL the schools doing that... Also, not all parents have cars. Fairfax is 405 square miles.

[Anonymous]

FCPS should have opened with an excused absence for anyone who didn't feel comfortable sending their child to do. I believe they will get enough push back that they will do this tomorrow. This is absurd.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Report from a real live principal:
I sent an email to facilities about remaining ice in our parking lot where kids would exit the bus. Within 30 minutes there were contracted crews here working on it.

I’d like to see if I can get them to take care of the sidewalks of the few houses across the street from the school whose owners chose to do nothing. The sidewalks are untouched sheets of ice. That probably won’t happen which means students won’t be able to safely get to the crossing guard at the crosswalk.

Transportation supervisors are going around and looking at stops. They are working with VDOT to clear them.

We really do want the kids back in school.

Thank you for caring! And for trying to so something about the sidewalks. Our school has the same situation - ice and piles of snow on one side of the street and no sidewalk on the other side. This is really dangerous for walkers especially when the number of cars is higher than usual. Kids walk in the middle of the street, cars are turning while only paying attention to other cars. I am planning to leave earlier and take a detour just to avoid that particular spot once schools reopen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op - you are comparing apples to oranges.

"A foot of snow in NE" is drastically different than 7 inches of snowcrete.
Mid Atlantic states don't have the resources. They just don't. NE states, given their consistent winter weather, do have endless parades of snow plows, dump trucks to haul away snow, a cavalry of workers and contractors.
The mid Atlantic, not so much.

Plus, ice is a different beast . I'd love to have a foot of snow instead like what NE gets.

Sorry but we do have the exact same type of snowcrete in the Philly area. Almost all went back to school on Wednesday (some even Tuesday). It has sucked every day with the narrow streets/snow banks and only ~80% of sidewalks plowed, but they opened up (even had virtual Mon/Tues for my one daughter). I do agree as you go up the coast the ability to handle the bigger snow storms is better, but Philly isn't super far away and also doesn't really have the big snow budget either. This particular storm was really mismanaged as other posters have pointed out.

This is NO different than any other winter storm in the DMV. Zero.Difference. It's totally expected.
- 35 years of experience as NoVA Resident

[Anonymous]

Back in the.day schools would have been open last week regardless of sidewalks or bus stops.

[Anonymous]

They should cone off the entire side of a street near a school that doesn’t have available sidewalks, kind of like a bike lane or when there is a road race. If there isn’t a clear area for kids to walk in front of the schools and the road is the only option, make a barricade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Back in the.day schools would have been open last week regardless of sidewalks or bus stops.

Back in the day they didn’t have 15+ days off for unjustifiable reasons and the deserved the praise they received as being one of the best school districts in the country.

Those days are long gone. Some people here (myself included) struggle to admit that we bought into a reputation that is no longer deserved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should have been working on this all of last week. Clown behavior.

4 billion dollar budget.

For some reason, I'm always surprised on the stupidity of some of the comments on DCUM.
Dear Poster, How much of the $4B is for snow removal?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They should cone off the entire side of a street near a school that doesn’t have available sidewalks, kind of like a bike lane or when there is a road race. If there isn’t a clear area for kids to walk in front of the schools and the road is the only option, make a barricade.

Totally for it where the road width allows. won't work in our case because the road is too narrow..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should have been working on this all of last week. Clown behavior.

Who is they? Everyone but you?

Not the PP but let's be real everyone would love if someone in Gatehouse would do their jobs. They are after all getting paid well to do them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Back in the.day schools would have been open last week regardless of sidewalks or bus stops.

No...I lived in Reston, back in the day, and I recall several snow days where it never even snowed.
And even a couple storms where we had a week off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Back in the.day schools would have been open last week regardless of sidewalks or bus stops.

Thanks, Boomer. We also didn’t have lock down drills and 8 year olds with Smart phones in the classroom. Things change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Back in the.day schools would have been open last week regardless of sidewalks or bus stops.

Back in the day they didn’t have 15+ days off for unjustifiable reasons and the deserved the praise they received as being one of the best school districts in the country.

Those days are long gone. Some people here (myself included) struggle to admit that we bought into a reputation that is no longer deserved.

Hasn't been for at least the last ten years.