Will FCPS ever Reopem?

[Anonymous]

The temp on Monday will be 40 and rainy, meaning it will wash this ice away. It's likely we'll have school Monday.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:FCPS covers such a wide area, it isn't fair to areas where nothing prevents them from opening. I say each school principal should make the call. Our area got dusting, not even a half inch of snow. Meanwhile, I'm paying for extra childcare costs, because I can't take leave last minute like that with all my afternoon meetings.

+1. Our daycare nominally follows FCPS for closures but so often, the roads are perfectly fine in our area while FCPS closes because it's crap out in Sterling or wherever so daycare will send out a notice saying they're still opening.

DH was shocked that FCPS doesn't split the county into zones for closures. Back home (in the great white north) closures are called on a town by town or school by school basis since the county is so large, weather varies widely from one end of the county to the other.

FCPS alumna and native here. This has been a suggestion since, well, 1976. The answer always has been and still is that precisely because of the sheer size and expanse of the county, this is not a viable solution. Consider now that fewer schools are neighborhood-only schools/serve as SACC/Head Start preschool sites, are center/magnet schools/serve free-and-reduced price breakfast and lunches, are staffed with commuters. You'd have base schools open but AAP kids unable to safely be transported, or some siblings home and others at school. Logistical nightmare for all adults involved.

Maybe, possibly a grid or area plan would have worked circa pre-1975, in the dark ages when most FCPS kids walked to school and/or could run home or climb a fence at lunch or recess to grab a forgotten lunchbox!

I would counter that, because of the sheer size and expanse of the county, the current method is not a viable solution.

I agree.

Due to the size of the county the only system that makes sense is closing by cluster or pyramid.

Really?

Your assumption is that these decisions are often made based on one small area of the county that is causing closures for the rest of the county. Do you know for a fact what the weather and road conditions are like in Herndon versus Lorton vs Great Falls at any given moment? What evidence is there that it's typically 30 degrees and clear in one part of the county and 24 degrees and snowing with unsafe roads in another part (and it staying that way). This notion that there are these dramatic differences in weather and travel conditions in one part of the county versus another is tired and unproven.

And due to the size of the county (the 10th largest school system in the US with over 188,000 students in a concentrated area), it doesn't make sense to close by region (clusters have been gone for several years) or pyramid. Is your assumption is that every kid goes to school in his/her neighborhood or pyramid? If so, how would decisions be made for places like TJ or for centers where students come from different pyramids to receive special ed services. Currently there isn’t an AAP Center in every pyramid. If the AAP center is closed, but there are students who live in a pyramid that isn’t closed, will a parent have to take off for that one kid while their siblings go to school? Also explain how school would be staffed when many teachers live in one part of the county, but work in the other. Should a teacher who lives in Herndon where it might be snowing more heavily and where school is closed have to go to work if she teaches in Alexandria at a Rte 1 school where the snow might not be as heavy and school is open? And what about her childcare if her own kids’ school is closed?

The logistics and communication for that would be a sh*tshow. Some days, it's awful and unsafe to travel in most of the county. Who makes that decision about what's safe enough for one pyramid or region over another? There's enough second guessing going on already. Can you imagine the can of worms you open when you start making decisions based on specific regions? And yes, there are probably school systems that do make decisions this way. If so, please share which ones are comparable in student size and geographic size.

Are snow days inconvenient for many parents who work outside the home? Sure. And so is having a kid that is sick. Right now there is no other "viable solutions" to either of these issues. Kids who are sick cannot come to school and severe weather conditions cause schools to be closed. Both are about safe-guarding the well-being and safety of children.

Then do it by cluster.
Really fcps should just be responsible for funding on the county level and maybe special ed.

Everything else including how to use the funding and snow days should be done on the cluster or pyramid level.

And what if your school is a split feeder between pyramids? Our MS is. So, if the HS that takes 75% of the kids is closed under your plan while the other HS is not, do only 25% of the kids have to show up to the MS?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I agree. The cold is a problem. I also think the trailers are an issue. They are slippery when it rains. With this cold and precipitation they won’t be able to make the ramps to get into those classrooms safe.

Pipes burst in the bathrooms for our schools trailers so they had not bathroom access and had to walk across campus to use the restroom.

Look at you with the fancy indoor plumbing for your trailers. I bet that's why you're such a TJ feeder - while us poors are trudging back and forth to the john, Larla's doing her Kumon work.

I’d be curious to know — which schools with trailers have bathrooms? And are they really in the more affluent schools only?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree. The cold is a problem. I also think the trailers are an issue. They are slippery when it rains. With this cold and precipitation they won’t be able to make the ramps to get into those classrooms safe.

Pipes burst in the bathrooms for our schools trailers so they had not bathroom access and had to walk across campus to use the restroom.

Look at you with the fancy indoor plumbing for your trailers. I bet that's why you're such a TJ feeder - while us poors are trudging back and forth to the john, Larla's doing her Kumon work.

I’d be curious to know — which schools with trailers have bathrooms? And are they really in the more affluent schools only?

West Springfield has bathroom trailers in Sparta.

It is on the other side of the football field and about a ten minute walk from the far side of the school.

[Anonymous]

^^^ A 15 minute walk when it rains.

[Anonymous]

I’m buying air tickets to The tropics and will return when FCPS lazy staff decide to reopen. My kid

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:No way there will be school on Friday. The wind chill is forecast to be -11 (11 below zero) at 8:00 a.m. No way they can expect kids or crossing guards to be out in that.

I'm usually one who says "buy a scarf and wear a hat" -- but 11 below zero is too cold to be out. That is just not o.k. for kids. That is blizzard weather even if snow isn't falling.

While I don't disagree, I'm curious what places like Wisconsin and Minnesota do?

Growing up, our school system had a policy to close only when it was -33 or more (actual temp, not wind chill).

Yeah, sure. Thanks, and you probably had to walk 19 miles barefoot, right?

No, we took the school bus. It is true and we were in the Continental US. Sorry you don't understand our country's geography well enough to accept that some areas of it get very cold.

No I understand and accept that it gets very cold. What I don't accept is some nonsense that you're stating with certainty that, as a student 20-30-40 years ago, you were so well-acquainted with school closure policies and that yours was a temp of -33 degrees for a school to close.

Because we lived on the military base next door. The base would close before schools, and every single base kid knew what the temp was when the school would be closed. It isn't rocket science and at those temps our lives depended on either being back on base before it closed or at school. Sheesh. Sorry you had such a sheltered life that you cannot believe that others of us had an awareness of our surroundings.

PP—Where did you grow up where the daytime temp was -33 degree and occurring often enough that it was a “thing” that kids knew about?

[Anonymous]

Not PP, but it sounds like my cousins experience living at Minot AFB in Minot, ND...

[Anonymous]

Growing up, I distinctly remember a morning when it was -19 and school wasn't cancelled. It was a controversial move at the time. Many parents kept their kids home because they thought school should have been cancelled, but mine made me go (they drove me). Classes were about half full.

This was in the upper midwest.

[Anonymous]

I'm wondering about Tuesday now.

NWS

Sunday Night Mostly cloudy, with a low around 18. South wind 7 to 9 mph.

Monday A chance of rain, freezing rain, and sleet. Cloudy, with a high near 37. Chance of precipitation is 40%.

Monday Night Rain, freezing rain, and sleet likely before midnight, then a chance of snow, freezing rain, and sleet. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 32. Chance of precipitation is 60%.

[Anonymous]

To the poster who suggested that FCPS close by cluster, Loudoun tried that and it was a disaster.

[Anonymous]

Monday and Tuesday look much better now. Precip chances are down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To the poster who suggested that FCPS close by cluster, Loudoun tried that and it was a disaster.

Most places in the country do this.

Why can't this area figure it out?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To the poster who suggested that FCPS close by cluster, Loudoun tried that and it was a disaster.

Most places in the country do this.

Why can't this area figure it out?

Please share the “most places” that are comparable in student population size and geographic size.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To the poster who suggested that FCPS close by cluster, Loudoun tried that and it was a disaster.

Most places in the country do this.

Why can't this area figure it out?

Please share the “most places” that are comparable in student population size and geographic size.

Fcps is only this large because they do not do the sensible thing and split into smaller town or neighborhood based districts instead of one giant county wide district.