MCPS closing/delaying on Monday?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teachers get very few perks. This is a small one. Why take away something fun and spontaneous? Life has become over scheduled for everyone. Snow days are a chance to slow down. It is important to appreciate the wonder of nature

Snow days don't "slow down" when you still have to work. Quite the opposite.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can someone explain why code purple can’t be used for future snow days. I thought I read that would be an option since MCPS has cut back on the padded in snow days but another poster said they won’t use virtual. Why not?

State law doesn't allow it (except under exceptional circumstances). Schools were abusing it. The allowance for virtual days wasn't intended to cover normal winter weather.

Virtual learning is pretty useless. All evidence points to kids not learning this way. Even adults struggle to stay focused when they are facing a screen

No, it wasn't useless. Your kids may not have succeeded, but clearly, there is a reason why... look inward. My kids did great. Far better education than in person. We've had multiple teachers out sick for weeks so two days is a big deal when they prepare for AP/IB tests. We have to pay for tutoring to make up for the absences. And, when some teachers are there they barely teach and play videos.

DP. The reason why is that most kids don't do well with virtual learning.

Most kids didn't show up or put in the effort. Younger kids needed support. Its far better to have virtual than what we have now, nothing.

The same thing will happen now. Most kids won’t show up. Or they join and then play video games on the side. Why are you beating a dead horse?

It's also a moot point. MCPS can't do virtual snow days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some of you are unhinged. Nothing is being learned in school on makeup days. Half the kids don’t even come to school. The 180 day rule is stupid. So what if the school year becomes less. Advocate for quality rather than quantity

Because it’s not about learning. It’s about the maximum number of days, hours and minutes the district can warehouse their kids for them.

If it were just about childcare it would be much cheaper for taxpayers. If you think the number of required days is too high, perhaps we should only pay teachers for 4-6 months instead of 10. We don't need to pay six figures and a pension for babysitters.

You are free to suggest that to the MCPS big wigs. They will laugh at you because they are having trouble attracting teachers at the current level of pay. Only a fraction of teachers make six figures

I agree with you. It's a large fraction. Given about half of teachers have 15+ years of experience and that's about how long it takes to reach six figures with a master's degree.

They can laugh if they want but they know there are many, many people who would love those jobs whose main barrier is not having a college degree. Babysitters don't need a college degree.

LOLOLOL

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers get very few perks. This is a small one. Why take away something fun and spontaneous? Life has become over scheduled for everyone. Snow days are a chance to slow down. It is important to appreciate the wonder of nature

Snow days don't "slow down" when you still have to work. Quite the opposite.

Why are you blaming teachers. Teachers do not make this decision. What do you want us to do?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some of you are unhinged. Nothing is being learned in school on makeup days. Half the kids don’t even come to school. The 180 day rule is stupid. So what if the school year becomes less. Advocate for quality rather than quantity

Because it’s not about learning. It’s about the maximum number of days, hours and minutes the district can warehouse their kids for them.

If it were just about childcare it would be much cheaper for taxpayers. If you think the number of required days is too high, perhaps we should only pay teachers for 4-6 months instead of 10. We don't need to pay six figures and a pension for babysitters.

You are free to suggest that to the MCPS big wigs. They will laugh at you because they are having trouble attracting teachers at the current level of pay. Only a fraction of teachers make six figures

I agree with you. It's a large fraction. Given about half of teachers have 15+ years of experience and that's about how long it takes to reach six figures with a master's degree.

They can laugh if they want but they know there are many, many people who would love those jobs whose main barrier is not having a college degree. Babysitters don't need a college degree.

LOLOLOL

Seriously? I actually know many of these people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I am loving about this thread is that it shows MCPS cannot please everyone. We have people complaining that the school is closed, that there is not virtual option, and kids are missing a day of school work. And we have people complaining that teachers emails work assignments to students on a snow day—“contact the principal” someone suggested.

DCUM posters never fail to disappoint.

The consensus from parents seems to be that schools should quickly schedule a meaningful make-up day that occurs as soon as possible.

Really? OK, try getting a consensus on when the make up day should be. It is always the same. People complaining that the way things are being done is wrong, but so solutions offered.

We already picked the days. If people don't like them, take it up on next year's calendar. 1/29 is the obvious choice.

When is the final grading and report card stuff supposed to happen? Do you have an answer for that? MCPS knows that teachers do real work on 1/29. If they make it a school day, schools will probably house kids in the auditorium and show movies so teachers can get their shit done. That might be just fine with some folks who are looking for free babysitting

From a supervision standpoint, I don’t think middle schools will do that, but individual teachers may need to show movies in their classrooms. The fact that parents would rather have that on 1/29 than mid June is telling about priorities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers get very few perks. This is a small one. Why take away something fun and spontaneous? Life has become over scheduled for everyone. Snow days are a chance to slow down. It is important to appreciate the wonder of nature

Snow days don't "slow down" when you still have to work. Quite the opposite.

Why are you blaming teachers. Teachers do not make this decision. What do you want us to do?

Who's blaming teachers for the snow day?

We're blaming teachers for pushing back on a sensible make-up day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I am loving about this thread is that it shows MCPS cannot please everyone. We have people complaining that the school is closed, that there is not virtual option, and kids are missing a day of school work. And we have people complaining that teachers emails work assignments to students on a snow day—“contact the principal” someone suggested.

DCUM posters never fail to disappoint.

The consensus from parents seems to be that schools should quickly schedule a meaningful make-up day that occurs as soon as possible.

Really? OK, try getting a consensus on when the make up day should be. It is always the same. People complaining that the way things are being done is wrong, but so solutions offered.

We already picked the days. If people don't like them, take it up on next year's calendar. 1/29 is the obvious choice.

When is the final grading and report card stuff supposed to happen? Do you have an answer for that? MCPS knows that teachers do real work on 1/29. If they make it a school day, schools will probably house kids in the auditorium and show movies so teachers can get their shit done. That might be just fine with some folks who are looking for free babysitting

From a supervision standpoint, I don’t think middle schools will do that, but individual teachers may need to show movies in their classrooms. The fact that parents would rather have that on 1/29 than mid June is telling about priorities.

Or they could teach.

Shut off the internet and have the principal and APs verifyiny there's no movie playing. Apparently we can't trust teachers to be professionals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers get very few perks. This is a small one. Why take away something fun and spontaneous? Life has become over scheduled for everyone. Snow days are a chance to slow down. It is important to appreciate the wonder of nature

Snow days don't "slow down" when you still have to work. Quite the opposite.

Why are you blaming teachers. Teachers do not make this decision. What do you want us to do?

Who's blaming teachers for the snow day?

We're blaming teachers for pushing back on a sensible make-up day.

Not an MCPS teacher but how about you let the teachers decide what's best for teachers? Or, I don't know, maybe we can just take all the time you had scheduled to do work next week and schedule meetings the whole time. You can figure that out, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teachers get very few perks. This is a small one. Why take away something fun and spontaneous? Life has become over scheduled for everyone. Snow days are a chance to slow down. It is important to appreciate the wonder of nature

I am totally onboard with day 1 of a snow event being an unscheduled snow day, for the sake of kids having fun and teachers getting some time off, despite it being a pain for me personally as a parent of young kids. But maybe by day 2 and definitely by day 3, I'd rather them do a virtual day than risk messing up our summer plans by extending the school year. (And even if you don't think virtual is very effective-- I think it is for many kids, although I concede that in some cases it isn't-- it is certainly more effective than an extra half day or two tacked on at the end of the year when a big chunk of the kids have left and the teachers aren't teaching a darn thing...)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I am loving about this thread is that it shows MCPS cannot please everyone. We have people complaining that the school is closed, that there is not virtual option, and kids are missing a day of school work. And we have people complaining that teachers emails work assignments to students on a snow day—“contact the principal” someone suggested.

DCUM posters never fail to disappoint.

The consensus from parents seems to be that schools should quickly schedule a meaningful make-up day that occurs as soon as possible.

Really? OK, try getting a consensus on when the make up day should be. It is always the same. People complaining that the way things are being done is wrong, but so solutions offered.

We already picked the days. If people don't like them, take it up on next year's calendar. 1/29 is the obvious choice.

When is the final grading and report card stuff supposed to happen? Do you have an answer for that? MCPS knows that teachers do real work on 1/29. If they make it a school day, schools will probably house kids in the auditorium and show movies so teachers can get their shit done. That might be just fine with some folks who are looking for free babysitting

From a supervision standpoint, I don’t think middle schools will do that, but individual teachers may need to show movies in their classrooms. The fact that parents would rather have that on 1/29 than mid June is telling about priorities.

Neither day will be very meaningful, let's be real. MCPS could schedule more instructional days that everyone would plan for so that makeup days don't need to be used, but they chose not to. The need to do a makeup day is not because of parents. It is a legal obligation but MCPS could make it less onerous on everyone by not stubbornly fixating on doing the bare minimum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I am loving about this thread is that it shows MCPS cannot please everyone. We have people complaining that the school is closed, that there is not virtual option, and kids are missing a day of school work. And we have people complaining that teachers emails work assignments to students on a snow day—“contact the principal” someone suggested.

DCUM posters never fail to disappoint.

The consensus from parents seems to be that schools should quickly schedule a meaningful make-up day that occurs as soon as possible.

Really? OK, try getting a consensus on when the make up day should be. It is always the same. People complaining that the way things are being done is wrong, but so solutions offered.

We already picked the days. If people don't like them, take it up on next year's calendar. 1/29 is the obvious choice.

When is the final grading and report card stuff supposed to happen? Do you have an answer for that? MCPS knows that teachers do real work on 1/29. If they make it a school day, schools will probably house kids in the auditorium and show movies so teachers can get their shit done. That might be just fine with some folks who are looking for free babysitting

From a supervision standpoint, I don’t think middle schools will do that, but individual teachers may need to show movies in their classrooms. The fact that parents would rather have that on 1/29 than mid June is telling about priorities.

Neither day will be very meaningful, let's be real. MCPS could schedule more instructional days that everyone would plan for so that makeup days don't need to be used, but they chose not to. The need to do a makeup day is not because of parents. It is a legal obligation but MCPS could make it less onerous on everyone by not stubbornly fixating on doing the bare minimum.

They used to do that before Hogan added rules about when school had to begin and end. It was 184 days.
Parents complicated about that too. And

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I am loving about this thread is that it shows MCPS cannot please everyone. We have people complaining that the school is closed, that there is not virtual option, and kids are missing a day of school work. And we have people complaining that teachers emails work assignments to students on a snow day—“contact the principal” someone suggested.

DCUM posters never fail to disappoint.

The consensus from parents seems to be that schools should quickly schedule a meaningful make-up day that occurs as soon as possible.

Really? OK, try getting a consensus on when the make up day should be. It is always the same. People complaining that the way things are being done is wrong, but so solutions offered.

We already picked the days. If people don't like them, take it up on next year's calendar. 1/29 is the obvious choice.

When is the final grading and report card stuff supposed to happen? Do you have an answer for that? MCPS knows that teachers do real work on 1/29. If they make it a school day, schools will probably house kids in the auditorium and show movies so teachers can get their shit done. That might be just fine with some folks who are looking for free babysitting

From a supervision standpoint, I don’t think middle schools will do that, but individual teachers may need to show movies in their classrooms. The fact that parents would rather have that on 1/29 than mid June is telling about priorities.

Neither day will be very meaningful, let's be real. MCPS could schedule more instructional days that everyone would plan for so that makeup days don't need to be used, but they chose not to. The need to do a makeup day is not because of parents. It is a legal obligation but MCPS could make it less onerous on everyone by not stubbornly fixating on doing the bare minimum.

They used to do that before Hogan added rules about when school had to begin and end. It was 184 days.
Parents complicated about that too. And

What? Those Hogan rules were reversed. And stop blaming "parents" for MCPS's poor decisionmaking. Last year's "asynchronous" day was a huge tell that MCPS DGAF about educating kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers get very few perks. This is a small one. Why take away something fun and spontaneous? Life has become over scheduled for everyone. Snow days are a chance to slow down. It is important to appreciate the wonder of nature

Snow days don't "slow down" when you still have to work. Quite the opposite.

Why are you blaming teachers. Teachers do not make this decision. What do you want us to do?

Who's blaming teachers for the snow day?

We're blaming teachers for pushing back on a sensible make-up day.

That's not a sensible make up day as its a grading day for teachers to finalize things. MCPS didn't account for enough snow days - shocker. So, now you will lose a holiday, spring break or the end of the school year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I am loving about this thread is that it shows MCPS cannot please everyone. We have people complaining that the school is closed, that there is not virtual option, and kids are missing a day of school work. And we have people complaining that teachers emails work assignments to students on a snow day—“contact the principal” someone suggested.

DCUM posters never fail to disappoint.

The consensus from parents seems to be that schools should quickly schedule a meaningful make-up day that occurs as soon as possible.

Really? OK, try getting a consensus on when the make up day should be. It is always the same. People complaining that the way things are being done is wrong, but so solutions offered.

We already picked the days. If people don't like them, take it up on next year's calendar. 1/29 is the obvious choice.

When is the final grading and report card stuff supposed to happen? Do you have an answer for that? MCPS knows that teachers do real work on 1/29. If they make it a school day, schools will probably house kids in the auditorium and show movies so teachers can get their shit done. That might be just fine with some folks who are looking for free babysitting

From a supervision standpoint, I don’t think middle schools will do that, but individual teachers may need to show movies in their classrooms. The fact that parents would rather have that on 1/29 than mid June is telling about priorities.

Neither day will be very meaningful, let's be real. MCPS could schedule more instructional days that everyone would plan for so that makeup days don't need to be used, but they chose not to. The need to do a makeup day is not because of parents. It is a legal obligation but MCPS could make it less onerous on everyone by not stubbornly fixating on doing the bare minimum.

They used to do that before Hogan added rules about when school had to begin and end. It was 184 days.
Parents complicated about that too. And

What? Those Hogan rules were reversed. And stop blaming "parents" for MCPS's poor decisionmaking. Last year's "asynchronous" day was a huge tell that MCPS DGAF about educating kids.

The rule was when schools can start. Hogan had it start after the holiday so more people would vacation in ocean city. Now it has started in August again.