Schools closed for students Monday Feb 2

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:The simple truth is, you don't actually care if the school accommodates kids with special needs. That's not unique to virtual. I'm sure you don't care about those students in-person, too.

But if you actually want virtual to come back, you're going to need to come up with plan for them.

Virtual worked much better for my SN kid. It also gave us extra time for tutoring and therapies. Every child is different. Given the low in person test scores, clearly in person isn’t working too for many kids.

As bad as in person is, virtual is worse for the vast majority of kids

What's your evidence of that? And actually you should cite evidence that virtual is worse than doing nothing at all which is the current MCPS status quo.

At this point it should be obvious but you are free to Google it if you don't understand

If it's so obvious to you, why don't you share your evidence. You're the one saying that virtual is worse for the vast majority of kids than having no instruction at all. Are these just your opinions that you're stating as facts?

The idea is that once the snow days are used, they need to be replaced with in person learning days. Yes, remote days are better than nothing. But “nothing” is not what is being advocated for

Last year, the three snow days that MCPs failed to budget for were added as end June half days where MCPS encouraged students not to come in and said no instruction would be done. That is nothing.

+1 Last year MCPS shortchanged kids on their education with those June days where most teachers just showed videos. This year we have even more snow days and February is just starting.

Meanwhile, half of MCPS kids can’t read or do math at grade level and some say it’s fine to lose the instructional time and just ask Maryland to waive the number of required days.

The argument shouldn't be "Are virtual days a perfect replacement for in person learning?". We know they're not. They are, however, better than the BS half days the school added at the end of last year, and probably will add again.

Why are you comparing an idealized notion of virtual against the worst possible implementation off make days. You should instead compare it to using the contingency days already on the calendar.

And even if it would somehow be better for some students, you still be need to plan for how to deal with everyone else.

A) We have taken too many snow days for the 2 contingency days in the calendar; and B) the county has already shown us how they treat added contingency days at the end of the year. I'm not idealizing virtual learning, I'm just saying it's better than half days at the end of the year when half the kids aren't there and teachers aren't doing anything.

+1 During COVID, after the lengthy "getting ready" period, virtual instruction was actually...fine? It was fine. It wasn't perfect, but in some classes it was actually better than in-person because the kids who didn't want to be there just turned up for attendance, turned off their cameras, and played video games. So we know that MCPS is capable of doing virtual well, because we have seen it done well, or well enough.

We have also seen how MCPS treats make-up days at the end of the year. Teachers are demotivated, kids are restless, and half of the class is missing because their parents made plans in January thinking school would be out already.

We don't have to compare imaginary things. We can compare two things many of us have seen with our own eyes.

Kids can go in person and play games, not do their work, check out, skip school…..

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:The simple truth is, you don't actually care if the school accommodates kids with special needs. That's not unique to virtual. I'm sure you don't care about those students in-person, too.

But if you actually want virtual to come back, you're going to need to come up with plan for them.

Virtual worked much better for my SN kid. It also gave us extra time for tutoring and therapies. Every child is different. Given the low in person test scores, clearly in person isn’t working too for many kids.

As bad as in person is, virtual is worse for the vast majority of kids

What's your evidence of that? And actually you should cite evidence that virtual is worse than doing nothing at all which is the current MCPS status quo.

At this point it should be obvious but you are free to Google it if you don't understand

If it's so obvious to you, why don't you share your evidence. You're the one saying that virtual is worse for the vast majority of kids than having no instruction at all. Are these just your opinions that you're stating as facts?

If public schools only needed to educate the top 50% of students, they'd have a much easier problem on their hands. But no matter how convenient it would be for you, they can't just ignore the other students.

This whole if every single kid can’t learn, none will is so foolish and shortsighted.

But it’s a good excuse for MCPS to do nothing at all (they’re modus operandi) because it’s less effort and then blame parents for not wanting them to do anything unless conditions are perfect (which is entirely untrue, but people who don’t want to do anything will find a way to justify their lack of effort.)

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:There are very few school districts that are completely closed tomorrow or not doing virtual learning. MCPS should be ashamed.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2026/02/01/school-delays-dc-maryland-virginia-snow-storm/

Alexandria City Public Schools: Virtual learning
Anne Arundel County Public Schools: Two-hour delay Monday and Tuesday.
Arlington County Public Schools: Closed; two-hour delay Tuesday
Calvert County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Charles County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Culpeper County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
D.C. Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Fairfax County Public Schools: Closed
Falls Church City Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Fauquier County Public Schools: Closed
Howard County Public Schools: Two-hour delay Monday and Tuesday
Loudoun County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Montgomery County Public Schools: Closed
Pr. George’s County Public Schools: Two-hour delay; Code Orange
Prince William County Public Schools: Closed
Spotsylvania County Public Schools: Remote learning Monday and Tuesday; 12-month employees to report on time.
Stafford County Public Schools: Closed

Nah, but thanks for posting info we all already knew?

If you already knew this, why are people constantly posting that it's impossible to open or offer virtual learning because of kids with IEPs or equity or snow? Nearly every other school district is open or virtual tomorrow.

BLAME YOURSELF. PARENTS are why MCPS won't pivot to virtual.

Where did parents say they would prefer to have their kids shortchanged with well under the required 180 days instead of having virtual instruction?

Where did parents tell the MCPS central office not to submit a contingency virtual learning plan like so many other Maryland school districts did?

McPS should blame itself for its inability to function..

Parents don't want virtual. They want real school days.

That's what you want. We want our kids to get an education - in person or virtual, but virtual with live teaching.

You wouldn't get it. Not enough students would show up. Even fewer would participate. No new material could be covered.

You don't know that. All we have is last year's example where MCPS added half days in end June and showed videos and few kids showed up because MCPS encouraged them now to show up because "they knew people had already made other plans".

Of course we know kids wouldn't join and participate.

And that's putting aside the fact that no one has come up with a plausible way to either provide special education supports and services during those days, or provide compensatory services after the fact. You just want to forget about those students, just like you did during covid.

We get it. So you'd rather everyone have zero instruction and lose out on instructional time. MCPS can apply for a waiver to offer 177 days of instruction rather than 180, add in some half days in June and encourage parents not to send their kids, and unlike the other DC area schools that were open last week and are open next week, MCPS staff can get some extra days off.

You're not getting virtual. You know that. If you actually cared about instructional time, then you'd pressure the BoE and Taylor to use the contingency days we have. The real ones.

That you're not interested in doing that suggests education is not what's really motivating you.

You have no idea what is motivating an anonymous poster. And no, I don't agree with you that virtual learning is not an option-- my kids did almost a year of virtual learning during the COVID years, and I know MCPS can do it.

I don't work for MCPS, and only learned that MCPS failed to submit a virtual learning plan for approval to the state of Maryland yesterday, unlike many other Maryland schools. MCPS central office could do its job and try to submit it now, because there are two months of winter left and it's probable that there are more snow days.

We know it isn't an option this year. There isn't time to put together a plan and seek public comment. That would take at least a couple of months for a real plan and a meaningful public comment period.

So if education is your priority, you'd be advocating for March 20, April 15, and June 18 make up days. Ideally Presidents' Day too.

But the pp already said the quiet part out loud by admitting she just doesn't want make up days.

Of course parents want make up days. Why wouldn't we want them? It's our kids losing out on the education we pay for with our taxes. It's the teachers who prefer to have them as additional holidays.
-Why wait til March 20? Why not February 17? I would bet there are fewer students travelling for Presidents day than for spring break.
-April 15 is a Wednesday off in the middle of the week. Most parents hate that.
-June 18 is a useless day. It's too late in the school year to offer meaningful instruction and teachers use it as an excuse to just show videos for a half day. I would much rather have a virtual learning day than that.

I don't want them made up. We have other activities planned. (and not travel, school related). Stop blaming teachers. We could have had school this past week via assignments or virtual. We had one teacher send out assignments via email so clearly it can be done. That teacher put a lot of effort into it.

here aren't a lot of choices here. You either:
1) Open schools in less than optimal weather conditions (cue the people screaming that we don't care if their child dies slipping on ice and falling into traffic.)
2) Develop a functional virtual learning plan that is contingency for bad weather weeks like this one and use it (Except that MCPS never made a virtual learrning plan that the State of Maryland required, unlike other school districts, and apparently people on this forum say it will take them months to make one up.)
3) Do make up days, recognizing that people have made plans thinking that school is out.
4) Shortchange kids of the 180 days of education required by law and apply to the state of Maryland to get a waiver to miss several days of instruction this year.

I prefer #3, and that BOE requires that MCPS develop #2 starting now, so we don't have this same conversation next year.

#1--having grown up in a colder weather state--the level of incompetence MCPS shows around weather issues astonishes me.

+1. Not just incompetence but the projection of helplessness. We can't react like a southern state while being positioned in the mid-Atlantic.

Yes, Taylor and the CO need to go. Hire a team from a northern state.

I don’t agree with pinning this on MCPS. So much of this is on MoCo as a county. The school district only has so much control. And PG county is now closed today as well. We are not out of line with peers.

Many things reopened in MoCo last Tuesday. Pretty much everything else on Wednesday. MCPS is the outlier in the county. The county sufficiently cleared roads and most major sidewalks. People have been out and about for nearly a week, including kids. But MCPS has unnecessary and unreasonable expectations, with no plan to achieve them.

The one thing I will say in MCPS's defense here (and I want them to at least move to virtual), is that people have done a TERRIBLE job clearing the sidewalks this past week. Moreover, there has been no sense of neighborhood or civic service in terms of getting the places where kids wait for the bus cleared. In a neighborhood, we all know where the kids need to stand, but a lot of homeowners stop just short of that corner, because it's not "their" corner to clear.

If you want kids back in school, make sure they have a safe place to walk/stand at 6:50 tomorrow morning.

That only works if there are sidewalks.

In those cases the issue is parked cars. I am not sure how the county could organize to implement and enforce parking bans during snow emergencies, but that seems like one of the less expensive solutions in future. In other localities it’s typical to only allow parking on one side of the street so plows have more clearance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread is an infuriating race to the bottom. Virtual learning is terrible for many students. The half days shoved in at the end of the year are worthless. .

The 2 hour delay days that should have been closures are also terrible for students. And teachers. We have kids and teachers and subs trickling in all morning long; teachers covering for other teachers or combining 2 classes into 1 when the subs don't show. You cant teach from your plans because half the class isn't there so it is pointless as you will just have to redo the lesson when they come back so you do busywork.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:There are very few school districts that are completely closed tomorrow or not doing virtual learning. MCPS should be ashamed.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2026/02/01/school-delays-dc-maryland-virginia-snow-storm/

Alexandria City Public Schools: Virtual learning
Anne Arundel County Public Schools: Two-hour delay Monday and Tuesday.
Arlington County Public Schools: Closed; two-hour delay Tuesday
Calvert County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Charles County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Culpeper County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
D.C. Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Fairfax County Public Schools: Closed
Falls Church City Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Fauquier County Public Schools: Closed
Howard County Public Schools: Two-hour delay Monday and Tuesday
Loudoun County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Montgomery County Public Schools: Closed
Pr. George’s County Public Schools: Two-hour delay; Code Orange
Prince William County Public Schools: Closed
Spotsylvania County Public Schools: Remote learning Monday and Tuesday; 12-month employees to report on time.
Stafford County Public Schools: Closed

Nah, but thanks for posting info we all already knew?

If you already knew this, why are people constantly posting that it's impossible to open or offer virtual learning because of kids with IEPs or equity or snow? Nearly every other school district is open or virtual tomorrow.

BLAME YOURSELF. PARENTS are why MCPS won't pivot to virtual.

Where did parents say they would prefer to have their kids shortchanged with well under the required 180 days instead of having virtual instruction?

Where did parents tell the MCPS central office not to submit a contingency virtual learning plan like so many other Maryland school districts did?

McPS should blame itself for its inability to function..

Parents don't want virtual. They want real school days.

That's what you want. We want our kids to get an education - in person or virtual, but virtual with live teaching.

You wouldn't get it. Not enough students would show up. Even fewer would participate. No new material could be covered.

You don't know that. All we have is last year's example where MCPS added half days in end June and showed videos and few kids showed up because MCPS encouraged them now to show up because "they knew people had already made other plans".

Of course we know kids wouldn't join and participate.

And that's putting aside the fact that no one has come up with a plausible way to either provide special education supports and services during those days, or provide compensatory services after the fact. You just want to forget about those students, just like you did during covid.

We get it. So you'd rather everyone have zero instruction and lose out on instructional time. MCPS can apply for a waiver to offer 177 days of instruction rather than 180, add in some half days in June and encourage parents not to send their kids, and unlike the other DC area schools that were open last week and are open next week, MCPS staff can get some extra days off.

You're not getting virtual. You know that. If you actually cared about instructional time, then you'd pressure the BoE and Taylor to use the contingency days we have. The real ones.

That you're not interested in doing that suggests education is not what's really motivating you.

You have no idea what is motivating an anonymous poster. And no, I don't agree with you that virtual learning is not an option-- my kids did almost a year of virtual learning during the COVID years, and I know MCPS can do it.

I don't work for MCPS, and only learned that MCPS failed to submit a virtual learning plan for approval to the state of Maryland yesterday, unlike many other Maryland schools. MCPS central office could do its job and try to submit it now, because there are two months of winter left and it's probable that there are more snow days.

We know it isn't an option this year. There isn't time to put together a plan and seek public comment. That would take at least a couple of months for a real plan and a meaningful public comment period.

So if education is your priority, you'd be advocating for March 20, April 15, and June 18 make up days. Ideally Presidents' Day too.

But the pp already said the quiet part out loud by admitting she just doesn't want make up days.

Of course parents want make up days. Why wouldn't we want them? It's our kids losing out on the education we pay for with our taxes. It's the teachers who prefer to have them as additional holidays.
-Why wait til March 20? Why not February 17? I would bet there are fewer students travelling for Presidents day than for spring break.
-April 15 is a Wednesday off in the middle of the week. Most parents hate that.
-June 18 is a useless day. It's too late in the school year to offer meaningful instruction and teachers use it as an excuse to just show videos for a half day. I would much rather have a virtual learning day than that.

I don't want them made up. We have other activities planned. (and not travel, school related). Stop blaming teachers. We could have had school this past week via assignments or virtual. We had one teacher send out assignments via email so clearly it can be done. That teacher put a lot of effort into it.

here aren't a lot of choices here. You either:
1) Open schools in less than optimal weather conditions (cue the people screaming that we don't care if their child dies slipping on ice and falling into traffic.)
2) Develop a functional virtual learning plan that is contingency for bad weather weeks like this one and use it (Except that MCPS never made a virtual learrning plan that the State of Maryland required, unlike other school districts, and apparently people on this forum say it will take them months to make one up.)
3) Do make up days, recognizing that people have made plans thinking that school is out.
4) Shortchange kids of the 180 days of education required by law and apply to the state of Maryland to get a waiver to miss several days of instruction this year.

I prefer #3, and that BOE requires that MCPS develop #2 starting now, so we don't have this same conversation next year.

#1--having grown up in a colder weather state--the level of incompetence MCPS shows around weather issues astonishes me.

+1. Not just incompetence but the projection of helplessness. We can't react like a southern state while being positioned in the mid-Atlantic.

Yes, Taylor and the CO need to go. Hire a team from a northern state.

I don’t agree with pinning this on MCPS. So much of this is on MoCo as a county. The school district only has so much control. And PG county is now closed today as well. We are not out of line with peers.

Many things reopened in MoCo last Tuesday. Pretty much everything else on Wednesday. MCPS is the outlier in the county. The county sufficiently cleared roads and most major sidewalks. People have been out and about for nearly a week, including kids. But MCPS has unnecessary and unreasonable expectations, with no plan to achieve them.

The one thing I will say in MCPS's defense here (and I want them to at least move to virtual), is that people have done a TERRIBLE job clearing the sidewalks this past week. Moreover, there has been no sense of neighborhood or civic service in terms of getting the places where kids wait for the bus cleared. In a neighborhood, we all know where the kids need to stand, but a lot of homeowners stop just short of that corner, because it's not "their" corner to clear.

If you want kids back in school, make sure they have a safe place to walk/stand at 6:50 tomorrow morning.

Yes. And having lived up north, I get the frustration because yes snow can be piled up and a walking hazard forever in colder climates. However, the absolute mess on sidewalks and bus stops is I think much worse here than what I’ve experienced elsewhere, because the community is not used to doing their part.

I have also lived up north and think MCPS is quick to blame communities for “not doing their part” when they have unrealistic expectations and don’t want to open until there is nearly zero risk (which is conveniently less work for McPS staff who get to stay home and have more days off).

I went to work all last week in DC and sidewalks were far from pristine, yet DCPS opened virtual Wednesday and in person Thursday Friday (and today.) There’s a long list of area schools that opened today where sidewalks are also not perfectly clean.

NYC, 10x bigger than MCPS, opened virtually last Monday the day after the snowstorm and Tuesday onwards in person. Because they value schools being open. McPS and MoCo do not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread is an infuriating race to the bottom. Virtual learning is terrible for many students. The half days shoved in at the end of the year are worthless. Parents should not be focused on which is worse. They should be raising hell with MCPS AND the county for the insanely bad faith efforts to remove snow adequately such that kids cannot return to school buildings over a week after snow has stopped. That is crazy full stop and Taylor’s emails blaming the county only demonstrate he was incredibly ineffective at advocating for the VERY large number of students and families he represents. Unacceptable full stop. On top of that we should start school early enough to have multiple snow days built into each year AND enough teacher work days.

Stop the in fighting and direct your energy into letters to MCPS and the board of ed.

Every jurisdiction in the region is struggling with snow removal. It is figuratively and literally very hard. It takes a long time to remove it. This was not a normal storm. I feel for everyone working for the county and MCPS who has been working on snow removal. They have been working around the clock.

This was not a normal storm and the people in charge have limited experience with even normal snow storms. There are certainly things that could be done better:
- there has to be a way to prevent snow plows from blocking people back into their driveways with a mountain of ice days after the snow ended. We have an aging population and have all these programs to try to help them age in place. But the way snow removal worked has not been safe for them. Even if they paid someone to clear their driveway and sidewalk, they just got blocked in again. That is untenable.
- MCPS needs to establish logical and workable policies for 12 month employees in the aftermath of snow events. Having taxpayers pay for them to take a weeklong vacation while the private sector and even the county government is back to normal within a couple of days is embarrassing and infuriating and to add to that they use that as a reason to prevent childcare from opening.
- More coordination is needed between MCPS and MCDOT. MCPS shouldn't be publicly bashing MCDOT for not clearing all the bus stops that are actually the legal responsibility of property owners. Figure out what is possible. If there is snow like this that is dangerously heavy for an older person to clear, they need to have a plan to get the bus stops clear so kids can go to school.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:There are very few school districts that are completely closed tomorrow or not doing virtual learning. MCPS should be ashamed.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2026/02/01/school-delays-dc-maryland-virginia-snow-storm/

Alexandria City Public Schools: Virtual learning
Anne Arundel County Public Schools: Two-hour delay Monday and Tuesday.
Arlington County Public Schools: Closed; two-hour delay Tuesday
Calvert County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Charles County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Culpeper County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
D.C. Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Fairfax County Public Schools: Closed
Falls Church City Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Fauquier County Public Schools: Closed
Howard County Public Schools: Two-hour delay Monday and Tuesday
Loudoun County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Montgomery County Public Schools: Closed
Pr. George’s County Public Schools: Two-hour delay; Code Orange
Prince William County Public Schools: Closed
Spotsylvania County Public Schools: Remote learning Monday and Tuesday; 12-month employees to report on time.
Stafford County Public Schools: Closed

Nah, but thanks for posting info we all already knew?

If you already knew this, why are people constantly posting that it's impossible to open or offer virtual learning because of kids with IEPs or equity or snow? Nearly every other school district is open or virtual tomorrow.

BLAME YOURSELF. PARENTS are why MCPS won't pivot to virtual.

Where did parents say they would prefer to have their kids shortchanged with well under the required 180 days instead of having virtual instruction?

Where did parents tell the MCPS central office not to submit a contingency virtual learning plan like so many other Maryland school districts did?

McPS should blame itself for its inability to function..

Parents don't want virtual. They want real school days.

That's what you want. We want our kids to get an education - in person or virtual, but virtual with live teaching.

You wouldn't get it. Not enough students would show up. Even fewer would participate. No new material could be covered.

You don't know that. All we have is last year's example where MCPS added half days in end June and showed videos and few kids showed up because MCPS encouraged them now to show up because "they knew people had already made other plans".

Of course we know kids wouldn't join and participate.

And that's putting aside the fact that no one has come up with a plausible way to either provide special education supports and services during those days, or provide compensatory services after the fact. You just want to forget about those students, just like you did during covid.

We get it. So you'd rather everyone have zero instruction and lose out on instructional time. MCPS can apply for a waiver to offer 177 days of instruction rather than 180, add in some half days in June and encourage parents not to send their kids, and unlike the other DC area schools that were open last week and are open next week, MCPS staff can get some extra days off.

You're not getting virtual. You know that. If you actually cared about instructional time, then you'd pressure the BoE and Taylor to use the contingency days we have. The real ones.

That you're not interested in doing that suggests education is not what's really motivating you.

You have no idea what is motivating an anonymous poster. And no, I don't agree with you that virtual learning is not an option-- my kids did almost a year of virtual learning during the COVID years, and I know MCPS can do it.

I don't work for MCPS, and only learned that MCPS failed to submit a virtual learning plan for approval to the state of Maryland yesterday, unlike many other Maryland schools. MCPS central office could do its job and try to submit it now, because there are two months of winter left and it's probable that there are more snow days.

We know it isn't an option this year. There isn't time to put together a plan and seek public comment. That would take at least a couple of months for a real plan and a meaningful public comment period.

So if education is your priority, you'd be advocating for March 20, April 15, and June 18 make up days. Ideally Presidents' Day too.

But the pp already said the quiet part out loud by admitting she just doesn't want make up days.

Of course parents want make up days. Why wouldn't we want them? It's our kids losing out on the education we pay for with our taxes. It's the teachers who prefer to have them as additional holidays.
-Why wait til March 20? Why not February 17? I would bet there are fewer students travelling for Presidents day than for spring break.
-April 15 is a Wednesday off in the middle of the week. Most parents hate that.
-June 18 is a useless day. It's too late in the school year to offer meaningful instruction and teachers use it as an excuse to just show videos for a half day. I would much rather have a virtual learning day than that.

I don't want them made up. We have other activities planned. (and not travel, school related). Stop blaming teachers. We could have had school this past week via assignments or virtual. We had one teacher send out assignments via email so clearly it can be done. That teacher put a lot of effort into it.

here aren't a lot of choices here. You either:
1) Open schools in less than optimal weather conditions (cue the people screaming that we don't care if their child dies slipping on ice and falling into traffic.)
2) Develop a functional virtual learning plan that is contingency for bad weather weeks like this one and use it (Except that MCPS never made a virtual learrning plan that the State of Maryland required, unlike other school districts, and apparently people on this forum say it will take them months to make one up.)
3) Do make up days, recognizing that people have made plans thinking that school is out.
4) Shortchange kids of the 180 days of education required by law and apply to the state of Maryland to get a waiver to miss several days of instruction this year.

I prefer #3, and that BOE requires that MCPS develop #2 starting now, so we don't have this same conversation next year.

#1--having grown up in a colder weather state--the level of incompetence MCPS shows around weather issues astonishes me.

+1. Not just incompetence but the projection of helplessness. We can't react like a southern state while being positioned in the mid-Atlantic.

Yes, Taylor and the CO need to go. Hire a team from a northern state.

I don’t agree with pinning this on MCPS. So much of this is on MoCo as a county. The school district only has so much control. And PG county is now closed today as well. We are not out of line with peers.

Many things reopened in MoCo last Tuesday. Pretty much everything else on Wednesday. MCPS is the outlier in the county. The county sufficiently cleared roads and most major sidewalks. People have been out and about for nearly a week, including kids. But MCPS has unnecessary and unreasonable expectations, with no plan to achieve them.

The one thing I will say in MCPS's defense here (and I want them to at least move to virtual), is that people have done a TERRIBLE job clearing the sidewalks this past week. Moreover, there has been no sense of neighborhood or civic service in terms of getting the places where kids wait for the bus cleared. In a neighborhood, we all know where the kids need to stand, but a lot of homeowners stop just short of that corner, because it's not "their" corner to clear.

If you want kids back in school, make sure they have a safe place to walk/stand at 6:50 tomorrow morning.

Yes. And having lived up north, I get the frustration because yes snow can be piled up and a walking hazard forever in colder climates. However, the absolute mess on sidewalks and bus stops is I think much worse here than what I’ve experienced elsewhere, because the community is not used to doing their part.

I have also lived up north and think MCPS is quick to blame communities for “not doing their part” when they have unrealistic expectations and don’t want to open until there is nearly zero risk (which is conveniently less work for McPS staff who get to stay home and have more days off).

I went to work all last week in DC and sidewalks were far from pristine, yet DCPS opened virtual Wednesday and in person Thursday Friday (and today.) There’s a long list of area schools that opened today where sidewalks are also not perfectly clean.

NYC, 10x bigger than MCPS, opened virtually last Monday the day after the snowstorm and Tuesday onwards in person. Because they value schools being open. McPS and MoCo do not.

I agree. They seem to be happy to provide as little instruction as possible. There is a deep rot here. I get the distinct impression that all the Code Red days were a gift to staff, especially CO. It disgusts me. Code Red should be directly tied to County Government closures. After that, Code Orange with the option for unscheduled telework.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are very few school districts that are completely closed tomorrow or not doing virtual learning. MCPS should be ashamed.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2026/02/01/school-delays-dc-maryland-virginia-snow-storm/

Alexandria City Public Schools: Virtual learning
Anne Arundel County Public Schools: Two-hour delay Monday and Tuesday.
Arlington County Public Schools: Closed; two-hour delay Tuesday
Calvert County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Charles County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Culpeper County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
D.C. Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Fairfax County Public Schools: Closed
Falls Church City Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Fauquier County Public Schools: Closed
Howard County Public Schools: Two-hour delay Monday and Tuesday
Loudoun County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Montgomery County Public Schools: Closed
Pr. George’s County Public Schools: Two-hour delay; Code Orange
Prince William County Public Schools: Closed
Spotsylvania County Public Schools: Remote learning Monday and Tuesday; 12-month employees to report on time.
Stafford County Public Schools: Closed

Nah, but thanks for posting info we all already knew?

If you already knew this, why are people constantly posting that it's impossible to open or offer virtual learning because of kids with IEPs or equity or snow? Nearly every other school district is open or virtual tomorrow.

BLAME YOURSELF. PARENTS are why MCPS won't pivot to virtual.

Where did parents say they would prefer to have their kids shortchanged with well under the required 180 days instead of having virtual instruction?

Where did parents tell the MCPS central office not to submit a contingency virtual learning plan like so many other Maryland school districts did?

McPS should blame itself for its inability to function..

Parents don't want virtual. They want real school days.

That's what you want. We want our kids to get an education - in person or virtual, but virtual with live teaching.

You wouldn't get it. Not enough students would show up. Even fewer would participate. No new material could be covered.

You don't know that. All we have is last year's example where MCPS added half days in end June and showed videos and few kids showed up because MCPS encouraged them now to show up because "they knew people had already made other plans".

Of course we know kids wouldn't join and participate.

And that's putting aside the fact that no one has come up with a plausible way to either provide special education supports and services during those days, or provide compensatory services after the fact. You just want to forget about those students, just like you did during covid.

We get it. So you'd rather everyone have zero instruction and lose out on instructional time. MCPS can apply for a waiver to offer 177 days of instruction rather than 180, add in some half days in June and encourage parents not to send their kids, and unlike the other DC area schools that were open last week and are open next week, MCPS staff can get some extra days off.

You're not getting virtual. You know that. If you actually cared about instructional time, then you'd pressure the BoE and Taylor to use the contingency days we have. The real ones.

That you're not interested in doing that suggests education is not what's really motivating you.

You have no idea what is motivating an anonymous poster. And no, I don't agree with you that virtual learning is not an option-- my kids did almost a year of virtual learning during the COVID years, and I know MCPS can do it.

I don't work for MCPS, and only learned that MCPS failed to submit a virtual learning plan for approval to the state of Maryland yesterday, unlike many other Maryland schools. MCPS central office could do its job and try to submit it now, because there are two months of winter left and it's probable that there are more snow days.

We know it isn't an option this year. There isn't time to put together a plan and seek public comment. That would take at least a couple of months for a real plan and a meaningful public comment period.

So if education is your priority, you'd be advocating for March 20, April 15, and June 18 make up days. Ideally Presidents' Day too.

But the pp already said the quiet part out loud by admitting she just doesn't want make up days.

Of course parents want make up days. Why wouldn't we want them? It's our kids losing out on the education we pay for with our taxes. It's the teachers who prefer to have them as additional holidays.
-Why wait til March 20? Why not February 17? I would bet there are fewer students travelling for Presidents day than for spring break.
-April 15 is a Wednesday off in the middle of the week. Most parents hate that.
-June 18 is a useless day. It's too late in the school year to offer meaningful instruction and teachers use it as an excuse to just show videos for a half day. I would much rather have a virtual learning day than that.

I don't want them made up. We have other activities planned. (and not travel, school related). Stop blaming teachers. We could have had school this past week via assignments or virtual. We had one teacher send out assignments via email so clearly it can be done. That teacher put a lot of effort into it.

here aren't a lot of choices here. You either:
1) Open schools in less than optimal weather conditions (cue the people screaming that we don't care if their child dies slipping on ice and falling into traffic.)
2) Develop a functional virtual learning plan that is contingency for bad weather weeks like this one and use it (Except that MCPS never made a virtual learrning plan that the State of Maryland required, unlike other school districts, and apparently people on this forum say it will take them months to make one up.)
3) Do make up days, recognizing that people have made plans thinking that school is out.
4) Shortchange kids of the 180 days of education required by law and apply to the state of Maryland to get a waiver to miss several days of instruction this year.

I prefer #3, and that BOE requires that MCPS develop #2 starting now, so we don't have this same conversation next year.

#1--having grown up in a colder weather state--the level of incompetence MCPS shows around weather issues astonishes me.

+1. Not just incompetence but the projection of helplessness. We can't react like a southern state while being positioned in the mid-Atlantic.

Yes, Taylor and the CO need to go. Hire a team from a northern state.

I don’t agree with pinning this on MCPS. So much of this is on MoCo as a county. The school district only has so much control. And PG county is now closed today as well. We are not out of line with peers.

Many things reopened in MoCo last Tuesday. Pretty much everything else on Wednesday. MCPS is the outlier in the county. The county sufficiently cleared roads and most major sidewalks. People have been out and about for nearly a week, including kids. But MCPS has unnecessary and unreasonable expectations, with no plan to achieve them.

The one thing I will say in MCPS's defense here (and I want them to at least move to virtual), is that people have done a TERRIBLE job clearing the sidewalks this past week. Moreover, there has been no sense of neighborhood or civic service in terms of getting the places where kids wait for the bus cleared. In a neighborhood, we all know where the kids need to stand, but a lot of homeowners stop just short of that corner, because it's not "their" corner to clear.

If you want kids back in school, make sure they have a safe place to walk/stand at 6:50 tomorrow morning.

That only works if there are sidewalks.

In those cases the issue is parked cars. I am not sure how the county could organize to implement and enforce parking bans during snow emergencies, but that seems like one of the less expensive solutions in future. In other localities it’s typical to only allow parking on one side of the street so plows have more clearance.

No, the issue is that the kids are walking in the street. Even with more plowing it’s an issue. Where would one park with a parking band with small homes close to each other?

[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:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are very few school districts that are completely closed tomorrow or not doing virtual learning. MCPS should be ashamed.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2026/02/01/school-delays-dc-maryland-virginia-snow-storm/

Alexandria City Public Schools: Virtual learning
Anne Arundel County Public Schools: Two-hour delay Monday and Tuesday.
Arlington County Public Schools: Closed; two-hour delay Tuesday
Calvert County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Charles County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Culpeper County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
D.C. Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Fairfax County Public Schools: Closed
Falls Church City Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Fauquier County Public Schools: Closed
Howard County Public Schools: Two-hour delay Monday and Tuesday
Loudoun County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Montgomery County Public Schools: Closed
Pr. George’s County Public Schools: Two-hour delay; Code Orange
Prince William County Public Schools: Closed
Spotsylvania County Public Schools: Remote learning Monday and Tuesday; 12-month employees to report on time.
Stafford County Public Schools: Closed

Nah, but thanks for posting info we all already knew?

If you already knew this, why are people constantly posting that it's impossible to open or offer virtual learning because of kids with IEPs or equity or snow? Nearly every other school district is open or virtual tomorrow.

BLAME YOURSELF. PARENTS are why MCPS won't pivot to virtual.

Where did parents say they would prefer to have their kids shortchanged with well under the required 180 days instead of having virtual instruction?

Where did parents tell the MCPS central office not to submit a contingency virtual learning plan like so many other Maryland school districts did?

McPS should blame itself for its inability to function..

Parents don't want virtual. They want real school days.

That's what you want. We want our kids to get an education - in person or virtual, but virtual with live teaching.

You wouldn't get it. Not enough students would show up. Even fewer would participate. No new material could be covered.

You don't know that. All we have is last year's example where MCPS added half days in end June and showed videos and few kids showed up because MCPS encouraged them now to show up because "they knew people had already made other plans".

Of course we know kids wouldn't join and participate.

And that's putting aside the fact that no one has come up with a plausible way to either provide special education supports and services during those days, or provide compensatory services after the fact. You just want to forget about those students, just like you did during covid.

We get it. So you'd rather everyone have zero instruction and lose out on instructional time. MCPS can apply for a waiver to offer 177 days of instruction rather than 180, add in some half days in June and encourage parents not to send their kids, and unlike the other DC area schools that were open last week and are open next week, MCPS staff can get some extra days off.

You're not getting virtual. You know that. If you actually cared about instructional time, then you'd pressure the BoE and Taylor to use the contingency days we have. The real ones.

That you're not interested in doing that suggests education is not what's really motivating you.

You have no idea what is motivating an anonymous poster. And no, I don't agree with you that virtual learning is not an option-- my kids did almost a year of virtual learning during the COVID years, and I know MCPS can do it.

I don't work for MCPS, and only learned that MCPS failed to submit a virtual learning plan for approval to the state of Maryland yesterday, unlike many other Maryland schools. MCPS central office could do its job and try to submit it now, because there are two months of winter left and it's probable that there are more snow days.

We know it isn't an option this year. There isn't time to put together a plan and seek public comment. That would take at least a couple of months for a real plan and a meaningful public comment period.

So if education is your priority, you'd be advocating for March 20, April 15, and June 18 make up days. Ideally Presidents' Day too.

But the pp already said the quiet part out loud by admitting she just doesn't want make up days.

Of course parents want make up days. Why wouldn't we want them? It's our kids losing out on the education we pay for with our taxes. It's the teachers who prefer to have them as additional holidays.
-Why wait til March 20? Why not February 17? I would bet there are fewer students travelling for Presidents day than for spring break.
-April 15 is a Wednesday off in the middle of the week. Most parents hate that.
-June 18 is a useless day. It's too late in the school year to offer meaningful instruction and teachers use it as an excuse to just show videos for a half day. I would much rather have a virtual learning day than that.

I don't want them made up. We have other activities planned. (and not travel, school related). Stop blaming teachers. We could have had school this past week via assignments or virtual. We had one teacher send out assignments via email so clearly it can be done. That teacher put a lot of effort into it.

here aren't a lot of choices here. You either:
1) Open schools in less than optimal weather conditions (cue the people screaming that we don't care if their child dies slipping on ice and falling into traffic.)
2) Develop a functional virtual learning plan that is contingency for bad weather weeks like this one and use it (Except that MCPS never made a virtual learrning plan that the State of Maryland required, unlike other school districts, and apparently people on this forum say it will take them months to make one up.)
3) Do make up days, recognizing that people have made plans thinking that school is out.
4) Shortchange kids of the 180 days of education required by law and apply to the state of Maryland to get a waiver to miss several days of instruction this year.

I prefer #3, and that BOE requires that MCPS develop #2 starting now, so we don't have this same conversation next year.

#1--having grown up in a colder weather state--the level of incompetence MCPS shows around weather issues astonishes me.

+1. Not just incompetence but the projection of helplessness. We can't react like a southern state while being positioned in the mid-Atlantic.

Yes, Taylor and the CO need to go. Hire a team from a northern state.

I don’t agree with pinning this on MCPS. So much of this is on MoCo as a county. The school district only has so much control. And PG county is now closed today as well. We are not out of line with peers.

Many things reopened in MoCo last Tuesday. Pretty much everything else on Wednesday. MCPS is the outlier in the county. The county sufficiently cleared roads and most major sidewalks. People have been out and about for nearly a week, including kids. But MCPS has unnecessary and unreasonable expectations, with no plan to achieve them.

The one thing I will say in MCPS's defense here (and I want them to at least move to virtual), is that people have done a TERRIBLE job clearing the sidewalks this past week. Moreover, there has been no sense of neighborhood or civic service in terms of getting the places where kids wait for the bus cleared. In a neighborhood, we all know where the kids need to stand, but a lot of homeowners stop just short of that corner, because it's not "their" corner to clear.

If you want kids back in school, make sure they have a safe place to walk/stand at 6:50 tomorrow morning.

Yes. And having lived up north, I get the frustration because yes snow can be piled up and a walking hazard forever in colder climates. However, the absolute mess on sidewalks and bus stops is I think much worse here than what I’ve experienced elsewhere, because the community is not used to doing their part.

I have also lived up north and think MCPS is quick to blame communities for “not doing their part” when they have unrealistic expectations and don’t want to open until there is nearly zero risk (which is conveniently less work for McPS staff who get to stay home and have more days off).

I went to work all last week in DC and sidewalks were far from pristine, yet DCPS opened virtual Wednesday and in person Thursday Friday (and today.) There’s a long list of area schools that opened today where sidewalks are also not perfectly clean.

NYC, 10x bigger than MCPS, opened virtually last Monday the day after the snowstorm and Tuesday onwards in person. Because they value schools being open. McPS and MoCo do not.

Dips doesn’t use school buses.

[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:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are very few school districts that are completely closed tomorrow or not doing virtual learning. MCPS should be ashamed.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2026/02/01/school-delays-dc-maryland-virginia-snow-storm/

Alexandria City Public Schools: Virtual learning
Anne Arundel County Public Schools: Two-hour delay Monday and Tuesday.
Arlington County Public Schools: Closed; two-hour delay Tuesday
Calvert County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Charles County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Culpeper County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
D.C. Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Fairfax County Public Schools: Closed
Falls Church City Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Fauquier County Public Schools: Closed
Howard County Public Schools: Two-hour delay Monday and Tuesday
Loudoun County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Montgomery County Public Schools: Closed
Pr. George’s County Public Schools: Two-hour delay; Code Orange
Prince William County Public Schools: Closed
Spotsylvania County Public Schools: Remote learning Monday and Tuesday; 12-month employees to report on time.
Stafford County Public Schools: Closed

Nah, but thanks for posting info we all already knew?

If you already knew this, why are people constantly posting that it's impossible to open or offer virtual learning because of kids with IEPs or equity or snow? Nearly every other school district is open or virtual tomorrow.

BLAME YOURSELF. PARENTS are why MCPS won't pivot to virtual.

Where did parents say they would prefer to have their kids shortchanged with well under the required 180 days instead of having virtual instruction?

Where did parents tell the MCPS central office not to submit a contingency virtual learning plan like so many other Maryland school districts did?

McPS should blame itself for its inability to function..

Parents don't want virtual. They want real school days.

That's what you want. We want our kids to get an education - in person or virtual, but virtual with live teaching.

You wouldn't get it. Not enough students would show up. Even fewer would participate. No new material could be covered.

You don't know that. All we have is last year's example where MCPS added half days in end June and showed videos and few kids showed up because MCPS encouraged them now to show up because "they knew people had already made other plans".

Of course we know kids wouldn't join and participate.

And that's putting aside the fact that no one has come up with a plausible way to either provide special education supports and services during those days, or provide compensatory services after the fact. You just want to forget about those students, just like you did during covid.

We get it. So you'd rather everyone have zero instruction and lose out on instructional time. MCPS can apply for a waiver to offer 177 days of instruction rather than 180, add in some half days in June and encourage parents not to send their kids, and unlike the other DC area schools that were open last week and are open next week, MCPS staff can get some extra days off.

You're not getting virtual. You know that. If you actually cared about instructional time, then you'd pressure the BoE and Taylor to use the contingency days we have. The real ones.

That you're not interested in doing that suggests education is not what's really motivating you.

You have no idea what is motivating an anonymous poster. And no, I don't agree with you that virtual learning is not an option-- my kids did almost a year of virtual learning during the COVID years, and I know MCPS can do it.

I don't work for MCPS, and only learned that MCPS failed to submit a virtual learning plan for approval to the state of Maryland yesterday, unlike many other Maryland schools. MCPS central office could do its job and try to submit it now, because there are two months of winter left and it's probable that there are more snow days.

We know it isn't an option this year. There isn't time to put together a plan and seek public comment. That would take at least a couple of months for a real plan and a meaningful public comment period.

So if education is your priority, you'd be advocating for March 20, April 15, and June 18 make up days. Ideally Presidents' Day too.

But the pp already said the quiet part out loud by admitting she just doesn't want make up days.

Of course parents want make up days. Why wouldn't we want them? It's our kids losing out on the education we pay for with our taxes. It's the teachers who prefer to have them as additional holidays.
-Why wait til March 20? Why not February 17? I would bet there are fewer students travelling for Presidents day than for spring break.
-April 15 is a Wednesday off in the middle of the week. Most parents hate that.
-June 18 is a useless day. It's too late in the school year to offer meaningful instruction and teachers use it as an excuse to just show videos for a half day. I would much rather have a virtual learning day than that.

I don't want them made up. We have other activities planned. (and not travel, school related). Stop blaming teachers. We could have had school this past week via assignments or virtual. We had one teacher send out assignments via email so clearly it can be done. That teacher put a lot of effort into it.

here aren't a lot of choices here. You either:
1) Open schools in less than optimal weather conditions (cue the people screaming that we don't care if their child dies slipping on ice and falling into traffic.)
2) Develop a functional virtual learning plan that is contingency for bad weather weeks like this one and use it (Except that MCPS never made a virtual learrning plan that the State of Maryland required, unlike other school districts, and apparently people on this forum say it will take them months to make one up.)
3) Do make up days, recognizing that people have made plans thinking that school is out.
4) Shortchange kids of the 180 days of education required by law and apply to the state of Maryland to get a waiver to miss several days of instruction this year.

I prefer #3, and that BOE requires that MCPS develop #2 starting now, so we don't have this same conversation next year.

#1--having grown up in a colder weather state--the level of incompetence MCPS shows around weather issues astonishes me.

+1. Not just incompetence but the projection of helplessness. We can't react like a southern state while being positioned in the mid-Atlantic.

Yes, Taylor and the CO need to go. Hire a team from a northern state.

I don’t agree with pinning this on MCPS. So much of this is on MoCo as a county. The school district only has so much control. And PG county is now closed today as well. We are not out of line with peers.

Many things reopened in MoCo last Tuesday. Pretty much everything else on Wednesday. MCPS is the outlier in the county. The county sufficiently cleared roads and most major sidewalks. People have been out and about for nearly a week, including kids. But MCPS has unnecessary and unreasonable expectations, with no plan to achieve them.

The one thing I will say in MCPS's defense here (and I want them to at least move to virtual), is that people have done a TERRIBLE job clearing the sidewalks this past week. Moreover, there has been no sense of neighborhood or civic service in terms of getting the places where kids wait for the bus cleared. In a neighborhood, we all know where the kids need to stand, but a lot of homeowners stop just short of that corner, because it's not "their" corner to clear.

If you want kids back in school, make sure they have a safe place to walk/stand at 6:50 tomorrow morning.

+1.

Maybe there needs to be more communication with the community about clearing the sidewalks and bus stops and explaining why it’s important. I think a lot of of this is common sense that is not common anymore. Possibly people have moved in from other areas that they just don’t know.

Most people did but there is no where to put the snow.

[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:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are very few school districts that are completely closed tomorrow or not doing virtual learning. MCPS should be ashamed.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2026/02/01/school-delays-dc-maryland-virginia-snow-storm/

Alexandria City Public Schools: Virtual learning
Anne Arundel County Public Schools: Two-hour delay Monday and Tuesday.
Arlington County Public Schools: Closed; two-hour delay Tuesday
Calvert County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Charles County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Culpeper County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
D.C. Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Fairfax County Public Schools: Closed
Falls Church City Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Fauquier County Public Schools: Closed
Howard County Public Schools: Two-hour delay Monday and Tuesday
Loudoun County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Montgomery County Public Schools: Closed
Pr. George’s County Public Schools: Two-hour delay; Code Orange
Prince William County Public Schools: Closed
Spotsylvania County Public Schools: Remote learning Monday and Tuesday; 12-month employees to report on time.
Stafford County Public Schools: Closed

Nah, but thanks for posting info we all already knew?

If you already knew this, why are people constantly posting that it's impossible to open or offer virtual learning because of kids with IEPs or equity or snow? Nearly every other school district is open or virtual tomorrow.

BLAME YOURSELF. PARENTS are why MCPS won't pivot to virtual.

Where did parents say they would prefer to have their kids shortchanged with well under the required 180 days instead of having virtual instruction?

Where did parents tell the MCPS central office not to submit a contingency virtual learning plan like so many other Maryland school districts did?

McPS should blame itself for its inability to function..

Parents don't want virtual. They want real school days.

That's what you want. We want our kids to get an education - in person or virtual, but virtual with live teaching.

You wouldn't get it. Not enough students would show up. Even fewer would participate. No new material could be covered.

You don't know that. All we have is last year's example where MCPS added half days in end June and showed videos and few kids showed up because MCPS encouraged them now to show up because "they knew people had already made other plans".

Of course we know kids wouldn't join and participate.

And that's putting aside the fact that no one has come up with a plausible way to either provide special education supports and services during those days, or provide compensatory services after the fact. You just want to forget about those students, just like you did during covid.

We get it. So you'd rather everyone have zero instruction and lose out on instructional time. MCPS can apply for a waiver to offer 177 days of instruction rather than 180, add in some half days in June and encourage parents not to send their kids, and unlike the other DC area schools that were open last week and are open next week, MCPS staff can get some extra days off.

You're not getting virtual. You know that. If you actually cared about instructional time, then you'd pressure the BoE and Taylor to use the contingency days we have. The real ones.

That you're not interested in doing that suggests education is not what's really motivating you.

You have no idea what is motivating an anonymous poster. And no, I don't agree with you that virtual learning is not an option-- my kids did almost a year of virtual learning during the COVID years, and I know MCPS can do it.

I don't work for MCPS, and only learned that MCPS failed to submit a virtual learning plan for approval to the state of Maryland yesterday, unlike many other Maryland schools. MCPS central office could do its job and try to submit it now, because there are two months of winter left and it's probable that there are more snow days.

We know it isn't an option this year. There isn't time to put together a plan and seek public comment. That would take at least a couple of months for a real plan and a meaningful public comment period.

So if education is your priority, you'd be advocating for March 20, April 15, and June 18 make up days. Ideally Presidents' Day too.

But the pp already said the quiet part out loud by admitting she just doesn't want make up days.

Of course parents want make up days. Why wouldn't we want them? It's our kids losing out on the education we pay for with our taxes. It's the teachers who prefer to have them as additional holidays.
-Why wait til March 20? Why not February 17? I would bet there are fewer students travelling for Presidents day than for spring break.
-April 15 is a Wednesday off in the middle of the week. Most parents hate that.
-June 18 is a useless day. It's too late in the school year to offer meaningful instruction and teachers use it as an excuse to just show videos for a half day. I would much rather have a virtual learning day than that.

I don't want them made up. We have other activities planned. (and not travel, school related). Stop blaming teachers. We could have had school this past week via assignments or virtual. We had one teacher send out assignments via email so clearly it can be done. That teacher put a lot of effort into it.

here aren't a lot of choices here. You either:
1) Open schools in less than optimal weather conditions (cue the people screaming that we don't care if their child dies slipping on ice and falling into traffic.)
2) Develop a functional virtual learning plan that is contingency for bad weather weeks like this one and use it (Except that MCPS never made a virtual learrning plan that the State of Maryland required, unlike other school districts, and apparently people on this forum say it will take them months to make one up.)
3) Do make up days, recognizing that people have made plans thinking that school is out.
4) Shortchange kids of the 180 days of education required by law and apply to the state of Maryland to get a waiver to miss several days of instruction this year.

I prefer #3, and that BOE requires that MCPS develop #2 starting now, so we don't have this same conversation next year.

#1--having grown up in a colder weather state--the level of incompetence MCPS shows around weather issues astonishes me.

+1. Not just incompetence but the projection of helplessness. We can't react like a southern state while being positioned in the mid-Atlantic.

Yes, Taylor and the CO need to go. Hire a team from a northern state.

I don’t agree with pinning this on MCPS. So much of this is on MoCo as a county. The school district only has so much control. And PG county is now closed today as well. We are not out of line with peers.

Many things reopened in MoCo last Tuesday. Pretty much everything else on Wednesday. MCPS is the outlier in the county. The county sufficiently cleared roads and most major sidewalks. People have been out and about for nearly a week, including kids. But MCPS has unnecessary and unreasonable expectations, with no plan to achieve them.

The one thing I will say in MCPS's defense here (and I want them to at least move to virtual), is that people have done a TERRIBLE job clearing the sidewalks this past week. Moreover, there has been no sense of neighborhood or civic service in terms of getting the places where kids wait for the bus cleared. In a neighborhood, we all know where the kids need to stand, but a lot of homeowners stop just short of that corner, because it's not "their" corner to clear.

If you want kids back in school, make sure they have a safe place to walk/stand at 6:50 tomorrow morning.

Yes. And having lived up north, I get the frustration because yes snow can be piled up and a walking hazard forever in colder climates. However, the absolute mess on sidewalks and bus stops is I think much worse here than what I’ve experienced elsewhere, because the community is not used to doing their part.

I have also lived up north and think MCPS is quick to blame communities for “not doing their part” when they have unrealistic expectations and don’t want to open until there is nearly zero risk (which is conveniently less work for McPS staff who get to stay home and have more days off).

I went to work all last week in DC and sidewalks were far from pristine, yet DCPS opened virtual Wednesday and in person Thursday Friday (and today.) There’s a long list of area schools that opened today where sidewalks are also not perfectly clean.

NYC, 10x bigger than MCPS, opened virtually last Monday the day after the snowstorm and Tuesday onwards in person. Because they value schools being open. McPS and MoCo do not.

I absolutely hear you, but clearing walkways is part of normal winter in colder climates. So many people here don’t seem to get it. I get that some of it is to be expected — just like our plows aren’t as good, not as many people have snow blowers, etc. And the county could and should try to organize parking regulations to get plows through more efficiently. I’m just saying to be fair, I didn’t see kids walking to school in this bad of a mess when I lived in New England. I also have seen neighborhoods further away from me that are just fine, so I know we’re not all observing the same conditions.

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Anonymous wrote:The simple truth is, you don't actually care if the school accommodates kids with special needs. That's not unique to virtual. I'm sure you don't care about those students in-person, too.

But if you actually want virtual to come back, you're going to need to come up with plan for them.

Virtual worked much better for my SN kid. It also gave us extra time for tutoring and therapies. Every child is different. Given the low in person test scores, clearly in person isn’t working too for many kids.

As bad as in person is, virtual is worse for the vast majority of kids

What's your evidence of that? And actually you should cite evidence that virtual is worse than doing nothing at all which is the current MCPS status quo.

At this point it should be obvious but you are free to Google it if you don't understand

If it's so obvious to you, why don't you share your evidence. You're the one saying that virtual is worse for the vast majority of kids than having no instruction at all. Are these just your opinions that you're stating as facts?

The idea is that once the snow days are used, they need to be replaced with in person learning days. Yes, remote days are better than nothing. But “nothing” is not what is being advocated for

Last year, the three snow days that MCPs failed to budget for were added as end June half days where MCPS encouraged students not to come in and said no instruction would be done. That is nothing.

+1 Last year MCPS shortchanged kids on their education with those June days where most teachers just showed videos. This year we have even more snow days and February is just starting.

Meanwhile, half of MCPS kids can’t read or do math at grade level and some say it’s fine to lose the instructional time and just ask Maryland to waive the number of required days.

The argument shouldn't be "Are virtual days a perfect replacement for in person learning?". We know they're not. They are, however, better than the BS half days the school added at the end of last year, and probably will add again.

Why are you comparing an idealized notion of virtual against the worst possible implementation off make days. You should instead compare it to using the contingency days already on the calendar.

And even if it would somehow be better for some students, you still be need to plan for how to deal with everyone else.

A) We have taken too many snow days for the 2 contingency days in the calendar; and B) the county has already shown us how they treat added contingency days at the end of the year. I'm not idealizing virtual learning, I'm just saying it's better than half days at the end of the year when half the kids aren't there and teachers aren't doing anything.

+1 During COVID, after the lengthy "getting ready" period, virtual instruction was actually...fine? It was fine. It wasn't perfect, but in some classes it was actually better than in-person because the kids who didn't want to be there just turned up for attendance, turned off their cameras, and played video games. So we know that MCPS is capable of doing virtual well, because we have seen it done well, or well enough.

We have also seen how MCPS treats make-up days at the end of the year. Teachers are demotivated, kids are restless, and half of the class is missing because their parents made plans in January thinking school would be out already.

We don't have to compare imaginary things. We can compare two things many of us have seen with our own eyes.

Kids can go in person and play games, not do their work, check out, skip school…..

Apparently, some parents prefer that to their children being at home five school days. They even are willing to have their kids risk a cracked skull on the ice if it means they are not around.

Why don’t people have close friends that can pool childcare? My friends and I had a whole system going. Every teacher work day from September to June was divided up. Typically, whoever had the kids that day was also provided dinner by the group.

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Anonymous wrote:There are very few school districts that are completely closed tomorrow or not doing virtual learning. MCPS should be ashamed.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2026/02/01/school-delays-dc-maryland-virginia-snow-storm/

Alexandria City Public Schools: Virtual learning
Anne Arundel County Public Schools: Two-hour delay Monday and Tuesday.
Arlington County Public Schools: Closed; two-hour delay Tuesday
Calvert County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Charles County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Culpeper County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
D.C. Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Fairfax County Public Schools: Closed
Falls Church City Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Fauquier County Public Schools: Closed
Howard County Public Schools: Two-hour delay Monday and Tuesday
Loudoun County Public Schools: Two-hour delay
Montgomery County Public Schools: Closed
Pr. George’s County Public Schools: Two-hour delay; Code Orange
Prince William County Public Schools: Closed
Spotsylvania County Public Schools: Remote learning Monday and Tuesday; 12-month employees to report on time.
Stafford County Public Schools: Closed

Nah, but thanks for posting info we all already knew?

If you already knew this, why are people constantly posting that it's impossible to open or offer virtual learning because of kids with IEPs or equity or snow? Nearly every other school district is open or virtual tomorrow.

BLAME YOURSELF. PARENTS are why MCPS won't pivot to virtual.

Where did parents say they would prefer to have their kids shortchanged with well under the required 180 days instead of having virtual instruction?

Where did parents tell the MCPS central office not to submit a contingency virtual learning plan like so many other Maryland school districts did?

McPS should blame itself for its inability to function..

Parents don't want virtual. They want real school days.

That's what you want. We want our kids to get an education - in person or virtual, but virtual with live teaching.

You wouldn't get it. Not enough students would show up. Even fewer would participate. No new material could be covered.

You don't know that. All we have is last year's example where MCPS added half days in end June and showed videos and few kids showed up because MCPS encouraged them now to show up because "they knew people had already made other plans".

Of course we know kids wouldn't join and participate.

And that's putting aside the fact that no one has come up with a plausible way to either provide special education supports and services during those days, or provide compensatory services after the fact. You just want to forget about those students, just like you did during covid.

We get it. So you'd rather everyone have zero instruction and lose out on instructional time. MCPS can apply for a waiver to offer 177 days of instruction rather than 180, add in some half days in June and encourage parents not to send their kids, and unlike the other DC area schools that were open last week and are open next week, MCPS staff can get some extra days off.

You're not getting virtual. You know that. If you actually cared about instructional time, then you'd pressure the BoE and Taylor to use the contingency days we have. The real ones.

That you're not interested in doing that suggests education is not what's really motivating you.

You have no idea what is motivating an anonymous poster. And no, I don't agree with you that virtual learning is not an option-- my kids did almost a year of virtual learning during the COVID years, and I know MCPS can do it.

I don't work for MCPS, and only learned that MCPS failed to submit a virtual learning plan for approval to the state of Maryland yesterday, unlike many other Maryland schools. MCPS central office could do its job and try to submit it now, because there are two months of winter left and it's probable that there are more snow days.

We know it isn't an option this year. There isn't time to put together a plan and seek public comment. That would take at least a couple of months for a real plan and a meaningful public comment period.

So if education is your priority, you'd be advocating for March 20, April 15, and June 18 make up days. Ideally Presidents' Day too.

But the pp already said the quiet part out loud by admitting she just doesn't want make up days.

Of course parents want make up days. Why wouldn't we want them? It's our kids losing out on the education we pay for with our taxes. It's the teachers who prefer to have them as additional holidays.
-Why wait til March 20? Why not February 17? I would bet there are fewer students travelling for Presidents day than for spring break.
-April 15 is a Wednesday off in the middle of the week. Most parents hate that.
-June 18 is a useless day. It's too late in the school year to offer meaningful instruction and teachers use it as an excuse to just show videos for a half day. I would much rather have a virtual learning day than that.

I don't want them made up. We have other activities planned. (and not travel, school related). Stop blaming teachers. We could have had school this past week via assignments or virtual. We had one teacher send out assignments via email so clearly it can be done. That teacher put a lot of effort into it.

here aren't a lot of choices here. You either:
1) Open schools in less than optimal weather conditions (cue the people screaming that we don't care if their child dies slipping on ice and falling into traffic.)
2) Develop a functional virtual learning plan that is contingency for bad weather weeks like this one and use it (Except that MCPS never made a virtual learrning plan that the State of Maryland required, unlike other school districts, and apparently people on this forum say it will take them months to make one up.)
3) Do make up days, recognizing that people have made plans thinking that school is out.
4) Shortchange kids of the 180 days of education required by law and apply to the state of Maryland to get a waiver to miss several days of instruction this year.

I prefer #3, and that BOE requires that MCPS develop #2 starting now, so we don't have this same conversation next year.

#1--having grown up in a colder weather state--the level of incompetence MCPS shows around weather issues astonishes me.

+1. Not just incompetence but the projection of helplessness. We can't react like a southern state while being positioned in the mid-Atlantic.

Yes, Taylor and the CO need to go. Hire a team from a northern state.

I don’t agree with pinning this on MCPS. So much of this is on MoCo as a county. The school district only has so much control. And PG county is now closed today as well. We are not out of line with peers.

Many things reopened in MoCo last Tuesday. Pretty much everything else on Wednesday. MCPS is the outlier in the county. The county sufficiently cleared roads and most major sidewalks. People have been out and about for nearly a week, including kids. But MCPS has unnecessary and unreasonable expectations, with no plan to achieve them.

The one thing I will say in MCPS's defense here (and I want them to at least move to virtual), is that people have done a TERRIBLE job clearing the sidewalks this past week. Moreover, there has been no sense of neighborhood or civic service in terms of getting the places where kids wait for the bus cleared. In a neighborhood, we all know where the kids need to stand, but a lot of homeowners stop just short of that corner, because it's not "their" corner to clear.

If you want kids back in school, make sure they have a safe place to walk/stand at 6:50 tomorrow morning.

Yes. And having lived up north, I get the frustration because yes snow can be piled up and a walking hazard forever in colder climates. However, the absolute mess on sidewalks and bus stops is I think much worse here than what I’ve experienced elsewhere, because the community is not used to doing their part.

I have also lived up north and think MCPS is quick to blame communities for “not doing their part” when they have unrealistic expectations and don’t want to open until there is nearly zero risk (which is conveniently less work for McPS staff who get to stay home and have more days off).

I went to work all last week in DC and sidewalks were far from pristine, yet DCPS opened virtual Wednesday and in person Thursday Friday (and today.) There’s a long list of area schools that opened today where sidewalks are also not perfectly clean.

NYC, 10x bigger than MCPS, opened virtually last Monday the day after the snowstorm and Tuesday onwards in person. Because they value schools being open. McPS and MoCo do not.

I absolutely hear you, but clearing walkways is part of normal winter in colder climates. So many people here don’t seem to get it. I get that some of it is to be expected — just like our plows aren’t as good, not as many people have snow blowers, etc. And the county could and should try to organize parking regulations to get plows through more efficiently. I’m just saying to be fair, I didn’t see kids walking to school in this bad of a mess when I lived in New England. I also have seen neighborhoods further away from me that are just fine, so I know we’re not all observing the same conditions.

I don't think that's the case. I grew up in New York State and we got huge snowfalls, and it was nearly always that a day passed so plows could get through and then kids just make their ways to the bus stop even if they had to walk carefully over ice and snow to get there. It's the same for my relatives in New England. They laugh at our stories of waiting for school to open until the ice melts. They would never be open if they waited for pristine sidwalks. I haven't read any stories in my lifetime of a kid slipping on ice and dying walking to school.

My kid, did however, have 2 MCPS school buses that broke down on days with lovely weather, including one where the coolant element leaked all over the kid. Life happens. You can't mitigate all risk. Or if you want to, MCPS should close in January and February and have a school year that starts in July.

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Anonymous wrote:The simple truth is, you don't actually care if the school accommodates kids with special needs. That's not unique to virtual. I'm sure you don't care about those students in-person, too.

But if you actually want virtual to come back, you're going to need to come up with plan for them.

Virtual worked much better for my SN kid. It also gave us extra time for tutoring and therapies. Every child is different. Given the low in person test scores, clearly in person isn’t working too for many kids.

As bad as in person is, virtual is worse for the vast majority of kids

What's your evidence of that? And actually you should cite evidence that virtual is worse than doing nothing at all which is the current MCPS status quo.

At this point it should be obvious but you are free to Google it if you don't understand

If it's so obvious to you, why don't you share your evidence. You're the one saying that virtual is worse for the vast majority of kids than having no instruction at all. Are these just your opinions that you're stating as facts?

The idea is that once the snow days are used, they need to be replaced with in person learning days. Yes, remote days are better than nothing. But “nothing” is not what is being advocated for

Last year, the three snow days that MCPs failed to budget for were added as end June half days where MCPS encouraged students not to come in and said no instruction would be done. That is nothing.

+1 Last year MCPS shortchanged kids on their education with those June days where most teachers just showed videos. This year we have even more snow days and February is just starting.

Meanwhile, half of MCPS kids can’t read or do math at grade level and some say it’s fine to lose the instructional time and just ask Maryland to waive the number of required days.

The argument shouldn't be "Are virtual days a perfect replacement for in person learning?". We know they're not. They are, however, better than the BS half days the school added at the end of last year, and probably will add again.

Why are you comparing an idealized notion of virtual against the worst possible implementation off make days. You should instead compare it to using the contingency days already on the calendar.

And even if it would somehow be better for some students, you still be need to plan for how to deal with everyone else.

A) We have taken too many snow days for the 2 contingency days in the calendar; and B) the county has already shown us how they treat added contingency days at the end of the year. I'm not idealizing virtual learning, I'm just saying it's better than half days at the end of the year when half the kids aren't there and teachers aren't doing anything.

+1 During COVID, after the lengthy "getting ready" period, virtual instruction was actually...fine? It was fine. It wasn't perfect, but in some classes it was actually better than in-person because the kids who didn't want to be there just turned up for attendance, turned off their cameras, and played video games. So we know that MCPS is capable of doing virtual well, because we have seen it done well, or well enough.

We have also seen how MCPS treats make-up days at the end of the year. Teachers are demotivated, kids are restless, and half of the class is missing because their parents made plans in January thinking school would be out already.

We don't have to compare imaginary things. We can compare two things many of us have seen with our own eyes.

Kids can go in person and play games, not do their work, check out, skip school…..

Apparently, some parents prefer that to their children being at home five school days. They even are willing to have their kids risk a cracked skull on the ice if it means they are not around.

Why don’t people have close friends that can pool childcare? My friends and I had a whole system going. Every teacher work day from September to June was divided up. Typically, whoever had the kids that day was also provided dinner by the group.

Fascinating. How many kids were involved in this unlicensed daycare?

[Anonymous]

I can't go through all of the pages and on the DCPS pages. Why did we not have school but they did? The streets are similar or worse there?