What do we think will happen on Monday?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No other institution is still closed, despite relying on walking and public transportation. Hospitals are open and many staff use the bus. County (and federal) government is open, every store is open. Schools seem to be the only public service which is considered optional.

Yes, this means some people won’t make it into school. And that’s OK, their absences should be excused. The parents should be doing whatever it is they do to get themselves to work— wait with their kids at the bus stop, driving them to school, whatever. And yes that means shoveling their sidewalks (it astonishes me this is not already in law)

It seems simple, but it’s not. School is different than other government institutions for a variety of reasons, most of which have been articulated in this thread.

They have been articulated but they are for the most part just excuses. If you didn’t clear your snow a week ago and are screaming now that the sidewalk isn’t cleared…well… my teachers always told us poor planning on our part isn’t an emergency on theirs. School had a week to do the job of opening. Parents had a week to do the job of figuring out how to get to school. There is nothing more special about a school than a hospital and nothing more dangerous about the roads to a schoolbus than a Metrobus.

I’m not trying to make an argument for what FCPS should or shouldn’t do. Personally, I’m prepared to go to school or to stay home; what I hate is the uncertainty and waiting on a decision to be made. That’s why I am trying (unsuccessfully) to anticipate that decision, predict how the people at Gatehouse think, and consider what factors they will examine to determine school opening or closing. In the past, they’ve followed the precept that if a certain percentage of students don’t have the ability to safely go to school, then no one can go to school.

You may be right and I’m overthinking it, but we won’t know for sure until the fat lady sings.

The trouble is that they’re the ones doing the most to try to perpetuate the idea that theres something special about schools vs hospitals or school busses vs metro busses. That lets them award unearned PTO to staff, not plan for proper snow removal/opening contingencies, and keep transferring their responsibilities to others. Citizens buy these fictions at their own peril as we pay more and more for less and less.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No other institution is still closed, despite relying on walking and public transportation. Hospitals are open and many staff use the bus. County (and federal) government is open, every store is open. Schools seem to be the only public service which is considered optional.

Yes, this means some people won’t make it into school. And that’s OK, their absences should be excused. The parents should be doing whatever it is they do to get themselves to work— wait with their kids at the bus stop, driving them to school, whatever. And yes that means shoveling their sidewalks (it astonishes me this is not already in law)

It seems simple, but it’s not. School is different than other government institutions for a variety of reasons, most of which have been articulated in this thread.

They have been articulated but they are for the most part just excuses. If you didn’t clear your snow a week ago and are screaming now that the sidewalk isn’t cleared…well… my teachers always told us poor planning on our part isn’t an emergency on theirs. School had a week to do the job of opening. Parents had a week to do the job of figuring out how to get to school. There is nothing more special about a school than a hospital and nothing more dangerous about the roads to a schoolbus than a Metrobus.

I’m not trying to make an argument for what FCPS should or shouldn’t do. Personally, I’m prepared to go to school or to stay home; what I hate is the uncertainty and waiting on a decision to be made. That’s why I am trying (unsuccessfully) to anticipate that decision, predict how the people at Gatehouse think, and consider what factors they will examine to determine school opening or closing. In the past, they’ve followed the precept that if a certain percentage of students don’t have the ability to safely go to school, then no one can go to school.

You may be right and I’m overthinking it, but we won’t know for sure until the fat lady sings.

The trouble is that they’re the ones doing the most to try to perpetuate the idea that theres something special about schools vs hospitals or school busses vs metro busses. That lets them award unearned PTO to staff, not plan for proper snow removal/opening contingencies, and keep transferring their responsibilities to others. Citizens buy these fictions at their own peril as we pay more and more for less and less.

[Anonymous]

How many buses have been checked out and started this week? Do you really think that has happened?
Have they all been cleared of ice?
Have you seen the idiots driving on the road with ice on top of their cars?

I saw someone try to drive on three foot wall of ice on the side of the road rather than break down the ice on the side. If there had not been someone driving behind me, I would have stopped to see what happened. I was afraid she was going to tip over.

Monday opening would be a mistake.

[Anonymous]

I’m wondering if we will have a week plus of two hour delays. I drove by a middle school today; I know most of the students are walkers, and the sidewalks (that are along main roads, not the responsibility of homeowners) are mountains of ice from the plows pushing snow onto them. The road is 1.75 lanes right now, not 2. There is no way for kids to get to this school without walking on a 45 mph road, at 6:50 in the morning (if they go on time).

[Anonymous]

The other thing people seem to to be forgetting is that if the kids go back the entire region will get really busy again. Many of the roads are single lane even some of the main roads. It's going to be a nightmare

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How many buses have been checked out and started this week? Do you really think that has happened?
Have they all been cleared of ice?
Have you seen the idiots driving on the road with ice on top of their cars?

I saw someone try to drive on three foot wall of ice on the side of the road rather than break down the ice on the side. If there had not been someone driving behind me, I would have stopped to see what happened. I was afraid she was going to tip over.

Monday opening would be a mistake.

Whose responsibility do you think that is?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How many buses have been checked out and started this week? Do you really think that has happened?
Have they all been cleared of ice?
Have you seen the idiots driving on the road with ice on top of their cars?

I saw someone try to drive on three foot wall of ice on the side of the road rather than break down the ice on the side. If there had not been someone driving behind me, I would have stopped to see what happened. I was afraid she was going to tip over.

Monday opening would be a mistake.

Whose responsibility do you think that is?

FCPS. Enough said.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At what point do they begin adding days at the end of the school year? I know we have more built into the calendar than MCPS but I don’t know the specifics.


I’d love this to be something future decision makers consider when they insist on calendars with an embarrassingly low number of five day weeks.

FCPS,needs to start cancelling all the cultural holidays stuck into the calendar, before adding days to late June.

Better to ask the teachers to do their planning/training remotely in this week, then remove the planning days.

+1

You do realize the planning days are placed for grading at the end of quarters. Work students haven’t completed can’t be graded.

Training can be accomplished now and not all planning is grading as teachers stress on this forum all the time.

Planning days are filled with (almost always useless) PD. We can actually grade and plan on the teacher workdays.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s hilarious FCPS is asking the community to essentially provide free labor to shovel sidewalks and bus stops. WTF are our tax dollars going to? That will be a no from me.

Are you serious? "Free labor"?

Shoveling sidewalks has ALWAYS been the responsibility of the community, not of VDOT, FCPS, or Fairfax County. ALWAYS.

You are a complete jerk if you seriously have the attitude "that will be a no from me." How selfish and self-serving you are!

Go out and shovel even just 20 feet of sidewalk. If every able-bodied person would shovel 20 feet of sidewalks, we could make them safe for all pedestrians, including for school children.

+1
After the Snowmaggen storm, FCPS asked families to do the same thing.

It is completely within the realm of reason for the school district to ask people who live in the neighborhoods to pitch in and shovel and clear the sidewalks and bus stops so the kids of that neighborhood can go to school. You live there. That is your home. Shoveling it is within your sphere of responsibility. It is borderline sociopathic to think this is an unreasonable ask. Some of you NEED to start viewing yourself as part of your community vs some isolated island whose only responsibility is to yourselves.

We don’t live in a neighborhood. Do you expect residents to clear public roads too? Because in our case, VDOT plowed and left a 6-foot pile of ice exactly where the bus stop is. That’s not something I can reasonably or safely fix with my shovel.

If 10 of you and your neighbors got out there with shovels and such, yes you could address that bus stop. It’s on a public road you don’t think is your problem ? Well your kid needs to use it to get to school. So it kind of is your problem. Or you can stand on principle and make the county handle it and let your kid miss more school than necessary.

You realize the vast majority of the population doesn't have kids in the home at any given point in time and schools being open or closed is not even on their radar, right?

Not to mention the fact that a sizeable proportion of parents don't even bother making sure their kid attends regularly when schools are open. You really think they're going to go out and shovel so schools can open? Most parents don't even read their email from school and haven't seen Reid's message.

It shouldn't matter if people have school-aged kids. It is common sense and basic humanity to shovel sidewalks in you neighborhood. It used to be OBVIOUS to people that shoveling sidewalks in the neighborhood was a group effort that benefitted everyone. No one had to ask neighbors to help with snow removal; people just did it because it was the right thing to do.

The "it doesn't directly affect/benefit me, so I don't care" attitude is something that started with Milennials, and they have passed their narcissistic, selfish attitude on to their children. so now their children act the same way. Our society is doomed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At what point do they begin adding days at the end of the school year? I know we have more built into the calendar than MCPS but I don’t know the specifics.


I’d love this to be something future decision makers consider when they insist on calendars with an embarrassingly low number of five day weeks.

FCPS,needs to start cancelling all the cultural holidays stuck into the calendar, before adding days to late June.

I agree— there’s no reason to give Christmas off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s hilarious FCPS is asking the community to essentially provide free labor to shovel sidewalks and bus stops. WTF are our tax dollars going to? That will be a no from me.

Are you serious? "Free labor"?

Shoveling sidewalks has ALWAYS been the responsibility of the community, not of VDOT, FCPS, or Fairfax County. ALWAYS.

You are a complete jerk if you seriously have the attitude "that will be a no from me." How selfish and self-serving you are!

Go out and shovel even just 20 feet of sidewalk. If every able-bodied person would shovel 20 feet of sidewalks, we could make them safe for all pedestrians, including for school children.

+1
After the Snowmaggen storm, FCPS asked families to do the same thing.

It is completely within the realm of reason for the school district to ask people who live in the neighborhoods to pitch in and shovel and clear the sidewalks and bus stops so the kids of that neighborhood can go to school. You live there. That is your home. Shoveling it is within your sphere of responsibility. It is borderline sociopathic to think this is an unreasonable ask. Some of you NEED to start viewing yourself as part of your community vs some isolated island whose only responsibility is to yourselves.

We don’t live in a neighborhood. Do you expect residents to clear public roads too? Because in our case, VDOT plowed and left a 6-foot pile of ice exactly where the bus stop is. That’s not something I can reasonably or safely fix with my shovel.

If 10 of you and your neighbors got out there with shovels and such, yes you could address that bus stop. It’s on a public road you don’t think is your problem ? Well your kid needs to use it to get to school. So it kind of is your problem. Or you can stand on principle and make the county handle it and let your kid miss more school than necessary.

You realize the vast majority of the population doesn't have kids in the home at any given point in time and schools being open or closed is not even on their radar, right?

Not to mention the fact that a sizeable proportion of parents don't even bother making sure their kid attends regularly when schools are open. You really think they're going to go out and shovel so schools can open? Most parents don't even read their email from school and haven't seen Reid's message.

It shouldn't matter if people have school-aged kids. It is common sense and basic humanity to shovel sidewalks in you neighborhood. It used to be OBVIOUS to people that shoveling sidewalks in the neighborhood was a group effort that benefitted everyone. No one had to ask neighbors to help with snow removal; people just did it because it was the right thing to do.

The "it doesn't directly affect/benefit me, so I don't care" attitude is something that started with Milennials, and they have passed their narcissistic, selfish attitude on to their children. so now their children act the same way. Our society is doomed.

Wow. Why don't you go shovel your neighbor's ice then?

Some of them may be away.
Some of them may be senior citizens.
Many people on Nextdoor have complained about contractors not showing up.
Some people may be ill.

Speaking for myself, my DH is not able to help. I have spent hours and hours on my driveway. Fortunately, I have no sidewalk. My street is not plowed and the postman will not drive on it. I can get out to the store, but it is a very bumpy ride.
I live in a subdivision not rural roads. The road in and out of the neighborhood is okay, but not two lanes to accommodate a school bus and a car. Cars are parked on the street (not that is really inconsiderate).
Schools are close for us and driving kids is not impossible--but I've not checked out the school accessibility.

This is a very unusual situation. I can almost guarantee that FCPS transportation and facilities are not prepared.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At what point do they begin adding days at the end of the school year? I know we have more built into the calendar than MCPS but I don’t know the specifics.


I’d love this to be something future decision makers consider when they insist on calendars with an embarrassingly low number of five day weeks.

FCPS,needs to start cancelling all the cultural holidays stuck into the calendar, before adding days to late June.

+1
None of this would be a big deal but for ALL those other useless days they have taken off. It's a mess for kids.

[Anonymous]

The temps will be frigid. After the week we had I think they have no choice but to have a delay and ease into it. Regular start Tuesday and maybe delay Wednesday for a snow Dusting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At what point do they begin adding days at the end of the school year? I know we have more built into the calendar than MCPS but I don’t know the specifics.


I’d love this to be something future decision makers consider when they insist on calendars with an embarrassingly low number of five day weeks.

FCPS,needs to start cancelling all the cultural holidays stuck into the calendar, before adding days to late June.

Better to ask the teachers to do their planning/training remotely in this week, then remove the planning days.

+1

You do realize the planning days are placed for grading at the end of quarters. Work students haven’t completed can’t be graded.

Training can be accomplished now and not all planning is grading as teachers stress on this forum all the time.

Planning days are filled with (almost always useless) PD. We can actually grade and plan on the teacher workdays.

Great, they can offer the useless pd virtually during these snow days and eliminate the need for additional days off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s hilarious FCPS is asking the community to essentially provide free labor to shovel sidewalks and bus stops. WTF are our tax dollars going to? That will be a no from me.

Are you serious? "Free labor"?

Shoveling sidewalks has ALWAYS been the responsibility of the community, not of VDOT, FCPS, or Fairfax County. ALWAYS.

You are a complete jerk if you seriously have the attitude "that will be a no from me." How selfish and self-serving you are!

Go out and shovel even just 20 feet of sidewalk. If every able-bodied person would shovel 20 feet of sidewalks, we could make them safe for all pedestrians, including for school children.

+1
After the Snowmaggen storm, FCPS asked families to do the same thing.

It is completely within the realm of reason for the school district to ask people who live in the neighborhoods to pitch in and shovel and clear the sidewalks and bus stops so the kids of that neighborhood can go to school. You live there. That is your home. Shoveling it is within your sphere of responsibility. It is borderline sociopathic to think this is an unreasonable ask. Some of you NEED to start viewing yourself as part of your community vs some isolated island whose only responsibility is to yourselves.

We don’t live in a neighborhood. Do you expect residents to clear public roads too? Because in our case, VDOT plowed and left a 6-foot pile of ice exactly where the bus stop is. That’s not something I can reasonably or safely fix with my shovel.

If 10 of you and your neighbors got out there with shovels and such, yes you could address that bus stop. It’s on a public road you don’t think is your problem ? Well your kid needs to use it to get to school. So it kind of is your problem. Or you can stand on principle and make the county handle it and let your kid miss more school than necessary.

You realize the vast majority of the population doesn't have kids in the home at any given point in time and schools being open or closed is not even on their radar, right?

Not to mention the fact that a sizeable proportion of parents don't even bother making sure their kid attends regularly when schools are open. You really think they're going to go out and shovel so schools can open? Most parents don't even read their email from school and haven't seen Reid's message.

It shouldn't matter if people have school-aged kids. It is common sense and basic humanity to shovel sidewalks in you neighborhood. It used to be OBVIOUS to people that shoveling sidewalks in the neighborhood was a group effort that benefitted everyone. No one had to ask neighbors to help with snow removal; people just did it because it was the right thing to do.

The "it doesn't directly affect/benefit me, so I don't care" attitude is something that started with Milennials, and they have passed their narcissistic, selfish attitude on to their children. so now their children act the same way. Our society is doomed.

Wow. Why don't you go shovel your neighbor's ice then?

Some of them may be away.
Some of them may be senior citizens.
Many people on Nextdoor have complained about contractors not showing up.
Some people may be ill.

Speaking for myself, my DH is not able to help. I have spent hours and hours on my driveway. Fortunately, I have no sidewalk. My street is not plowed and the postman will not drive on it. I can get out to the store, but it is a very bumpy ride.
I live in a subdivision not rural roads. The road in and out of the neighborhood is okay, but not two lanes to accommodate a school bus and a car. Cars are parked on the street (not that is really inconsiderate).
Schools are close for us and driving kids is not impossible--but I've not checked out the school accessibility.

This is a very unusual situation. I can almost guarantee that FCPS transportation and facilities are not prepared.

As has been pointed out several times, good neighbors ARE helping those who are unable to shovel due to being out of town, being ill or injured, having a disability or health condition, or who have infants or other caring needs.

I shoveled two neighbors' driveways, the paths to their doors, and the sidewalks in front of their homes. I also shoveled out both fire hydrants on my street and a rather long portion of the sidewalk along the public road. So, yes, I did help my neighbors and my neighborhood with snow and ice removal.

One of my children helped me as much as she could, but I did most of the shoveling on my own. My husband is currently out of the country on business for six weeks, my oldest child is recovering from the flu and is not physically able to help with shoveling right now, and the youngest has multiple CHD, so shoveling snow is not safe. Therefore, shoveling fell entirely on me and my daughter.