Schools closed for students Monday Feb 2

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

It can be OK if virtual days don't work for everyone, but then there needs to be a plan for everyone else. No one has articulated what that plan would be.

e.g., perhaps MCPS could provide before/after/weekend hour remedial instruction that would include appropriate supports and services. But the CO would need to find the money and staff to do that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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?

Putting aside the discussion of walker conditions, the buses are an issue for MCPS.

[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: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.

You sound so mean and ignorant-I hope you aren't an MCPS employee. It's as if it never occurred occurred to you that people want their kids in school so they can learn and you would rather assume that we want kids dead because we don't think it's necessary to keep them indoors for the entirety of winter.

Many of us are worried about learning loss. Older kids take AP and IB exams that don't stop in May just because MCPS decided to close for 6 days. Younger kids need foundational skills. Often, kids with special needs are the worst affected by these closures. It seems as if you think of school as childcare, where parents can pawn off their kids to a friend and it will be equivalent to a day of schooling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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?

Putting aside the discussion of walker conditions, the buses are an issue for MCPS.

Most schools are open today. Most of these districts also have school buses, but somehow they managed it. Some have virtual learning, which MCPS didn't bother to get permission to make a plan to do. MCPS is being a special snowflake.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2026...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
https://www.thebanner.com/education/k-12-scho...CGZARVMWHPUHLYH5SYI/

Anne Arundel County Public Schools will open two hours late Monday and Tuesday.
Baltimore County Public Schools will open two hours late Monday.
Caroline County Public Schools will open two hours late Monday.
Cecil County Public Schools will open two hours late Monday.
Charles County Public Schools will open two hours late Monday.
Howard County Public Schools will open two hours late Monday and Tuesday.
Kent County Public Schools will open two hours late Monday.
Montgomery County Public Schools will be closed Monday. Offices will open on time, and staff should report as on a regular noninstructional day
Prince George’s County Public Schools will open two hours late Monday. .
Queen Anne’s County Public Schools will open 90 minutes late Monday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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?

Putting aside the discussion of walker conditions, the buses are an issue for MCPS.

Most schools are open today. Most of these districts also have school buses, but somehow they managed it. Some have virtual learning, which MCPS didn't bother to get permission to make a plan to do. MCPS is being a special snowflake.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2026...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
https://www.thebanner.com/education/k-12-scho...CGZARVMWHPUHLYH5SYI/

Anne Arundel County Public Schools will open two hours late Monday and Tuesday.
Baltimore County Public Schools will open two hours late Monday.
Caroline County Public Schools will open two hours late Monday.
Cecil County Public Schools will open two hours late Monday.
Charles County Public Schools will open two hours late Monday.
Howard County Public Schools will open two hours late Monday and Tuesday.
Kent County Public Schools will open two hours late Monday.
Montgomery County Public Schools will be closed Monday. Offices will open on time, and staff should report as on a regular noninstructional day
Prince George’s County Public Schools will open two hours late Monday. .
Queen Anne’s County Public Schools will open 90 minutes late Monday.

PG pivoted to a closure this morning. I don’t think this whole list needs to be related every time someone asks about dcps specifically and someone makes the point that they do not have to worry about bus clearance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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?

Putting aside the discussion of walker conditions, the buses are an issue for MCPS.

Most schools are open today. Most of these districts also have school buses, but somehow they managed it. Some have virtual learning, which MCPS didn't bother to get permission to make a plan to do. MCPS is being a special snowflake.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2026...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
https://www.thebanner.com/education/k-12-scho...CGZARVMWHPUHLYH5SYI/

Anne Arundel County Public Schools will open two hours late Monday and Tuesday.
Baltimore County Public Schools will open two hours late Monday.
Caroline County Public Schools will open two hours late Monday.
Cecil County Public Schools will open two hours late Monday.
Charles County Public Schools will open two hours late Monday.
Howard County Public Schools will open two hours late Monday and Tuesday.
Kent County Public Schools will open two hours late Monday.
Montgomery County Public Schools will be closed Monday. Offices will open on time, and staff should report as on a regular noninstructional day
Prince George’s County Public Schools will open two hours late Monday. .
Queen Anne’s County Public Schools will open 90 minutes late Monday.

PG pivoted to a closure this morning. I don’t think this whole list needs to be related every time someone asks about dcps specifically and someone makes the point that they do not have to worry about bus clearance.

*repeated

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This county is a joke

Blame your lazy, selfish neighbors for not shoveling their sidewalks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This county is a joke

The county is bad, but somehow Taylor and MCPS are even worse. He has no idea what he's doing. Replace him with someone who has worked in a northern state.

I guess I have to be the one to tell pp:

Maryland isn't a northern state, toots. It's in the south.

[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:

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.

You're mistaken. Kids will absolutely walk on sidewalks or yards that still have snow on them in New England and the upper midwest. Those places don't have magical snow clearing abilities, nor do they stay closed through the winter.

[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: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.

You sound so mean and ignorant-I hope you aren't an MCPS employee. It's as if it never occurred occurred to you that people want their kids in school so they can learn and you would rather assume that we want kids dead because we don't think it's necessary to keep them indoors for the entirety of winter.

Many of us are worried about learning loss. Older kids take AP and IB exams that don't stop in May just because MCPS decided to close for 6 days. Younger kids need foundational skills. Often, kids with special needs are the worst affected by these closures. It seems as if you think of school as childcare, where parents can pawn off their kids to a friend and it will be equivalent to a day of schooling.

Yes our kids have exams but if they cannot get to school safely, then it’s a moot point.

[Anonymous]

If kindergarten parents and some special education parents are 100% against virtual, why don’t they allow virtual for everyone else. Those 2 groups can have extended days in the summer. Holding everyone hostage to unrealistic expectations is ridiculous

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This county is a joke

The county is bad, but somehow Taylor and MCPS are even worse. He has no idea what he's doing. Replace him with someone who has worked in a northern state.

I guess I have to be the one to tell pp:

Maryland isn't a northern state, toots. It's in the south.

Where does that poster say Maryland is a northern state?

My interpretation is that she wants MCPS to bring in someone who is familiar with how to get kids to school in snowy, icy conditions, and that people who know how to do that would likely have worked in a northern state, which Maryland is not.

Toots.

[Anonymous]

HS teacher here. I really wish we had a few days of virtual school. This is getting ridiculous. And once we go back, it takes a couple days to get back into the groove so the first couple days are inefficient. I wish I could have done virtual for my AP kids. No one ever thinks about them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If kindergarten parents and some special education parents are 100% against virtual, why don’t they allow virtual for everyone else. Those 2 groups can have extended days in the summer. Holding everyone hostage to unrealistic expectations is ridiculous

If they want to do virtual for MS and HS, and extend the year for elementary and special education programs, I wouldn't be automatically opposed to that. But I don't think it would work logistically. And they'd still need to come up with a remediation plan for the (smaller) set of students whose classes go virtual but aren't able to learn without their supports.

[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:

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.

You're mistaken. Kids will absolutely walk on sidewalks or yards that still have snow on them in New England and the upper midwest. Those places don't have magical snow clearing abilities, nor do they stay closed through the winter.

This isn’t snow.

It’s ice.

I just watched a 6 x 4 piece of ice fall off a balcony, skitter off the ice slide that is our building’s lawn, and the pieces slide across the parking lot at high speed until they hit a wall of ice piled at the intersection. I was so grateful no one was out there, especially a child.