MCPS closing/delaying on Monday?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

DCUM posters never fail to disappoint.

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

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

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

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

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

Or they could teach.

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

Are you slow? They’ll be doing the grading that was supposed to be taking place that day.

And who is “we?” Because you’ll be “shutting off” nothing.

Ok, but it's designated as a potential makeup day. Guys, if you don't want these days to potentially become instructional days, I urge you to submit your feedback on the calendar to MCPS and ask them to build more actual snow days into the school year. Until they do, this is just the way it is.

Exactly. We need more snow days built-in from the start, and we need to automatically select the next available make-up day if we go over.

I disagree that the next available day should be automatically selected. Some makeup days are better to use than others, and the decision should be made deliberately.

[Anonymous]

At the moment, we don’t have any days to make up. The state typically waves days of school missed when under a state of emergency.

Give teachers their work day to submit grades. It’s a no brainer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

DCUM posters never fail to disappoint.

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

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

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

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

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

Or they could teach.

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

Are you slow? They’ll be doing the grading that was supposed to be taking place that day.

And who is “we?” Because you’ll be “shutting off” nothing.

Ok, but it's designated as a potential makeup day. Guys, if you don't want these days to potentially become instructional days, I urge you to submit your feedback on the calendar to MCPS and ask them to build more actual snow days into the school year. Until they do, this is just the way it is.

Exactly. We need more snow days built-in from the start, and we need to automatically select the next available make-up day if we go over.

I disagree that the next available day should be automatically selected. Some makeup days are better to use than others, and the decision should be made deliberately.

Yes, some are better, and that points to the need to be able to make these decisions much faster. We know days at the very end of the year are worthless. We know no one wants to pick spring break. That leaves a very small number of days.

Once we get to the point of needing one make-up day, there's a very good chance we'll need a second. So you want to pick the first available day so you can still pick the second if you need to.

If you don't like a day as a make-uo day, don't pick it as a make-up day in the calendar! This is not the time to have a(nother) fight about the suitability of make-up days. We did that already.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At the moment, we don’t have any days to make up. The state typically waves days of school missed when under a state of emergency.

Give teachers their work day to submit grades. It’s a no brainer.

The state doesn't waive days for snow. We saw that last year. If we close tomorrow, we're going to need a make-up day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

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

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

Who's blaming teachers for the snow day?

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

1/29 is not a sensible make-up day if you need that day to finish grading 120 projects that were turned in on or just before 1/24.

If you want teachers to give challenging assessments, give us sufficient time to grade the work. Even if 1/29 remains a professional day, I will need to grade all weekend, taking breaks only for bodily necessities. Rushing through the evaluation of something that was worked on for weeks is unfair to the student.

The other alternative is that I move up the due date three or four days to accommodate the loss of grading time on 1/29.

Teachers aren't currently giving challenging assessment. They aren't currently providing feedback. So the threat of not doing what is already not happening is not particularly threatening.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At the moment, we don’t have any days to make up. The state typically waves days of school missed when under a state of emergency.

Give teachers their work day to submit grades. It’s a no brainer.

They are not doing waivers anymore.

[Anonymous]

They need to backload makeup days more. When is the last time we used the makeup days in October and November? Put more in the spring so you have more options to choose from when we inevitably close multiple days for a moderate snowfall.

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

DCUM posters never fail to disappoint.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chill out. It was one day. MCPS has lots of competing priorities and a majority of the budget is sucked up by special education. There is no perfect solution

Why are you making stuff up? This is just plain false. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, given the reputation of MCPS these days.

I believe it is true for practically every school district. Especially when you include lawsuits and private placements

It's not true for MCPS nor is it true for any other school district. Go crawl back under your bridge.

Give the breakdown then! I get you don’t like what I’m saying but it’s true

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

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

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

Who's blaming teachers for the snow day?

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

1/29 is not a sensible make-up day if you need that day to finish grading 120 projects that were turned in on or just before 1/24.

If you want teachers to give challenging assessments, give us sufficient time to grade the work. Even if 1/29 remains a professional day, I will need to grade all weekend, taking breaks only for bodily necessities. Rushing through the evaluation of something that was worked on for weeks is unfair to the student.

The other alternative is that I move up the due date three or four days to accommodate the loss of grading time on 1/29.

Teachers aren't currently giving challenging assessment. They aren't currently providing feedback. So the threat of not doing what is already not happening is not particularly threatening.

Many of us are, and we are spending a ridiculous number of off hours commenting on assignments. I worked all day yesterday, and I’ll do so again today.

I’m also slowing down since I don’t think I should have to do so much work on my own time. Want it done properly? Then give teachers time AT WORK.

[Anonymous]

The federal government is closed today. My doctors office was closed yesterday and also today. Yet, only MCPS is getting a torrent of abuse for being closed. Why such double standards?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The federal government is closed today. My doctors office was closed yesterday and also today. Yet, only MCPS is getting a torrent of abuse for being closed. Why such double standards?

Most people on this thread seem to be debating when a makeup day should be when they close tomorrow, not upset that they are closed today -- except for the normal midwest/New England posters. Most people seem to be prepared for a delay or closure tomorrow as well. And almost everyone agrees that there should be more days built into the calendar so we don't have to have this debate year after year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At the moment, we don’t have any days to make up. The state typically waves days of school missed when under a state of emergency.

Give teachers their work day to submit grades. It’s a no brainer.

The state doesn't waive days for snow. We saw that last year. If we close tomorrow, we're going to need a make-up day.

They have in the past.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The federal government is closed today. My doctors office was closed yesterday and also today. Yet, only MCPS is getting a torrent of abuse for being closed. Why such double standards?

The physical federal offices are closed, but anyone with a telework agreement in place is working as usual.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

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

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

Who's blaming teachers for the snow day?

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

1/29 is not a sensible make-up day if you need that day to finish grading 120 projects that were turned in on or just before 1/24.

If you want teachers to give challenging assessments, give us sufficient time to grade the work. Even if 1/29 remains a professional day, I will need to grade all weekend, taking breaks only for bodily necessities. Rushing through the evaluation of something that was worked on for weeks is unfair to the student.

The other alternative is that I move up the due date three or four days to accommodate the loss of grading time on 1/29.

Sounds like you have a plan. Go with it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The federal government is closed today. My doctors office was closed yesterday and also today. Yet, only MCPS is getting a torrent of abuse for being closed. Why such double standards?

I do not see a "torrent of abuse". I see out my window that the roads are fine right now, yet I expect there to be no school tomorrow.