Another snow day!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m sorry, but this is a total joke. “Persistent difficulties with ice removal”? They had the entire day yesterday to remove the 4-5 inches of snow. If it’s now persistent ice it’s because they failed to remove it yesterday and froze overnight. We walked up to our ES yesterday and it was plowed to the pavement.

Breaking news: this is a huge county. Conditions might be different in other places. The world doesn’t revolve around you.

They have been fully capable of clearing it in past years. I don’t remember ever getting an oops we couldn’t get the school grounds cleared 2 hrs bf school was scheduled to start. They would have known this last night. Add this to the kids already in school - hey it’s windy early dismissal sorry we didn’t bother to tell you sooner.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I cannot believe they waited until the last minute to make the call.

They called it at 7:34 am. High school on a 2-hour delay starts at 9:45 am. Nobody was on a bus or walking to school yet. (My high school senior is going back to bed.)

That’s still too late for those of us with a long drive.

You have a 2 h drive to school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There should be school. Since it is canceled it is time to cancel some of the contingency days and add back meaningful instruction time. No adding days in June after AP tests. Add them earlier. People who have plans can have excused absences.

They are going to claw back some spring break days

There’s built in days. We aren’t there yet and they aren’t going to do it for Spring Break. Too many staff members would be out. The kids will be fine. The sky is falling crowd because kids missed 2 days of school is wild.

Closing today doesn't speak well for the likelihood we'll have enough extra days built into the calendar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I drove by our middle school at 5:50 a.m. and wondered why it was a sheet of ice. Drove back by at 7 am and knew they would close out of their sheer incompetence to get 3 inches of snow cleared with a day and a half to do so. All the roads and commercial parking lots are clear. What are the dangerous conditions if everything else is cleared and all the other school systems managed to do it?

Aside from the other school systems that are closed, of course.

Also aside from the sidewalks that are not clear.

Crickey, teach your kids some resilience already. Or get sone yak trax.

But yeah, I guess we should have known since Howard county closed. Gotta always follow Howard.

Maybe the posters who are losing it on DCUM should learn some resilience?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Closing schools at the drop of a hat are an indicator of MCPS’s culture of safetyism, which becomes the de facto operating model when a bureaucracy reaches end stage bloat. Add enough administrators, and not only does bold decision making become impossible, people forget what their main objective actually is. Instead, organizations move out of collective local risk minimization. Put another way, CYA. I’m sure there will be endless rationalization, but the bottom line is that kids need to be in school, and that this will never be risk free. This is the same kind of behavior we saw during Covid, and should surprise no one. The only way to fix this broken org is to break it up and start over.

It’s dangerous for staff members driving to schools from different parts of Maryland, DC, and even West Virginia. Can’t teach kids if the teachers are dead. Grow up. Safety should absolutely be the priority. If you’d rather have dead kids, your priorities are messed up, not the school system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There should be school. Since it is canceled it is time to cancel some of the contingency days and add back meaningful instruction time. No adding days in June after AP tests. Add them earlier. People who have plans can have excused absences.

They are going to claw back some spring break days

There’s built in days. We aren’t there yet and they aren’t going to do it for Spring Break. Too many staff members would be out. The kids will be fine. The sky is falling crowd because kids missed 2 days of school is wild.

Please read the post above. 2 days was our entire buffer of snow days. I’d suggest they claw back spring break before taking away a religious holiday from an already disenfranchised group

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m sorry, but this is a total joke. “Persistent difficulties with ice removal”? They had the entire day yesterday to remove the 4-5 inches of snow. If it’s now persistent ice it’s because they failed to remove it yesterday and froze overnight. We walked up to our ES yesterday and it was plowed to the pavement.

Breaking news: this is a huge county. Conditions might be different in other places. The world doesn’t revolve around you.

They have been fully capable of clearing it in past years. I don’t remember ever getting an oops we couldn’t get the school grounds cleared 2 hrs bf school was scheduled to start. They would have known this last night. Add this to the kids already in school - hey it’s windy early dismissal sorry we didn’t bother to tell you sooner.

I do. Multiple times. With predictable howls of outrage from DCUM, just like now.

[Anonymous]

The copium being used by MCPS defenders on this board is Heisenberg level stuff, I have to say.

[Anonymous]

They should have announced the closure yesterday, given the deep freeze. My kid walks to high school, and the sidewalks are ice. Main roads are clear, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Great.

Damnit it’s clear. Get these kids back in school. The learning loss is scandalous.

Essentially missing this entire week due to snow related closures is not scandalous.

Especially if they go to school tomorrow, I wouldn't be suprised if they prepare the kids for virtual learning Friday. Will you complain about that too?

They better not. Virtual is just a loophole to have yet another day without meaningful instruction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I drove by our middle school at 5:50 a.m. and wondered why it was a sheet of ice. Drove back by at 7 am and knew they would close out of their sheer incompetence to get 3 inches of snow cleared with a day and a half to do so. All the roads and commercial parking lots are clear. What are the dangerous conditions if everything else is cleared and all the other school systems managed to do it?

Aside from the other school systems that are closed, of course.

Also aside from the sidewalks that are not clear.

It's been a full day since the snow stopped. How are they that incompetent?

Ice ice baby!

[Anonymous]

I remember calls as late as 8:25 a few years ago, and once when I was a student in the early ‘00s they started on time, realized there was black ice everywhere as HS was getting to school, and made the MS buses pull over on the side of the road and did a 2 hour delay for the younger kids. This is nothing new or unique to any particular superintendent.

MCPS has long been terrified of ice so this is not surprising. It should have been cleared but that and $5 will get you half a cup of coffee. The first snowfall of the season is always a mess and it seems like MD in general is struggling with thoroughness on this one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One more snow day means the county will need to extend the school year. If they choose to extend it an additional day at the end of the year to June 19, that will potentially conflict with Eid Al-Adha.

The 19th is Juneteenth. School would be closed that day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m sorry, but this is a total joke. “Persistent difficulties with ice removal”? They had the entire day yesterday to remove the 4-5 inches of snow. If it’s now persistent ice it’s because they failed to remove it yesterday and froze overnight. We walked up to our ES yesterday and it was plowed to the pavement.

Breaking news: this is a huge county. Conditions might be different in other places. The world doesn’t revolve around you.

They have been fully capable of clearing it in past years. I don’t remember ever getting an oops we couldn’t get the school grounds cleared 2 hrs bf school was scheduled to start. They would have known this last night. Add this to the kids already in school - hey it’s windy early dismissal sorry we didn’t bother to tell you sooner.

Everyone knew that morning (last week) it was a possibility. It was your job to know this as a parent. The rest of us did. Maybe time to do some self reflection rather than blame everyone else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I cannot believe they waited until the last minute to make the call.

They called it at 7:34 am. High school on a 2-hour delay starts at 9:45 am. Nobody was on a bus or walking to school yet. (My high school senior is going back to bed.)

That’s still too late for those of us with a long drive.

You have a 2 hr 10 minute drive to school !

Plenty of teachers go in early to grade, prepare, etc. Actually just looked out the window and my neighbor, who teaches HS a ~30 min drive away, had already left.