Schools closed for students Monday Feb 2

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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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.

The point is a whole lot of schools are open today. Some were open last week. It isn't just DCPS which has metro. Some schools have virtual learning. Many schools have buses running even though the snow hasn't melted.

People keep insisting that MCPS is special. That it can't open, that it can't do virtual learning. That its just TOO HARD. But these these other schools can't.

MCPS is the biggest county in the state. Fairfax county is also closed in VA. PG county also decided to close today. Stop bashing MCPS. Its not the only county closed. Yes private schools are open, lucky them. Not the end of the world.

There's a dozen public school districts in the close-in DMV area open today. MCPS is not the ONLY county closed, but 7 days after the storm, it's close to the bottom of the barrel, if not THE bottom of the barrel. MCPS is completely closed. It has no virtual learning option. It has no prospects to do virtual learning because it neglected to submit the plan it promised to do in 2024 to MSDE. And it was so dumb it only included 1 snow day in the calendar, even though we had a deficit of 3 snow days last year and a disaster 3 days of "in person learning" tacked on at the very end of June.

You have low standards for what MCPS is expected to deliver. I don't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What do the busses look like? Are depots clear?

I assume buses are like the dump trucks that are always out there shoveling snow?

Where due to their size and weight, wouldn't they be able to barrel through the lot and any drifts that are there?

So wouldn't think clearing the depot would be as much of an issue and based on the pictures from Flickr, they are making progress in some of the depots:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mcpsmd/55066069624/in/album-72177720331726718

But they still need to clean off the top of the buses and ice and narrow passageways along the routes are still the issues.

[Anonymous]

Many parents screaming on here just want someone else watching their kids. They disguise it as wanting to maximise in-person learning. I get it, we all need a break but come on -

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote: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.

I think about them every time someone screams that "it's impossible to do virtual learning" on these threads. These kids have had years of virtual learning. It's MCPS that finds it impossible to do anything.

If MCPS doesn't want to open until all the ice melts, and doesn't want to do virtual learning, it needs to start school in early August, which will be better for AP/IB kids too. Some schools in the South even start in July and get almost 2 months more of AP instruction than what MCPS provides.

It was the years of virtual learning that made us feel strongly virtual learning is terrible. Have some standards.

This would be a few days...

Then come up with a remediation plan and funding/staff to implement it. The shorter virtual is, the less resource-intensive those remediation activities would be. But just ignoring the problem isn't a solution.

Man, if only there were positions funded by taxes, staffed by people with degrees in education, to come up with these plans. But no, random parents in the county should definitely have to come up with virtual plans.

Then let's see the plan before assuming it is adequate.

That's the problem. They didn't even want to put in the effort to get a plan in front of MSDE. For goodness sake, just copy Anne Arundel's homework.

Please provide a copy of the plan you want to use.

Are you having a problem with reading comprehension? She literally said to use that of Anne Arundel. It's posted online. You can manage google, since you seem to have nothing to do today but insist that virtual learning is impossible in every location.

If MCPS had just copied AA’s plan, y’all would have torn them apart solely on that basis.

[Anonymous]

Billions of dollars. Billions, with a b.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

The point is a whole lot of schools are open today. Some were open last week. It isn't just DCPS which has metro. Some schools have virtual learning. Many schools have buses running even though the snow hasn't melted.

People keep insisting that MCPS is special. That it can't open, that it can't do virtual learning. That its just TOO HARD. But these these other schools can't.

MCPS is the biggest county in the state. Fairfax county is also closed in VA. PG county also decided to close today. Stop bashing MCPS. Its not the only county closed. Yes private schools are open, lucky them. Not the end of the world.

There's a dozen public school districts in the close-in DMV area open today. MCPS is not the ONLY county closed, but 7 days after the storm, it's close to the bottom of the barrel, if not THE bottom of the barrel. MCPS is completely closed. It has no virtual learning option. It has no prospects to do virtual learning because it neglected to submit the plan it promised to do in 2024 to MSDE. And it was so dumb it only included 1 snow day in the calendar, even though we had a deficit of 3 snow days last year and a disaster 3 days of "in person learning" tacked on at the very end of June.

You have low standards for what MCPS is expected to deliver. I don't.

Exactly.

The excuses for low standards are just sad.

Some of us don’t accept mediocrity for our kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Billions of dollars. Billions, with a b.

70% of the county’s budget.

Thousands of dollars in every homeowner’s property taxes every year.

And for what?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hope MCPS rethinks their opposition to virtual learning. I think they will have to. Some parents just have unrealistic expectations and want to hold all kids hostage. Parents who support virtual learning should email Taylor and the board. Make sure your voices are being heard

Now that parents have retracted their very vocal opposition to virtual learning, maybe they will. But I recall people saying it destroyed their children’s mental health and was worse than nothing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

The point is a whole lot of schools are open today. Some were open last week. It isn't just DCPS which has metro. Some schools have virtual learning. Many schools have buses running even though the snow hasn't melted.

People keep insisting that MCPS is special. That it can't open, that it can't do virtual learning. That its just TOO HARD. But these these other schools can't.

Or maybe parents who find it so hard to be with their kids for a few days in unprecedented weather days shouldn't have had kids in the first place. Plan better.

Please. We don't want our kids to have an education because we dislike them.

And Frederick, which is geographically large and north of MCPS, is fully open. Just saying.

North of MoCo got less ice. South of MoCo got pure ice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The only people that are pro-virtual are parents who have kids that can be independent learners and are fluent in English. They can’t see past their own little bubble of affluence. They could afford learning pods during COVID or sit with their children while teaching was going on. Not everyone has this luxury. Trying to teach my students while simultaneously teaching my child with learning disabilities was nothing short of awful. Add in our non-English speaking families and it was a struggle for them to help support learning in a language that they don’t understand.

On the flip side, find me a teacher that loved virtual learning and I’ll guarantee you that they taught a class where the kids wanted to be there and didn’t need extra support.

I will personally be happy if I never have to provide virtual instruction or parent a child with an IEP who is receiving virtual instruction ever again.

Adding to my original thought, take away my spring break, holidays, add on to the end of the year. I don’t care. Just give me in person teaching.

Really? For in-person teaching, what we got last year for snow days was 3 half days in end-June where students mostly played videos while cleaning out their classroom. I don't understand why you would hate virtual learning so much, but be eager to have your kid come to school to watch videos on days tacked on to the school year after teachers are done teacher, if this is all about the "quality of instruction" for you.

Because I actually TEACH. I don’t watch movies with my children. Never have and never plan to since I work with our most vulnerable special education families.

[Anonymous]

Meanwhile starbucks, five guys, cava, montgomery mall, movie theaters, mcdonalds, taco bell all crowded all with HS kids out and about since last Wed and yet Chuchill, Wooten, Whitman, BCC, Walter Johnson all closed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hope MCPS rethinks their opposition to virtual learning. I think they will have to. Some parents just have unrealistic expectations and want to hold all kids hostage. Parents who support virtual learning should email Taylor and the board. Make sure your voices are being heard

Now that parents have retracted their very vocal opposition to virtual learning, maybe they will. But I recall people saying it destroyed their children’s mental health and was worse than nothing.

Nobody has retracted sh$t

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Meanwhile starbucks, five guys, cava, montgomery mall, movie theaters, mcdonalds, taco bell all crowded all with HS kids out and about since last Wed and yet Chuchill, Wooten, Whitman, BCC, Walter Johnson all closed.

Why would they need to be in school? They can just chill out at Starbucks and the movie theaters while MCPS wrings their hands.

One of the wealthiest counties in the country and this is what we’re dealing with …

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

I think about them every time someone screams that "it's impossible to do virtual learning" on these threads. These kids have had years of virtual learning. It's MCPS that finds it impossible to do anything.

If MCPS doesn't want to open until all the ice melts, and doesn't want to do virtual learning, it needs to start school in early August, which will be better for AP/IB kids too. Some schools in the South even start in July and get almost 2 months more of AP instruction than what MCPS provides.

It was the years of virtual learning that made us feel strongly virtual learning is terrible. Have some standards.

This would be a few days...

Then come up with a remediation plan and funding/staff to implement it. The shorter virtual is, the less resource-intensive those remediation activities would be. But just ignoring the problem isn't a solution.

Man, if only there were positions funded by taxes, staffed by people with degrees in education, to come up with these plans. But no, random parents in the county should definitely have to come up with virtual plans.

Then let's see the plan before assuming it is adequate.

That's the problem. They didn't even want to put in the effort to get a plan in front of MSDE. For goodness sake, just copy Anne Arundel's homework.

Please provide a copy of the plan you want to use.

Are you having a problem with reading comprehension? She literally said to use that of Anne Arundel. It's posted online. You can manage google, since you seem to have nothing to do today but insist that virtual learning is impossible in every location.

If MCPS had just copied AA’s plan, y’all would have torn them apart solely on that basis.

No, because at least they would have had a plan that offered them the virtual learning option in a tough winter. We have already had 5 days closure for snow and two months of winter left. Is the MCPS plan just to keep adding half days in June and tell kids not to come?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe they will use the day with staff in schools to finally pivot to a freaking virtual learning model rather than throw all this learning time into the toilet?

I’m a teacher and I am wondering if this is the plan too.

Teachers and staff are not working today, not even remotely, despite the announcement. Our school meeting has been canceled, and we were informed that we had misunderstood thr MCPS message. They don’t even bother to notified us of the cancellation…