MCPS closed for the day!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Wow. Yippee for your privileged kids with a SAHM or nanny! Glad they can sleep in! (Apparently you don't care that they aren't learning.)

Most of us have jobs that involve schlepping to an office, so we are forced to either take off or scramble to find child care. Some parents don't have the luxury of paid leave.

Wut? Wait! I thought every WOHM is super happy and fulfilled working? Schlepping to office, scrambling to find child care, luxury of paid leave - sounds like you have it rough.

The WOHMS I know in real life are in high positions that they can take unpaid leave or telecommute. What can I say? You should have worked harder in college, Sweetie!

You should be ashamed of yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Wow. Yippee for your privileged kids with a SAHM or nanny! Glad they can sleep in! (Apparently you don't care that they aren't learning.)

Most of us have jobs that involve schlepping to an office, so we are forced to either take off or scramble to find child care. Some parents don't have the luxury of paid leave.

Wut? Wait! I thought every WOHM is super happy and fulfilled working? Schlepping to office, scrambling to find child care, luxury of paid leave - sounds like you have it rough.

The WOHMS I know in real life are in high positions that they can take unpaid leave or telecommute. What can I say? You should have worked harder in college, Sweetie!

Um, some of us aren't clueless navel gazing jerks. Some of us are capable of realizing that many parents in our county aren't as fortunate as we are, and we have the requisite empathy to worry about others (and not just ourselves).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You have to wonder with the amount of money we pay in taxes,. the way the county leadership says how great things are, why can't they handle less than an inch of snow?

Those are the folks who need to answer to us, why weren't the roads handled better?

they need to make sure they are taken care of and they failed. If this is actually the reason the schools are closed.

Very true.

How is it possible that they can’t get the roads cleared?

Where in the world is all our tax money going? There is not enough money for schools or aides or extra recess aides. There is not enough money for smaller class sizes. There is not enough money to pre-treat the roads. So, what is going on?

[Anonymous]

Well that was unexpected, given they made no indication that they were going to reevaluate when they made the delay. I didn’t think it was that bad- I left for work early, DH was waiting a bit to take the kids to KAH. Maybe up-county got a lot more snow? But then Frederick only had a 2hr delay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You have to wonder with the amount of money we pay in taxes,. the way the county leadership says how great things are, why can't they handle less than an inch of snow?

Those are the folks who need to answer to us, why weren't the roads handled better?

they need to make sure they are taken care of and they failed. If this is actually the reason the schools are closed.

This.

It's the lack of pre treating and subsequent clearing. Other communities are equipped to handle snow far better than we are. Why is that?

I suspect it's budgetary. It's cheaper to cancel school than to pay more truck drivers to treat roads.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Enjoy the snow day if you can....

Maybe we can stop the thread since we know it is going to be a repeat of all the other threads concerning closing school during poor weather.

We get it. You are shocked and horrified. You have to work. Where you come from is so much better. Does this cover all the complainers?

It always kills me when I click on a thread of interest and find people who are upset that other people are posting. If you've read these threads before, don't you open it. Online forums are an appropriate place for venting.

[Anonymous]

But yesterday the W cluster parents told us that there would be no delay.

[Anonymous]

PG and Howard also changed to closed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You have to wonder with the amount of money we pay in taxes,. the way the county leadership says how great things are, why can't they handle less than an inch of snow?

Those are the folks who need to answer to us, why weren't the roads handled better?

they need to make sure they are taken care of and they failed. If this is actually the reason the schools are closed.

Very true.

How is it possible that they can’t get the roads cleared?

Where in the world is all our tax money going? There is not enough money for schools or aides or extra recess aides. There is not enough money for smaller class sizes. There is not enough money to pre-treat the roads. So, what is going on?

Particularly since, in Silver spring anyway, they went gangbusters on salt/sand for a previous event a couple weeks ago. It didnt seem like they did anything this time, despite the ample warning. For this small amount, I’m comfortable driving on unplowed roads, but understand that many are not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

This.

It's the lack of pre treating and subsequent clearing. Other communities are equipped to handle snow far better than we are. Why is that?

I suspect it's budgetary. It's cheaper to cancel school than to pay more truck drivers to treat roads.

The Montgomery County Public Schools budget and the Montgomery County Department of Transportation budget are separate budgets. To say nothing of the Maryland State Highway Administration budget.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Enjoy the snow day if you can....

Maybe we can stop the thread since we know it is going to be a repeat of all the other threads concerning closing school during poor weather.

We get it. You are shocked and horrified. You have to work. Where you come from is so much better. Does this cover all the complainers?

It always kills me when I click on a thread of interest and find people who are upset that other people are posting. If you've read these threads before, don't you open it. Online forums are an appropriate place for venting.

I read them to find out if anybody has said anything new.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You have to wonder with the amount of money we pay in taxes,. the way the county leadership says how great things are, why can't they handle less than an inch of snow?

Those are the folks who need to answer to us, why weren't the roads handled better?

they need to make sure they are taken care of and they failed. If this is actually the reason the schools are closed.

This.

It's the lack of pre treating and subsequent clearing. Other communities are equipped to handle snow far better than we are. Why is that?

I suspect it's budgetary. It's cheaper to cancel school than to pay more truck drivers to treat roads.

I feel like something else is going on because sometimes they DO pretreat. Poor coordination maybe? Also the effort seemed really inconsistent- my puny side street got a pass, but the larger secondary road nearby (that has a school on it!) did not.

[Anonymous]

FWIW several other school districts (including PG and Howard) followed the path as MCPS -- first announcing a 2 hour delay, and then deciding to close the schools.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/winter-weather-brings-school-delays-wednesday-in-dc-region/2018/01/16/ea5f89d6-faee-11e7-ad8c-ecbb62019393_story.html?hpid=hp_rhp-breaking-news-bar_school-close-540am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.fc5b3d9c1c2f

[Anonymous]

Why not have more snow days and shorter summer breaks? Wait, that is not the concern here. People want to not take a day off from work.

They should have spoken up when the school year started late and was shortened.

Sorry, no sympathy for those who are not worried about the safety of the children but more worried about the inconvenience of the school closing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, I drove to work from Olney to DC in my puny Honda Civic and it was fine. Took me about 10 minutes longer than usual but that’s it.

A full day closure was not necessary, IMO. Thankfully KAH is fantastic about being open and the kids like it.

Well good for you and Olney. MCPS includes a lot more than Olney though so...

Um, we know. But Olney is near upper MoCo and we typically get hit harder than Silver Spring and the close-in burbs. If Olney was fine, then I'm sure the closer in burbs were perfectly fine. So where were the dangerous conditions in the county? And were the roads not treated? Our roads were clearly treated last night.

We are in Gaithersburg and commute into DC was slick due to icy secondary roads. Co worker from MOCO also almost hit a tree in his neighborhood on his way to work, so yes there are icy roads in Montgomery county. MCPS has to consider all of Moco, not just certain areas.

We're in the Glenmont area. Almost got nailed by a car that skidded on ice and couldn't stop. Fortunately we were paying attention and had a clear path to get out of the way. That was on a main road. We regularly have worse weather than Olney.