Reply to Open, Delay or Closed? Announce already!

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]If the temps top 90 will they also have to announce that school is open?

How about school is open unless you hear otherwise?

[/quote]

That would work if 1) DC had a time by which you could count on them announcing, allowing one to check the announcements at 5:30 a.m., or whenever, and feel confident that no announcement really meant no closing and 2) DC could be counted on to announce closing through every channel they promise to use on their own website.

Currently, DC does not meet either of these criteria.  They have a very bad track record for very late decisions, and even when they do make a decision they will forget to announce through all channels.  If DC is going to advertise on their website that you can find out about closings by looking at a certain radio station's website, or that you can sign up to receive a text alert, then they need to use them every time.  The last snowday there were many hours between the time when they announced by twitter, and facebook and when they changed the banner on their own website, notified WTOP (a source they TELL people to use), or sent out a text alert.  The result is that it is hard to feel confident that "no announcement" means anything in particular.  It can mean "we haven't decided yet" or "we decided, but forgot to announce the way we said we would" or "we aren't bothering to announce".  Without knowing that leaves people checking multiple sites and then rechecking, which is ridiculous.

Since this issue exists with people not being able to trust DCPS, I'm going to propose the following.  If weather is such that the largest employer in the region (the Federal Government) as well as all neighboring school districts feel compelled to make announcements, DCPS will also make an announcement, and will do through the following means: (insert whatever list is reasonable, but then commit to using that list every single time).

I'll add that I agree 100% with the decision not to close today.  I'm a teacher who lives just over the border, and while it was icy in the suburbs it was very clear by the time I got into the city and close to school.  My concern is that, like many teachers and parents, I can't make a judgement about whether closing would make any sense on the morning without getting dressed, taking the elevator downstairs, and walking around.  Today, to be honest, even that wouldn't have worked since things at 6:00 a.m. in the suburbs were very different from how they looked at 8:00 in the city.  Given that, I'd like to be able to go to one reliable source and know with 100% confidence at 5:00 a.m. whether things will be open, delayed, or closed.[/quote]

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