Anonymous wrote:I was the one who said that barring more snow they should be able to open and here is why. It stopped snowing between 10-11 am, and while some parts of the County had more than a foot of snow most of it had less and the roads are clear. Sidewalks are a different issue but they can't wait to open until everyone does their own sidewalks. They are responsible for the sidewalks leading up to the school. If it stopped snowing at 11, and school opens at 7:30 am the next day, that is plenty of time to get parking lots, sidewalks and roads cleared -- the 16" part of the County would take more time, but the roads were quite good by 4 pm. Anyway, it snowed again so moot.

You must be new to MoCo, right?

Your logic is more optimistic than I've ever seen.

MCPS doesn't wait until the public clears their own sidewalks, BUT they do wait for school sidewalks and parking lots to be cleared. 202 schools... that's a lot of sidewalks to fix in less than 24 hours. The same people who'd be working on school sidewalks, however, are the ones taking care of county roads.

We are usually plowed very quickly in my Bethesda neighborhood but we only had one come through late tonight and do a single pass down the middle of the street. No way would we get a bus up this hill tomorrow.

Plus there was significant snow again this evening - another 2 inches or so.

Anonymous wrote:I was the one who said that barring more snow they should be able to open and here is why. It stopped snowing between 10-11 am, and while some parts of the County had more than a foot of snow most of it had less and the roads are clear. Sidewalks are a different issue but they can't wait to open until everyone does their own sidewalks. They are responsible for the sidewalks leading up to the school. If it stopped snowing at 11, and school opens at 7:30 am the next day, that is plenty of time to get parking lots, sidewalks and roads cleared -- the 16" part of the County would take more time, but the roads were quite good by 4 pm. Anyway, it snowed again so moot.

I don't think that most areas had less than a foot of snow. I just went to the store and there are a TON of roads that haven't been plowed yet.

Anonymous wrote:I was the one who said that barring more snow they should be able to open and here is why. It stopped snowing between 10-11 am, and while some parts of the County had more than a foot of snow most of it had less and the roads are clear. Sidewalks are a different issue but they can't wait to open until everyone does their own sidewalks. They are responsible for the sidewalks leading up to the school. If it stopped snowing at 11, and school opens at 7:30 am the next day, that is plenty of time to get parking lots, sidewalks and roads cleared -- the 16" part of the County would take more time, but the roads were quite good by 4 pm. Anyway, it snowed again so moot.

MCPS has 202 schools and 12,000 or so teachers.

You do realize that lots have to be cleared for buses to enter/exit and teachers to park. Furthermore, teachers have to get there. So if their roads aren't plowed, they're not getting there to instruct the kids.

I was the one who said that barring more snow they should be able to open and here is why. It stopped snowing between 10-11 am, and while some parts of the County had more than a foot of snow most of it had less and the roads are clear. Sidewalks are a different issue but they can't wait to open until everyone does their own sidewalks. They are responsible for the sidewalks leading up to the school. If it stopped snowing at 11, and school opens at 7:30 am the next day, that is plenty of time to get parking lots, sidewalks and roads cleared -- the 16" part of the County would take more time, but the roads were quite good by 4 pm. Anyway, it snowed again so moot.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:15:11 You are wrong. MCPS message is for today.

I love when people jump in to point out someone else's mistake - only to be wrong themselves!!!!!

I know.

I love when people make assholes of themselves b/c they were too lazy to check things out themselves.

Anonymous wrote:Last I heard, we are expecting another round of snow later today and this evening, if so, they will be closed, if not, they should certainly be able to get the schools open barring some wide power outages (but the policy is not to keep the entire county closed when some schools have outages).

Out of curiosity, why did you think MCPS would "certainly" be able to get schools open tomorrow, barring another round of snow/sleet tonight? The roads in my neighborhood (Rockville) are a total mess. And city-owned sidewalks, where the kids' bus stops are, haven't been cleared.

Regarding outages, they'll cancel school if a sufficient number of schools have outages, but it has to be a lot more than just a few. I think 3 years ago (Jan. 2011) there were a lot of outages after the really heavy snow. After day 3, the roads were fine, but not all schools had power. On the MCPS website, they listed something like "These schools do not have power as of (a certain time). We will re-evaluate their status at 5 AM and update." it was a list of about 30 schools. The next morning, the list was updated, and the system was in session, with the exception of the 20 or so schools without power.

Anonymous wrote:15:11 You are wrong. MCPS message is for today.

I love when people jump in to point out someone else's mistake - only to be wrong themselves!!!!!

Anonymous wrote:15:11 You are wrong. MCPS message is for today.

Pasted directly from the site:

"EMERGENCY MESSAGE: 2/13/2014 at 3:05 PM -- Refresh page to update message

Montgomery County Public Schools are closed tomorrow (2/14/14) due to emergency weather conditions. All school and community activities in school buildings also are canceled. A decision about whether to open administrative offices will be made at a later time."

Nope, it's closed. Look again.

15:11 You are wrong. MCPS message is for today.

Anonymous wrote:My DH was just out shoveling and thinks they may have school b/c our Bethesda n'hood streets looked clear. But I'm wondering how the rest of MoCo looks - that will determine the call for tomorrow.

We're near downtown Bethesda and have not seen a plow yet.

MCPS website says closed tomorrow 2/14. Just posted.

My DH was just out shoveling and thinks they may have school b/c our Bethesda n'hood streets looked clear. But I'm wondering how the rest of MoCo looks - that will determine the call for tomorrow.