Closing by cluster doesn’t work. Special ed programs pull from multiple clusters. Some only have 1 or 2 sites in the whole county (like Extensions, or RICA). So if the weather in the service school’s cluster is fine but the roads in the student’s cluster are not, then what? The gen ed kids have school while the special ed kids aren’t there, miss their inclusion classes, etc? That is a violation of FAPE, and a guaranteed lawsuit. These students are entitled to curb-to-curb transportation. So what, you send a bus into the cluster with the dangerous roads so the student can get there? Then you have your picture on NBC4 with the bus tipped in a ditch like last week.

I won’t even start on magnet schools, since there is no legal entitlement to magnet programs (though many DCUMers seem to think there is). But it would be the same problem.

School districts in Maryland have always been organized at the county level. Over the years, this has led MCPS to set things up a certain way. The plus side is lots more specialized programs than are available in small districts, which end up paying more to farm their kids out to non-publics or paying other districts. The downside is days like today. It is what it is.

Anonymous wrote:Even the whimps from Fairfax County only went with a 2 hour delay and they always cancel.

Those are fighting words!

A Message from Superintendent Jack R. Smith Regarding Today's School Closure
January 17, 2018

Dear MCPS Community,

I am writing to share the circumstances that caused us to close schools for students after initially announcing a two-hour delay this morning. Typically, we are able to make a decision about school closure by 5:00 a.m. Occasionally, we announce a two-hour delay by 5:00 a.m. with a note that we are still assessing weather conditions to determine if a closure is warranted. Updates with any changes to a decision are usually communicated by 7:00 a.m. Today, we did not do that, as all weather forecasts pointed to snow tapering off early in the day with little snow accumulation. Most school districts in the region, including MCPS, therefore announced a two-hour delay.

However, despite this relatively minor weather event, the roads in many parts of the county became unsafe for school transportation after the two-hour delay was announced. This turned out to be the case in a number of neighboring jurisdictions as well. Although the snow covering was thin, the wet snow combined with temperatures below freezing made for hazardous conditions. While some roads were in fine shape, a significant portion of the roads in Montgomery County, particularly side streets, were not ready for school buses.

We transport approximately 100,000 students each day on more than 1,300 school buses, and safety is our first priority. In addition, we have a large number of students who drive, and we must keep this in mind. As we continued to assess the situation, there was no indication that additional treatment would improve road conditions before school buses, student drivers, and students walking to schools and bus stops would be on the roads. As a result, we made the difficult decision to close schools for student safety.

We know the importance of making an announcement for school closure as early as possible, and I regret that today we were not able to make this decision earlier. We always strive to maximize learning time and minimize delays and closures, while at the same time announcing these decisions in a timeframe that is least disruptive to our families and community.

I apologize for any inconvenience our later announcement caused today, and thank you for your understanding and flexibility as we focused on ensuring the safety of our students.

Sincerely,

Jack R. Smith, Ph.D.
Superintendent of Schools

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People, it is not the snow that is the issue - it was the icy road conditions at the time when the buses and students who drive would have been out on the road.

The delay would have been ideal but I would rather the district be safe now than sorry later. I know some of you are put out. MCPS always catches hell for not protecting students in other contexts, but it gets as much hell when it does something to protect them.

Whatever. It's not icy here in Silver Spring. Other posters say it's not icy in the BCC area. That's a lot of students who could be learning today, but aren't. And a lot of their parents are going to go to work anyway because OPM and others don't call this a snow day, so you have a lot of kids home alone (this is not super-safe).

That's fine. I saw cars and a SUV slide down the hill outside my house. I am in Silver Spring too.

I do not normally defend MCPS but in cases like this, it is damned if you do and damned if you don't. Whatever decision they make, someone is going to be pissed.

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Whatever. It's not icy here in Silver Spring. Other posters say it's not icy in the BCC area. That's a lot of students who could be learning today, but aren't. And a lot of their parents are going to go to work anyway because OPM and others don't call this a snow day, so you have a lot of kids home alone (this is not super-safe).

How old are your children?

None of your business. And they're not home alone. But plenty of low-income parents do this because they have no other choice, and Walmart doesn't give them a day off for 1/2 inch of snow. So don't be an ass.

You’re an ass for assuming all low income parents work at Walmart.

Too many snow days wreck your reading comprehension? No one said that all low income parents work at Walmart. It's called providing an example.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MoCo needs to step up its salting and plowing operation. This is happening too frequently for people to complain "MoCo isn't set up for snow events." Kids shouldn't be losing a day of schooling to a tiny bit of snow and ice.

+1 Sometimes it feels like MoCo only has one plow for the whole county.

But that is not just a County issue. The SHA is one who designates treatment priority.

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Anonymous wrote:

That is not my understanding of Long Island and I have multiple family members with kids there. But in any case. Long Island doesn't have decision making on snow days at the County level because the counties are too big (like MoCo).

Long Island doesn't have decision making on snow days at the County level because New York State does not organize schools districts by county. But other states (including Maryland) do.

And it works so well for us in Maryland! With half the county screaming "Why isn't my kid in school today?"

Eh. It's not even half of the DCUM Maryland Public Schools forum (which is not a representative sample of the population of MCPS parents).

But if you think Maryland should stop organizing its school districts by county, I suggest that you contact your state legislators.

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Whatever. It's not icy here in Silver Spring. Other posters say it's not icy in the BCC area. That's a lot of students who could be learning today, but aren't. And a lot of their parents are going to go to work anyway because OPM and others don't call this a snow day, so you have a lot of kids home alone (this is not super-safe).

How old are your children?

None of your business. And they're not home alone. But plenty of low-income parents do this because they have no other choice, and Walmart doesn't give them a day off for 1/2 inch of snow. So don't be an ass.

You’re an ass for assuming all low income parents work at Walmart.

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Yes, which is why I pointed out that you could have a sub-county decision mechanism (ex: by clusters). My NY friends can't believe that my kid's school keeps closing when there's less than an inch of snow of the ground.

What do you mean, they can't believe it? They think you're not telling them the truth?

A school district has to make decisions based on what's appropriate for that school district, not on what different school districts elsewhere, with different relevant characteristics, may decide is appropriate for those school districts. The MCPS decision should be appropriate for characteristics and conditions in Montgomery County, not a school district in New York or Boston or North Dakota or Nizhny Novgorod.

Translation: Just because another school system has a more efficient way to make decisions, we will not ever consider adopting that mechanism.

Translation: [School district] in [location] only closes for [weather conditions], therefore MCPS's decision today was wrong!

So you're saying: if [School district] in [location] has a decentralized way of making decisions on [weather conditions] that parents and teachers are happy with, MCPS would never consider that.

Can someone link to this mythical large school system that makes this decision in a decentralized way? It's not in NY or New England, since their school systems are by town and not by county.

All of Nassau and Suffolk County in Long Island make closing decisions at the district level. Wouldn't make sense to close schools in a centralized way in an island that takes 3 hours to drive across.

But Nassau and Suffolk Counties in Long Island have many different school districts - it is organized by town. So the above poster's statement is correct - in NY and New England, the school districts are organized by town and not by county.

Right...I do not understand how people do not get that MCPS is one school district - so the decision WAS made at the district level. The same was one in PG and HoCo. Made on district level.

MoCo is so much bigger than HoCo and PG Counties. Lumping it all together as one district makes much less sense.

Well, that is a much bigger issue than what we are discussing. Most school districts in MD are designated by County. Want to change that, you need to go to the state house.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Whatever. It's not icy here in Silver Spring. Other posters say it's not icy in the BCC area. That's a lot of students who could be learning today, but aren't. And a lot of their parents are going to go to work anyway because OPM and others don't call this a snow day, so you have a lot of kids home alone (this is not super-safe).

How old are your children?

None of your business. And they're not home alone. But plenty of low-income parents do this because they have no other choice, and Walmart doesn't give them a day off for 1/2 inch of snow. So don't be an ass.

It's not super-safe to leave a middle-schooler or high-schooler home alone during school hours? Certainly there are lots of MCPS students who aren't in middle school or high school. But there are also lots who are.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MoCo needs to step up its salting and plowing operation. This is happening too frequently for people to complain "MoCo isn't set up for snow events." Kids shouldn't be losing a day of schooling to a tiny bit of snow and ice.

+1 Sometimes it feels like MoCo only has one plow for the whole county.

This forecast has been around for days. They should have salted the roads better.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Whatever. It's not icy here in Silver Spring. Other posters say it's not icy in the BCC area. That's a lot of students who could be learning today, but aren't. And a lot of their parents are going to go to work anyway because OPM and others don't call this a snow day, so you have a lot of kids home alone (this is not super-safe).

How old are your children?

None of your business. And they're not home alone. But plenty of low-income parents do this because they have no other choice, and Walmart doesn't give them a day off for 1/2 inch of snow. So don't be an ass.

Anonymous wrote:MoCo needs to step up its salting and plowing operation. This is happening too frequently for people to complain "MoCo isn't set up for snow events." Kids shouldn't be losing a day of schooling to a tiny bit of snow and ice.

+1 Sometimes it feels like MoCo only has one plow for the whole county.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

That is not my understanding of Long Island and I have multiple family members with kids there. But in any case. Long Island doesn't have decision making on snow days at the County level because the counties are too big (like MoCo).

Long Island doesn't have decision making on snow days at the County level because New York State does not organize schools districts by county. But other states (including Maryland) do.

And it works so well for us in Maryland! With half the county screaming "Why isn't my kid in school today?"

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even the whimps from Fairfax County only went with a 2 hour delay and they always cancel.

Maybe the road and weather conditions in Fairfax County were different from the road and weather conditions in Montgomery County.

They are! I live in Montgomery County and work in Fairfax and the roads were much better in Fairfax this morning.