Anonymous wrote:Emails don't mean squat. They are deleted as fast as I can press enter. A concerned person writes a letter. It carries far more weight. You remember letters? The kind that you put in an envelope and put a stamp on.

Posts on Dcum don't mean squat either

Emails don't mean squat. They are deleted as fast as I can press enter. A concerned person writes a letter. It carries far more weight. You remember letters? The kind that you put in an envelope and put a stamp on.

Anonymous wrote:Say it with me: no waiver!

And yes, I've been inconvenienced - and so have thousands of other working parents. If you are thrilled at yet another snow day, good for you - but you are hardly the norm from my interactions with parents in this area.

But inconvenience isn't the point here - the point is that if the state imposes a requirement for days of classes, it should not be routinely disregarded. If MCPS publishes an academic calendar, with policies for extensions based on a large volume of closures, it should adhere to the calendar and those policies, and the state shouldn't be facilitating efforts to knock off a week of classes. I'm not an MCPS basher by any stretch, but there's something screwed up about an educational system trying to duck its own (self-created) standards.

I have taught as an adjunct professor at 2 area universities - when there are snow cancellations, you better believe that there are required makeups. Why should elementary and secondary school be any different?

I think that an e-mail to the MCPS and Maryland state boards of education might be more effective here than a chorus response from DCUM.

Say it with me: no waiver!

And yes, I've been inconvenienced - and so have thousands of other working parents. If you are thrilled at yet another snow day, good for you - but you are hardly the norm from my interactions with parents in this area.

But inconvenience isn't the point here - the point is that if the state imposes a requirement for days of classes, it should not be routinely disregarded. If MCPS publishes an academic calendar, with policies for extensions based on a large volume of closures, it should adhere to the calendar and those policies, and the state shouldn't be facilitating efforts to knock off a week of classes. I'm not an MCPS basher by any stretch, but there's something screwed up about an educational system trying to duck its own (self-created) standards.

I have taught as an adjunct professor at 2 area universities - when there are snow cancellations, you better believe that there are required makeups. Why should elementary and secondary school be any different?

Anonymous wrote:What about the years when there are no snow days and the kids get 4 extra days of instruction? No one feels "owed" their days of summer back do they? Call it what it is, you are pissed because you have been inconvenienced.

Heh. Busted!

Between the delays AND closures we need a full week of school. There are more times we get to 4 or over than not and nothing is ever made up. This needs to be the year they do so.

Anonymous wrote:What about the years when there are no snow days and the kids get 4 extra days of instruction? No one feels "owed" their days of summer back do they? Call it what it is, you are pissed because you have been inconvenienced.

+100!!!

students need adequate school days to learn stuff they are supposed to. What's the matter for the school always wanted an extension? Don't they know that it does the students no good?

http://educationnext.org/time-for-school/


see the article about "school time does matter".

I'm a parent and I'm all for school extension. If the extension is waived again, I'm all for protesting. to warrant the students' already too short school time is the bottom line. The county should know better what the priority is.

What about the years when there are no snow days and the kids get 4 extra days of instruction? No one feels "owed" their days of summer back do they? Call it what it is, you are pissed because you have been inconvenienced.

Even if EVERY snow day was actually needed,the days need to be made up as stated on their calendar. I have no sympathy for people that pay for a camp when it shows on every MCPS calendar how the snow says work and the year gets extended. You took a gamble paying for something you weren't 100% sure was going to work.

And the fact that there will probably be ANOTHER delay tomorrow, the kids have barely been in school. If the delays don't have to be made up, at least give the kids the week of school they missed.

This county needs to get smaller. Split up. 20 years ago they had half the roads they have now. So many developments, apartments, condos being built. More for MC to do. Not enough men/trucks to do the work.

Anonymous wrote:PP here: MCPS owes all of our children a full school year, plain and simple. So if weather conditions force closures beyond what is already factored into the calendar, then yes, MCPS must extend the school year. Why on earth would any responsible parent oppose that?

And fwiw PP I'm sorry to hear that your upcounty street is a sheet of ice. I am not questioning today's closure in my comment - I fully expected today would be a closure. But we have had several full-day closures when the lower-half of the county received not a single flake of snow and had zero ice - just rain. So yes, those were ridiculous closures for tens of thousands of MCPS students.

If the situation were reversed most upcounty parents wouldn't be happy to see their kids lose a week of school - particularly when the cause is weather conditions that did not affect them in the first place.

Actually, this upcounty parent (whose kids have lost a week of school, just like yours!) completely understands that it's a big county, and that MCPS has to make a decision based on what's best for MCPS as a whole, not on what's best for me and my neighbors.

PP here: MCPS owes all of our children a full school year, plain and simple. So if weather conditions force closures beyond what is already factored into the calendar, then yes, MCPS must extend the school year. Why on earth would any responsible parent oppose that?

And fwiw PP I'm sorry to hear that your upcounty street is a sheet of ice. I am not questioning today's closure in my comment - I fully expected today would be a closure. But we have had several full-day closures when the lower-half of the county received not a single flake of snow and had zero ice - just rain. So yes, those were ridiculous closures for tens of thousands of MCPS students.

If the situation were reversed most upcounty parents wouldn't be happy to see their kids lose a week of school - particularly when the cause is weather conditions that did not affect them in the first place.

Anonymous wrote:Seriously if they don't extend the year I think there should be some coordinated parental response - we are all forced to take leave to cope with MCPS' ridiculous closures, and to see them shave a full week off the curriculum without any adjustment is just absurd. Extending the year would save working parents a few days of camp or other childcare costs, money we've all bled dealing with closures that at times have been totally baseless for much of the lower portion of the county. I'm fully expecting they go for the waiver though - that's what happened in 2009-2010. It's totally outrageous.

MCPS owes you for closing when, according to their best judgment, it wasn't safe for students and staff to come to shool?