Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FCPS opened their buildings for sports this weekend and CYO in the Diocese of Arlington follows FCPS. This is not prioritizing sports over academics but rather following protocol for openings as agreed with being a CYO gym.

Sure it is. FCPS is not focused on academics at all. You cannot close for an entire year during a pandemic and pretend that you are. The diocese of Arlington has no obligation to follow FCPS and should not. FCPS made terrible decisions.

What does that have to do with weather? It was cold, they had time to clear, and they were ready this weekend. If they are closed tomorrow, then be angry.

there was no reason out Arlington diocese school could not have opened Thurs and Fri except terrible decision making.

If you feel that way, please tell your principal your thoughts if you want change. Otherwise he/she will think everyone supported the choices made.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FCPS opened their buildings for sports this weekend and CYO in the Diocese of Arlington follows FCPS. This is not prioritizing sports over academics but rather following protocol for openings as agreed with being a CYO gym.

Sure it is. FCPS is not focused on academics at all. You cannot close for an entire year during a pandemic and pretend that you are. The diocese of Arlington has no obligation to follow FCPS and should not. FCPS made terrible decisions.

What does that have to do with weather? It was cold, they had time to clear, and they were ready this weekend. If they are closed tomorrow, then be angry.

there was no reason out Arlington diocese school could not have opened Thurs and Fri except terrible decision making.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FCPS opened their buildings for sports this weekend and CYO in the Diocese of Arlington follows FCPS. This is not prioritizing sports over academics but rather following protocol for openings as agreed with being a CYO gym.

Sure it is. FCPS is not focused on academics at all. You cannot close for an entire year during a pandemic and pretend that you are. The diocese of Arlington has no obligation to follow FCPS and should not. FCPS made terrible decisions.

What does that have to do with weather? It was cold, they had time to clear, and they were ready this weekend. If they are closed tomorrow, then be angry.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FCPS opened their buildings for sports this weekend and CYO in the Diocese of Arlington follows FCPS. This is not prioritizing sports over academics but rather following protocol for openings as agreed with being a CYO gym.

Sure it is. FCPS is not focused on academics at all. You cannot close for an entire year during a pandemic and pretend that you are. The diocese of Arlington has no obligation to follow FCPS and should not. FCPS made terrible decisions.

Anonymous wrote:FCPS opened their buildings for sports this weekend and CYO in the Diocese of Arlington follows FCPS. This is not prioritizing sports over academics but rather following protocol for openings as agreed with being a CYO gym.

Anonymous wrote:O’Connell doesn’t follow APS? BI follows Fairfax, but they were already scheduled to be closed Th and F. So three snow days and two virtual days.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:St Mary’s does NOT follow ACPS or any other school district — and hasn’t done so since covid.

It made its own decision to shut down for 5 days while various other school districts opened or at least had virtual (while charging parents tuition).

It would make no sense for st Mary’s to follow ACPS since ACPS often does virtual (and thus is more prone to close in edge cases) while st Mary’s doesn’t do virtual. This week is a perfect example of that. Acps could have opened — the streets were fine — but opted to do virtual bc it was easier.

St Mary’s should have opened with a 2 hour delay on Thursday and on Friday.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes but athletics happened today. Which is so frustrating.

CYO athletics involve maybe 25-30 cars per game, that is nothing compared to school carpool traffic and logistics. The school parking lot can be cleared and ready for building use to happen with such a limited amount of people involved. The streets surrounding the schools were still impacted on Friday and may still are today, which is a separate issue that does involve carpool logistics.

Our parking lot was fine and carpool could have happened. They just chose to prioritize sports and not school. Which is not acceptable.

Yep. But this shouldn’t surprise anyone. Academics has been about 6th in the priority order at arlington diocese schools for awhile — after mass, sports, fundraising, random student assemblies, and CSW.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes but athletics happened today. Which is so frustrating.

CYO athletics involve maybe 25-30 cars per game, that is nothing compared to school carpool traffic and logistics. The school parking lot can be cleared and ready for building use to happen with such a limited amount of people involved. The streets surrounding the schools were still impacted on Friday and may still are today, which is a separate issue that does involve carpool logistics.

Our parking lot was fine and carpool could have happened. They just chose to prioritize sports and not school. Which is not acceptable.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes but athletics happened today. Which is so frustrating.

CYO athletics involve maybe 25-30 cars per game, that is nothing compared to school carpool traffic and logistics. The school parking lot can be cleared and ready for building use to happen with such a limited amount of people involved. The streets surrounding the schools were still impacted on Friday and may still are today, which is a separate issue that does involve carpool logistics.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes but athletics happened today. Which is so frustrating.

CYO athletics involve maybe 25-30 cars per game, that is nothing compared to school carpool traffic and logistics. The school parking lot can be cleared and ready for building use to happen with such a limited amount of people involved. The streets surrounding the schools were still impacted on Friday and may still are today, which is a separate issue that does involve carpool logistics.

Anonymous wrote:St. Mary’s parent here. I know the principal is an idiot but believe he made the right call this week.

One thing we have to consider is the impact our school has on the neighborhood. Yes, you or I driving casually on a work day is fine but there are ~750 students across 250+ families that attend St. Mary’s. Carpool, though pretty efficient, does require two fully unobstructed lanes on Green and Royal. We didn’t have that this week. Staggering arrivals doesn’t work because you have families with children across multiple grades and there isn’t enough faculty and staff to start the instructional day and keep carpool safe. Additionally, the current on-campus parking falls well short of accommodating all staff, which means with the snow drifts covering street parking and limiting neighborhood spots, there wasn’t enough parking to fully staff the building.

Virtual learning requires preparation. While our school did an excellent job of providing online instruction during COVID (I had several kids participating in online learning), that was the result of months of planning and communicating to parents. Telling parents on a Wednesday that their students will learn virtually when the school has no plan is setting everyone up for a very frustrating day. If people want virtual learning to be an option in these cases, they should reach out to the principal and express their desire to develop a plan.

I’m thrilled to have my kids back in school next week. Working from home and facilitating snow day activities isn’t easy - but it’s necessary sometimes. Us paying tuition (ever-increasing tuition at that) doesn’t mean we get to call all the shots. There are many schools to choose from in this area; if St. Mary’s isn’t doing it for you, I encourage you to start looking at other schools. You’ll be able to find a better fit.

Anonymous wrote:Yes but athletics happened today. Which is so frustrating.