Monday, January 6, 2014

Good Luck to Students in Trailers Tomorrow, Trips to Bathroom and Lunch will be through -10 Wind Chill

EMERGENCY MESSAGE: 1/6/2014 at 5:15 PM -- Refresh page to update message

Montgomery County Public Schools are opening on time tomorrow. Administrative offices also are opening on time.

MENSAJES DE EMERGENCIA: 1/6/2014, 5:15 PM -- Refresque la página para actualizar mensaje

Montgomery County Public Schools abrirán en su horario habitual mañana. Las oficinas administrativas también abrirán en su horario habitual.

13 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Odd that Briggs Chaney MS put out a robo call telling parents that students shouldn't wait at bus stops.
    What's their choice?

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  3. This is ridiculous. If one kid suffers frostbite tomorrow, Starr should be fired!

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  4. Worst decision ever. Truly shows that MCPS is pandering to parents who work instead of considering the safety of the children. I hope there are tons of complaints.

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  5. I agree. Parents need to write to the board.

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  6. One thing to consider, though, is that for a LOT of kids in MCPS, school may be the only place they may HAVE heat, and the only place they may HAVE lunch.

    This really is a no-win situation for MCPS and for the families who literally can't afford enough warm clothing and coats for their children: freeze and be hungry at home (after a long Winter break and a 3-day weekend from the last storm, so no bags of food home for the weekend last Friday), or risk frostbite on the way to & from school.

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    1. Why such a defeatist attitude? This is not a "no-win" situation at all. If students need a warm place and a meal, schools can be opened as warming centers with food. What's the horror in that?
      Do you know kids arrived at school today in sweatshirts and sweatpants because that is all they had to wear? Were they actually better off risking exposure?

      As always with MCPS, this is about planning. Let's look at the school buildings. All MCPS buildings have automatic thermostats that turn the heat down at night. Last night we weren't supposed to turn down our thermostats. Did MCPS override the automatic settings or did they let all the schools cool off over night?

      Did MCPS let all students keep their coats with them in case of a fire alarm? You know high schoolers aren't allowed to wear their coats for security reasons, but today would have been a good day to make an exception, right? Did MCPS do that or did they let the 2,000 Churchill HS students freeze?

      Today, MCPS sent out frostbite warnings - while students were already at school. A little late for that information?

      MCPS students have the right to stay home with an excused absence for weather! Isn't that like liberal leave in the federal government? Why not just inform parents of the choice that they have before them and let them make the call?

      MCPS put students in situations today that would get a parent in trouble with child protective services. Where was the MCPS plan?

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    2. I thought about the "warming center" idea as well, but if students are going to show up at a school building for warming and food, they're likely to do it in the same clothes they'd be wearing walking or riding a bus to school, no? They risk frostbite either way. Additionally, I know a LOT of kids in MCPS, including my catchment area, take home SmartSacks on Fridays to help their families get through the weekend, and with no school Friday due to snow, and on the heels of the long Winter Break, getting those kids in and fed should figure in as well. I don't think that's being defeatist; I think it's being pragmatic.

      I agree that it should have been better-thought-out; a number of buses were unforgiveably late in the cold, including one of my kids', and we were lucky to have a parent on the way to work who could sit with her in a warm car at the bus stop (along with a number of other cars also waiting there), and I know that not all kids had that; that's definitely an issue that needs to be addressed. Do you have any access to figures that would tell what percentage of students walk to school vs take the bus vs drive, and for the walkers how far they have to walk? If the majority of students are within a relatively close walking distance, it makes little sense to shut down schools for the minority, but if the majority are waiting for buses or walking longer distances, that changes the entire complexion of the problem. I don't have that information, so I'd have to defer to those who do.

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  7. Much ado about nothing. It's winter. It gets cold. Most of you believed the hype that came from the media and social media. Kids waited for the bus. The buses came. No one died. No one got frostbite.

    Tonight it will go down to zero in some places. Shall we rise up and demand school be cancelled tomorrow?

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    1. So that's your test? If a child dies then school should be closed? What child do you want to sacrifice for this test?

      As for "no one got frostbite" - prove it. You have zero evidence for that statement.

      Fairfax County Public Schools have already announced they will open 2 hours late on Wednesday. Go call them a bunch of names.

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  8. The way the cooling and heating is managed in MCPS is atrocious. Before I retired, I complained about lack of heat or boiling temperatures to no avail -- unhealthy for all. I was told that everything was controlled by central office. Absurd! Why can't the schools control their own heating and cooling?

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  9. Nine of my twenty-two student arrived at school today, bundled up and saying that it was warm on the buses. These nine students had their coats with them all day today, in the classroom, at special, and during lunch; not because it was cold in the school (honestly it was too hot) but in case the fire alarm went off. Yes, many of our students get their only good meals at school, and many do not have warm weather clothes. My students were told to wear socks on their hands if they didn't have mittens and were going to be standing outside at all. I grew up in the Great Lakes region, and we survived many a day of temperatures far below what was experienced today in Montgomery County.

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    1. To be fair, though, the Upper Midwest knows cold. Every winter it's, well, COLD!

      This was far FAR below anything resembling "normal" here; expecting DC-area kids to have the same kind of cold-weather preparation and clothing is almost like expecting Floridians to have Winter coats at all.

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