Loudoun schools closed Monday AND Tuesday...help me understand! (Arlington: movers, buy)

[stuntmonkey123]

Originally Posted by Neutral

People do it all the time. Where I'm from, you find out if school is closed the morning of. In some cases the night before but that was really rare and never seemed to apply to me.

People here do this all the time, too.

Just helping the original poster understand what could be part of Loudoun's motivation. The county is not out to make people's lives more difficult -- they have a lot to consider.

[arielmina]

i think whoever said it was a cost saving measure hit the nail on the head. One thing that I am not familiar with though is county-wide closures. We were town by town up in CT...so is it always county-wide? I would think that would be very difficult to predict and deal with school closures.

[Muffy62]

I am thinking that Pr. Wm. will be closed on Monday and probably Tuesday if they can't get the sidewalks and parking lot in the schools cleared. Then Wednesday is a 2 hour early dismissal so I don't know if it is fiscally feasible to bring the kids in (gas for bus, heating up the schools etc.) maybe they will save more money by closing the schools.

No sign of the snow plow in our subdivision and there is no way to get out without the streets being plowed. As hubby says, if they plow by Monday he will go to work, if not then he will be home

[stuntmonkey123]

Originally Posted by arielmina

i think whoever said it was a cost saving measure hit the nail on the head. One thing that I am not familiar with though is county-wide closures. We were town by town up in CT...so is it always county-wide? I would think that would be very difficult to predict and deal with school closures.

Yes. Public schools here are all county-wide. I grew up in PA and my county had several different school districts with their own school boards. Not so here. There is one school board and one top superintendent for all the schools in the county (and many more assistant superintendents, cluster directors, etc, but that is a whole new thread...).

It does make school closings trickier because the counties cover larger areas, and while the roads in some areas might be fine, if there are lots of rural, hilly areas in one end of the county, that could cause the whole county to close for the day.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by mississippimagnolia

I'm also hoping that the Federal Gov't decides to close. I'd love to have my husband around as well.

All I sincerely pray for is Monday off. With two feet of snow (and still coming down) with even the main roads still unpassable I don't know how they expect us to get to work in 33 hours or so. I can walk about a mile-and-a-half to our branch office, and that's what I'll do if we're open on Monday. I hope Reston has their sidewalks (what few they do have anyways) cleared by then.

[Yankeesfan]

Originally Posted by arielmina

i think whoever said it was a cost saving measure hit the nail on the head. One thing that I am not familiar with though is county-wide closures. We were town by town up in CT...so is it always county-wide? I would think that would be very difficult to predict and deal with school closures.

The difference in Virginia is the government structure. In many states -- most, I think -- a county contains multiple towns or cities. So each town or city would have its own government and school system, and the county would consist of several of those and would be an additional layer of government above them all. The places that I grew up all had towns and cities with their own governments, mayors, school systems, etc, and several of those made up the county.

Here in Virginia, people live in a city OR a county, and each is the unit of government. So Loudoun County or Fairfax County is the unit of government, and contains the school system. Alexandria is a city, with its own government and school system, and does not belong to a county. There are some exceptions, such as towns within counties that do have their own governments, but generally a county is the governing local body.

[dkf747]

Originally Posted by Mrs. 14th & You

The last time we got this much snow was in 1996. DC city schools were closed on the gov't at least four days after the snow fell. It was with cause. With this much accumulation it takes time for the plows to get around.

The last time we had this much snow (actually more) was in 2003. That's how I learned that the school systems not only think of the roads, but also whether their are cleared walkways for kids to get to school. I remember them calling for volunteers to help get them cleared so they could re-open. I think the kids had a whole week off that year.

[Flamingo13]

Just playing devil's advocate - if you can't stand the idea of having your kids home.... maybe you shouldn't have them?

I totally understand the schools' decision to close in this instance (there are some that have been questionable). People are so lawsuit happy these days - my baby fell and cut her knee while walking to the bus stop, etc. Plus the cost considerations of utilities, gas for buses, et al - not worth it for a day.

[treebw]

I have always loved extra days with my daughter!! Now she is a senior in high school and we are really running low on days to play hookie. I was Thankful to end up being off today and tomorrow (I work at a museum on the Mall) to spend the days with her.

When she was young, to pass the time, we would do a lot of crafty stuff. Depending on their ages, you could give your kids the job of making an igloo in the yard. Or shoving cloves into oranges to make ornaments for the house.

[cdmurphy]

Originally Posted by stuntmonkey123

Yes. Public schools here are all county-wide. I grew up in PA and my county had several different school districts with their own school boards. Not so here. There is one school board and one top superintendent for all the schools in the county (and many more assistant superintendents, cluster directors, etc, but that is a whole new thread...).

It does make school closings trickier because the counties cover larger areas, and while the roads in some areas might be fine, if there are lots of rural, hilly areas in one end of the county, that could cause the whole county to close for the day.

Yep, LCPS has 76 schools, spread out over 520 square miles. It's too bad that the Catoctin County movement seems to have died down; yet another benefit from Western Loudoun secession would be the division of LCPS into two districts.