FCPS is closed Monday (home, neighborhood, purchasing)

[OrangeFish]

Originally Posted by lindy112

My kids' school (Cardinal Forest) is having a community workday tomorrow from 9:30-12 and is asking everyone to come help shovel the sidewalks, etc.

Our school is doing that as well. The PTA sent out an email this afternoon requesting help from families.

[athousandlogins]

My son's preschool usually follows local school closings and had intended to be closed President's Day as a holiday, anyway. But they decided instead to open for this one to help out the parents after the chaos of last week. I am so grateful. But my preschooler doesn't have to stand at a bus stop, and there are a lot fewer teachers who need to drive in at my son's preschool than at any given FCPS building. Part of me understands why FCPS would make this decision, and part of me thinks it's excessive.

[EuroExpat]

Looks like LoCo schools will open on Tuesday an hour late. Just got the message saying they know that some of the 60,000 students will not be able to attend. I wonder what the parents of those children think about this. I think it's kinda nice that they open regardless of everyone being able to attend. But I think we'd be pretty ticked off if we had to wait another week to get back to school. Tuesday is going to be a mess..

[MagazineFreak]

We got a similar message from our school. They are asking for volunteers, beginning at 8am, to shovel the parking lot, in particular the fire hydrants.

I got the sense from Jack Dale's message about the closing that he was bit unhappy with the county's handling of the snow removal. I may be reading in to it though. Definitely a tough call for him. Fortunate that my husband is off tomorrow, because even our daycare (my backup for my school-age son) is closed for teacher training.

[novajs]

And you are scratching your head why U.S. education falls behind those of other countries. We only put in a couple of hundred hours a year for teaching in public school and expect our kids to ourperform students from other countries in Math and Science?

[tgbwc]

Originally Posted by lindy112

My kids' school (Cardinal Forest) is having a community workday tomorrow from 9:30-12 and is asking everyone to come help shovel the sidewalks, etc. Apparently, the fire marshal requires that all exits out of the school be cleared of snow in case of emergency. And all the parking lot black top has to be cleared as well so the kids have somewhere to stand in case of an evacuation.

On the FCPS Facebook page, someone posted the following in response to a similar request. There are some interesting comments. Of course I don't agree, but will stay off of my soapbox at this time.

What happened to our rather hefty tax dollars paying for the maintenance of school property? If the teachers can greet kids at the kiss and drop in their full length fur coats, why don't they contribute part of their salaries and/or "off time" to do doing the shoveling? Like the principal of our local elementary once said on election day "this is ... See Moremy school." So, if it's your school, take care of it. Or do the kids get extra credit for the time their parents do the work that should be done by staff?

[car54]

We busted arse today! We split into teams of 2 bus drivers, 2 plow truck drivers, and a mechanic and hit as many schools as we could in eight hours. My team did a dozen schools....we moved the buses, plowed and sanded, and moved the buses back. I even got to drive a Bobcat...really fun! We're going to hit it again tomorrow.

The approaches to some schools are in pretty awful condition, especially one in Reston. A huge VDOT motor grader was working on it though.

But even if the streets and schools are completely cleared, the question remains....where are the kids going to stand at bus stops??? I went by one of my high school stops, a big one on a major road with 30+ kids, and the sidewalk is a completely covered with a solid wall of snow...8 to 10 feet high!

[movingtodcfromseattle]

Originally Posted by car54

We busted arse today! We split into teams of 2 bus drivers, 2 plow truck drivers, and a mechanic and hit as many schools as we could in eight hours. My team did a dozen schools....we moved the buses, plowed and sanded, and moved the buses back. I even got to drive a Bobcat...really fun! We're going to hit it again tomorrow.
The approaches to some schools are in pretty awful condition, especially one in Reston. A huge VDOT motor grader was working on it though.
But even if the streets and schools are completely cleared, the question remains....where are the kids going to stand at bus stops??? I went by one of my high school stops, a big one on a major road with 30+ kids, and the sidewalk is a completely covered with a solid wall of snow...8 to 10 feet high!

BINGO!!! You nailed it Car. Thank you for working so hard today! The bottom line is that the local and state government did not have a contingency plan for this type of snow. We have to keep the kids safe in order to avoid some sue-happys.

[tgbwc]

Originally Posted by movingtodcfromseattle

BINGO!!! You nailed it Car. Thank you for working so hard today! The bottom line is that the local and state government did not have a contingency plan for this type of snow. We have to keep the kids safe in order to avoid some sue-happys.

I agree! Thanks for working so hard. I spent 4 and a half hours today just digging trenches from downspouts, trying to relieve some ice dams, and getting ice and snow away from the bottom of our house (water is starting to come in our addition), I can't imagine moving snow away from twelve schools. Good luck this week! I got stuck at the bottom of our street yesterday (rear wheel drive car) and I'm hoping I don't get stuck in the morning. Gotta give it a shot!

[car54]

Originally Posted by tgbwc

I agree! Thanks for working so hard. I spent 4 and a half hours today just digging trenches from downspouts, trying to relieve some ice dams, and getting ice and snow away from the bottom of our house (water is starting to come in our addition), I can't imagine moving snow away from twelve schools. Good luck this week! I got stuck at the bottom of our street yesterday (rear wheel drive car) and I'm hoping I don't get stuck in the morning. Gotta give it a shot!

Well, we didn't do the entire school lots...contractors/school plows did so previously. But many schools had buses parked in the way of the contractor/school plows, so our task was to clear the snow that the contractors couldn't get to...plus making sure all the would start (and as usual, some wouldn't..that's why we had a mechanic on the teams).