Record cold temperatures on Friday morning forced the Montgomery County Public Schools system to make a rare decision.
It delayed the start of classes by two hours for something other than the threat of snow or messy winter weather.
Surrounding school jurisdictions made the same call, but MCPS’ move caused a stir. MCPS spokesperson Dana Tofig said on Friday morning that there was more to the two-hour delay than keeping kids out of below-zero wind chills:
A couple of things: The delay is about more than just the temp. Gives us a chance to get buses started, buildings warm, address issues.
— Dana Tofig (@MCPSPIO) February 20, 2015
The discussion on MCPS’ weather decisions will continue Monday, when the Board of Education hears a presentation on how the decisions are made and why splitting up the 500-square-mile county into “zones” wouldn’t work.
“We are often asked why we do not close or delay schools in a portion of the county, or zone, and open schools on time in other zones when weather conditions vary from one section of the county to another,” wrote MCPS interim Superintendent Larry Bowers. “This notion is based on the frequent variation of weather conditions in Montgomery County, typically between the northwest area of the county and the southeast area. It is not uncommon for the rain-snow line to run through Montgomery County.”
The National Weather Service recently split Montgomery County into a northwest and southeast zone for more accurate weather warnings and advisories.
But Bowers wrote that doesn’t address the “tremendous complexity” of school assignment patterns throughout the roughly 150,000-student school system.
“Some years ago, a study focusing on zone closures was conducted. The findings identified that all but two of our clusters had at least one student from every other cluster,” Bowers wrote. “This pattern is due to the wide array of specialized special education services and choice programs available to MCPS students. There are more cross-cluster programs in MCPS now than there were when the study was conducted. Closing schools by zone causes some schools to operate fewer days than other schools, causing a disparity between schools.”
Bowers said closing schools by zones would also negatively impact staff who live in a zone where schools are closed but work in a zone in which schools are open.
“In this case, the staff member still would be expected to work,” Bowers wrote. “Therefore, MCPS makes one systemwide decision, based on the most severe weather conditions in the county.”
Bowers said that in general, MCPS makes a decision on school or administrative office closure by 4:30 a.m., “in order to notify families and employees before they would begin their travel to school or work.
“We do not want to make a premature decision the night before an event based on the weather predictions only to see that the predictions were wrong, the conditions are safe, and we unnecessarily lose a day of school,” Bowers said. “In addition, when schools are closed, open late, or close early, many families struggle to find child care for their children.”
The school system likes to make early closing decisions by 10:30 a.m. so it can mobilize the bus fleet to get back to schools two-and-a-half hours before the normal end of the day.
