All MCPS events are canceled Saturday due to snowstorm

Parents, elected leaders voiced frustration after delayed announcement earlier in the week

January 18, 2024 10:29 p.m.

This article, originally published at 5:29 p.m. on Jan. 18, 2024, was updated at 5:51 p.m. on Jan. 19, 2023, to update that all MCPS-sponsored events on Saturday are canceled.

Montgomery County got several inches of snow on Friday causing Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) to declare a Code Red for Saturday.

This means that school buildings will be closed, and all MCPS-sponsored activities, including athletic, academic programming, field trips and community events, will be canceled due to “ongoing snow and ice removal.”

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MCPS schools and offices were also closed on Friday, and community activities, athletic practices and school events were canceled.

MCPS updated its website at 5:31 p.m. Thursday with the news, following delayed announcements earlier in the week that drew the ire of parents and politicians. Text and email communication from the district did not get sent until about an hour later.

The update also included an important note that MCPS would be exploring make-up options for lessons in the future.

MCPS spokesperson Chris Cram did not respond to email requests for comment on Thursday related to Friday’s forecast or MCPS decision-making earlier in the week.

Adding to the confusion, MCPS already used its built-in two inclement weather days earlier in the week.

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With the usage of two built-in inclement weather days, there was discussion about the possibility that another snow day – which could happen as soon as Friday – might result in a “Code Purple” (a system-wide virtual learning day) or make-up instructional days.

MCPS Chief Operating Officer notified the school community at 4:11 p.m. Thursday that the district was watching the situation closely and they will hear a decision “later today about any status changes.”

Hull also shared that Friday would not be a virtual teaching and learning day. He wrote that a Code Purple day is “meant for use during significant events when school closure involved multiple consecutive days”

As students, teacher and parents/guardians wait on the edge of their seats for a decision, the district is already receiving flak from parents and local politicians for its delayed decision to cancel school late Monday night and Wednesday morning.

“It was a very late call this morning,” County Executive Marc Elrich (D) said at a Wednesday press briefing. “Maybe if it had been made more timely it would have been less irritating.”

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Future snow days

According to the MCPS website, communication around a Code Purple day is be decided and shared by noon the day before to give prior notice. As of late Thursday afternoon, no prior notice of a Code Purple day was given.

If the district considers a transition to virtual learning when schools are closed due to inclement weather, three things are considered:

  • The impacting event is predictable
  • The impacting event is part of a multi-day scenario, such as a blizzard
  • The district has taken prior preparation and communication with families, students and staff

Another route the school system turns to when they are out of inclement weather days is to add make-up instructional days to the calendar. According to the MCPS 2023-2024 Traditional School Calendar, if schools are closed three or more days, it is possible that students and staff will have to make-up school days on Jan. 29, March 25-26, April 10, April 20, June 14 and June 17-18.

The make-up dates do not apply to the district’s innovative schools, Arcola and Roscoe R. Nix elementary schools, which follow the Innovative School Year Calendar. Innovative schools have 30 more instructional days than traditional schools.

The number of built-in snow days for MCPS is relatively low compared to schools systems in the region: Loudon County Public Schools has 15 snow days, Arlington County Public Schools has 13 days, Fairfax County Public Schools has 11 days – a policy that was recently updated in preparation for a snowier-than-average winter forecasted in the region, and Prince George’s County Public Schools has three inclement weather make-up days built into the school calendar.

As of the time of publication, a winter weather advisory is in effect for the Washington, D.C., area for Friday from 4 a.m. to 7 p.m. NWS projects around 2-3 inches of snowfall and advises residents to plan on seeing slippery road conditions.

Community criticisms

After the snowy and icy week, MCPS faced criticism from frustrated parents and local elected officials for making the announcement to cancel schools too late.

The district made the announcement Wednesday on X at 7:40 a.m. that the two-hour delay had turned into a closure. MCPS sent out emails to the school community at 7:45 a.m. and some MCPS parents received a text message as late as 7:52 a.m.

“Making the call by 7:45, or something like that, that is way too late to tell people,” Elrich said at a press briefing Wednesday. “I don’t know how you’d make any arrangements for your kids for example. It could have been handled better probably.”

Elrich said that if the school system had asked the county for assistance with snow and ice removal, there could have been a possibility that Montgomery County Department of Transportation (MCDOT) removal crews and contractors could help. He added that he did not know if MCDOT had the capacity or flexibility to assist on Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning but said that the department could also provide the school system guidance on their snow/ice removal processes.

“I think Chris [Cram] should talk to [MCDOT] and see what we did and see if we can give them any guidance about what they [MCPS] could do that would produce a better outcome,” he said.

MCDOT director, Chris Conklin said in Wednesday’s briefing that there were additional challenges in snow and ice removal with the nature of the storm and the extreme cold that followed.

“It’s a little atypical around here that we have such extraordinary cold following snow and wet precipitation,” Conklin said. “So, it is a little harder – as we’ve talked about in other events we’ve had around salt usage – if the snow is not removed right away and it’s in these sorts of conditions it does harden and it’s hard to remove.”

In terms of MCDOT’s support for schools, Conklin said that the department can receive requests for aid from the district for salt provisions and other materials. “We often assist with the availability of those materials, but our crews are completely busy clearing the 5,000 miles of county road and the several hundred miles of sidewalk that we’re responsible for,” he said.

Conklin added that he thinks it is more effective when agencies are responsible for “their own piece of the network” when removing snow and ice.

MCPS also received flak from Councilmember Evan Glass (D-At-large) about last-minute decision making on closures and delays after Monday’s snowstorm.

On Monday evening, as the school community awaited the decision from school officials and around 3 to 5 inches of snow piled up across the county, Glass asked MCPS via a post on X to notify the public “as soon as you can.”

“I have constituents calling, texting, emailing and DM’ing me about whether schools will be open on Tuesday. Neighboring districts made closure announcements hours ago,” Glass wrote.

At 9:41 p.m. MCPS announced on X that school would be closed on Tuesday. Some on social media expressed relief that the district didn’t wait until Tuesday morning to announce the closure, while others wondered why the announcement was made so late in the evening.

According to MCPS, Superintendent Monifa McKnight will make the final decision about the status of schools no later than noon and 4:30 p.m. the day or evening before inclement weather.

As of the time of publication, the school community still waits for a Friday decision.

Read more information on how weather decisions are made at MCPS at this link.

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